Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Star Wars The Bad Batch S2 E4: Faster
776 Plays3 years ago
The full trifecta of animation diehards are back this week discussing the latest episode of Bad Batch season 2, now streaming on Disney Plus!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Jasper AI and Podcast Preview
00:00:00
Speaker
Feeling stuck when it comes to writing? Jasper is an AI writing assistant that helps you break through writer's block, create blocks, social content, add variations, really anything you can imagine, much faster than you would on your own. With Jasper's Text-to-Image Generator,
00:00:17
Speaker
You can even create original art. Convey your best ideas better and faster with Jasper. No more blank pages or unfinished pieces. Try Jasper for free at jasper.ai today. On another exciting edition of Animation Deliberation, this is podracing. No, wait, it's not podracing? Well, what is it then? I guess we'll have to find out. After these ads, we have no say over.
Overstock's Winter Sale
00:00:43
Speaker
Overstock's red tag sale is here and the hunt is on. Bring home all your cozy cold weather favorites at clearance prices. Deep discounts on winter's best sellers couldn't come at a better time. Warm up with hot deals on bedding and mattresses. Plus, save big on storage and home improvement for a fresh start on a new year. Spot the red tag at Overstock to make your dream home come true.
Podcast Theme and Host Introductions
00:01:11
Speaker
Sing along if you know the words. Animation, deliberation, a conversation, and a celebration of my favorite action animated series. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Welcome back. It will never get old to hear that and die laughing every single time we start this. I am Andrew Rogers.
00:01:39
Speaker
My name is Jay Scotty Sinclair. And returning is Zuhair Ali. From beyond the stars, he is here once again. Welcome back, buddy. How you been? Let everybody know what's up. Yeah, not too bad. My droid arm is still being installed. Haven't gotten the Anakin cosmetics done yet. But yeah, finally got this shoulder surgery out of the way and I'm trying to wean off of the
00:02:08
Speaker
Heavy medication so that I'm awake enough to actually talk. So yeah, it's been a fun adventure.
Anime and Show Catch-Up
00:02:15
Speaker
I haven't been nearly awake enough to binge as much as I thought I would be. So sadly, I only have like one anime that I'm halfway through. But we're here. We're well. We're well.
00:02:27
Speaker
We'll spend the night in the back to tank. You'll be feeling right as rain in the morning. Yeah, no, whelmed is better than overwhelmed, I suppose. But were you at least able to stay up long enough to sit through Bad Batch and My Hero and all the good stuff we have going on? I've definitely been keeping up every week. Bad Batch, I wasn't able to watch that night like I said that I was going to. But definitely as soon as I was up the next day, I was like, OK, we're watching this. Distract me from the pain.
00:02:56
Speaker
Well, glad you're back. Jay Scottie, how are you doing? What's going on with you? I'm doing good, keeping busy. It's interesting. I've actually had a lot on my plate in terms of like,
00:03:11
Speaker
We've been doing this podcast for a while, but I've actually had the opportunity to start teaching some people about podcasting and also working with Matthew Carroll, who's kind of like, you know, created this network that is Stranded Panda and hosts the flagship show. Yeah.
00:03:28
Speaker
But even with like being busy with all that stuff, I have found myself doing a lot more binging. So I will save some of the things I'm going to talk about for our My Hero Academia coverage. But we talked about how much there's going to be to watch in January, but it's all quality stuff. So definitely, yeah, whelmed instead of overwhelmed is the feeling. How about you?
00:03:54
Speaker
No, all things are good here. I I've been just hammering home on the anime. It's finally nice to not have seven things to watch coming out weekly, just like, oh, OK, I can get back in the, you know, threads of binging and relaxing with it as opposed to hammering everything out. So it's nice, like you said, to have quality as opposed to quantity all the time, just like having to watch seven things that premiered that week.
