clone wars – Kristopher K. Online

Hello there and welcome to another installment of the Star Wars timeline marathon. This time we’re talking about the three season television show “The Bad Batch”, which ran from 2021 to 2024.

Originally introduced in the final season of The Clone Wars, they are a crew of “defective” clones, hence the name. They aren’t built like the standard clones but they each have unique enhancements and skills that make them differ from others. The crew is Hunter as the leader, who has enhanced tracking, Tech as the tech guy, Wrecker as the muscle, Crosshair as the sniper, and Echo who was added at the end of Clone Wars as he was turned into a cyborg by the Separatists.

The show takes place soon after Revenge of the Sith and the extermination of Jedi from Order 66. In fact, the beginning scene is the crew of the Bad Batch and their perspective when it went down.

They didn’t receive the orders to kill all Jedi like the other clones, and were very surprised and confused when the clones turned after working together with the Jedi seconds before.

They didn’t participate. The Jedi master was killed, but Hunter chased after her padawan and secretly let him go. Crosshair was frustrated that they weren’t following orders.

After Order 66, the clones were ordered to return to their home planet Kamino. There they learned more about the start of the Empire, and started to see what the end of the war meant.

Enter Omega

Omega is a unique clone that takes an interest in the Bad Batch. She is also a direct unedited female clone of the original Jango Fett just like Boba Fett. She has also noticed that the place has changed since the Empire took over.

She tries to let the Bad Batch know, and when they were tasked with hunting insurgents against the Empire, they discovered that it was just civilians they were ordered to kill. Hunter refused to do it, and when they returned Crosshair reported them. This eventually makes the crew minus Crosshair to run to escape the Empire with Omega.

Most of the rest of the season has the crew trying to find their place in a post-Clone Wars world, and not get caught by the Empire since they now basically adopted Omega. The Empire is wanting to capture her for some secret cloning project the Emperor wants. I won’t spoil the rest of the series, but a majority of the episodes are its own story of them trying to survive, with a long arcing plot centered on Omega.

Favorite episodes –

Season 1

Kamino Lost: S1 E16

This is the season finale of the first episode, where the clones start to learn what the Empire has in mind for them in a post-Clone Wars universe.

This is part 2 of a 2 part storyline, in which the Empire’s Vice Admiral Rampart has just ordered his ships to fire on and destroy the cloning facilities and entire city of Kamino.

The Bad Batch and Crosshair were still in the city when the Empire opened fire, so they had to find their way out and back to their ship before they drown.

I really like this episode because it focuses a lot on what the season was building up towards. Since Crosshair and the gang split, there was a build up of confrontation between them that culminated in this episode. Crosshair admits in this episode that he stayed with the Empire because he thinks following orders, no matter what they are, will help him earn a place in the Empire and feel important. Wrecker tells him that they’d always welcome him if he decided to leave the Empire and join them.

By the end of the episode, The Bad Batch escapes on their ship, and Crosshair is left in the wreckage waiting for the Empire to find him.

Season 2

The Outpost: S2 E12

A Crosshair-focused episode. He is assigned to join a Lieutenant Nolan who hates clones to visit an icy planet to find and stop insurgents from stealing cargo their base is holding.

A clone named Mayday is holding the fort with just a couple other clones who survived the recent ambushes. Nolan reprimands him and takes charge of the base, ordering them to guard the mysterious cargo.

Crosshair and Mayday work together to repair parts of the equipment they have with the gear they can salvage. The Empire has not delivered any equipment Mayday requested.

The base got attacked and cargo was stolen. Crosshair and Mayday were ordered to go recover it. They find the base of the insurgents and discover that the cargo is new equipment and armor that Mayday could have used if the Empire cared. They get caught in an avalanche and Mayday is injured. Crosshair drags him back to base and begs for a medic to save Mayday. Nolan refuses because “clones are expendable” and they didn’t come back with the cargo.

Nolan enrages Crosshair, and he shoots Nolan before passing out due to his injuries. He wakes up in a cell in an unknown location.

I really like this episode because it humanizes a really serious character and shows the start of growth he will have in the series.

Season 3

Juggernaut: S3 E12

The final episode I will talk about in depth as a favorite of the series is Juggernaut.

A bit of background for this episode: in season two, Vice Admiral Rampart was condemned to prison because the public found out about the destruction of Kamino after saying it was a freak storm. At the end of season two, Omega was captured by the Empire and held in a secret location where a scientist was running tests on clones for the Emperor. A lot of season 3 is about The Bad Batch trying to find that secret location.

Juggernaut is a fun episode because The Bad Batch has to reluctantly break out Rampart from prison because they think he knows how to get to where Omega is being held. It’s a very action packed episode where they steal a tank and drive it into the prison as they’re escaping.

