Bad Batch Season One (spoilers)

 

 

FYI – This will contain spoilers for season 1 of the Bad Batch and various Star Wars media.

 

               To understand my relationship to Star Wars, you must understand one very important thing.  New Hope was the first movie I remember seeing in a theatre, the year it was released.  As I have gotten older, I have become more critical of aspects of it.  But there were always four-year-old me going “oh, I want a Wookie” and “Princess Leia is awesome”. 

               To say I am conflicted about this series would be accurate, and I have tried repeatedly to muddle my way through what my issues are.  Two of my issues are not just related to the Bad Batch in particular, but recent Star Wars content starting with the Clone Wars animated movie and series, and to be fair, something that Lucas himself did in Phantom Menace and Clone Wars.

               The first general thing is the clones and the elephant in the room that is never fully addressed – aren’t clones slaves.  They are owned by the Kaminians who rent them out to the Republic.  The clones really don’t have a choice.  They can’t say - nope.  And if the Jedi use them as armed forces, aren’t the Jedi by extension, slave owners or overseers?  So why I am rooting for the Republic?  What really is the difference between say the separatists who enslave Echo and the Republic that basically does the same thing?  If the clones are human beings, as the Clone Wars series tells us, then they are slave and we should be anti-Republic, right?  To be fair, there are glimpses of this issue, but it is never really addressed, the closest you get is Crosshair’s remarks about what’s the difference between the Republic and the Empire.  But the writing doesn’t really support his view in terms of the reactions of the other characters.  Hunter, who doesn’t rush to join the Rebellion, could express some of this but instead it is “Omega must be safe” even though she goes on dangerous missions with them.

               Which is the next problem.  As I have gotten older, I have come to dislike, if not outright hate, the use of children as soldiers in cartoons or movies in general.  In truth, I didn’t like the Anakin taking out the Trade Union’s control ship, but at least he was told to stay out of the fight.  The use of young characters, pre-18-year-olds, such as Ashoka, children who kill and fight in a war, should give us a pause, especially in world where you have children kidnapped and forced to be soldiers (No, I am not saying SW is to blame for this or for the violence among teens).  At least in the Clone War, Ahsoka, eventually questions this to a degree. (I tend to side with the people who say Ashoka is what a Jedi should be and what the Jedi were not).  Additionally, Boba becomes what he is in Empire and Jedi because in part, he sees his father beheaded before his eyes (it’s worth noting that Boba does not fight in the Clone Wars movie).

               Which bring us to the Bad Batch, a series about five male, adult clones, and the little girl clone that wants to fight with them.

               I am not going to go into depth with the criticism of ableism, racism, and white washing that some critics have raised, except to note that is interesting that the one female clone (whether she is trans or cis) we meet is lighter than the others and is blonde; and the two most underused and underdeveloped characters in the series are Tech (who may be neurodivergent) and Echo (who is disabled).  In fact, in terms of this season, there really isn’t much difference given to Tech and Echo, except Tech pilots, has glasses, and talks more.

Echo, who doesn't get many lines

               Part of my problem with the series is how it uses or doesn’t use characters, keeping the development of most of the characters to a bare minimum and focusing most, if not all, of its emotional development and character development on Omega. I say this as someone who likes Omega.  This is most brutally clear in the treatment of Crosshair, the Bad Batch member who seems to lose the fight with the inhibitor chip that control the clones (so they are slaves that are mind raped).

               In the first episode the Bad Batch flees Kamino because they disagree with the Empire, with the killing of civilians and children.  They are forced to leave Crosshair behind because he is completely controlled by the chip and tries to kill them when they flee.  They can take, to save, Omega.  They do this because she warned them (so she saves them.  Equally saving each other) and because she is part of their batch, at least so Tech thinks (this is wrong or at least not strictly true).  When the rest of the Bad Batch find out that the clones are controlled by chips, there is a very brief reaction to it not being Crosshair’s fault and a brief mention of Hunter feeling guilty about leaving Crosshair behind.  Then these feelings are completely and utterly dropped for several episodes.  In fact, in one episode where Hunter missing Crosshair would have made sense, it is Omega that is referenced (The Common Ground episode where Hunter tells Tech and Omega to do something).  This is strange considering (a) Echo was imprisoned and controlled in Clone Wars, so he at least should be raising the question of Crosshair and (b) if your brother was being mind controlled, wouldn’t you want to do something about it.  It’s true that the Batch could not rescue him because (a) one would presume he would be fighting them and (b) they would be vastly outnumbered, but there should have been some mention of him at points.  For instance, when they get their own chips removed someone could have referenced Crosshair, or when Crosshair hunts them, someone suggesting maybe trying to get him.  Instead, he is treated for the most part as a deadly enemy who does is that because he chose to.