The Bad Batch Season 2, Episode 4 Discussion
00:04:22
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:04:24
Speaker
Well, my suggestion for what takes place next would be to give Zuhar just a little bit of room to maybe talk about his impressions of season two of The Bad Batch so far.
00:04:36
Speaker
Yeah, so we talked about it a little bit off air, and it's been interesting. Episode 3 has definitely been the best out of the set. I'm not going to say too much about 4 just yet, but 1, 2, and 4, as nice it has been to see the growth of the group and how much Omega has matured and developed and stuff,
00:05:00
Speaker
It's back to kind of like the episodic nature of like, I'm hoping that all of our episodes aren't like this and we get some more of the big story. But episode three, that crosshair stuff is like, that is what I love about the show. And I'm hoping that we like drift more towards that stuff a little bit more.
00:05:19
Speaker
I'm trying not to say too much about four because obviously I've been gathering my thoughts back. But one big realization that I had is my favorite things about last season was the beginning two episodes, the middle two episodes, and the last two. And the common factor of those was that it was more of crosshair and seeing more of that Republic to Empire transition.
00:05:46
Speaker
the emotional conflict between the clones and just kind of like how people feel about the whole system and the shifting over and all that stuff. So it's making me wonder if like, I'm just more of a fan of the crosshair side of the stuff than I am, our heroes in hiding.
00:06:04
Speaker
Uh, well, do we want to go ahead and knock out the synopsis so we can just get talking about episode four faster in all its spoilery glory? So yeah, episode four of Bad Batch season two titled faster. While Hunter and Echo are away on another assignment, Sid takes Omega tech and record to a riot race on Safatoma to visit her cocky droid racer, Teo.
00:06:28
Speaker
Sid is challenged by Malegi, one of her business rivals, and his racer, Jet Venom. And during the next round, Malegi orders Venom to cheat, causing Teo to lose. When Malegi comes to collect, Omega challenges him to another race for Sid's freedom. But just before the event, Teo is wrecked in an accident. Tech takes Teo's place as Sid's pilot, and using his calculative intellect to offset his lack of experience, he wins the race.
00:06:57
Speaker
Meleggy honors his part of the deal, but warns the clones that one day Sid might turn against them. And I hope I pronounced Meleggy right. I couldn't remember in the moment if it was Meleggy or Meleggy. I'm not so sure myself. Yeah. I'm just going to get into it right off the bat and say that
00:07:23
Speaker
I can kind of agree with what Zuhair kind of hinted at where this episode felt a little more tonally and thematically tied to the first two episodes.
00:07:33
Speaker
But as the resident fan of tech, it was great to see my guy step up and showcase what he does so well, use his calculations, use his intellect to achieve something he's never done before and to really come through in the end. And I just got to say it was hilarious and awesome to hear Ben Schwartz as Teo.
00:07:57
Speaker
Yes. John Ralphio for anybody. John Ralphio. It goes back to the conversation we had. Like, I feel like they're going to have good guest stars or something this season because they had him again. And then I can't remember the actor's name that they had play Malegi, but he's the fourth Ghostbusters. Forgive me for Ernie Hudson. Yes, Ernie Hudson was Malegi. And I'm just like, why are they getting all these great names? I love it. But it's so random to just have them appearing in Star Wars.
00:08:27
Speaker
Yeah. I thought he sounded familiar, but I didn't want to look it up. But bench for us makes it so much better for that one. Yeah. I was wondering if it was kind of tongue in cheek because he's known for voicing Sonic and the two like theatrically released movies and it's destroyed. That's going really fast. So.
00:08:45
Speaker
I don't know. My own head cam and I like to think it was tongue in cheek. He just brings like they somehow got his mannerisms in the animation of like the way that it's just the overconfidence in his movements as well as his voice.
00:09:06
Speaker
I don't know if we've ever had a droid in the world of Star Wars be that cocky I think K2SO is probably like the closest in terms of being like sardonic and kind of like sassy
00:09:19
Speaker
but this was definitely the cockiest droid that I'm aware of. I can't wait till you watch Rebels.
