Which, in the Star Wars universe, is really recent. Hyperdrive dates back thousands of years. Although, to be fair, that 30 years apparently was a really long 30 years, enough time for the Jedi to go from being at the center of Galactic government and politics to being a half-remembered folktale.
But beyond that, “chain codes” seem to just be an accepted part of the universe in The Mandalorian, even in regions where the Empire never actually ruled.
Boba Fett shows the Mandalorian his chain code, which includes his father’s chain code, which establishes his ownership of Mandalorian armor. And hyper-traditionalist Din Djarin, who not only has no love for the Empire, but seems to not even be aware of a lot of Imperial codes and regulations, just accepts as a given that a chain code is an indisputable claim to legitimate ownership of a Mandalorian cultural artifact. That really doesn’t seem like it’s an Imperial ID scheme, that was only even created within Din’s lifetime.
Chain codes are also how bounty hunters confirm their targets, so Din would be familiar with them, and have an idea about how reliable they are as sources of truth. He doesn’t necessarily have to buy into anything about the Empire to accept Boba’s code as proof of ownership of the armor - regardless of how he feels about it, the fact that Boba’s basically got his SSN engraved on the armor is pretty good evidence that the armor was originally his.
There is a slight discontinuity if he actually said Jango’s chain code was in the armor, because we know that chain codes didn’t get introduced until after the Clone Wars ended, and Jango died in the middle of them - although it’s possible chain codes had been around for a while, in an optional or limited format, and the big change is that the Empire started mandating them after the war.
I’m happy with how Bad Batch is developing. They need time to establish characters. It’s how all the animated Star Wars shows go. Then the audience appreciates the stuff that happens later.
My take is that the Empire is switching everyone over to Imperial chain codes. As in, it’s part of their taking over the galaxy by eliminating other sources of legitimacy, including other chain codes.
IIRC, Boba pulls up a holo display from the armor, points to it and says something like, “This is my chain code. And here is my father’s code - he was a Foundling, and he got the armor in accordance with the Way” which would seem to indicate the chain code includes forbears, or at least former owners, and includes information such as the fact that Jango was a Mandalorian Foundling and that such information is so difficult to fake that Din just takes it as a given that if a chain code says Jango was a Mandalorian Foundling it must be true.
The issue in The Mandalorian very much wasn’t whether Boba had physical possession of the armor previously, it was whether he had a “legitimate” claim to it, under Din’s hyper-traditionalist interpretation of “The Way.”
That being said,
Those takes certainly seem plausible. But I think that still creates a continuity issue. Din’s immediate and unquestioning acceptance of Boba’s chain code seems inconsistent with the way Echo was able to create fake identities for the former Clone Trooper and his family in the previous episode and help them get chain codes based on those false identities.
I’m almost certainly putting waaay too much thought into a minor plot point. It’s just that The Bad Batch seems to be prominently featuring the roll-out of Imperial chain codes as a major development, for some reason, and that’s pretty much literally the only thing we’ve actually seen the new Empire do.
It’s only been a couple of episodes, of course, so we may soon see the sinister motive behind the chain code initiative and other villainy on the part of the Empire. But right now, there just really doesn’t seem to be much actually happening in the series. And I get that it’s a kids’ series, not Game of Thrones, but it’s just disappointing to me, because I enjoyed Clone Wars and Rebels so much more.
That’s actually a good question. If you discount the “movie” with Baby the Hutt, I think I was enjoying Clone Wars more four episodes in. I definitely was enjoying Rebels more, which I think did a much better job of establishing distinctive and interesting characters that I actually cared about. I’m not ready to jump ship on The Bad Batch quite yet, especially with the goodwill Dave Filoni has established with me with his previous work in the SW universe.
As far as Boba’s armor goes, I think the key thing here is that Boba knows what constitutes a proper claim to the armor. Sure, he could have forged that code chain, but if he came by the armor dishonestly, he wouldn’t know how to - he wouldn’t know what a Foundling was, or what that meant in terms of inheritance to a Mandalorian. It’s not ironclad - there’s always an outside chance that he’s a dishonorable Mandalorian who stole the armor from its rightful owner, or something like that, but Din has no reason to think Boba’s dishonorable, he just wants evidence that he’s not some guy who randomly found it, like Cobb Vanth did.
We’re also seeing the founding of the Stormtrooper corps, and their role in the violent suppression of political dissent.
That’s a good point - I forgot about the mission to murder the refugees. So, we, and the Bad Batch, have actually seen the new Empire being evil. On the other hand, we’ve seen Admiral Tarkin, specifically, being evil, and I don’t think the Bad Batch are even aware of the follow up mission with the proto-Stormtroopers. So, not the nullity I was portraying it as. And I get the idea of doing a bit of a slow burn with the Rise of the Empire.
If I found the main characters, side-quests, and the guest stars more engaging, I’d probably even appreciate that approach. As it is, though, I’m just kind of waiting for the main plot to kick in.
I’m enjoying it so far, about as much as I enjoyed the middle seasons of Clone Wars, which was “good enough”, but not nearly as much as I enjoyed Rebels. Though, I’m starting to wonder how many SW shows we need that are a Tough Guy (and friends) on the run, flying around the galaxy with a kid in tow. And sorry Omega, you’re no Grogu…
Very much so. I didn’t like Grogru, Omega is annoying if they put a kid sidekick in the book of Boba Fett I may have to write off the star wars universe for a while. Let’s at least stick to aiming a teenagers and knock of the episode 1 cute kid crap.
The money is in getting kids watching and wanting product. Maybe especially for the cartoons. You are a given. Throw some eggs and you will watch more often than not. The kids are not all hooked yet.
That’s probably why they do it hooked while they’re young. That same hook could be set when they were 16 though and have a lower probably of star was getting classified as baby stuff as they get older. Basically, having Ezra from rebels makes more sense then precocious Omega.
Pretty good ep even if cowboy gunslinger bounty hunter was a bit out of place silly. It worked in Samurai Jack but here? No.
I am not shocked by the direction it went but personally thought they’d capture Cross hair but be unable to do the procedure so be stuck with keeping as a prisoner until they found a new med facility.
That’s Cad Bane a fairly large antagonist from Clone Wars. Basically, every episode is just there to have a cameo of a mid tier character from Clone Wars. I’m kind of getting tired of that it’s really interfere with the story for me.
The character of Omega is probably put there to teach the clones how to be more human since she’s a child but she fails at that and endangers the heroes and the plot. She’s also an obvious agenda agent in the show. I think she kills the show. We don’t want plucky young sidekicks! That trope has been done before. There is a reason Batman has never done a movie with the 13 year old version of Robin. Overall I’m not too excited for the next episode. There is no obvious main plot as well.
