Fridge / Star Wars: The Bad Batch

Fridge page for Star Wars: The Bad Batch.

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Fridge Brilliance

General

• All Regs who have resisted or been unaffected by Order 66 thus far have been mentally, possibly even genetically "deviant" from the mold.
  • Echo: while his cybernetics were cited and for all we know he may not even have his karking chip anymore, he was also a naturally intellectual and notably skinny by Reg standards.
  • Rex: Infamously willful and notorious among fans for having blonde hair that was cropped to close to his scalp to conceivably be dye.
  • Cut: 110% fits the mental qualification. Independent minded deserter, husband, farmer, and father of two.
    • Vague possibility that his red hair may be natural, raised by the fact his new grey streak remains undyed despite being albeit secondary evidence that he's a clone.
    • Order 66 seemed to be triggered by a transmission over a comm link (we see Palpatine's transmission in every Order 66 scene) as a deserter Cut simply never received the call.
  • Howzer: Has a unique greying haircut, prominent scars and still wears his custom painted armor. He shows more independence than the other clone troopers in the post-Order 66 world; being a personal friend to Cham Syndulla, does not report Hera for being in a restricted area, and showing regret when arresting Cham and his followers for the apparent assassination attempt on Orn Free Taa. Not surprisingly, he performs a Heel–Face Turn in his next appearance and manages to get some of his men to disobey immoral orders before they're all arrested for treason.
• The Clone Wars have just ended, and it left around a lot of hardware that may reappear in unexpected hands:
  • On Pantora we can see a Separatist airspeeder in the background and the local police using the Geonosian-made Flitknot speeder bike in spite of it being a loyalist word, but there's very good explanations for this:
    • The Republic has captured a lot of Separatist hardware and the Empire is still doing it in the campaign against the Separatist Holdouts. As these are unarmed and unarmored vehicles that only serve for transportation the Empire could have started reselling them to recoup some money.
    • Alternatively they could be new production that is being sold on the civilian market, as was done in our world for German military bikes.
    • While the Flitknot is a Geonosian model that wouldn't have been exported before the Clone Wars, the airspeeder, previously seen only once on Anaxes, could have well been a civilian model to begin with that the Separatists pressed into service late in the Clone Wars to supplement their dwindling military production, due to the Republic nationalizing most of the InterGalatic Banking Clan after the Battle of Scipio.
    • The Flitknot here is seen only in police use, and appears to be standard issue. Of course they'd use it: in its first appearance in AOTC, a Flitknot outran LAAT/I gunships, such a high performance vehicle would be perfect for a Hot Pursuit or a rapid intervention, and that's exactly how it's used in the episode.
  • The Corellian police droids have similar bodies to BX-series commando droids, and are armed with Separatist E-5 blasters. Considering they're guarding a facility that decommissions Separatist droids, it's very likely they are commando droids modified for their new job, used because, being made from droids they got for free, they're even cheaper than normal police droids.
