The Bad Batch Rampart

The second one.

 

In my head canon Rampart preceded Admiral Kendal Ozzel. And was stupider and clumsier.

 

He already lacks the foresight to go and take care of a problem that now he, Crosshairs and only a handful of troopers know; that there are a bunch of former military personnel out on the loose in the Galaxy who could pose a potential problem for Imperial law and order.

But he already suffers from Imperial arrogance like so many around him to the point where he thinks anyone (or any being) in the Galaxy will just roll over for him. Such arrogance leads to stupidity and short sightedness and it will be his downfall.

But I'm enjoying his role as this really nasty and condescending fascist, a typical trait among Imperial ranks, and it's going to be an even sweeter moment when we see Crosshairs lining him up in his sights and saying "goodnight" as he pulls the trigger.

Then it will be one less fascist in the Galaxy.

 

Don't really like that Rampart became such a smug snake in recent episodes, IMO, his cold and neutral demeanour in season 1 was better and more original. Hope that at least in season 2 there will be some internal Imperial struggle, in which Rampart will be victorious, at least for some time.

 

He’s a very strange character in the sense that I never would have pegged such a generic Imperial officer to be the main villain of the newest animated tv series. I think on the basis of that I’ve written him off in my mind as dead by the season’s end, perhaps to be replaced by whatever springs from Mount Tantiss.

 

Man, Rampart really is one of those "love to hate" type-of characters except instead of being just a Joffrey Baratheon-clone where he's just there to make funny faces and be unrepentant doing despicable things, he's... Well, okay, he's still unrepentant, but the writers are not gunning for Joffrey Baratheon/Ramsay Snow type-of "character you love to hate" (which I tend to hate more because of how boring that story path is) but make him insufferable due to how... blind he is and so very analogous to the Empire that he serves, encompassing all its worst qualities.

 

Rampart is for the most part a bog-standard Imperial fascist. Obsessively jockeying for position and favor. Most of these imperial officers all run together in terms of characterization. None of them ever really stands out from the other. Rampart's gotten smugger because he had some success on Ryloth and with obliterating Kamino. And with implementing Chain Codes for personal identification of everybody. Probably a step for the recruitment of an Imperial Army. Rampart's plan for getting there, not just wanting favor from Tarkin but as usual with these Imperials to succeed him is to push recruitment. To be instrumental in the creation of a loyal, cheaper army to do the Empire's dirty work. He is behind the KT Troopers. The clones may be more effective but there are obvious limits to what most of them are willing to do.

That's working perfectly into Rampart's plan. I think he wants them to break, go AWOL, desert, or even rebel. Rampart is too arrogant to see the clones as a threat. He sees them as one below-plan life. It's even better Crosshair is a loyal dragon that Clones seem to go AWOL around because that's giving him a perfect scapegoat for when his lie the Bad Batch is dead is exposed. At the same time, Rampart does not like that there is even one clone who could be an exception to the rule. A loyal soldier to the Empire who will execute any order. He may try to send Crosshair to do worse and worse things in the hope he breaks. He's probably going to frame Crosshair as a traitor and a liar, or at least try to. Whether this will succeed is what remains to be seen. Rampart may well eventually end up in Crosshair's crosshair. If Crosshair doesn't kill him there was also foreshadowing in the season one finale for Rampart to end up on Hunter's knife. I'm really not convinced Cody ran away, so much as he was arrested after he disobeyed the order to execute the governor.

Honestly, Rampart's low view of the clones was rampant in the Republic before the Empire. Just take a look at "Pursuit of Peace" in the Clone Wars. The discussion Padme has with a senator she was trying to sway to vote against funding for more clones. Clones are fully aware they are on the way out now. When Crosshair sits down with his tray we overhear a couple Reg's talking about a new defense bill they are hoping doesn't pass. One more reason Cody decided he was done.

There is plenty of potential for Rampart being a good first big bad for The Bad Batch. He's probably going to be replaced with something much worse as the season progresses. Crosshair getting succeeded by a scarier "The Dragon" either way.

 

And watch as the clones rebel or go AWOL and Rampart spins it as a sign of “Clone Madness” that they can avoid being recruiting normal soldiers.

 

Who the heck is Ramsay Snow?

 

The best dog food in Westeros.

 

The whole thing works really well as an indictment of Tarkins fear based system. Rampart gets some bad intelligence that lead to him reporting that Clone Force 99 is dead. He later finds out that he was misinformed and his report was wrong.

If he were working for the Republic or Rebellion, that would be the end of it, the intelligence was bad, let’s make a plan to deal with the problem. But since he’s fully immersed in the Imperial system he knows full well that this misstep (which wasn’t even his fault) is going to result in Tarkin putting a blaster bolt through his chest. So now he’s killing his own subordinates for wanting to do thier jobs competently because he’s desperately trying to cover his tracks and save his own head. Meanwhile nobody ever actually does anything about clone force 99 and they keep becoming a larger problem. Something which could have easily been avoided if a bunch of toads weren’t constantly looking over their shoulders to avoid summary executions.

 

One issue I have in general is how the military leadership takes to Republic --> Empire. A switch is flipped, and all of a sudden you've got evil guys milling about giving orders, carpet bombing places, shooting folks, etc. It seems a very sudden shift. But perhaps it's not. I think the authority figures at the very top like Tarkin (and Plapy & Vader, of course) explain some of this, as does the usual palace intrigue type of thing, but what I kind of lose sight of is that these officers have spent years ordering the total destruction of a droid army by subservient clones. Who cares how many you kill, and who's going to question you? It's reasonable to believe they've become numb to the consequences of their actions. And in that kind of environment a person with comparatively competitive and/or sinister disposition, like Rampart, can thrive.

 

I wish the prequels had explored that element of things. Could be a fascinating TV show, actually.

 

I imagine whichever leaders from the republic voiced objection, they ended up under vivisection.

 

Yeah, the comics of the old clone wars multimedia project did some interesting stuff with the idea. In particular I remember Palpatine holding a press conference of officers to tell them of the "jedi treason" and introduce Lord Vader...and have Vader force choke the first person to object to keep the others in line. Plus, we saw more of Republic officers being evil during the clone wars, like young Ozzel going full Zap Brannigen with his men.

As it is, I am curious what Rampart was up to during the clone wars. Personally, my headcanon will be that he was an officer in Prong Krell's unit (and that Fifth Brother was Krell's Padawan). They seem like they would get along well.

..........Also, it kind of bugs me that he seems to be everywhere doing everything. He is implementing the change codes, he is in charge of Elite Squad, he dismantled Kamino, etc and so on. Well, ok not really we do see other officers every once and a while, but it seems hard to pin down what Rampart's job and posting actually is...especially since he is just a vice admiral and not a full one, or a Moff or something that might have more wide ranging powers.

 

This thread's got me thinking. It's possible, maybe even likely, that when Sheev engineered the Clone Wars, he set up the opposing forces so that the survivors would be slowly traumatized, gradually growing more callused and indifferent to the years of ongoing war, eventually turning into the kinds of people who would unthinkingly obey orders to commit massacres.

 

I like this, but also that for some, the trauma could make it go the other way. I.e., wanting all wars to end. The two kinds of responses make interesting storylines.

 

Rampart must be mighty pissed.

 

He got played by both Palpatine and Tarkin.