New Disney+ animated series: The Bad Batch

[ChrisIII]

Oh I'm fine with the Batch not being in every episode, you're right that it's much akin to the Clone Wars that way and I actually like that we're getting stories and perspectives the Batch wouldn't allow. But I find it a little worrying that the episodes without them have been the best of the season; it's not a great look when the main cast are the weak point of the series. Just like how the best episodes of Boba Fett didn't have Boba Fett in them.

Batch is a better show than Boba, of course, but still.



Sure, but just because the stormtrooper program didn't work as well as Palpatine might have wanted it to doesn't mean that he was wrong to want to get rid of the clones.

If you mean Finn and Jannah's squad, the First Order troops aren't conscripted but stolen from their families at a young age (Partly a warped version of the Jedi's ways), and it's implied that the force had a hand in influencing their change of heart.

. T
From the Empire, new canon-wise there's Barcona but a lot of the other Imperial defectors seem to be mainly fleet officers and especially pilots (Rodhi, Inferno Squad, Yrica, Wedge, Sabine, Thane etc.) Might have something to do with TIEs in general being more expendable/cheaply made (Although Thrawn tried to develop better ones the Empire wanted to finish the Death Star instead).

[Ascended]

If you mean Finn and Jannah's squad, the First Order troops aren't conscripted but stolen from their families at a young age (Partly a warped version of the Jedi's ways), and it's implied that the force had a hand in influencing their change of heart.

No I meant the Imperial era conscript program. The one that replaces the clone army after the Republic falls. Bad Batch has been exploring, a little bit, that transition as the clones are phased out and the new draft program is enacted.

I was just saying that although the stormtrooper/conscript program didn't work out as well as the Empire probably thought it would, Palpatine wasn't wrong for wanting to get rid of the clones.

And now that you mention it, yeah a lot of Imperial pilots do seem to become deserters.

[ChrisIII]

Kind of makes one wonder what would've happened if Luke joined the academy, especially since his best friend Biggs also defected. Han Solo I suppose also counts a bit as he was also an Imperial pilot, but according to the deleted scenes he in SOLO his reckless flying got him grounded as an infantry stormtrooper.

[Ascended]

I vaguely recall reading somewhere, probably before the Disney buy-out even, that Luke wanted to join the academy with the intention of joining the rebellion, which I think is what his friends did. Which fits his dialogue in New Hope, where he talks about hating the Empire.

I could be wrong, we're talking quite a while ago and even if I'm right I don't think it counts as canon anymore?

But I imagine if Luke had joined up, he'd have done what Biggs did and defected to the rebellion as soon as he was able.

His last name though...that might've been a problem. When Han signs up in SOLO, he stumbles over giving them a last name but Luke would've happily given his. Would Vader have eventually heard of a talented pilot from Tatooine named Skywalker? Since nobody knew Vader was Anakin there's no reason to bring it to his attention, but pilots do have a way of building up reputations in real-world militaries and I assume the Empire is no different. So it's possible Luke might've come up in conversation regarding recruitment into the 501st or something. Vader likely would have just assumed Owen had a son, making Luke Vader's nephew....but given how strong the Force runs in the family and Luke's skill as a pilot, Vader may have come sniffing around anyway. And if that had happened poor Luke would've been in real trouble.

Actually, I wonder if Vader ever worried about 3P0 and R2 arriving on Owen's farm. Of all the farms on that planet, what're the odds these droids and their stolen Imperial data would end up at Anakin's brother's place? Did Vader never consider the odds of that? Did he never pull on that string?

[godisawesome]

I tend to think that Palpatine wanted a significant drop in troop and pilot quality in the Empire compared to the Republic he'd previously led; a much larger but more cumbersome and clumsy military force can be strapped to a bureaucracy that centralizes power under his command, but has a bad, heavily flawed chain of command, multiple competing factions that can't effectively rebel against him on their own, and where even the common soldier or pilot is significantly less dangerous to Palpatine.

the Grand Army of the Republic was capable of conquering the Galaxy even when opposed by million upon millions of droids, and then of nearly wiping out the Jedi. Palpatine has zero interest in that kind of effectiveness now when oppressing and ruling the Galaxy can be done with a much less efficient force.