  • The Martez sisters are shown to be armed with DC-17 blasters, that are rather expensive for blaster pistols (1,000 credits. For comparison the DT-12, known to be expensive, costs a hundred credits less). On the other hand, the Clone Wars have just ended and the DC-17 is military hardware, nothing easier than they found them on the black market... Or simply grabbed them during or after the Battle of Coruscant (their blue bolts indicate they use the same gas used by the Republic during the war).
  • In episode 7 we see a planet covered in wrecked starships from the war:
    • The sheer scale of a galaxy-wide war means there's been a lot of ships made to fight it. There would obviously be a lot of wrecks, and it's likely numerous worlds have been turned into starship graveyards while the Empire gets around demolishing them.
    • There's multiple Separatist ships that the Empire has brought there. The Empire doesn't use them, and would want to deny them to any insurgent or potential enemies — especially as the Clone Wars are actually still going on, as while the Droid Armies were deactivated and the leadership was decimated there's still holdouts led by members of the Separatist Congress and surviving military officers and defended by organic troops and even reactivated battledroids.
    • There's also multiple Venators and Acclamators. While the Empire uses them, they could have been so damaged it just wasn't practical to repair them, and so were brought to the graveyard to be cannibalized for existing ships. The Venator in particular has been replaced on the production lines by the Imperial Star Destroyed and slated to be phased out as soon as there's enough of the new model, and new replacement parts would be scarce.
    • Among the ships there's also Hammerhead corvettes. While the larger ships were obviously more notable, both sides also used smaller ships, and the wrecked ones obviously ended in junkyards for scrapping.
  • In "Common Ground" we see a BARC speeder bike, previously used only by Clonetroopers, Jedi, and (in a variation) Coruscant's police force, in civilian hands on Ord Mantell. The BARC speeder is also being phased out for the 74-Z, so it would be normal for some to be sold to civilians... Hopefully without the blaster cannons.
  • In "Devil's Deal", Cham Syndulla's fighters are seen turning in blasters from the DC-15 series. As they fought on the side of the Republic during the Clone Wars, they had been supplied those directly by the Republic to replace the civilian and scavenged weapons they would have had before the Liberation of Ryloth.
    • Later the Bad Batch supplies Glie with DC-15 blaster carbines from Cid. Cid's contacts likely grabbed them from a battlefield or a factory, given the Republic had to supply not only the Clonetroopers but natural-born armies just like Syndulla's.
• Many have noted issue with the Bad Batch fighting opponents despite their skill and abilities. The fact that they had mostly battled droids is often noted, as is the fact that for regular clones many of their most dangerous opponents were organic fighters (not just single combatants like Ventress or Grievous, but Geonosians and Umbarrans and even the Talz). Clones, even the elite, trained against droids, not men. This also brings them into similarity with their successors in the Empire: the Empire military was designed with not just terror, but also fighting other factions and were vulnerable to the smaller and stateless Rebel Alliance. The Clones were always meant to fight droids, and were not trained for organics just the same as Stormtroopers were not trained for stateless fighters.
  • The Bad Batch also has lost one of their members: Crosshair. Without Crosshair to provide overwatch, the Bad Batch is often caught out of place and by surprise. The cost of being such a small unit is that even a single loss destabilizes the whole squad, as opposed to even a platoon sized unit of clones where redundancies for each specialty can be accounted for.

