– Full Spoiler Review –
Lucasfilm Animation returns with a brand new series on Star Wars Day 2021, The Bad Batch, a pseudo-sequel to The Clone Wars which follows a group of unique clones as they navigate the transition of Republic to Empire in the waning days of the war. “Aftermath” is a 70-min special premiere which helps flesh out the titular Bad Batch, continuing its predecessors’ examination of the clones, while it offers a fresh new mystery and character that’ll keep me coming back for more over the show’s first 16 episode season.
The Bad Batch (all voiced by clone mastermind, Dee Bradley Baker) begins with a fantastic, bombastic show of the group’s unique skills and abilities, thanks to their alterations, as they assist Jedi Master Depa Billaba (Archie Panjabi) and Padawan Caleb Dume on Kaller. Hunter is the leader, a bandana wearing clone with good sense of right, wrong, and how to best use his team’s unique assets; then there’s Wrecker, a big, explosion loving brute with a soft heart; next is Tech, the tactical and situational genius; Crosshair is the team’s sniper and skeptic; and newest recruit to the team is Echo, a regular clone who underwent experiments at the hands of the Separatists, and can now hack about anything; we met them all first in ‘The Bad Batch‘ arc of TCW’s final season, so if you’ve seen that, you know this group already, but the opening (and the entire episode) does a great job of making it easy on newcomers too. Moments after the group saves the day, Order 66 blows through, causing Billaba to fight off the clones who turn so that Caleb might run and live another day. The Bad Batch aren’t all affected by the order, instead it leaves them confused and eager to help their new, young Padawan friend to safety, but it turns out Crosshair isn’t so safe from the inhibitor chips which alter the clones’ priorities. Young Caleb, too hurt and untrusting after the betrayal, flees, though not without some help and a little lie from Hunter, who lies about what happens though Crosshair has his growing suspicions and new loyalties. This moment informs everything that happens over the 70-mins of “Aftermath,” as the repercussions splinter outwards as the Empire begins to take over Republic assets and the Bad Batch once again must try to find their place in everything. As for Caleb, he’ll go on to become Kanan Jarrus, of Star Wars Rebels fame, and it was cool, though a little weird, to have Freddie Prinze Jr. voice his younger self, and while it was neat to see this pivotal moment play out for him, this version of events overrides (to an extent) an already established version of Caleb and Depa’s Order 66 moment, which I’ll discuss more below.*
I was among the skeptical regarding the release of this show, as while I enjoyed Clone Force 99’s original unproduced animation appearance, later animated and moved around story-wise for TCW’s final season, the one-note caricatures they presented didn’t offer much to look forward to, especially a show specifically about them. Thankfully, “Aftermath” offers plenty of room for them to grow and expand beyond their entertaining, though limited initial appearances. We’ve seen Order 66 and its fallout at the macro-level in Revenge of the Sith and the personal level in The Clone Wars, video games, and comics, but it’s been rare we’ve had it focus on clones still within the cog of the Empire as it transitions and the differences they notice as change begins is a ripe area episode writers Jennifer Corbett (series writer and executive producer) and Dave Filoni (also executive producer) take advantage to flesh out the Batch. Some are funny, as both Wrecker and Crosshair reveal they cried when they saw the excess amount of explosives the Empire stocks them with, but others are more somber, as the body of a dead Jedi passes them by upon returning to Kamino from Kaller and makes them wonder why their brothers were so eager to turn on their allies, while the increased shock trooper presence gives the team concerns about what this change in management might mean. Beyond the changes offering the Batch room to grow, the episode provides a glimpse into their own special barracks, full of detritus and personal effects, like Wrecker’s tooka doll, whereas the regular clones have largely plain and bare barracks, as they typically show their individuality through their helmets/outfits. The scene helps set them apart even more and broaden their own unique aspects, while later scenes show their interesting teamwork and consideration of each other’s specialties, from the battle scenario Tarkin puts them through to how they later escape the brig. “Aftermath” offers a lot of potential for the team to grow and change, especially with them on the run from the Empire and out in the wild, and that potential is definitely one of the reasons I’ve changed my mind about this show and am eager for more.
