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

I have only just realized Crosshair is a parallel opposite of Fives. They are similar in that Fives was also abrasive and liked to talk **** but not in an intentionally mean way like Crosshair. Crazy theory time. Remember when Crosshair said, "That makes sense." After getting Order 66? What if Crosshair knew about Order 66 the entire time? He made this decision from the get-go and kept it to himself. Completely unlike Fives who found out about it and selflessly tried to warn Anakin and Rex.

Crosshair is a parallel opposite of Fives and deranged at this point in his arc just like the former was nearly insane toward the end. All those hints about his nature. This is who he is from Tech's blistering logic and his own declaration. It would be interesting if Crosshair found out about the inhibitor chips before Fives did. I think it could even be retconned Crosshair was there at the end of "Conspiracy". He could have been off-screen ready with the sniper rifle. There is an elevated platform in "Kamino Lost" that looks down on what's left of the clown growth chamber where Fives and AZ found out about the Inhibitor chips. I'm assuming its the same one but maybe not. He could have been listening to comms as a Sniper.

 

What to do with clone war veterans who have seen or done terrible things? That might be a theme/question the BB is partially addressing. I think that's the focus to Omega's role in relation to the BBers.

Crosshair has committed war crimes and does not care. So what to do about that? What does justice look like there? I think he could be captured. (No prolonged trial necessary in SW story-telling).

Also, I think the TK Troopers are being shown as being recruited/trained to be as cruel as Crosshair. This means we can all breathe a sigh of relief when the DS explodes rather than go "the Rebellion are just as bad as the Empire".

 

This could actually be a cool way to introduce Lux back into the story and redeem The Clone Wars failing to really do anything with his father dying at the hand of clones. Lux is one of the few characters TCW introduced who had a very personal reason to hate clones. Yeah, there are bigger fish to fry with clones having obviously committed genocide against their former commanders. But when you listen to Mina Bonteri's description of how he husband died. It does sound like the kind of mission a special opts group like CF99 could have been on.

They could also play around with Hunter's line about "Some people don't like to watch." When Crosshair was questioning if Caleb really fell to his death. Maybe at some point, Hunter really caused someone who didn't deserve it even if they may have been an enemy to fall to their death. Omega asked Tech what the war was like, he was too logical to tell her anything deeper about it. The rest of CF99 besides Crosshair probably did some terrible things in war and it would be interesting to see Omega deal with the idea her brother aren't saints. Failing that, Rex has stories.

 

The show seems to be pushing the narrative that the Regs are regaining some degree of agency now that there aren't any Jedi specifically at hand. And Hauser's unit's behavior suggests it's a fairly even split, probably based on each clone's individual experiences during the war. It's not what I expected in the early episodes where all the regs seemed to have permanently turned into total a-holes, but it's interesting.

 

I've been thinking about it and I'm gonna say it, I don't love Omega...yet. I don't hate her either, I just feel like she has taken over the show a bit too much and seems a bit out of place. She seems like a less interesting Grogu who can talk but maybe doesn't have force sensitivity. I also wonder if this whole season is kind of serving as a backdoor way to bring her into the Book of Boba Fett. I feel like she has kind of been shoehorned in to the side to act as a heart of the show but this could have all been achieved without her and have allowed more time to focus on the original batch members and also develop someone like Echo more.

Don't get me wrong, she may end up becoming an Ahsoka in that she started as a bit meh but becomes truly top tier over time. Or maybe she might go the way of Ezra and just stay a bit annoying. I don't know but I think Ahsoka worked because she bounced off a lot of the other Clone Wars characters, Omega seems to have kind of come in and to an extent, bumped the Batch characters we were introduced to out of the way to an extent. Being an Australian as well, the REALLY strong New Zealand accent just takes me out of the idea of a galaxy far, far away and this is no one's fault but mine.

Anyway, while underwhelmed by the finale, I really did enjoy the show overall and loved all the background happenings with the birth of the empire, death of Kamino, Ryloth uprising mark II, rise of the rebellion but I think I would have loved if that had been focused on more and hopefully, in season 2, they really go into what happens with the clones and their uprising. Feel free to fire away at me if you likely disagree.

 

The thing is, there is an episode of Rebels where the Imperials capture Rex and they access his old file, and it says he's a decorated veteran and war hero.

So unless the BB wants to go against established canon from the previous animated show, the Imperials can never find out Rex is helping the fledgling Rebellion. And he can't obviously lead a clone rebellion, at least not publicly. Though personally I do not think there'll ever be such a thing. Perhaps few clone deserters like Gregor, Rex or the BB, but I don't think there'll be a full blown rebellion of the clone army. It would make the Sith look incompetent.

 

https://www.starwars.com/news/brad-rau-jennifer-corbett-interview-the-bad-batch

Spoiler

StarWars.com: I wanted to talk about what I think is one of the big themes of the season, which is, “What is my purpose?” I’m wondering, by season’s end, how you think the Bad Batch view themselves and their purpose?

Jennifer Corbett: I think it depends on which member of the Bad Batch you asked. I think they all have a very different opinion of where they stand, in particular Hunter, Crosshair, Echo, and Omega. The question of “what’s my purpose” is really a show theme, because the Empire taking over and the galaxy shifting and changing, it’s continuous and it’s evolving, and so are they. What Hunter is trying to do is keep his squad safe, and Omega is just trying to learn how to survive in this world, having been kept on Kamino her whole life. Crosshair, now that we know his chip is removed, he’s trying to see if he really does fit in with the Empire. He doubles down and he decides to stay. This is what he’s going to do. And Echo is the one who is questioning Hunter the most on what they should be doing and wanting to do more. All three of them continue to have these internal discussions throughout the season and hopefully next season.

