A Star Wars Conspiracy Theory about the Bad Batch

Hey, everyone. May the 4th be with you. I just recently finished watching the Bad Batch final season(3), and I have a lot of thoughts that gotta go somewhere.

Let me preface this theory by stating that Dave Filoni, bless his soul, usually either drives his shows towards patching up the movies, or doing something new. Clone Wars explores Anakin's backstory, improves on Jar Jar Binks and the Clones, and ultimately significantly improves the prequels. Rebels and Ahsoka is something new, exploring the edges of the galaxy, and filling out the extended universe. Book of Boba Fett improves on everyone's favorite bounty hunter, and we've had more Mandalorian lore in almost every show - Clone Wars, Rebels, Mandalorian, BoBF, etc.

So, in that vein, the Bad Batch serves to patch up the sequel trilogy. Except, it doesn't. My theory is that they removed a significant amount of lore from the finale and rewrote much of the show before its release.

Let's consider two things before we continue:

A "Chekov's Gun" is when a show or movie shows you something on screen, it must be used. They show you the gun in the drawer, the gun must be used to shoot someone.

The second thing is basically the first, but consider that in an animated show, Chekov's gun counts double. Every frame of the show was animated, every voice line recorded. They don't have to reshoot live footage and they have unlimited editing ability to change what is on screen. Nothing in an animated show is by accident(save for the rare arm clipping through a wall or something).

Beware, heavy spoilers beyond this point.

Here's why I think Bad Batch was supposed to be:

Project Necromancer

Sidious was having Dr. Hemlock look into the ability to clone a Force user and retain or even bolster the midichlorian count. Sidious, at this point, was entrusting the longevity of his Empire to the Death Star, and his own longevity to his Sith power. Sith traditionally kill their masters, and their master's soul possesses them(see Clone Wars and Rebels for more on this). It's a theory for another day, but I think Sidious tried creating Anakin with the Force, which didn't turn out, and as an old man running out of time, turned to cloning technology rather than find another disciple to possess. His next in line is a half busted up asthmatic death robot. Not such a good idea to use your Sith possession move.

Palpatine also stated "there is no greater importance to the survival of this Empire" and gave Hemlock unlimited funding. Might have gotten the quote slightly wrong, but the point stands - this ain't your daddy's cloning project.

So not only does this explain one of the most lambasted plot points in the sequels, in true Filoni fashion("somehow, Palpatine returned"), it all checks out. Previously in the Bad Batch the Empire destroyed Kamino and relocated the remainder to Hemlock's facility. Cloning was referred to in the sequels as "dark science, secrets only the Sith knew". Well, yeah. The Empire killed everyone else capable of cloning.

Omega is a force sensitive clone, which is confirmed during Season 3. She is the prototype to Rey, who was revealed to be a creation of Palpatine. My headcanon is Sidious created Anakin with the Force, but he was too much of a loose cannon. A clone with most of his DNA would be much safer.

So, as I predicted it:

• patches up the sequels
• patches up the lack of clones in the rest of the series
• patches up Palpatine's survival strategy
• patches up Rey's Origin

the Zillo Beast

I'm really not sure about this, but I'm just going to point out that the Zillo is a perfect foil to Mandalorian's mythosaur. Zillo's bulletproof and only susceptible to electric shock, same as Mandalorians. Hmmmmm....

What they removed

So, here's my beef.

Project Necromancer was retconned out

• There's a scene where Nala Se, the only Kaminoan to do Force cloning, tells Admiral Rampart about Project Necromancer during a cutaway, then after Rampart shoots her, Nala Se detonates a grenade, killing both of them and destroying the research. Why does this scene exist, why would Nala Se even risk telling him, if they were going to die anyway? She armed the grenade before telling him, so she always intended to set it off. Why not just blow both of them away and destroy it without doing all that exposition? Which the viewer never saw???
• Omega lets herself be captured by Hemlock a second time. Same as previous season. What?
• One of the last scenes is Tarkin shows up, and learns the research was destroyed and Hemlock is dead, and shutters the facility indefinitely and redirect the funding to Stardust(the Death Star). How does the Emperor come back in the sequels if they have unequivocally stated the ability to clone, and much less clone a Force user, was destroyed right here and now?
• What's the point of Bad Batch if they leave this many plot holes? It's not like Filoni to leave this many loose ends. Project Necromancer was just....a MacGuffin? I have severe doubts.

