Discussion - Blog Posts

Star Wars: The Bad Batch - Series Finale Discussion and Thoughts

So now that the series finale is right around the corner, any thoughts, comments, feelings etc. about this final season and the show as a whole? Let's discuss! I'd love to hear your opinions.

Here are mine! Please remember that these are just my opinions and experiences with the show :) Potential spoilers below if you're not caught up!

For me, I have loved this show and have dedicated far too much time to it. Perhaps my faith in it was too high because it was in that Clone Wars style animation and I prefer animated series over live action. But to be honest, with it ending, I'm not going to lie, there is much I'm disappointed about. I honestly don't know how they're going to wrap this all up in one episode because there is far too many plot lines that are still open and unresolved. Here are just a few of my questions:

- What happened to Cid? - What will happen to Pabu? - Where is Cody? - What will go down with Wolffe? (we know he survives as we see him in Rebels, but are we going to fill in that gap) - What does the batch even want/what is their goal? - What's Omega's purpose? - What is project necromancer? (we can probably assume it has to do with the sequels...) And about Tech. I'm still very upset with what they did to him. It was a cheap death that only served to elicit a reaction from fans, and it was all in vein because they didn't find Crosshair and Omega got captured anyways. I truly thought he would come back due to the overwelminng foreshadow and his generally unfinished story, but with one episode left, I think he's truly gone; unless they pull some super tragic bs. Also, I feel like this was the worst season. Sure, I really appreciated and loved seeing Crosshair coming back, dealing with his trauma and bonding with Omega. But the story was all over the place and they had even less of a goal than they did in the first two seasons, which was a very unclear goal to begin with. The second half of this season was especially messy. They have wasted so much time on pointless stuff that could've been done in one episode. Anyways, I'd love to hear what others think and feel. And again, these are just my thoughts and opinions :D At the end of it all, I'm glad to have experienced this series, even with its flaws. I'm glad to be a part of this community. And I'm glad to have gotten the chance to love a character as much as I did and still do like Tech. Even though he is gone, he'll forever be such a special, important and impactful character to me.

That moment when you realize Bruce Wayne’s canon “favorites” aren’t his favorites… their his ideal selfs.

Bruce isn’t a ‘girl dad’ or ‘loves Dick because he’s his eldest’ no. That’s not it. He likes Cassandra because she’s has his exact moral code with little to no differences, she follows it to a tee. He likes Dick because Dick is his perfect version, his ‘success’ the best version of his exact situation. He loves them sure, but he doesn’t favor them because of love. It’s to further his own ego.

This is proved with Jay, to take care of Jay he had to push his own feelings onto Jay. To ‘fix’ him. Jay didn’t need ‘fixing’ or an outlet, he needed compassion, GENUINE compassion. Not self imposed compassion or understanding by grafting his experiences over Jason’s and making it more about himself then Jay.

He needs to keep making others ‘better’, that’s why he keeps Jay around. But shuns him too. Bruce needs to fix Jay, but Jay is imperfect, a stain on his legacy. So he can’t.

If you think about it from this perspective, Gotham War starts to actually sound completely in character. He succeeded, he ‘fixed’ Jay in his mind.

Same with Damian, not exactly, but close. He just couldn’t be the one to ‘fix’ him. Yeah he values Damian because he’s his son, but paying attention to him regularly? Nope. Damian’s been ‘fixed’.

Tim doesn’t need to be fixed, he fixed Bruce so Bruce ignores him. Any attempt at fixing would be met with a wall.

As for Stephanie he couldn’t twist her story to fit his narrative, so he just completely rejects her. 

Cass and Dick are his legacy. They were ‘fixed’. That’s why he values them.

Some food for thought, I personally don’t like this, I like good dad Bruce Wayne that values all his kids equally and tries to reach out to Jay because he genuinely wants to help his son but won’t put Gotham in danger because of himself. He pays attention to Damian, praises Tim, wants the best for Steph even if she isn’t his daughter.