Star Wars Easter Eggs and Nostalgia
00:09:24
Speaker
I was just about to say, are we on the same page with this in the zoo? Yeah, we had that look for a second, like, hmm. Oh, is this in reference to the, what's the droid's name in Rebels? I'm brain farting. Yup. Oh, it's the one that's like partnered with the Twi'lek though that we saw last season in Bad Batch, right?
00:09:48
Speaker
on the planet Ryloth. All I could think is Wrecker in my head for some reason. No, that's what came to my head too. That's obviously not correct. Sorry, I didn't mean to put you on the spot. No, now it's just like... That shows how genuine we are. The only thing that's coming to my head is the Hoppe.
00:10:10
Speaker
Chopper. Chopper was close. I knew it was something like that. OK, cool. It's not a record. It's a chopper. We were sort of close with our confusion. Choppers kind of got like that, that old man Vietnam War vet type vibes like, OK, off my lawn. Don't mess with me. But his galaxy is the lawn like. Nice. Yeah. I mean, we joke about droids, though.
00:10:37
Speaker
I have to imagine it was an Easter egg that they were throwing in there. The one droid that was one of the pilots that had like the protocol droid body and a battle droid head, all I could think of was the scene in Attack of the Clones where C-3PO's head gets swapped with the droid head. I'm like, is this the one? Did he make it all the way across the galaxy? And now he's just piloting things after everything that happened on the Battle of Genosius? Like, oh, my.
00:11:08
Speaker
Yeah, when when Teo was talking all cocky about like how there's like adjustments and stuff to the ship, it's like, I'm sure there are to you as well. There's highly doubt that you were built this way. Hmm. Yeah, it's one of those things we talk about droids, like what was his purpose before he was a racer? Like what was he built to help do up to that point? And then I was like, there's no way that nobody else thought about having a droid as a racer, right? Like,
00:11:36
Speaker
this this can't be an original idea well because there were five other race droids like in the race yeah and i was surprised at the number of protocol droids it's like aren't they normally like meant for protocol they are like derby racing and yeah let's let's just
00:11:54
Speaker
call it for what it is. It's basically pod racing without the pods. Exactly. For how up at EC3PO gets about, oh, I'm a protocol droid. I would never do this to suddenly see a bunch of them in the race is very...
00:12:08
Speaker
very interesting to say the least but uh you know we talked about the plot at the beginning and i agree that it's very much like a bottle episodic thing but i i have to feel like it's a testament to the writing that from a mile away you could see tech was going to have to take over tech was going to do something but the fact that you knew it was coming and it was still like a fun reveal of oh how does it happen is a testament to how much fun you can have with these characters
00:12:35
Speaker
Because especially all the emphasis of like don't take don't take the left one is dangerous And you see like the close-off tunnel and this and that like you start after seeing that Track like what like three or four times as a viewer you were like wonder why that one's closed down like the fact that it wasn't an actual barrier It was a hologram that they could actually go through I was like all right tech you really did do your homework And there was a scene where he was like like why are you researching like I'm a droid I can figure this out It's like oh because text gonna do what tech does
00:13:02
Speaker
Yeah, uh, this is probably probably dating myself a little bit more, but I remember when episode one came out, like not very long afterwards, there was a video game called Star Wars episode one pod racer. Yeah. Either of you play it. Yes, I did. I played the pod racing and Lego Star Wars more than I played that, but I'm fine. Okay.
00:13:22
Speaker
I put a lot of hours into that game. So just like seeing that racer that was working for Maleki, Jet Venom, he was definitely based on one of the pod racers that appeared. He was the same species as one of the pod racers that appeared in episode one. So I just liked the visual continuity there. And yeah, it was high octane. A lot of fun, really felt the sense of danger and
00:13:52
Speaker
Um, that like anything could pop around the pop around the corner at any turn, any hairpin turn there. So I enjoyed it. My favorite thing about tech in this episode, it was a little bit predictable, but it was fulfilling at the same time is when Sid was first giving everyone the mission. He was like, this is kind of beneath us. Like we're, we're.
