(no subject)

[skygiants]

For the first two/thirds of Season Two of Star Wars: The Bad Batch, I was convinced that this show was actually two completely different shows. One show was a charming but relatively unambitious adventure-of-the-week pitched at thirteen-year-olds in which the Bad Batch + plucky teen clone Omega hunt for treasure in various locations across the galaxy, usually failing to get it but discovering along the way that the real treasure is friends. Then every four or five episodes the 'Omega hunts for treasure' show would inexplicably get replaced with an episode from the other show, a grim thriller about the fate of the clones post-Order 66 as the Empire begins the process of discarding them, and the various ways in which a military-industrial complex grinds its own gears into dust.

This was a wild experience, to me! I talked a great deal about how inexplicable it was! It's with some embarrassment, now that the end has come together and the long game of the season has been revealed, that I have to admit that I actually think that overall Season Two of the Bad Batch is actually ... well-structured .... and quite good .... or at least very effective at setting off my clone feelings ...

So, as some may remember, I enjoyed Season One of the Bad Batch, but I also very much spent all of it complaining that it was focused primarily on a handful of super-powered clones who didn't feel any particular solidarity with regular clones, when I personally was mostly interested in the Regular Clone Experience.

Season Two is like, okay! well, we are still going to focus on our special clones, but you still can have your Regular Clone Experience through a long, slow arc of the series antagonist getting radicalized into class solidarity with regular clones through a series of miserable experiences with how the Empire treats both him and them! Which, obviously, was great for me, simply a wonderful time, absolutely everything I could have asked for.

But the other thing it does is have Echo, the one guy who was a regular clone before joining up with the Bad Batch leave the show several episodes in to go off and do more active clone rescue/resistance stuff -- with the reason implied though not stated to be because he feels the solidarity and responsibility that the others don't -- and then most of the rest of the season is about dealing with his absence, and the long-term conflicts between the equally justifiable but mutually incompatible desires to a.) fight a necessary and important fight and b.) to find a safe place to grow and watch the people you love grow, which makes it abruptly very satisfying when the grim B-plot suddenly collides back into the A-plot and everybody has to start making choices about who and what they value enough to risk their lives for. They set up plot and emotional coupons and pay them off, and I didn't expect it and I'm sort of mad about it. I wasn't emotionally prepared for this show to be good!

All that said, I do think it's very funny how they can signal Something Unusual is Up with a New Character simply by virtue of having someone who's not Dee Bradley Baker speak with a New Zealand accent.

Comments

[starlady]

I really liked it! Though I also quite enjoyed S1. It's interesting how the Batch's experience both alienates them from and then makes them sympathetic towards the regs. Also I loved seeing Riyo Chuuchi again and I'm convinced she's going to die in S3.

[skygiants]

yesssss I was so stoked to see Chuuchi again! an experienced politician! a clone advocate! with a new hairstyle!! (I was absolutely convinced she was being introduced just to get killed off in s1 tbh and was delighted to be proven wrong, but alas I think you're right that it feels very unlikely she will survive S3, if only so we don't start inconveniently asking 'where was she later in canon' ....)

[chestnut_pod]

The New Zealand accents of plot-relevant foreshadowing!!!

[skygiants]

Accents in Star Wars are all over the place and usually don't signify anything UNLESS!! it's a New Zealand accent!! which only one guy in the whole universe and his genetically identical descendants have!!

[superborb]

Oh... I like shows that try for a long arc... but I've never done any Star Wars, would it be a reasonable watch with no preexisting SW knowledge?

[cofax7]

Oh, dear, I wouldn't recommend it? It's set at a very specific time and relies on knowledge of a lot of situations and characters. At least one would need to read some summaries, I would think.

[skygiants]

hmmm, yeah, this one might be tricky -- it works very well I think as an exploration of a particular period in a familiar universe, but I honestly don't know how well it would land without context. I'd be truly fascinated to find out, though, so if you give it a try I'd be very curious to hear how it works for you!

[cofax7]

do think it's very funny how they can signal Something Unusual is Up with a New Character simply by virtue of having someone who's not Dee Bradley Baker speak with a New Zealand accent

OMG yes. That set off many speculations!

[skygiants]

Always excited to hear Keisha Castle-Hughes for various reasons but it was extra funny this time!