I'll set my alarm for a half an hour earlier than normal then. I always try to watch before I go to work in order to avoid spoilers.
Well that was a very satisfying conclusion. I have to admit that when I saw the silhouette of Omega sneaking away at the end, I was halfway expecting her to be sneaking off to be trained as a Jedi by Asaaj. I think I much prefer the ending we got. Now I want the next animated project to be Hera, Rex, Ahsoka, Sabine and Omega during the Rebellion post Battle of Yavin.
This is me pointedly ignoring the fact that I was wrong and the Operative(s) was not Cody. Or even Tech. And in actuality was nobody. I second this request.
That was a good ending. I'm a little surprised by the lack of Rex to the rescue, but this wasn't his story. I'm also surprised all the heroes made it out alive. The flash forward makes a bunch of sense and I didn't see it coming even though I should have. I really hope we get Omega, and maybe even the rest of the Batch, in the Mando timeline at some point. Also hope we get a Bluray box set of all 3 seasons soon.
Mostly satisfying. Lacked a few appearances I hoped would happen to help answer and tie up some things, but on balance it worked.
At the rate Clones age, wouldn't the rest of the batch be the equivalent of being in their 80s in Mando's time? Not impossible they'd be alive or even active, I guess, but still.
At bare minimum I'd expect Hunter to have white hair and just like Rex does in Rebels and now that he's been retconned into the Battle of Endor in ROTJ.
OK, let's just get one thing out of the way first: #ScorchLives! Right then, now we're all clear on that point . . . what a fantastic finale! Couldn't have asked for more! Well we could, but we really shouldn't. It's impressive how the managed to make it both restrained and intensely focused. Not cheap drama, no pointless cameos, needless namedrops, surprise twists, or and of the other kinds of things fans think they want in this kind of thing; they kept it squarely character driven as I expected they would! Will probably have more thoughts to share later while I digest and rewatch it again, so for now; here's my usual collection of rambling notes: - Most ominous opening, yet, all monochrome and spartan, with the logo stripped of its usual patchwork paint, just like the Bad Batch’s armour. The music and pace of the opening reinforces what I’ve already presumed; that these last episodes are intended to be viewed back-to-back as one big final movie, just like the end of The Clone Wars. That’s cute. Eva has her Lula doll tucked behind her into her belt, just as Jax has Bayrn in a sling on his back. Nice to see that thread carried through, and a subtle reminder that this is happening partly because of the compassion of Emerie. While I never expected them to kill off a member of the Batch two season finales running; I have to admit that for a few moments there they still managed to have me wandering about each of all three of the surviving originals not making it out of this alive at one point or another. Excellent and effective use of tension and suspense! We never did see the other mysterious room in the vault again.I guess that will be a hanging thread for future storytelling to pick back up down the line; presumably Thrawn related, one imagines! As expected, the advanced CX clones are just a bunch of non-character, mid-level bosses. Just a physical threat. No surprise identity reveals. They do, however, seem to be at least partly modelled on the Batch; at least in terms of the diversity of roles. Plus one of them in particular had a somewhat Wrecker-like bearing. Curious, though, how three out of the four of them seem to specialise in close quarters weapons, not blasters, though I suppose they are meant to be assassins, not soldiers. I do like that Hemlock is competent enough to set up a trap for the Bad Batch that actually worked! Not many Imperials are so strategically effective! It makes his ultimate defeat all the more satisfying. I guess Crosshair doesn’t have to worry about that hand shaking anymore . . . too soon? I’m assuming these devices used to condition the clones are an early model mind flayer. They certainly fit the description, and look close enough to the depiction in ‘The Mandalorian’. Guess that means some of Hemlock’s work did actually survive all the way into the New Republic era! I kind of like that they don’t explicitly explain what Project Necromancer is trying to do. We can of course surmise and connect the dots ourselves based on what we’ve seen, but the truth isn’t actually relevant to the story being told here, so I’m quite happy that they went to the lengths of having a character explain it to another character . . . entirely offscreen! Clearly Tarkin has agents in planters on Wayland because how else did he hear about this so fast? I wonder if these are official ISP Operatives reporting to him, or if he has his own personal eyes and ears embedded in Tantiss. Either way, I’d be surprised if Palpatine wasn’t fully aware that he’s poking around where he wasn’t invited. The training room is an interesting design.Clearly taking some cues from the Bespin carbon freezing chamber. As I mentioned last week; I was curious as to what Rampart was supposed to do here at this point in the story, but he’s been used well. Ultimately it’s his own greed that guarantees Project Necromancer was totally obliterated. Had Nala-Se done as she intended without Rampart’s interference, she would (presumably) have been alive after wiping the data and blowing up the lab. Being the only one who could possibly continue the work, it would have left open the possibility for her to be recaptured in the future. I mean I doubt she went in there intending to die, or she wouldn’t have waited for Hemlock to shoot her. I did enjoy how Rampart doesn’t even get to finish his final word of disbelief before being vaporised along with the rest of that room. Between that and last week’s comical screams, he’s been a fun Imperial to despise, without