Latest / Aggressive Negotiations: A Star Wars Podcast / Issue 312: The Bad Batch Commentary: Rescue on Ryloth

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Issue 312: The Bad Batch Commentary: Rescue on Ryloth · Aggressive Negotiations: A Star Wars Podcast

0:03
Welcome to the Nerde Polity. Hi, this is Nick Nastasu, story editor
0:09
on Star Wars, The Clone Wars and Star Wars bad Batch and you are
0:15
listening to Aggressive Negotiations. That is correct. You are here tuning into the
0:28
transmission from Aggressive Negotiations, the Star Wars podcast that looks at things from different
0:34
angles all over the galaxy far far away. I am Jedi Master John Mills.
0:40
I am joined by the esteemed Jedi Master Matthew Rushing. Matt are you
0:45
ready for another one of our bad Batch commentaries today? I am so ready.
0:51
I cannot wait to be back on Rye Loth As. We're going to
0:54
be picking up where we left off from the previous episode. And yeah,
1:00
this was I remember just, you know, being back in this series one
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and so excited that we were visiting Hera and her family and this situation on
1:12
Ryloth and so I'm more than excited to be back in it with them,
1:18
and we are excited to have you with us. And you can find us
1:22
on social media at the Jedi Masters on Twitter. You can find the network
1:26
as the nerd Party on Facebook and Instagram, and of course we invite you
1:30
to reach out to us at the Nerdparty dot Com slash contact. All of
1:34
that said, I'm excited to get to Season one, episode twelve, Rescue
1:40
on Ryloth. So let's just go ahead and get to it. And I'm
1:44
going to count us down. If you don't know how these commentaries work,
1:47
come on now, come on, if this is your first one that you're
1:49
ever listening to, just as a brief reminder, you don't have to be
1:53
watching the episode with us. We try to make this accessible even if you're
1:57
just listening in your car as you're trapped in traffic and you don't understand why
2:00
the person in front of you is going so much slower than the speed limit.
2:04
We'll try to get you through that. We'll try to get you there.
2:07
You can picture what's going on theater of the mind right here, or
2:09
if you're pairing with us, this is where this part comes in, is
2:12
the countdown and saying the word play. We're all on Disney Plus because they
2:16
won't give us our four K blue rays of this because that's just dumb.
2:21
So I'm going to say three to one play. When I say the word
2:23
play, trust me, I mean this from my heart of hearts. It
2:27
means I hit play means Matt, hit play means you should hit play.
2:30
So I'm going to count us down starting with three, three, two one
2:38
play, And here we go, starting off with all of the fantastic things
2:44
that we can't expect from a Disney Plus original. Every time somebody says that
2:47
all I think of as the Joker, and here we go. That's right,
2:53
here we go, and what a go it's going to be. We
2:57
had everything teed up in olds deal and now we know that this is going
3:02
to be the follow throughs swing, and so it's always exciting when we proceed
3:08
with a bad Batch story as to what that follow throughs swing is going to
3:15
be. Like doesn't that like city kind of like look like a shark's mouth
3:22
open? Oh? It does? It does, which is very fitting naturally,
3:29
because we're dealing with, you know, with our Disney villain Rampart walking
3:35
through the joint. I love this too, because you know, I think
3:43
one of the things that this truly sets up so well here with the Bad
3:46
Batch is the way in which the Empire is going to use every single incident
3:55
to their benefit. They're going to find a way to twist it into their
4:00
benefit, which is something that's going to continue to play out throughout this season
4:04
next season, and then of course that's exactly what the Empire and the Emperor
4:09
due throughout its entire run. And I just love that this show is really
4:15
giving us that piece as they work to take over ryloth Here, well what
4:21
I love, and this is due to the animators, due to the story
4:27
boarders, due to everybody along every step of the way. We know,
4:30
as Star Wars fans that clones have been bred to be loyal, to follow
4:36
orders, and seeing the facial expressions of a clone, somebody bred to simply
4:45
take whatever order they're given, see the face fall, see the questioning that's
4:50
going on internally of what am I doing here? Why am I doing this?
4:58
That tells you exactly. That speaks more volumes than anything else about While
5:04
we can sit there and we can say, oh, well, you know,
5:06
the Empire just took what the Republic was blah blah blah blah. No,
5:09
the Empire is something different because the clones never questioned serving in the Republic,
5:16
but you have clones who are older who are visibly questioning what it means
5:24
to serve the Empire instead. Well, and what's interesting here too, is
5:30
that that's what the Empire still wants from the Clones, which is unwavering service.
