Screenshot from the episode ‘The Solitary Clone’ (StarWars.com)

What is the “problem” with The Bad Batch?

The second season of The Bad Batch has come to an end, to a rather mixed reception among fans. While I thoroughly enjoyed the season, I have my suspicions as to why it didn’t work for many fans. In this article, I will explore what the problem with the animated series might be and how could the creators correct these mistakes in the third (and sadly last) season.

Uneven quality and pace

The most common criticism of the second season of The Bad Batch is that the quality of the show has been rather uneven. After an excellent episode, there was what fans would call a filler episode, which usually added something to the story or to the understanding of the galaxy, but it didn’t really move the story forward, and in some cases, it wasn’t very exciting.

The low point of the season, according to many, was the Mokko story arc — and I can agree with that. Apart from the simplicity of the story, it had a too-specific political message that was annoying. In addition, the tsunami in Pabu and the adventure with the “Indiana Jones impersonator” Phee Genoa were a bit of a standout from this season. However, it’s important to note that this is still a series for young adolescents, and it needs stories that are just for enjoyment, and not necessarily always with a deep message or connected to the big political-historical events of the galaxy.

Dave Filoni has had less time

Dave Filoni has been working as an Executive Creative Director at Lucasfilm since the summer of 2020, and is a key figure in the development of Mandoverse: he is also working with Jon Favreau as a writer, executive producer and director on The Mandalorian, and is overseeing the production of Ahsoka. He was and is also involved in Tales of the Jedi and Skeleton Crew, so it’s no wonder that he could presumably devote less attention to the second season of The Bad Batch.

Screenshot from the episode ‘The Outpost’ (StarWars.com)

Grips too much but holds too little

I think the main problem with The Bad Batch is that it’s not just trying to be a transitional animated series between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, but more than that. The series is simply taking on too much, and this is complicated by the fact that it is essentially trying to tell several stories within a series for young adolescents.

In my view, The Bad Batch is trying to do great things in three areas at once:

1. to tell the story of the members of the Bad Batch;
2. to tell the story of the birth and early stages of the Empire and the clone rebellion; and
3. to lead up to the sequel trilogy with the cloning storyline.

Obviously, getting to know each member of the Bad Batch better, sympathising with them and feeling the weight of what happens to them is (would be) key to the success of the animated series. But the series, in my opinion, does not deal with its main characters as much as it should. Although the great virtue of the second season was that we learned more about Tech’s character than before (setting up the season finale), we still know very little about the others. The show’s creators also gave us Crosshair’s redemption story, but in my opinion, we could have spent more time on The Bad Batch’s most interesting character.

Screenshot from the episode ‘Plan 99’ (StarWars.com)

It’s also clear that The Bad Batch integrated the storyline of George Lucas’ never-made live-action series Underworld, which would have shown the formation of the Empire, the replacement of the clones, and then their rebellion. In this respect, the second season was perhaps the best, despite the fact that we still know almost nothing about the work of Rex and his team.

And although we still don’t know exactly what work is going on at the cloning base on Mount Tantiss, it is said to be important to Palpatine, and even a senior official of the Galactic Empire like Grand Moff Tarkin has no information about what is happening in Wayland. All of this makes it seem that The Bad Batch, unlike The Clone Wars, is not just linking two films, but also a prelude to the sequel.

The unravelling of these three storylines seems mission impossible for the time being, at least it hasn’t done this season any favours at all. After all, the animated series grabs too much but holds too little: it cannot sufficiently unfold any of these storylines. And because it tells us so little about some members of the Bad Batch, we don’t get to know the characters well enough to really connect with them, which could have a negative impact on the series as a whole in the future.

Screenshot from the episode ‘Plan 99’ (StarWars.com)

What is the solution?

An important criticism of the second season was that it revealed little new information about the three storylines mentioned before. We did not get to know the members of the Bad Batch much better, we learned almost nothing about the preparations for the clone rebellion, and we have no more information about what is going on at Mount Tantiss. While I explicitly like the fact that The Bad Batch often keeps viewers in the dark about the future, I understand that this can be frustrating for many.

The question arises as to how the mistakes could be corrected in season three (it was officially announced on the 10th of April 2023 at Star Wars Celebration Europe in London that the third season will be the last in the series). For me, the best solution would be a longer season. Instead of 16 episodes, 24 would be a better way to move forward with the three storylines (two of which, the Batch members’ story and what is going on at Mount Tantiss, were also connected in the season finale). It would also allow time for feel-good episodes for the target audience.

Mount Tantiss on the planet Wayland (StarWars.com)

The season may be judged differently later

Finally, I would like to address one more issue. The mood in which the second season of The Bad Batch ended certainly has an impact on the judgement of the second season. For the animated series, this season was The Empire Strikes Back: we witnessed the power of the Empire, the betrayal of a character linked to our protagonists, and their capture as a result. All hope seems to have been lost — as it was at the end of The Empire Strikes Back — and this has certainly left its mark on how we see the second season as a whole.

However, I always think it is important to point out that it is not worth evaluating a particular episode or storyline in isolation because we do not know what will happen later, which may impact our perception of the earlier episodes. The same is true, I think, of the second season of The Bad Batch as a whole: it is possible that the third season will cast a different light on everything that has been seen in the last 16 episodes.

Ben Földi, a journalist, was the editor-in-chief of the former Hungarian Star Wars fan portal Ziro.hu. He is currently a guest author of the Hungarian Star Wars fan blog Rebo.hu, where he occasionally writes about the galaxy far, far away. The first version of this article was published in Hungarian on Rebo.hu.

*You can follow Ben Földi on Twitter.*