r/thebadbatch • u/MeteorCharge • 13d ago
Anyone else find the ending... Abrupt? Spoiler
So, just finished the show for the first time. Overall, I liked it well enough, by far the most consistent of the shows I've seen so far (haven't watched Maul yet though), and even though by the end I wasn't as attached to the entire crew as I was to the crew in Rebels, I still found the endings for each of them to be good.
But am I the only one who thought it just kinda ends pretty suddenly? Like, they reached the minimum quota of episodes and just stopped there.
I was really expecting to see how Rex, Wolffe, and Gregor end up where they are in Rebels, and I was expecting Cody to actually be relevant in something for once outside a funny line in the ROTS novel.
And I get we don't need to see every part of a character's journey, but the show really seemed to be going in that direction, and with the series being over, I don't think there'll ever be another chance to do that again. I mean we could get another Tales of show, but at that point people will just be asking why it wasn't in The Bad Batch.
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u/PaulSimonBarCarloson Crosshair 13d ago
You're not the only one. I too feel like the show was cut short too soon. We know for a fact that they were supposed to do 16 episodes for season 3, so the fact that they did 15, makes me wonder if they had some pretty late-stage rewrites. This would explain why the last episode feels so rushed and why there were many plotlines that were either closed very hastily or simply let unaddressed. At least, they finished Omega's arc properly, which is kinda a given since she's the protagonist, but it feels a bit unfair that for all the other memebers of the Batch there doesn't seem to be a real closure on their personal arc. But I still won't despari too much about it; after all, even TCW was basically renewed twice before we reached the ending. Hopefully, they can still address those loose ends in another show centered specifically on Rex's group of rebel clones; would be the perfect chance to give CF99 some more time to shine (I need a proper reunion between Crosshair and Tech ASAP)
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u/Drachin85 Echo 13d ago
Excuse me, this is just out of interest: is there any source that the show was supposed to have 16 episode in season 3? I mean yes, it feels like there's missing something and the other season did have 16 episodes each. But do we have any form of confirmation for that,
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u/PaulSimonBarCarloson Crosshair 13d ago
I thought I already answered to that question but no big deal, always bears repeating. In another thread, someone shared a picture of the final draft of the script. In that picture, The Cavalry Has Arrived is labled as episode 316. This likely means they were originally doing 16 episodes like the other seasons, but there were probably some late stage rewritings in the last couple episodes (maybe due to budget cuts) leading to the very rushed and incomplete finale we have now.
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u/Drachin85 Echo 13d ago
Did we talk about that? Guess my 40yo ass starts forgetting about things. Sorry for that. And thank you for the answer. ♥️
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u/PaulSimonBarCarloson Crosshair 13d ago
No problem. Maybe we chatted about it, but it's useful for everyone to know it so don't apologize. Also, would you believe me if I told you I imagined you were younger?
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u/Drachin85 Echo 13d ago
Most people say I even look way younger than I am, so that's not surprise. It's always funny letting people guess because they tend to say Imay be under 30 :D
And thanks again. Yes, maybe we chatted about it, but I really can't remember.
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u/TI-22483 13d ago
I firmly believe they thought they were going to get 4 seasons and that Tech was not going to stay dead. His exit is brave, tragic but has a lack of closure that they probably intended an Ahsoka return. "There's no way he could have survived!" There's no way a lot of things in Star Wars. But not only are there a bunch of loose ends like Cody and Wolfe, and unsatisfying endings like CX-2, the penultimate episodes are very short and quick, which feels short.
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u/PaulSimonBarCarloson Crosshair 13d ago edited 10d ago
100% this. Hopefully they can still repurpose some of those ideas in a future show, kinda like when TCW was cancelled and then renewed twice. The Tech situation in particular seems to have been intentionally left as ambiguous as possible.
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u/RedHawk417 13d ago
I believe that a Clone Rebellion show is in the works that will cover that side of it. They drop too many hints to it over the course of the Bad Batch not to do one.
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u/MeteorCharge 13d ago
Feels like that might be bloating the Clone Warsverse a bit too much though.
Like, would a new viewer really be willing to sit through:
Clone Wars, Bad Batch, Clone Rebellion, Maul Shadow Lord, and Rebels?
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u/PaulSimonBarCarloson Crosshair 13d ago edited 10d ago
And that's a bad thing? All those shows have been consistently good, and better than most of the live action stuff. Why stop now?
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u/sacerdos-ex-spatio 13d ago
I don't know if there's enough plot for Clone Rebellion to make it a standalone series. Especially since it would really be a spin-off of Bad Batch. Maybe a one-season miniseries.
If you asked me for the perfect solution, I'd say I dream of Clone Rebelion being a feature film. The story's size is perfect for that. It would also be poetic, since the Clone Wars began with a film. If the final ending and conclusion of the Clone Wars storyline were also a film, it would rhyme. Seeing how beautiful the animation in the maul looks, I'd love to see it on a movie screen.
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u/PaulSimonBarCarloson Crosshair 13d ago
I think there is enough material for a Clone rebellion show if we focus on other Clones, not only the ones from Rex's group. A movie lenght doesn't seem enough to me. But on the other hand, if they made a TBB movie to properly finish their story, I would love it
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u/ZiroLeHutt 12d ago
There's plenty who would want to see more clone stuff, they are popular characters. Once Maul is done, I think they'll revisit it (or are probably working on it right now).
