The Bad Batch The Bad Batch Season 1 Discussion (Spoilers Allowed)

Crosshair has a death flag on him, he killed a bunch of civvies in cold blood. He may "redeem" himself, but as usual, it's gonna be redemption through death.

 

Kallus was redeemed and not died.

 

It's interesting that Crosshair said, "forget Rex". Very point blank like he knows this guy who is supposed to be dead is perfectly alive. One thing I like about The Bad Batch is other than Tech's info dump on Omega its letting me play connect dots and read between the lines like my beloved TCW. The answers are there in my opinion. Crosshair's search may have turned up Rex's group instead that's why he was to busy to get Gregor. "Infested" as hollow as it seems dropped the nugget about Cid's bar being smack in the middle of secret hyperspace lanes used for smuggling. Tech Probably is using those. Ord Mantell is the perfect base to hide at. That will probably just back fired soon enough.

 

Kallus was like one of the only characters who got a redemption arc and didn’t die

 

But we never actually saw Kallus killing a prisoner point blank and ordering his squad to blast and roast a bunch of civilians crying for their lives, while he stood there and watched. I am pretty sure there is no coming back from that.

 

Kallus literally commited genocide I don’t know what your even talking about.

 

They mention him comitting genocide many times.

 

If Kallus and Vader can be redeemed literally anyone minus Palpatine can

 

I feel you are right too. Despite Crosshair's choice of who he is, the seeds of doubt are obvious in his expression too.

I think the evolution of the Crosshair's character still has someway to go.

 

Yeah, but prior to joining the Fulcrum network he was an Imperial agent. He’s done things……..

 

Again. Really horrible things. Like killing an entire race (he thought)

 

Yeah, as in he actively tried to destroy Zeb’s home world.

 

Vader was "redeemed" through death. Lucas didn't even call it "redemption," he called it "stopping the horror."
Kallus may have done some things, but he seemed more like a warrior to me, and he had some sense of honor and regret, if I recall correctly from Rebels. And I repeat myself, it was all offscreen. It doesn't nearly have such a strong impact.
Whereas we actually saw Anakin slaughtering a whole tribe of sandpeople, igniting his saber on a bunch of kids, we saw him slaughtering a bunch of unarmed CIS leaders begging for their lives, we saw him choking his pregnant wife, we saw him attempting to murder Ahsoka despite her offering him compassion, we saw him striking down Obi-Wan, we saw him torturing Leia, Han, mutilating and torturing Luke. Just as with Crosshair, we actually saw him shooting a prisoner point blank, shooting his own mate for not wanting to execute civilians, and then ordering his squad to proceed with the execution, as he stood there and watched, and the camera focused on his face with ominous music playing in the background. And after all of this, he is still very much pro-Imperial. Even after they literally bombed him. There is no coming back from this, only through death in heroic sacrifice. Mark my words.

 

@silentfault except that he saved Omega when he could have let her drown trying to save AZ.

 

And Vader saved Luke, so what?

 

Crosshair could spend much of next season wandering in search of a purpose. Depending on what that purpose ends up being, leaving him alive at the end might be far more interesting.

 

Crosshair is a neat villainous version of the Byronic Hero which is one of my favorite character tropes actually. He may make the transition to Anti-hero. Star Wars is fond of redemption but I don't think it'll be a quick redemption death. I would like his character arc to parallel his brothers'. They are finding their place and humanity. Crosshair loses his place and has to gain the humanity he's lost. Saving Omega was the first step. I'm not really sure where his story will go from here though.

 

Good point. How did Crosshair know Rex survived?

Rex's survival should be a secret and the Empire should be thinking he died trying to kill Ahsoka.

"Mention" is the important part. We never actually see him commit any crimes. They talk about it, but they never show it. Much easier to redeem a character then, without the need to kill them off immediately after.

I think Crosshair will be redeemed eventually, but he will die in the process. He'll probably end up killing Vice Admiral Rampart to save the BB only to be gunned down by clone troopers.

