‘The Bad Batch’: Individuality, And The Lie Of Freedom Within A Fascist Regime Like The Empire
Image Source: TV Insider
Freedom is a word that has gone beyond conceptual by this century. Its use once uttered as a dream for peasants or the enslaved, has been co-opted by people for propaganda. They use it as a misdirection. With one hand, they wave flags, boisterously proclaim their patriotism, or buy social media platforms in the name of free speech. What they don’t want people to see is, with the other hand, they restrict rights, gaslight calls for resignations, and ban people who are critical of them on their platform.
It’s a standard tool in the fascist playbook; they use the word freedom because it strikes a chord in people. People love their freedom. Since the Age of Democracy, when people who just a few hundred years ago were subservient to people who claimed their bloodline meant they get to rule over them, regular everyday people have enjoyed a better life than their ancestors did. So when power-hungry people have it in their heads to take more power, they know this and use it. They tell the masses there’s a threat to their freedom and watch as the trembling masses flock to their voice for security and assurance.
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There’s a shift within the government when they seize control, and it’s an absolute joke to think it can’t happen again. While the public continues to follow the mirage of “law and order,” the regime shifts to the real threat to their power: individuality. Fascism requires blind obedience and must be blind or ignorant, so the masses do not pick up on their contradictory methods. They used agitated propaganda to instill a fear of a threat to people’s freedom as a means of taking control, and once they have that control, they can continue to use that methodology to ween out malcontents. Individualism, and the free speech that comes with it, threaten their methods with their free thinking and questioning. It’s a cancer to their status quo obedience. Writers, artists, and filmmakers have portrayed this for decades. Animal Farm. 1984. V for Vendetta. Even The Hunger Games. They all speak to this truth.
That truth lies at the heart of the Empire’s targeting of Clone Force 99, popularly known as the Bad Batch. Hunter. Wrecker. Tech. Echo, and originally Crosshair. Clones were specifically bred to have unique traits compared to their clone brethren. Their creation into the canon of the Star Wars universe is fundamentally symbolic, given the era and manner of their insertion into the lore. In a sea of clones who are as identical to one another as the next that they have to adopt nicknames to aid in telling them apart, these five clones are a beacon of individuality and a celebration of it at that. That’s a problem for the Empire.
Image Source: Wookieepedia
Pointing out the Empire’s fascism is well established by this point. What’s interesting, though, is its particular decision to not use clones. For a governmental system that begs for uniformity and compliance, it would make sense that the Empire would keep the clones for its military. Furthermore, their genetic modification made them, by design, less independent and they were actually biologically compelled to follow orders. A chip in their brain helped this when Order 66 came down. Perfect for the enforcement of fascist rule. However, due to their accelerated growth rate, and it’s rather dark to contemplate, cloning was shut down by the time the Empire took over, and the clones were, en masse, deemed unfit for military duty because of their accelerated age. There are plenty of examples of what the Empire does with those they no longer have a use for, but the scene in Obi-Wan Kenobi when he encounters a homeless clone is likely one that was widespread across the Empire.
In the beginning, the Empire used the clones as their enforcers in order to transition, and they couldn’t have individualism mucking up the works. Remember, total obedience and uniformity are the natural progressions of the law and order mantra. It’s reflected in the Empire’s staunch-but-also-subtle xenophobia. Everyone notices, but the in-show universe hasn’t outright expressed how the Empire is strangely mostly just human. It’s been mentioned in the books, along with a passing comment about frowning on homosexual relations. Sure, they tolerate some individual non-humans, like Thrawn or some of the inquisitors, but on the whole, non-humans are treated as secondhand citizens.
It’s pretty clear they view clones the same way, and that adds to the itch to be rid of Clone Force 99. The Empire replaced thousands and thousands of able soldiers without a second thought once they no longer served their purpose. They were grown and made in a lab. That’s not how humans are born and given their treatment of non-humans, the Empire likely viewed the clones in a similar frame. The clones also represent the government that came before them, and as is common in fascism, historical revision is utilized to gaslight the populace. Destroying the cloning facilities on Kamino serves that. Add in a group of clones that represent a rejection of conformity, and everything about them flies in the face of the Empire and what it stands for. The Empire can’t have that.
Image Source: StarWars.com
Which explains why they tolerate and utilize Crosshair. Like he says in the show, along with many of the clones who obeyed Order 66, “Good soldiers follow orders.” Crosshair’s betrayal or unwillingness to go along with the rest of the Bad Batch, even with his chip removed, is why the Empire utilizes him. Although they may not like individualism or non-humans, and a mainstay of fascist ideology is the willingness to make exceptions if it serves their quest for power, the Empire tolerates Crosshair’s existence because he is subservient to their designs, and he can help them achieve their goals. The sad thing that Crosshair doesn’t realize is if he were to succeed and deliver the rest of Clone Force 99 into the clutches of the Empire, they’d discard him just as they did the rest of the clones if he triumphs because he represents what they did, and they can’t have that.
Remember, the promise of safety and the enjoyment of freedom with security is a tool of fascist governments to convince those who fall for their propaganda to support their aims. People fool themselves into thinking things will improve once the “threat” is addressed, but the truth contradicts that. As fascists assume power, like the Empire, once they step out of line, people will suddenly find themselves in the crosshairs of the mechanisms of the state, the same ones they had no problem with because it was aimed at someone else.
Freedom is promised as long as no one questions how it’s given to them.
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Source(s): Wookieepedia
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