5:36
And yet we are seeing many of the Clones asking questions and that is
5:47
not what the Empire wants, and so I really appreciate that. And of
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course now we've got Crosshairs group here and they're are the ones that are on
5:56
the lookout for Haraw, which is terrifying for all of us because you know,
6:01
Crosshair has no compulsion about shooting somebody on site, which of course we
6:06
know is not going to happen because harr is still alive and rebels. But
6:11
still, like, if this is your first Star Wars series as a kid
6:15
or whatever, you don't know that, right, And even if you know
6:19
that Harra is going to survive with you, don't listen another Marauder appreciation statement.
6:30
I can't get over this ship. I really can't. It's it's dumb.
6:33
I know it's dumb. And we we have Omega working on our Gonk
6:41
Droid, trying to again with a little character moment, establish how far she's
6:48
going, how far she's come. She's she's building these skills, she's taking
6:57
in these skills. This is a tech based skill where she's sitting there working
7:00
on the droid or you know, you can even say it's an echo based
7:04
thing where it's interfacing with technology, but she's interfacing in a very human way
7:12
the way Luke does, the way Anakin does with technology, recognizing the sort
7:16
of symbiosis that exists there and having her right in the middle of everything,
7:23
you know, making that emotional plea Nope, people need help. You can't
7:30
just turn your blind eyes. It's the same thing that that Anakin says at
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the dinner table yep, right, like you got to help people, yep.
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And isn't it like, yeah, isn't that what soldiers do. We're
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supposed to help people, Like if they call and they need help, aren't
7:46
we surprised to be there? Isn't that our job? Yeah? Which is
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so interesting because you know, of course, with her relationship here with the
7:54
Clones, she has taken on the mantle of so many of their best quality
8:00
right, which is what makes her such an interesting character here, I think
8:03
in the show because the same way Asoka does that with Obi Wan and with
8:11
Anakin taking their best qualities, Omega is really kind of doing that with the
8:16
entire squad here. She's taking their best qualities and merging them into herself,
8:22
and then when she challenges them, what she's really challenging them is with a
8:26
mirror of themselves. Well, i'll sum it up as saying it this way,
8:33
that kids are really good at calling bulls on your minor hypocrisies. That's
8:39
true, that's true. Yeah, you're right, kid. You know the
8:46
other thing we didn't talk about last time, and that I really love about
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what they're doing here, is that, you know, when you're on Ryloth,
8:52
all of the Twilex have that French accent, which I love that they
9:00
so many of these different races, they've tried to use different access to differentiate
9:03
them from other species, like the Pentorrens have New Zealand accent, which I
9:11
think is great, and so it's really cool that they utilize those ideas to
9:16
try and create the sense that these people don't all sound the same. And
9:24
I acknowledge that point. I gotta love the fact that you have a crowd
9:28
scene with a bunch of probe droids, just that sense of constant surveillance,
9:33
which boy, isn't relatable at all in the modern day. Oh no,
9:37
it isn't, Matt that idea that you're always on camera, always being watched,
9:41
always being monitored, for every little tiny blip that might go against what
9:45
people expect you to behave, Like that is completely foreign, what a crazy
9:50
sci fi concept? Well, and I think that's kind of the beauty of
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so much of what you know, Star Wars does. The prequels have done,
9:58
the original trilogy. Everything here is you know, by being able to
10:03
mirror what we see in our world today, but what we've seen throughout history,
10:09
classic literary themes of course, you know, going all the way back
10:13
to something like nineteen eighty four. These are all the things that the Empire
10:16
represents. And yeah, it's it's very terrifying to actually see that in person.
10:24
You know. I love the fact that when they're skulking around, just
10:28
in the body language, you can tell that Wrecker, I mean, he's
10:31
the one that's like, oh, we just fly in and blow it up,
10:33
right, like Wrecker is. He even looks uncomfortable trying to sneak around.
10:43
You can tell he's the one that just wants to punch the door down
10:46
and just get in the fight sort of thing. And and you know,
10:50
there you go. You have the probe droid that is the reminder there is
10:56
no hidden corner in this world anymore. Everything is under surveillance, which is
11:03
such a great representation and a microcosm of what's happening across the entire galaxy.
