As we wait for the premiere of The Bad Batch series on Disney+ this week, I thought it was a good time to look back at the arc about the Bad Batch in The Clone Wars season 7. If you haven't watched those episodes in a while, I'd definitely recommend rewatching them as part of your prep for this upcoming series.
While a lot of what excited me most about this arc when it first came out was what it did for characters I already knew and loved like Rex and Anakin, rewatching it and focusing more on the Bad Batch themselves gave me much more appreciation for it, and made me even more excited for this upcoming series.
What I adored most of course was how smoothly these four work together as a team. We see that pretty much right off the bat with the scene where the Bad Batch singlehandedly dispatches a wave of battle droids. They communicate effectively without needing to constantly talk, they build off of each others strengths rather than just charging in independently. There's a lot of teams out there in Star Wars, but I don't think any work as effectively as this one.
It's a really awesome sequence, and I don't doubt we'll get more like it- maybe even at least one this week!
There's a lot more in these episodes for us to look at too, beyond just how cool these guys are. The dynamic they have when they aren't fighting is also really interesting. They of course get along- they're a close-knit group who feel alienated from the other clone troopers, or "regs," and often work as just the four of them, without any others. Though they may tease each other or even get frustrated, they clearly not only value each other but are comfortable with how things are.
Re-watching these episodes and thinking about them in a new way definitely gave me more questions to ask about the upcoming show. How will the addition of Echo change their dynamic, both on and off the battlefield? We've gleaned from the trailer that they may somehow be separated from Crosshair, how will that change things? How does Omega fit into their bond?
So many questions, but my biggest is this- how will the events of Order 66 change their feelings about "regs?" We know that they don't feel much of a connection to regular clones like those clones feel with each other, and the feeling is a little mutual for some based off of Jesse's reaction to them. We know Crosshair especially seems to look down on them, could that maybe impact why he's separated from the others? We know they meet up with Rex, could they learn about the chips? How would that change things?
Again, so many questions, and I can hardly wait to get the answers to them in this series! Plus, I'm sure it'll answer some questions that I didn't even know I was asking.