Brad Rau: We didn’t want to have everyone’s purpose locked in at the end of Season 1. It’s something that they deal with in a big way as we move into Season 2. What is their purpose from all of their different points of view? It’s going to be a big deal, something we really wanted to dig into.

StarWars.com: Omega was obviously a huge surprise for audiences. Behind the scenes, when was she created and how did you decide that she was going to be a huge part of the story? You very easily could have had a show just about the core team of the Bad Batch, but she takes the concept and puts it on its head.

Jennifer Corbett: That was a decision pretty early on in development of Season 1. When we were talking about what the Batch was going to encounter once they get back to Kamino, and the Republic falls and now it’s this Empire, how are we going to challenge this squad of elite soldiers? We’ve seen them proficient in combat, so what can we throw at them?

That’s how we started coming up with the idea of a younger clone that they come into contact with and who needs their help. Omega was created, and it was a really great opportunity to show a different side of the squad and show that they are not as equipped to be guardians at first, and how they have to navigate this every changing galaxy with her, and how she’s also growing and learning from them as well.

Brad Rau: [It was] the idea that these super-soldiers, what would take them out of their comfort zone? Sometimes it’s hard to come up with that military, strategic challenge that does take them out of their comfort zone. That’s when they work at their best. This was such a cool idea that [they] had early on the development to create Omega. Talk about taking out of comfort zone. They’re topsy-turvy. It creates some really interesting drama as we play through the rest of it. We love Omega.

Jennifer Corbett: We also just wanted another clone character to offer a different perspective. All they’ve known their entire lives is being a soldier. She is the complete opposite. She has had no training. She’s been isolated on Kamino, has a lot of different life experience, and has a lot of empathy. Having her interact with them, she’s kind of a moral compass for this squad as they’re moving forward. She provided a lot of personality to them and was mixing it up.

StarWars.com: I felt like she was a surrogate for Clone Wars fans on a certain meta level. I think we can all have our favorite members of the Bad Batch, but most of us, I would say, are not like these genetically enhanced super-soldiers. Here’s someone who’s along for the ride with them, who’s younger, and really is like, a fan of them. Was this on your minds, as well?

Brad Rau: For sure. I think seeing Omega look up to these characters is a really interesting way in. I think what’s really interesting, is that as we see her learning from them, you also see these tough guys learning from the kid. I think that’s where it gets really interesting to me. It’s not just having her be there as an audience surrogate — which is great, there’s definitely a part of that — but to see how she affects the way they go about things created some really interesting situations.

Jennifer Corbett: Yeah. Dan, you’re right. Her interaction with them is just relatable because, having grown up with three older brothers, they were people that I idolized. I just wanted to always hang out with them, and mimic them, and do what they did, so I could be as cool as they are. Audiences can relate to that, especially kids. Everybody has their hero, and the chance to get to work with your hero and be part of the gang is always something someone wants to do.

StarWars.com: One of my favorite aspects was the interplay between her and Hunter, which I think came to form the heart of the series, and all that they learned from each other. What did you want to convey through their relationship as the season progressed?

Brad Rau: There’s definitely an inherent father-daughter relationship even though they’re siblings. We had fun playing Wrecker, a lot of times, as the older sibling with Omega, and wanted to see all of the ups and downs of what that father-daughter relationship would be like between Hunter and Omega. A lot of times Hunter will come to a conclusion that might not be the right choice, and he has to learn from that, as well. Having that overall family dynamic, those two really are the heart of gold.

Jennifer Corbett: There’s also the idea of, “You’re never done learning.” Even Hunter, the leader of the squad, he is learning a lot from her. She’s learning a lot from them. I think we’ve tried to play that in a few episodes because we do see it mostly through Hunter and Omega’s eyes. Their dynamic is the heart of the show.

StarWars.com: One thing I really enjoyed about the series was that it took care to show that the clones did not just become evil when Order 66 happened. We saw this with Howzer helping the Syndullas. At the same time, I think you probably didn’t want audiences to feel that sympathetic toward them, because they did do this terrible thing, and they have done terrible things. Tell me about including this in the show and how tricky it might have been to pull off.

Brad Rau: That’s a doozy, Dan. There’s a lot in there and we talked about it a lot.

Early on, we intentionally wanted to stay away from a clone’s point of view. So when we see them right away in the premiere episode, in particular in the second episode when we see them on Saleucami, we don’t see any of them with their helmets off. None of the colors are on any of their gear. Even the way that their helmet distortion sounds is a little bit more evil-sounding than the clones normally would sound. The music cues that we used throughout Season 1, when we would show the clones, for the most part was intentionally to show them as the bad guys.

That being said, we wanted our guys to not mow them down. Even though early on, they’re not always using a stun blast, if you look carefully, they were careful to try not kill any of these guys if they could help it, at all possible. It was all part of the clones as bad guys versus the Bad Batch.

But someone like Howzer, it’s also very intentional that he’s been out on his tour so long that he never even had a chance to go back and re-kit himself with the bleached white armor. It also gave us an opportunity to take off his helmet and see his amazing hairdo and really get into him as one of the first clones we’re getting close to his point of view. We can see, yes, he has the chip, but he also has his own free will. He’s making these decisions. That was something that was a really big deal.

Jennifer Corbett: It’s such a big question, we could spend a whole interview talking about that. The clones are always so tricky. They’re fan favorites, and then all of a sudden, Order 66 happens and everything changes. I think we have tried to not just portray them as being the bad guys. They’re more the pawns of the bad guys, and how unfortunate that is.

