Lucasfilm has officially released The Bad Batch season three trailer in preparation for the three-episode release on February 21, 2024. The problem is that season two left us with some cliffhangers and emotional damage to sort through between the seasons. So, yes, there is excitement, but there are also questions after viewing the trailer. Let's get into them.
SPOILERS AHEAD! If you haven't watched all of season two or the recently released trailer for season three, then you should proceed with caution or reckless abandon; we aren’t your boss. You do you.
When we last saw Omega, she was in control of the Empire and meeting her “sister.” This female clone had aged as the rest of the battle clones. Was she the original Omega? Was she unable to be used in the Emperor's plans to complete cloning? How does Omega tie into the "Necromancer " project we heard about in season three of The Mandalorian?
This season will show us what to expect moving forward. In the trailer, we do see glimpses of Omega in an Imperial prison along with Crosshair, who had fought back against the rough treatment of his Imperial overlords. Ok, so he killed them. So there’s that.
At some point, we will see Crosshair rejoin The Bad Batch, which has been inevitable since season one when he drifted away.
I like to think that Omega will survive and she will somehow survive past the end of this series. I think her existence is tied to the creation of Snoke and that wonderful saying in The Rise of Skywalker when Poe Dameron says, “Somehow, Palpatine returned.” Still looking for a viable explanation of both of those events.
The last we saw of Tech was his glasses when they presented them to Omega. He fell off the rail car into the cloud, protecting the rest of the Batch. So the big question is - is Tech really dead? Or was the show of the glasses a ploy by the Empire to get Omega to reveal the locations of the rest of Clone Force 99?
I have a long-standing statement about deaths in Star Wars. That statement is - “no body, no death.” We never see the body of Tech. All we are shown is Tech falling into a cloud, and then his glasses are later presented to Omega as proof of death. But this may not be the case with Tech, who may actually be dead. I guess that only time will tell.
I like to think Tech is alive, as his character adds so much to the squad. Tech’s abilities allow them to do all the technical things they need to do to accomplish their missions, like masking their ship and breaking into bunkers, cracking codes, etc. I am curious to see how they replace that aspect of their crew if Tech is indeed dead. If he is indeed dead, it would be best for the mental health of the fans (ok, me, it’s better for me) to know straight away. Just clear the plate so we can move on or not.
But let's be honest, it would be kind of a dick move to make us think that Tech was dead just to really kill him off at the end of the season. We have to understand the timeline. The Empire is killing off Clones left and right. Palpatine no longer has a use for them and has moved on to conscripted soldiers instead of cloned and created soldiers.
With that thought in mind, we must prepare ourselves for the very realistic possibility of the death of the entire Bad Batch. The only clone we are sure that makes it to the Battle of Endor is Captain Rex. It is reasonable to assume that the rest of the Clones will either die off or be killed off by the Empire very soon in the timeline.
Dave Filoni has a track record of causing emotional damage. For evidence of this, be sure to see season seven of The Clone Wars and season four of Rebels. Final seasons and emotional damage are kind of his calling card.
I plan on Filoni killing off all of the Bad Batch. You should, too.
One of the coolest things about the trailer was that I had to replay one particular part. I replayed it several times to make sure that I was seeing what my eyes told my brain I was seeing.
Assaj Ventress is alive.
And she has hair.
Sorry, Ahsoka, but she is no longer the “hairless harpy.”
So, what does this mean for season three of The Bad Batch? The show appears to follow the storyline of the book “Dark Disciple” by Christine Golden. How close to that story they go obviously remains to be seen. I do wonder if they will include Quinlan Vos or if we will only see Assaj. Either way, I’m excited to see her new blonde mop top and matching lightsaber.
So not only is Assaj alive, but she is also sporting that yellow saber. That’s a color we don’t see very often in Star Wars. The only others that come to mind are temple guards for the Jedi Order and Rey Skywalker at the conclusion of The Rise of Skywalker movie. I’m aware that the color of the lightsaber doesn’t bear the same significance as it used to in legends, but I am hoping that the season shows how and why Assaj came to have a yellow saber.
There is much more to that trailer than just the three items discussed here. So much more that we can dive into that affects the outcome of this series. But each of these three items is a critical issue moving forward and will shape the outcome of this series and how the roadmap of future stories in this timeline from the New Hope era up to the Force Awakens era will be told.
As we have seen over the past few years, Star Wars animation has a large part in the future live-action Star Wars. The Bad Batch will be no different. And if you overlooked the first season because you thought it was just another silly animated series, it's not too late to get caught up to speed and prepare for the February 21, 2024, season three premiere.
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