Every time an episode of Star Wars: The Bad Batch lands, Fantha Tracks will be giving their responses, and here are our initial gut feelings, deep dives and thoughts on episodes one and two of season two, ‘Spoils of War’ and ‘Ruins of War’. Beware of spoilerific elements in here.
Spoils of War
While I enjoyed season 1 of The Bad Batch, like a lot of Star Wars fans I had a hard time getting into it because of Omega. I know that as a female Star Wars fan many people expected me to be on her side, but much like a young Ahsoka or a young Ezra there were things her character did that really derailed the story. I was always a big fan of Ahsoka even when she was at her youngest, but Ezra took time to grow on me, and over the course of Season 1 I felt it would be the same for Omega. When season 2 started I was fully expecting to continue this journey with Omega. I like the evolved character designs for all of the team including Omega – in fact her design might be my favorite, but I was not surprised when her character did things that caused me to groan.
Going to Serenno is a very interesting move, as is discussing war chests which I felt was a neat way to show how the Empire amassed so much money to be able to do some of the things they were doing. It goes right along with the things we saw in Andor; how the Empire exploited people from different worlds and the terrible things they were willing to do. While we have always “known” the Empire did these things, seeing it is making Star Wars more relatable, especially with the way the real world is these days. More people will be able to truly see that while Star Wars is Space Fantasy, it does mirror things that are happening or have happened in our world. My hope is that kids will watch this show and be able to see parallels between their real world and the fantasy worlds they love. They may not see it right now, but down the line as they grow these stories will come back to them and help them process their experiences.
One of Omega’s shining moments is when she uses the knowledge the clones have been trying to teach her about different ships within the galaxy, and I love when she does this. It truly shows how much she is learning and how much she is growing. However my favorite character in the show remains Wrecker. There’s something about his overall nature that really makes me laugh and helps me connect with the characters overall.
Ruins of War
In this second episode we see the continuation of the mission Clone Force 99 are on to get a war chest from Count Dooku’s estate on Serenno. The first thing about this episode is the fact that Tech says he has a fractured Femur and then continues to function through the rest of the episode. I know that this is being nit-picky as someone that has a medical background, but in most cases someone with a fracture to their Femur is not going to be able to do anything that Tech does during this episode. I wish they would have given less detail with his injury because this pulled me out of the episode a little bit. In fact, I had to pause it and give myself a few minutes to reframe my brain and remember that it was just a TV show.
As I stated in my assessment of Episode 1, I am so glad we got to see Romar, a Serenno local. I think it is important to see the effect that Dooku had on his homeworld. We see this a little bit in the Audio Drama Dooku: Jedi Lost, in this episode we really get to see the way that the citizens view Dooku. Another revelation that I really enjoyed in this episode is seeing Omega discover what a “toy” is. It reminds us that so much of her life has been only war, and that she really has no idea what it is to be a kid. In fact so much of what we see of kids in Star Wars is them being put through extreme trials and tribulations. It is rare for us to see kids just getting to be kids. I guess it makes sense since the name of the world we love so much literally has the word War in it.
I really enjoyed seeing the look on Omega’s face when she is told that toys are to make you happy because I wholeheartedly agree with that statement. Once again in this episode we see Omega be a reckless kid and not think about the consequences of her actions. I am really getting tired of this repeated behavior of hers and I hope that over the course of this season we see this behavior begin to stop. It is clear that by the end of the episode Omega feels that she has to do something because she is to blame for the lives that her older friends are having to lead, and while this may be true it is not the entire truth and I think it’s important for her to understand this. The clones may not have been successful in their mission but overall I think that there was some growth on Omega’s part that will be important moving forward. The ending of this episode is vitally important in my opinion. It tells us so much, much we already knew but for me it solidifies the ruthless, callous nature of the Empire and its officers. It highlights the disposable nature of its clones/Stormtroopers and truly helps us see why this war must be fought (as if we didn’t already know).
Overall I feel like the 2 part premieres of The Bad Batch was a good way to bring us into the season. While it wasn’tt incredibly captivating, I’m very much looking forward to what we get to see throughout the season and how they tie this group of clones into the stories that we already know.
- Hardcover Book
- Horton, Cole (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 160 Pages - 03/21/2023 (Publication Date) - Insight Editions (Publisher)
