Spoilers Bad Batch Season 2 - This Fall

[Christopher]

There may have been something else in some of those crates. The gear was just a smokescreen, perhaps.

No, the whole point was that it wasn't anything special, that the Empire was throwing away clones' lives to protect something of little value -- and something meant for their replacements, to rub in their obsolescence. That's the overall arc of this series, the way the clones are coping with the end of their usefulness and their abandonment by the Empire. This episode was about driving it home to Crosshair that the Empire he was so blindly loyal to had no concern at all for him or his fellow clones -- that they were seen as nothing more than obsolete equipment to be discarded and replaced.

 

[Finn]

Why would they bother to rub in their obsolesce? It implies they care enough to make the clones feel like shit.

It'd be easier just to send them off, and put the boxes with gear in storage in Coruscant.


Yeah, plot reasons

 

[Skywalker]

Another crosshair episode that didn't disappoint.

They always hit the mark.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Why would they bother to rub in their obsolesce? It implies they care enough to make the clones feel like shit.

Yep.

 

[Reverend]

It's almost as if the incoming personnel have a vested interest in making themselves seem more valuable then the old guard or something . . .

That aside, it's not like fascists ever needed an excuse to be arseholes.

 

[Christopher]

Why would they bother to rub in their obsolesce? It implies they care enough to make the clones feel like shit.

I was saying more that the writers created the situation to underline the point. But I wouldn't put it past the Empire. They're fascists. The cruelty is the point. The whole driving psychology is the desire to dominate and oppress others. They don't feel happy unless they're making others feel worse. We saw that in microcosm with the lieutenant. It wasn't enough for him just to treat the clones under his command with neutral neglect, he had to insult and degrade them at every turn. Fascist systems attract bullies and give them license to indulge their bullying.

It'd be easier just to send them off, and put the boxes with gear in storage in Coruscant.

Send them off where? They're still soldiers in service to the Empire. They can be useful up to a point, but nobody really wants them around anymore. So it makes sense that they'd get assigned to the most menial and useless jobs, and some petty functionary enjoyed the sadistic irony of assigning them to guard their replacements' gear. It might be the only opportunity that low-ranking functionary had to feel dominant over others. It's precisely because the overall system doesn't care that it's left up to the arbitrary whims of the individual bullies whose cruelty is indulged by the system.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

So it makes sense that they'd get assigned to the most menial and useless jobs, and some petty functionary enjoyed the sadistic irony of assigning them to guard their replacements' gear. It might be the only opportunity that low-ranking functionary had to feel dominant over others. It's precisely because the overall system doesn't care that it's left up to the arbitrary whims of the individual bullies whose cruelty is indulged by the system.

That's a reasonable scenario, but we don't know that that's how it happened that they were assigned to guard the gear. For all we know, it was done by a logistics droid.

 

[fireproof78]

Why would they bother to rub in their obsolesce? It implies they care enough to make the clones feel like shit.

To feel superior.

 

[Finn]

Sad

 

[fireproof78]

Sad

Well, I don't think we are supposed to empathize with the troopers. That was pretty clear from Season 1 and Crosshair's interactions with them. Clones were regarded as lesser.

Human history is filled with, and continues to have, people who need to feel superior over others, and might point to feelings of powerlessness in day to day life. These troopers strike me as no different.

 

[Finn]

I wasn’t empathizing.

 

[fireproof78]

I wasn’t empathizing.

I don't think we are supposed to find the trooper sympathetic or understandable. I think they are treated as jerks and we the audience are to regard them as such, unlike the clones who are supposed to be more human.

 

[Finn]

Yeah?

 

[fireproof78]

Yeah?

Yes. Part of characterization and world building.

Screenwriting 101: what's the easiest way to make someone look like an ass? Have them be an ass for selfish reasons.

 

[Finn]

I’d make a terrible writer

 

[Christopher]

I don't think we are supposed to find the trooper sympathetic or understandable. I think they are treated as jerks and we the audience are to regard them as such, unlike the clones who are supposed to be more human.

What trooper are you referring to? I don't recall any Stormtroopers having significant parts here, just some clones and an Imperial lieutenant.

 

[fireproof78]

What trooper are you referring to? I don't recall any Stormtroopers having significant parts here, just some clones and an Imperial lieutenant.

I'm thinking back to Season 1 at the moment.

 

[Shawnster]

Why would they bother to rub in their obsolesce? It implies they care enough to make the clones feel like shit.

Rub in their obsolescence may have been a poor choice of words. If things went to plan, the clones would never know what was in the crates.

It does, however, emphasize to the viewer what the Empire is doing and thinking.

 

[Finn]

Yeah, tho it does takes up lot of resources. There could have been a storm when they decided to pick up the gear, or the clones were killed by the raiders long before crosshair and that lieutenant arrived. and they'd be gone with the gear, mean the new troopers would be the ones taking the risk getting the gear back


Yeah, plot reasons...

 

[Christopher]

Yeah, tho it does takes up lot of resources. There could have been a storm when they decided to pick up the gear, or the clones were killed by the raiders long before crosshair and that lieutenant arrived. and they'd be gone with the gear, mean the new troopers would be the ones taking the risk getting the gear back

What, you expect a fascist bureaucracy to be efficient or competent?