diminishing any of his threat and menace. Can’t really say why, but the visual of the lab’s door window blackening from the outside as the explosion propagates is a very satisfying one. An easier and less imaginative choice would have just been to have the down blown open in a gigantic fireball. Somehow having the lab contain and muffle the destruction made it seem all the more potent and final! That was very nearly a “we have a Hulk“ moment, but with a Wrecker. Oh well, Close enough! Yes, yes, both Hemlock and Scorch both took several hits to the chest, went over the same railing, and fell the same distance down into the same jungle. Despite that, Hemlock is obviously dead and Scorch obviously survived because the former is a squishy bad guy who’s story has come to a close and deserves to be shot to death, while the latter is a character I irrationally want to still be alive, so we can have the possibility of the Delta Squad reunion at some point down the line. Also he was wearing heavy armour, so there! Great and well deserved final hero moment for Crosshair! Making an impossible shot with his off hand, his usual shooting hand “off“, and nary a single tremor. Of course our first, and earliest canonical view of an Imperial-class Star Destroyer happens in the final episode, and no surprise that it belongs to Tarkin! Very cool, but still kind of weird to see one being flanked by a pair of Venators and launching V-Wings! I wonder if it’s the same destroyer the Spectres will eventually total over Mustafar? Finishing off with some final plot house-keeping; Not surprised Tantis gets shuttered, or that Stardust gets one final name-drop. But still, it’s good to have that thread accounted for even if it wasn’t 100% necessary to spell it out. One wonders though if the facility will still be used as a storehouse for Thrawn to raid 30 years down the line as in the EU, or if this is the end of it? I mean the location has been burned, physically and literally! As far as happy endings, go, this one feels well earned! Glad to see lots of the clones made it out, and that Pabu is none the worse for wear after the Empire’s visit! The epilogue was tastefully done. I like that they kept the details as to the timeline ambiguous, and that just like the rest of the show was focused more on the characters than the big sweeping story. My gut says this is somewhere between the battles of Lothal and Scarif/Yavin just to give it a neat way to link up to where ‘Rebels’ left things off, but it could also be just after Yavin depending on how one interprets "especially now", or even several years prior! Hunter doesn't look anywhere near as grey as either Rex or Wolfe did even several years prior to the OT; They may have been gen-1s, but the age difference can't be huge so that could indeed indicate this is a bit earlier then ‘Rebels’. That said; Pabu's tropical climate is clearly softer living than the baked salt flats of Seelos, so that’s plenty to fudge it one way or the other. Interesting how that opening shot of the island on Pabu mirrors the same one of Tantiss. I’m sure there’s some kind symbolism involved there. Nice to see both Batcher & Gonky still kicking, and it seems as though the old power droid is joining the rebellion too? Incidentally; how many Clone War veteran droid characters do we have in the Rebel Alliance now? Artoo, Chopper, Bucket, and now Gonky? “Grown up” Omega’s design is interesting as she really doesn’t look too much like Emerie Karr. At first I thought maybe it’s mostly the hair and the outfit making her seem much slimmer, but a closer side-by-side shows that it’s an entirely different sculpt. The nose and eye shapes are different, the lips are thinner, the chin more pronounced. It looks like they mostly took her existing asset and just altered the geometry to more adult proportions. Not that that’s a bad thing; the audience still needs to be able to see the young kid we’ve known in that face. The detail on her right shoulder just looks a pocket or the usual Star Wars costume techno-greeblies, while the patch on her left shoulder is clearly a black on red ‘Clone Force 99’ skull insignia, sans the usual aurebesh “99”. Another easily missed detail is that she seems to be wearing one of Hunter’s old red bandannas as a hairband (subtle distinction, I know!) While Hunter himself seems to be wearing something made locally. A clear sign that he and his brothers are well and truly retired, and this is Omega’s fight now. Probably doesn't mean anything more than just a subtle tip of the hat; but the bag Omega is carrying is almost the same asset as the one Sabine had in her epilogue scene (the live action version looked quite a bit different, IIRC.) Only it's in CF99 colours, of course! Another weird connection to Sabine (and I guess Luke, technically?) that probably doesn’t mean anything; Echo mentions Omega’s callsign as “Havoc 5” vs Sabine being “Spectre 5”. Side note: I don’t recall has been referenced before, or am I forgetting something? Also shouldn't she be "Havoc 6"? For those that don’t know; the Marauder was known during pre-production of their Clone Wars debut episodes as the “Havoc Marauder”. It was changed to just Marauder before the cancellation, but “Havoc Marauder” still made it into a few articles, and I think the subtitles, for some odd reason. Speaking of the Marauder: Omega's ship is a new and curious design. Like a cross between the Marauder, and both Phantoms I & II. Also shades of the ‘Blackhawk Destroyer’ planet hopper from the old Droids cartoon (which I can only assume was intended to be a Kenner toy that never got made, since that’s exactly what it looks like!) It also looks like it may have been built partly from the salvaged wreck of the Marauder, or some other Omicron-Class shuttle. The aft gunner seat (aka Omega’s old bedroom) certainly looks identical. The dorsal fin and the fuselage cannons also look very similar, if not exactly identical. In addition to Tech’s goggles, I also spotted Lula on the chair she threw her satchel on.
