SPOILER Bad Batch Season 2

This series has us so programmed and conditioned... When they spent so much time showing the beauty of Pabu, my first thought was, "shame it's about to all get bombed and burned to hell..."

It was a good episode overall, I also loved the development of Phee, and the further smearing of Cid. I don't think they will stick around just eating and rebuilding the city, but it was definitely good to see the idea take up some serious space in their minds. They are really becoming more and more humanized, and I would love to see that be the resolution of the Bad Batch. Let them retire to a gorgeous, peaceful island and live out their days fishing, boating and breathing easy. Obviously, we are not at that point yet, the boys have some other issues to resolve first, and I'm looking forward to the last 3 episodes of this season. If nothing else, I think that Pabu is at least their new HQ. No more Ord Mantel. That will work for now, and it will set up replacing Cid with Phee as their "Boss"

 

Great Chapter 13 Pabu episode, it gave me a glimpse of what could be for the Bad Batch but that they can't find. You can run far from your past but never far enough.

 

I really dug the visual metaphor of the wave. The ‘inconvenient truth’ aspect of diminishing a looming threat until it’s right there at your front door, ready to swallow you up.

“What about the Empire?” “Nah, we’re safe here.” “What about that tremor?” “Nah, it’s no big deal.” “. . . . . . uh oh . . . guess we should run.”

The threat is real. It’s coming at us and, even though it’s nothing our heroes can possibly stop, they’ll still risk their lives to save as many people from its crushing force as they can. Good stuff

 

Great point! It shows us, and more importantly, them, that they have a usefulness beyond what they were created for. It furthers the argument that all clones can do more than fight and die. Even working for Cid, they were exploited for the less-than-human traits that they have. Those enhancements don't have to be an either/or with the traits they are learning as they evolve into brothers, fathers, and friends...

 

You definitely hit on what’s so interesting about this phase of Disney owned Star Wars (well, to me anyhow).

From D+, we’re consistently getting these ‘coming-of-middle-age’ stories now rather than the conventional ‘coming-of-age’ stories this series is generally known for.


The Mandalorian, Book of Boba Fett, Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, the upcoming Ahsoka series. The focus isn’t on a young person, on the verge of adulthood, deciding what sort of person they want to become. It’s about older people, who already had that informative experience, now reevaluating who they are and choosing to become something else. Actively engaging the adult Star Wars fan.

The Bad Batch is the one that’s uniquely splitting the difference and serving both. This show is giving us Omega’s coming-of-age experience, which is directly informed by, and informing to, the older characters. That’s a really cool element that this series has paid special attention to that I’m really appreciating.

 

It all goes back to two necessities for a franchise to survive. They have to grow their audience and the have to grow WITH their audience. Recent SW shows are breaking down walls while still maintaining a consistency of theme. That's impressive. As a lifelong devotee, I will ingest any and all SW content that they put out. But I know that I am not the average consumer. The Bad Batch is a great example of a "conversion" I have been a part of. My brother-in-law is a veteran of war. After BB season 1, I asked him if he knew anything about it, and not to my surprise, he had not. He had seen "some of the movies" and that's about it. I was curious to get his opinion from a Veteran's perspective, and if he would get anything out of it. He binged the season in a couple of days, and immediately went back to watch TCW. He was deeply moved by the story and he had already turned some of his buddies on to the show. It was relatable, then he became enthralled. I know it didn't make him a rabid SW nerd, but it broke down that wall of stigma that Star Wars has for outsiders. My sister was the same way after growing up with 3 brothers who lived and breathed Star Wars, she committed her adult life to avoiding SW, even with a nine-year old son who is crazy for it. I broke her wall with Andor. She was appreciative of the mature theme and not having a heavy SW feel. Again, not a superfan, but I guarantee she will be more open to new shows in the future, she did watch Mando Season 3 premiere with her son, although her review was not glowing.

As big as the GFFA is, the real world is big too, and there all sorts of viewers out there. The more diverse Disney and LFL make the franchise is subject and style, the bigger the audience and fanbase will be.

 

Travel biscuits! Coming soon to a Galaxy's Edge concession stand near you!

 

I kept waiting for the Empire to show up even after the earthquake/tsunami happened.

 

This series has me split. I love Clone Wars - the original run and so called Lost Season and Final Season.
I take Bad Batch as direct sequel/spin off. Season 1 opening was great but with introduction of Omega, it went downhill.
It pretty much follows the Rebels formula, but with Rebels having boring bits with cool episodes featuring Grand Inquisitor and picked up the pace in Season 2, Bad Batch is kinda boring to me.
I had fun with Season 1 and wondered where the second season goes, but I have to force myself to put on Disney+ and get some dose of SW, just because SW.

