clementstephena

For context:

• I have watched almost everything Star Wars (all movies, Clone Wars, Rebels, bad batch, Andor, Mandalorian, Visions, etc)
• I love the Star Wars universe
• Through Clone Wars and Rebels, Ahsoka became one of my favorite characters and unfortunately this show does her a dis-service

I cannot understate how excited I was for this show. Ahsoka being one of my favorite Star Wars characters and having loved a lot of what Dave Filioni has created. But this show left me vastly disappointed.

The show picks up right where Rebels left off and having watched that show first helps immensely.

First off, this show moves INSANELY slow. There is a lot of walking around. There is a lot of really slow talking. It feels like they needed to fill 40 minutes but only had 20 minutes of content. It even started to become a joke with the friends I was watching with. In both the first and second episode there are battles that Ahsoka has that feel note worthy and exciting, but outside of these the rest of the episodes feel like they could have been condensed into half the time they took.

Second, the lines and they way they are delivered are so childish. This feels like a call back to some of the lines from Rebels and Clone Wars that I gave a pass to, because they were kids shows, but I have never been a fan of cheesy or bad lines. They fall even more flat here on a live action. It just doesn't feel like the people are real or are saying things real people would. The emotion in line delivery is so flat and dead.

Third, the characters feel like they have changed drastically. This is probably due to the fact that we have human actors, but the characters that have come from Rebels don't feel like the way we left them in Rebels. The closest is Hera, but still she feels empty and devoid of being a general like she was in Rebels. This is even more so for Ahsoka and Sabine who feel infantile and immature in this show. Given the context of rebels they should both be much wiser, more grounded, and talented in combat. If these were new characters they would get a pass as being under-developed, but in the first two episodes they just feel like a betrayal of the characters that have already had so much invested in them.

Fourth, there is a major plot hole introduced. First thing in the show you will be introduced to this concept of a map that leads to the destination of some people. In Rebels these people were beamed at light-speed to an unknown destination that no body knew how to get to. So how is there a map just sitting around that knows where they went? How did someone find out where they went? When they found out, why did they create a map and then proceed to hide said map? Why does the map appear to be older than the event in which said people were trasported to that destination? What is happening!?!?!? Maybe these plot holes will be filled in, but I feel like this could have been much better written. (Edit: these plot holes were never filled in).

Finally, there is so much cheesy drama. There is heavy implication without any clarity of tension between Ahsoka and Sabine (which was implied in the trailers). They both whine for the majority of the first two episodes and it gets so tiresome. No, it is not fun to watch. No, there is nothing engaging or compelling about that. If you are going to have this much whining then you should have given at least flashbacks so that we can relate to where it is coming from. This feels like showing up to your significant other's 20-year highschool reunion and watching people bicker about home-wrecking a first-love teenage fling that you have no context for. No one wants that. (Edit: You get context on their drama in episode 8, which feels way too late and the reason was also poorly delivered)

The only redeeming things are that Chopper looks promising, the villains look interesting, and the new Star Wars concepts introduced by the map's destination is intriguing. Unfortunately the show's quality is so disappointing that even though 4 of us got together to watch this, I think only myself and the other die-hard Star Wars fan are going to trudge through the rest, just because we are that big of fans, but not because this is actually good.

Want to watch a Star Wars show that is actually good? For live action, go watch Andor. For animated, watch the clone wars and Rebels (but be warned you get a lot of mediocre thrown in with the truly excellent). To date Andor is still the best Star Wars show and I hope Disney learns from that and saves this universe. Please Disney, go check your own episode ratings and learn what people like and don't. Go figure out from the 8+ star episodes of Clone Wars, Rebels, Mando, etc, what you did right and where you guys keep screwing up with cheesy dialougue that loses the rest of your audience and leaves us fans cringing.

EDIT: My final take is that the beginning of this show is as poor as I described. The end gets a bit better with some epic moments, but still everything feels so forced with so many plot holes. I appreciate that the heroes don't get a perfect ending and that gives some merit to building good narrative tension, but again all the lines just feel like they were taken out of Rebels. They were fine in Rebels as it is a kids show, but this isn't.

I hope Dave Filioni can learn from Andor and combines Dave's gift for epic moments and love for Star Wars with some of the gritty and more realistic plot and aesthetic that Andor had.

I will be looking forward to Andor, but I have started to lose all hope for the rest of the Star Wars franchise. The best may be behind us.

This story is finally evolving to be more complex and add the tension and challenges that were previously absent from the story.

Without spoiling anything, I will say that the challenges for the squad evolve and they don't get the easy, scratch-free wins that they have grown accustomed to.

Omega is challenged and her standard patterns of behavior are also brought into question, which will push her to have to learn and grow from this experience.

This season had some episodes that seemed to detract or devalue the story more than adding, but this finale perfectly ties together the narrative skill that the Star Wars teams have demonstrated through their peak of the Clone Wars and Rebels.

This finale to Bad Batch creates eager anticipation for the next season and gives hope to viewers of the quality of story and characters that they might expect in the coming season.

I ask of the show-runners that you please go check the reviews and responses to your episodes. Learn from your strengths and grow from your weaknesses. There is a lot of potential in this show, but there is also room for growth. Please hone in this series just as you have with previous series and you will have many eager fans awaiting your coming work.

Congratulations on an excellent finish line for this season and good luck in the next!

My review of the last episode highlighted how the episode captured all of the series' weakest points. Somehow, in the episode directly following, they captured all of what makes Bad Batch good and all that it could be.

We see good, quality action. The scenes are stellar. The episode villain and character struggles are realistic and more relatable. We see meaningful plot development that moves the overall narrative forward. Omega feels more tolerable as she is channeling her go-lucky attitude into actually practical and useful skills. The episode has less Omega in it, which is a win overall.

This episode reminds me of the best of the Clone Wars series and highlights what I think this show could be. It is more serious and a little more gritty, which I think appeals well to both Star Wars' younger and committed older audiences and has something to keep everyone engaged. If the series wraps up with episodes all of this quality, I would be eager for season 3. Hopefully this isn't just the single hit winner of this series and hopefully the creators take some of this feedback into consideration for the creation of their future Star Wars series.

Creators, check the IMDB episode ratings from your viewers. You have some real winners like this, but also duds. Learn from your wins and mistakes and we will love you for it!