[ChrisIII]

It's possible that maybe Skywalker is a fairly common last name, same with Kenobi. Think we at least have one case of unrelated people with similar last names in Star Wars: Wedge Antilles (Who is from Corellia) is totally unrelated to the other Antilles we hear about (Both from Alderaan).

[Ascended]

It's possible that maybe Skywalker is a fairly common last name, same with Kenobi. Think we at least have one case of unrelated people with similar last names in Star Wars: Wedge Antilles (Who is from Corellia) is totally unrelated to the other Antilles we hear about (Both from Alderaan).

They're not related? I thought Wedge just moved to Corellia or something? Huh, the more you know.

Yeah, maybe Skywalker is a common name. I know the term is used in Thrawn's neck of the woods as a military term, but not as a name, so why wouldn't Skywalker be used across the rest of the galaxy too? Still, a talented pilot named Skywalker from Tatooine, and Vader's old neighborhood at that? I feel like Vader would've looked into it if he'd heard it.

[ChrisIII]

Kind of makes you wonder what about Shmi's family? Anakin may have no father but he presumably had a grandfather with the last name of Skywalker through his mother.

I'm kind of surprised with pretty much all of the current Vader comics obsession with the handmaidens that Pak hasn't done anything with Vader's in-laws on Naboo.

As for today's episode, it kind of wound up being a sort of typical by the numbers SW "infiltrate the base" story at the end. I'm not sure this one really needed two parts.

[Robotech Master]

That was a hilarious villain death. "Fine, I'll take you on myself, Twirl Slash...oh ****!"

[ChrisIII]

Also a fairly traditional one for many Star Wars villains, although Maul and Palpatine "Got better".

[Frontier]

It'll be funny if the Batch got their ship back and got out of this situation before whatever rescue Cid cooked up came after them. If she even did at all.

This show seems to shift between meaningful character-based episodes and standard Saturday Morning cartoon episodes consecutively.

Wreckers' dialogue was 50% growls in this episode. Kind of amusing, but also reminded me that it feels like he's the one member of the team who has probably been the least developed/focused on at this point beyond him being the closest to Omega after Hunter.

Yuri Lowenthal! And his characters' named was "Benni." You know, because he's known for voicing Ben Tennyson? They also had Aleks Le (Anos Voldigoad, Zenitsu, Thorfinn) as Drake. Benni was a pretty standard character archetype but I'm surprised the golden boy ended up turning on the guy too once he realized they were being cheated. Then again, it's not like he was getting that much more compared to what the boss was hogging.

It's nice to see how far Omega has come as a member of the team and in her trust in Hunter. I couldn't see season 1 Omega pulling that fall off. Now she just needs her own proper helmet.

"Grab my hand!" Why did he try to save him? He had no real reason to do that. It reminded me of how in Rebels the original plan was for Kanan to reach out to Grand Inquisitor when he dropped but they changed it because it didn't make sense. And then he drops so unceremoniously after tripping himself over. It was just an odd and surprisingly comical scene.

[ChrisIII]

Looks like we'll be getting double new Star Wars for a few weeks as Mandalorian also releases on Wednesday.

[Ascended]

Kind of makes you wonder what about Shmi's family? Anakin may have no father but he presumably had a grandfather with the last name of Skywalker through his mother.

My headcanon is that Vader did look at some point, and try to track down his grandfather, just to see if he had other relatives out there (maybe some Force sensitive ones), but I suspect that Tatooine doesn't do a great job of keeping track of slave records. And given the harsh life, odds are Vader's grandfather died years past, and if he had any other children they'd have been sold, traded, died, and otherwise lost to the wind.

I'm kind of surprised with pretty much all of the current Vader comics obsession with the handmaidens that Pak hasn't done anything with Vader's in-laws on Naboo.

I'm guessing Vader never went looking because it would've been too painful.

[ChrisIII]

In the Vader comics he does stop by the Lars homestead at least twice; turns out at some point they removed Shmi and Cleigg's headstones so Luke wouldn't ask or something.


Come to think of it, I suppose one could say they were just offscreen or of course hadn't been 'created' yet in A New Hope, but I don't remember seeing them in Obi-Wan or Rise of Skywalker....

[godisawesome]

Looks like we'll be getting double new Star Wars for a few weeks as Mandalorian also releases on Wednesday.

There's an unlikely but intriguing possibility that could be so that a character or plotline element could align in both shows... it'd be difficult, but they did it back in Rebels with comics and the show.