Episode 1: Aftermath

• This episode opens with a Clone Wars style narration from Tom Kane and is the only one in the series to do so. This doesn't just highlight how The Bad Batch is an Immediate Sequel Series to The Clone Wars. The episode starts in the final moments of the Clone Wars conflict, hence the Clone Wars style opening narration. By the middle of the episode and the rest of the series onward, the Clone Wars is over, so no more Clone Wars narration.
• The inconsistencies between Caleb experiencing Order 66 in the opening of "Aftermath" and the Kanan comic could be handwaved away as his trauma at the time clouding his memory as well as his drinking problems later in life messing up his long-term memory.
• Why does Omega have blonde hair? In the Legends comic Jango Fett: Open Seasons, Jango's mother and sister have blonde hair, so Omega's hair color was probably brought upon by the Kaminoans tampering with her genes. It also brings to mind Rex, who also has blonde hair (albeit kept very short, so it's not necessarily as noticeable as Omega's.)
• Clones and stormtroopers:
  • Throughout the Clone Wars, we've seen troopers with customized armor, either painted differently from the group and/or sporting a darker palette due to wear and tear over time; visually explaining their individual personalities and experience. In this series, all of the regs (even officers) have matching uniforms regardless of unit affiliation; just like how stormtroopers will in the very-near future.
  • It goes even further, as all the regular clones have the same haircut and no tattoos or markings to distinguish them. The Empire has literally stripped away all their individuality and made them the true first generation of stormtroopers.
• Crosshair's number is revealed to be CT-9904. As in he's the fourth member of Clone Force 99. Chances are, the other three original members are CT-9901, CT-9902, and CT-9903. It's also not impossible that Omega might be CT-9905.
  • Or 9900, as the first of the bunch.
• The Bad Batch are already quite similar to the Null-Class ARC troopers from Legends, with them being considered defective clones with superhuman abilities, put to use by the Grand Army of the Republic as a black ops commando unit. But the first episode adds another, somewhat tragic layer to this: the Kaminoans tell Tarkin that they have only five enhanced clones that survived. There were originally twelve Nulls, but only six survived long enough to be recognizable as embryos. Coupled with the fact that Omega is the fifth enhanced clone in canon, with Echo being a member of the squad thanks to his cybernetics, the Bad Batch numbers six when you include both Echo and Omega.
• Ever notice that "99" is "66" upside-down, like they're opposites? And that Clone Force 99 never fell under the control of Order 66 (save for Crosshair)? Coincidence?
• Crosshair post-inhibitor chip reprogramming armor resembles a death trooper's. Considering the death troopers were bio-augmented to "beyond human" levels. It isn't difficult to see how Clone Unit 99 was the inspiration behind the Death Trooper project. Their "desirable" mutations served as an unintended prototype for The Empire's supersoldiers.
• Another nod towards the future Death Troopers comes when Omega is searching through the Bad Batch’s barracks, radio chatter like that from the Death Troopers can be heard just before the Shock Troopers enter. Death Troopers are most commonly seen escorting high value military personnel, not unlike the Shock Troopers.
• The ultimate irony of Crosshair's betrayal is that, back on The Clone Wars, he comments that Echo was "just another reg" when the squad postulates that their future member was actually dead. Now, with his brainwashing, he literally is just another reg — as in a regular Imperial soldier working towards Palpatine's goal of galactic domination, barely distinct from his brothers.
• After Order 66 is initiated, Hunter tasks Wrecker with stalling any clones that try to pursue Caleb Dume. A few things happen here. When a trio of regs approach, one of them says, “We have orders from the Supreme Chancellor himself,” and orders Wrecker to stand aside. Wrecker complies and says “Sure thing boss.” By this point in the timeline, Delta Squad would be a three man squad because they were forced to leave their sniper behind when they got urgent orders to pull out of their ongoing operation. The player character, nicknamed Boss responds to the order by saying, “I don’t care if they came from Master Yoda himself!” Turns out they did. This is also where Crosshair, Clone Force 99’s sniper, begins his Start of Darkness that culminates in him leaving his squad. And finally, if you listen close, this is one instance where you can hear audio recycled from Star Wars: Republic Commando in the background, with the roaring of gunship engines.
• There is some concertation about the idea of Crosshair being affected by the chip and turning on his team that way instead of making the choice himself. However there is a thematic reason to have this happen, and it is among the same reasons the Jedi fell. Basically the Bad Batch were as arrogant and self-assured of their own infallibility as the Jedi, bolstered by their position as being above the 'regs' and having their own special abilities. Crosshair's affliction by the chip (initially partially and later in full) is a bit of a reminder that, no, they aren't as special as they may think they are as they only were safe from the order by luck, and for Crosshair he wasn't quite as lucky as the rest of them.
• Saw Gerrera's proto-Partisans are armed with the same DC-15 blaster rifles and carbines used by the Clonetroopers. They're the direct successors of the Onderon resistance that fought against the Separatists (and may still include many of the members, aside for Saw)... And was equipped by the Republic with its standard weapons. Saw and the others just went to war with the weapons they were issued.
• The DT-X droids that the bad batch face in the training arena make similar noises to the Purge Troopers from Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. The DT-Series sentry droids were introduced to Canon in Star Wars Rebels as a nod to the then Legends Dark Trooper program, which the Purge Trooper was a variant of.