Showing how there are millions of clone troopers out there, and you can see clones that their chips are working, they’re following orders, they’re aligned with the Empire. We have clones who have removed their chips like the Bad Batch and Rex, and how they’re doing things. And also, like Brad said, clones like Howzer who have the chip but are also able to process that what the Empire is doing is wrong. How that affects him as a leader, because he’s trying to get through to his squad, and hoping that he can snap them out of whatever’s going on, because he doesn’t know about the chip.

It’s a tricky balance, but it’s part of telling these stories in this show, because it’s not just about the Bad Batch. It’s still a show about the clones as a whole.

StarWars.com: How do you think the clones and the Bad Batch view their service in the Clone Wars? Do they see it as a worthwhile endeavor, this thing they were bred for? Or do they see it in some other way — that it’s been tainted or it’s not what they thought it was?

Jennifer Corbett: The Bad Batch were always a different kind of unit. In the Clone Wars, they went from mission to mission and never stuck around for accolades and awards. They weren’t really in it for glory. They were in it because that was the job they were given. I think it’s not until the Republic falls and they see how the Empire does business they really start to realize how good the Republic was.

At the same time, their ideology wasn’t, “We have to restore the Republic.” It was more of, “We have to survive whatever’s going on right now and figure out what this Empire is and what means for them.”

Brad Rau: The Bad Batch, when they would complete an objective, it would usually not go according to all the details of how to get that objective. But they would pull it off. We even have Wrecker putting it, [mimes making a scratch on the wall] “Another successful mission!” in the premiere episode. They’re really good at doing what they do, but they don’t always go about it the way their superiors probably intended it.

That’s the fun thing about The Bad Batch. This idea that all of them, including the regs and all the clones, were created for this very specific purpose, to be soldiers in the Republic army, is really interesting now that the Republic is gone. Now what do you do? It’s something we wanted to get into. It was fun to get into that with the Bad Batch, just with this small group, trying to figure out how they survive, like we were talking about. How they go about getting food and getting fuel and all of these things, now that they’re not part of an army, we found as went forward were some of the juicier things to deal with for sure.

StarWars.com: Do you think, in Season 2, we’ll see more of what becomes of not just the Bad Batch, but Joe Average Clone, who’s still out there in the galaxy?

Brad Rau: We will not let that storyline go undiscussed, for sure.

StarWars.com: I’d like to go through some of the bigger moments of the season. I’ll just say what it is and if you two can riff on it, and offer any insights into the making of it, or thoughts on the sequence, that would be great.

To start, Order 66 and Hunter and Crosshair’s interaction with young Caleb Dume.

Brad Rau: Sounds like Jen.

Jennifer Corbett: [Laughs] Talk about a fun sequence to be able to write and execute, because we started the show off with one of the most iconic moments in Star Wars history.

The Bad Batch, being in the Grand Army of the Republic, most of their battles were blasting droids. That’s a mission that they’re very good at. But when Hunter is relayed information from Tech that they have to execute Order 66 and the reg captain says they have to execute the Jedi, he’s using his free will to question why. You see him try to protect this kid because he knows something’s wrong. He knows this order is something he fundamentally disagrees with.

And then you see Crosshair, who is just following orders and doesn’t even question it. Thinks it makes sense, tries to complete his mission, and luckily he gets knocked out by Caleb. Later he becomes a problem, but right then Caleb is able to neutralize him.

Brad Rau: Even a little before that, building up to Order 66, we definitely wanted to show this was a legacy Clone Wars show, with Tom Kane giving us the amazing narration, and the music. It feels like, “Okay, like, we’re familiar, we’re right back there in The Clone Wars.” Even seeing The Clone Wars logo burn away to The Bad Batch logo, showing that we’re right away moving into this new chapter. It felt like we needed to see that moment. Even though we wanted to move through that, we needed to see that Order 66 moment.

StarWars.com: Wrecker’s inhibitor chip fully activating.

Brad Rau: Oof. That was awesome. I’m sure we both have a lot to say about that. It was something we wanted not just to come out of nowhere; we wanted to hit these tiny little bits of it. It’s funny because when we were rolling that over a few episodes, the headaches with Wrecker, there was discussion internally, “Is it obvious enough?” I think it was more obvious than we thought, honestly, which is good.

We show something is going on. You’re waiting for this coiled moment to pop. For me, when you see it actually happen — who’s the one guy that you would not want to activate? It’s the big guy! He is just a destructive force of nature. When you see him go into that mode, the way that we played the music, the way Dee [Bradley Baker] performed Wrecker just a little bit differently, he’s this crazy Terminator killing machine. [It’s] chilling to see him go after Omega. They’d become such good buddies, and here she is practically crying, telling him to wake up. It’s what it was all about, building up to that moment. We did want to lay it out ahead of time so we could ramp up to that moment.

Jennifer Corbett: It was also just so heartbreaking because Wrecker’s the one who has the biggest heart and is the kindest out of the entire Bad Batch. You’re seeing him battle it, and you’re seeing the chip activate, and then once he hears Hunter in the background mention that they helped the Padawan escape, you hear the sound design kick in. You know what’s going to happen. Once he just goes off, yeah, it’s heartbreaking.

StarWars.com: Specifically with that sequence and when he turns on Omega, is it tricky to execute something like that when you know there are going to be kids watching?

Brad Rau: Yes.

StarWars.com: Is that something you talk about?

