Here Are All Of The Retcons In 'The Bad Batch'
Prior to Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm, and with it the entire Star Wars franchise, there were several different layers of story canon and retcons abounded, particularly between the sixteen years between the release of Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi and Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. During this particular time period when no new Star Wars saga movies were being made, Star Wars books, video games, comics, and other content expanded away from the movies and broadened the Star Wars universe and introduced new characters and stories, mostly following the events of Return of the Jedi but also occasionally dipping back into the original trilogy time period, especially with the 1996 multimedia event featuring Shadows of the Empire, which was set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
Once Lucas returned to the Star Wars franchise with the prequel trilogy (1999-2005), which chronicled events from a 13-year stretch of time before the events of the original trilogy, he began re-writing or retconning some of what had been known about that time period as discussed in some of the books and comics that had been released prior to the prequel trilogy. Some of the most important retcons were about the Clone Wars, especially in terms of the timeframe and nature thereof.
Later, the animated The Clone Wars series, which began in 2008 and was also produced by Lucas, retconned some books and other content set during the prequel trilogy era. The standing Lucas policy (to the extent that there was one) at the time was that only the movies and The Clone Wars animated series were the "official" story canon and only co-existed with the other "Expanded Universe" content insofar as it did not conflict with them.
Once Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012, this policy became the standard by which the franchise continues to operate, with the addition of officially re-branding all Star Wars content outside of the movies and The Clone Wars as "Legends," which has allowed for Star Wars content creators to utilize it for future content while not being restricted by it. This was a controversial decision at the time and people have a variety of opinions about this move. I won't wade into that subject too far, suffice it to say that it is crucial for understanding the rest of this article.
Despite the desire to maintain a consistent story canon among all of the various Star Wars content being released, it appears that Lucasfilm seems to suddenly be retconning, or possibly struggling with keeping the story canon consistent as new content is produced. For instance, in the second season of The Mandalorian, fans noticed discrepancies in how the character of Cobb Vanth, introduced in the Aftermath series of novels by Chuck Wendig, acquires the famed Boba Fett's armor after the bounty hunter's apparent demise in Return of the Jedi. Retcons were more apparent in The Clone Wars Siege of Mandalore episodes, in which Ahsoka's confrontation with Maul is depicted differently from how it's described in the 2016 Ahsoka novel. Fans have more recently noticed an increasing amount of these kind of discrepancies, many in conflict with the above mentioned novel, in the current Disney+ original animated series, The Bad Batch, which follows a squad of unique clone troopers during the early rise of the Empire.
1. Kanan Jarrus' Survival of Order 66
Kanan Jarrus, a new Jedi character first introduced in 2014's Star Wars Rebels series, is given some backstory in a comic book series titled Kanan, chronicling him as a Jedi Padawan named Caleb Dume and details his narrow escape from clone troopers during Order 66.
As it turns out, the premiere episode of The Bad Batch features Caleb and his Master, Depa Billaba, on Kaller, where Clone Force 99 is brought in (by Caleb no less) to help them and their clone troopers overcome the Separatist forces on the planet. Order 66 is triggered during the conflict, and Caleb is forced to flee the ensuing mayhem. Clone Force 99, all of whom but one are unaffected by Order 66, are initially confused by the change of events and try to protect Caleb. However, one of their own, Crosshair, whose inhibitor chip activates, attempts to kill Caleb, leaving Hunter to enable his escape.
While the comic series does place Caleb and his Master on Kaller when Order 66 is triggered, Clone Force 99 are not part of that storyline. Additionally, the setting of Kaller appears different in the series, the circumstances of Order 66 being issued are different, and even Master Billaba's lightsaber color was changed in the series.
2. The Effects of Order 66 and the Inhibitor Chip
While it was previously believed that the inhibitor chips were only responsible for ensuring that the clone troopers obeyed Order 66, The Bad Batch series seems to suggest that triggering the chips actually overrode the clones' individual personalities, making them more or less droid-like minions of Palpatine's new Empire. Crosshair, formerly a member of Clone Force 99, whose inhibitor chip did activate, is seen in an early episode of the series mercilessly cutting a group of men, women, and children trying to flee Onderon, surprising even some non-clone members of his squad.
