Helmed by Dave Filoni, Brad Rau, and Jennifer Corbett, Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 3 continues and concludes the story of Clone Force 99 aka The Bad Batch. Their limits are tested in the fight to reunite with Omega (Michelle Ang) as she faces challenges of her own inside a remote Imperial science lab that harbors a secretive experiment that is considered critical for Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid). With the group fractured and facing threats from all directions, they will have to seek out unexpected allies, embark on dangerous missions, and muster everything they have learned to free themselves from the Empire once and for all.
This rag-tag team of unique Clones has certainly come a long way from their first debut in the final season of The Clone Wars, going on their own journey in their own spin-off series that I was surprised to be so invested in. The first season was awesome and while the second season was a little bit of a mixed bag for me it had some serious high points in its second half that still had me hooked.
This brings us to the third and final season of the series, meant to conclude the story of these characters, and I was hoping that if this was going to be their final chapter it would be a major improvement over the previous season, as well as end everything on a high note. After watching all 15 episodes I am happy to say that not only do I consider this a massive improvement over season 2 but it was overall an extremely satisfying season to end the series on.
In fact, I may even say this was perhaps my favorite season of the series as a whole for a lot of the amazing things it gave me such as incredible voice performances, a consistently tension-filled narrative, epically thrilling action, strong emotional energy, stellar animation, and much more. This season was everything I wanted the show to be from the start and while it is a bit sad that it took the final season to get to that point I am still pleased with what I was given.
The voice performances this season were once again excellent across the board, for both returning characters and new faces, but as always the true star of the show is Dee Bradley Baker as the Bad Batch and other significant clones. He is the main reason we have grown attached to this squad, both together and individually, with his ability to give each one so much character even with a different voice. He was able to give much more emotional depth to the squad this time around as they are all in a state of exhaustion, trauma, and fractured spirits after the death of Tech in season 2 and the constant threat of the Empire chasing after them and Omega. Without the whole gang together the team struggles to survive and have hope in such dangerous times and have to rely on each other more than ever as they go on dangerous missions to reach their ultimate goal.
Hunter and Wrecker received significant development this season compared to the last as they truly have to rely on one another for support in the absence of Tech. But by far the one who received the biggest developmental arc this season was Crosshair who after being hugely absent from the previous season plays a more central role as he goes on a difficult path of redemption. The writing and voicing for Crosshair this season was truly some of the best, making him one of the most compelling clone characters ever made.
While Echo has had a limited role in this season, his role in the rescue mission for Omega ends up still being impactful and quite poignant. Echo and the Bad Batch are trying to rescue Omega and the other captives who are being experimented on for the Empire, and being experimented on was exactly what happened to Echo when he was captured by the Techno Union in The Clone Wars. This has made things come full circle with Echo who aims to get justice and save those who are in a similar predicament to what he experienced.
Another incredible performance and character development we get this season is Michelle Ang as Omega who once again has significantly grown in this season just like the last. She’s no longer the naive little girl she was at the beginning of the series but has grown into a truly independent soldier like her brothers. Her unbreakable will and compassion truly shine in this season as she steps up in huge ways, even when all the odds are against her and the rest of her brothers. On top of that Michelle Ang truly delivers amazing emotional weight with her performance that honestly matches with that of Dee Bradley Baker.
When it comes to the newer faces of this season we have a heavy focus on the two characters introduced at the end of the previous season: Royce Hemlock (Jimmi Simpson) and Emerie Karr (Keisha Castle Hughes). Hemlock is the director of the Empire’s Advanced Science Division (ASD) and serves as the main villain of this season. And what a villain he is, with Jimmi Simpson giving us a cold and calculated evil scientist who is responsible for many horrific experiments that we see done to clones in the series, as well as being the original founder of Project Necromancer, a secretive project of great importance to Emperor Palpatine, first referenced by the Shadow Council in The Mandalorian Season 3.