Episode 2: Cut and Run

• Of course Hunter didn't tell Omega about the plan to have her escape with Cut's family; Tech had already started his plan by getting the ship impounded without telling anyone and without realizing Omega was on it, and afterwards everyone is focused on getting Cut's family onto the transport. Hunter literally did not have the time to tell her until they were already leaving.
• There's a fairly good explanation as to why the clones don't recognize Clone Force 99 when the latter are incognito. Clone Force 99 is made out of defective clones who look very different from the standard Jango-looking clone trooper, and while Clone Force 99 is renowned throughout the Grand Army of the Republic, their aversion to working with "regs" likely means that while they're known by reputation, not all clones know what they look like. Conversely, Cut is basically just a standard clone trooper in civilian clothes, which makes him being detected more understandable.
  • That being said, one reason why Cut gets past a number of clones before finally being detected at the last second is because of the chip. The control chip explicitly brainwashes the clones into being mindlessly obedient towards the Empire, which also means it also takes away their creativity and free thinking, and as such as far as they're concerned, Cut isn't a problem until he becomes a problem at the very last second, at which point Clone Force 99's ongoing firefight distracts the clones and Cut goes free.
    • There's also another explanation, or two: Clonetrooper deserters were extremely rare, so the idea of meeting one would be absurd, and the Stormtroopers there were also very tired and just wanted to be done with their job.
• Just as the Bad Batch is about to leave, Omega calls out to them to wait for her. Coming to her aid also prolongs the firefight, leading the stormtroopers to call in reinforcements - including the clone scrutinising Cut. Omega's decision to go back to the Batch may just have saved Cut's family.
• Hunter is surprised that the Empire is bringing in new troops on Seleucami, registering the population, and impounding all unregistered ships, but there's actually a good reason: until very recently it was a Separatist stronghold, conquered after a long siege only to have most of the troops pulled out to fight on Boz Pity because the GAR was overstretched, but with the Separatist command structure collapsing and the droid army deactivated the Empire can now bring in more troops to secure the place and put the potentially hostile civilians under control through chain codes and impounding the ships. As a side benefit, the Empire can test these measures in a place where no protest will be heard by the Senate (that still has enough power to stop them) because it's a recently retaken Separatist stronghold, so that, when the time is right, they can implement them better in the rest of their worlds and control all the population.
  • On the other hand, chain codes include a lot of information, including one's criminal record and even family history... Allowing the Empire to better restrict the movement and rights of the population and discriminate people by their families.
• While the Empire announces the chain codes, they also announce the possibility to exchange "invalid currency" for no cost:
  • Saleucami, as a former Separatist world, would be full of their currency... That now the Empire, as the new management, would want to replace.
  • While the Republic, and thus its successor government the Empire, would have never recognized the validity of Separatist currency, with the Confederacy of Independent Systems in the process of collapsing its effective value would now be plummeting, pushing the civilians to want to get rid of it. By exchanging it at no cost, the still fledgling Empire will now earn goodwill from the civilians at a point it desperately needs it.
• Somehow the Bad Batch knows Cut but Echo hasn't met him, when it's hinted that it happened after the Battle of Anaxes, when Echo would have already joined them. On the other hand, Echo was weakened by his prisony and the Kaminoans would have wanted to take a look at his augmentations, the encounter could have happened while Echo was on Kamino recovering and being tested.

Episode 3: Replacements

• The Elite Squad's blasters fire red bolts, while the Partisans' fire blue ones, in spite of being mostly the same model (as the Partisans were still using the weapons issued to them by the Republic during the war). With the Separatist Droid Army dealt with, the Empire doesn't need the use of the hyper-ionized gas used during the war for increased effectiveness against droids and would be already switching to the cheaper standard gas (that is just as effective against organics), while the Partisans are using the ammo they had been issued during the war.

Episode 4: Cornered

• The announcement from Episode 2 about chain codes and currency exchange is repeated on Pantora, a loyalist world:
  • Chain code experimentation was already mentioned to be successful, and now is being extended to more loyal worlds, as among other things it acts as a social security number and could be used to replace previous identification methods.
  • While the Republic (now Imperial) credit is the standard currency, Pantora is a fiercely independent world that could have had its own currency, one the Empire would be interested into replacing.
    • Alternatively, the Empire recorded only one message and didn't bother to alter it for loyalist systems.
  • There are actually a number of very good reasons for the Empire to implement the same chain-code-for-new-currency policy on loyalist worlds. One, replacing Republic credits with Imperial credits reinforces the image that the First Galactic Empire is something new, not just the Republic under new management, aiding in Palpatine's effort to vilify the Republic and its institutions, which allowed corruption from corporations like the Trade Federation and the Banking Clan to run amok. Two, requiring getting a chain code to exchange currency means being able to identify and trace everyone, something all authoritarian regimes place a high premium on. Three, issuing chain codes and new currency makes anyone without a chain code or using the old currency suspect (You're using Republic credits? Why do you hate the Empire and want the old corrupt government back? You don't have a chain code? What are you trying to hide?). Four, there are probably all kinds of economic shenanigans one can pull during the mass recall of old currency and minting of new currency to make your economy seem more prosperous than it really is, and likely skim a bunch of wealth to redirect towards assorted secret superweapon projects.
• When Fennec goes to her spy after the Bad Batch got away, the audience is induced to think she's about to kill him, but she instead pays him and tells him to warn her if they show up again. The spy was being paid as an informant, and it would have been completely unreasonable to expect him to stop three Clone Commandos and a cyborg ARC Trooper, doing anything else but pay him for doing what he had been hired for would have been incredibly stupid.
  • Besides, it wasn't his fault the mission failed. He did his job, the only reason to kill him instead of paying him would be For the Evulz.

