SPOILERS MUST BE TESTED BELOW
[Note: This Bad Batch response is a little late, so I’m going to make it free for all subscribers. Most of the time, it’s paywalled! So please enjoy! And if you like this one, you know how to get the rest!]
If you’ll permit me a Mountain Goats song:
That’s right. It’s time for a Star Wars training montage! Asajj Ventress, returning from literary death, turns out to be Fennec Shad’s M-Count hookup from the last episode. She proceeds to test Omega’s own affinity for the Force with complex trials such as this one:
So you know her methods are scientifically sound.
There’s quite a lot to say about this episode, but let’s get the big one out of the way so I can talk about training and haircuts.
“Somehow, Ventress returned” is undoubtedly the subtitle to every comment or YouTube reaction video, because she returns with little explanation after her death in the popular 2015 novel Dark Disciple by Christie Gordon. The Star Wars website promises that her method of cheating death will revealed in “future content.” (The first and last time I will knowingly use the c-word in this newsletter.) That same article can be summarized as ‘we wanted to bring back this fan favorite character and damn the torpedoes.’
Frankly, it sounds like they also wanted to bring back prolific voice actor Nika Futterman. She worked with Dave Filoni and Dee Bradley Baker for decades, after all. If so, good on them. She’s a working voice talent that deserves a little love (and a paycheck!) for her incredible work on the series.
There will be fans who think a deep explanation is warranted. It contradicts canon. (Another c-word!) I’m not really one of them. My measure for a creative decision is if it works. All of these characters are made up, and so is the universe they live in, so if they can come up with an explanation that satisfies the folks who care, that’s wonderful. But remember: Darth Maul was chopped clean in half, and then went on to have some of his best actual stories in his post-hewn life as an animated character.
Darth Maul was also chopped in half in one of the biggest movies of all time… and they still brought him back. So, I think it’s worth noting that as popular as these books are, and as reportedly great the Dark Disciple novel is (I haven’t read it, but everyone seems to love it), the number of folks who are aware of Ventress’s demise is far fewer than those who just watch the television shows. For the average viewer, Asajj Ventress’s last appearance was in the Season 5 (and original) finale of the Clone Wars series back in 2012. And the people who even keep track of Asajj Ventress’s whereabouts from the animated series is a subset of a subset of fans.
These decisions are not made just to please the most hardcore fans, but to thread a needle where they make sure the hardcore audience is satisfied, but also don’t tie themselves into creative knots to avoid contradicting one book. I’d rather they err on the side of creative freedom than swerve to avoid an unruly Reddit thread.
Finally, I know folks love an explanation, but let’s face it: explanations are not inherently dramatic. I can count on one hand the number of times having something explained or justified was more engaging than being left to wonder. Drama is about characters and their motivations and actions, their obstacles and fortitude, it’s about growth and change. Explanations are what you give when you don’t hand in your homework. One is joyful, the other is prosaic. So, I’m glad when the focus is on creation and surprise, and not on exposition.
In short: I was cool with the return of Asajj. What I’d much rather talk about is training.
Here, we see Asajj, in an effort to understand why the Empire is after Omega, give her some, shall we say, light Jedi training. A little bit of “reach out,” and “balance on one leg.” The results are inconclusive (Omega is told no, but the answer is probably a little bit yes). And it got me thinking about training as a concept and my own experience with it.
Obviously, there are things in life that require a lot of training. Surgery, for example. Aikido. The Olympics.
Star Wars talks a lot about training, but often gives our heroes moments, nods, to the idea of training. We rarely watch them train for decades. And I think rightly so.
Training isn’t everything. Often, in Star Wars, an untrained and raw hero is able to overcome a Jedi with more training, because of their will to win, their talent, and their motivation. And, of course, their experience.
That matches my personal experience. I’m someone who is barely trained to do what I do. I went to college for acting, not writing. I’ve never taken a formal playwriting class. But I’ve been published, reviewed, awarded, and produced anyway. The reason? Experience was my best teacher, other writers, paying attention. I’ve failed as often as I’ve succeeded, but there have been successes, even if I lacked formal training. Being a playwright taught me how to write plays, so to speak.
For a living, I work in development as a fundraiser. I have made a living that way for 18 years. I started in that line of work at thirty years old, as an admin, and learned how to do it, the lingo and jargon, the rules, the nuances. I do not have formal training in non-profit management, I’ve got no formal certifications in the field. But I know how to do the job, I’ve done it well, and I’ve made a living for myself and my household. Doing the job taught me how to do the job.
Training, in short, is not a universal path to ability or success. There’s a place for it, and good mentors (I’ve had lots of those!) are incredibly important. But what we do, not what we train to do, is the way to find our path. What we’re brave enough to let ourselves fail at in a live environment, not just practice in a classroom, is where we will likely excel. (I think a famous Jedi Master said something about Do, or Do Not…?)
I’d also like to talk, very briefly, about Asajj Ventress’s spiffy Tiger Beat teen idol hair cut, and how dope it looks throughout the episode, especially when wet. I mean, look at this:
Applause.
It made me think of which other characters over the course of the Star Wars Saga have had such a makeover.
Rey had a different look from The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, but they brought back her Force Awakens hair so they could match her with existing shots of Carrie Fisher as they integrated her posthumously into the film. Makes you wonder what could have been her look in Episode IX and what it might be in New Jedi Order.
Finn’s hair undergoes a meaningful transformation from Episode VII to Episode IX.
Obviously, Padme’s hairstyles were epic, but felt less about the character and more about the station most of the time.
Anakin goes from moppy-headed to mullet to bald-and-burned.
Obi-Wan has his Padawan braid, hero mullet, short-haired greatness and then something a little more rugged for his mini-series.
But then some characters just keep their looks. Poe changes his outfit but not his haircut. Luke’s haircut is a little different, but basically a variation on the same look, until we see his scraggly pseudo-Merlin in Episode VII. The same goes for Han Solo, who barely changes his look throughout the series. Kylo Ren’s hair is so dreamy that he keeps it for three whole movies.
I…am not sure where I’m going with this. I just wanted to have a brief reverie about everyone’s hair for a little while. Because of floppy, boy-band lookin’ Asajj Ventress. Bounty Hunter.
And I have.
Thanks for reading this part.
Have I mentioned no one trained me to write about Star Wars?