Brad Rau: For sure, 100 percent. From very, very early on, through all the versions of the script until when we were designing how that all works and how it went into story when we were shooting it, to the kind of shots we were shooting, like how close we were to Omega versus how close to Wrecker, and the fact that she runs first. We wanted it to be scary and chilling, but there were a few shots we pulled that were just too much. He was right on her heels, that classic Jason Voorhees chasing someone. “Oh, wait a minute, we might be going too crazy.”

There’s this really interesting thing that our episodic director Saul Ruiz worked out in the moment where Omega escapes into the second chamber and Wrecker pulls up the door. There’s this little camera fake out where you think he’s going to get her, but she’s underneath a different thing. Even that moment isn’t technically a traditional jump scare because the jump scare version of that was too scary. We talked about all of that, and even how the score works. It’s chilling and scary, but we pulled back just a little bit, based on what you’re talking about, for sure.

Jennifer Corbett: We talked so much about that moment and how it would end. There was even the idea of, is he able to snap out of it? Does Omega talk him out of it? But it didn’t seem true, and it didn’t seem realistic, because if Rex couldn’t stop himself against Ahsoka, and that’s a long relationship that they have, it just didn’t feel accurate to have Omega be able to break him out of that. It adds to the tragedy of the clones in that it’s beyond their control.

StarWars.com: Next one, Omega’s choice to leave Cut Lawquane.

Jennifer Corbett: One of my favorite moments! [Laughs] I love this part for her because it’s the first time that she’s really making a decision for herself and deciding that she wants to be with the Batch. She’s spent years alone on Kamino and has waited for them to return, and sees them as her family. They’re defective clones like her. She identifies with them, and she wants a life with them no matter how uncertain it is.

Later, when she’s kind of scolding Hunter for trying to get rid of her and saying, “Give me a chance, I can learn, I can be better,” and Hunter admitting that he made a mistake and that he needs to grow and he needs to learn, too, is probably my favorite moment of Season 1.

Brad Rau: I think it’s awesome for both those reasons for me, too, [and] as a father myself who’s made questionable decisions over the years. [Laughs] It’s all about Omega. It’s interesting to see that Hunter owns up to that. Like, “Wait a minute, yeah, sorry kid, you’re right.” And yet, it doesn’t mean from there, [mimics a blaster loading] “Now you’re in!” There are still questionable decisions that get made all the way through the season as Hunter and the Bad Batch deal with having this kid on their squad. She’s part of the squad now, too, but what does that mean for all of them?

I think the fact that that comes off of this young character making her own decision is really beautiful. It’s really good.

StarWars.com: Fennec Shand versus Cad Bane.

Brad Rau: Yesssssss. We love it. We were so excited to have Ming-Na Wen on our show as Fennec Shand. When we saw her the first time, chasing Omega, when we were building that episode, The Mandalorian hadn’t come out yet. So there was a lot of discussion about how she works and what she was like. It was so great to be able to work with her.

And then once we introduced Cad Bane, it was like, “Oh, my goodness, we’re going to have to find a way to have these two have to go head to head.” Setting that up and playing all the Western themes off of that and having it be the really interesting fanboy — speaking of myself –fanboy bounty hunter mano a mano moment while Omega was rescuing herself was delightful. It was also really great for that story to buy the kid some time to do what she does in that episode.

Jennifer Corbett: It was fun to see a seasoned veteran bounty hunter versus the up-and-comer who was new to the scene but very skilled. There is a respect between them, but neither one’s going to let the other get in the way of completing their mission. The fight between them, the choreography is fantastic. The team did such a great job. Omega used that to her advantage and let them duke it out while she figured out a way to escape.

StarWars.com: What I loved was that it was like, three sequences, if I remember correctly. Was that baked into the script, or did you realize as you were putting the episode together, “We can pace it out and have it be longer and in different locations?”

Jennifer Corbett: When you have these two characters go against each other, just doing one fight sequence again seemed too easy. We had to find a way for one to one-up the other, and then the other one comes back and they one-up the other, kind of handing off the baton, so to speak. That just felt like we were diving into more about them because they’re not stopping, and they’re not quitting, and they’re not giving up.

It was in the script phase, but the team definitely added some really cool elements to differentiate those action sequences and have them build off one another.

Brad Rau: I think what was really interesting about that awesome script was that it was always sort of baked in as far as how distant those two opponents were. It starts off as a gunfight and then it starts to get a little more kinetic and hectic. As far as where we cut in and out, we ended up cross-cutting it a little bit more than what was in the script when we were in the edit bay, just trying to figure out how to pace this right.

There was a lot of talk with the Story team about choreographing all of those little kinetic moves. When Fennec gets Cad Bane under the chin with her helmet, it’s a pretty big move, and we didn’t have that in there the whole time. But we needed to have a big reason why Cad Bane didn’t just wipe her out immediately right after that. We tried to play all of these moves. “Okay, if she does this move, what does he do to counter without killing her? Okay, then if he does that move, what does she do to counter without killing him?” And those two being so powerful, that was these two tricky, ticking time bombs. How we could play all that did have a lot to do with not only the proximity of them, which was in the script, but in the edit how few shots we show together when we cut in and out of it.

Jennifer Corbett: Of course, we had to find a way to get his rocket boots in there. [Laughs]

Brad Rau: [Laughs] That was tough, that was tough. Those things are tough.

StarWars.com: Crosshair and Hunter, to my mind, represented two distinct ideologies. One on the side of democracy, the other feeling loyalty to those in power. And I felt like it wouldn’t have worked if Crosshair still had his inhibitor chip. I was curious about developing their paths and the storytelling decision that Crosshair would fully commit to the Empire.