Episode 7: Battle Scars

• Rex mentions to the Batch that they’re lucky, as very few clones are immune to Order 66, and that it’s rare. This implies he’s met others who didn’t carry out the Order. Both Gregor and Wolffe are shown with scars on their heads in Star Wars Rebels, but Wolffe is shown to be paranoid about the Jedi coming back for revenge, and Word of God has suggested that he did execute Order 66 before having his chip taken out. Gregor on the other hand is in a similar, but not quite as extreme a situation as Echo. Given his previous amnesia in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and his Cloud Cuckoo Lander status in Rebels, it’s not impossible to think Gregor has suffered enough traumatic brain injuries from surviving the blast on Abafar that his chip never engaged. If Gregor is who Rex was referring to, it’s odd that he says he’s never been on the other side of the procedure, as he puts his hand on his blaster as soon as he finds out that the Batch haven’t removed theirs yet.
• Some might question the convent for the plot timing of Wrecker's inhibitor chip activating just before they were about the remove it but aside from it continuously getting worse and more effective in Wrecker. Rex mentioned Order 66 by name and Hunter mentioned that they helped Kaleb Dume escape on Kaller. Which are two things that would have definitely sent the inhibitor chip programming into overdrive. Which is supported by controlled Wrecker telling Tech he is in violation of Order 66.
• After Wrecker's chip activates, his movements become noticeably more mechanical. The chip effectively makes him like a droid following its programming.
  • Not simply mechanical, his entire methodology completely changes. Wrecker's normally a straightforward fighter who will rush in to try and get the job done. Part of the reason everyone survives the ordeal nearly unscathed is because Wrecker isn't his usual self. Tech and Hunter end up held up by the neck rather than beaten to death, Omega distracts Wrecker so that he stalks slowly after her instead of finishing Hunter, and after cornering her he takes the time to take back his gun rather than lay a hand on her. And throughout it all, he simply talks too much; every chance he had to finish someone, he wastes time telling the others the ways they've betrayed the Empire. Rex's final stun shot would have been too late if Wrecker hadn't taken so long to say "Good soldiers follow orders". That he ends up pushing the others into a corner regardless is because they don't want to hurt him.
• It not surprising the Omega is confused by how friendly the other bad batchers, particularly Wrecker are to Rex when first meeting him. Since the only exposure she has had to other regular clones is how they ostracised and make snide comments about the bad batch and she was mocked as a lab scrubber by other regular clones.
• Rex did not only leave Bracca with the knowledge that some of his friends are going to be okay from there on, but he also left with the knowledge he needed to safely extract the inhibitor chips from other clone troopers who desert the Empire. The Batchers gave him the means to build an army so he could fight this new regime. And since this is Rex, chances are good he will be building an army.

Episode 8: Reunion

• Early in the episode, Wrecker teaches Omega how to disable a live explosive, before activating one and telling her to disarm it. Omega panics and fails to disarm the bomb in time, at which point Wrecker reveals that it’s a smoke bomb, saying he would never test her with a real explosive because he’s not crazy. Immediately afterwards he tells her that he failed his first disposal test too. Wrecker is the Bad Batch’s equivalent to Scorch from the Star Wars: Republic Commando video game, who got his nickname from an explosive disposal incident in training that cost him and his trainer their eyebrows. Wrecker has a huge scar on the left side of his face…
  • It goes further towards the end of the episode, as a result of using the explosives they found in the cruiser to escape after Crosshair orders the ion engine activated, the latter’s helmet gets knocked off and he suffers major burns to his face.
• It makes sense that Echo believes the Batch should be soldiers rather than mercenaries. He's spent much of his life as a 'reg' who's grown up being taught a soldier's sense of duty.

Episode 9: Bounty Lost

• It's noted that Cad Bane seems to be suffering The Worf Effect, being evenly matched to Fennec. It's also noted he now has a metal plate on his head, presumably having suffered a head injury, possibly from a duel with Boba, it's possible this injury has had a permanent impact on his skills.
  • Additionally, Fennec would later be one of the most notorious bounties in the galaxy, a bounty so dangerous and difficult that even professional bounty hunters would turn it down despite the lucrative reward. Mando had to be given 100% cut of the bounty (and be desperate for cash) to be convinced to help a newbie hunt her down. So better way to Call-Forward her reputation than outwitting one of the best Bounty Hunters in the galaxy?
• Bane specifically mentioned "unmarked credits". Unmarked credits are most likely manufactured and distributed by the Empire. It would be nice for them if everyone used Imperial Credits, but Unmarked Credits would open up a much more open market of people needing to use credits that are in circulation. The Empire tolerates this, since it means that people will be doing business with them, even if they're not part of the Empire. IC may be mandatory in certain systems, but UC is where most of the money will flow.

