A/V Star Wars: The Bad Batch Series Discussion Thread

Thoughts in no particular order:

Spoiler

-They are really stepping into high gear with the plot developments this episode

-Wonder if Rex's current problem will end up plot relevant or just an excuse for the bad batch to go there.

-Seems like a nice planet. I am surprised no one lives here besides the secret military base, considering all the awful, barely hospitable planets people do live on in star wars. I mean, people live on literal trash planets for crying out loud.

-Awesome base design. Given how large and elaborate it is, I wonder if this program might have been started a bit before the end of the clone wars, as a counter to the overwhelming numbers of the battledroids.

-Having commandos be in charge of the training is a nice touch - from what I understand, training local allies is part of what special forces do, so it makes sense if the commandos already had some experience training militias and guerillas in the Clone Wars, like what we saw on Onderon.

-Also love the TK Trooper design. Well, maybe less the design itself, but more that we are getting something between the Episode 3 and 4 looks. A lot of works seem to rush to give the empire every design it has in the ot immediately after Order 66 - makes me wonder, given how influential the shows can be on visual design, if Fallen Order or the Vader comics would have looked different if they had come out after this show.

- Also interesting that the TK Troopers look different than the Elite Squad. Adds to the idea that ES might have been forerunners to the Death Troopers rather than regular stormtroopers.

-Great to see V-Wings in action as well, and that is just an amazingly well animated and designed dogfight/aerial chase at the end there.

-As I saw pointed out elsewhere, it is interesting and cool to see how the Commandos were portrayed as a lot more dangerous than normal enemies - I mean, sure they technically didn't kill any more of the Bad Batch than anything has, but the way they moved and fought really sold them as skilled and experience fighters - and then Scorch was a leap above the another commandos, fighting the whole Bad Batch on even footing by himself for a while.

-After what happened at the end...so....uh...is the whole bounty hunters part of the plotline done?

-Also, will we find out more about how exactly the Kaminioans wanted to used Omega to stave off imperial disinterest? Cause if she was just a perfect replica to make more regular clones out of, that doesn't seem enough since it is just offering more of the same product the empire was less interested in...just feels like there is something missing, but i suppose it is not vitally important.

-It is kind of amusing that after the dramatic scene of Crosshair getting permission to hunt the Bad Batch down, Hunter actually gets captured by completely different imperials for unrelated reasons.

Oh yeah - the Kaminioan jedi at that. I am sure many who know Travis second hand would be shocked at her portraying such a character sympathetically.

I wouldn't deny that Travis wears her biases on her sleeves, but it does seem she does often handle things with a bit more nuance than her reputation would imply. In particular, I remember people acting like she made all clones into wannabe Mandos, but I remember that mostly just being the squad in question, with most other clones not thinking of themselves as Mandos, and some hating Mandos after fighting CIS aligned ones.

It would be an interesting contrast, with the Bad Batch going rogue except their sniper, while the Deltas stayed imperial...except their sniper. Sniper exchange program you could say.

 

It was Karen Traviss. Almost anyone who is a Mandalorian is automatically a god who can do no wrong.

 

Forgot to mention this earlier, but also interesting that the TK troops and clone commados were still using blue blaster bolts, where imperial forces seem to have universally switched to red elsewhere

 

The only notable Clone character who gets actual screen time in the books that doesn't end up loving Mando's is Maze, the rest are basically none characters who are just there so the main cast can shake there heads about how sad it is they weren't raised "right". Omega, Delta, the Nulls, Corr, etc they all dive in face first and treat anyone who doesn't with patronizing pity at best.

But honestly, its less the Mando culture, then it is how both Delta and Omega are more or less completely emotionally dependent on there training sergeants and immediately lose any type of agency when there around them.

Again, I am not going to let this go, Vau gave Atin PTSD before he saw combat, he is a monster and the books let him off with what? A punch to the face? One beating? But he gets to get on first name bases with Skirita, ensures a future for his pet, becomes mega rich because surprise he was born mega rich but his family was "worse" then he is so y'know he's not as bad, Delta still worships him, etc.

What a joke, Traviss spends more time showing sympathy for a Child abuser then she does victims of a genocide. That's more then a bias, and its not nuance.

It's a such a shame, she did alot to expand Mando culture, and I love the diversity it brought. I enjoy Omega and Etain when there allowed to be out of Skirta's black whole orbit. But its funneled through something so warped in its morality that I can't enjoy it to the extent it should have been.

 

Well now you got Mandalorian and the new stuff which uses some of that stuff but in a less warped way.

 

Elaborate.

 

Basically we have Mandalorian stories with Mandalorian, Rebels etc and it's brining in a lot of the lore Karen Traviss created but telling Mandalorian stories in a way that doesn't glorify Madalorians in a way that makes them out to be flawless beings.

