If the last 4 episodes are so great, then why waste anybody’s time with the first 8 which sucked and added nothing of value?
A lot of people enjoy them. I did. I feel like they added a lot of value & back-story to set up the finale.
The Clone Wars series has always been like that though showing some less significant stories than the movies have time to tell. They have super significant episodes laced in with eps more designed for exploring the world of Star Wars & let the stories breath a little.
Those 4 Bad Batch eps were showing another adventure while introducing cool characters. They'll be fighting in the final battle, so it's cool we already know them. Being more than just face-less clones will give more debth to the finale.
To your point, they could've streamlined Ahsoka meeting up with Bo-Katan & then showing up on the holocron & went right into it... but wasn't it all right showing that transition?
Otherwise it would've went from Ahsoka leaving the Jedi order the last time we saw her.... straight into being mixed up with the Pikes & The Mandalorian's war & we'd be asking ourselves how teh fook did that happen.
Her leaving the Jedi order was a tear jerker. I enjoyed seeing her moaping around a little bit & questioning what to do before circumstances flung her right back into the thick of it. You can't get that feel by making a quick transaction to her now being back in & fighting to liberate Mandalore in one episode.
So while they're letting Ahsoka's story breath a bit... In true Clone Wars fashion they show another side of the Clone Wars from the perspective of
average citizenz that were Collateral Damage during a Jedi police operation. We get to see that real people are being innocently caught in the crossfire & how that changed her friend's lives. I always enjoyed that pov about how a lot of
average citizens wonder if the Jedi and/or the Republic are even the good guys. The novels are able to cover this a bit more, but I like how The Clone Wars & Rebels do as well. So that was cool to show the Sisters pov on Jedi.
Despite The Pike's telling Maul they were leaving the Shadow Collective (prior to this season)... we see it might not be that easy for them to say no to a Sith... This will explain why the Pikes are fighting along side Maul.
Last we saw, Maul's entire military took several HUGE beatings & the Shadow Collective was breaking up... so this is important to show if we're to have a battle to de-throan Maul from Mandalor.
We got a sweet
mention of Crimson Dawn already being in the mix 9 years before the Solo movie. Which also shows how Maul has more forces to go to war with.
There's a lot of background information that will serve the finale. There was also some maybe less significant stuff for the main story line, but still worthy story's to tell as backstories. Good stuff imo.
