Star Wars: 'The Bad Batch' Adds More Nuance To The Clones
How the show explores the morality of the clone army by focusing on them as individuals
As we gear up for exciting shows like The Book of Boba Fett and Obi Wan Kenobi, it is worth taking a look at what the galaxy far, far away looks like right now. This year’s The Bad Batch follows defective clone Unit 99 right after Order 66 (the order to kill all the Jedi) is given and all the Jedi are defeated. These clones, named Hunter, Wrecker, Crosshair, and Tech, are not engineered like the rest of the clone army; as ‘defective clones,’ they have enhanced skills and a propensity to not follow orders to the letter (or at all). Consequently, we see early on that they are immune to Order 66 (with the exception of Crosshair) and are therefore morally confounded by the transition from a Republic to an Empire.
The Bad Batch is only the second Star Wars show where none of the main characters are Force sensitive (though it seems The Book of Boba Fett will join it soon). The Force is actually not even mentioned once during the whole show. This is a great creative decision because the entire point of the clones is that they are “nobodies”; that they are nothing special, which goes against the movies’ annoying habit of using the Force as the only way to make a protagonist special. Of course, in the The Last Jedi, director Rian Johnson did try to subvert this trend by making Rey a “nobody” (but not to Kylo Ren, lol). Unfortunately, this was retconned by the last installment of the sequel trilogy in the most abhorrent way, but this retcon at least paved the way for The Bad Batch, where the main characters are not even regular clones, are not Force sensitive, and have seemingly no part to play in the Skywalker saga.
The story deepens the tragedy of the clones that The Clone Wars explored and the prequels failed to deliver by focusing on their story as soldiers who were manufactured and engineered. The Clone Wars introduces us to fan-favorite clones such as Rex and his squad, Commander Cody, and other clone captains serving under Jedi Knights. Even though they are clones, we still get to know them as individuals with distinct personalities. And by showing us the bond that the Jedi had with the clones, and that Anakin Skywalker had with his clone squad, The Clone Wars gives the tragedy of Anakin’s fall to the Dark Side more consequence. By presenting the clones as individuals being used by the Republic and the Jedi, the show turns them into the embodiment of the sins of the Republic and the moral failure of the Jedi.
The Clones Wars demonstrates how the Jedi had sealed their own fate when they consented to the use of the clone army, both strategically and morally. Palpatine is of course responsible for orchestrating the entire war, but by using a clone army the Jedi had become hypocrites; their teachings could not have been more contrary to a) going to war, and b) manufacturing human beings for the purpose of sending them to war. Even though many Jedi generals had formed close bonds with their clone squadrons, by principle, the Jedi Order was already corrupted. Ahsoka and Anakin felt this on some level, and it became even more obvious when Ahsoka chose to leave the Order at the end of the show. However, the Bad Batch only come into contact with Anakin and Ahsoka briefly in the final season of The Clone Wars, and are then ultimately removed from the Skywalker saga. This is a smart world-building decision from Disney as it means that the tragedy of the clone army can then be explored even more in depth. The Bad Batch then opens with the nominal clones being sent on a mission to aid Jedi Master Depa Billaba and her padawan Caleb (later known as Kanan Jarris in Star Wars: Rebels), when Palpatine gives Order 66 and all clones turn on the Jedi, including the Bad Batch’s Crosshair. The other members of the Bad Batch, however, are immune, and they refuse to join the Empire after seeing firsthand the brutality of its consolidation of power.
The Bad Batch follows in The Clone Wars’ footsteps and draws attention to the nature of the clones as manufactured humans genetically engineered to be soldiers and follow orders. Squad 99 is deemed ‘defective’ because they are more individualized and not as prone to blindly follow orders. The authoritarianism of the Empire was made explicit in the original trilogy by introducing the concept of the stormtroopers as faceless and disposable, much like the citizens of the galaxy they oppress. But we learn in the prequels and animated shows (The Clones Wars and The Bad Batch) that those stormtroopers are indeed individuals.
In the two part season finale of The Bad Batch, we see Kamino (the planet in which the clones are created) destroyed by the Empire, who does not see the need for more clones. The Bad Batch and Omega (another defective clone who joins them) are left to die as the cloning facility is destroyed, and in their attempt to escape they pass the incubation lab, where rows of glass compartments hold the clone fetuses. Omega, who is a first generation clone and was medical assistant to Nala Se (the lead scientist who created the clones), would have seen thousands of clones be incubated before being born. As the incubators drown with the rest of the facility, we can see through her eyes the disposability of the clones laid bare. In this way, The Bad Batch finishes what The Clones Wars started by humanizing the clones and vindicating them as the first victims of both the Republic and the Empire. The liberation of the Bad Batch, Rex, Cut, Gregor, and Cody from what they were engineered to do is the first spark of hope against the Empire—perhaps more than the guilt of the surviving Jedi or the struggle of the Rebels against the Empire later on.
By: Anael Jordan Ortiz