You Missed This Infamous Original Trilogy Scene In 'The Bad Batch'

The members of Clone Force 99 are to a large extent cardboard characters. This is by no means a critique on The Bad Batch; right now it’s simply a fact. It’s safe to assume that the five clone soldiers will grow and widen their personalities during the course of the show, but right now they are pretty much one-dimensional. They even choose or are given their names based on their primary character traits: Tech, Crosshair, Hunter and Wrecker, with Echo being the only exception.

Wrecker is clearly typical muscle of a group, extremely strong and resilient, a born fighter who loves to smash enemies and to blow things up. At the same time, he has a good heart, and would die for his comrades and friends. And… he is also the least intelligent and most clumsy of the group.

In the second episode, titled "Cut and Run," the modified clones and the newest crew member Omega travel to Saleucami to hide from the Empire that is chasing them. There they meet up with a deserter clone soldier named Cut Lawquane and his family, who were first introduced in The Clone Wars season 2 episode "The Deserter."

When the group finds out that the newly formed Empire is seizing more and more control over the planet and its citizens, they decide it’s time to move on again and start a new life somewhere else. When the Lawquane family, together with Hunter, Omega, and Wrecker, arrive at the spaceport, the latter bumps his head at a metal bar. It’s a blink-and-you-miss-it moment, but surely something that was done intentionally.

Fans will surely remember that there have been at least two times before when someone hit an obstacle with his head: the first one (at least with respect to the storyline) is Jango Fett, who smashes his head at the entrance of Slave I, when leaving Kamino in Attack of The Clones.

The other famous “bump scene” (and the first one in order of appearance) is that of the second stormtrooper who enters the security control center above Docking Station 327 on the first Death Star and hits his head on the door.

The real-world story behind this mishap is that Laurie Goode, the actor who played this stormtrooper and who had jumped in for another actor who got sick, himself had an upset stomach, and on one of the takes, his digestion started to rebel again, and so he was distracted and bumped his head. Strangely, this was the take that was used for the final film, and over the years it became a fan favorite that you can’t unsee once you have noticed it. In 2004, George Lucas even enhanced that moment by placing a more obvious sound effect at the moment. This scene also helped to establish the notion that stormtroopers were both clumsy and not the brightest.

Which brings us back to Wrecker. Of course, his head-bump in "Cut and Run" could just be a coincidence – Wrecker is a big man after all – and put in there just for comic relief. But chances are that his little misfortune might actually be a little nod to the stormtrooper from 1977.

Although Dave Filoni might not be as involved in the day-to-day business of creating The Bad Batch as he had been on The Clone Wars (thanks to his involvement in live-action Star Wars), he is still credited as the creator and executive producer of the show. And Filoni is known for his love of details and sometimes hidden connections between the various Star Wars media, so it could as well be that he asked his animators to add Wrecker’s misfortune as a reference to A New Hope, and the seemingly lack of instincts and skills of both some clone and stormtroopers. And even if it wasn’t Filoni’s idea, as he himself had learned from Lucas, Filoni surely has thought the crew of the The Clone Wars and The Bad Batch could take care of all the little things that only hardcore fans will take note of and then write or talk about for a long time.

Written By Gerald Petschk

Source(s): Screen Rant

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