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

[Dansen]

Reviving this thread since I just caught up with all the episodes and the finale is airing this Friday.

Like many have said the show is just adequate most of the time but there are some good nuggets in here. I really like the little politicking and subterfuge stuff the Kaminoans had to resort to. Lama Su, the prime minister, made a devil's deal and he ultimately paid the price for his hubris. I also wonder if they are going to make the head scientist, Nala Se, a potential villain. She had Tan We killed to protect Omega but I get the feeling she got caught on purpose so she could get Lama Su out of the way. She could just be trying to protect Omega but does she see her as someone important to her or just a valuable science experiment.

I am also all in on the theory that Omega is the first force sensitive clone. There are signs dropped almost every episode. She is insanely empathetic to everyone she meets, she picks up new skills easily and she has predicted things before they have happened/known things she shouldn't.

I am kinda split on whether Crosshair should die or not. It would feel like a cop out if he just rejoins the squad after everything that has happened but I don't want to see him die either. Maybe he will go his own way in the season finale.

 

[Dalisclock]

I'm a little surprised nobody has talked about it at all. It hasn't been great but its been generally good, with a fair bit of filler in there. It feels like it's starting to focus a bit now and I've suspected for a while this was gonna be season 1 rather then the whole thing.

Definitely been enjoying watching some of the Republic becoming the Empire stuff and how the Stormtroopers are slowly supplanting the clones. Mixed on some of the guest stars(Seeing Hera and Chopper was nice, as was the return of Cad Bane, but I could take or leave Fennec Shand). I'm kinda hoping Hondo Onoka makes a cameo just for the hell of it.

I was also amused when I described the show to a friend and they said "Oh, so it's the Star Wars version of the A-Team". Now I can't un hear that.

On a side note, I find it wierd that escapist podcast(Escape the Galaxy) about the show seems to not really care either. On one had, we have the Marvel Podcast that had an episode like a day or so after each streaming Marvel show episode, and then there's the SW podcast that skips like 5 episodes and comes back and briefly talks about them like a month later. Like, if you guys don't want to talk about the show or don't like it, just say so and stop the podcast. It's the "oh, we'll be back in a week or so to talk more about it" and then radio silence for a month that comes across as annoying.

 

[Hawki]

On a side note, I find it wierd that escapist podcast(Escape the Galaxy) about the show seems to not really care either. On one had, we have the Marvel Podcast that had an episode like a day or so after each streaming Marvel show episode, and then there's the SW podcast that skips like 5 episodes and comes back and briefly talks about them like a month later. Like, if you guys don't want to talk about the show or don't like it, just say so and stop the podcast. It's the "oh, we'll be back in a week or so to talk more about it" and then radio silence for a month that comes across as annoying.

Gonna go with what's popular I guess. And I'd wager that overall, the MCU has more cultural clout than Star Wars nowadays.

Which is kind of bizzare when you consider the weight of history, but meh.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

The hell this thread existed? Didn't even think anyone else in the forums was watching Bad Batch.

Gonna go with what's popular I guess. And I'd wager that overall, the MCU has more cultural clout than Star Wars nowadays.

Probably a bit of that, but also there's shit ton of filler in the show that's really not worth discussing.

OT: Overall, I've enjoyed the season so far. It's not been as good as the best of the Clone Wars, but also not as bad as the worst. Watching the Republic grow into the Empire was fun, I wish they had leaned into that more instead of focusing on Omega so much. Not sure if I want her to be force sensitive, but this is Star Wars, so of course she will be. Was genuinely shocked that she too was a clone of Jango. After they made that reveal, I remembered that Jango's mother and sister in the EU were blonde too. I have no idea if the genetics of that works out, but no way it was just a coincidence.

A standout moment for me was when Chowzer (?) refused to follow his orders and rallied his brothers to do the same. I was expecting him to be executed right then and there. Clever idea that since he wasn't assigned a Jedi general, he never executed Order 66 and therefore his inhibitor chip never kicked in. I wonder if they'll delve into how much the inhibitor chips change a clone's personality over time.

A complaint of mine is that man, they sure are inconsistent when choosing to be lethal or not. Some episodes its stuns all the way , others its just mowing down their brothers like weeds. I think there were even times when Wrecker was using lethal shots while the rest were using stuns. They do make an effort to point out sometimes that regular blaster bolts don't always kill, but no way the Bad Batch hasn't killed more than a few of their brothers by now.

As for the finale, I'm guessing we're going to have one more cameo from a familiar clone (Cody please!) as the transition from Grand Army of the Republic to Imperial Army and Stormtrooper Corps is completed. They're probably also going to highlight just how crap the stormtroopers are compared to the clones in season 2, because the stormtrooper aim joke will never die.

 

[Dalisclock]

OT: Overall, I've enjoyed the season so far. It's not been as good as the best of the Clone Wars, but also not as bad as the worst. Watching the Republic grow into the Empire was fun, I wish they had leaned into that more instead of focusing on Omega so much. Not sure if I want her to be force sensitive, but this is Star Wars, so of course she will be. Was genuinely shocked that she too was a clone of Jango. After they made that reveal, I remembered that Jango's mother and sister in the EU were blonde too. I have no idea if the genetics of that works out, but no way it was just a coincidence.

Well, once you've made a female clone of a male character(and does it count as a clone at that point), any questions of the genetics seems to be fairly moot because you're already tinkering around in the DNA.

A complaint of mine is that man, they sure are inconsistent when choosing to be lethal or not. Some episodes its stuns all the way , others its just mowing down their brothers like weeds. I think there were even times when Wrecker was using lethal shots while the rest were using stuns. They do make an effort to point out sometimes that regular blaster bolts don't always kill, but no way the Bad Batch hasn't killed more than a few of their brothers by now.

There was scene in one of the more recent eps(I think it was the one where they had to steal the Spice from the Crime boss) where one of the Bad Batch makes a comment about not wanting to help criminals. At which point I could only think "Uh, you guys do know most of the shit you've been doing isn't exactly legal, right? Hell, I'm pretty sure that shuttle is stolen, for starters".

Edit: So generally a pretty good finale. Not any mind blowing revelations or anything but pretty solid. We can only guess what the Empire plans to do with all the cool new cloning tech and scientists they appropriated from kamino.