Brandon Wainerdi, writing at StarWars.com, shares some of the things we learn about the rise of the Empire, post Order 66, in Star Wars: The Bad Batch.
Rebellion Rising
Clone Force 99’s first mission after the events of Order 66 found them sent to the planet Onderon by their new Imperial commanders, in order to track down a group of insurgents. Led by Saw Gerrera, this insurgent group was the Batch’s first encounter with the post-Empire rebellion. The Clone Wars might have ended, but a civil war was about to begin.
As seen throughout the series, there were many pockets of insurrection and disapproval that quickly grouped together in the early days of the Empire. Gerrera and his Partisans were a good example, later seen more fully formed in Andor and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, but the Bad Batch also encountered many more dissenters during their missions for Cid. The Martez sisters, in the Season 1 episode “Decommissioned,” were also on the hunt for a Separatist Tactical Droid head, which had now become a vital piece of post-Clone-Wars intel: it could tell enemies of the Empire how to defeat the clones.
And, with more and more clones defecting (like Commander Cody in the Season 2 episode “The Solitary Clone”), former Clone Commander Rex, a leader of these early rebels, put the thinking rather eloquently at the end of “Battle Scars”: he had spent his life defending the Republic, so he was not going to stop now.
Citizens of the Empire
After the rise of the Empire, the lives of everyday citizens were drastically and quickly changed, as well. As seen in the Season 1 episode “Cut and Run,” a looming hologram of Vice Admiral Rampart announced to the citizens of a now peaceful Saleucami that they must begin exchanging their “invalid” currency for new Imperial credits. The citizens were also urged to register for a chain code, in order to travel “freely” across the galaxy.
As revealed later in the episode, this chain code initiative was vital to “laying the foundation of the new Empire” and was of the upmost importance to the new regime. In The Mandalorian, it was seen just how widespread the implementation of this chain code system was, both when Din Djarin first received his mission to find “the Child” and later when Boba Fett had to prove his father’s Mandalorian heritage.
Across the galaxy, planets began to feel the ill effects of the new regime. Whether a confederacy planet like Raxus Secundus (the former CIS capital), Count Dooku’s homeworld of Serenno (ransacked by the Empire in the Season 2 premiere episode, “Spoils of War”) or the Separatist holdout of Desix, senators and local leaders were pressured by the Empire to ensure peace among their citizens.
The conniving Senator Orn Free Taa even recommended that all Twi’leks step down from their military posts and turn over their weapons (thus making them defenseless against Imperial rule). On Ryloth, a doonium refinery was being built, in order to supposedly bring jobs to the Twi’lek people. In reality, it was specifically built to fuel the Empire’s “defense” effort, and Ryloth became one of the first in an eventually long list of planets that would have their natural resources exploited and stripped away by the Empire.
The Future of the Clone Army
Once the Empire was formally established, the future of the clone army was almost immediately called into question. Rampart and Admiral Tarkin quickly began to debate the need for a clone army, preferring the conscription of loyal civilian soldiers. While the skill and accuracy of the clones were greater, the endless supply of these new “TK troopers” was tough to compete against, especially at half the cost. Rampart insisted that the most optimal strategy would be getting these recruits trained by skilled clones.
The Season 1 episode “War-Mantle” revealed the full extent of this strategy, which took place on the planet Daro. When rescuing a defecting clone named Gregor, the Batch discovered an Imperial military base with 50 clone commandos training 1,000 new TK troopers, which would eventually become some of the first Imperial stormtroopers. These new enlists swore their loyalty solely to the Empire.
As Season 2 has demonstrated, the “Defense Recruitment Bill,” formally proposed by Rampart, was the Empire’s way of growing the ranks of this conscripted military (and discarding the remaining clones with no further benefits). After a fiery debate in the Senate chambers, Emperor Palpatine emerged to solidify the proposal, fully implementing the stormtrooper initiative in the episode “Truth and Consequences.”