A bigger, more important reason I’m very invested in The Bad Batch now is Omega (voiced by Michelle Ang), the young female clone the Batch befriends and later helps escape the growing Empire. When the Batch returns to Kamino, Omega is immediately drawn to them, as their uniqueness is a beacon in a sea of so much repetitiveness, as it’s the first group of clone she feels any kinship with. After their initial meeting, she joins them in the mess hall, and here’s one of my favorite scenes of the episode and made me like the Batch a bit more. The Batch doesn’t question Omega hanging around them for who/what she is, but rather why she would ever wanted to hang out with the rejects in the first place, highlighted by a passing regular clone who calls them the “sad” Batch. They also tease young Omega and she, with a bit of a quick temper, throws some food at them, and she doesn’t shy away from doing so. The Batch sees a fellow soul in that moment, standing up for her again the bigger clones, and Wrecker takes it a step further, causing a brawl/food fight. She makes an appeal to Hunter to take her with them after Admiral Tarkin gives them a mission to Onderon, warning him things aren’t what they seem, that something is wrong, and he dismissing the warnings at first, saying it’s hard to get used to change. When their mission reveals the true scope of Tarkin’s plans against them, they return to get Omega on Kamino. Crosshair is still with the team at this point, when they are thrown in the brig, but Omega sits down with him after he and Hunter come to words regarding the truth with Caleb and following orders, and does a very strange thing: she forgives him for what he’s about to do, saying it’s out of his control (and technically, it is!). Add this premonition to her amazing skills with a blaster later in their escape, the mystery around who or what Omega really is a clone of deepens, as this is not just some Jango Fett-level of skills, the premonition speaks to some type of potential Force-related aspect. Beyond the mystery, Omega is just a great character on her merits alone, as she finds acceptance and comradery in these outcast clones, going so far as to hilariously shadow Hunter’s movements as they wait in the brig, and I’m excited to see her story unravel and watch her be the counterpoint, wide-eyed character to the grizzled, war veterans of the Batch.
Sending Admiral Tarkin to ascertain and evaluate the need for more clones now that the Empire has taken over and they are in “peace time” is a smart and understandable step by Palpatine, because despite Tarkin’s issues with clones in the first place, he’s a shrewd military mind and doesn’t suffer fools and trivialities lightly; he is the new Empire in human form, so fully believing and living its ideals even before Palpatine brought about the change. We’ve known the Empire phased out the clones, but hearing Tarkin narrow it down to how cheap it’ll be to recruit from the worlds under their control vs paying for more clones, it’s such a simple, business decision it highlights the cold, calculating mind of Tarkin and just how vastly different the Empire is from the Republic; how interesting then that allowing so many people with so many different opinions and feelings would lead to its downfall, as defectors often made the difference in the long war between Rebellion and Empire. And thanks to Tarkin again, his actions are what push the teetering Batch over the edge, the fear-inducing military man creating his own enemies. Tarkin sets them up, sending them after “Separatists insurgents” on Onderon, only for the team to find a group of civilians, young, old, and fighting age, led by Republic-trained freedom fighter, Saw Gerrera (voiced by original TCW actor Andrew Kishino)! Saw wastes no time in changing his fight towards the Empire, the loss of his sister and all the others who fought beside him still too fresh a wound for him to allow this change of roles to go unpunished, and his speech to the Bad Batch reveal the stark hypocrisies of their new rulers they aren’t quite able to accept and see until he offers them an outsiders’ point-of-view. It’s a great scene and it pushes everyone but Crosshair in the direction needed to make the choice to break free and go after Omega. Tarkin didn’t waste much time taking off the gloves once the transition began, and in doing so, he might’ve set into motion a very interesting series of events, or at least we hope so watching this show!
