So the new Star Wars cartoon : The Bad Batch, is off to a solid start

[Piscian]

I sat down and watched the first episode of "The bad Batch" a short while ago and I got say...good stuff.

I tend to put myself in the edge of star wars fandom in that I love Star Wars, but would argue quality of the post trilogy stuff over the years has been pretty hit and miss..mostly miss. That said I largely enjoyed Clone Wars and Rebels, though I thought the initial Bad Batch introduction episode in clone wars was pretty off-putting. I found them obnoxious and out of place. I can say despite that, this new show seems pretty good.

This is a direct prequel to rebels and starts off with order 66 and the end of the clone wars with the squad being unaffected and that puts them in a very precarious position. The tone here is significantly darker which I think plays well with wrecker now being the sole, though toned down, comic relief.

I wanna call out the new art style as being absolutely gorgeous. It looks like they've increased the animation budget significantly. In the later seasons of clone wars they'd started using a lot of hand painted models, but this time around everything is individually painted using that pencil/watercoloring technique and it's really engrossing. There's a lot of scenes where the textures are so detailed you could mistake it for actual live action or stop motion models.

It's impossible to say if the story is going to go any where interesting but it's already off to a far less cringy start than Rebels. Whatd you all think?

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Is it about family?

 

[Dalisclock]

Is it about family?

Well, if you consider the Bad Batch to be a Family, then it might be.

I am curious what's going on with Omega, the little girl clone. Clearly she's meant to go with them but why is up in the air. I'd question how making a female clone of a male donor works but the Cloning process is whatever the writers have decided this week I'm not going to bother.

Also liked the shoutout to Rebels at the beginning, with little Kannan(here Caleb) getting a brief cameo(I had to check the wiki to confirm it was him but I suspected due to how much attention he was getting).

But yeah, a good start. Kudos to the Clone Troopers for making the classic dumb prison move of putting all the ENHANCED SUPER SOLDIERS accused of TREASON in the same cell together so they can work out a plan, and then NOT INVESTIGATE when they start acting suspiciously(I'm sure whatever was on that tablet the third guy brought in was really important).

 

[Chimpzy]

I am curious what's going on with Omega, the little girl clone. Clearly she's meant to go with them but why is up in the air. I'd question how making a female clone of a male donor works but the Cloning process is whatever the writers have decided this week I'm not going to bother.

I mean, couldn't you just double up on the X chromosome you can get from your male genetic sample? Tho I guess the result would technically not be a clone anymore.

 

[Dalisclock]

I mean, couldn't you just double up on the X chromosome you can get from your male genetic sample? Tho I guess the result would technically not be a clone anymore.

I mean, that's kinda what I was going for there. Now you've got something with a lot of the original DNA but with at least one notable chromosomal difference from the original. I'm not a genetics expert but I believe there are also certain traits that are explicitly tied to the X/Y Chromosome, but I can't name them off the top of my head(I might be totally wrong on this and mistaking this for something else, so If I'm notably wrong someone please correct me).

Then again, that's kind of the point of the Bad Batch isn't it?

 

[Piscian]

Well, if you consider the Bad Batch to be a Family, then it might be.

I am curious what's going on with Omega, the little girl clone. Clearly she's meant to go with them but why is up in the air. I'd question how making a female clone of a male donor works but the Cloning process is whatever the writers have decided this week I'm not going to bother.

Also liked the shoutout to Rebels at the beginning, with little Kannan(here Caleb) getting a brief cameo(I had to check the wiki to confirm it was him but I suspected due to how much attention he was getting).

But yeah, a good start. Kudos to the Clone Troopers for making the classic dumb prison move of putting all the ENHANCED SUPER SOLDIERS accused of TREASON in the same cell together so they can work out a plan, and then NOT INVESTIGATE when they start acting suspiciously(I'm sure whatever was on that tablet the third guy brought in was really important).

I usually cringe and groan my way through the first seasons of these Star Wars shows because of the token kid surrogate for the audience thats gonna go on the "heroes journey" *gag*. It started with baby Anakin ruining Phantom Menace, then your Asoka, Ezra, baby yoda etc. I know a lot of people are perfectly fine with these, but it irks me. Omega seems to be a bit of an anomaly. There's an escape shootout and all the sudden a couple bad guys get shot out of no where and the clones literally turn back and Omega had grabbed a blaster and started shooting. It's a real "wtf" moment. So apparently Omega has no concerns about doing the murdering.

Clearly there's something unusual about Omega compared to your usual token anakin Star Wars kid. Is it because she's a clone trooper essentially? just random misstep in writing like baby Yoda eating eggs? Have to wait and see. Something does seem different about this show, even compared to Rebels. It's not..."goofy", is the only way I can describe it.