Brad Rau: When we were talking about the Order 66 moment, I think — and Jen, you said it so great — it was a really great moment at the beginning of our season to show these two characters having a different point of view, almost regardless of chips and orders. They just would approach the situation differently. Of course, there’s a science to how the chip worked. It felt like by the time we got to the end of the season, we wanted it to be clear that both of them were making their own free-will decision. They had a point of view that wasn’t going to be swayed by the other one. Figuring out what they say and when they say [it] so it’s not just, “Hunter’s a good guy and perfect,” and “Crosshair’s a bad guy and terrible and always saying the wrong thing,” but how we can really let the audience see that neither one of them were necessarily right or wrong — they just had to agree to disagree — had a lot to do with not having the chip in Crosshair’s head.

StarWars.com: I don’t know if you can answer, but I saw on Twitter that fans were debating whether Crosshair really had his chip removed or the Empire made him think he had his chip removed. Is that something you can comment on?

Jennifer Corbett: I think we can say that he had his chip removed.

Brad Rau: Yeah. Have you seen the side of that guy’s head? [Laughs]

Jennifer Corbett: The eagle-eyed fan will rewatch the season and notice a shift in his character, and when that is. They’ll probably have seen it all along.

StarWars.com: I think it probably stems from people who are fans of the character not wanting it to be a genuine turn. Which is understandable.

Jennifer Corbett: That goes to your earlier question because he’s technically the villain of the season in some people’s minds. You can get over that by saying, “Yeah, but he’s controlled by the chip!” So we wanted to twist it and really show that there are clones out there who, the effects of the chip are wearing off, and are still staying with the Empire. And there are other clones like Captain Howzer who are not. Crosshair is one of the ones who had his chip taken out and he’s still all in with the Imperial way of thinking.

Brad Rau: It is something we talk about a lot. It is a storyline that we’re not done with telling.

StarWars.com: At the end of the season finale, the cloning facilities are destroyed and burning. It’s unsettling, but I thought it also felt like it could represent a new beginning for the Bad Batch and also for Star Wars, a clear break from The Clone Wars era. Will this be reflected in Season 2?

Brad Rau: Yes. Yes, Dan.

StarWars.com: …Do you want to expand on that at all?

[Brad and Jennifer laugh.]

Jennifer Corbett: I’ll say that the ramifications of this attack and what the Empire has done, and what it means for the Bad Batch and for the clones, is something we’re going to continue with. You can’t do something like that and not address it when you’re talking about a series about clone troopers. So, yes. [Laughs]

Brad Rau: You said it. We’ve been talking about it a little bit. Although we show, literally, The Clone Wars logo burning away as the first visual of Season 1, that we see this destruction at the end of the season, is not just the proverbial but the literal end of an era that we really wanted to show. And it’s tragic. It’s heavy. There’s a lot to it. But we’re not done telling that story.

StarWars.com: Nala Se, at the end of the finale, arrives at an Imperial lab that I think seems to tie into the Emperor’s contingency plan of creating clones for himself to cheat death. Can you tell me if I’m right?

Jennifer Corbett: Well, Dan, that’s a fascinating theory! [Laughs] What we’ll say is, where Nala Se is, what Nala Se is doing, should be a mystery to the audience, and we hope to explore that in the upcoming season.

Brad Rau: I cannot add to that. [All laugh.]

StarWars.com: Fair enough. That’s more than I thought I would get.

Brad Rau: Nice try, Dan. [Laughs]

StarWars.com: For me, the biggest feat of the series so far has been that it told this larger story of the galaxy changing and the clones’ role in it, but through this very Star Wars lens of family. But really, a Star Wars family like we’ve never seen. I’m curious what you’re most proud of after this season.

Brad Rau: I’m really proud of showing this changing galaxy in that we have characters that we intentionally put a lot of pressure on, but that they still have hope. We talk about hope a lot. Hope is so important, but it’s not — the ultimate goal to be able to act on that hope and make a decision and try to do something is really interesting. I think seeing different characters with different points of view, like Crosshair and Hunter, and trying to get into why these characters think this way while still telling the swashbuckling Star Wars story in all of its glory — I’m really proud that we could get some of those themes and emotions into the story.

There’s a line. I can’t get enough of this line, I’m just going to say it as many times as I can. When Hera tells Omega, “Thank you for believing me,” it’s like, that’s it. That’s the show. What do they do next? There’s still a lot to do. There’s still a long hill to get over. But the fact that these characters believe in each other, and they support each other, is a really big deal. I think it’s really great.

Jennifer Corbett: Ah, such a good question! I don’t know how to summarize it. I guess what I’m most proud of in this season is taking a group of genetically quote “defective” clones who have been marginalized their entire lives, and they’re now in a galaxy that is changing, and they’re just trying to find their place. They really rely on one another. No matter what’s happened to them or what’s happening around them, they never lose their compassion. They’re willing to fight for each other, and ultimately fight for those who need help.

I think it speaks to our world when things seem really bad. And like Brad touched on, when it seems like there is no hope, you can count on those closest to you. Just keep holding on to hope. Keep fighting.

Brad Rau: I gotta also add a non-story thing I’m really proud of — just our entire team. Jen, you and I talk about this all the time. What Lucasfilm Animation has done is so amazing. We’ve been part of it as fans and then on various shows, being able to work on this, to see this challenge at the beginning of The Bad Batch that we talked about with Dave [Filoni]: How do we take the style of Clone Wars’ storytelling, visually, acting-wise, and music-wise, how do we take it and uptick it? How do we improve that, for lack of a better word? How do we keep making it better and better? It was a big challenge and very difficult. It’s something we deal with all the time.

