5 Years Ago, Star Wars Connected Two of Its Best Shows With One of The Franchise’s Best Rebels
The Disney era of Star Wars has gotten a bad reputation for getting snared in its own convoluted lore. There are plenty of reasons to feel that way, but there have been examples of Star Wars content that flows together perfectly across the big screen, small screen, or the page. Those examples don’t tend to get highlighted all that much – often because “fans” haven’t engaged with all the necessary content to understand the larger story.
It was 5 years ago that Star Wars pulled off a powerful crossover story that not only tied two of the franchise’s best shows together, but gave fans some deeper insight into one of their favorite members of the Rebel Alliance. And looking back now, we wish that Star Wars had more moments like it.
The Bad Batch Told One of the Best Hera Syndulla Stories Ever
The animated series Star Wars: The Bad Batch (2021-2024) followed Clone Force 99, a specialized unit of Clone Troopers that had been genetically modified, earning them the nickname “The Bad Batch.” Those modifications made most of Clone Force 99 immune to Emperor Palpatine’s “Order 66,” which compelled the other clone soldiers to betray and kill the Jedi. Fearing that they would be decommissioned, the Bad Batch instead went rogue, first serving as mercenaries for hire, but eventually finding their way into serving the Rebellion.
Episode 12 of The Bad Batch, “Rescue on Ryloth”, was the second part of a two-part arc that saw Clone Force 99 tasked with helping the Syndulla family, after resistance leader Cham Syndulla and his wife Eleni are arrested for treason. Their daughter, Hera, contacts Clone Force 99’s young ward Omega, and begs for her parents to be rescued. The Bad Batch takes the mission, with Hera and Omega joining them, and together they successfully disrupt the Empire’s refinery on Planet Ryloth and free the Twi’lek freedom fighters, including Cham and Eleni Syndulla.
This story arc of The Bad Batch was one of the best instances of Star Wars doing retcons the right way. It established how a young Hera Syndulla learned to be a rebel operative from a very young age, inspired by her parents’ example. It also fit perfectly with the adult version of Hera, who was a breakout star of the Star Wars Rebels animated series, which premiered a full 7 years before The Bad Batch (in 2014). Rebels was a prequel series that helped explain the formation of the Rebel Alliance, with Hera and the rest of her “Spectre Crew” being instrumental in the early version of the rebellion. Together, The Bad Batch and Rebels paint an undeniably complete story of how the rebellion started, grew, and who the key figures of it were.
Even Clone Wars Got Some Love From The Bad Batch
The connections didn’t end there: The Bad Batch‘s Ryloth arc was actually a sequel to a story that began in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which saw Cham Syndulla fighting alongside Jedi Master Mace Windu to free Ryloth from Separatist occupation. During a pivotal moment in “Rescue on Ryloth”, The Bad Batch and the Syndullas are aided in their prison break by Clone Captain Howzer, one of the clone soldiers who fought with Cham (and came to respect him) during the Clone Wars.
For fans who watched all three animated series, this was as close to George Lucas’ poetry-style flow that Star Wars ever gets.
You can stream the Star Wars animated series The Bad Batch, Rebels, and Clone Wars on Disney+.
