Lucasfilm's Star Wars: The Bad Batch is ignoring its timeline's most interesting story. The Bad Batch made their debut in Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 7, an elite squad of clone troopers who had been genetically engineered to possess remarkable powers. It didn't take Lucasfilm long to launch their own spinoff series, set during the Dark Times when the Empire ruled the galaxy.
Clone Force 99 has essentially become the Star Wars equivalent of the A-Team, traveling the galaxy doing good while being hunted by the Empire. That naturally means they've occasionally dipped into stories of nascent rebel movements, with The Bad Batch premiere setting up Saw Gerrera's Partisans and another arc that revealed Hera Syndulla's origin story and the beginning of the rebel cell on Ryloth. Captain Rex is clearly a key figure in the proto-Rebellion, and in episode 14 there were hints he was performing some sort of dangerous undercover mission. Unfortunately, that Captain Rex cameo points to a frustrating truth; Star Wars: The Bad Batch is missing the most interesting story of the Dark Times.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch is set shortly after the rise of the Empire in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, a time when Palpatine and his agents worked hard to solidify their reign at speed. This was also a time when the seeds of the Rebel Alliance were sown, with Alderaanian senator Bail Organa working with agents to seed a number of rebel cells across the galaxy. As revealed in E.K. Johnston's novel Ahsoka, Organa swiftly recruited former Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano as an agent, dubbing her "Fulcrum." The story of the early Rebellion has been largely ignored in Star Wars lore, with only one novel - Paul S. Kemp's Lords of the Sith - really exploring it. But, while various rebel cells are clearly seen in The Bad Batch, they're relegated to the background.
Bail Organa was in a unique position, because he was one of few people to understand the Empire was rooted in the dark side of the Force; he even knew Darth Vader was Anakin Skywalker. As such, while Bail believed it was his responsibility to establish a rebellion and protect innocents from the Empire's cruelty where he could, he was fully aware this battle would be won through the Force. Disney's Star Wars lore has established Bail as a crucial figure in galactic history, a man who chose his risks carefully because he didn't want Darth Vader or the Emperor looking too closely at his adopted daughter, Leia Organa - in reality one of the Skywalker twins. Bail believed he was nurturing what could be the galaxy's last hope against the dark side, and he was playing the long game because Leia and Luke could only be brought into play when they had grown up. But Bail's actions in this part of the Dark Times remain a mystery.
The Bad Batch has shown how swiftly the Republic transformed into the Empire seen in the original trilogy, with Project War-Mantle serving as a crucial step along the journey by establishing the Stormtrooper Corps. But the creation and organization of the early rebellion has been relegated to the shadows, when they deserve to be center-stage. Lucasfilm would perhaps have been wiser to draw Clone Force 99 closer to the proto-Rebellion, so they could reveal the history of both the Empire and the Rebel Alliance. Hopefully season 2 will correct this mistake, making Star Wars: The Bad Batch much more important in terms of Star Wars lore.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch releases new episodes Fridays on Disney+.
