The Bad Batch: 1x11-12

[jedi_of_urth]

The Bad Batch: 1x11-12

Well, well, a two-parter, and one that I was into enough that I just wanted to keep going and review as one story.

I can’t quite make up my mind if this story was actually good, if it seemed that way because it was better than the other episodes, or if it was still kind of annoying just in a different way. What I want to say is that there are some windows here into a better show than the SW TV universe is ever likely to give us; except that the show I’m envisioning is basically a show they never would give us.

I want a family drama set against the backdrop of the rising Empire. That different people in the family have different takes on how far they can bend to the Empire before they have to take a stand against it. You can even have a young protagonist who doesn’t quite understand everything going on in the world around them, who sees the naïve peace the Empire offers after growing up in war-torn world, but also comes to see how superficial that peace is, as people fall victim to the less seen crimes of the Empire.

But we don’t even get that story in this episode; we come it for the final act of that story without any of that messy, complicated character and world building before everything crashes down around our young protagonist.

This is another instance where I want there to be a way to pretend another year or two into the lives of the Bad Batch and much of the rest of the galaxy, but it somehow would probably need to not include Omega. Because the adults of the BB act tired and jaded and cynical, like they’re mercenaries who have lost or let go of their interest is protecting people or taking an active part in what’s happening in the galaxy. Once more I see how much more narrative and character potential there is if the BB starts from a place of despair and pain and the point of the season/series is to give them back their…hope, or just connection to anything going on around them.

But the reason I say that I don’t think the SW TV crew would ever give us the kind of story I wish they would do, is because I think that they think they already do give us that. Both with Rebels and TBB, and to a certain extent Mando, we’re presented with something that looks like family drama, but never becomes family drama. And it sucks at world-building, which is one of the main draws to my idea.

So, are the Bad Batch going to end up bringing baby-Hera and baby-Kanan together? I don’t know quite how I feel about this if it does happen, because it does make the galaxy another little bit smaller if everything ties through this team. But either way it’s already making things a bit smaller by having the BB meet both of the later protagonists and have some important part in their survival before they meet each other.

I’m not sure exactly what it says that by far the most engaging episodes so far have been this set which is not about the BB. I don’t know that it’s Hera exactly (although this is about as much character focus as Hera got in four seasons of Rebels), but more because it shows us some real effects of what’s going on in the galaxy. That the stuff happening on Ryloth is happening on at least dozens of other planets in the galaxy right now. And having Hera and her family be our window into that works for me. Hence why I construct how that could be expanded into a full story arc instead of it only being dabbled in here.

I’m also not sure how I feel about this version of Cham. It was easy enough to draw a line from the resistance fighter in TCW to the resistance fighter in Rebels. I don’t mind the idea that after the Clone War was over, he was tempted by the prospect of peace and just wanted to see his family and world safe. There is, again, a story there that isn’t explored as much as I wish it was. Is he cowed by the Empire (that doesn’t seem to like him very much)? Does he actually believe their rhetoric? Is he sticking his head in the sand and not seeing the reality around him in favor of believing them to be safe now? And, again, the timing. How long has it been since the Empire took over? Nobody acts with a consistent amount of…worn-down-ness for me to get a good idea.

There’s also a really interesting implication to Howser in this one, and could have had an effect on the Bad Batch crew too, that I don’t feel is completely ignored, but it’s given little more than a glance of consideration. Because Howser is clearly not fully brainwashed by the Empire, and several of his squad follow him rather than their orders from higher up. If the BB are going to come around and see that they need to get as many of their brothers out of the Imperial system as possible, I’d be pretty much for that as an arc. And at least one of the BB (it was probably Echo, it makes the most sense to be Echo) does have a moment as of realizing that Howser’s resistance says the clones are not a lost cause.

Which brings me back to Crosshair. The show seems to want us to hate him, to see him as a lost cause, but I don’t. When they no doubt give him a redemption arc at the end of the season, all I’ll say is that it’s about time these people care about him again. He’s not Howser, Crosshair is still brainwashed and controlled, and not trying to break out of it.

Well…I think. I kept expecting Crosshair to shoot Howser when he stepped out on the landing strip, and he didn’t. Thing is, I’m not sure if that’s supposed to mean something or if this show is too chicken to go there. There’s also the option of something in the middle, that the writers don’t want to show Crosshair going that far, when I think it’s obvious he’s going to get redeemed. Or, you know, de-brainwashed, which means he doesn’t actually need redemption.

…yeah, it probably says something that I mostly liked this episode and I still had almost nothing to say about the show’s main characters.