Episode 10: Common Ground

• At the start of the episode Raxus Secundus shows no battle damage in spite of having been the former Separatist capital, as if it was taken without a fight. It likely has been: ever since the Citadel Arc in TCW the Republic had knowledge of secret hyperspace routes that led right there, so when Grievous was killed and the Droid Armies were deactivated, causing a temporary collapse of the Separatist war machine, the officers in charge of that front moved in and got the capital before the command structure could be restored and organic troops mobilized.
• On Raxus, one of the Imperial pilots that intercept the Havoc at its arrival and some of the Imperial troopers have voices that don't sound like Clonetroopers. Point is, they aren't: already in the first episode the Empire was planning to replace the Clonetroopers with natural-born humans, and by the time the Bad Batch is sent to Raxus some natural-born are already wearing the white armor.
  • The pilot, in particular, was to be expected: there were never enough Clone pilots to get around due the heavy losses they suffered and they had to be complemented with Regs (who, due the Kaminoan practices, already had the training, they just weren't as skilled as the ones chosen to be pilots), the Empire would try and replace the Regs in their starfighter corps first and send them back to infantry.

Episode 11: Devil's Deal

• Despite her initial misgivings, Omega bonds immediately with Hera. Beyond their shared interest in flying, the only other children near her age that Omega has had time to bond with were Cut's kid, who were also Twi'leks (or at least, half Twi'lek).
• Howser is an amazing revelation when you think about it. Everything about him, his painted armor, his nonstandard hair, his "human" demeanor and his value of people over rules. All adds up to a "Free" Clone. Whether his chip isn't functioning right or was never activated, this is groundbreaking.
  • That he stands beside Imperials without this freewill being "corrected" implies it will not be, at least for now. It implies that there is a window for Brothers like Howser to escape the Empire.
• In Lords of the Sith, when Vader speculates that Orn Free Taa is likely dead, Palpatine muses it would be in Taa's nature to find some way to survive. Even with the benefit of Crosshair's superb, intentionally non-lethal sniping skills, the corpulent Twi'lek senator's ability to survive a direct headshot with no obvious lasting effects exhibited in that novel more than proves the Emperor's point.

Episode 14: War-Mantle

• Stormtrooper Armor has appeared and is in use in large quantities not even a year after the rise of the Empire. Seems too soon... But it was likely already being developed during the war as a more ergonomic replacement for Phase II Clonetrooper Armor. All the Empire had to do was to complete the development, adapt it to different sizes (as recruits don't have all the same size as regular Fett Clones) and put it into mass production.
  • Further proof for this is the armor given to Crosshair and the Elite Squad: they're the Katarn-class variant of Stormtrooper Armor, just as the Bad Batch and the other Clone Commandos are wearing the Phase II.
• Scorch is able to resist multiple stun bolts not just due to his armour (which didn't hold up nearly as well for Wrecker in a similar scenario) but due to the personal shields his suit has, as per Republic Commando. Sparks and electricity can be seen playing over the suit when the last two bolts finally overload and penetrate the shields, putting him down.
• Apparently Admiral Rampart found out about Lama Su attempting to move his cloning operations elsewhere after catching Nala Se in the act, but she got a pass. Considering that Nala Se has been attempting to sabotage Lama Su, it's very likely she ratted the prime minister out upon getting caught.

