Star Wars: The Bad Batch episode 1 retcons a key Jedi’s story

Disney Plus’ new computer-animated Star Wars collection, The Unhealthy Batch, continues the development of the interconnected galaxy. The 70-minute premiere, “Aftermath,” opens with the titular clone troopers, identified for his or her mutations and enhancements, dealing with a altering galactic order throughout and after the occasions of Revenge of the Sith. However with only a few scenes, the present’s influence reaches additional into the longer term.

[Ed. note: The rest of this story contains spoilers for The Bad Batch episode 1.]

Of their opening battle, the Batch operatives cross into the tragic backstory of Jedi padawan Caleb Dume, who could also be only a supporting character within the collection’ story, however as followers of different Star Wars animated properties know, seems to be a serious participant. Caleb survives the Jedi-assassinating Order 66, and grows as much as be Kanan Jarrus, the instructor of younger Padawan Ezra Bridger on Star Wars Rebels.

Again in 2018, CinemaBlend requested Clone Wars government producer and Rebels creator Dave Filoni if Caleb/Kanan and his Grasp Depa Billaba, a background Jedi within the prequel trilogy, would ever make an look within the revived Clone Wars, which ended final Could. Filoni answered, maybe teasingly, “It’s an thrilling thought for certain, so who is aware of?” This manifested with Caleb’s and Depa’s holo-cameos within the final season of The Clone Wars. In The Unhealthy Batch, the grasp and apprentice now have talking components, voiced by Archie Panjabi and Freddie Prinze Jr., who returns to his Rebels position.

The Unhealthy Batch situation suits Kanan’s backstory as spoken in Rebels: Clone troopers shoot down Depa as he runs away. However the present additionally reconfigures and overrides the in depth canon within the 2015-2016 Marvel Star Wars: Kanan comics, written by Rebels author Greg Weisman with artwork by Pepe Larraz. A planet by the identify of Kaller stays the location of Kanan’s tragedy, though it wasn’t snow-covered and the narrative omits his interplay with Kallerian civilization. Comedian readers will discover extra main changes to the background of Caleb Dume/Kanan Jarrus.

Caleb’s relationship with clones

Picture: Lucasfilm Ltd.

By the point the Unhealthy Batch seems on display screen, Caleb has constructed a rapport with Wrecker, the muscle of the group. However the former’s historical past with different clone comrades is absent. A key component of the Kanan comics was his friendship with two clones, Commander Gray and Captain Types, who’re activated by mind chips to show their blasters on him and Billaba. In his green-streaked armor, Captain Gray (named ultimately credit) seems to be a composite of each.

Onscreen, Captain Gray is final seen being kicked unconscious by Billaba. Apparently within the Marvel comics, Gray and Types proceed their hunt of Caleb, then Gray fights his mind chip sufficient to have a second of tear-stricken lucidity and sacrifices himself and Types to permit Caleb to flee.

Caleb will get a brand new do

In eight hanging panels, the Kanan comedian depicted Caleb chopping off his Padawan braid and adopting a ponytail to enter hiding. It represented the relinquishing of his Jedi id and a ceremony of passage into a lifetime of crime. CGI-ed Padawan Caleb already wears a small ponytail.

The place is that holocron?

Picture: Lucasfilm Ltd.

Earlier than Order 66 is executed within the comedian, Caleb sat cosy by the hearth and fiddling along with his grasp’s latest reward: a Jedi holocron, a cubic information container. The holocron omission feels obtrusive as a result of it performs a job in Rebels. It comprises Obi-Wan Kenobi’s warning holo that instructs surviving Jedi to steer clear of the temple. It later falls into Maul’s arms (lengthy story) and is used to trace Kenobi on Tatooine.

Caleb was in addition to his Grasp

The Unhealthy Batch inadvertently whisks Caleb away from his grasp’s impending execution. However within the comedian, he’s proper beside Billaba when she orders him to run. The tv staging is much less violent. Billaba decapitating a soldier and Caleb being pressured to strike down his personal buddies are omitted. She additionally doesn’t shout, “I’ll be proper behind you,” an ominous line echoed in Rebels.

If Caleb doesn’t pop up once more in The Unhealthy Batch, there’s presumably wriggle room for him to dwell out the remainder of the backstory specified by the 12-issue comics: Caleb beginning anew beneath the mentorship of the Kalleran Janus Kasmir, which might be years earlier than he would pair up with the insurgent Hera Syndulla in John Jackson Miller’s 2014 A New Daybreak novel, the prequel to Rebels and the primary Star Wars novel beneath Disney’s canon.