But to see all the various departments, to see the way the production worked, and the scripts and the designs, animations, story, lighting effects, music, and all of our amazing actors in our cast, and the sound design from Sky Sound and our partners at CGCG, everybody stepped up. Everybody just delivered the best work I think that we’ve done as a team. It’s been remarkable to see that play out through Season 1. It’s very, very exciting.

Jennifer Corbett: Especially during a global pandemic, and it’s affected a lot of people, and everyone’s lives have changed and shifted. But everyone has worked so incredibly hard and given so much of themselves for this series. I’m so honored to work with this crew and this team. They’re so talented. I’m incredibly proud of the product that we’ve all created together.

StarWars.com: I’ll just say quickly, one thing I think the show doesn’t get enough credit for is that, kind of like what I was saying before, is how the opening sequence of the series feels like The Clone Wars. But then after that, it feels like a different show. That, to me, is just really interesting as a viewer. Visually, obviously, it looks like Clone Wars. But I look back at watching the series, and I don’t feel like I was watching Clone Wars Season 8. I feel like I was watching The Bad Batch.

Brad Rau: That’s an amazing compliment. Yeah, that was all we wanted to do. Because it’s not Clone Wars Season 8. It’s a different show. It is a new era, it is a new time. It’s been a blast. Like you said, Jen, I will echo what you said. I’m so proud to be a part of this team and to be working with you on this thing. It’s amazing.

 

I enjoyed the somber turn the show took over the last 3 episodes. Seeing the Star Destroyer open fire on Kamino was really out of step with the goofiness of earlier in the season. Even Wrecker seemed much more subdued. The aesthetics were great as well. It was a rocky start for me but I ended up enjoying it quite a bit.

 

What bothers me about this season is that it doesn't really do either of those things. I was hoping for more detail on the transition to the Empire; I thought they'd take some cues from things like the OG Battlefront II where it's basically Palpatine running a victory lap, killing off all of his potential rivals and securing all the tech and resources he needs for the Empire while using someone like Rampart to justify it before the Imperial Senate and whatnot.

We don't really have any political undercurrent in the show at all though; Its pretty much all focused around Kamino, and one day Rampart just arbitrarily decides to kill their prime minister and destroy their capital like it's no big deal. We don't see the Empire cleaning up the remaining CIS holdouts, and all the planets we've been shown just fall under Imperial occupation without much pushback.

So it's not about the transition, alright that's cool. What about focusing on the main characters then? Even there, the main protagonists have barely developed beyond the one-note characterization they started with in TCW S7, and they've actually killed a lot of potential character-focused subplots very quickly.

For instance, it seemed like they were really developing an identity crisis for Wrecker, who had begun to question if he breaks things because he wants to or if it's because that's what he's programmed to do. Is he no better than the droids he's been smashing for years?

The chip discovery seemed to unsettle him deeply, and when his chip activated and he nearly killed Omega, it was a prime opportunity to break him as a character and have him lose faith in his humanity. But immediately after that, he's right back to "Big Man with Big Gun" with little having changed. Even the most dynamic characters only got a couple of episodes to show it, and let's not even get into Tech and Echo.

The big cliffhanger that the season ends off with is a setup for The Mandalorian, which is presumably a setup for all the insane cloning shenanigans in TROS, and I really hope that's not the primary purpose of this show.

All in all, I don't even get where people get off calling this "The Best First Season of SW Animation". Half of what makes BB even decent are things that it gets from literally riding the coattails of TCW, and despite having a couple of episodes that are "latter-season TCW" quality, I think it has some of the most boring filler in all of SW TV, so it cancels out IMO. Even in S1, TCW was doing things with action and scale no other animated show had done before or since, and Rebels had to introduce all-new characters, art direction, and worlds without the benefit of directly spinning off from a successful show.

That said, I don't think the show is bad, it's real pretty and I think it has the best pilot episode in SW TV for sure, but I just don't see the overall vision for it yet. There's still potential for it to do more in the upcoming season(s), and maybe they have an amazing story ahead that finds a better balance between worldbuilding and character focus. We'll just have to see.

 

Season 1 felt like it was written like the show is guaranteed 5 seasons.

 

If it does go that long I'm interested how they might handle the Clones accelerated aging.
Models were only updated every three or four seasons in TCW, though with the protagonists aging at double the rate maybe we'll get new models twice as often.

 

Hopefully they'll age better than Tarkin, or else they'll be dead by season 3.

 

At first, I really enjoyed Hunter and Omega, probably still do. I'm a sucker for that sort of thing. Doesn't feel right to call him best dad now since he is her brother. Omega is not out of place. She never was a copy of Grogu anymore than Din Djarin is of Hunter. They are in similar roles but are very different in terms of personality, experience, and the kind of person they are. Fennec may have popped up but that Boba didn't show puts Omega's future in The Book of Boba Fett in doubt in my mind. That's a good thing. I don't want any of these characters on rails.

Honestly, I appreciated Ahsoka far more when I did my rewatch before Season 7. I never disliked her. She was always a magical girl archetype to me and I love those. But she just wasn't a character that spoke to me or interested me as much as others. I was a clone fan and when my buddy Rex wasn't on screen, I preferred to be hanging out with Obi-wan or doing the Anthology thing and seeing something really cool and different. But Ahsoka is arguably one of the best character arcs of the franchise and has become a backbone of it. Omega's story has just begun.

