Review: Star Wars: The Bad Batch: “Spoils of War” / “Ruins of War”

Let me get this out of the way now: Dave Filoni really knows his shit.

Star Wars will always have a soft spot in my heart. While the series as a whole has suffered greatly over the last few releases in theatres (I will never forgive Lucasfilm for The Last Jedi, Rogue One, Solo, or The Rise of Skywalker), the television shows have been absolute bangers. Tales of the Jedi was a masterclass in storytelling, that makes me believe someone actually wanted to see continuity in the prequels, and found a way to bridge the prequels, The Clone Wars, Rebels, all of the lore connected to the major characters. Good lord, someone has brains there.

As stated before, the Star Wars shows have been banger after banger. The quality of writing in such shows as The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan, and even Andor proves that there are still a lot of holes to plug in with the Swiss cheese timeline that is the Skywalker Saga of Star Wars. If The Bad Batch is what’s supposed to continue the absolute stellar run the Star Wars animated shows have had, I’m cautiously impressed.

The aesthetic of “Spoils of War” and “Ruins of War” reminds me of, The Clone Wars, as it should. The animation style is like watching an episode of Rebels or The Clone Wars, but in 4K. The humor and sarcasm is just as it was prior. “Spoils of War” and “Ruins of War” feel like two parts of one episode. I think shows like The Bad Batch, The Clone Wars, and even Rebels to a point, would benefit more from having 60 minute episodes akin to The Mandalorian. Having more time for each episode makes more sense, so you’re not doing more split episodes. Then again, these are only two episodes of a season.

The major part to a lot of these animated Star Wars shows are the political aspect of it, especially on the Empire’s side. Sometimes, I find the political intrigue and subterfuge the best part, especially with some younger looking upstart kills hit commander clone to keep his head above water. This type of political move is something that you would see in the books, not in a show. Generally, its “to jail with you!” with these younger guys. I’m glad to see the story evolving and moving forward.

This two parter was a great start and re-introduction to the Bad Batch, and their black ops missions to undermine the Empire. What a lot of these shows do well is showing how completely inept the empire is at taking down the non-force users…or groups that have less than a majority of force users. The Bad Batch should have been a cinch to capture many times over the many series they’ve been a part of.

Overall, this two parter was what we needed. We got the Bad Batch back on their missions that should have been a part of the Galactic Mission: Impossible, all the while babysitting Omega. I am pleasantly surprised with what we got. I think there could have been more to flesh out a bit, but that’s honestly nitpicking the minutiae of what was honestly a superb couple of episodes.

What  “Spoils of War” and “Ruins of War” have done is give us a great return to the series. This got me hyped to see where things go, because the great animated series always start small every season, then just hit a massive crescendo from there. I mean, look at what happened to Kamino, Ahsoka getting exiled, and the return of Maul. The writers follow a formula that deliver banger finales, and I’m excited to see what other giant reveals happen.