11:11
M And I think that's one of the beauties of The Bad Batch as a
11:15
series is that as we're telling these stories and we're kind of focusing around the
11:20
Bad Batch, you know, a story like this helps us get a picture
11:24
of Yeah, this is happening on Ryloth, but this is happening on many
11:30
other systems throughout the galaxy right now as the Empire slowly takes control. Yeah,
11:37
and that's you know that again getting to the Batch understands why Champson Dula
11:48
is a threat, why he's being persecuted, and Harrah is the one that
11:54
makes it very succinct where she basically says, I don't care that he's my
12:00
dad, I love him, I don't want anything bad to happen to him,
12:03
and it again gets that whole thing of that is what can be so
12:07
easily manipulated. That's the leverage is your kids love for you, and your
12:13
love for your kids is something any emotional attachment. It's not just parental child
12:18
relationship. Any emotional attachment can be leveraged by an authoritarian regime to make you
12:26
fall in line you care about. What happens is somebody, Well, we
12:31
don't have to hurt you. We can hurt somebody you care about that will
12:33
remind you to stay in line, not to do anything out of sorts.
12:39
Absolute really love the fight that they're having there, where Hunter doesn't see a
12:45
way that they can do this and all live, and Omega's like, she's
12:48
doing this for her family. I'd do the same for you. And there's
12:54
this switch that is happening here with Clone Force ninety nine where they aren't just
13:03
being forced to think as soldiers, but they're being able to they're being forced
13:07
to think relationally, which is different for them. And Omega is the one
13:13
who's kind of forcing that on them because they've created this emotional attachment with her
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and they would do anything to get her back right, And so I think
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there's just this wonderful kind of pivot for them in the way that they think,
13:31
which is what makes these so special as stories. Hmm. I like
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the fact that that crosshair can be manipulated so easily by rampart m as to
13:50
say, I'll find somebody who can do your job, and there's that individual
13:54
pride. It doesn't matter to them anymore. So I'll find I'll prove to
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you that I can do all of this. And it even though Houser is
14:03
pretty much ready to jump ship at this point, all the Crosshair can see
14:09
is a threat to his primacy, to his ability, to his standing.
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And I think that's an important moment because it makes him stand out so much
14:20
from the rest of the Batch, who are all about playing their strengths for
14:24
the benefit of everybody. Right. It It almost makes me want to have
14:31
some sort of short story or books about the Batch prior to this, where
14:35
Crosshair was always that one where they're like, dude, stop like it doesn't
14:41
matter about what your personal record is or anything like that. We're all a
14:45
team, right, And hows are asking the question? You know you attacked
14:52
an imperial convoy, what did you think would happen? You know that it's
14:56
it's that's that's the classics sort of u equivocation you can have, right.
15:03
That's just like when I get in the discussion with somebody where they're like,
15:07
oh, well, what do you care? What do you have to hide.
15:09
It's like, it's not that I have anything to hide. It's the
15:11
principle of the thing, right, you know, like, oh, what
15:16
did you think was going to happen? It doesn't matter what I thought was
15:18
going to happen. I was doing something that was necessary, that was good.
15:20
I was trying to help my kid, you know, because that's their
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whole thing is like, we had no choice. We had to do what
15:28
we did. And you know, I also one thing I got to mention.
15:33
Every time I'm watching any of these animated shows, I just think I
15:39
wish in the live action they can make the Liku look this good. I
15:43
agree. I mean, because as much as I love the Mandalorian, they
15:48
never look right. They always look like styrofoam on their forehead. And it's
15:54
so it's, yeah, well I see this is the thing. It's like
15:58
going all the back to Return of the Jet, right, it's I think
16:03
the trick. If I were to offer a tip, and I don't have
16:07
any standing whatsoever, is if I were designing those those I say leku,
16:14
you say Laku, I would put weights in them. Yeah yeah, at
16:19
the bottom, because that would make them behave in such a way that I
16:25
would expect, and I would design them to have like an extra five pounds
16:30
down at the tip that would make them flop around a little bit. Now,
16:37
the problem is the actor or actress that was wearing them might wind up
16:41
with some bruises on their shoulder blades and their pecks. But you know,
16:45
it's the price you gotta pay for a performance sometimes, you know, just
16:48
saying I love too that they are able to come up the plan and Wrecker
16:53
was like, that's the plan I had, and they're like, right,
16:57
I'm not quite it's a little bit different. No, no, no,
17:02
no, no no. I said, let's go in and blow things up.
