Star Wars: The Bad Batch: Devil's Deal

July 9, 2021 2:11 AM - Season 1, Episode 11

The Empire schemes to squash the seeds of Rebellion on an Outer Rim world.
posted by EndsOfInvention (8 comments total)

A lot of returning characters on Ryloth:
Senator Orn Free Taa was in all three prequel movies and The Clone Wars as a close ally of Palpatine.
Cham Syndulla lead a force of guerrillas resisting the Separatist invasion in The Clone Wars, and will go on to fight against the Imperial occupation in Rebels.
Hera Syndulla will go on to be a general in the Rebellion in Rebels.

Kind of a weird Bad Batch episode given they are barely in it! But a good origin story for Hera at least. I assume she's going to team up with the Bad Batch now.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 2:45 AM on July 9, 2021

What, no mention of the new hottie, Captain Howser?? He makes poor Hunter look like a try-hard.

I really liked this episode, despite the lack of the eponymous characters. Lots of action, and an Imperial officer being genuinely cunning for a change.
posted by orrnyereg at 5:15 AM on July 9, 2021 [4 favorites]

Young Chopper is not nearly as bloodthirsty at this age, it's cute! Also I didn't know they could just hijack a whole episode of the show for Hera Syndulla backstory, but I am not complaining at all. Rebels is my favorite Star Wars thing since Knights of the Old Republic.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 7:42 AM on July 9, 2021 [3 favorites]

Ah, this explains why one of my Rebels friends was so cranky today: she'd written an epically-long backstory for Hera, and this wasn't it.

I'm glad they didn't kill off Eleni (?), at least.

I'm not sold on Hera's animation: her face was too thin IMO. Was it the same voice actor?
posted by suelac at 8:48 PM on July 9, 2021

IMDb says it is Vanessa Marshall reprising her role as Hera, but young Hera still has the French Twi'lek accent.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 9:30 PM on July 9, 2021 [2 favorites]

It felt like a really interesting, artsy move for an ostensible kids' show called "The Bad Batch" to spend like three minutes with said Batch and the rest of the show on the story of a daydreaming young twi'lek and her father getting radicalized against the Empire.
posted by potrzebie at 9:57 AM on July 10, 2021 [3 favorites]

The "tell the story from the perspective of a character or people aside from the regular protagonists" is totally valid, and gives a good perspective on the regulars. It also helped me realize that Crosshair kind of functions that way now; not knowing that Hera will survive to appear in a future series, I was worried that Crosshair would target her. Still kind of waiting to see if he breaks good, although that may be much further down his character arc.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:45 PM on July 10, 2021 [1 favorite]

young Hera still has the French Twi'lek accent.

It's a nice nod to code-switching. Adult Hera slipped into a Twi'lek accent when she was back on Ryloth in Rebels.
posted by nathan_teske at 10:33 AM on July 12, 2021 [2 favorites]