Created by Dave Filoni, Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 2 once again follows the story of Clone Force 99 aka The Bad Batch. Months have passed since the events on Kamino, and the Bad Batch continue their journey navigating the Empire-controlled galaxy after the fall of the Republic. They cross paths with friends and foes, both new and familiar, as they take on a variety of mercenary missions that will take them to unexpected and dangerous new places.
I really enjoyed the first season for what it was and I was very much looking forward to seeing what this season had in store, given how the previous one ended on a solid note that sets up big things for the characters and new additions to the lore of the ever-growing Star Wars universe. After watching all sixteen episodes I can say that this season was good but not as great as it could have been overall.
That’s not to say that this season had a lot of bad things in it in terms of quality, but it was honestly a bit of a mixed bag for me that I felt could have been executed so much better as a whole, especially when it does deliver some amazing Star Wars content worth watching. It is clearly filling in gaps as well as connecting with some of the other big stories of the Star Wars universe including Rebels, the original trilogy, and surprisingly even The Mandalorian. But before I discuss the uneven pros and cons of this season I want to mention what remained consistently great with this season as a whole which is the animation, the performances, the action, and the music.
The animation continues to be top-tier for this series, featuring fluid movements, popping colors, excellent character designs, beautiful landscapes, and incredible cinematography making for some great eye candy that never gets old to look at. The animators truly care about making these shows look so good regardless of the story, showing that there is passion behind these animated Star Wars shows and not something being done for a quick buck.
The action is also damn good this season, full of intense tension and amazing animation, giving some serious stakes in certain episodes and great entertainment too.
The same passion applied to those elements was also applied to the voice performances, with Dee Bradley Baker really carrying this series voicing the Batch and other clones perfectly. He delivers strong work this season as all the clone characters, giving them all emotional depth and unique features that make them stand out in all the episodes. For years he’s dedicated himself to this role and has not faltered once.
Michelle Ang also returns as Omega and once again does a great job, giving a more skilled and a bit more mature performance to the character compared to when we last saw her.
We also get a number of surprising guest stars that join this season, including Wanda Sykes as Phee Genoa, a very lovable and adventurous treasure hunter who honestly fits the world of Star Wars perfectly despite what people may think. She was one of the few new characters I wanted a lot more of this season because she brought a fun and charming presence every time she came in.
There are lots of surprising faces that show up in this season that all play great parts and are given dedicated performances by their respective voice actors and actresses. The music also remains strong in this series with composer Kevin Kiner at the helm continuing to deliver solid pieces of Star Wars music no matter where he goes.
Now then let’s talk about how this season is handled from a narrative perspective, starting with the first half of the season. While I think the episodes in the first half have all ranged from decent to amazing, I feel like we’re not getting anywhere with the story or certain character arcs. Omega’s arc felt like it was running in circles, Hunter felt majorly sidelined and Wrecker is still Wrecker, while Tech and Echo are the only ones with some proper development.
The overarching story only progressed in a couple episodes in the first half while the rest were a bunch of standalone missions. To be clear they are enjoyable episodes on their own but they made the overall narrative feel largely uneven and inconsistent.
And what’s worse is that they seemingly wasted time not focusing on one of the most interesting characters, Crosshair, who appears only in one short but incredible episode in the first half. This episode was what last season’s “Replacements” should have been. Rather than relegating Crosshair to the B-plot of an episode, this one completely focuses on him, and you really get a sense of how miserable he is deep down after the events of season 1. The regular clones may not have liked him before, but he at least had the rest of his team to fall back on. Now, his adherence to the Empire has driven away one of the only friends he had left. It’s tragic how he places purpose above personal happiness. The Bad Batch may be aimlessly wandering the galaxy, living from job to job but they still have each other and are happier. Crosshair has a purpose as a soldier, but it’s left him without friends or family. But after this episode, he is left radio silent for a long time, as does the introduced subplot of Clones being replaced by the Empire.
There seemed to be an extreme lack of direction and consistency for this season, that is until the mid-season episodes happen. The season takes a complete 180 when the mid-season hits after weeks of standalone episodes. The overall arc came back in a big way and everything changed for the characters and the universe in this era. From that point on the season delivers consistently good to amazing episodes that push the characters’ development and story forward in major ways, introducing majorly investing themes and lore expansions that are filling in major gaps in the universe.
It’s clear that there is a much larger purpose for this series outside of being a story about a renegade team of clones, and that is made even more clear with an absolutely unexpected finale that delivers even more surprises and drops a massive bombshell of a cliffhanger that we will have to wait for in a teased third season. With such an awesome second half it made me question why the first half wasn’t as great or as narratively consistent as the second half. Seems like a very strange choice but the mid-season episodes and the following episodes really did save this season from being a completely missed opportunity.
Now to be abundantly clear I don’t think the first half of the season is bad from a quality standpoint because all the episodes are done well in their own way, but I felt much more invested in the second half because of how it felt like real direction and progress was going on. And not only that, I felt much more emotionally attached to the characters in the second half when major changes hit them like a freight train and really shake up things going forward.
So overall while this second season is narratively uneven it is still very much worth watching as it delivers solid amounts of well-crafted entertainment and also delivers some top-tier additions to the Star Wars universe that shouldn’t be missed out on even by fans. My only hope is that season three lives up to what this season’s second half has promised and remains more narratively consistent. I’m going to give The Bad Batch Season 2 a B = 86.
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