While some might think of this as a discrepancy, I'm not sure how much of one it is. During the events of Revenge of the Sith, we do see clone troopers raising weapons to threaten Senator Bail Organa when he goes to the Jedi Temple to investigate Anakin's raid on it. Organa witnesses clone troopers mercilessly cut down a Jedi Padawan and flees. However, it seems rather likely that the clone troopers might have killed him had he not escaped due to him witnessing the incident.
The final Siege of Mandalore story arc of The Clone Wars season 7 also suggests more continuity with this idea. In one scene, Captain Rex, whose chip has been removed by Ahsoka after it is triggered, is relieved of command and threatened with execution by his fellow clone troopers for trying to keep them from killing Ahsoka, who remains identified as a Jedi to the clones. There seems to be no way for Rex to bargain or reason with his fellow clone troopers, who were loyal to both him and Ahsoka only hours before.
3. Saw Gerrera's Backstory
In James Luceno's book, Catalyst, which provides some more backstory for characters introduced in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Saw is reported to have faded into the underworld after the events of the Clone Wars and does not re-emerge as the leader of a Rebel faction until later on. He appears on The Bad Batch pretty much right away established as the leader of a small Rebel faction on Onderon, where he and his late sister play a pivotal role towards fighting the Separatists at the end of the Clone Wars. I haven't read Catalyst and cannot speak as to the information provided therein about Saw, however, the next time Onderon is visited in the following episode, he is gone, and his whereabouts are unknown, so it's possible that continuity may still remain consistent with the book.
4. Cut Lawquane
At the beginning of series, The Bad Batch go to Saleucami to seek shelter, as well as look up Cut Lawquane, introduced in The Clone Wars as a clone army deserter. During the course of the episode, Clone Force 99 help Cut and his family escape the increasingly harsh grip of the budding Empire that has arrived on the planet. However, the Aftermath books mention an aged Cut, who is said to be residing on Saleucami. This may be less a discrepancy than it appears, as Aftermath is set two decades later, so it's entirely possible that he and his family safely return to Saleucami after the fall of the Empire.
5. Jabba's Rancor
In a recent episode of The Bad Batch, Clone Force 99 is hired to capture a "child" from some slave traders. The "child" turns to out be a rancor, named "Muchi," who is subsequently purchased by none other than Jabba the Hutt's majordomo, Bib Fortuna. The implication of all of this being that "Muchi" is, in fact, the same rancor that Luke Skywalker is forced to fight and kill in Jabba's palace in Return of the Jedi (which is sort of sad to think about).
However, Aftermath (again) had its own story about Jabba's rancor, which had both a different name and was of a completely different gender. It's possible that the one featured in Return of the Jedi somehow turned out be a different one acquired by Jabba, but that just makes the events featured in The Bad Batch seem somewhat less important and/or interesting.
It remains to be seen how well Star Wars moves forward in terms of maintaining a consistent continuity and how much they may retcon earlier Star Wars content. It seems interesting to me that much of the conflicting continuity discussed here has to do mostly with the Aftermath book series, although it was one of the earliest post-Disney acquisition book series written, so it is entirely possible that content creators are not paying close enough attention to it.
It is also possible that writers are trying to work different characters and stories into pre-existing content, which may be resulting in some of the discrepancies. I was under the impression that the Lucasfilm Story Group was supposed to be managing the content creation process so as to ensure that everything remains more or less consistent between all of the content. However, as I am not privy to the inner workings of Lucasfilm, I may not fully understand the role that they play and/or their ability or power to oversee new content creation.
Perhaps, with COVID having been a concern over the past year, with new Star Wars content still in production, maybe some things were overlooked during the writing process. Whatever the reason(s), minor errors and discrepancies within such a huge franchise like Star Wars are probably just inevitable from time to time, and hardcore Star Wars fans like myself are just more likely to notice them than the average person.
Source(s): Screen Rant