But, when you think of the wider scale of Bruce’s actions in the comics (without thinking of the hand of the author) this pattern is a thing. I REALLY want to be wrong.

PLEASE COMICS LET BRUCE BE A OKAY DAD! NOT EVEN GOOD JUST OKAY IS FINE! JUST LET HIM LOVE HIS KIDS EQUALLY AND WITHOUT ANY STRINGS ATTACHED!

I have a theory about Yellow Guy

In the 6th episode, Electricity, we see Yellow Guy go up those stairs, right? It’s even suggested he has been up there before - but hear me out. What if he and Lesley were always up there in the attic to begin with? Here’s my evidence: Yellow guy is shown to have undeniable intelligence when he is fitted with new batteries. His previous ones were old and “moldy”, so that suggested he never changed them. This also suggests that there was a time he had fresh batteries and this was not the first time he had acquired this ‘intelligent’ state. This could imply that as time went on, as the battery ran out, his intelligence started to deteriorate, and so did his memory. This also makes me believe that the “Big Boys Room” and the “Bigger Boys Room” were used to accommodate Yellow Guy’s mind. The higher the levels, the more ‘smarter’ they were, which makes me believe that as Yellow Guy grew ‘less smart’, he moved down each levels, going from Lesley, to the Bigger Boys Room, to the Big Boys room, and finally to the ground floor with the trio we all know and love. Adding onto that, did you notice that Yellow Guy was absent from these rooms? Red Guy and Duck was there, sure, but they seem to recognize Yellow Guy as a returning character. They even say he’s “Missing out” and he has to “Keep up”, which could suggest he had been away for a long time (due to his intelligence diminishing as prior mentioned). Lesley mentions that they are all replaceable, and that she “has plenty of backups”. But if that was the case, why is there multiple Red Guys and Ducks and only one Yellow Guy? This is here where we continue to theorize so buckle up. Lesley and Yellow Guy are obviously linked. With several evidence of Yellow Guy being Lesley’s son, David (Her saying “you’re not my real son”, Yellow Guy’s dream scene in the episode “Transport”, the photos Duck has in the episode “Family” etc. etc.) we can already see she has an attachment to him. There is also evidence that she is not the one in full control, with her felt like appearance and the fact that when we first see her, she states,

“Batteries can be replaced,

but some things stay the same.

No matter how we twist and turn,

we're still dancing in chains."

The first line is an obvious callback to Yellow Guy’s situation: unlike the other puppets of the trio, he requires batteries to function. Or at least, think freely for himself. Kind of like a toy. But he himself is not replaceable. That’s why the other levels do not have a Yellow Guy. So he “never changes”. But Lesley continues, using the inclusive pronoun, “we”, to suggest that he and Lesley are in the same position: Trapped as puppeteers for a greater being. Both of them had been in discomfort, fighting for independent control, suggested by the phrase “twist and turns” showing constant change of path, creating a sense of restlessness. But at the end of the day, both of them were still puppets “in chains”. When Yellow Guy leaves the ‘highest’ floor, it is shown that there are more stairs, which hints there being more ‘intelligent’ beings, possibly the puppeteers (aka the producers of the show and Roy as shown by ending credits). This could probably answer the question on why Lesley had the book (which has been widely believed to be their escape plan) that Yellow Guy had written in his own language and gives the show a lot more lore.

So my conclusion? Yellow Guy and Lesley used to conspire how to escape the puppet universe together in order to break free, but due to negligence on changing batteries, Yellow Guy was eventually used just as just a puppet for Lesley to replace her lost son and as a form of entertainment to preserve the memory of David, while Yellow Guy permanently loses his memories, succumbing to the inevitable fate of becoming a puppet more the wider audience.

there’s something about this scene in murder drones that really fucks with me when I think about it

—long post and murder drones ep 7 spoilers below—

So for a short recap of what happened up till this point, Tessa told N that Earth imploded, to keep the former a secret from Uzi, escaped from whatever the fuck happened in Ep 6 and V sacrificed herself so the rest of them could continue exploring Cabin Fever Labs and not be brutally torn apart by the sentinels.