Ezra never really got on my nerves either. He's a basic coming of age protagonist in my opinion. A key difference between him and Omega is none of the members of the Ghost team would just give in and let him drag them into things quite as Omega does. Maybe I'm underestimating how difficult it must be to say no to that accent which is kind of cute at times. LOL. Omega at this point is the protagonist. The problem with Omega is it does feel like she is over featured and way overutilized to drive plots. She just about overshadows the other members and the second half was more interested in developing secondary relationships with Cid and Hera. I'm not sure how optimistic I am this is going to change because the latest interview does make it sound like the creative forces think more Omega is what people want and all the characters will continue to get written to bounce off her.

The finale episode was fine to me. Exactly what was advertised. A giant escape...

The Bad Batch did go to Raxus where it looked like tanks were being used to terrify citizens into complying with their rule and the Prime Minister who tried to oppose them was locked up. The Battle Droids are gone. Deactivated and smelted. We'll see more of this.

These guys are actually pretty young, coddled soldiers who learned the hard way fuel and food aren't free. I think The Bad Batch did exactly what it set out to do and set up these guys as a band of brothers and a sister trying to figure out their place and how to survive as the Empire transitions. That's while dealing with two different bounty hunters that went after the wunderkind. With Fennec Shand's help, they got Omega back which was apparently connected to dooming Kamino.

Did the Empire ever need to kill Lama Su and destroy Kamino? probably not. They like to overdo things. That was built up in "Decommissioned", "Reunion" and "Bounty Lost". Capturing Omega was something crucial to the Kaminoans winning with the Empire. That didn't pan out. Now here we are with the Clones being deemed unimpressive and Kamino no longer of use. The Clone Wars is as over as it will ever be. During The Clone Wars Palpatine planted seeds to smoothly get rid of them. It was clone helmets the citizens picketing the Jedi temple used on their signs.

That transition isn't over just because the clones are phasing out and Kamino is gone. The season is over, there hasn't been a chance to get a reaction outside of CF99 running for dear life to get out of there. There is more galaxy to rule, fear to instill, and the machines that will symbolize it to build. I wonder how long until we see an early Tie Fighter?

But this show is not about the politics on Coruscant. It would be cool if this was an anthology like TCW but it's just part anthology being vaguely linear with overarching plots that progress sometimes and largely slow episodic build-up.

Let's talk about Wrecker, Hunter, and Crosshair...

Wrecker evolved quite a bit over the first eight episodes just bouncing off Omega. He is arguably the most emotionally intelligent of the group. He's the best one at keeping an eye on her. Wrecker is the first to notice when she falls behind and he flies into action almost faster than Hunter to help her. After "Bounty Lost" he even seemed to get clingy and carry her around like he was daring the next bounty hunter who showed up to pry her away.

I don't think he was even going to have an identity crisis over breaking stuff. "Aftermath" played him for laughs as an annoying goon. That's exactly who he was in the TCW arc. The first eight episodes matured him into this big guy who can still be a goof but can resist the urge to blow stuff up for fun. He even got over his fear of heights. It really messed Wrecker up that he almost killed Omega. He was about in tears when he was apologizing to her, one of the most emotional scenes in the show. Omega brought the kid back out in him by breaking out the Mantell Mix which was sweet. However, I'll give you that after this episode Wrecker got shoved into the background.

Hunter was the worst developed from The Bad Batch arc. The funny thing about The Bad Batch is its retroactively made him more interesting in TCW. Hunter's abilities weren't clear. He had no personality. There was nothing remotely interesting about him. Now it makes sense how Hunter can fight back to back with Anakin Skywalker. The heroic attributes "Aftermath" and "Cornered" in particular gave him are there. He contrasts Crosshair's disdain for the Regs. Hunter is a mediator. He's a realist.

It was far-fetched to him Echo would be alive but he tagged along because it was the right thing to do and he is loyal. He'd already decided Rex was his friend at that stage. It's also far-fetched to him anyone is going to try to fight this enormous big bad Empire and come out alright. But if Rex is in a bind Hunter will help him. It might take a little annoying prodding by Omega, Echo may gang up on him with her. He's going to do the right thing. Hunter does not like seeing people get hurt.

When Hunter tries to stand by and do nothing it bothers him which makes it easy for Omega to manipulate him. Omega brings out both his heart and more selfish traits. All he wants is to keep her and his squad safe and away from the empire. He's just chosen Mercenary as the wrong profession because it's easy. Going on missions is all he knows. But he doesn't like the Empire and he's had a stern staredown with Rampart.

But maybe Crosshair will kill Rampart. Crosshair was the one-note jerk I hated. One of my favorite moments in "A Distant Echo" is when Rex punches him in the face. The Bad Batch took that jerkass personality and made him awesome. The writers used it to toy with viewers over whether or not he was mind-controlled. In the finale Wrecker, Tech, and Hunter all had some great moments bouncing off him. Regret in Hunter. Maturity in Wrecker, Outrage in Tech.

It's even better he really did decide the Empire was his ticket. He let it derange him into the sociopathic jerkass he is now. Complex, deep, mysterious, and scary. In "A Distant Echo" he trolled Rex on how he'd had left Echo behind. And here, he turns right around upset his brothers deserted the Empire and left him.

The way the inhibitor chips have been handled. That half of the clones out there can still make their own decisions is low-key brilliance. Rex's line about decisions to Kanan makes sense again. It makes the demise of the clones sadder. Their legacy is even more jaded. Damn, to think all those men Rex and Ahsoka buried could have gotten over the brainwashing and been themself again. If Rex isn't messed up enough what will he think when he figures this out?

Echo and Tech sadly got the short end this season. We only got to see a glimpse of Echo in a mentor role to Omega. He empathizes with her having been used as an experiment. He's a backbone to TCW's overarching narrative for the Clones. He's Hunter's lancer now. Tech got even less. Omega is his favorite science partner and that's it. Hopefully, next season finds room to develop these characters further.