Meanwhile, Omega finally discovers what they have been testing: they have been trying to recreate clones with high midi-chlorians which are essential to using the force. Omega is a clone with the highest M-count they’ve seen. She also discovers that the lead scientist has force sensitive children being tested on in a secured vault.

I do encourage people to watch this show. The characters are very fun and the episodes are a mix of fun action and drama in a changing political landscape that is approaching fascism in the Empire. It was hard coming up with a single episode to list with each season because there were a lot of great ones.

That’s all for this Star Wars post, but tune in next time when I talk about the first video game on the list.

Remember when I said in my introduction post that I’d hopefully complete this project in August? Clearly that is definitely NOT happening. I am a little further in though! And today let’s talk about the longest series in this franchise marathon: The Clone Wars.

This tv show ran for seven seasons for over 12 years. Seasons 1-5 were shown on Cartoon Network and season 6 was presented on Netflix from 2008 to 2013.

In 2012 Disney bought the rights to the Star Wars franchise, and then in 2020 they aired the final seventh season on Disney+.

The show had multiple episodes and branching storylines, sometimes featuring the jedi, the clones, senators, droids, and a few episodes featuring former villains from the films. In some episodes, the show challenged the meaning of hero and villain, and tried to redefine and show it’s not always black and white.

That’s war for ya!

In this review post I will not be talking about each storyline as a whole, but rather one or two episodes from each season and why I liked them.

So without further ado, let’s get into…

Season 1:

Episode 15 – Trespass

As a whole, Season One was a bit slower compared to other seasons, but that’s to be expected.

I really liked the episode Trespass because although there were clones in it, and a war, this episode actually had nothing to do with the Clone Wars at all. Anakin, Obi-Wan, and clone Captain Rex the moon of planet Pantora who’s local government asked for assistance.

The bases created by the clones and the opposing Separatist army have both been destroyed by an unknown third party, so they need to investigate what happened. It turns out that the ice moon in inhabited by some humanoid spider-people, and the chairman of the planet orders the jedi and clones to start a war with the natives to remove them from the moon they “own”

That doesn’t happen and the chairman tries to start a war, loses and gets killed from injuries, and the more sensible Senator Chuchi takes charge and brokers a peace between the people.

This is probably my favorite of the season because the enemies aren’t good vs evil, but rather it’s a grey area where both peoples want to live.

Season 2:

Episode 8 – Brain Invaders

This episode finishes up a storyline where the Republic destroys a droid factory on Geonosis. Remember that planet from Attack of the Clones? The planet where the Clone War began and Anakin lost a limb?

This episode does not take place on the planet. Instead, they are leaving the planet at the beginning and taking a captured Separatist general Poggle with them. Ahsoka and fellow padawan Barriss are tasked after the battle to escort a medical frigate to a station to provide supplies.

What no one knew at the time, was that there was an alien species on the planet Geonosis that hatches from an egg and worms its way into your brain for mind control, and a clone on that ship got infected and secretly brought aboard more eggs.

The invasion is stopped because they decided to turn off the heat in the ship and super-freeze the worms saving everyone who was infected.

What makes this episode notable is when Anakin hears of his padawan’s distress, he goes to the prison cell they kept Poggle to get information on how to save her. The last interrogation with everyone in the room didn’t work, but we see for the first time in the show a darker side of Anakin, because he uses the force to choke the war prisoner, torturing him to get information.

For an organization dedicated for peace, it seems pretty violent to get to that point.

Season 3:

Episode 4 – Sphere of Influence

Chuchi is back! Our girl is still doing things within the senate, and has asked Ahsoka to help with finding the new chairman’s kidnapped daughters.

Somehow this series so far have every good episode feature Chuchi, and you know what? She deserves it.

The storyline in this episode, similar to S1 Trespass, does not have a plot that is related to the Clone Wars at all, but it is such a good storyline. The new Chairman, Chairman Papanoida, is a badass. While Chuchi and Ahsoka explore a Trade Federation ship to see if one of his daughters is being held there, the Chairman walks right into Jabba’s Palace on Tattoine. Jabba is the gangster leader of maybe a quarter of the galaxy, and this guy just walks in, demands an audience with a bounty hunter he discovers is the one who kidnaps his daughters, then goes out to beat him up until he reveals where they are.

Both daughters get back home safe, and Chuchi can do no wrong. Papanoida is a badass dad too and from what I recall, he doesn’t show in any later episodes.

Season 4:

Episodes 7-10 – The Umbara Arc

Pong Krell is the worst. Fuck Pong Krell.

