Spoilers The Bad Batch - Season 1 Discussion [cue A-Team theme music]

Not much to say about this one either. Still a solid episode with some worthwhile character development and some fun 'Resistance' call backs (call forwards? Also pretty sure they were both unused concepts from the movies before Resistance adopted them.) Main takeaway: Fennec is cold blooded, ruthless and most likely working for the Kaminoans.

 

Yeah, I don't have much to say about this one either, just that it was good and fun. I especially liked Echo and the protocol droid.

 

Pretty much my feelings as well. A solid little adventure, and a nice introduction to Fennec in this era, but nothing really noteworthy to discuss.

 

I thought this was the weakest episode so far. Nothing here that was really new, or interesting, just kind of moving the plot from point A to point B. Maybe they were relying on the Fennec Shand guest spot to carry the load? It didn't really do anything for me.

The best part of the episode was Echo being sold as a droid. That feels like the kind of grift we could see them use more than once, now that they know how well it works.

Despite being labelled an Imperial during the Mandalorian, Fennec appears to be an independent operator here. I presume she's working for the Kaminoans, though it's left so intentionally vague that needn't be the case. I wonder what the team will do now that they know that Omega is being hunted as seriously as they are.

 

How is it racist? She voiced Mulan in the movie.
I'll call her the Cavalry then.

 

Well except implying whatever the Kaminoans are up to only needs Omega and not The Bad Batch.

 

OK, that's a fair point.

 

I liked the astromech droid with little arms and legs.

 

That's a reused design from Resistance, a fun little guy.
The dog like creature was also from Resistance.

 

We get an air traffic chase in an urban world that is not Coruscant; not a particularly common thing. It's a bit disappointing to see how little this differs from how a bunch of Jedi would do it: our presumably less superhuman heroes shrug off similarly body-pulping crashes, g-forces and falls. (Then again, whatever Anakin or Ashoka pulled off, their Mandalorian or random-bounty-hunterian opponents generally did, too...)

I wonder... What's the point of vehicles like the one commandeered by Fennec when she falls off the truck? One guy is cruising about in this vast barge with a massive keel extending inconveniently downward and with a traffic footprint as big as that of the truck Fennec fell from. When Obi-Wan catches the falling Anakin in a vehicle of comparable function in AotC, it's barely bigger than Luke's landspeeder. Would it be a symbol of status and wealth today to trundle on the streets in a convertible version of a three-axle coach when others have their compact Ferraris or Volkswagens?

The local law enforcement can chase traffic offenders in flying bikes. Can nobody fly after a departing shuttle that is never said to be superfast or superstealthy as such? Or did Tech's obfuscating of the ID beacon make it impossible for the cops to choose the right target, even though they well knew which pit it emerged from? Is this novel Imperial incompetence, or how things always were even on urban and orderly worlds?

I love SW primarily for its worldbuilding. Diversity is what Trek does well, and endless repeats of Planet Tunisia are offset by many innovative milieus. Now that we get an urban spot for a change, I feel it fells a bit short...

Timo Saloniemi

 

If I recall, repulsor lifts have antitude limitations based on their designed function. The airways might support technology based "roads" that allow what would normally be ground vehicles fly higher than normal. Which would explain the lanes of traffic. We see people dive down through traffic, but do we ever see them push up through layers of it? Could that be that they have gravity helping on the down, but they don't have the thrust/lift to get altitude.

 

Well remember she was a wanted gal in the first episode we see her in Mando

 

A having-and-eating-cake setup, for a character the writers want to get accepted: she is ruthless and ultimately wanted (preferably dead) by good and bad guys alike, but unexpectedly pays her informant instead of killing him. Which isn't all that promising, as it makes one suspect the writers don't have good ideas of how to "personalize" Fennec yet, and just want to cover all the bases. At least Boba Fett had plenty of time for a single underlying characterization (faceless badass villain) to set in before we got other interpretations.

Timo Saloniemi

 

Episode guide for Cornered

https://www.starwars.com/series/the-bad-batch/cornered-episode-guide/

 

Neat Easter egg on a travel poster

https://twitter.com/swcontinuity/status/1396861493744783366?s=21

 

Ha! ‘Lady Luck’!

A nice little nod!

 

Oh, Muchi.

Spoiler

RotJ RIP Muchi. Luke!

 

Yeah. They didn’t do that Rancor any favours.