The animation throughout is rather stunning, matching the level of fidelity, especially with even the littlest of effects for details from the dripping rain of Kamino or puffing of the snow on Kaller, that The Clone Wars‘ final season brought to the table. It feels like every scene is meant for the large screen, a far cry from the TCW movie out in 2008, as while much of the action is smaller in focus, unlike say the Siege of Mandalore, even the few, short scenes of action we do get wouldn’t feel out of a place on a movie-screen. The character facial animation is also a few steps up, allowing more nuance to be added to the voice acting performances. As much as I’m loving the animation, it’s quite glaring that even characters from other mediums, originally shown a deeper shade of skin color than white, have largely been whitewashed. This has been a problem before, but it’s even more apparent in Saw Gerrera and young Kanan, both POC who are several, noticeable shades lighter than their true skin-tone. This goes for the clones too, even the Bad Batch, because no matter how altered they are, their skin color should change that drastically. I don’t understand why, when the animation is so clearly advanced now, and able to pull off tons of great little details or neat background effects that add to a scene’s atmosphere, the animations teams can’t be bothered to also ensure the characters’ skin-tone should be accurate? If you can animate a bunch of falling rain, correct skin color should be an easy thing to do. Hopefully this is something they can fix by at least next season, as I imagine the work’s already done on this one so there’s no changing it now. UPDATE: io9 has a great article about the controversy plus news the production team has heard the outcry and is supposedly changing something with the lighting to help. We’ll see if that helps or fixes anything.
Otherwise, in regards to voice acting, Bradley’s ability to bring so much difference into each of the Batch, meaning he’s talking to himself even more so than the previous show, is arguably a little more strenuous job than small variations on the clones, and is an impressive feat. Likewise, I’m enjoying Ang’s wide-eyed take on Omega, though when she needs to sound worldly, like when Omega talks to Crosshair about what he’s going to do, Ang hits a deeper, somber, older tone I was a little surprised by.
Here are a few other things:
- *In the truly brilliant (and still one of my favorites) 2015 comic Kanan: The Last Padawan, the events of Caleb and Depa’s moment with Order 66 plays out in memorable and emotional fashion across issues #1 and #2 (the latter of which arrived 6 years ago May 8): Caleb and Depa, while relaxing around a fire with their clone pals, have the night disrupted when Order 66 comes through; Depa tells Caleb to run and, through some fun ingenuity of his own, he manages to survive and a Kalleran named Janus Kasmir takes him under his wing. It was a little jarring, as a big fan of the comic and its emotional moment, to see it play out differently on screen, but at the very least the rest could still happen as it did in the comic, which helps me make peace with the change. It’s not that glaring of a change, though the comic does it better as the moment is focused on Kanan and Depa, not the Bad Batch as it here, so the argument could be made why not just use different Jedi? The likelihood more viewers of The Bad Batch have seen Rebels than read the Kanan comic is pretty high, so I understand the choice to keep synergy with the other animated shows. But why is it so hard for the TV shows or movies to try synergy with the printed medium? I understand it’s a little more difficult with live-action at times, as scripts and things change, but with animation I imagine it shouldn’t be as difficult, while the printed mediums are so careful to tip-toe or respect the on-screen stuff (like Kanan series writer Greg Weisman had to be), it would be nice if it went both ways a bit more. So this doesn’t ruin my enjoyment in the show at all, nor does it take away from the entirety of the comic, it’s just made me a little sad to see it and hopefully they can, especially with this Story Group, try a little harder.
- The look Lama Su gives Nala Se at the end, it seems clear he knows her deception regarding Omega and it could be quite an interesting thread to follow throughout the show, though I worry we won’t get to see it continue.
- I liked the burning out The Clone Wars logo but still using a TCW-style opening with Tom Kane’s narration.
- Having Crosshair as an antagonist, being such a great shot and how much insight he has into their unique plans and operations, sounds like a better villain than potential generic Imperials they’ll face in the future. I’m curious if they’ll be able to get the chip out Crosshair, much like Ahsoka did for Rex, and he might be on their side again before the season is over.
- Announced during today’s Hasbro Pulse, Omega is in the character pipeline for The Black Series toys!
- It seems less and less likely, and I already knew it was insane in the first place, but I have a bet on Omega being a clone of…Satine Kryze??? Like I said, it’s insane.
The Bad Batch‘s season one premiere, “Aftermath,” turns this skeptic around, adding nuance to the 80’s action-hero type clones and offering a new, intriguing character in Omega.
+ Omega and the mystery surrounding her
+ Adding depth to the Bad Batch
+ Exploring war’s aftermath
+ Sets up for some good potential
– Animation’s skin-tone problem
– Slight downer with the “retcon”
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website on Twitter @MynockManor and Instagram @mynockmanor.
THE BAD BATCH REVIEWS
Season One: 1.1 “Aftermath”