Episode 15: Return to Kamino

• The Empire having already enough TK Troopers to replace the Clonetroopers on Kamino may seem weird, considering their training has started only recently... Unless one remembers the Republic had more troops than just the Clones, and the Empire inherited them: the TK Troopers on Kamino are natural born Clone Wars veterans who only needed to learn how to use their new armor.
• Why did the Empire replace the Clonetroopers on Kamino and shipped them off? Because the success of Order 66 already proved the Kaminoans could implant orders and compulsions in the Clonetroopers and the Empire cannot know if they implanted others to have them revolt on command, and given they were decommissioning the cloning facilities they weren't going to leave the Clones where the Kaminoans could activate their compulsions.
  • On the other hand, Rampart's ships are still crewed by Clones in spite of his distaste for them. Said ships are Venators, bound to be decommissioned very soon, it wouldn't make sense for the Empire to replace the crews with natural-born ones at the same time said crews are required for the Imperial Star Destroyers under construction at the very same time.
• Why did the Kaminoans build their secret tunnel network? Because the Grand Army of the Republic is not the first time they build an army, and they long figured out they could need it in case they were attacked by their customers' enemies or even a customer that didn't want to pay. It was just their bad luck that the one time they needed it the enemy had already troops in their cities.
• "You may fire when ready" isn't just a suitably dramatic way for Tarkin to order something to be blown up: just as every time he said the phrase he had already given the instructions for the bombardment but put it on hold due not being the right moment, with the famous phrase being his way to instruct his subordinates to carry them out. It could also be a standard phrase for said situation such as "fire at will" in the Age of Sail (it being an authorization to the gunners of a ship of the line to shoot at the enemy when they believe they'll hit without waiting for orders).
• Officially, there never was a clone rebellion on Kamino. During the original television run of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, a theory started making the rounds that the 2008 series was Republic propaganda making the clones and Jedi seem more heroic than they really were, and that the original 2003 micro series and the comics were how the Clone War really played out. Imagine if this continues into the Bad Batch: Officially, there never was a clone rebellion on Kamino, the Empire simply ceased cloning operations and had the empty facility destroyed to ensure the Kaminoans couldn’t raise an army against them.

Episode 19: The Solitary Clone

• Grotton telling a TK Stormtrooper not to unbuckle him from his seat on the arriving Nu-class attack/transport shuttle may seem petty and childish, but it's Truth in Television that an occupant of an airplane or other civilian/military aircraft must stay seated until it has landed at its destination, Desix being the location in Grotton's case.

Episode 23: The Clone Conspiracy

• Of course Admiral Rampart couldn’t just get Crosshair to assassinate Cade, Slip, and Chuchi—the whole point was to make sure the job doesn’t lead back to Rampart. Crosshair is already known by everyone to serve Rampart, so if he got caught, Rampart gets in huge trouble.

Episode 27: Metamorphosis

• The Zillo Beast's ability to feed on electricity was earlier foreshadowed in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars. When Doctor Boll administered the poison to kill the Zillo Beast, we see a brief scene of the energy from the restraints that held the creature being absorbed into it. Doctor Boll was shocked the poison wasn't working, not knowing that it did but the Zillo Beast used the absorbed energy to reenergized itself and countered the poison's effects on it.

Episode 28: The Outpost

• How did Crosshair and other clones get stuck with a Jerkass officer like Lieutenant Nolan on a desolate ice planet? It means Nolan's higher ups don't think too highly of him, that they stick him with "used equipment". Since clones are considered expendable and outmoded, being tasked to command them would be the crappiest assignment an Imperial Officer can have, and Nolan hates every second of it. And who's to say Dr. Hemlock didn't have a hand in Nolan's assignment, especially considering he knew where Crosshair was?

Episode 39: Extraction

• Rex gives Wolffe a big reality check, who was acting on orders to retrieve Omega. They have a heart to heart conversation about following orders, which Wolffe has always been trained not to question, and it's proven to be a tough pill to swallow. In light of this, it's quite understandable why Wolffe reported the Ghost Crew's presence in Rebels; despite it being laid out what the Empire is doing to the people, his service to the Empire was all he's ever known, and his sense of duty to it is hard to shake.

Episode 42: Identity Crisis

• Emerie Karr's growing concern for children isn't that surprising, given that she is a confirmed female clone of Jango Fett. All the clones throughout the Clone Wars were displaying various forms of paternity towards children, each in their own unique way. All it took was exposure to children to make it clear that the clones had parental instincts, which were evidently cloned from Jango as well. Emerie is starting to grow the feeling effect of maternity towards them, as it is in her nature, not her programming, to be concerned for children. In a long-term scenario, appointing Emerie Karr as part of Project Necromancer might have been Dr Hemlock's worst decision ever, even if it was a relatively smart option.
  • We can even trace it back, one of Jango's conditions for his participation in the creation of the Clone Army was the creation of Boba, an unaltered clone to raise as a son, indicating Jango's own paternal instincts, which in turn we see reflecet in the rest of his clones.