Hemlock is easily the best villain of the series as a whole for the squad to challenge as he shows himself to be a merciless individual who uses great intellect and vast resources to accomplish his goals. The perfectly written villain you love to hate.
Emerie Karr was revealed at the end of season 2 to be a female clone just like Omega, which was a huge reveal and I found her character to be really interesting as a scientist working for ASD. She starts off as somewhat of a scientific drone for the ASD but slowly begins to evolve in terms of morals as the season progresses when she realizes what she’s a part of as a cog in the machine of the ASD. She’s a character I would honestly not mind seeing more of in the future if they end up having a story that would involve her.
We also get a lot of great voice work from the supporting cast, as well as some great guest appearances from familiar faces such as Rex, Wolf, Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen), Cad Bane (Corey Burton), and of course Emperor Palpatine.
But there was one guest character that many people were surprised to see appear in this series, which is Asajj Ventress, reprised by Nika Futterman. Ventress has been absent from Star Wars media for a very long time with her last appearance being in the 2015 novel Dark Disciple. She is indeed alive and somewhat changed by previous events, giving us a different version of the character we know, yet still absolutely dangerous and awesome. Even though she only appears for one episode I love how she was written in this series and I am very eager to see what path this character could take in future Star Wars stories, given the immense potential of her new path.
The narrative this season is the most compelling and consistent of the series because, unlike the previous seasons, there are no side missions that veer off course from the main plot. While there are certain some filler episodes they actually move along the plot and develop the characters in great ways, making this the only season to not lose focus on the main storyline and maintain a consistent narrative.
Additionally, this is also the darkest and most mature season of the series, with the stakes and tension being skyrocketed to epic proportions. With the permanent death of Tech in season 2 and some of the horrific trauma some of these characters have endured, this season makes it clear that no one (aside from some characters we know to survive for future events) is truly safe, making for some thrilling episodes that had me constantly at the edge of my seat.
The fates of most of the main characters of this show have not been revealed in other projects that take place later in the timeline so this makes you feel way more invested in them, with any mission they go on being a huge risk and I loved that. Similar to Ahsoka, it was refreshing to not know what was happening to a majority of the characters, which in turn makes the stakes of the season feel higher, in addition to it being the final season.
This also makes the action feel far more intense as they ramp things up with a mix of full-on blaster assaults and black ops stealth sequences that are executed with such perfection. I can assure you that they do end the season and the series on a grand and emotional high note that I think will satisfy many people as much as it satisfied me, since it culminates everything from before and gives what I consider to be one of my favorite Star Wars story book endings I’ve seen in a while.
One thing I would like to note is the story’s subplot regarding Project Necromancer. Now even though this series explores the origin of the project and the process involving in making it happen we don’t get shown what it truly is meant for even by the end of the season. I think many people can guess what it does exactly based on how important it is to Palpatine and how it potentially connects to a certain plot point from a certain film that is divisive amongst the Star Wars fandom, but again it’s still left as mostly a mystery by the end. I did feel a little bit disappointed that we didn’t at least get a little tease of what it was but I am guessing it might be part of a future Star Wars story, given that it was mentioned in The Mandalorian Season 3 as one of many evil plots in motion by the Shadow Council.
Once again the animation is fantastic with such dark beauty and intensity added to make the visuals match the darker tone of this season. Not to mention there is some truly stunning cinematography featured in this season that surprisingly reminded me a lot of Rogue One and Andor in terms of style and I really liked that. Occasionally there was some colorful animation reminiscent of Clone Wars that would pop up on occasion but for the most part, this season has its own unique identity compared to the previous seasons and even other animated Star Wars projects.
Kevin Kiner once again delivers an amazing score that really heightened the tension, thrills, and emotions of this season as a whole, proving beyond a doubt he continues to be one of the best composers of Star Wars.
I have found myself to be really attached to these characters and their journey from the start so it’s honestly sad to see it come to an end. At the same time though I am glad they were still able to come up with a near perfect conclusion to this story and I think many others will also be pleased by it. I am going to give The Bad Batch Season 3 an A = 95.
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