00:14:18
Speaker
capable of doing more than this. And the tone and the way that he's just sitting in the bar like trying to take it all in, you kind of get that sense of like, he just kind of misses his old job, like he misses having the purpose and the goal and working as a team and this and that.
00:14:34
Speaker
So it seems like he has this void and towards the end where it's like he wins and everyone's cheering his name and this and that, I was like, oh, there's the fulfillment I expected at the beginning of the episode. So I'm curious to see like how that tracks into future episodes if he's, you know, feeling a little better about his status now.
Character Development and Future Speculation
00:14:51
Speaker
But when, even when Teo was like dogging on him for being human and not being able to make calculations, I was like,
00:15:00
Speaker
Have you ever seen him fly his aircraft and all the X-Fills that he's done in this and that? Like, he's more than capable of handing your silly little race.
00:15:08
Speaker
but he's too humble for that, I'm not. Yeah, it very much felt like we're getting a full rounded characterization of him because he did seem to lighten up at the end as he was waving at the crowd being like, yeah, that's me, I won, whereas it feels like the tech we knew at the beginning would have very much been like, why are they cheering for me? This was an obvious outcome or something along those lines. So it is that nice. I make the parameters of my mission.
00:15:35
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. This is the only logical outcome. Yeah. And you speak to that character, characterization, that full characterization. I think that's the other thing that kind of sticks out to the episode about me is the fact that we got to spend this time
00:15:52
Speaker
with tech primarily, but Wrecker, Omega and Sid to a lesser extent. But that's because they kind of took Hunter and Echo off the table. So I'm sure we're going to have an episode that follows up with them. But as you know, as much as I love having this full ragtag team work together and how they interact, I think it's kind of benefiting the show in its second season to split them apart and really examine what their emotional hangups are individually. So
00:16:21
Speaker
It's a trend that I kind of hope to see going forward because the crosshair episode was awesome. Um, I liked this episode a lot and I'm hoping we get the same, get to spend the same kind of time with Hunter, especially because he, again, like I kind of mentioned it with episode one, but he kind of seems the one, like the one that's kind of like stepping out of the limelight to allow his, his brothers and teammates to kind of step into the limelight.
00:16:46
Speaker
Yeah, and I mean, we get all that, but we also get a little bit of Sid, which it feels like we were kind of missing in that first season. She was very much just the I'm going to order you around kind of boss and we got this inkling of Oh, she's starting to trust them more. She's actually like letting them in on a little bit of what's going on.
00:17:06
Speaker
And then also this overhanging, hey, she's betrayed people in the past. This is why she's made enemies, you know, what comes next, especially because we also had that tease in the first couple episodes of the pirate that was hanging out. So it seems like there is going to be a lot of the underground story told. And I hope I hope this comes full circle and we get to see Sid hopefully not betray them, but, you know, save them and show that she has that, you know, back and forth loyalty that she was given this episode.
00:17:36
Speaker
Fingers crossed.
00:17:38
Speaker
You guys have seen Parks and Rec, right? Oh, of course. Oh, yes. Now that I know it's Ben Schwartz, the scene of him getting hit in the pit is just so much funnier, because I'm just thinking of the droid going, hi, this guy ran over by Alexis. Nice. Because technically, I'm homeless. Oh, my god. My sister is the worst. Oh, yeah.
00:18:10
Speaker
Yeah Yeah, I love record picking up his head for the second time. It's like yep He's not going now always dying words or I regret nothing The moment where he woke up on the table, like what are we doing? We need to get moving. Where are my arms and legs? What's going on? Everyone just stared at him like no one wanted to acknowledge what was happening It was it was beautiful
00:18:37
Speaker
Yeah, like you said at the beginning, I just hope this is like the beginning of a lot of great, great guest voice actors. But I think for my purposes, that's all I've got to say on this one is pretty cut and dry. Yep. Another episodic episode of Bad Batch.
