It's not because I've been losing interest in The Bad Batch the past few weeks that I haven't written a review of those episodes, but I will say that it's been a frustrating stretch of the season for me.
The Bad Batch pulled a Clone Wars trick by taking a detour for a few weeks from the initial story arc. Instead of finding out more about Omega or watching Clone Force 99 expose some of the Empire's secret plots, this past Friday's episode centered around a lame story about Cid (the one who's been giving Clone Force 99 these random jobs this season); she was briefly overtaken before Clone Force 99 jumped in to save the day. It was a total filler episode, nothing more.
Before that, we got a mini story arc while visiting a planet that has been under Imperial occupation, which has led to tense situations. But there's an entire galaxy's worth of planets ripe for those kind of stories, which makes this feel small, like it won't amount to anything.
But alas, this particular planet does, in fact, have a point of interest. The planet is Ryloth. It's frustrating that yet another nostalgia play worked so well on me. Ryloth, of course, was the home of one of the most famous characters in Star Wars: Hera Syndulla. Hera was a great leader during the show Rebels; she exhibits Obi-Wan Kenobi-like traits with her integrity, her decision-making skills, and her understanding of how to make the most of her teammates' skills and heart in any situation. Hera also appears in the Alphabet Squadron book I reviewed recently, as well as the Star Wars: Squadrons video game.
During Rebels, we got hints of Hera's past. Like the rest of the Rebels characters, she fled from her home. In Bad Batch episodes 11 and 12, titled "Devil's Deal" and "Rescue On Ryloth," we get to see a young Hera in action. I haven't rewatched Rebels since these Bad Batch episodes aired to jog my memory completely, but the way episode 11 ended seemed to fit right in with what we were told regarding the circumstances of Hera's escape, so I'm really happy about that. The two-episode arc served as a prequel to Hera's story more than anything; but the fact that Clone Force 99 just happened to pass through just signals another prime example of the dangers of creating stories that fill gaps within the larger timeline of the Star Wars universe.
Why wasn't Clone Force 99 ever mentioned in Rebels?
As I've said in my reviews of some episodes of The Mandalorian, it's just not wise to create these connections between shows and movies and books when they involve time hops. Even though Rebels isn't nearly as far in the future of The Bad Batch as, say, The Mandalorian is ahead of The Clone Wars (where was Ahsoka this whole time? Good thing she's getting a standalone show, huh?), the bridging of these two prequel cartoon shows begs questions that we shouldn't need to ask. Why didn't Hera ever mention Clone Force 99? It would be pretty hard not to have heard even a mention of them when she recalls her past. There's no plausible explanation in my mind for the decision to intersect with this storyline of Hera's; it just blurs continuity more than anything. Sure, the whole purpose behind these decisions is to give us those OMG moments when another once-loved character makes a return in some fashion. That's why everyone went ballistic with Ahsoka. But once that initial excitement wears off, it's too hard to ignore the fact that there is no explanation for these characters coming back.
Do I think they're just trying to do what Marvel does? To some extent, yes. The difference, however, is comic book stories are stupidly silly and ridiculous, so much so that no one cares about rationale. Characters come back from the dead all the time, no problem. But not Star Wars. I expect more out of Star Wars. I think I can speak for a majority of Star Wars fans when I say we want more thought put into this.
Okay, rant over.
Now that we have only three episodes of The Bad Batch left to go, I'm assuming the writers need to get back on track in a hurry, because we have a lot of ground to cover to deliver a satisfying conclusion, especially if any more reveals or plot twists are coming. One thing we did get during Hera's mini arc was a look at Crosshair (Clone Force 99's former comrade who betrayed them). Certainly a showdown with him is inevitable. As for the fate of Wrecker, Hunter, Echo, and Tech, I'm not sure they're going to make it out of this series alive, but as it was with the fate of the Rogue One characters, that would be for the best.