Six years after “Star Wars: Clone Wars” gave “Star Wars” fans a grounded look at the titular conflict that brought an end to the Republic and the Jedi—and in doing so rehabilitated the reputation of the “Star Wars” prequels and became a cult fan favorite in the process—the animated show has belatedly returned for a final season. The best thing to be said about Season 7 and its premiere episode, “The Bad Batch,” is that it feels as if the show never left the air in the first place. And many ways, it didn’t, as the four-episode arc that kicks-off season seven has been out since 2015 in the form of unfinished story reels.
That’s not to say this final season is leftovers; instead, ‘Clone Wars,’ just doesn’t feel like it’s missed a step. The animation is better than ever, the spirit of the series—a more character-based version of the stories told between “Attack Of The Clones” and “Revenge Of The Sith” are as compelling as ever.
Episode 1, “The Bad Batch,” serves to remind who the real stars of the show are: the clones. As Dave Filoni recently told io9, this new season won’t focus so much on Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, or Padmé Amidala—smart, given we already know how their stories end— but will instead focus on completing the tales of Jedi Padawan and fan-favorites Ahsoka Tano, and the clones, mainly CT-7567, aka Captain Rex.
The episode leaves Anakin on the sidelines and throws the audience right into a dark place and the weighty subject of survivor’s guilt via Captain Rex. Rex has been carrying the emotional baggage of his many, many fallen comrades, and the show’s best scene shows Rex sitting alone in his quarters, staring at a picture of Fives, Echo, and Hevy. “So many troopers gone,” Rex says. “Yeah, regular folk don’t understand,” Commander Cody responds. “Sometimes, in war, it’s hard to be the one who survives.”
Over the years, ‘Clone Wars’ fans watched clone troopers grow from a formless, faceless army bred for war into a group of developed individuals with distinct personalities and the weight of countless dead brothers on their shoulders. Rex is also struggling with a grim new theory: the reason the Separatists are predicting every strategy Rex comes up with is because they are holding Echo as a prisoner, despite Echo seemingly having died way back in Season 3. Cody and Rex decide to enlist the help of the self-titled “Bad Batch” or Clone Force 99 (named after a defective clone trooper that played a pivotal part in an earlier season) to find out if Rex’s theory is correct.
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Clone Force 99 is made up of “defective” clones with desirable mutations, which makes them highly unconventional yet very successful at their job. These clones are entirely different than anything we’ve seen before, either from the clone army and from “Star Wars” in general. Led by Hunter, who looks like an ’80s action hero mixed with Solid Snake, the Bad Batch members are as visually distinct as they have pretty unique personalities. Huge credit should go to Dee Bradley Baker, who pretty much carries the episode on his shoulder by voicing all the clones and playing them all with distinct and unique personalities that make each of the clones feel like real people you want to root for, at times even making you doubt that the members of the Bad Batch were really cloned from the same man. Indeed, the spin-off series potential here is high, even if it was for a comic or another short narrative. Even if most of the dialogue was recorded five years ago, Bradley’s lines in the new scenes fit seamlessly with the rest of the episode, so kudos to the sound team.
Even if the story feels familiar, the advances in animation help the new season feel fresh and crisp, especially in the action scenes which look more fluid and complex than we’ve seen in previous seasons. What makes the episode, and really the show in general, special is the emotional core of the show that was sewn through the entire past seasons. The way characters’ relationships grew through the seasons, and through the years of the Clone Wars, an emotional investment was made, and the filmmakers never treat this lightly.
Cody and Rex clashing with the Bad Batch and seeing the friction rise between both groups due to their different approach to fighting is a fun delight and part of the charm that made this series enjoyable in the first place. Wrecker, in particular, gets to shine as the comic-relief, and even the B1 Battle Droids of the Separatist army return to give us some classic and hilarious new droid one-liners.
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All that said, “The Bad Batch” is a slightly weird choice for the season premiere, as there isn’t really enough new material to satisfy those who saw the unfinished episodes years ago. And for anyone who hasn’t watched the show before, you’ll clearly be lost; this new season is a continuation picking up as if the show had never really ended. At the same time, this small stakes episode is gearing up for something bigger, and the storyline deepens the relationships and emotional development of some of the main characters, while still entering unexplored territory that adds to the overall “Star Wars” mythos.
Newcomers won’t find this a good entry point for the series, but fans of the show will feel right at home. And luckily, the Disney+ description of the arc following these four episodes suggest we’re seeing a brand new story about to unfold, so we won’t have to wait long for some new material. But in the meantime, it’s just good to be back amongst old friends. Welcome back, “The Clone Wars.” [B]