Wowsers. I was totally unsure what I was watching for a good
ten minutes here. I’m all for telling more stories but the unexpectedness of
telling us about Ryloth and the Syndulla’s really took me out of what we’d
usually been watching. I liked it! Do not get me wrong. It was just so unexpected
that it felt surreal for 90% of the episode of which the Bad Batch had only a
few minutes in. Are we watching ‘Rebels’, Clone Wars or The Bad Batch? This
week it was a mixture of all three.
It is an important tale to show – the Empire stamping it is
ground so quickly after the war ended. There are going to be planets where
peace, even one with Imperial troopers everywhere, is going to be better than
what they were used to. Clearly the Empire are up to no good with the mining facility.
Quite what seeds have been sown to convince some that having clone troopers
around is automatically a bad thing I’m unsure as that’s not really explained.
We all know these misgivings are going to prove correct but how some have
reached a conclusion so quickly is not really spelt out.
This episode is full of characters most of us know inside
and out if you’ve watched every ounce of Star Wars content but seeing Hera and
Chopper!!! Well, my mind was blown, and initially totally blown so much that I
lost all track of what was going on. Hera’s voice also sounded … odd. Italian?
I don’t recall her having any accent much in Rebels. Anyhow, it was just so
unexpected it was hard to appreciate initially. It also felt like we had seen
all there was to see about Ryloth and the Syndulla’s before. I didn’t think
there was much more to tell and although this didn’t really expand a lot on it
for me personally, it was enjoyable nonetheless. The visuals once again were
absolutely sensational so many times.
Questions though remain after this episode. It ends with the
feeling that the next episode is going to continue the story, with likely the
Bad Batch helping smuggle Hera out? Is this where we’re going with the gang?
Are they going to be in the formations of the rebellion? Where the heck are
they much later down the road? Why is Crosshair and the Empire not fully
invested in tracking down the Bad Batch at this point? And what’s happened to
all the Bounty Hunters after Omega? And is that one commander clone not under
order 66 as he’s still painted and hair combed to suggest he’s not following
order 66 programming?