 

This is anyone's guess at this point how Crosshair would know. It's possible he said it to get under Hunter's skin but Crosshair is generally much more effective at trolling than that. He goes straight for the jugular in the same convo calling out Hunter's poor leadership. That's why I wondered if Crosshair and Rampart may have found Rex's group. It's a given the Empire is going to eventually find out Rex is alive in my opinion. I think one of the things that could force him to give up and hide would be to protect others in hiding because he is a danger to them or maybe the whole fledgling Rebellion at large. There could be someone really dangerous out there who'll personally want to deal with Rex. I can think of one such man.

 

@MrDarth0 I think that’s one of the reasons that the Empire phases out the clone troopers. There’s a perception, whether right or wrong, that the clones are more loyal to each other than to the Empire.

 

Which is ironic if I must say

 

I'll drop this quote again...

"Loyalty means everything to the clones." - Anakin Skywalker

It reminds me of that old show "Gargoyles" where the titular gargoyles have to have something to protect. They can't help it. It's in their nature. To not protect is to be corrupt.

The Clones have to be loyal to something whether it's their brothers. The Republic, the Empire, or friends like Ahsoka.

I think we'll see more clones besides Crosshair who pick the empire. And, more clones who like Howzer picked their friends. While The Bad Batch chooses loyalty to each other.

 

To summarize my thoughts on this first season:

- I was feeling pretty meh about this series. While I liked the Bad Batch arc in TCW, I wasn't sure how they would handle a whole animated series about them without being repetitive in the long run. While there were repetitive missions like in Rebels, I think they made a good choice in bringing a younger character who the audience can watch grow like Ezra and Ahsoka in their respective series. The animation is the best though, at least comparing to early TCW seasons and Rebels. Reusing assets from previous series probably helped a lot.

- I like Omega. Especially her relationship with Hunter and Wrecker. I originally thought of her relationship with the crew as a parents-child type relationship, but then we learned she was a clone of Jango and that she saw their birth, so she's technically older than them, now I'm thinking she's more of a big sister to them than a child. She is an empathetic character like Ezra, she's obviously the moral compass of the team, she sees the good in other people even in those who are perceived as untrustworthy, and so far the narrative is siding with her. I wonder if there will be another Maul-type character that will challenge this trait. She's also apparently very good at strategy which will probably useful in the future.

- Overall, this season was mostly focused on developing Hunter, Wrecker, Crosshair, Nala Se (surprisingly) and Omega naturally. Echo and Tech kinda fulfill the same role in the team, even with Echo being the "droid" and there was a humorous scene about another character believing he was a droid. There were snippets of conflict throughout the season that could be picked up in S2. The most obvious one being that Echo wants to get involved in the early fight against the Empire and join Rex while most of the team doesn't seem too concerned about what's happening outside of their little bubble, that doesn't mean they don't help when it matters like we see at the end of the episode with the Martez sisters.

Speaking of the Empire, the transition from the Republic to Empire happened a lot quicker than I thought, I kinda knew there were going to get rid of Kaminoans at some point in the series but I didn't expect this to happen in the first season, I also expected some kind of clones/Kaminoans uprising on Kamino, that obviously didn't happen and seeing the destruction of a PT location did hurt me a little bit. As for Crosshair, I admit I was a little disappointed they didn't have him willingly join the Empire and basically just strengthened the power of his inhibitor chip but then he got injured on Bracca where he apparently regained some free will or so he claims, but then he continues to have migraines the same way Wrecker did before his chip activated so I'm not sure I can fully trust that statement in the same way I don't fully trust Omega's claim abut it.

I'm still not sure how the chips work honestly. Sure, most of the clones did end up following orders and before the Wrecker incident I thought it didn't activate for the Bad Batch because they're not "regs" but then Howzer pretty much seemed unaffected by its effects. Probably will be addressed in future seasons, I hope.

- I like Cid even though I didn't fully trust her at first. It pretty much disappeared when I saw her having a soft spot for Omega.

- Rex did appear and he's still fighting "for the Republic", neither Cody, Wolffe or Ahsoka did appear in this season as rumors suggested though they could if they end up joining Rex. Kanan,Cad Bane, Trace/Rafa and Hera/Chopper were appearances I did NOT expect to see this soon.

Overall I will say it was a good first season, a little repetitive at times but it has interesting character development and interactions for some and sprinkling some ideas for possible storylines in next seasons. Animation was at its best and soundtrack has some interesting new themes so I'll say I'm satisfied with it. Good job to the team at Lucasfilm Animation.