The TV shows may be a big interconnected cinematic universe. That's fine so long as the execution is there. The Bad Batch season one's job was to reintroduce The Bad Batch, introduce Omega, show how less civil the galaxy is getting, and bookend the prequel era.

To be honest I don't know the definite goal with this show at this time. The Bad Batch is part The Rescue Rangers in Space and part A-Team in Space. They rescue people and can apparently fight crime as much as guys working in the criminal underworld can. They are Mercenaries hired by only one person. Cham, That CIS Senator they rescued, Rex all have The Bad Batch on speed dial. Or, Cid gives them missions. I think that's how the show will keep rolling. These missions will drag them into the underworld and in time into a very early rebellion. It does create the flexibility to see a lot of worlds, places, and characters out there in the galaxy.

I have a very different definition of what is filler to most apparently. To me, filler implies an episode has been added that is not part of the source material. The Bad Batch has no source material so to me, it is not possible to have a filler episode. The Clone Wars, Rebels, and The Mandalorian have no filler episodes. Just because a show has episodic components and not all the episodes directly advance an overarching plot does not make an episode filler, IMO. Many of the episodes labeled filler like "Rampage" have become more important as the series has progressed. Many of the episodes labeled filler in The Mandalorian like "The Gunslinger" and "The Prisoner" ended up important.

I love The Clone Wars. It's my favorite Western Animated Show of all time and I will defend it as the greatest of all time. Fight me! I love season 1 of TCW. I would still rank it easily over the Bad Batch. I think it destroys both Rebels and The Mandalorian's first seasons. Folks who tell others to skip season 1 piss me off. There are so many great and underrated episodes. However, it's easy to get blinded by nostalgia, one of the things I loved about TCW was it often felt like a 90s action cartoon wrapped in CGI that in time grew to be glorious CGI. Just like The Bad Batch has its "fetch quests" as people say. The Clone Wars ran with a Monster of the Day formula that never went anywhere. It's just harder to see in the four-part arcs.

The Bad Batch is probably never going to be as good as TCW. I'm not asking it to. It's not season 8. But it still feels like a 90s cartoon wrapped in glorious CGI. I love that. I liked the first half of the season where more character development was going in which oddly enough felt more like The Mandalorian's slow, deliberate buildup. But I didn't mind the back half which had short two-part arcs, pov changes, and was episodic which really felt like TCW season 2. Fantastic. I can't deny that shift hurt the momentum.

The Bad Batch could definitely take some pages from Rebels since they aren't balancing familiar faces of five well. Rebels greatest strength was character episodes and developing interesting interpersonal relationships. Incidentally, while I like Rebels a lot. I do. Kanan is a top-tier character for me. Hera is a top-tier character for me. The first season was fun. I liked it but man I hated the second season when I first tried to watch it. When they pulled in the TCW characters it felt like an omission this wasn't as good. It pissed me off and I rage quit Rebels at that time. I admit I was still butthurt over TCW's cancellation. Don't worry. I picked it up again later and had a better time with it. I understand folks feeling like this is just an imitation of TCW and it's not as good because that is how I felt about Rebels when it came out. I may like TCW better but I completely ate my words later on with Rebels which is every bit a top-tier western animated series.

 

You buried the lede there. It’s clear that your anti-Kiwi bias is primarily responsible for your opinion.

 

Looks like the speculators were right
https://www.google.com/amp/s/gizmod...ion-in-bad-batch-is-exactly-wh-1847493615/amp

 

Haha you got me! But seriously, I don't want it to come across that I am anti-Kiwi, I'm not, I even have it in my cultural background, it just takes me out of the galaxy being far, far away when it is merely a short trup across the dutch.

 

Now that the seasons finished I feel like I can give a fair opinion on it. I thought the premier was fantastic and it really sold me on the show (I was "meh" going into it). However, with the exception of a few episodes- most of which didn't even revolve around the "Bad Batch"- it ended up being very underwhelming and directionless. I felt like it didn't really have a point and was stretched too thin; or at least that Filoni & crew included way too much episodic & filler content and not enough of a "main story".
Also, I thought the season felt more like a "sampler pack" of backdoor pilots for other, more interesting, shows and that it didn't really have it's own story or identity. The Bad Batch just happened to be the eyes through which we saw other events (mostly in passing) begin to playout that will be covered in other material (Rebels for example).

 

Interesting. To me the premier might have been my least favorite episode. The show got better as it went along, IMO, and finished strong. A lot of what was described as “filler” helped give layers to the early Imperial era, including on Ryloth. A decent amount of political world-building I thought.

Someone does need to tell Filoni that he overuses monster attacks, though. I like them from time to time, but you don’t need one when the characters are already escaping a sinking and burning massive structure. Too much on top of too much.

 

Yep, monster of the week as a trope doesn't have to mean a LITERAL monster of the week, you can vary it up. I do think that a lot of what was set up as ground work this season will have a pay off over the next few seasons.

 

He also overuses the "grizzled warrior/mercenary adopts orphan" trope. Seriously, this is like the 3rd (arguably 4th) time Filoni has used this trope. I love Filoni, but all his shows have revolved around that same premise. Bad Batch is basically just a repeat of Rebels and The Mandalorian.

 

Yes, but that’s a trope that conceives multiple different iterations that are almost always enjoyable and endearing. The monster obstacle, on the other hand, is often quite unimaginatively executed. The exception being in Mando, where the mudhorn, Krayt dragon and waterworld beast were done really well, not least as they were linked to core character events in the narrative.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought Filoni wasn't closely involved with this series.