The Bad Batch The Bad Batch 2.02 - Ruins of War - Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

While this two-part opener was largely a standard heist as we've seen many times before, there were a few details I liked. The Batch ended up much more on the back foot than usual, particularly in Tech's case with his broken femur struggling to fight off three troopers. The Empire's really starting to clamp down and get wise to their tricks, and I appreciated that it was largely a failure of a mission. Rampart declining to inform his supervisors is a nice twist, which helps keep the Batch anonymous for a little while longer and reinforces that level of Imperial infighting which holds them back.

I also liked the stuff with the old man, debating whether the gold in Dooku's vault is worth stealing just for its own sake, or worth more as a cultural legacy of Serenno. Either way the Batch and the Empire are both pillagers, and I liked that the clones had some self-reflection about their lifestyle (Echo in particular).

I was hoping that Hunter might stumble onto some artefact of Dooku's when they found the hidden lift, something that might drive the season a bit, or be some kind of valuable or dangerous device, but ah well, they didn't go with that.

 

Hope that at the end of this season BB will finish with pillaging, without becoming proto-rebels, and go full A-Team, helping ordinary people.

 

I wish there were more interesting artfifacts. But Sidious probably had those personally delivered to him

 

I think any artifacts important to the sith and the force was shipped the day after ROTS, Dooku and Maul's cashes would be very important could be used against him.

 

I would've liked to see more of stuff Dooku had there, like any art. There were credit chests, jewels and boxes of whatever, some random stuff like obelisks he used to train Savage Opress with and stuff, but it would be very interesting to see Dooku's art collection or whatever

 

Are we meant to think that the old guy is a relative of Dooku's?

 

Hmm not sure, I think it doesn't matter if he is related by blood, he is from Serenno and same ethnicity and Dooku's people he should've protected as their ruler. It was shown in Tales of the jedi Dooku used to deeply care about people of the Republic, but then he eventually forgot them in his plans to save them, even his very own people on Serenno.

 

Solid enough first pair of episodes for this season, and I'm happy to see the whole gang back, but this maybe the most non-event premiere to any Star Wars season. I thought there was a real opportunity for intrigue or some type of expository nugget to be gained from raiding Dooku's castle, but nothing really came of it. The only thing that came from this pair of episodes was putting the Bad Batch back on the Empire's radar, an obligatory element.

6/10 for both.

 

Just once
Just ONCE
I'd like to see the resolution of "do this and your debt with me is squared and you're free to go" actually end with the debt being paid and the base of operations going somewhere new
I've had enough of "grungy city" aesthetic for the time being - give me more forests and beaches and water, dangit!

 

I think I’m just having a hard time going from the high quality of the narrative, characterization and worldbuilding in Andor, back to this kind of Star War. Will take a little time to adjust.

 

Funnily enough, forests and beaches and water were all in this episode.

 

You will have a hard time adjusting to anything else in the next few years then. Andor will be a one-off kind of SW.

 

I liked episode 2 better! The animation is getting better and better I really thought the stormtroopers looked like real guys in suits and the bad batch with there helmets on looked like guys in suits almost Mandolorian like!

 

I don’t know, for me, the premiere of Andor was pretty underwhelming. It wasn’t until a couple of episodes later where you realised how important it actually was that it elevated. This episode might be similar.

 

Another 7/10 for me. Still nothing overwhelmingly memorable, but a fine episode good action scenes. I can't be the only one to find it strange that to this day, the clones of CF '99 still only set their guns to stun. It's not like the ones hunting them are doing the same; and furthermore it doesn't stop them from blowing up ships with people inside. Nice nod of that "Let it go" scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. It wasn't actually confirmed by the end of the episode, but I have a feeling that kaleidoscope toy that the survivor gave to Omega is more than meets the eye, and that Cid could be satisfied with it after all. Of course that Imperial wanted to falsify the report so he could keep on Tarkin's good side. It's all about keeping a pristine image with them.

 

I rewatched season 1 after Andor ended, and it was a HARD adjustment. I think it did help me recalibrate before this season started, even though I have rewatched Andor since.

 

Try watching Rebels season 1 after Andor it helps, fruit episode with Rebels vs Andor in de-huminazed in prison.

 

I honestly thought the old man would have sacrificed himself or something so I'm happy they didn't go that route. I also liked having Omega spending time with Echo and Tech, the two characters she spent the least amount of time interacting with in the first season. Though I thought Tech would have been smart enough to know the difference between being a Separatist and "normal people". I generally prefer stealth episodes over non-stop action, and I the clone antagonists were smarter than imperials, it made the episode more suspenseful to me. And that last scene was disturbing. This clearly showed how disposable the clones are to the Empire, no matter how competent and loyal they may be.

 

The Tarkin doctrine is in the works.

 

Also the way Omega's bag increasingly got out of her reach as she tried to save it was like the Force literally telling her to "let it go".

 

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed with this premier, feel like it might have been better if it was just one episode as it dragged on.

I find it hard to believe Omega wouldn’t know who Count Dooku is?

As much as I love Serrano, I feel like these episodes just wasted potential, would have been a lot more interesting seeing surviving Separatists fighting off against the Empire with the Bad Batch caught in the middle, but sadly we got the common episode of the Bad Batch doing a mission for Cid.

The Bad Batch are all protected with character/plot shields for the time being so it gets pretty dull watching them run around all the time as rarely ever feels like they are in real danger.

Captain Wilco and the clones were boring antagonists, I think most Imperial clones that are still being controlled by inhibitor chips aren’t very interesting. Crosshair on the other hand is because he chose the Empire out of choice.

I did like the twist at the end as didn’t see it coming, I’m curious as to how Crosshair fits into this, has Rampart told Tarkin that Crosshair died as well? Or did Crosshair lie and report the rest of the batch were killed?

I think it shows a lot of the clones are still useful to the higher ups of the Empire (Tarkin, Vader, Palpatine etc) as they are by the book and follow the rules. It doesn’t benefit the Empire if their soldiers are lying, backstabbing and covering up breaches of the rules because the Empire is trying to force control and order on the galaxy and all of this chaos hinders that objective.

Azi working in Cids bar was a nice minor thing.

Unfortunately I feel like in this series the more interesting stuff usually tends to happen off screen.

 

I don't understand that suggestion. What exactly is their "shield"? If you know of a confirmed instance that any of the primary characters of CF '99 were present in OT era or post-OT era venues, I'd like to know about it. If you're only talking about episode to episode; you could pretty much say that for just about any TV series.

 

Its no different on Rebels. i don't think we will see deaths until last two seasons, and season 2 might only be the beginning.

 

I thought Wilco made a choice to not change his report?

I thought his sad and angry expression was quite poignant. He didn't have a choice with Order 66 I guess (which he might now realise was wrong) and Rampart's order was another instance of him having to do the self-evidently wrong thing (from an honourable soldier trying to do the right thing point of view).

So he seemed a good solider to me. He also seemed quite competent. Maybe not hugely interesting personality wise. But representative of how a lot of clones might be feelijg and acting in the early-ish days?