‘The Bad Batch’ Has Marked The End Of This Era In ‘Star Wars’
“Ended the Clone Wars has.”
The latest episode of the Star Wars: The Bad Batch had a lot of reveals, not just for our characters but for the galaxy far, far away as a whole. The most striking thing would have to be the closing chapter on one of the more iconic planets of the prequel trilogy. It was the end of the planet of Kamino, or technically speaking, the cloning facilities on Kamino.
Kamino had been a mysterious planet since Attack of the Clones. It was a planet that happened to have an alien species were masters at cloning. This was where Obi-Wan found the Grand Army of the Republic as well as a bounty hunter named Jango Fett. Apparently the army was ordered under the name of Jedi master Sifo Dyas. The Republic later decided to take the Clone army in order to fight the growing Separatist movement fermented by Count Dooku, and secretly by Palpatine aka. Darth Sidious. There was another side to these facilities as well. They were not just laboratories and training rooms. They were also homes to millions of clone soldiers who grew up and spent much of their lives here.
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During the Clone Wars television series we really saw the idea that Kamino was a place the clones considered home. They were quite protective of their homeworld. They defended it from Separatist attack once. Because we viewed the planet through the eyes of the clones, we considered it a place for one of the good guys. Since back then clones were the good guys, fighting the evils of the Separatist droid army. It was not until The Bad Batch did Kamino return to a more mysterious and sometimes sinister-nature. As the show continued, we would see secret labs and weird experiments taking place as the Kaminoans tried to survive the new era of the Empire.
In the second to last episode "Return to Kamino," it was clear that the Empire is no longer interested in the planet. They planned to phase out the clone troopers completely and replaced them with stormtroopers. They were also taking Kaminoan scientists to other facilities in order to continue other cloning experiments or whatever the Empire had in mind. With all the important segments of Kamino gone, the actual standing facilities were no longer needed. Thus, Admiral Rampart gave the order to destroy the planet.
To many in the fandom, Kamino was a symbol of the prequels and the Clone Wars. It was such a unique planet introduced in Attack of the Clones. It was so bizarre, so alien, something never seen in the Star Wars saga before. Over time because of the Clone Wars series and our connection to the clones, we have grown attached to the planet, making it part of our childhood nostalgia. By destroying Kamino in Bad Batch we are marking the end of another Star Wars era. As Bad Batch is a transition bridging the prequel trilogy to the original trilogy, we are seeing a change in certain iconic settings. The Empire is slowly twisting the Republic and everything it represented, making it closer to its menacing image. In some cases, like Kamino and the clonetroopers, they get completely destroyed. This corruption, pervertion, and utter destruction showed the horrid nature of Empire in leaving nothing of the past behind. Only the Empire and its evils would remain.
It appears that the Clone Wars era is coming to an end, not just in-universe, but out of universe as well. Season 7 of Clone Wars series had been released. While many may consider Bad Batch to be season 8 of Clone Wars, it is slowly becoming Rebels season 0. We are moving away from the themes and tones of Clone Wars era to darker times when the Empire reigns supreme. It is the beginning of a new era. The era of the Empire.
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Source(s): Screen Rant