17:06
You know what's so fun about this episode too, and especially for the
17:08
fans who have watched you know, the Rebels series, is getting to watch
17:15
Chopper in action again because he's just such a fun droid. But see that
17:21
that in and of itself, Chopper sneaking in to be in the line of
17:25
the droids, for instance, the camera, the decision to have the camera
17:33
look like it has trouble tracking him because he's moving so erratically. That lends
17:38
itself so much to putting you as the viewer, into the scene to make
17:44
it feel more real. I look at this, I know this is the
17:47
animation. Yeah, I'm looking at it. I think that's obviously it's it's
17:49
animated. But those camera movements and the position choices and the focus polls,
17:56
all of the stuff we've talked about up to this point, that is what
17:59
makes it feel like I should be invested in what's happening. I believe I'm
18:04
animated now I'm looking at the world through a real letters. I love this
18:11
too, I just to me, it warms my heart to watch Omega just
18:17
make plans on the fly. And again, I think one of the beauties
18:22
of this is the way in which you can see how much this character has
18:29
grown just over these few episodes, right, and she truly has embraced who
18:38
she is meant to be. Yes, and again, camera motion, because
18:47
what we're watching right now, you know, is Harra and Omega trying to
18:52
sneak into a thing. Camera placement. Again, it looks like somebody walking
18:56
past a mark as a foreground character and Omega peeking out in them, sneaking
19:00
up a ramp. This is all so key to getting It's a visual language
19:07
that everybody understands at a very primal level. If you've watched so much as
19:11
one television show or one movie, you understand what the camera is telling you,
19:17
and it just it makes you go in there. And then seeing Hara
19:22
start to pilot. If you're a longtime fan, this is the moment where
19:27
you say yay. And if you're a brand new fan, it's just a
19:33
fun adventure to be on. Well yeah, like you said, just watching
19:37
her really get behind the stick for the first time, you know, and
19:44
learn to fly and not do a great job here at the beginning it was,
19:48
it's fantastic, but it's it's a great origin story for this character.
19:56
And just even looking at the Shuttle design and I know a lot of this
20:00
stuff, you know, we've got Clone Wars carryovers, we got we got
20:03
the more out of bla blah blah blah. But the Imperial stuff, even
20:08
the flying machines look less sleek, they look more boxy, they look more
20:14
heavy, they look unwieldy. And then you see the Marauder flying and you
20:18
see a very sleek, beautiful, artistic type of ship and it swerves,
20:26
it sweeps, it, it moves, whereas the other one is just sort
20:30
of lumbering through the air. It doesn't really want to be there. It
20:34
wants to be a box sitting on the ground, but you can force it
20:37
to go sort of like a a ten wordhug. Honestly, No, that's
20:44
good. That's a good pull. I really enjoy just the whole aspect of
20:51
this plan too, because it is kind of insane. You know, this
20:56
is like, um, you know, we're talking to a friend of ours
20:59
and a chat today and it's it's it's an a team like plan, right,
21:03
uh, and not everything is going to plan, but they're they're trying
21:07
to make it work as much as possible. And the action in this episode,
21:12
the way it's being edited together and everything is fantastic and a great line
21:19
You're dangerous and you know you're dangerous and erratic flying the you know, just
21:26
the idea that like text comment about how her flying is so erratic and dangerous
21:33
and nonsensical that it's confusing reminds me. I played my uncle one time,
21:38
who was like a chess champ type of guy. He was an amazing chess
21:42
champ. I had no idea what I was doing, and so we since
21:47
we use the timers that you use in chess, I battled him to uh,
21:55
you know, whatever you call it stands still, you know, a
21:56
draw specifically, because he couldn't make sense of what I was doing. He
22:02
was trying to see what gambit I was playing, and all it was was
22:04
I was just throwing whatever was there to try to slow him down, and
22:08
we ran out of time and it was like huh. And so it's like
22:12
Harris flying would have an effect because the people manning the guns, meaning all
22:18
the emplacements, are like, what are they? What are they doing right
22:21
now? What am I watching? What's happening? I love this whole scene
22:27
as Houser lets them know you're about to walk into a trap. I'm here
22:33
to help you, even though I know it looks like you can't trust me.
22:38
You have to trust me. And it's just such a great moment because
22:44
it's cements the whole reason that George did the Clone Wars and the way that
22:52
it was done where the Clones became real people to us, you know,
23:00
they became real characters. And to watch them struggle through all of the emotions
23:06
that they have now because of Order sixty six and some of them coming out
23:11
of that is such a compelling story, you know, and I every time
23:19
they do it, I respond to it. It doesn't matter how many times
23:23
you see the story. I'm still responding to it, even in you know,
23:27
season two hm hm. And the idea that cross Area is sitting there
23:40
waiting to assassinate his former team, I mean, how sick is that?
