#Alpha-3 Nimbus Class

[alphamecha-mkii]

V-Wing by Mariusz Gandzel

[swtechspecs]

Kuat Systems Engineering Alpha-3 Nimbus-Class V-Wing Starfighter

Source: Revenge of the Sith Incredible Cross-Sections (Dorling Kindersley, 2005)

[jedirhydon]

Armament: 8 x Dual Heavy Turbolaser Turrets, 2 x Duel Medium Turbolaser Cannons, 52 - 60 Point-Defense Laser Cannons, 4 x Heavy Proton Torpedo Launchers, 6 x Heavy Tractor Beam Projectors, 1 x Ventral mounted Beam-weapon, 6 or more x Deck Guns.

Length: 1,155 meters.

Height: 249 meters.

Crew: 9,400 (7,400 x Officers, Enlisted Crew, Pilots, 2,000 x Troopers).

Complement: 192 x V-19 Torrent Fighters/Alpha-3 Nimbus-Class V-wing Star Fighters, 192 x Delta-7 or Delta-7B Aethersprite-class Light Interceptors/Eta-2 Actis-class Interceptors, 36 x ARC-170 Starfighters, Unknown x Clone Wars era Z-95 Head Hunter Starfighters, 24 x AT-TE Walkers, 40 x LAAT/i Gunships, Unknown x Other/Landing crafts.

Shielding: Equipped.

Nav Computer: Equipped.

Hyperdrive: Class 1 with a class 15 as a backup.

Engines: 10.

The Venator-class Star Destroyer Cruiser Protector served as the flagship of the 101st Fleet and the personal command ship of Jedi Knight/General Rhydon Kenobi and Fleet Admiral Whitney Thomas. The Protector, like her sister ship, the Peace of the 82nd Attack Fleet, boasted the Sapphire Blue colors of the 101st Legion rather than the standard crimson red colors of the Republic Navy and was always seen leading the 101st Fleet from the front. Because of the leading from the front belief of the Protector's commanding officers, many in the 101st Fleet would find inspiration, and many ships would follow behind their flagship, eager to see the mission through. Throughout the war, The Protector would be home to many individuals in the 101st Legion, from Rhydon Kenobi and his wives: Zarina Kenobi, Taylor Smith, and Sierra Sommers, to Rhydon Kenobi's padawan Zayla Secura, Admiral Whitney Thomas, ARC Commander Zeus, and many others.

Continuing to fight through the Clone Wars, the Protector would see action through battles such as Christophsis, Ryloth, Geonosis, Saleucami, Kamino, Sullust, Umbara, Ringo Vinda, Anaxes, Coruscant, and Mandalore. Through each battle, the Protector was flanked by the Venator Battleships North Carolina, Washington, Arizona II, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, California, Tennessee, Nevada, Oklahoma II, Venator Carriers Enterprise, Yorktown II, Hornet II, Wasp II, and Venator Cruisers Baltimore, Bremerton, Arquitens Light Cruisers Brooklyn and St. Louis, Aspis Destroyer Laffey, and Aiwha-class Stealth Ship Nautilus. An aspect of the Protector that made it an impressive ship was the customization that Rhydon Kenobi and Whitney Thomas put into the ship; not only did the cruiser possess a unique color scheme related to its Jedi commander, but the Protector also boasted an advanced shield, armor, and a better weapons system, than most Venator cruisers. This amount of customization to the Protector was seen by many as unnecessary, but Rhydon Kenobi and Admiral Thomas stood by their decision to increase the ship’s combat capabilities.

The downfall of the Flagship Protector would come from several of the final battles of the Clone Wars, in which the ship’s shields were weakened and her armor damaged. This weakened state would come to be stressed to its limit in the Battle of Coruscant, where despite the Protector being kept in the rear of the battle for once, she would still be struck by enemy fire in the battle. Following the Battle of Coruscant, Rhydon and Admiral Whitney recognized that the Protector would more than likely not survive another battle without extensive repairs, but the need to deploy the remaining ships of the 101st Fleet to Mandalore had forced them to put repairs on hold. Rhydon and Whitney’s decision was due to the remaining half of the 101st Fleet, as well as the 332nd Armada, were already at Mandalore, performing a siege operation against the forces of Darth Maul and the Dark Acolyte Zolan Chan.

