I watched your edit of season 2, and first I want to thank you for sharing your edit. When I watched the edit I thought it was excellent, despite there being some parts where the narrative is very slow. Something told me that Crosshair’s arc had been more significant when I watched the second season, but I couldn’t say exactly what. It was then that I remembered The Solitary Clone, and man, I think this episode makes a significant difference to the story of Season 2.
I would like to ask honestly, did you remove it because you considered it filler, because it wasn’t to your personal taste, or for another reason? Because, personally, I think there is a possibility of cutting some scenes from the political arc at the beginning, as well as some scenes from Pabu, without affecting the overall pace of the edit, and including at least the core scenes from The Solitary Clone. Of course this is your edit and you know what makes the most sense to you in the story, but in my personal experience, when I watched your edit, I felt that the dramatic weight surrounding the Crosshair uprising in Barton IV was much lighter than when I watched the entire season, and that’s due to the absence of this episode.
During this arc, we see Crosshair’s blind loyalty to the Empire in a clearer way than in the first season, as well as his level of dedication to completing a mission, even if it doesn’t make sense, due to his mantra of “good soldiers follow orders”. And then, when Crosshair finally realizes that the empire sees the clones as disposable, we remember all the loyalty, all the dedication he gave, and just like Crosshair, we realize that it was for nothing. And The Solitary Clone shows all this dedication of the character, helping the audience to understand the anguish that Crosshair feels at this turning point. Furthermore, the fact that Crosshair learned that Cody, a clone he respected and who was also loyal to the empire, rebelled, adds an additional layer to his decision to rebel later. And the fact that Rampart, an official of the empire, mentions that Cody is another one of the clones who defected, also helps us realize that this is not just a movement organized by the Bad Batch or Rex, but that this is probably happening with several clones throughout the galaxy, as they are seeing that the empire is no good and that even the inhibitor chips are not stopping the clones from rebelling, as Cody shows.
In short, I consider this episode important mostly because for me it is a build up to Crosshair’s change of side, and this is one of the most important moments in the Bad Batch show. Without it, his decision loses some impact. But again, I thought your edit was really great. You made me feel like Pabu’s scenes are important to the story lol, something I failed to realize while watching the original season. Also, I was going through a pretty stressful week when I watched your edit, and it helped me distract myself and disconnect from my problems, so thanks again 😄
Thanks for the input. When I was putting together this edit my initial cuts had some scenes from Solitary Clone to bolster Crosshair’s story. They ran alongside the clone conspiracy plot in act 1. It basically involved the Rampart and Cody interactions with a short, heavily edited infiltration of the Seperatist world.
However, when I started to watch the edit, the first act was far too slow and long and I ultimately decided that the Solitary Clone needed to be cut to speed up act 1. The political arc is the core story so I didn’t want to take any more of those scenes out, and the Pabu scenes were needed to provide a slower-paced second act and set up Pabu as their new “home”, which would become relevant in season 3.
I felt that it worked well to not see Crosshair until act 2 and Rampart’s opening lines tell the audience that he’d been left stranded on Kamino. Whilst it was nice having Cody included, ultimately he appears and defects and we don’t need to see that. In terms of Crosshair’s journey, we knew from season 1 that he is happy to blindly follow orders and his decision to remain with the Empire despite seeing the destruction of Kamino and being left abandoned there reinforced that. I felt The Outpost alone was enough to justify Crosshair’s decision to reject the Empire.
That being said, we still have 3 episodes of season 3 to go and that may warrant changes to episodes 1 and 2.