Ashes to ashes

If you have no expectations, there are none to ruin and that's how this filler week went for me.

I'll keep this simple because I see a lot of similar feelings, but the main thing for me is this isn't the show promised. We were promised The Bad Batch. You can rewatch this season, but this show wasn't about either of them. There was no character growth. It all promoted Omega and her rinse and repeat storyline. Instead of going into that, I'll give you things I had hoped for.

An actual reunion with Rex.

Growth for each Bad Batcher. Examples? Echo dealing with his changing world (and ever more changing after Order 66). Echo dealing with Fives' death. Tech's quirkiness and his love for recording things being shown or used in an episode or two. Wrecker and his demolition prowess. Knowing what Hunter's powers mean as he leads the team through the ups and downs of this new galaxy. (Not just sort of doing whatever each week)

I want the Inhibitor chips explained. They seem to change whichever way the wind blows from the plot. At one point, every clone was susceptible. I could understand The Bad Batch at the beginning, Echo. Now it's just whatever they need to progress the plot. Sometimes the chips works. Sometimes in part. Other times not, but there's no consistency and this is the Kaminoans that created them so there should be some foundation there.

A storyline for Crosshair. Feelings on him are mixed, but I think that's more in part because he was tossed aside (all the boys were). We could have shown what was going on in the fledgling Empire with his perspective. Instead, we traded that for worthless cameos.

I've seen a lot of "Clone Wars had a rough first season". Well, you had Yoda explaining that each clone was individual in the Force. We had some Grievous and Ventress moments that introduced and showed their cunning skills. (I'll gladly skip Jar Jar) Then there's Obi-Wan, Anakin and Dooku's episode where they just continue to roast that "elderly" man alive (and his comment "I would kill you both right now if I did not have to drag your bodies" is my absolute favorite to this day) which is amazing. There's episode 16 with Slick and we see a clone betray his brothers because he sees the Jedi as enslaving them. We see how the clones are really bred to die in Blue Shadow Virus where they accept their fates.

Then the first season has the battle for Ryloth and the soft moment with Waxer, Boil and Numa. An episode arc that showed the harsh realities of the war by leaving a child lost and how two clones could come to adore a little child.

They ended the first season on high stakes with Cad Bane going after the senate. Sure, we all knew Anakin would probably save the day, but there was a lot at stake. We'd seen clones die, we knew there was a cost and that the rent came due.

All things BB didn't seem to want to give us.

Overall, there's nothing memorable from this season. There's nothing worthwhile. I'm not left wondering how things are going to resolve. Instead, I'm left sad that I didn't even get to see a Kamino uprising. Boba against his brothers? That would have been great.

Instead, I had to hear about how Omega Sue was older than the others and how she was there when they were being created. What a way to keep me intrigued. Not. Also, I firmly believe this entire show was plotted without her character, and then she was shoehorned in. If you remove her, the story arcs make more sense and we can use that empty space for more development of the clones.

Lastly, if they jump the shark completely in second season, they could salvage this. I just don't have any faith in them to be that smart.