A more upbeat ending than I expected. I was convinced Wrecker and possibly Crosshair were going to die rescuing Omega. Instead, they all got out, with the only sacrifices on the good guys' side being Nala Se and a bunch of liberated clones we never knew as characters. And they treated Project Necromancer as completely shut down, although we know that won't be permanent. Really, it felt a bit dishonest to make the ending so upbeat, aside from the throwaway reference to "Project Stardust" and the mention of the Rebellion in the tag. Hard to believe the clones would really be free to do "whatever we want" in a galaxy falling more and more under the Empire's tyranny. I liked how, when they sent Emerie off with the kids, Echo took it as a given that Omega would be staying with him, and didn't make any attempt to convince her to go with the others. And of course, the climactic scene just had to be on a narrow catwalk leading to a precariously perched platform impractically high above the ground. They just can't help themselves. This one actually had railings, IIRC, but totally inadequate ones as it turned out. It was a bit disorienting for a second to see Emerie without her goggles in the denouement. And then Omega grew up to look just like her, of course, just with blond hair.
I figure if Rex is around during the Battle of Endor, then a few defective clones could still be kicking a couple years after that.
At least Omega ages normally. Given that she's a rebel now, I wouldn't be surprised if she has a cameo in Andor, and then has a pronounced role in one of the Mando-era shows, which may give enough of an excuse to show her brothers. I wonder what Emerie's up to, too.
Either he's still alive, or they accidentally reused his model in a later scene. https://www.reddit.com/r/thebadbatch/comments/1chm6gg/spoilers_for_finale/
That... was ok. Not bad, but also not good. Just sort of there. It literally didn't do anything you couldn't have seen coming, with the exception of Spoiler Crosshair's hand, which is just shrugged off like it's nothing without comment afterwards. It felt oddly rushed, considering how heavily the plot has been dragging it's feet for weeks (though the character work has been relatively good to make up for it). The emotional payoffs were fumbled by further dragging out the squad reunion in a game of "you're captured, now they're captured, now you're captured again!" The operatives ended up being generic nobody mooks, just as Reverend predicted a few weeks ago. It works, considering how much this episode abandoned the larger galactic stuff in favor of the smaller, family story. I was a little amused by the choice of weapons, between the shock stick, the shield, and the swords the new ones end up just being clone versions of the old BX commando droids from the Clone Wars. A fun little nod, there. This season felt like a much shorter miniseries that got, really unnecessarily, stretched into 15 episodes. This was easily the weakest ending among the SW animated shows. I respect the creative choice to keep the story small, in the end. Despite Necromancer, this was at heart a story of a small family that found itself. I was disappointed that the villains were such chumps in the end, but not surprised. Rampart got the better ending, in my opinion. I could have done without the epilogue. It didn't add anything to the episode, and the fact that Omega still has the voice of a child some decades later bothered me. Lots of plot threads left for the wider universe to play with if they want. Going to be honest, I'm not sure I care to see any of these characters again.
Huh? Her voice is in a normal range for many adult women, no higher than Ashley Eckstein's, say. Wookieepedia says that Michelle Ang pitched Omega's voice lower in later seasons to reflect her growing maturity. This season, she was effectively a teenager, so it makes sense she'd have the same vocal range as in adulthood.
One of them looked like it might have been Tech. I'm fine with this. There are identical twins who look a bit different due to different diets and lifestyles, (and health issues for one of them) after growing up.