Star Wars Confirms The Empire Was Way Worse Than The Separatists

Warning! Spoilers ahead for Star Wars: The Bad Batch episode 10, “Common Ground.”

Star Wars has just confirmed that the Empire was much worse than the Separatists of the Clone Wars era. While the Separatists may have been controlled by the more corrupt factions of the galaxy and led by Count Dooku (who was in service to Darth Sidious), the Confederacy of Independent Systems was largely made up of worlds that simply saw the Republic as a flawed governing body, wanting to secede from what they believed to be its corrupt control. While this is a fact that is often lost or forgotten due to the Separatist battle droid armies who fought for them and the evil figures that led their forces, the latest episode of Star Wars: The Bad Batch shows that the Empire was much worse, as well as the fact that it oppressed the Separatist worlds just as much as any other planet in the galaxy.

In The Bad Batch episode 10, “Common Ground,” the Empire is seen holding its new occupation on the planet Raxus, which had been the capital world for the CIS during The Clone Wars. While it had intended to use the planet’s leaders as puppets to enforce their will upon its citizens such as with Senator Avi Singh, he ended up refusing to parrot their oppressive policies and encouraged his people to fight and resist. However, the Empire’s might and control were too powerful, and they were able to quickly quell rising dissent while imprisoning the senator.

In response to the senator’s arrest, Singh’s droid aide hired the Bad Batch to rescue the senator, which of course lead to the squad displaying some reluctance when it came to rescuing a Separatist leader. However, they ended up doing their job and were even ended up trusting the senator with their lives. As such, the episode does an incredible job of reminding viewers that the Empire was far worse and more oppressive than the CIS ever intended to be. After all, the Separatists were looking for freedom from the Republic only to face even worse oppression and restriction from the newly risen Empire.

As such, it should be remembered that the Republic wasn’t the only side of the Clone Wars that was being used. Many of the Separatist worlds had no idea that they were pawns of Darth Sidious, believing that Count Dooku had their best interests at heart. The only ones really in the know about Sidious at all were the leading corporate factions such as the Trade Federation, the Commerce Guilds, The Techno Union, and the Banking Clan, and even they had no idea the entire war was a fabrication to grant more power to Palpatine until he was finally ready to turn the Republic into his Empire.

All that being said, this episode shines a rarely seen light on the real people that were a part of the CIS, those who desired greater freedom from the Republic’s corrupt systems. While there were a handful of episodes of The Clone Wars that touched on this idea, it’s interesting to see what became of the CIS here in The Bad Batch, and it looks like their fate was unsurprisingly the same as the rest of the galaxy under the rule of the Empire, though it’s somewhat sadder considering what many of the worlds had been fighting for in the Star Wars galaxy.

New episodes of Star Wars: The Bad Batch release every Friday.

About The Author

Kevin Erdmann
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Kevin Erdmann is one of Screen Rant’s staff writers. With a major in Cinema Studies and a minor in Comics and Cartoon Studies from the UofO, Kevin is pretty sure he’s writing for the right site. While Kevin is a huge Marvel fan, he also loves Batman because he’s Batman and is a firm believer that Han shot first. Disney also shares a big part of his fan patronage. Kevin lives in Oregon with his wonderful wife and sinister cat who is no doubt currently plotting his demise.

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