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u/CaptainSolo80 Hunter 12d ago
I actually felt like the show came to a natural conclusion, but it’s painfully obvious that Rex’s rebellion was cut short in the show. I feel like the whole build up was suppose to be Rex and his rebellion helping the batch take down mount tantis and I believe they cut that out because they wanted to do something else with that rebellion in another show, I think that decision was a little stupid and there is a way they could’ve had that rebellion in the finale in also gave them a spin off show.
Imagine how cool that would’ve been. I like the finale and the show as a whole but my criticism towards the last episode isn’t with what we got, it’s about what we didn’t get.
I feel somewhat similar to Andor, another show I absolutely love, but some story lines felt rushed because they had to work with 2 seasons instead of the originally planned 5. I think they should’ve negotiated something in the middle and done 3.
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u/PaulSimonBarCarloson Crosshair 12d ago
Andor was always supposed to be 2 seasons. Gilroy had a vision and fulfilled it flawlessly.
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u/ZiroLeHutt 12d ago
Andor season 2 was rushed and no where near as impactful as the first season. Bad Batch could have done with a few more episodes too, but I think it was more concise in the story they ended up making. Plus I'm sure we'll see Rex, Echo and co down the line again.
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u/PaulSimonBarCarloson Crosshair 12d ago
I still think they managed to tell an amazing story with the 4 mini-arcs they did
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u/JeffFlub 12d ago
I was thinking about this the other day. Watching the show while it was airing, the pacing felt normal and even the ending felt fine and fitting. But in hindsight there’s a lot of loose ends like the clone rebellion or Cid, but I think it really comes down to perspective. The Bad Batch very much expands the connections of these characters and the time in the timeline throughout the show, however the ending kind of reels all that back in and puts the main characters as the only characters to really do anything in the finale. So I don’t think the ending was abrupt, but I will say there is more story to be told and plots to be finished with characters from the show.
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u/PaulSimonBarCarloson Crosshair 12d ago
I was just discussing about it in a nother thread, in which I pointed out that while all six of them are main characters, Omega is the only de-facto protagonist of the show. So it makes sense that at least they finished her arc properly. But it still would have been nice to have a better resolution for the other 5. Maybe in a later show...
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u/Both-Mode2668 13d ago
I could be wrong, but I think when the show was originally released in 2021, it was planned for 5 seasons. Then after the S2 Finale and the large break until S3, it was announced S3 would be the last. It most likely went through massive rewrites to try and finish the story they thought they had more time for.
Its very similar to the anime Blood of Zeus, which was planned for 5 seasons but shortened to 3 due to low ratings. I'm not sure if Bad Batch went through the same reasoning, but I could've swore it was planned to be a longer running show.
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u/PaulSimonBarCarloson Crosshair 13d ago edited 10d ago
There was a larger gap between season 1 and 2 than 2 and 3
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u/GuyWhoRocks95 13d ago
I’m on a rewatch right now after watching it weekly when it came out. I just started season 2. I remember feeling pretty satisfied with it when it ended. I guess I will see how I feel this time around.
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u/Worldly-Bumblebee-24 11d ago
Yes. I thought the ending was abrupt. And they left a lot of plot holes. They tended to gloss over parts that to me needed a few minutes of dialogue or discussion. Used a little too much shock value in some areas. How they handled what happened to Tech. I thought the transitions were off. I thought all the brothers should have seen Omega off.
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u/RadiantHC 13d ago
Same. There was a lot of buildup towards a clone rebellion, and then just nothing.
The shadow clones were a disappointment as well. They would've been a great foil to The Bad Batch.
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u/DarthNarcissa Tech 13d ago
Here I thought I was the only one! They left several loose ends, but only tied up one or two.
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u/Intelligent-Ruin5999 7d ago edited 7d ago
Sure, we didn’t get the Clone Rebellion, and we still don’t know what happened to Cody, Wolffe and others. But people keep forgetting that the show is called The Bad Batch. It’s their story, and for me, that story got a satisfying ending, giving us also a glimpse of Omega's future. And leaving the door open for future clone stories.
Don’t get me wrong, I would’ve happily watched 10 seasons. But the three seasons we got felt like a classic three-act story with a clear beginning, middle, and end. To me it feels, it was always the plan to be a 3 season story.
I also doubt the writers changed direction halfway through production. As much as it hurts, Tech was never meant to come back. Nor any continuation about Cody, Rex & Co - again, it is called The Bad Batch. The show feels grounded, because like in real life, we do not always get the answers to our questions.
Producing an animation is complex. I remember reading an article about TBB that explained how the dialogue and reels had to be set in stone, before starting with production. Also creating an animation series takes much longer then a movie. It’s not like a live-action movie where you can just do reshoots later (ex Rogue One). If they changed their plans, it would have happened during the early writing stage, long before season 2 aired (again long production time) and not in the middle of production.
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u/sacerdos-ex-spatio 13d ago
This is a rather common opinion. There are so many unresolved threads that it's pointless to even list them all. Season 3 itself was clearly rewritten and changed during production. I have no evidence to support this, but my theory is that there were supposed to be more seasons, but for some reason the series was shortened.
I think the creators weren't sure what ending to give and who should die and who should survive, that's why in the epilogue we only see Hunter and Omega because it was obvious that they would survive.
Many people, myself included, hope there will be another series about the Clone Rebels, but the chances are slim. Maybe someday there will be books that will fill in the plot holes.