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How to do I view TCWs Bad Batch...

Cos its not a secret that its personal. All this, comes from a personal place, even if its cut down to snark, rage, or just plain analysis. Personal motivations are the best motivators after all.

We start with the set up.

They are, by all accounts, set up to be the odd ones out. If there are weird mutant clones, these are the guys. If you're looking for the super special awesome squad made of underdogs, its them.

( As the former Weird Kid from childhood, who later grew up into the weird adult, I immediately grew attached to them. I broke the Jedi code folks, please don't kick me off the council Mister Windu )

And from there, it all became very complex, and yet, so simple. Because when you've been there, you get it.

Now we start with the perspectives.

So I saw...

... The Bad Batch as those who teeter on the edge of wanting normalcy whilst also rejecting convention. These boys have been rejected for things all their life, from appearance, to skills, to attitudes, to innate abilities and to simply not fitting in / being regulation.

Crosshair is the one who learned to strike first, and the first strike should be the final strike. He's the confrontational one. (Very in line with his sniper job). If you strike first and its always the mortal blow, you avoid getting struck. ( This doesn't work, because he's a verbal lasher, and that hasn't killed anyone yet--so he'd get a punch to the face and invite combat among allies )

Tech is the one who learned to back down and be unconfrontational one. Let the aggression pass, it is temporary. This has probably cost him with injury and items stolen from confrontation (because if someone wants to make a problem, they will make a problem and they will do it to the easiest target).

Wrecker is the boisterous one. He wants to directly fit in so things are either not a big deal or he exaggerates to a point where its become habit (a simple fear of heights becomes a ridiculous series of panics straight out of a cartoon that even Tech rolls his eyes over). In this way, he's a kind of people pleaser who needs to find excuses to confront people he has a problem with.

Hunter is the quiet one who wants to given space to process. But is never given time. To him, people are complicated and he needs time to puzzle them out, but at the same time, he's still trying to puzzle himself out. So everything either comes out as a sarcasm or it comes out as anxiety, because in truth, he's not sure how to react to situations and was never given the communication or time to develop that understanding--and has to practice based on experience [ CF99's plan system ] because otherwise he gets overwhelmed with him. ( But in such lack of processing, the stuff he has had time to process? He can weave through fluently and adaptively. He knows not to give more information than is necessary even in friendly conversation with strangers, because he knows the effect it would cause. )

The word "Hyperempathy" comes to mind.

But in such additions...

CF99 as a whole, as they lie outside of the regulations, have developed an nonchalance over things that would be alarming in any circumstance, odd one out or not.

The Yalbecs, mentioned in CF99's introduction, are an implied Insectoid sentience that follow a HIve structure (with the Queen ontop who can produce pheromones to encourage reproduction). The yalbecs were performing an Insurrection on their planet, Yalbec Prime. As the Republic had gotten involved by sending CF99, that means the insurrection was against the Republic, meaning that the Yalbecs were, prior to the war, a Republic peoples.

If I had to give a reason for this insurrection, it would probably because the yalbec queen's stinger is used as food on other planets / by other cultures.

Two and two together, the yalbecs were insurrecting because their queens (and potential mother figures) were being hunted down for food, and the Republic was doing nothing.

A horrifying set of circumstances, made worse when the Republic sent a commando squad to handle the situation once it had become violent, and the result was, yet again, the death of another Queen and possibly her entire court.

... especially when that said Commando Squad began to brag about it afterwards.

This is a "funny" contrast to the hyper-empathy argument, and that is the total lack of empathy. Suggesting that CF99 primarily only cares about what a particular group (the "regular" clones) thinks about and tries to bring attention their successes to that group; but inevitably alienate themselves by sheer misunderstanding of both themselves, others, and the situation. Its the fantastical fantasy narrative equivalency of "my cat tried to show affection by bringing me a dead bird" or "I told a self deprecating joke about my childhood, and everyone looked at me with horror"

The "Total Lack of Empathy" is less inherent problem, and more akin to, learned impersonality, which can be a common problem when it comes to empathy.

Now this is starting to sound like "playing Psychology with fictional characters who can be written to do anything". I ain't diagnosis shit, I'm just pointing out a potential pattern, by drawing from experience.

Don't you just love how fiction can get personal.

Anyway.

In such inbetweens...

The Bad Batch have formed strong interpersonal relationships, only vaguely hinted at during their Clone Wars run.

From backing each other up, no matter who does what (from Crosshair's overly confrontational nature being immediately defended by Wrecker lifting someone up by the necktie and Tech's Goggles glare and Hunter stopping the person that Cross is confronting)...

... To Crosshair immediately stepping up to block an officer from yelling at Hunter...

... To Wrecker interrupting and teasing Tech, but then immediately quoting Tech to officers...

... to how proud Hunter is over his team, or Crosshair's indirect silent compliments in regards to Wrecker...

... to trusting Tech's strategies and intelligence, no matter how crazy, or how much he's teased afterwards, near immediately...

... to the various list of plans they perform practically on trust and instinct alone...

... and to giving the new odd one (Echo) a chance, even if they verbally distrust him.

The world these boys must have behind closed doors and off duty, is one of intimate trust, obvious communication and communal understanding, and each of them, no matter how they express it, share values.

They're playful and competitive with each other, and their various strong personalities do bump against one another, but its less destructive and more akin to knowingly being pieces on the same board. ( billiards comes to mind and everyone has a pocket. )

Its those hints of history and personality beyond their job, is what I wanted to see more of (and probably others too). Its those conflicts and bonds between themselves, the world and others that would've made a show.

( Character Development isn't necessarily that the character themselves changed--its often just that the Audience now knows more about a character. Character Development is more often than naught, a change in perspective from the audience's point of view. )

Introducing Echo would've been a fine way to learn more about them, by allowing the audience surrogate to be a main character lead, whilst also going off on fantastical sci-fi adventures in the Galaxy Far Far Away.

Applying personal interpretation and experience is often how you can make a story more interesting, as it allows both yourself and the audience to further understand themselves.

Yeah, its telling a familiar story, but often that's what's needed. And you freely can want what you also need.

Made a meme bc I found this pic of tech being annoyed

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