Bad Batch makes Cad Bane even more of a hypocrite in Book of Boba Fett

Warning: This article contains spoilers from The Bad Batch season 3, episode 10, "Identity Crisis."

It's no secret that Cad Bane is a ruthless bounty hunter willing to take any job for the right price. He's been this way since his introduction in The Clone Wars and didn't change his ways in The Bad Batch or The Book of Boba Fett.

That being said, Bane's appearance in The Bad Batch Season 3 proves that he is even more of a hypocrite than we realized in The Book of Boba Fett. In that series, he told Cobb Vanth, "Boba Fett is a cold-blooded killer who worked with the Empire" in an effort to dissuade Vanth and the people of Freetown from joining Fett in the fight against the Pyke Syndicate.

At the time, Bane had kidnapped Force-sensitive children for the Sith in The Clone Wars, and he kidnapped Omega for Lama Su in The Bad Batch season 1. Now, Season 3 has shown that Bane also worked for the Empire and kidnapped Force-sensitive children with a high M-count for them.

Since Bane was working for the Pyke Syndicate in The Book of Boba Fett, he was just trying to get Vanth and Freetown to stand down as per his client's wishes. Nevertheless, his words are even more hypocritical when considering that he also worked for the Empire and tore children away from their parents without any remorse.

As a bounty hunter, Boba Fett has done his fair share of evil deeds over the years, including when he tried to deliver a child bride for a bounty and was thankfully thwarted by Asajj Ventress in The Clone Wars. But Cad Bane suggesting that he has any kind of moral superiority over Boba Fett or that he is less cold-blooded than him is laughable.

Bane was the perfect character to bring into "Identity Crisis," as he has always been one of the most cutthroat and unscrupulous bounty hunters. It makes sense that he would happily work for the Empire, completing a job he's essentially already done for the Sith and for Lama Su.

It makes the final confrontation between Fett and Bane in The Book of Boba Fett all the more satisfying. Fett has finally grown beyond the dark and selfish path he walked for years. Meanwhile, decades after The Clone Wars and The Bad Batch, Bane hasn't grown at all. It is Fett's ability to adapt and Bane's inability to adapt that allows Fett to ultimately defeat him.

All this talk of Fett also leads to more speculation about whether he'll appear in The Bad Batch's final episodes. For a while, Fett's arrival seemed like something that had to happen, with this being a story about the clones, along with Daniel Logan making his Bad Batch debut earlier in Season 3. With only four episodes left, though, it seems unlikely, especially since Fett is focused on building his reputation as a bounty hunter now and is years away from being the kind of person who would fight for his clone brothers and sisters.

The Bad Batch may end without a Boba Fett sightings, but it did feature Cad Bane in three separate episodes across different seasons, bringing the fan-favorite bounty hunter into the reign of the Empire, an era in which he fits all too well.