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

Indeed, another good example.

Yeah, that is how things seem at the moment.

Though admittedly that does raise the question of what happened to the network that Rex set up and why he abandons the fight to some backwater hidey-hole.

Hmmm...well, maybe there can be a small scale uprising that fails and contributes to the Clones being phased out of service rather than a large one where the clones get wiped out, possibly one the empire even keeps covered up so later officers don't know about it.

Spoiler

My guess would be Zeffo as well. The head shape and beam attack especially give me that vibes. Though these are just vibes and this could very easily be just about anything.

Yeah. New or not, I hope this gets followed up later, in some sourcebook or other story if not the Bad Batch itself.

Spoiler

I am also intrigued by the mention of the 1000 year old lost kingdom mentioned at the end of the episode. Fills my heads with ideas about the Sith Wars.

 

The golden age of tv had really affected the way that people used to could just enjoy a one and done episode and not need it to be part of a ongoing story.
It's like rian having to explain that poker face is a season of standalone episodes and not one big mystery

 

A few thoughts I had on this episode...

Spoiler

-The more I think about it, the more the Skara Nal screams Zeffo. Up to it having glowing white lines and videogame Zelda-like puzzles.
-That droid is comically slow. Are Gonk droids even that slow? Cause I was laughing at it just trailing behind the group.
-Do you guys think that the monster was Roggwart?
-Also, I had a moment where I thought the Skara Nal was aiming at the droid. Properly not, but the thought ran through my head.
-In case it isn't obvious, I really liked the Skara Nal. XD

100% agree. This was not a bad episode at all, but because it wasn't plot heavy and was (probably) just a standalone, people are going to hate it. Which I find to be pretty silly as The Bad Batch has always seemed to be standalone adventures with occasional plot.

 

My thoughts



Ultimately a fun adventure. Felt a little rushed and it suffers from the problem of the Bad Batch not being that interesting.

 

Spoiler

Looked absolutely identical to Zeffo architecture. Not to speak on how the mech looked like. So i think the case should be clear.

Ancients = Zeffo

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It's an Abominor! There I said it...

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no Zeffo if you ask me! Doesn't match them!

 

Hmmm....usually I like to try to be supportive of people's ideas, but abominor strikes me as the least likely option.

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Abominors, based on their descriptions and the one example we have, are blocky, ugly, asymmetrical things with the aesthetics of steampunk decepticons - where this is smooth, curved, and oddly elegant for being a giant behemoth of destruction.

Plus, Abominors are self-aware independent droids - this thing didn't strike me as very intelligent, given that it didn't try to do anything about the people inside of it and was just rampaging around an already destroyed planet. Nor can I imagine an abominor filling its own insides with puzzles, base its activation around a crystal easily put back in to lethal effect, and have a star compass to lead organic beings to it and help navigate its own insides.

 

This is the first episode in the series I rate negatively on the whole.

the whole first 70% of the episode is padding until they activate the walker. The whole chamber feels like a D&D session where the GM didn’t prepare enough beforehand so they made the party walk through a bunch of bare rooms improvising traps with no decisions.

And then the one interesting thing at the end is immediately shut down and destroyed and they leave no different then they started. It’s also weird that Vi cares more about talking the heart alone rather than the walker.

I think this episode is supposed to just serve as a proper introduction to Vi and for her to be relevant to the main plot some other time. But I feel this premise had potential.

What should have happened is something like this. Cut most of the first 70% of this episode. The bad batch and Vi find the heart of the mountain during the first act and activate the walker and even learn to control it rather than destroying it right away. Then their can be personal stakes and a debate between the group about what to do with it, Hunter will want to destroy it, Vi to sell it, and Echo would want them to use it against the Empire.

then we could have an exciting third act where the Bad Batch have to pilot this thing against imperial forces, maybe it’s destroyed in the battle

such a high profile battle would put the heat on them, forcing them to seek help from Bail’s rebel cell.

And there’s a better version of this episode that advances the main plot

 

To add to what I was saying before, given that this tech is "Pre-Republic" (which is most certainly meant to be "Pre-Old Republic" if we're getting technical with canon here), it's now been confirmed in sourcebooks that the Republic and Jedi have existed for at least 25,000 years old, so this does indeed put the "Ancients" into the Xim/Rakata/Celestials part of the old lore.

