Who is CT-1226? An Attack of the Clones callback you didn’t expect

WARNING: This article contains spoilers from Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 2 episode 3  “The Solitary Clone”

Ever since Attack of the Clones came out, the clone army has been a favorite of star wars fans. The Battle for Geonosis was one of the bloodiest battles and a baptism of fire for the Grand Army of the Republic. It is also where the story of CT-1226 takes place, and Crosshair may be soon reporting to one of the coolest clones that ever came out of Star Wars legends.

In the most recent episode of The Bad Batch, we see at the end of the episode that Crosshair is no longer reporting to Commander Cody, but to the mysterious CT-1226. You may have expected this to be a familiar face such as Commander Fox, or even Commander Doom. This is not the case however, and it seems that Dave Filoni has chosen to bring one of the craziest stories from the opening phase back into canon. This story was first printed in Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Warfare inside of the short story “Geonosian Debriefings, Vol. III.” That debriefing is given from the perspective of CT-1226, whose faulty helmet disrupts his communication with the rest of his unit.

Because of his faulty communication he eventually falls behind his unit and falls into a hole. CT-1226 says that

"“The Hailfires were in missile range and I had warning indicators everywhere when it happened. One moment I’m running along and the next I’m on my back and looking back the way I came—upside down”"

While getting up from his unfortunate mishap, Ct-1226 sees a Hellfire Missile Droid poises to take out several AT-TEs. Logically he decides to not attack the Hellfire as his blaster wouldn’t even scratch the paint. He instead targets a B2 super battle drop that was about to launch its wrist rocket at a nearby AT-TE, in a moment of sheer luck that would make even the Bad Batch blush he manages to shoot the B2 as it launches its wrist rocket, causing the wrist rocket to destroy and hellfire. CT-1226 reflects after the battle saying

"“I got a commendation for that. I tried to refuse it, but the generals kept talking about quick thinking and resourcefulness. Quick thinking? The smartest thing I did was fall in the hole.”"

This is certainly something that we would expect the Bad Batch to do on purpose, so it will be interesting to see how CT-1226 ends up being inside of canon. There is no reason to expect him to be the same, but it certainly seems like we may have already seen a hint of him in Attack of the Clones. We will just have to wait until the next episode to see how Crosshair’s new commanding office turns out.

Star Wars: The Bad Batch is now streaming exclusively on Disney+.  Be sure to check out all of our series coverage, including episode recaps, reviews, and more.