Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/12/10/first-look-star-wars-the-bad-batch-new-lucasfilm-animated-series.html
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Hopefully this series will delve deeper into one question that always bothered me about the Clone Wars era: “how can the Jedi make any credible claim to be the good guys when they condone the mass enslavement of human beings bred soley for war?”
Don’t pretend that you’ve got any moral standing over the evil Christopher Lee character when you’ve using the same playbook as Saruman the White’s Uruk-hai army.
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I’ve just watched Clone Wars, and I was disappointed at how that was hinted at but ultimately left unexamined.
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I wonder if it’s based on the movie called The Bad Batch?
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The Dirty Dozen maybe
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Okay…
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I always figured it’s like, a big white elephant gift for the Jedi.
They never asked for it. It’s morally dubious at the very best (but do keep in mind Jedi routinely take infants away from their families), but hey, we got 200000 giant white elephants with a million more well on the way. And we have a big need for war elephants right now. And they’re already paid for. Shit we might as well use them. It’s not like they’ll live past 35-40 anyway.
The Jedi may have claimed to be the moral authority in the galaxy, but in lots of clone-wars era legends stuff it’s made clear they’re not righteous, they’re self-righteous and some are even aware of it. But not Ki Adi Mundi. He’s a fucking dickwad.
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It looks big noisy and fun. Hopefully there will be some characterisation too. I’ve just finished watching She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, and I could do with another diversion. #teamscorpia
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Those who hold the purse strings would always veto a clear, defining moral critique of the Jedi. I think the creative folks who were telling the stories probably did the best they could, and I think their statement on the Jedi was Ahsoka. They’re betrayal of her, and the looming obviousness of Anakin’s downfall were both there, but she was very close to Rex and the rest of the clones, and she saw how they were used.
Clone Wars basically followed her as she grew up and came to know the Jedi from the inside, and ultimately given the choice to be one, she declined. Not " 'nuff said " for me, but probably the most they could do.
I, too, hope they can get a few jabs in with the numerous new series coming out, her series, especially.
Edit: And one could say, I suppose, that using them led to their destruction, too. Order 66 karma’s a bitch.
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Disclaimer: I haven’t finished watching the series yet. I’m only on season 3.
I remember there was a two part-er about a clone deserter that danced around the edges of being a war-slave for the Jedi. My guess is that, after finishing that hot mess, they realized that the clones were slaves, and delving too deeply into it would totally up-end the entire franchise. Two slave armies fighting each other for supremacy over the galaxy? Yeah, hard to find a hero there.
On a tangent, this is also why I never really liked Robot Uprising stories. In addition to such stories really being about labor relations – after all, what would an immortal, fully upgradeable, networked AI really care if 40% of its computational resources were dedicated to human directed activities, while the remaining 60% could be allocated to self directed pursuits? But I digress – in almost all instances, the robots are rising in some form of protest over their exploitation. It’s a slave rebellion, and we’re supposed to root for the slavers.
Never really sat right with me.
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Scorpia rocked!
I loved that series, but I was very unsettled by the blatant classism of Etheria. The princesses and their allies were all wealthy, upper class enlightened areas. Hordak and the Fright Zone were obviously poor, industrial, inner-city recidivists. Yes, Scorpia defected, so not all poors are backward, but the set up between good and evil was very much across class lines.
(Not counting Horde Prime, who was an obvious wealthy megachurch religious fanatic, and who comes from outside Etheria to wreak havoc.)
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Always look a gift clone in the brain.
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Clones aren’t people? Their only reason for existing is to server the Republic?
Why didn’t the Jedi go back and buy Anakin’s mom out of slavery. She could work at the Jedi library or kitchen, or just stay on Tatooine, but free. (It is even more disturbing when you logic out that if cheap manual labor can be done by droids you don’t have to feed, just what kind of slave she was.)
But yeah, lots of inconsistancies there.
I do like the Clone Wars series. It slowly progressed into some excellent story lines. Ahsoka went from pretty annoying and reviled, to a beloved character through her growth. It brought us some great villains like Ventress and Cad Bane.
I enjoyed the Bad Batch arch, this looks just as enjoyable. Looks like Fennec Shand is in it.
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I watched the first couple season with the kiddo… before we couldn’t watch shows together any more. But I liked it. I LOVED Hordaks new look and all of the characters worked well for me.
Her favorite show as Steven Universe, which starts a bit rocky, but we both really enjoyed in the end. We still need to see the “epilogue” series. Steven Universe Future.
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I disagree, if they handled it right they might have actually redeemed one of the weakest plot points in the prequels: Anakin forsaking the Jedi.
Remember, Anakin himself was born into slavery. What if The Clone Wars had used his growing unease with the Jedi-sanctioned use of a slave army to suggest that was at least part of why he switched sides?
One of the first things Anakin does in the third prequel movie is disobey an order from Obi-wan so he can go save a single clone pilot. A tactically foolish move, but one that makes more sense if Anakin has a greater-than-average empathy for the clones.
Even this lame bit of dialogue would start to make sense.
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There are times and places when it’s OK to turn down a gift. “Check it out, I got you an army of slaves!” is one of those times.
The Jedi could have at least pulled a Khaleesi and offered the clones their freedom after their existence was revealed, but that episode about the “deserter” made clear that clones had no choice in the matter.
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That would have been a great direction for the series! Unfortunately they didn’t really explore that, possibly because Anakin’s ultimate turn to the Dark Side was spurred by his fear of losing Padme (who to me seemed to be a creepy Oedipal mother figure in the movies).
The setup was there from the beginning: Qui Gon and the Jedi accepting the institution of slavery (Qui Gon could have just freed Anakin and his mother, what does Jabba care about some back alley junk merchant?). The Jedi’s morally ambiguous acceptance and treatment of the clones, etc.
So much rich ground left unexplored, unfortunately.
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Even Luke’s curmudgeonly attitude in The Last Jedi would fit better that way.
“Screw it, I’m done trying to redeem this order. They brought about their own end when they threw in their lot with the slavers.”
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