Every member of Star Wars: The Bad Batch’s Clone Force 99 has unique abilities, but it seems that the show’s creative team might’ve bitten off more than they could chew when it comes to Wrecker. Wrecker, who is inhumanly strong and incredibly willing to live up to his name, has been sidelined in recent episodes in no small part due to the fact that he’s someone that can barrel through almost any obstacle.
Wrecker’s personality, a big, loud and oblivious behemoth, was pretty much guaranteed to be treated as comic relief. However, due to his previous appearance in The Clone Wars, fans know he’s not simply a device to alleviate the tension of the plot– he’s entirely capable of getting stuff done.
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In the past two episodes of The Bad Batch, Wrecker hasn’t had much luck with participating in the meat of the episodes. In Episode 3, “Replacements,” he vocally and adamantly complains of a headache, which prevents him from helping Hunter and Omega search for a missing part of their ship. He fares a bit better in Episode 4 but is taken down with surprising ease by the bounty hunter Fennec Shand. For a character whose entire existence seems to revolve around his indomitable strength, he’s pretty easily set aside when the plot demands it.
It is reasonable to assume the writers looked at Wrecker’s insane, superhuman strength and thought that his presence would lower the stakes a bit. By keeping Wrecker in the ship in “Replacements,” he could not physically stop the Ordo Moon Dragon from attacking Hunter. This allowed Omega to save the day using her small stature and quick thinking. And in “Cornered,” while Wrecker is allowed to do some manual labor and even chase after Fennec Shand, he’s easily incapacitated by a wall. Regardless of whether this is due to Fennec’s fighting abilities or Wrecker’s headache, an injury which he claims was from hitting his head in their crash-landing, the fact of the matter is that the Clone was rendered pretty much useless in both outings.
While it makes sense to keep Wrecker from easily resolving the episode’s plot with his muscles alone, it’s disappointing to watch him get pushed aside when he could easily help. Since he has been unable to make much of a difference these past two episodes, the jokes at his expense feel cheaper. At least when he is bashing people’s heads in, Wrecker earns his right to be pretty oblivious to the things around him. But with Wrecker taken out of the series’ action, he’s mostly there to make the audience laugh at how silly or dumb he is.
Of course, Wrecker does have his chance to show a bit more than just his muscle or be the butt of the joke, and that was with his gift to Omega at the end of “Replacements.” Considering he was left out of the episode due to his headache, he used his time offscreen wisely and offered the audience a truly heartfelt gesture when he built Omega’s new room. While Wrecker is certainly a force to be reckoned with, he clearly has a lot of heart to him, and if The Bad Batch is going to continue to nudge him out of action to save the plot, the least it can do is allow him to grow beyond simply being the muscle.
Created by Dave Filoni, Star Wars: The Bad Batch stars Dee Bradley Baker, Andrew Kishino and Ming-Na Wen. The second episode airs Friday on Disney+.
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