Star Wars: The Bad Batch

[JohnC]

Dave Filoni is back to animation again with The Bad Batch. The Bad Batch being a group of Clone Troopers first introduced in The Clone Wars. Though this is set just after the war as they take on mercenary jobs and try to find their purpose.

 

Quote

The series follows the elite and experimental clones of the Bad Batch (first introduced in The Clone Wars) as they find their way in a rapidly changing galaxy in the immediate aftermath of the Clone War. Members of Bad Batch – a unique squad of clones who vary genetically from their brothers in the Clone Army — each possess a singular exceptional skill which makes them extraordinarily effective soldiers and a formidable crew. In the post-Clone War era, they will take on daring mercenary missions as they struggle to stay afloat and find new purpose.

 

[Captain Kelsten]

[yakumo]

Cannot wait, hope we see a arc with Ventress.

[Boothjan]

Great news - The Bad Batch were superb when they were introduced in season 7.

[Garwoofoo]

I've only just started watching The Clone Wars and it's much, much better than I thought it was going to be.

[Captain Kelsten]

24 minutes ago, Garwoofoo said:

I've only just started watching The Clone Wars and it's much, much better than I thought it was going to be.

 

When it's good, it's some of the best star wars there is and almost redeems the prequel era. It actually makes a brilliant character of Anakin, which is saying something. But, when it's bad, it's pretty bad. For me, the good far outweighs the bad but be warned there's a few rough patches here and there. It also gets better and better as the seasons progress.

[Mogster]

I'm very slowly making my way through The Clone Wars, but I absolutely adored Rebels and was disappointed with the non-Filonied Resistance. So bring this on, basically.

[Boothjan]

38 minutes ago, Doctor Shark said:

 

When it's good, it's some of the best star wars there is and almost redeems the prequel era. It actually makes a brilliant character of Anakin, which is saying something. But, when it's bad, it's pretty bad. For me, the good far outweighs the bad but be warned there's a few rough patches here and there. It also gets better and better as the seasons progress.

 

Pretty well summed up.  I agree.

 

And as this is based on one of the good parts of Clone Wars, I'm 100% in.

[gospvg]

 

The series will premiere on Disney+ on 4th May with a special 70-minute episode. New episodes will then drop weekly on Fridays, starting from 7th May.

 

[Harsin]

I thought these guys were rubbsh and annoying in those Clone Wars episodes they did about them. But it's set in an interesting period (straight after the fall of the Republic) that hasn't really been explored much on screen.

[JohnC]

Reminder that the first ep is tomorrow, then another Friday and continuing on Fridays after that.

[yakumo]

My body is ready.

[Captain Kelsten]

First episode is up, it’s over an hour long and it’s great. Loved it. Can’t wait for more. 

[And]

Me and the boy are working our way through all eleventy-seven episodes of clone wars and are somewhere in S5 I think. Do we need to have finished that to start this or can we just dive in?

Ta

[Garwoofoo]

7 minutes ago, And said:

Me and the boy are working our way through all eleventy-seven episodes of clone wars and are somewhere in S5 I think. Do we need to have finished that to start this or can we just dive in?

Ta

 

It's unclear because we don't yet know whether BB will follow on directly from any TCW stories, but watch the first four episodes of S7 at least because that's when the characters are introduced.

 

Everything I've seen suggests that BB is really just "more Clone Wars" so I don't think it's worth skipping what's basically the best bit of the old show just to get to the new stuff.

[womblingfree]

This is bloody great, wasn’t expecting feature length episodes either. 
 

From this showing, it’s carrying on the quality of the end of Season 7 and running with it.

 

@Garwoofoo @And It’s set directly after Order 66, so the end of TCW. You can either jump to Season 7 or dive right into Bad Batch. It’s set up pretty well so that ploughing through TCW isn’t really necessary, but S7 TCW is god-tier Star Wars, so you’re in for a treat there whenever you decide to watch it.

[Twinbee]

Myself and my kids (with no clone wars cartoon knowledge) will dive straight into this, I think. My kids haven't seen the prequel movies either.

 

My son tried watching Phantom Menace and gave up about half an hour in ("it was so booooring! It was just these two frog guys talking for like forever"). Me <Emperor voice> "Goooood".

