Star Wars: The Bad Batch Episode 14 Review: War-Mantle

This Star Wars: The Bad Batch review contains spoilers.

Star Wars: The Bad Batch Episode 14

The Bad Batch finally has something to say about the clones every bit a changing form in a beautifully animated take chances.

King has a mission for the squad. An old friend of his, CC-5576 "Gregor," has attempted to escape from an Majestic training facility and failed. The Batch reluctantly agrees to break him out. War-Drapery (a code proper noun mentioned both earlier this season and in Rogue 1 ) turns out to exist a stormtrooper training facility sunk into a Cheyenne Mount-lookalike. The group fights their way out, encountering both stormtroopers and clone commandos. They all surprise each other a bit: Gregor expects the Bad Batch to be "defective" only realizes that "it's the ones who want to stay hither that are really lacking," while the Batch realize that conscripted soldiers really are all of the clones' replacements. By the stop of the episode, Hunter has inadvertently switched places with Gregor and finds himself behind bars in the facility, primed for an encounter with Crosshair that will surely pb the narrative into the finale.

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The episode was a joy to watch, in terms of the animation and colors. Every episode of The Bad Batch seems to out-do the last, progress behind-the-scenes being made at a much more rapid pace than it was on The Clone Wars (in role because The Clone Wars laid the background). This calendar week, we get a cute, Spielbergian opening with diffuse calorie-free and painterly landscapes as Gregor goes on the run. The textures, lighting, and the way the characters interact with the environment (I'1000 no artist, but this does seem like the prove's second instance of impressive and significant dirt) are all a joy.

On the other hand, some elements of this plot are already tired. The construction feels redundant: the squad encounters a problem; Hunter is reluctant to get involved until Omega convinces him; the squad goes on an run a risk; Omega and another one of the clones save the day. Like Rogue Ane , it'due south a story meant to prepare something else up: in this case, how the clone trooper program transitioned into the stormtrooper corps. The episode likewise brings back Gregor, a graphic symbol who had a pretty satisfying death in The Clone Wars before subsequently appearing on Rebels equally 1 of Rex'southward aging squad mates.

That said, the explanations for what exactly is going on betwixt the clones and stormtroopers are nicely woven into the activity. Some fanon or old Expanded Universe ideas that were hinted at before are now confirmed: many stormtroopers were trained by clones, clone commandos in detail. (Lots more about this in this week's easter egg guide.) The testify reminds us that the Bad Batch have decent reasons for seeing themselves apart from "regs," and that regs will make assumptions about them being "defective." I'm glad these questions are being answered, fifty-fifty if it seems strange that the evidence would await until almost the finale to confirm them. I approximate the Bad Batch were out of the loop for a while.

Even the Kaminoans get a piffling bit more characterization, with the Empire officially cancelling the cloning contract. I guess the Batch running off certainly didn't prove the efficacy of the program to the Empire. Both Nala Se and Lama Su come up off as cold business people trying to take hold of more credits…even as Nala Se also adopts a creepy-cute maternalism toward the children she's helped create for war. Her chat with preteen clones is incredibly ominous but also heartwarming in a twisted way. Every bit she reassures a immature clone that he'll grow up to be a soldier, I wonder whether he volition always grow up at all, and how nighttime it is that Nala Se truly seems to believe that indoctrinating more clones into the war is the best matter for them. I'm worried nigh what the Empire will do with these kids. While I exercise savor the fantasy of the clones as noble soldiers, I can too run across Palpatine's fingerprints on them, as the Sith manipulated the Republic into thinking about the ease — non the ideals — of purpose-congenital, living war machines. I was truly surprised to see Nala Se as the one left standing at the end, which tells the states a bit nearly what Vice Admiral Rampart thinks as well.

Repeat'southward unique perspective seems to affair more than in this episode than it has in the past, likewise. Finally, he outright states that his loyalty to Male monarch and his experience being a captive of the Separatists motivate him to be more than adamant to rescue Gregor than he might have otherwise. (Unfortunately, Wrecker gets nil interesting to do; he's back to being a joke, agreeing with whoever talked last.)

In The Clone Wars , Gregor lost his memory for a while earlier triumphantly returning to his trooper roots. He appeared to have a heroic decease, merely here he is, jovial and confident. I can easily imagine him as a skillful instructor, and his appearance is a treat for The Clone Wars fans while not getting in the way of the larger story The Bad Batch is trying to tell.

That tension betwixt fun connections for the fans and what the Bad Batch call up is going on is my central question about this episode. Hunter and co. certainly have skin in the game of whether clones will continue to be considered good soldiers, simply I still recollect of State of war-Pall in part as a fun reference to Rogue I , just a code name. Actually seeing it makes sense for this story, but might run into as nonetheless some other instance of "small universe" syndrome. What do the clones want in the long run? Peace? To go back to the wartime status quo where they had both independence and backing from the Commonwealth? Not having a skillful respond for that is part of why I'm torn on this episode.

A fun take a chance that rewards letting yourself become forth for the ride, "War-Curtain" effectively set The Bad Batch upwards for an explosive finale in ii weeks. I simply wish some of this lore had come up earlier.