The Bad Batch Makes A Star Wars Legends Story Difficult Now

During part one of the Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 1 finale, Tipoca City, the home of the Kaminoans’ cloning operations and a significant Star Wars location during the Republic Era, is demolished by Imperial cruisers with Clone Force 99 still inside, which unwittingly creates a problem for a Star Wars Legends story: the Kamino uprising. Many new canon Star Wars movies or TV shows draw from the existing stories and characters established within the Legends timeline, and with The Bad Batch spending so much time on Kamino, and exploring a similar era and themes, it was not unreasonable to think it possible that the conflict could make its way into canon. However, the complete destruction of Tipoca City, the setting of the Kamino uprising, suggests that the conflict is the opportunity to depict the Kamino uprising in canon.

In episode 15, Clone Force 99 return to their home planet of Kamino to save Hunter after he was captured by the Empire. When Crosshair and his Elite Squad trap Clone Force 99 in the training room, Crosshair surprisingly shoots his Elite Squad members to give the Bad Batch a chance to join the Empire’s efforts. After ES-02 reports Crosshair’s betrayal to Admiral Rampart, he decides to shoot down Tipoca City, which collapses into the planet’s ocean surface. Taking place approximately seven years after the events of The Bad Batch in 19 BBY, the Kamino uprising, which was introduced in the 2005 LucasArts video game Star Wars: Battlefront II and briefly mentioned in the Legacy of the Force novel series, is a clone rebellion in which the Kaminoans grew their own clone army to challenge the Galactic Empire. While the conflict could simply be introduced into Star Wars canon within The Bad Batch by taking place on another planet, many of the details of the Kamino uprising would need to be altered.

Since the cloning program on Kamino is shut down during season 1 of The Bad Batch, the Kamino uprising seems unlikely now, unless it is carried out by Nala Se. In the original Star Wars Legends story, the Kamino uprising was initiated by a group of Kaminoan Clone Masters, or cloning scientists, who began growing their own army of anti-Imperial troopers in Tipoca City in response to the Empire’s dominion over their cloning technology. By killing the Kaminoans’ leader Lama Su and decommissioning the entire facility in episode 14, the Empire already appears to have won the battle for full control of their cloning technology, making the Kamino uprising pointless hereafter. Since the Empire likely recruited other Clone Masters along with the Chief Medical Scientist Nala Se, there is still a possibility however that a secret clone army could be developed elsewhere out of revenge, especially since Nala Se doesn’t appear to be loyal to the Empire after she helped Omega escape Kamino in episode 1.

While Boba Fett was previously involved in the Kamino uprising in Battlefront II, the destruction of Tipoca City in The Bad Batch will likely change his role in the conflict if the rebellion occurs on another planet. After the Clone Masters created the anti-Imperial troopers, the Empire employs Boba Fett to infiltrate Tipoca City, damage the facility’s life support systems, and acquire a sample of Jango Fett’s DNA to ensure that the Kaminoans can’t continue to produce more anti-clones for their army. Boba was specifically hired by the Empire because of his personal knowledge of Tipoca City’s layout, having spent much of his childhood at the facility. While the conflict might’ve been a complex way of introducing Omega’s “brother” in The Bad Batch by having Boba betray his fellow clones, Boba’s involvement in the conflict is no longer necessary if the Kamino uprising occurs elsewhere.

Alternatively, the destruction of Tipoca City in part one of the Star Wars: The Bad Batch finale signifies that the opportunity for the Kamino uprising to occur as it did in Battlefront II has already passed. While Nala Se may have the means and motivation to attempt to defeat the Empire from within by developing a similar anti-clone army on another planet, the clone trooper contracts have already been terminated by Admiral Rampart, so producing the anti-clones in secret no longer seems plausible. Instead, the series appears to be establishing a different kind of clone uprising, in which some clone troopers rebel against the conscripted stormtrooper army now that the Empire has begun to phase them out.