 

Like what? Everything Mandalorian now is based on TCW and Rebels Mandalorian lore created by Lucas and Filoni, that was notorious for contradicting everything KT had established about them at the time. She quit Star Wars because of that. The only bits of Traviss' lore I can think of are some rare uses of mando'a here and there(Sabine spoke it in Rebels, Boba's costume chain code, or whatever it was). What else? No helmet removal thing was in KotOR, Canderous did not remove his helmet as well. Foundlings stuff and Jango being a foundling was in Open Seasons. Jedi vs Mandalorians was in KotOR, Filoni loves KotOR, and TCW had plenty of KotOR references. All of it is pre Karen Traviss.

 

From karentraviss.com

Reading further down that page, it looks like she would have left Star Wars after one more book, because of the TCW canon issues, but decided to leave earlier because of the "disputes with the publisher over payment, among other things".

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Back to Bad Batch, I wonder if we're likely to get any more "cameos" in the last two episodes. I'm sticking to my guess that we'll get Boba this season.

 

There were people “in the know” who insisted we’d see Bo Katan and Ahsoka. We’ll see what happens with that.

 

Oh i'm sure will see them eventually even if not this season probably next.

 

She would have quit either way. She did not care about Star Wars enough if she couldn't write her Mandalorians and her characters.
What she's essentially saying by "disputes over payment" is that she wasn't paid enough to stay in Star Wars("most of my income doesn't come from Star Wars"), and she stayed only because she got the chance to write her stories the way she wanted. When she couldn't do so anymore, she had no reason to stay in Star Wars, when she had a lot of other non-SW work to get on with, as she stated.

With only two episode left, I doubt it. Not in this season. There should be some kind of Mandalore arc, naturally. Last time we saw it, it was under Republic's control, that turned into Empire overnight. And Ahsoka left some troops there. And Gideon is also somehow involved, as we know from The Mandalorian. I would expect some kind of Ryloth-like arc, with establishing episode about the situation on the planet, and the following episodes involving CF99 in some way.
As for Ahsoka, who knows. She is technically supposed to be in her novel at the time, but that novel is kinda in limbo state right now. The events of the novel can't really start, because she still has her lightsaber, and she apparently left with Rex, because there were simply no other ships at that Venator crash site. But I have a feeling they won't use her this season. Funny situation.

 

Specifically the rumour was, Bo Katan would be this season. I don’t believe it and would be very ok if it doesn’t happen. But we’ll see I guess.

 

This is a Filoni show so we still have to check some of the checkmarks off

 

Two episodes left so, I guess,

Spoiler

next ep- Gather together a crew.
Last ep- assault on Kamino to rescue Hunter.

if we get big cameos, it’ll maybe happen next ep.

 

If I'm not mistaken beskar was a Traviss invention. It and it's properties were adapted almost perfectly into The Mandalorian.

 

The name was her invention, I think. "Mandalorian iron" has been around since Tales of the Jedi.

 

You are correct on the wook they even have an bit from the Tales of the Jedi radio play https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Mandalorian_iron

 

Bo-Katan may be the one who will provide Rex (and, by extension, BB) resources required to perform rescue operation.

 

She is running Mandalore now correct? That could give her the resources to spare.

 

I think in season 2 is when the the empire expands to Mandalore so the rumor might be wrong like it was on Rebels like she appears one season after the one you assume her too, so like season 2 premiere arc could Bo-Katan having to deal with the empire and return of Gar Saxon.

 

I just listened to Rocha's poadcast on youtube and when they talked about the Kamino stuff regarding what Plans Rampart has for Nala Sa and they had a surprising thought that maybe this could tie into whats happening in mandalorian and TROS with cloning. Maybe help give backstory to the making of Snoke, Palpatine's body and maybe some others clones. It does make Sense Palpatine may have a use for Nala Sa, he wants make force sensetive clones for himself and more. Any thoughts. This could be one of the big story ideas that this and other show hints at throughout the Show.

 

Star Wars fans whenever anything even remotely involving cloning happens: Must be SNOKE! EXEGOL! PALPATINE!

 

Because it's where cloning leads and it's Filoni he likes to tie into the movies and fix any problems he can. Palpatine needs scientists for his next projects. Also last time it was cloning in Mandalorian we got SNOKE, We got EXEGOL in Vader comics that dealt with Palpatine masters plans and cloning. And Palpatine big bad off this era.

 

In a grand scheme of things it all kinda connects though

Palpatine couldn't make clones of himself to get a new body but couldn't..

There is something going on with Cloners in Mandalorian and all of them are human so what happened to the Kaminoans

We might see what happened to the Kaminoans in Bad Batch.

It's not connected directly but it's all connected universally.