Episode 44: Juggernaut

• Since Rampart sent Nala Se to Tantiss, it's not hard to guess that was how he solicited the services of an X Trooper during “The Clone Conspiracy”.

Fridge Horror

Episode 2: Cut and Run

• Blink and you miss it moment in this otherwise happy episode: Cut specifically asks about Crosshair. Crosshair knew where they were. Crosshair could have told Imperial Command who Cut was and where he was living at Any. Time.
• Cut still has an inhibitor chip in his brain. The only reason he doesn't become like the other regs is because he hasn't had the Order 66 activated yet.

Episode 6: Decommissioned

• To escape the police droids, the Bad Batch and the Martez sisters reactivated a small army of Separatist battle droids... On Corellia, giving the Empire just the excuse they need to tighten their hold on a planet that would otherwise rise in arms.

Episode 9: Bounty Lost

• While the Kaminoan clone in the Abandoned Laboratory on Bora Vio looks perfectly formed, the other beings not so much. Given the Kaminoans' reclusive nature prior to the Clone Wars, their Social Darwinist tendencies and the Kaminoans' resemblance to The Greys, it's possible they kidnapped some of these other beings and used them as guinea pigs for their early cloning attempts, with horrifying results.

Episode 10: Common Ground

• Senator Singh incited the population to revolt, and after that he got away. It's likely he succeeded in inciting revolts not just there but all around the Tion Cluster... But we also know that Tarkin was later called in to quell insurgencies in former Separatist space and arrested and killed millions on Antar 4, without caring to tell between Separatists and the Republic loyalists that resisted Separatist occupation the entire war, to show the price of resisting the Empire, causing protests even in the Imperial establishment protested his methods. Saving this Senator will ultimately get millions killed.

Episode 12: Rescue on Ryloth

• Howzer and some of the Clones on Ryloth refusing to hunt down Cham was a heroic moment... But it also gave the Empire the excuse to replace the Clonetroopers: at this point in time the Senate still wields considerable power and could have stopped it, except now the Empire can point to this incident and declare they're unreliable and need replacement.

Episode 16: Kamino Lost

• The Clone Commandos seen at the Imperial Facility when Nala Se arrives all have gray markings on their armor, which is similar (particularly on the legs) to the Kamino Security clone troopers. A year prior, she would have seen these clones as her protectors, now they’re her jailers.

Episode 19: The Solitary Clone

• Even if Ames had defeated Cody and Crosshair's squad, her rebellion was doomed to failure in the long run. She only had control over a single city, theoretical control over a single planet, and a heavily depleted force of Battle Droids whose main strength is supposed to be their overwhelming numbers. The Empire would have come down on her more heavily had she survived, and having a handful of hostages of no significant importance wouldn't have saved her. Even if she had inspired other systems to rise up alongside her, they wouldn't have had the resources to properly resist the Imperial retaliation.
• Cody used to be the Clone Marshal Commander, which was the highest rank any clone ever got in the war. His desertion might have been the final nail in the coffin for Clone Trooper service across the Empire. The Senate was also going to vote on a Defense Bill, which was implied to determine the fate of CT service. Cody's desertion pretty much tipped the balance in favor of the decommission of Clone Troopers, citing their unreliability and disloyalty to the Empire, giving full way to the War Mantle project to be the new focus of funds for the Imperial Army.

Episode 22: Tribe

• Gungi and Clone Force 99 are insanely lucky that Venomor chose to withhold reporting a Jedi on Kashyyyk to the Empire. Season 2 takes place around 18 BBY, which means it was during the height of the Inquisitorius. Had word gotten out about Gungi, things would've gotten far worse for him, the tribe, and the Bad Batch.

Episode 42: Identity Crisis

• The fact that Tarkin is calling Hemlock regarding the funds requisition whilst in the blind about Project Necromancer, a project he has no authority over nor any information of, is simply part of Palpatine's power structure. By deliberately keeping others on the backfoot, Palpatine is making the various divisions fight each other for his attention and the funds they want to get their way. This is a common method used by dictators to make their subordinates focus on each other for power struggles while they get off scott free.
• Hemlock being unable to explain to Tarkin why he needs extra funds while at the same time being in Palpatine's favor on this matter doesn't bode well for him. Palpatine wants Project Necromancer to be successful, but that doesn't mean he wants Hemlock to be successful. After all, everyone save the Emperor is an expendable, and replacable, asset.

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