00:19:00
Speaker
Another episodic episode, but they they don't cease to be satisfying I think that's the number one thing like for some reason you're listening to this and you're like, oh should I pick up bad batch like I Still enjoyed the heck out of it. Like most other episodic TV I feel like I get left behind at some point of just like, okay, this is happening Whereas I'm still very much like this is fun. I want to watch the next one like it. Let's let's keep it rolling It just gets frustrating when you know, there's only like two episodes left and it's like give me something to build on and
00:19:30
Speaker
Do we know how many episodes of this we're getting? I know it's going till March, March 29th. So if we get an episode every week until March 29th, that would be some number of episodes. What's 32 minus 16? 16. We got 16 episodes. Okay. Very nice. So the same as last season. So we got, we got time to stretch our legs for sure. Yep.
00:20:00
Speaker
Well, at this point, I would invite everybody that's listening. Let us know what you're thinking about Bad Batch season two so far, this episode specifically, any of the other ones we've covered. You can do that by sending an email to animationdeliberationpodcastatgmail.com. You can also record yourself and send us an audio recording of yourself, and we'd be happy to play it on the show. And there are plenty of other ways to reach us.
00:20:26
Speaker
including all of our social medias. You can find us on Twitter at animation to live one and on Facebook and Instagram animation deliberation. It's a great place to share all of our content with your friends as well as see all sorts of fun stuff posting plenty of things on our story including probable pictures of this droid with quotes from Ben Schwartz and parks and rec. So all the fun stuff. Cool.
00:20:52
Speaker
Zuhair, anything you want to let the people know about on your end? Any appearances as of late?
NFL Playoffs and MCU Fantasy Draft
00:20:58
Speaker
We had just three, two, three with Reed Murphy. We got NFL playoffs right now. So just trying to call our shots and be treated with much guilt when we get them wrong. Right on, right on. And then the Marvel Cinematic Universe 2023 fantasy draft is well underway.
00:21:22
Speaker
I know you're working diligently behind the scenes to make that happen. So thank you for your efforts there. Yeah, deadline is tomorrow. So by the time you guys listen, it'll be over. Oh. But yeah, join the Fantasy Heroes group on Facebook. There's been a lot of people who have actually been making logos and stuff for their team. Nice. And the artwork and the names. It's really impressive what you guys have been coming up with. It's been a lot of fun. Very cool.
Sign Off and Pop Culture Humour
00:21:48
Speaker
All right. Well, that'll do it for me.
00:21:50
Speaker
Thanks as always, and keep tuning in, that's T-O-O-N-I-N. And as always, stay whelmed. And keep track of entertainment 720. Muscle muscle.
00:22:31
Speaker
While we wait,
00:22:43
Speaker
doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
00:22:55
Speaker
Jaren Solomon here from Solomon Brothers Jewelers. My family has been helping customers pick out the perfect engagement ring for decades. We know it can be an overwhelming process with lots of questions like, how much should I spend on an engagement ring? Does a two-carat diamond cost twice as much? What is a lab-grown diamond?
00:23:12
Speaker
Our team of diamond experts is here to answer all of your questions and walk you through all options to help you pick out the ring of their dreams at Solomon Brothers Jewelers in Buckhead or Alpharetta online at SolomonBrothers.com. Jaren Solomon from Solomon Brothers Jewelers here to tell you why our customers are like family. Take it from Eduardo who said we have a great selection, competitive prices and outstanding service or Ashley who said my fiance and I had the best experience at Solomon Brothers.
00:23:40
Speaker
Our customers trust us to help pull off the perfect proposal or jaw-dropping anniversary surprises. When you visit us, we want to make sure you feel like Amanda who says we will definitely be back for any jewelry needs. Visit Solomon Brothers Jewelers in Buckhead or Alpharetta online at SolomonBrothers.com.