A Love Letter to The Bad Batch

I'm slowly working my way through canon media in timeline order and I just finished my second ever watch of The Bad Batch. I like it at first, but I absolutely love it on revisiting. Spoilers for those that haven't finished the show ahead.

The first episode is one of the best, but the majority of the first season is disjointed setup, which I think is by design. The Batch have no idea what they're doing or what they're getting into, which is a point of view shared by the audience. Crosshair's betrayal doesn't come as a shock to the audience, but does to the main characters. The controversial addition of Omega doesn't quite feel right immediately, but turns into an incredible journey in the latter two season. I think the awkwardness of Omega's addition is also by design. The Batch and the audience both have no idea why she's there, but feel a sort of paternal connection to her. She's naive but capable, smarter than even Tech on certain circumstances. By the end of the season, as the exposition draws to a close, she begins to grow on you and Crosshair begins to grate on you. First canonical appearance (chronologically within the universe) of Fennec Shand as well as further details on the Kaminoan research and cloning capabilities also lends a great point of lore for the universe.

Season two is where things really start to pick up. We start to see each individual character grow. Wrecker becomes smarter and more in touch, Hunter begins to let go of his paternal instincts, and Omega proves herself as more than a child to be looked after. Where we see the most growth is in Tech and Crosshair. Tech has always been kind, yet simultaneously cold and unfeeling. He relies on his data and numbers far more than tact. His relationship with Phee and Omega help him grow as a person and you truly see him open up to Omega for the first time. His ultimate decision is the most logical one, but what's changed is that it isn't just about the data or what the most likely outcome is: he does it for them because he cares. Crosshair grows the most from beginning to end of this season, finally seeing what the empire truly stands for and that he isn't cared for. The Outpost is one of the best instances of canon star wars media we have access to. Start to finish, it is beautifully written and even surpasses quite a few episodes of Andor in quality.

Season 3 is... immaculate. Omega has grown from the one who needs to be protected and taught to the teacher and protector. She singlehandedly completes crosshair's character arc, convinces Emery to betray Hemlock, and brings her family back together. She took the lessons she learned from her dad brothers and reframed them so each one of them could learn. The final episode is also a masterpiece. I get that people were upset that the commandos, especially Scorch, seemed to be useless, but I think that speaks to just how good the Batch were rather than how bad the commandos were. The final scene with Hemlock on Tantiss completes every single person's character arc. I had forgotten that Omega hugged Crosshair first after being rescued which is... well, let's just say I had to pause because I couldn't see correctly.

The final 5 minutes with Hunter letting her go and seeing how omega takes a piece of each of her brother's with her: tech's goggles, wrecker's Lula, Crosshair's determination, and Hunter's resolve, completes the story in one of the most satisfying endings to a story that Star Wars has ever given us.

This is one of my most unpopular opinions, but I like TBB more than TCW. TCW was great and incredibly done, but Bad Batch is simply a better and more cohesive story by design. The clone wars was essentially a bunch of anthology stories smushed together telling us a story we already knew. Incredibly cool moments, good individual story arcs, and unforgettable characters. TBB was a full cohesive story start to finish and even the "filler" episodes contributed to the story.

I promise I didn't forget about Echo. It just felt like he was more a separate part of the story from the original 4 (or 5 counting Omega), making his own way.