Upon their arrival at Mandalore, Rhydon had Admiral Whitney transfer any important equipment, as well as any personal items, to anyone aboard the Protector, onto the Enterprise while he led the ground forces to the planet's surface. This would prove beneficial when Order 66 was initiated, causing several clone crew members to turn against the Jedi leadership. Fortunately, the crew of the Protector, and consequently the Enterprise, and several other important 101st Fleet ships, were loyal to the Jedi and refused to follow Order 66, but this would, however, put a massive target on them, as the ships that were going through with the Order, turned on them. As it was, the Protector was situated in the middle of the Fleet formation, and while a good number of the surrounding ships were Jedi loyal, several ships weren't, thus leading to the 101st flagship being fired upon, causing her already weakened state to be further stressed to the breaking point.

Although Admiral Whitney did her best to keep order on the Protector, she would be forced to order the crew and all other clones and personnel aboard to evacuate the cruiser and quickly make her way to an escape pod. In the end, this would come to be the best choice, as the Protector would explode in a massive fireball as the escape pods and vessels made their way to any nearby Jedi loyal ships, the majority of them, including Admiral Whitney's pod, made their way to the Enterprise. Admiral Whitney Thomas would meet up with Commodore Wilhelm Halsey, who served as the commander of the Enterprise, and Jedi General Rhydon Kenobi, who had returned from the planet's surface after being rescued by female clone troopers, alongside his apprentice Zayla Secura, wife Zarina, and the Jedi loyal male clone troopers. After this, the Venator-class Star Destroyer Carrier Enterprise would take up the torch as the new flagship of the 101st Fleet, continuing to honor the legacy of the Venator-class Star Destroyer Cruiser Flagship Protector.

[tenaciouspostfun]



2



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Gypsy

Let Me Entertain You



By Robert M Massimi. ( Broadway Bob).Published about 4 hours ago • 3 min read



Robert M. Massimi.

"Gypsy" is still in previews.

This "Gypsy" at the Majestic Theatre is one you will either love or not like. For me, dating back to 1989 when Tyne Daly starred as Rose and onto Bernadette Peters in 2003 and Patti LuPone in 2008, the musical has vacillated as far as likeability. I did not really like Ms. Daly as Rose, Peters was much better in the role and Patti LuPone is by far the best of the class. Whereas LuPone belted out the songs, where she owned the role, Audra McDonald more dained in he efforts. LuPone was more believable than the current star in that she was Mama Rose!

Written by Gypsy Rose Lee with the book by Arthur Laurents and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, "Gypsy" has played Broadway countless times with mega stars like Ethel Merman and Angela Lansbury at the lead. This musical more than others is dependent on both the director (George C. Wolfe), the choreographer (Camille A. Brown), as well as the supporting cast. If the dance numbers are not crisp, and the songs not resonant, "Gypsy" can make for a long night at the theater.

While this "Gypsy" is not a complete flop, it lacks in imagination in the dance numbers. Yes, from the audience they look real in-depth, but in actuality the dance numbers are banal and the songs for the most part are forgettable. While the house was energized this evening, especially when Baby June (Jade Smith) and Baby Louise (Kyleigh Vickers) sung and danced; even the scenes with the young troupe gave pleasure to the crowd. A closer look and listen to the seasoned theater goer really saw more fluff in the dance pieces than anything else.

This rendition of the historic musical was nothing more than smoke and mirrors. The entertaining sets (Santo Loquasto), the hard glam lighting, the garish costumes (Toni-Leslie James) all were more show than substance, much like Rose herself. In past productions, the interaction with Rose and Herbie were much better than McDonald and Danny Bernstein. Never once could we imagine the two being an item; the warmth was never there. The two never had a warm feel when they sung together.

I was disappointed in this "Gypsy". I thought McDonald would be able to carry this role a lot better than she did. Her song patterns never really resonated throughout the evening; she never tested her strong voice. Her performance reminded me of her last show that I saw her in, "Ohio State Murders. There too she was un-moving in her role; as if she was going through the motions rather than giving us a deeply felt performance.

After seeing Nicole Scherzinger's performance in "Sunset Boulevard this season, McDonald's efforts do not compare. Where her Norma Desmond was first rate, Audra McDonald did not entertain us!

Robert Massimi writes for my Life Publications, Studio Seven Publications, Show Prep, Trending Content, Nimbus Magazine and Art New York. He is a member of The Dramatist Guild and has been featured on MCC and WABC Radio. He has produced 14 shows both on and off Broadway and sat on the board of directors of Metropolitan Playhouse. He has edited two films and advised on production to several films.