While combination of Omega with her thick New Zealand accent gets on my nerves (no offense to the actress, but maybe it would be less jarring to have an actual kid or teen to portray her), I got used to it.
But my main gripe is with the format. Clone Wars was awesome, an anthology series with many characters and even new ones that were returning and we have progressed through the war with them. You could skip your less favorite episodes in rewatch or pretty much watch it in different order, it always felt fresh and interesting. Rebels introduced this coming of age and basically and followed interesting rag tag group from slice of life to bigger than life situations.
While it wasn't as great as CW, it matured a bit and Season 2 was fun, Season 3 and 4, great. I actually liked Ezra at the end the same way as I did Ahsoka.
Bad Batch does the same thing as Rebels, but IMHO, Omega is just a kid without force powers and the only interesting thing about her is being female clone for some reason and purpose, that we will find out about some time at the end, but there is now foreshadowing or any hint. It's basically her being naive and bit dumb, because she grew up on isolated place and again wants be part of something, make friends etc.
99 Squad basically babysit her instead of doing cooler stuff, and it's hard to do cool stuff, when we saw a family with cool ship, doing the same thing for 4 Seasons already, with iconic enemies like Inquisitors, Vader, Maul and Thrawn.

On the other hand, I enjoy the lore stuff, like chain codes, destruction of Kamino, look at the phasing out of clones and more about Empire's policies and how the heroes deal with those.
But I am not interested in the personal story at all, because I have seen it many times, it's unoriginal and it might sound dumb, but I also lack some connection to bigger things happening galaxy wide, as the Batch lies low for obvious reasons and basically just meets with Rex mostly by happenstance.
And I can see, trying to survive till the end, to see Mount Tantiss and that Omega was created as part of some mumbo jumbo cloning test, because they can, so they will try to recapture her for more tests or just to have her, clones will be going to Tantiss to save her and then jump somewhere to hyperspace, end of story.
The only thing that is lower on my SW list is Resistance. I stopped watching it at the start of Season 2 and will probably never finish as it doesn't even feature on Disney+, but that show had nothing interesting, not even the lore much.

I can see it cater and be original to new children fans but next time, I would like some new dynamic for the protagonists and to be more original.

On the other hand, this show looks miles better visually than Rebels ever did!

 

S2 E14- Tipping Point does an excellent job of merging all the different arcs of not only this season, but the total series to this point. Almost. Seeing Rex and Echo with their own squad of misfits working to save endangered clones and stick it to the Empire is pure Star Wars to me. Even visually, the scenes where they board the transport ship to free their brothers, there were many times that flashed back to other prison breaks and ship breaches throughout the years, yet it still feels fresh. I can't stop raving about the look of this show! Again, some of those ship exteriors and even some of the wide establishing shots with people could almost pass for live-action.

I'm loving the Pabu of it all. To see Omega and the boys thriving and not being in constant danger is just simply awesome. They are able to maintain a sense of purpose and need, yet do so in a peaceful and safe environment. I love seeing Echo reunite with the gang, and to see the contrast between where he is and they are, both geographically and emotionally. I was really thinking and hoping that Cid would be dealt with this season, but I actually like the way that the able-to-breathe Hunter just brushes it off with very little concern. I did have a flash of dread where I thought, oh no, what if Cid causes trouble, or brings the Empire down on Pabu? But I would imagine that Phee made great effort to keep her island paradise a well-guarded secret considering her true feelings about Cid.

Not much to say about the Crosshair part of this episode. It is horrible, depressing and scary. I did find it jarring when the all-too-familiar torture droid went to work and they showed Crosshair twitching and convulsing. That droid was one of the most terrifying things in my childhood, and just in case I may have become a bit jaded to them over the years, I now have a new visual to renew my terror. I really think Emerie is gonna flip and help the Batch. I saw a funny theory today that she could be Dr. Pershing's mom. Eyeroll.

We are absolutely going into an exciting two-part finale, which I believe is all going to drop next Wednesday. I'm taking odds on who gets to pull the trigger on Hemlock. Will it be Crosshair, Emerie or the longshot, Omega?
Seven days until the Fall of Mount Tantiss.

--- Double Post Merged, Mar 22, 2023, Original Post Date: Mar 22, 2023 ---

It really is stunning. Almost to the point of being distracting. There have been more than one occasion the last few episodes where I had to pause and run back to catch dialog because I was sitting slack-jawed at the sheer beauty of this show. The style of TCW's animation, in particular, the textures, we're always off-putting to me, and this evolution of it just has won me over. I think I really noticed it in Tales of the Jedi, but The Bad Batch has just cranked it up to eleven.

 

Hey, so do we know the name of the woman who seems like an older Omega and works for Hemlock yet?

Not sure I caught it, and watching these with a four-month old can be distracting

 

Shame about the droid in episode 5, hope it ecaspe the blast and join the group to be in the ship but sadly didn't

 

Ah, thank you!

I've been lowkey thinking of her as "Alpha", assuming she was also a female Fett clone.

Thank you! Yes, he's ours, and he's pretty great. He loves watching The Bad Batch and The Mandalorian with us each week (I assume it's just the bright colors and lights, but I like to think he's a budding Star Wars fan too )

 

Congrats on the birth of your son! That is the best!

I agree she sounds so much like Omega.