*oo I didnt catch the Kannan origin story there. Neat. I like that they didn't make a big deal about it. I prefer Star Wars when it's not constantly pawing at fans with callbacks. I was the guy in audience when they did the Force Awakens teaser and went "meh".

 

[happyninja42]

I mean, that's kinda what I was going for there. Now you've got something with a lot of the original DNA but with at least one notable chromosomal difference from the original. I'm not a genetics expert but I believe there are also certain traits that are explicitly tied to the X/Y Chromosome, but I can't name them off the top of my head(I might be totally wrong on this and mistaking this for something else, so If I'm notably wrong someone please correct me).

Then again, that's kind of the point of the Bad Batch isn't it?

It was pretty clearly established in The Clone Wars, that they can basically do whatever they want to the genome, per the customer's specifications. Augment various talents, remove traits, add new ones, etc. So changing the gender seems fairly child's play, given the level of sophistication presented in Star Wars.

 

[Gergar12]

I like Saw, I don't know why

Spoiler: Spoiler

he was killed in Rogue One

The problem with this story is that you have to look behind the 4th wall. Disney is not a very ethical company given how they treat their park employees. People like Saw(not Saw himself for the most part) either get co-opted in America or like Martin Luther King they die.

Not to say Saw's the best guy, but you have to admire his ideological consistency, his desire for freedom, and his adherence to democracy something lacking in Disney.

And yes I know he has methods I don't agree with, but, we are ruled by the Separatist who controlled the Republic in America. Corporations own us and control the government who enforces the will of corporations.

 

[Dalisclock]

It was pretty clearly established in The Clone Wars, that they can basically do whatever they want to the genome, per the customer's specifications. Augment various talents, remove traits, add new ones, etc. So changing the gender seems fairly child's play, given the level of sophistication presented in Star Wars.

Though apparently they can "run out" of Jango DNA, or something, which is supposed to explain some of the weirdness with the "defective clones", because apparently they kept pulling samples from Jango when he was alive and since he was killed the vat full of "Jango Juice" they have in the back is apparently getting low or something. IDK, they brought it up once or twice in the clone wars so that's my understanding.

Not that it matters because it's flat out said Tarkin wants to "retire" the clones and begin conscription, which we already implicitly knew because the OG Trilogy Stormtroopers were dudes who joined for the college money or something(AKA not clones).

 

[happyninja42]

Though apparently they can "run out" of Jango DNA, or something, which is supposed to explain some of the weirdness with the "defective clones", because apparently they kept pulling samples from Jango when he was alive and since he was killed the vat full of "Jango Juice" they have in the back is apparently getting low or something. IDK, they brought it up once or twice in the clone wars so that's my understanding.

Not that it matters because it's flat out said Tarkin wants to "retire" the clones and begin conscription, which we already implicitly knew because the OG Trilogy Stormtroopers were dudes who joined for the college money or something(AKA not clones).

Yeah the classic "copy of a copy" thing, which is fine. It makes no sense that they couldn't just grow more cells like stem cells in a vat to serve as source material. But it's a plot device, to explain a reason to have people actually different from identical clones. And that's fine.

As to the conscription thing, yeah that always was something I found silly when they remastered the original series, to dub in Jango's voice. I mean come on. it's a GALAXY size society, with a military. You think there aren't literally trillions of people willing to serve in the armed forces for a living?

 

[Piscian]

Though apparently they can "run out" of Jango DNA, or something, which is supposed to explain some of the weirdness with the "defective clones", because apparently they kept pulling samples from Jango when he was alive and since he was killed the vat full of "Jango Juice" they have in the back is apparently getting low or something. IDK, they brought it up once or twice in the clone wars so that's my understanding.

Not that it matters because it's flat out said Tarkin wants to "retire" the clones and begin conscription, which we already implicitly knew because the OG Trilogy Stormtroopers were dudes who joined for the college money or something(AKA not clones).

This sounds like one of those things thats canical because it was in an comicbook or one of those new awful star wars novels or something. Fuck I hate star wars lore sometimes. I'd say it's more that the Kamino were also tweaking and testing to perfect the clones and clone force 99 was just something they're studying near the end of the war, hence whatevers going on with Omega secretly. Actually I'm gonna go post that on wookipedia and tell everyone it's canon based on a screen shot of one of the Kamino nodding at the screen vaguely in Bad Batch.

 

[Chimpzy]

Not that it matters because it's flat out said Tarkin wants to "retire" the clones and begin conscription, which we already implicitly knew because the OG Trilogy Stormtroopers were dudes who joined for the college money or something(AKA not clones).

Tho iirc, with the exception of Vader's personal legion, even in the OT. At least it was still fully clone troopers in the old EU. Not sure if that holds true for the Disney canon. It does give them a convenient out whenever Stormtroopers are actually pretty effective instead of their usual bumbling, like on Leia's ship at the start of Epi 4. "Oh, those were Vader's guys, you know, the actual good soldiers."