Broadway, Hollywood, Audra McDonald, Patti LuPone, Bernadette Peters, Ethel Merman, Angela Lansbury, Sunset Boulevard, Gypsy, Tony Awards, Oscars, Majestic Theatre, Phantom of The Opera, Dramatists Guild, Scott Lehrer, Gypsy Rose Lee, Stephen Sondheim, Lyrics, Book, The Lion King, Alladin, Harry Potter, Elf, Buddy, Kate Wilson, Nancy Wilson, CNN, Bloomberg, WABC, Camille Brown, Michael Clifton, Robert Ginzler, Sid Ramin Orchestrations, off Broadway.

Art

About the Creator



Robert M Massimi. ( Broadway Bob).

I have been writing on theater since 1982. A graduate from Manhattan College B.S. A member of Alpha Sigma Lambda, which recognizes excellence in both English and Science. I have produced 14 shows on and off Broadway. I've seen over700 shows

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The Roommate.

In the first half hour of "The Roommate" at the Booth Theatre a lot happens; and yet, nothing really happens. Like "Frankie and Johnny", the two stale-worth actresses take the stage at the beginning to be recognized by the audience, then take their places for the beginning of the show.

RMM(BB

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AH

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The red scorpion

I know that when dawn breaks I will be devoured by the red scorpion I tattooed on my chest. I remember the moment, the euphoria of that Friday when I decided to get it tattooed. I dreamed of having it on my skin, I chose it with the care with which one chooses the love of one's life. Its shapes, its figures, its imposingness. I had woken up on my eighteenth birthday. My mother had lost her authority to command. As soon as it was daylight, I ran excitedly to the Moroccan's shop, on the outskirts of the city. I arrived at his business after lunch. The Moroccan, with a reputation for making pacts with the devil, greeted me with a smile. I stripped before him from the waist up and gave myself to his ways. The process took seven hours. I wanted it to be impeccable, shining on my chest.

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[000tragicsolitude000]

The Alpha-3 Nimbus-class V-wing

[starwarsfangirl]

Alpha-3 Nimbus-class V-wings were first deployed by the Galactic Republic in the final days of the Clone Wars—serving in the Battle of Coruscant against the Confederacy of Independent Systems—and continued to see use under the Galactic Empire. V-wings were also utilized as escort fighters for Emperor Palpatine's personal Theta-class T-2c shuttle.

[blubberquark]

AsyncIO for the working PyGame programmer (part I)

This post is meant for people who at least know some Python 2 and PyGame, but maybe haven't yet made the switch to Python 3, or haven't looked at asyncio. To run the example code, you need an installation of Python 3.6. You can install the necessary modules1 with this command:

python3 -m pip install pygame requests aiohttp

What asyncio is not

As I explained in the introductory post, asyncio is not a replacement for threads, and it definitely isn't a magical way around the Global Interpreter Lock (GIL) in Python. The threading and multiprocessing modules still have their place in Python 3.6.

It's not called "async-compute" for a reason. Like threading, asyncio can't help you utilise multiple cores to do multiple computation-heavy things at the same time. Like "node.js" the asyncio module lets you run multiple i/o-bound tasks, or "green threads" if you like that terminology, inside a single OS thread.

That is especially useful if you want to write a server that handles tens of thousands of client connections at once, like an IRC server. Most of the time, most IRC users are just idling, so running a dedicated thread for each client would be really wasteful.

It would use up a lot of RAM, put strain on the scheduler of your OS, and take time to context-switch. asyncio is a way to run lots of tasks that are not doing much anyway, except waiting for input. So don't throw out threading and multiprocessing just yet!

Why use asyncio with PyGame?

There are two major reasons: The first is that you might want to use a library that is based on asyncio in your game. If you just call that library with loop.run_until_complete() from your game loop, you lose all the benefits of asynchronous, event-based code. You have to understand coroutines and event loops to use asyncio effectively.

The other reason is responsive game feel. Event-based i/o and coroutines let you write code that looks a lot like blocking code, but actually executes only when input is available. You can write long-running functions that read files, wait for network input, or upload savegames to a server over a slow connection without blocking, which would be bad for your frame rate, and without cluttering your game loop with i/o logic.

Sure, you could put the logic for piecemeal uploading for savegame files to cloud services into your game loop, and stream a couple of kilobytes between every frame, but this kind of thing is what asyncio was made for.

A motivating example

This is a simple PyGame-based example game. It won't win any game jams, but I hope the code is readable. When you press the up-arrow on your keyboard, the black box goes up. If you press it while the box is in the air, it will increase the speed, making it go up faster or fall slower. If the box collides with the top of the window, it will bounce off.