N’s not having a good time to put it lightly.

He’s in the aftermath of V’s sacrifice and N’s look of just pure despair here says more than I could ever try to put into words.

He’s in shock, he’s concerned and scared and his mind must be working overtime trying to process what just happened.

V may be dead.

Denial or anger or maybe even both comes over him. Even if V and N’s relationship has been messy recently, he still CARES about her and having V sacrifice herself for both his and Uzi’s sake… He just can’t take it.

Impulse takes over as he begins firing at the ruble. V can’t be dead. SHE CAN’T BE DEAD.

He yells at Uzi to use her solver so they can get back V. He starts slashing at the ruble with claws because he needs V with him. He isn’t thinking, he’s just blindly attacking because he NEEDS V.

As he continues acting purely on his emotions, Tessa yells at him to watch it and he turns around to see…

“I… don’t think I s-should. I’m sorry, N…”

N must feel terrible in this moment. In his inconsideration, he hurt Uzi, one of the people he cares the most about. He might already have lost one of his friends and he doesn’t want lose another. He must feel awful.

He tries apologizing, tries deescalating the situation. You can see in his body language here that he’s trying get down to her level, trying to make her feel not uncomfortable with him. He wants to tell her it isn’t her fault, that he lost control of his emotions for a moment and feels deeply sorry for what he just did and-

Tessa interrupts him.

Tessa stops him from trying to talk it out with Uzi. Now, I feel like we all know at this point that this isn’t Tessa. This is Cyn wearing Tessa’s skin pretending to be Tessa and on rewatch this scene hits even harder. At this point in the story, Cyn is trying to regain control of N, either by manipulating him or hacking into his software (as seen by a this).

And to do that, Cyn has to get N alone and isolated from anyone who might try to intervene.

What Cyn is trying to do by not letting N speak to Uzi is that she’s trying to drive a wrench between the two, and if she succeeds, she can have an obedient murder pet that will eat planets with her. Seeing as neither of her plans worked out, she settled on just killing N, thus the whole “why is Cyn after her own murder pet” thing.

I’m getting ahead of myself, back to the scene itself.

This single frame adds so much in such little time its shown. Uzi sees herself bleeding in the reflection of Tessa’s sword, not oil, but blood. As anyone would be in this situation, she’s visibly shocked. Not only does this add another parallel between Doll and Uzi, but it also adds a level of discomfort to Tessa on Uzi’s behalf.

Tessa goes “Uzi, let’s have you sit this one out, eh? Box over there. Robots like boxes, right?” Which is (1. Insensitive and emotionally immature of her. And (2. Cyn trying to get alone with N.

Uzi doesn't want anymore of Tessa’s cryptic bullshit and tries to speak up and is yet again, interrupted by Tessa. This time, she’s speaking solely to N. She wants him to speak.

As you can see, N does not like being abruptly put on the spot. Taking everything prior into account, we can tell that N doesn’t know what to say. Cyn, FOR THE THIRD TIME THIS SCENE, is forcing that wrench harder down into N and Uzi’s relationship.

N is visibly nervous when speaking here. He’s trying to pick his words as carefully as he can under this much stress. He manages to get out “Uzi, there, um, might be some things down here that you don’t want to see.”

Uzi isn’t getting the full picture here. N is hiding something from her, which is terrifying for her. What reason would N have to hide anything from her? And Cabin Fever Labs, possibly the only place where Uzi can get answers, “might have things she doesn’t want to see”? WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?

N is definitely freaking out because Uzi is freaking out and N doesn’t want to be responsible for anybody freaking out, especially if it’s Uzi.

N isn’t getting the full picture either because “Tessa” is purposefully not giving it to him.

N tries assuring Uzi that everything’s going to be alright, that they’re not going to hurt her.

“…Hurt me?”

…

Uzi’s solver activates and it summons a null void. The corridor starts caving in. N reaches a hand out for Uzi to take. She backs away.

And that ends one of the most emotional one minute and forty two seconds of my life. Yeah, that’s right, everything mentioned here happened in the span of one minute and forty two seconds!