23:52
How twisted is that these people that not only are you clone brother too,
24:00
but you served with for so long you're willing to turn on them and assassinate
24:04
them. Well, and this is what Howardser is saying, right, yeah,
24:14
how's are sitting there and saying I won't do this. Who's going to
24:17
stand with me? And just knowing that these clones, even these clones that
24:25
don't have personalized armor, these clones that that are just the basic flat white
24:33
clones, even they can see something isn't right, underscores exactly how twisted cross
24:45
Hair is. Yeah, And I think that's the terrifying thing, is that
24:53
the brain I'm sorry to go so far, yes, and I'm sorry to
24:56
cut you off. But the where they fly off and Crosshair is looking up
25:02
and Hunter is looking back calls to mind. It's a little bit different,
25:07
but calls to mind the end of Solo when they can't really see each other
25:11
and Kia and Han are looking and you know that they're trying to see each
25:17
other, and there's this gulf between them that they can't cross, but it
25:22
speaks to their basic humanity that there's something about them that they wish they could.
25:32
I do love this too, is that you know, you've got jam
25:36
and his wife and they're like, no, our people, we need us,
25:38
we have to go back and fight. I wanted war to be over.
25:42
We talked about that in the last episode, that he wanted to believe
25:47
that war would be over so much, and yet they're not. It's not,
25:52
and he has to face the reality now that no, we're in another
25:57
war and it's got to be fought. We can't sit on the sidelines,
26:03
which is again something that's kind of a message that's kind of been getting thrown
26:07
at Clone Enforce ninety nine over and over again, and this episode kind of
26:14
pushed them just a little bit closer to that in the sense that Omega's like,
26:18
we're soldiers. We help, that's what we do. And I really
26:25
love the way that this season has been slowly building towards those ideas to push
26:30
these Clones to get to the point of like, well, what are they
26:34
going to do. What is their action, what is their commitment to the
26:40
rest of the galaxy going to be m M and going back to the base
26:53
and all of the carnage, all of the destruction that's there, and give
27:02
that moment again to Rampart. He's such a I don't know if you tell
27:07
me if we need to bleep this, but as much as I dislike Crosshair,
27:14
Ramparts are bastard. Yeah, yeah, no, I agree. I
27:18
can't recall the last animated series I watched where I really hated the character,
27:22
like the antagonist character. What I hated him. Is great though, is
27:29
that you know, this leads into Crosshair being given the okay to hunt them
27:36
down because they are becoming a menace to the Empire, and it's it's such
27:45
a great pivot point because these two episodes set the stage for the rest of
27:51
this season and what they're going to face, and it's it's so good.
27:56
I'm just loving it so much watching through this first season again. And you
28:02
know you mentioned it at the beginning, we mentioned it before, but goodness,
28:06
please, somebody please give us the four K versions of this so I
28:10
can pop the disc in and enjoy the incredible work that these animators put into
28:15
this show because it's one hundred percent gorgeous one hundred percent of the time.
28:22
But then Disney Plus can't gather the marketing information that they need so desperately to
28:27
know what to serve in the algorithm and sell your data to other services that
28:33
are out there so they can make pennies on your identity. Matthew Rushing.
28:37
But if people could just make forty dollars off of my purchase of a four
28:41
case set. Oh but that's not as valuable. That is not as valuable,
28:45
my friend, trust me, taking from somebody in marketing. We just
28:48
want your data because we sell it to everybody else. We don't. I
28:52
don't. I'm just saying that's what might happen anyway, mister Rushing, Jedi
29:00
Master Rushing. If people wish to reach out to you out there in the
29:04
wild space of social media online, elsewhere where can they find you? Well,
29:11
I am all over the place under the moniker Matt Rushing, Zoe Too,
29:15
Twitter, Instagram, letterbox Pharaoh. Of course, I am here on
29:18
the network with a completed show I did with Drey Kaufman. It's called Owl
29:22
Post, talking about every single chapter of the Harry Potter series. You can
29:26
also find me on the TFM network. I'm doing a bunch of shows there.
29:30
One is called The six O two Club, which is a general geek
29:33
show about all of the fantoms we love. Got a couple of bonus shows
29:37
there that John and I do together, Assembling Avengers and Snyder Cuts, and
29:41
then I'm doing literary tracks, the orb Warp five, Saddle Up and the
29:47
Artificial Tango. But John, where can people catch up with you? Nobody
29:52
would like to do that, Matt, It's a foolish idea to catch up
29:55
with me. But I am Kessel junkie out there in the wilds of the
29:57
Internet k S, S lg U and Kie. Go ahead and reach out
30:03
to me if you want to. I might ignore you, I might not.
30:04
I don't know. I don't know. I'm a fickle kind of guy.
30:08
But you can find me right here on the network, co hosting a
30:11
show called house Lights where we look at the work of directors with Tristan Riddell
30:15
and Darren Moser. But I would say that this has been a successful rescue
30:21
on Ryle off Master Rushing, So it is tying to close these negotiations.
30:26
John negotiations are closed. Join the Revolution, Join the Nerd Party.