Star Wars: The Bad Batch introduces a new character in Imperial Vice Admiral Rampart, urging questions about what role he might have played in the background of previous Star Wars movies. Rampart is the face of several early Imperial initiatives to enforce loyalty and order in Palpatine’s new regime, and he leads the charge on the Empire’s new conscription program. That means he likely had some big impacts on the original trilogy, though the character hadn’t yet been invented.
Rampart first appears in The Bad Batch episode 2, “Cut and Run,” in a holographic message on the planet Saleucami. In that message, which is presumably broadcast on hundreds of other worlds as well, he advertises the Empire’s new chain code program – a method of tracking and recording all galactic citizens. In episode 3, “Replacements,” he speaks with Admiral Tarkin about replacing the Empire’s clone troopers with ordinary recruits from across the galaxy as a means to build loyalty to the government and reduce military spending costs.
Presumably, that all would have put Rampart at the center of the Empire’s early military development. The stormtrooper program was likely born from his early efforts at conscription, creating a fighting force that – while heavily mocked for their poor marksmanship – kept the galaxy under Palpatine’s boot for two decades. Someone as important to that process as Rampart would surely have been one of the Empire’s highest-ranking officials during the Galactic Civil War.
Of course, there’s a possibility that Rampart won’t live to see the rise of the Rebellion. He’s being built up as a primary antagonist for Clone Force 99, which could put him in harms way later on. And since he doesn’t appear in any other Star Wars fiction, The Bad Batch could kill him off without affecting the canon.
However, Rampart could also easily survive The Bad Batch. The Empire’s territory is so massive that he could have been any number of places during the events of the original trilogy, from Coruscant to the Outer Rim. He could even have been on board the Death Star when Luke Skywalker destroyed it. Until Rampart is further developed, it’s impossible to say exactly what his role during the Star Wars movies would have been. His impact, however, is already clear, and it’s significant in regards to the Empire’s military development. It should be interesting to see how Rampart develops through the rest of The Bad Batch, and if he’ll be brought into any other Star Wars stories down the line.