 

So we'll see how far we get. Hopefully with this, they'll be as smart as they were with Mandalorian, in that you could watch with zero knowledge of Star Wars, and still really enjoy it.

[And]

We wouldn’t be skipping TCW, we’d come back to it, just don’t want spoilers of to miss some set up. Think we might wait

[womblingfree]

53 minutes ago, And said:

We wouldn’t be skipping TCW, we’d come back to it, just don’t want spoilers of to miss some set up. Think we might wait

Going straight from watching the lot and the Season 7 finale will be all sorts of amazing.

[Waggo]

That was great.  
 

I am still continually impressed by how TCW, Rebels and now this spin off are able to make such fantastic use of the steaming piles of turgid shite which was gifted to them by the prequels.

[MardiganX]

All these reserved, casual impressions are misleading.

 

This. Is. Fucking. Brilliant!!  
 

Like TCW, the way it handles and what it adds to Order 66 is just amazing. Really strong start and can’t wait for the next episode.

 

[Vulgar Monkey]

Solid set up.

 

Also, am I remembering wrong or have they sharpened up the visuals a bit compared to the previous series?

This has an interesting textured brush-stroke effect on all the surfaces that I don't recall noticing before. Looks cool.

[Captain Kelsten]

3 hours ago, And said:

Me and the boy are working our way through all eleventy-seven episodes of clone wars and are somewhere in S5 I think. Do we need to have finished that to start this or can we just dive in?

Ta

keep up with clone wars. It introduces these characters in the final season and whilst you don’t necessarily need to know more than “they’re the genetic anomalies who get sent on suicide missions”, it’ll make everything so much more epic and amazing as this takes place just prior to and just after order 66 comes in. 

 

3 hours ago, Garwoofoo said:

 

It's unclear because we don't yet know whether BB will follow on directly from any TCW stories, but watch the first four episodes of S7 at least because that's when the characters are introduced.

 

Everything I've seen suggests that BB is really just "more Clone Wars" so I don't think it's worth skipping what's basically the best bit of the old show just to get to the new stuff.

the first episode is set just before and just after order 66 so follow on directly from tcw. 

 

3 hours ago, Twinbee said:

Myself and my kids (with no clone wars cartoon knowledge) will dive straight into this, I think. My kids haven't seen the prequel movies either.

 

My son tried watching Phantom Menace and gave up about half an hour in ("it was so booooring! It was just these two frog guys talking for like forever"). Me <Emperor voice> "Goooood".

 

So we'll see how far we get. Hopefully with this, they'll be as smart as they were with Mandalorian, in that you could watch with zero knowledge of Star Wars, and still really enjoy it.

Again, you probably don’t need to know more than the fact the bad batch are a “special” squad with genetic anomalies which get sent on suicide missions, but this whole first episode is about them and their reaction to order 66. 

[Harsin]

Decent start, they're a lot less grating than when they popped up in those new Clone Wars episodes they made,

 

One creative mis-step.

 

Spoiler

Having 45 year old Freddy Prince Junior voicing a kid, while well intentioned, sounded bloody ridiculous.

 

[JohnC]

5 hours ago, womblingfree said:

This is bloody great, wasn’t expecting feature length episodes either. 

I think it's just the first that's feature length and the rest will probably be 20-something minutes.

[Garwoofoo]

Enjoyed that a lot: it really is just more Clone Wars. Looks pretty spectacular in places too.

 

The new child character with the middle-aged woman's voice is a bit odd though, I wonder if there will be a reason for that or if it's just dodgy casting. She doesn't sound like a kid at all.

[Pob]

30 minutes ago, Harsin said:

Decent start, they're a lot less grating than when they popped up in those new Clone Wars episodes they made,

 

One creative mis-step.

 

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Having 45 year old Freddy Prince Junior voicing a kid, while well intentioned, sounded bloody ridiculous.

 

Oh fuck that was 

Spoiler

Kanan?

 

[JohnC]

4 minutes ago, Pob said:

Oh fuck that was 

  Hide contents

Kanan?

 

Oh shit, you're right!

[Vulgar Monkey]

Did not pick up on that.

[Mogster]

Spoiler

They call him Caleb, which was Kanan's original name.

 

I had to double check in case I was misremembering, but nope. That was a nice touch.

 

I thought the episode was solid, but I'm expecting great things as the show goes on. It's great to have more Clone Wars.