 

[McElroy]

Watched a 2-minute clip because why the hell not and I hate how they've nerfed blasters so much. It's one thing to miss all the time, but the hits are supposed to kill or at least put a limb out of commission completely.

 

[SilentPony]

Okay so one of three things is going to happen, they all die before the Jedi purge, they all get those retconned chips that allowed for a good ending to Clone Wars because Ahsoka Tano was a surprise hit character and she needed to live removed and join the rebels, or they don't and join in the Jedi purge.
Or to be fair some combination of the three.

 

[Dalisclock]

Okay so one of three things is going to happen, they all die before the Jedi purge, they all get those retconned chips that allowed for a good ending to Clone Wars because Ahsoka Tano was a surprise hit character and she needed to live removed and join the rebels, or they don't and join in the Jedi purge.
Or to be fair some combination of the three.

The first episode shows the Jedi Purge in Progress, which most of the Bad Batch refuse to execute because they don't know what's going on(Crosshairs is the exception here, because "Good Soldiers Follow Orders"). It's later justifed that they've been so heavily modified from the original clone template by this point that the chip isn't working on them.

Which is one of the reasons they're on the outs with the New Empire. The other being that they're prone to disobeying orders in general, which they lampshade. It was tolerated up until now because they're really good at their jobs.

 

[Dalisclock]

Tho iirc, with the exception of Vader's personal legion, even in the OT. At least it was still fully clone troopers in the old EU. Not sure if that holds true for the Disney canon. It does give them a convenient out whenever Stormtroopers are actually pretty effective instead of their usual bumbling, like on Leia's ship at the start of Epi 4. "Oh, those were Vader's guys, you know, the actual good soldiers."

I'm kind of under the impression at this point that anyone with any talent either doesn't become a stormtrooper or gets promoted out pretty quickly. I keep thinking of that one scene in the mandalorian.

Ranzar Malk: "Yeah, well, Mayfeld, he's… He's one of the best triggermen I've ever seen. Former Imperial sharpshooter."
Din Djarin: "That's not saying much."
Migs Mayfeld: "I wasn't a stormtrooper, wiseass."

 

[SilentPony]

The first episode shows the Jedi Purge in Progress, which most of the Bad Batch refuse to execute because they don't know what's going on(Crosshairs is the exception here, because "Good Soldiers Follow Orders"). It's later justifed that they've been so heavily modified from the original clone template by this point that the chip isn't working on them.

Which is one of the reasons they're on the outs with the New Empire. The other being that they're prone to disobeying orders in general, which they lampshade. It was tolerated up until now because they're really good at their jobs.

Oh that's such a contrivance to get Clones to be good guys. First the chip makes them evil and some get the chip removed. And now its some the chip just doesn't work on at all.
I'll never understand why they thought making literal faceless, nameless clones into individuals with names and personalities was a good idea.

 

[happyninja42]

Watched a 2-minute clip because why the hell not and I hate how they've nerfed blasters so much. It's one thing to miss all the time, but the hits are supposed to kill or at least put a limb out of commission completely.

Eh...I mean Leia got shot in the shoulder in ROTJ and while she was injured, she was far from out of commission with that arm. She even says "it's not that bad" and we SEE her get shot squarely in the shoulder. But, it was just a flesh wound. They wrapped it up with some bandages, and she was fine. Luke got shot in his hand in ROTJ at near point blank range, and it's only mildly painful for him, and didn't even damage his hand. It literally just burned the skin off his artificial hand. It was left fully functional. Kylo got shot with a bowcaster in the stomach, previously established to apparently shoot explosive blasts on par with C4, flinging troopers like ragdolls, and he was only mildly injured from it.

So blasters have a long standing tradition in the franchise, of being only as damaging as the plot requires them to be at any given moment. That's hardly a new thing.

 

[McElroy]

That's hardly a new thing.

Leia's shot in ROTJ at least is an injury. There are scenes from the animated shows that have blaster shots being about as damaging as punches. At the moment the effectiveness of blasters is brought down to that level the tension is forever gone. Though I totally agree that Kylo by all means shouldn't have survived.

The alternative is missing all the time which can only go so far, but when characters start shrugging off blaster shots my brain shuts off completely.

 

[happyninja42]

Leia's shot in ROTJ at least is an injury. There are scenes from the animated shows that have blaster shots being about as damaging as punches.

I haven't watched the show so I can't speak directly, but are the people being shot armored? I'm assuming the people in question are the titular Bad Batch, and thus they are soldiers in full lamilar plate. Which, in theory, might've been treated to be resistant to blaster fire. I mean material that is capable of resisting lightsabers is pretty readily available when the story needs it, so I don't think it's that weird to have improvements in the armor, to be blaster resistant. But if you're talking about like barechested people taking a shot to the chest and just shrugging it off, yeah that's a bit much.