5 ways Star Wars: The Bad Batch fell short as a series
5. Dropped Characters
This is by far my least egregious point of the day, but it at least needs to be noted. Characters just vanished from the story to never be seen again.
Following up on the previous point, knowing what happened to Cody and Wolffe would have been nice. Cody is by far one of the most prominent clones in the franchise. Until recently in Ahsoka, he was the only real named clone in live-action Star Wars. He's been vital to the franchise since Revenge of the Sith. In turn, he's vital in The Bad Batch on one of the most poignant and beautiful Crosshair episodes in Season 2 being "The Solitary Clone." He's a catalyst for Crosshair's eventual redemption later on.
Only for Cody to vanish and never be seen again. We don't even get to see the active choice of him leaving. We're told by Rampart that he leaves. The only explanation I can think of is they're saving Cody down the line for something. Maybe there is another series or show behind the scenes claiming him. There were talks of him originally going to be in Obi-Wan Kenobi, which were later cut. The two shows were in production at the same time. If there is ever a Season 2 of Kenobi or if they want Cody to show up again in another animated series, then this would make sense. However, with The Bad Batch alone in a vacuum, standing on its own feet, Cody's departure is confusing.
Wolffe, on the other hand, just feels like a missed opportunity. As previously mentioned, he openly defied the Empire in front of the very loyal-to-Hemlock Commando clones. And that's it! Nothing comes of it. It would have made sense if he was a CX clone. We know from Star Wars Rebels that Wolffe is far more paranoid than Rex and Gregor. So much so that he outs the Ghost crew to the Empire. Being tortured and brainwashed into a CX clone would have been a great way to explain this.
Also, when your final episode is titled "The Calvary Has Arrived," there is an expectation of some sort of calvary to, you know, arrive. In hindsight, this is a bookend to the first lines of the Batch in The Clone Wars Season 7. However, the expectation was Rex, Howzer, and their little band of clone troopers to show up at some point. Instead, they're missing from the show after the Season 3 midseason two-parter.
Then there was Cid, "the Lando Calrissian" of the show. Boy, I've never been so wrong about a theory.
Cid is just another example of an unsatisfying conclusion. We're told she got some comeuppance off-screen, tortured by the CX trooper. Actually, the amount of story we are given off-screen in Season 3 is the annoying part. When one of the highlights of the final season was how well it brought back threads and points from earlier so-called "filler" episodes, major characters like Cid getting dropped are even more noticeable.
It makes me wonder if the season was rushed out. To be clear, I'm going into full tin foil hat theory now. Take this with a grain of salt.
A year is not a lot of time to create an animated season alongside Tales of the Empire. Honestly, I thought we would get The Bad Batch's final season in late 2024, if not early 2025, because animation takes so long to create. I can't quite say it's the victim of a shortened season. Yes, Season 3 is the shortest one, but only by one episode. Granted, an extra episode could have done a world of good fixing many of these points in this article. There is so much shorthand storytelling in the narrative using methods of telling, not showing, dropping major characters and threads, and parts of Season 3 going nowhere that I question what might have happened behind the scenes. It's not the first time I've worried about the state of Lucasfilm Animation, and the entire animation industry is incredibly scary right now.
If some behind-the-scenes things were happening, it would make a lot of these points more forgivable. While, again, creators don't owe fans anything, a bit of transparency can go a long way to smooth things over. That said if all of these points in this article were active choices by the creators?
Then you are quite the mess, The Bad Batch. Somehow, you are both the best of Lucasfilm Animation and the absolute worst in the most regressive ways possible. We'll have to see what the next animated series brings us and if these things get addressed.
Until then, go watch Young Jedi Adventures AKA the Bluey of Star Wars which has no right being this good, progressive, and introducing complex themes like gentrification to children.