FUCK

ME

"here, life is beautiful." (Spoilers for Cabaret, on Broadway and the West End)

Leave your troubles outside! So - life is disappointing? Forget it! We have no troubles here! Here life is beautiful.

~ Emcee, Willkommen, from Cabaret

Let's unpack these lines, shall we?

leave your troubles outside!

Escapism; ignorance is bliss.

we have no troubles here!

So long as you are here, there are no problems to worry about!

So why not stay awhile? After all, what good is sitting alone in your room?

here, life is beautiful.

Life is beautiful here in our little cabaret.

Life outside the cabaret is ugly.

so why not stay awhile?

When those are all added together by the end of Cabaret, what do we get?

The Kit Kat Club is a place for people to engage in escapism. While you're in the Kit Kat Club, you have nothing to worry about, especially your worries outside. After all, in here, life is beautiful. Why bother worrying about the people who can't afford, can't find, or otherwise cannot access this beautiful little Club of ours? They aren't here, where life is beautiful, they are outside, where life must be ugly.

See where this leads?

It divides us just like the titular Kit-Kat; split in twain. There is no glory, no love of life in the line "life is beautiful" within Cabaret. It is the vessel by which we see one of many possible messages:

fascism is able to invade our lives by our proclivity for escapism.

and, simultaneously,

fascism can seduce us all into not noticing the damage that it does, by glorifying and beautifying itself.

To celebrate the show by reveling in the sexiness of it is to miss the point; you are using it as escapism. The London and now Broadway production literally showcases how everyone is slowly seduced by imagery: from the Emcee's swastika-inspired dance at the top of show, and his old war helmet in Money Money, to the very attractive and flashy dances we see performed by the beautiful Cabaret girls and boys (and "even the orchestra is beautiful!") This is the exact point. The sexiness and imagery is used to distract us from folks like Ernst Ludwig, who weaponize information and identity to divide and conquer. Neon.

I had to unfollow some old friends because they have seen this show twice and that was all they came away with. But any time I try to talk with them, they shove me off, like I'm taking things to seriously. I hope this is useful to someone. That is all. Yes, life is beautiful; but it is only as beautiful as we defend it. Life is beautiful in that it is lived, and lived deeply, by truly perceiving it.

"We live, I regret to say, in an age of surfaces."

~ Lady Bracknell, The Importance of Being Earnest

But how much longer can we live in such an age? And how much longer do you want to? Do we want to live only as far as we can touch and see at first touch, first glance?

Valyrian attitudes toward women

Thinking about what we know about Valyrian gender roles;

It seems to have been more normalized for women to take more martial roles - both of the Conqueror's sisters, even Rhaenys who Is described by the histories as less martial, rode dragons into battle.

Valyrian inheritance practices seem to have favored men over women. Aegon I inherited Dragonstone over his sister Visenya, despite the fact she was older than him.

So in general it doesn't seem that Valyria was that much different from their Andal counterparts as far as we are aware, hang-ups amount women in battle non-withstanding.

(Nor would it make sense for the eugenist slavocracy to have particularly progressive opinions on women anyway)

And even then I'd guess valyrian tolerance to women actively taking part in battles only extends to highborn, dragon-riding aristocrats.

soooo what should I do

Free bibles

I left class, went and sat in a bench with my headphones and a cigarette. A man came out of nowhere getting in my face saying something like, “Do you want to go to heaven?” I have headphones in man, what makes you think I want to talk. Thinking it was some sort of weird pick up line I just said, “no thanks” sending him off with my hands. He walked towards the table next to me and asked some boys that had been speaking Spanish where they were from. The boys said Mexico, and turns out this guy was Mexican too- He asked something about them having a moment to talk about God and one of them said, “Just because we’re Mexican we’re automatically religious?”