               When the final confrontation comes between Crosshair and Hunter it lacks any emotional depth because the other four apparently showed no concerned about their brother after episode 3.  This made even more obvious when in the finale, it is Omega who has the emotional discusses with Crosshair and none of the others.  Strange considering how long the others have worked with him. She might be the hopeful soul of the group but consistently using her as the one who can exhibit emotions, or the one people get emotional over weakens the other characters.  This is most telling in the episode where the Bad Batch must rescue a Separatist senator, an episode that is described as a challenge to the Batch’s views, except it isn’t.  Echo goes from being, understandably, wary of rescuing Separatist to being totally down with it because the dude threw a vase.  That’s not a challenge to ideology.  Instead of focusing on, say Echo and how he feels about helping someone who was part of group who abused him (allowing for an episode to focus on someone who is not Hunter or Omega), we have a sequence about Omega being good strategy because she is chess prodigy, and being told via the writing that Hunter not talking a child to a war zone is a bad thing.  If the other characters do not have emotional development or attachments outside of Omega, why should I care about them?  Because of Hunter’s thigh?  Because they are daddies? 

The thigh that launched a thousand ships

               There is more emotional development in a single episode of Star Trek Lower Decks than the whole season of The Bad Batch.  And Lower Decks is a comedy that is in part a parody. 

               Omega is also the reason why the Bad Batch do things.  For three episodes in a row (6, 7, 8) the Batch do something largely if not wholly because Omega argues it is the right thing to do.  Additionally, in more than one episode she must be saved – sometimes more than once.  It should be noted that she does at points save the others (Finale Part 1 and Rampage for instance) but the number of times she must be saved in the middle of a mission is too high.  It makes Omega into the damsel in distress, which quite frankly is annoying and ruins a character.  Furthermore, we know that Omega is the one character that isn’t going to die, so placing her in danger or using her as plot device for why is lazy writing (for instance, why does Hunter give the Martez sisters the droid’s drive?  Because they helped Omega, and they are better looking than Cid, who in that episode taught Omega.  Do you really think that choosing a side speech would work if they hadn’t helped Omega?).   The making Omega a fighting pre-teen raises the question of why a child.  Just so they must save a female?  Can we stop with this sexist plot line.  Or because having a group of clones protect a Jedi is too much like a Legends series and they might be accused of plaragism?  (Though this does not seem to stop the Disney group from mining the work of Legends authors even while not paying them royalties). 

Pay Alan Dean Foster and Co now!

               The two-part finale also really doesn’t pay off the way it should.  The big reveal is that apparently Crosshair had his chip removed.  When is slightly unclear, though it seems to have been after episode 8.  This reveal raises questions.  (1) How did Crosshair know he had a chip? (2) Why would the Empire tell him they removed it? (3) If the Empire told him, are they telling the truth because he held his head? (4) If he removed it, how did he know to do so? None of these questions are answered, and the reveal doesn’t quite work because what went before does not lead to it.  (The chips are problematical because it is unclear which clones have them removed and which are fighting them, and why doesn’t Hunter warn Howzer about the chips?).   The best part of the finale is that Crosshair has a point in both the difference between the Batch returning to Kamino to rescue Hunter versus how they treated Crosshair, and in his view of the Republic (his slave owners).    The reveals about Omega are just curious ones, that one hopes to be more fleshed out in season 2 – if she was created as the same time as Boba why is she younger than him?  Does her concern about Azi indicate she finally realizes the wrong people can die or does she care more about a droid than other clones?

The face that launched 1001 fan posters

               The emotional pay off that the finale wants could have been easily done with more development of characters that could easily occur in what some fans have described as “filler” episodes.  A mention of Crosshair here, a question about something here, an acknowledgement that Omega’s moral view is rubbing off on the others instead of her directly say “we should”.  As it is, the show feels like a bunch of people worrying about a kid as they go meet various important people from other Star Wars media.  Which is fine, and can have some good action, but is meh.

               Yes, I know it takes Star Wars cartoons a couple seasons to hit its stride, but if this Clone Wars season 8 as everyone says it is, shouldn’t it be there already?  Like most modern SW, I want to like it.  It looks so wonderful, but c'mon with the writing.