Professor Popinjay's Compendium of Perspicacity

A Non-review by Professor Popinjay

(2021)

My son and I have endeavored to watch through all things Star Wars. With the rate at which we watch though we should wrap things up some where around 2046. He doesn’t watch things at 2x the normal playback speed so it’s slow going. Just getting through the animated Clone Wars series took a couple years. Then we finally came to Bad Batch.

It definitely feels like a continuation of the Clone Wars series. Periodically, old favorites make an appearance like Rex or Asajj Ventress but primarily, this focuses on a new group of clones each with a unique body-type, personality, and other distinguishing accoutrements. Echo, a clone from the Clone Wars series crosses over too and is a regular part of this group but he’s been retrofitted with an AJ^6 cyborg construct. He’s basically a robo-zombie… although quite genteel and pragmatic.

This ragtag bunch has managed to discover and override their chip (found in all clone’s heads) that makes them unquestionably follow all orders, particularly that singularly infamous order 66, the one proposed as a fail safe should the Jedi turn against the Galactic Republic. Of course, as we all know, that was pure manipulation by Darth Sidious.

Now we have an elite squad of rebel clones who are asking some hard questions of the newly formed empire. It makes for an exciting premise. Along their way they encounter a new breed of clone named Omega. Omega was an essential part of some dubious research by the empire and they want her back so as to continue their experiments. What the Empire is seeking to achieve you can count on being most heinous indeed and it sets the scene for important aspects never fully explained in episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (2019). If “somehow”you know, then you know “somehow”.

I found the show pretty entertaining. There were definitely times when I stopped all other activities to take in what was going on. It did seem a strange mix of certain characters written solely to appeal to younger viewers while simultaneously seeing other characters in dire situations, forced to make terrible choices and, in many cases, often choosing the worst possible option.

On one hand we have the character “Wrecker”, a hulking brute of a clone who serves as the voice of overconfidence in opposition to the other clones’ more hesitant and collected attitudes. His exclamations typically include phrases like “That’s no problem for the likes of us, right Omega?” “Danger is our middle name, right Omega?” or “We’re completely indestructible and can never be defeated! We’ll explode all opposition what stands in our way, right Omega?”

I might have embellished a bit on that last phrase but you get the idea. This guy drove me nuts but my son loved him. He particularly loved him because he reminded him of another clone named Scorch from some deep dive Star Wars lore. Star Wars Republic Commando video games, I think.

On the other hand you have Crosshair, a clone who had a terrible time contradicting his programming and faced and/or implemented a series of horrors against clones and civilians alike. Seeing a clone mistreated by an indifferent and cruel non-clone superior Empirical Officer led Crosshair, so righteously angered by the officer’s apathy, to haul off and kill the officer right where he stood. It was shocking and tragic; an opportunity to invoke a great deal of pity for a person put into such a situation and an opportunity to explain to my son that unfortunately Crosshair made an understandable but poor choice and would now have to face some terrible consequences regardless of how righteously indignant he was. The gravity of the situation was not lost on my 9 year old son. He is remarkably empathic at times.

Those moments are few and far between though. And much of the time the action in the show had my boy cackling maniacally and wringing his hands together in anticipation for the scenes unfolding before him. The show clearly hit its mark for the demographic creator Dave Filoni was aiming but the story is deep enough to keep my attention, 44 year old fan that I am.

I did feel jerked around a bit as Omega would get captured and rescued repeatedly. And I felt some questions went unanswered by the end of the show but if I know how Star Wars works these days, these questions will be answered in another show just like this show answered questions from elsewhere. It’s an intricate self-serving web Disney weaves.

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