Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Star Wars: The Bad Batch episode 16.
It took a full season, but Star Wars: The Bad Batch has finally grown beyond the Clone Wars. Clone Force 99 made their debut in Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 7, a group of clones who possessed enhanced abilities as a result of genetic engineering. This crack team proved themselves a force to be reckoned with, working with Anakin Skywalker to rescue the captured clone trooper Echo - who subsequently joined the team.
Clone Force 99 became the stars of their own spinoff TV series, Star Wars: The Bad Batch. Set in the aftermath of Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, this saw the group attempt to create a new life in the Dark Times when the Empire ruled. Season 1 also proved to be the story of the downfall of Kamino, with the Empire obliterating the planet's city in an attempt to kill the Bad Batch.
Like many Star Wars animated TV shows, Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 1 often struggled. There is clear potential, but the first season hasn't quite worked - simply because it's often felt overshadowed by the franchise as a whole. Fortunately, the season 1 finale should have brought that to an end, finally allowing Star Wars: The Bad Batch to live up to its potential.
From the very beginning, it was clear Star Wars: The Bad Batch was going to feature a wealth of cameos and references to the greater lore. The first episode opened during the events of Order 66, revealing Clone Force 99's mutations weakened the effect of their inhibitor chips and meant they were not enslaved to Palpatine's commands. They were participating in a mission on the planet Kaller at the time Order 66 was issued, and - in a marked retcon - they were responsible for the survival of the Jedi Padawan who became Kanan Jarrus. From that point on, episodes rejoiced in their connection to the broader canon; the Bad Batch encountered Saw Gerrera (another retcon), Clone Wars veteran and fan-favorite Cut Lawquane (yet another retcon), and even crossed paths with the young Hera Syndulla. Worse still, the issue ran to a thematic level as well, because Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 1 felt like a continuation of the Clone Wars - or perhaps an epilogue. This was most notable in its focus on the cloners of Kamino, and frequent retcons of Order 66's inhibitor chips.
The problem is, though, that this focus on connectivity weakened Star Wars: The Bad Batch. Lucasfilm clearly wanted to reassure viewers these stories actually mattered, that they were significant in terms of the greater lore even though they didn't feature any Jedi, but they were so focused on doing this that they neglected to develop the stars themselves as characters. By the end of the first season, only Hunter and Omega have really been developed at all, while Echo in particular has suffered from a lack of characterization. It hasn't helped that many of the retcons in Star Wars: The Bad Batch have contradicted established canon, making them distracting as well as controversial. The show has never had a chance to breathe, an opportunity to become its own thing.
That makes the season 1 finale of Star Wars: The Bad Batch deeply symbolic. The Kaminoans were introduced in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, when their homeworld was "found" by Obi-Wan Kenobi - all record of the planet having been previously erased from the Jedi Archives. Kamino was one of the key worlds in the Clone Wars, because the cloners were the ones who created the Grand Army of the Republic, and it had remained important in Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 1. But in the appropriately-titled episode "Kamino Lost," the planet Kamino is destroyed by the Empire, its city structures sinking beneath the waves after a planetary bombardment.
The destruction of Kamino is deeply symbolic. In narrative terms, it serves to assure viewers that the story of the Clone Wars is finally over, its last great power consigned to the history books. Anakin Skywalker murdered the Separatist leaders on Mustafar in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, the Republic was transformed into the Empire, and now the cloners who gave the Republic its army have been destroyed as well. What's more, this act should be seen as a promise from Lucasfilm; after an entire season, Star Wars: The Bad Batch can no longer stand on the shoulders of what has gone before.
Reinforcing this point, the Order 66 sub-plot is clearly over as well. The clone troopers are being phased out, replaced by first-generation stormtroopers, and even Crosshair is no longer subject to the inhibitor chip; he has chosen to remain with the Empire of his own free will. The theme of agency that was central to the Clone Wars has hopefully come to an end.
Disney has already confirmed Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 2, and the destruction of Kamino means it is time for the show to stand on its own. Whatever the Kaminoans' objectives were for Omega, they have been thwarted, and bounty hunters no longer have any reason to pursue her; Nala Se, the Chief Medical Scientist who paid Fennec Shand to keep Omega safe, is now a prisoner of the Empire and will no longer have the resources to pay a bounty hunter, so Shand's story in this era is done as well. Some of these plot threads have been dealt with rather abruptly, but that may well have been deliberate - a way of underlining the horror of the Empire's actions.
All this means Star Wars: The Bad Batch can finally become its own thing in season 2. No doubt this will continue to explore Clone Force 99's role in the galaxy; they've already been loosely aligning with the nascent Rebellion, so viewers can expect to see more of this. Meanwhile, Crosshair may have committed himself to the Empire, but it's clear the Empire doesn't care all that much about him - Admiral Rampart was quite willing to destroy Kamino while Crosshair was still planetside. But the crucial lesson season 2 needs to learn is that the focus must be upon these character arcs and more, upon developing every member of the Bad Batch so they are more than just their characteristics. Wrecker needs to be more than just a well-natured heavy who loves blowing things up, Tech needs to be more than just the resident genius, and Echo needs to actually have an arc of his own as well. The destruction of Kamino frees the Bad Batch from the burden of Clone Wars continuity, meaning it's time for them to become characters in their own right.
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