‘The Clone Wars’: The Bad Batch Loves Padmé and Fans Are Dying to See This Scene in the Next Episode That Explains It
After six years without new The Clone Wars episodes, the final season is underway at Disney+ and it’s all diehard fans wanted. When Star Wars and Lucasfilm were sold to Disney, the animation team wanted to go a different route and the series was canceled. But now the episodes that were planned out years ago are finally making it to TV screens in their completed form. But the story reel for this week’s episode, “A Distant Echo,” has a hilarious Bad Batch scene that involves Padmé Amidala and fans are dying to see it in the Disney+ version.
Spoilers for The Clone Wars Episode 1 ahead, along with potential spoilers for Episode 2.
Rex and The Bad Batch Clone troopers’ arc continues
The next The Clone Wars episode premieres Friday, Feb. 28 and continues the Bad Batch arc. Captain Rex and Tech found out a sentient being is using Clone trooper Echo’s call sign and seems to be the reason the Separatists can predict Rex’s strategies so well. Rex also believes this could really be Echo, who was presumed dead in Season 3.
There were about two seasons worth of ideas and story reels already planned to finish this series. It was all combined into this new Season 7 to show the most important episodes from what was originally written. And “A Distant Echo,” the upcoming episode, already exists on YouTube in unfinished story reel form.
A scene shows the Bad Batch’s love for Padmé, much to Anakin’s horror
The original story reel came out in 2015, when Dave Filoni — executive producer and supervising director — didn’t think the series would come back. There are several others on YouTube and Filoni has done extensive panels on the storylines at Comic-Cons and Star Wars Celebration.
There’s a scene from this reel that fans are hoping to see in the Disney+ version. After Clone Force 99, Rex, and other troopers come back and debrief the Jedi on what’s going on, Anakin goes with them to the new planet to search for Echo. Or what they think could be Echo. And when he comes up to the Bad Batch’s ship, he notices a very familiar figure painted on the side.
It’s a WWII-style pinup drawing of Senator Padmé Amidala. You know, the woman Anakin is secretly married to? When Anakin asks, Hunter of the Bad Batch proudly boasts, “Ahh, that’s our girl: the Naboo Senator. We check her out on the holoscans.” Then Wrecker mischievously replies, “Yeah. She can negotiate with me anytime.”
And poor Rex is caught in the crossfire, nervous at Anakin’s anger. While Rex probably doesn’t know Anakin is married to Padmé, he definitely knows they’re together, per Filoni. And Anakin finishes the scene with, “That is not staying there.”
Filoni wrote this scene to be a cheeky nod to WWII
At Star Wars Celebration in 2015, Filoni laughed while he introduced this pinup portrait of Padmé, which has the saying “Good to be bad” written next to it in Aurebesh. Filoni shared that he thought it was a “funny look at the world” around these characters in The Clone Wars. “It’s like a World War II nod,” he said.
As we’ve seen with the Rush Clovis storylines, Anakin is not happy with the idea of anyone making eyes at his wife. But of course, he can’t outwardly do anything about it since he’s a Code-abiding Jedi to the public. “This was a funny joke because I realized at one point that none of the Clones, maybe outside of Rex, actually knew Anakin was seeing Padmé, let alone married to her,” Filoni shared.
Now that we’re finally getting this episode, fans are really hoping this scene stayed in
A new clip was released from Episode 2 and it shows Anakin and the Clones on the ship, already at their destination and being attacked. The clip doesn’t show a good vantage point to the nose of the plane, but fans are already crossing their fingers that it wasn’t taken out.
One user commented, “Very excited. Hope the Padmé [sic] pin-up is still in the episode,” on YouTube. Another wrote, “The ‘art’ may not be on the side of the ship, but I went back and checked the unfinished version of this scene and it wasn’t there either,” referring to the story reel. “The joke may still be in the episode, we just won’t know until this Friday.”
Another commenter wrote, “Well Anakin does say that it’s not staying there. So he probably removed it.” That’s possible, but considering Anakin sees it right before they leave for this planet, it’s unlikely it was removed that fast. Guess fans will just have to wait, but here’s to hoping Filoni got to keep this in.