The man of course, was a prophet-those that go knock on doors, hand out pamphlets and bibles. We’re on a college campus, I would’ve imagined this man, having one sacred mission to complete would’ve thought of some methods to get to young people other than the outdated fear driven arguments that inculcate mediocrity and disbelief. So he ignores the boys comment and starts his speech, in which he scolds both boys and tells them HE knows, HE will decide who gets in and who stays out, Jesus Christ, God, they know who their followers are. The boys, bless their hearts, are patient and eventually get the man off their backs.

I imagine what the conversation would’ve been between the man and I. Since he was so outspoken with the guys at the table, he probably would’ve been the same with me. I would have told him “Yes, Jesus was the ultimate savior of humanity- a hippie cool guy with 12 groupies and the greatest super power of all time in turning water into wine. I don’t discredit the history of the Romans and the Jews and Jesus Christ- I believe in God and heaven. So who the fuck are you prophet of what organization? Everything you’re saying is coming in one ear as shit that I want to throw in your face.” I imagined the guy to be a Jehovah Witness or from a Christian branch, because the Jews and Muslims aren’t scolding people and telling them they won’t be let into heaven- they’re pushing people to create their own heaven here on earth, a life of prosperity and worth of telling to their God once they’re in heaven. It’s nothing against God, it’s against these people that say they’re speaking for God and his Son and go on in ways that caused the Renaissance to be a huge success against the Church, Kings, and corrupt archbishops that maintained the bourgeois and proletariat classes for their benefit.

Anyways, I think that when we die we each go to our ideal heaven. Micheal Jackson may be in his eternal never land estate, I want to just be in a heaven where I can know all the unanswered questions of the universe like, “How did O.j really kill his wife? Did the egg or the chicken come first?” and be able to travel in time to whatever point of humanity’s history I wanted to.

I only could imagine this whole conversation, because I don’t have the guts to get into a discussion with a man that was spending his free time in such a productive way. I could only laugh and sigh at the thought and wish the man luck among a campus full of young skeptical minds that are also bombarded by Planned Parenthood and Green Peace prophets that are predicating for signatures/followers.

You're not a weirdo

You are not very different from a person who makes a joke about someone's suicide that occurred just a few weeks ago, if you are not able to understand how the problematic situation that causes many victims per year because you don't care and it doesn't affect you Nothing gives you the right to sexualize or fetishize something horrible

Call me Anti or moralist but it is important to be aware of what one consumes and creates.

It is important to have respect for the topics being discussed and to show them as they should be.

I also like strange or not so strange things but I put limits on things that I know I like and I am able to enjoy it like Hannibal And a lot of horror content where sexuality is the order of the day from the material itself as well as from the fans.

But I always draw the line when things like rape are trivialized.

I'm bothered by pedophilia (I won't say the age difference, I'll just call it what it is) and the things they do, but I'm not bothered by incest when it's with older characters.

This is how I consume anything and I say it as an example only.

(Now that I think about it, it's quite similar to the topic of black humor🤔)

And this conversation must take place and not simply insult or make excuses.

Yeah, i think my top 3 walten files characters are [and this is ranked in order];

1. Sophie

2. Edd and Mollie

3. [There is a tie here- between; Jack, Felix, Bon, and Banny [Banny is silly, and the other 3 are intriguing which is why I like them- and I wish to know more about them ! [I like a good mystery]]]

Might as well write some reasonings here for the other 2-

I like sophie cause first ! Her voice !!! Its very epic !!! And I like her whole playthrough thingy of bunny farm [which is my favorite episode of walten files] I think she's very epic and intriguing herself- also rip

As for ed and molly, I quite like them too, they're interesting characters, and I like the whole them driving home with Felix bit- [I feel bad for em though] also the whole bit in episode 5 where they want to protect Susan despite being dead themselves, anyway I just think they're neat !

As for Jack and felix- the whole cutscene where Felix is burying the kids, and stuff and he's sitting on the edge of like a cliff, and then later he's there in his house with jack banging on the door and all the phone calls and stuff.

As for bon, I like a good intriguing and mysterious villain ! But also I like all the little animated stuff of him ! He's so silly

Similliar to bon, for banny she's just so silly in the animated stuff !!! Like look at her !! I love her !!