Again, it could be the Zeffo, but I feel like there's something else going on here and people should keep an open mind. Zeffo, to me, almost feels too small scale.

 

We dont know mutch a out the Zeffo specie. We know they temples built. They were worshipped, had some ties with the Son and Daughter of Mortis. Were ancient beings that left the known Galaxy. They could be even before the Rakata Empire invasions. Maybe these beings thought the future jedi. If this is Zeffo tech and the similarity with the weapon, also early first stage superweapon.

 

Yep, think it's possible that the Zeffo were a high civilization and the greatest rivals of the Rakata in prerepublic times.

Maybe their decline happened, because of wars with the Infinite Empire...

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Hmmm...you know, with all the discussion of "advancing the main plot" or not - I have to wonder, what do people think the main plot of Bad Batch is?

I know people like Imperial focused episodes the best, but that doesn't actually make them the main plot per say.

 

The main plot that was hinted at in season one and Season two premiere, The Bad Batch becomes part of something bigger and fight back against the empire.

 

The “Myth Arc” of the show is Mount Tantiss as far as I’m concerned.

 

I think it is the replacement of clones with Human troopers and the general 'imperialisation' of the republic.

 

Good episode with certain character.

 

Spoiler

Interesting that they used a new group of droid criminals, the Vanguard Axis, rather than the existing Droid Gotra. Or perhaps Vanguard Axis is the proper name and droid gotra is just everyone else calls it? It does seem like a pretty basic name for a group like that.

They reused a lot from the canceled TCW arc, but still referenced it happening..also interesting. Makes me wonder if we might see similar for other arcs.

I am particularly wonder about the Tandoshan commander since he was supposed to be in that arc, and somehow I doubt he would have survived it, so if they ever did revisit those unfinished arcs - and man I would like some books and comics covering those since I recognize doing another "final season" of the clone wars show is probably off the table - I assume it either be a different trando commander or having him survive somehow. Probably the former, since there didn't seem to be any recognition on either end.

Also like the Trando flame tanks. Initially I thought they were just AATs with flamethrowers, but looking again their hoverpad seems to be shorter in the front and longer in the back so I think it might be a related but distinct design. Honestly reminds me of the tanks the Yinchorri used, though with AAT- style side guns.

Fair enough. Thanks for the answers.

 

Though in saying all that, we’re almost halfway through the season and there hasn’t been a great deal of movement with the Imperial story, so either they just frontloaded the season with side quests or the actual meaty plot stuff isn’t as substantial as we’ve been led to assume.

 

Like most shows the fun adventures is at the start with the more important storyline coming later.

 

Well, that’s not entirely true. Reviews for the season have said that there’s still a lot of random adventures with Wanda Sykes in the back half too.

 

Personally I look it like ST:TNG - yeah sure there are dramatic episodes with the Borg here and there and those get remembered well, but it isn't like the Borg were the main plot and everything else was useless filler. The premise was mostly an excuse to have a reoccurring cast explore the galaxy and have various adventures, and that is true of this show as well.

Though by all accounts next's pair of episodes have significant movement on the imperial clone front, and I imagine the last two episodes will probably having something bigger going on, especially since they were the only episodes held back from the advance reviewers.

And yeah, it is hard to know what will come back in a big way. Like, a lot of people called the Prisoner episode of Mando season 1 filler but it had a giant influence on season 2 and by extension the series as a whole.

 

I think the difference between Trek and Star Wars is that Trek is (or at least used to be) fundamentally about exploration of the unknown. Star Wars isn’t traditionally like that, it’s a saga telling larger operatic narrative.

I also think on a very basic level…this isn’t effective episodic storytelling. It’s just fluff. It’s visually and musically gorgeous more often than not, but these random side adventures aren’t the kind of thing that’ll stay with you long term. TNG actually had self contained episodes that gave you something to think about, even if it had nothing to do with the Borg or the Cardassians or Q.

 

This isn't meant to be episodic story telling. This is just stroys meant to entertain people for 20-30 min. Like a batman cartoon.

 

Oof that’s even worse, Bad Batch doesn’t hold a candle to Batman TAS. And that was a western animated series from 30 years ago.

 

i didn't say TAS, I was meaning more generally, like "the batman" or beware the Batman. But have you seen TAS recently? it has some great eps but a lot of it is mostly just fun.