I can’t pick a specific favorite episode for this season unfortunately. The Umbara Arc is the best storyline in the season going through four episodes, and you kind of need to watch them all to enjoy it best.

In this storyline, Anakin has to return to Corusant while his clone squad led by Captain Rex are trying to capture a planet called Umbara. He leaves his soldiers under jedi general Pong Krell.

Krell is awful. From the start of his leadership, he only talks to the clones using their designation number, not their chosen name. He then changes the entire attack plan and creates one that makes all the clones vulnerable and exposed to an attack themselves. Any attempt to question his orders is met with an intimidating speech, and a threat of arrest for mutinous behavior.

In the final episode of this storyline, it’s revealed that Pong Krell was intentionally sabotaging the clone army, and killing them off with his plans. All so he could hope Sith master Dooku would notice and take him on as an apprentice.

The clones were finally able to capture him and one loyal clone who felt the most betrayed killed him in his cell.

This was a dark series of episodes and great clone-centered story.

Season 5:

Episode 12 – Missing in Action

This was the third episode in a four episode storyline that focused on the droids. In this episode, the lost droids and their tiny leader find a town on an isolated planet, and need to find a ship to go home after a secret mission to invade and capture Separatist data.

The group meets an amnesiac clone named Gregor, who is working as a busboy for a diner. With the help of the droid group, he regains his memories and helps send them home.

Episode 16 – The Lawless

Okay so there’s a few episode in this season tied for my favorite, so I wanted to list them all.

Earlier in the series, it is shown that Maul, the Sith that Obi-Wan sliced in half at the end of the film The Phantom Menace, is actually alive. His brother, Savage, finds him, and helps restore his sanity.

During this episode, Maul attacks and takes over the planet Mandalore, and the planet’s leader (Duchess) requests Obi-Wan to come help. Unfortunately, due to some rules of war, he is unable to officially act in this manner, but he secretly gets Mandalorian armor and goes to the planet to help liberate it.

Maul ends up killing the Duchess and Obi-Wan is heartbroken. He leaves with her, and then secretly Maul’s former Master Sidious arrives at the planet and takes him down because he is a liability to his plans.

Episode 20 – The Wrong Jedi

Ahsoka is accused and put on trial for a bombing that occurred in the Jedi Temple. She is innocent, but no jedi other than Anakin take action to try and find evidence to save her. Anakin finds out that it was Padawan Barriss (Remember Season 2?) who bombed the temple and was willing to let Ahsoka take the blame.

She was found innocent and the jedi offered her place back into the order, but she was left not trusting them anymore, and decided to reject the offer, leaving Anakin alone and beginning to question the Jedi.

Season 6:

Episodes 1-4 – Clone Conspiracy arc

This storyline follows the clone soldier Fives who was investigating why his friend suddenly turned on his jedi commander and killed her. He found out there are microscopic control chips put into every clone, and something happened to his friend where the chip drove him to kill jedi.

Fives became more and more paranoid though the storyline, not knowing who to trust and not knowing who knew about the control chips. Chancellor Palpatine agreed to see him, but wanted to do so privately. It’s unknown what was said, but it caused Fives to attack Palpatine, and made him a fugitive on the run.

The story ends with him being killed, somewhat relieved he doesn’t have to panic or have nightmares of the conspiracy anymore.

What did Palpatine tell him?

Season 7:

Episodes 9-12 – Siege of Mandalore arc

Season 7 released in 2020 on Disney+. It consisted of 3 story arcs: the introduction of the unorthodox clone squad The Bad Batch, the story of what Ahsoka was doing after she left the Jedi Order at the end of season 5, and the final arc of Mandalore, where Ahsoka goes to fight Maul, and Order 66 is activated.

All of the final episodes were fantastic. They take place in parallel to Revenge of the Sith, where Sidious takes control of everything and orders the clones to kill all the jedi. Ahsoka’s clone team receives the order just after they capture Maul, and Rex tries to fight it.

Ahsoka saves Rex by removing the control chip, and the two escape to the ship’s hanger while using Maul as a distraction.

The last 20 minutes of the final episode are so beautifully done because once the ship gets destroyed and starts crashing on whatever planet they’re orbiting, there is no dialogue at all. The show just uses the sound effects from ambient noise and the musical soundtrack for the last 20 minutes.

The final shot was a time jump where Darth Vader was looking over the wreckage, assuming there were no survivors. It fades to black and all you hear is the iconic breathing.

Those are all of my favorite episodes in the series, but it ran for seven seasons and there were a lot of other fun ones I didn’t mention, like the bank arc in season six.

Next up is the third film Revenge of the Sith, and if the final episode here is any indicator, there is going to be some deaths.

Tag: clone wars

Star Wars: The Bad Batch Review