SPOILER Season 7 Episode 1 The Bad Batch

Great first episode. The animation is beautiful and the writing for these clones is strong. Easily the best episode of animated TV Star Wars in a long time.

 

It won't just be Echo...everything about this season is going to break my heart.

At least I know it's coming.

 

Now I have to get an "Echo Lives!" shirt.

 

Really great episode. Love that scene of Rex looking at the photo of his brothers.

 

Gotta say, I wasn't really looking very forward to this arc, but it's a nice return to form for the show after being gone so long. It brings the series back to its heart- the Clones themselves.

Just a random assortment of thoughts:

-Opening shots of the Battle of Anaxes look an awful like the Battle of Coruscant, too. Wonder if we'll get any teases of that later? The Gennedy cartoon did.

- So good to just get right into the action and start hearing those old familiar voices again. Anakin, Windu, Rex... hey, even the announcer guy.

-OF COURSE droids would analyze and adapt to tactics! Why has no one in the Republic army thought of this until Rex?

- Actions scenes were really good. Like, Clone Wars always had good action animation, but this was some really polished stuff, fun to watch. That hallway scene was beautiful, an awesome unbroken one shot that followed the squad beautifully.

- Not sure how I feel about 99 squad. They're pretty badly showing up Rex and Cody, and while I realize this is the first episode of an arc, it's kind of a bummer to see my old heroes seem so outclassed immediately.

- Also, they're SO similar to the Republic Commando squad. Not gonna complain, but this story could've been really neat if they just used them instead. Though I guess that's just not the same. Anyway, the nod to old 99 is kinda beautiful.

- Clone Wars has always had good music, but this may have been the best

- Now, I say this with two caveats: I haven't familiarized myself with the unfinished versions of these from Celebration a few years ago, and therefore only consider them canon adjacent until these finished versions finish, as well as the fact that I haven't seen the Citadel arc (rectifying that now). But... the Echo twist just hasn't really hooked me. Seemed so obvious it was going to happen the moment Rex mentioned him, and to be honest, I don't really remember Echo much anyway (all the clones kinda run together for me). So I don't know, maybe there's some bigger payoff I don't see coming yet, but it feels strange that they'd basically spoil the episode's biggest surprise so early.

- Dang, regardless, I'm looking forward to next week!

 

So happy to jump back into this series again!

Though I went into this totally ignorant to the fact that we’re getting one at a time. ...Ugh.

However, it’s probably good for my indulgent, little brain to be forced to prolong this joy... I certainly don’t have the will (or inclination) to “wait for a binge-watch”.

Regardless- Much gratitude.
HappyFan here!

 

Watching this episode felt like I was releasing the breath I didn't even know I was holding!

 

I strongly agree, though I'm not able to watch the new season (no Disney+ until April) looks absolutely beautiful.

 

I liked this episode, although I was hoping they might bring Frank Oz back, especially after he was on Rebels.

I'm glad they kept it TV-PG instead of toning it down to Y7 like Rebels and Resistance. I'm sorry but Star Wars is by definition a war story and the newer series were really hamstrung by the lack of violence. I'm not in favor of violence IRL but it is necessary for Star Wars.

Kind of weird how Ventress' title is "Supreme Leader."

For me, the biggest problem with bringing back TCW is that most of the lingering questions, like the fate of Maul and fate of Ahsoka, have already been punted to other projects, which means bringing it back won't answer our questions, and it also emphasizes the lack of an overall plan. In the case of Ahsoka, it is unclear if we will ever get the conclusion of her story.

I agree that the music was especially good.

 

I'm surprised there aren't more posts here.

Anyway, this episode was fantastic. It was like putting on your favorite pair of jeans or shoes after not having worn them for a while. Everything just fit.

I loved the "defective" clones. And, of course, I just love how Filoni has humanized the clones overall. Rex, Cody, etc.

My only regret is having to wait a week for episode 2. I think Disney is smart to do this, but darn Netflix they have me addicted to just binging on a show. Come on Friday!!!

 

Late to the party, but I enjoyed this episode. The Bad Batch aren’t really my favorite characters, but I remember enjoying this arc when I watched the story reels a few years ago. The animation and music has improved so much. Anaxes looks beautiful, the character’s movements and facial reactions are incredible, and the action sequences were a great improvement on the already near-perfect action from the later seasons of Clone Wars. The score for this episode was a surprising delight; Kevin Kiner’s work on earlier seasons was already brilliant, but this episode’s music was just top-notch.



Some random thoughts:

• I like how much more reserved Anakin and Rex seem in this version of the episode compared to the story reel. Anakin feels much more reserved, just like Hayden Christensen’s portrayal in ROTS (he literally only has one line this entire episode with Mace leading the conversation).
• The narrator intro was way too sped up. That weird shot of Admiral Trench blended with shots of the Battle of Anaxes did not work for me. It was cool seeing Anakin pilot what is presumably the same Eta-2 Actis Interceptor from the beginning of ROTS though.
• I heard that they updated the models for the Bad Batch in this episode to look more like Rex and the other clones, but Tech and Crosshair still look nothing like them if you ask me.
• The cinematography is this episode was fantastic. I almost forgot it was animated at a few points.
• Seeing the pilot in the gunship wreckage ragdoll around when Wrecker moved the ship was a neat detail.
• The updated Battle Droid models look great. Still kinda miss the old ones though...
• The added scene between Rex and Cody was nice, but it practically gave away the Echo twist. I wish they kept the dialogue more similar to the original story reel: Rex doesn’t suspect that Echo is alive, just that the Separatists stole the intel off his corpse.
• It was awesome to see that Jesse was promoted to ARC Trooper until you realize that it was probably to replace Fives...
• Wrecker using a Republic Commando gun was a neat easter egg.
• Of course, the “drill” exchange between the two battle droids was a great callback.

Can’t wait to see this week’s episode!