Fennec was supposed to learn a bit more about honor

• Filoni loves him some crossover episodes, and Fennec showing up in Book of Boba Fett is a bit weird, given that she goes from cold-blooded killer directly to helping out honorable Boba. I reckon the clones were supposed to teach her a bit more about honor and truth than they did.
• Also, why does this episode exist? If Asajj Ventress is still a bounty hunter....the Batch could have gone directly to her and they could have deleted the entire Fennec episode, if they were pressed for runtime. Why goof around with Fennec for an episode, unless it's to prop up Book of Boba Fett?

Hemlock was supposed to survive

• They spend a lot of time looking at Hemlock rubbing his hand(which one is clad in a black glove), especially when things aren't going well. No, seriously, there are entire shots of just his midsection and hands, rubbing in the same way as Crosshair after Hemlock experimented on him. Hemlock's done something to himself, as all mad scientists do, and probably was supposed to survive for another season thanks to his enhancements. But he's dead, and they spent a lot of time and effort looking at his hands for no reason. And he doesn't have one black hand by accident.

Wrecker was supposed to die

• Wrecker took a lot of damage in the final fight, but when Hunter and Crosshair defeat Hemlock and take Omega to the shuttle and leave, it cuts right to the shuttle. The last time we saw Wrecker, he passed out.
• What's the point in him giving his all in that fight and taking all that damage, if he just walks out, and he's fine?
• Omega takes the stuffie with her in the final scene as well as Tech's glasses. This was supposed to be tokens of the two 99's who have died.

Tech was going to be resurrected

I believe Tech was supposed to come back during the course of this season but ultimately die for real.

• The assassin clone that chases them for several episodes had a lot of screen time for a side character.
• Tech would have been a prototype of Project Necromancer - of course it can save Sidious if they can bring back a dead clone.
• Assassin clone was shown with high technical aptitude, stealing ship coordinates out of the nav computer and cracking encryption like it was nothing. That's not something Hemlock's zap chairs can teach you.
• They spend a lot of time looking at Tech's glasses throughout the season.
• They talk about Tech like he's lost, or away, not like he's dead. Only once does Crosshair say "Clone Force 99 died with Tech" and that's in the last episode where I reckon they removed a ton of footage. Even the pirate who loved Four-Eyes doesn't really seem to miss him that much. Omega, who was upset for three episodes when Echo left, doesn't seem that shook over Tech literally dying.
• Hemlock is the one that confirmed Tech's death and handed them the broken glasses last season, and Hemlock's a liar.
• When the original assassin clone gets nailed to a pillar by Hunter during the final battle, the camera spends too long looking at him, and also shows a shot of the floor, with the assassin's feet, but nothing but blank floor in the right two-thirds of the shot. I think there was supposed to be a helmet falling off that hit the ground in that right two-thirds, and Tech's face would be revealed.
• Omega leaving her stuffie and Tech's glasses in the village seemed really final, but in the last scene she puts them up on her ship's dashboard. It's been years, and she still carries Tech and Wrecker(the stuffie) with her? Uh huh.

None of it makes any sense

Maybe I'm crazy, maybe I'm wrong. But the season finale of Bad Batch was uncharacteristically fast and loose and there were a lot of scenes that didn't show right, or didn't play out right, or should have been removed. I suspect there was a hurried last-minute rewrite of the entire finale, and it shows.

Thanks for reading all that.

Nico