If you keep the box in the air for ten seconds, it prints "ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED" to stdout.

import pygame pygame.init() blob_yposition=30 blob_yspeed=0 achievement=False gravity=1 screen_size=640,480 screen=pygame.display.set_mode(screen_size) clock=pygame.time.Clock() running=True flying_frames=0 best=0 color=(50,50,50) font=pygame.font.SysFont("Helvetica Neue,Helvetica,Ubuntu Sans,Bitstream Vera Sans,DejaVu Sans,Latin Modern Sans,Liberation Sans,Nimbus Sans L,Noto Sans,Calibri,Futura,Beteckna,Arial", 16) while running: clock.tick(30) events=pygame.event.get() for e in events: if e.type==pygame.QUIT: running=False if e.type==pygame.KEYDOWN and e.key==pygame.K_UP: blob_yspeed+=10 # ... # move sprites around, collision detection, etc blob_yposition+=blob_yspeed blob_yspeed-=gravity if blob_yposition<=30: blob_yspeed=0 blob_yposition=30 flying_frames=0 else: flying_frames+=1 if flying_frames>best: best=flying_frames if not achievement and best>300: # 10 seconds print("ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED") achievement=True color=(100,0,0) if blob_yposition>480: blob_yposition=480 blob_yspeed=-1*abs(blob_yspeed) # ... # draw screen.fill((255,255,255)) pygame.draw.rect(screen,color, pygame.Rect(screen_size[0]/2, screen_size[1]-blob_yposition, 18,25)) fps=clock.get_fps() message=f"current:{flying_frames//30}, best:{best//30}, fps:{fps}" surf=font.render(message, True, (0,0,0)) screen.blit(surf,(0,0)) pygame.display.update() print("Thank you for playing!")

What if instead of printing to stdout, we want to send this achievement to Steam? What if that takes some time? We can simulate this delay by adding in pygame.time.wait(500) before we print the message. Try doing that, play until you get the achievement, and feel the frames drop!

Brief introduction to asyncio

Python 3.5 has introduced syntax for coroutines based on the keywords async and await. To define a coroutine function, you have to write async def instead of def, and to call a coroutine, you have to await it.

import asyncio async def short_coroutine(): print("ALPHA") await asyncio.sleep(0.1) print("BRAVO") await asyncio.sleep(0.1) print("CHARLIE") return None

If you call a coroutine function, like short_coroutine(), you will get a coroutine object back. You can try this out in the interactive Python shell. Calling short_coroutine() will not return the return value None or cause any side effects like printing.

This is similar to generators which we already know from Python 2. Calling a generator function like enumerate will return a generator object. Internally, coroutines in Python 3 are based on generators, but you can't iterate over them. It's just a nice analogy to understand why short_coroutine() doesn't print anything right away.

That is very important to understand, because if you want to call another coroutine from your coroutine, you must await it. If you just call asyncio.sleep(0.1) in your coroutine without awaiting it, you get a coroutine object and then you don't do anything with it. The other way around, calling a non-coroutine function from a coroutine, it works as you would expect it.

If you are not already inside a coroutine, you can't use await. You have to execute coroutines as tasks in an event loop.

loop = asyncio.get_event_loop() loop.run_until_complete(short_coroutine())

The event loop is a scheduler-like object that keeps track of tasks based on coroutines, and runs them whenever there is work available. Whenever any of your coroutines awaits something, the control flow goes back to the event loop, and the event loop can decide which coroutine to run next. If one coroutine is currently sleeping or waiting for input that has not arrived yet, the event loop will either wait, or run another coroutine until the next await.

Here are some more coroutines that call each other, executed all at once with asyncio.gather().

async def long_running_coroutine(): await short_coroutine() print("ONE") await asyncio.sleep(10) print("TWO") await asyncio.sleep(10) print("THREE") await asyncio.sleep(10) print("FOUR") async def third_coroutine(): print("GROUCHO") await asyncio.sleep(0.1) print("HARPO") await asyncio.sleep(0.1) print("ZEPPO") await asyncio.sleep(0.1) print("KARL") await asyncio.sleep(0.1) async def fourth_coroutine(): print("ONE FISH") await asyncio.sleep(0.1) print("TWO FISH") await asyncio.sleep(0.1) print("RED FISH") await asyncio.sleep(0.1) print("BLUE FISH") await asyncio.sleep(0.1) loop.run_until_complete(asyncio.gather( long_running_coroutine(), third_coroutine(), fourth_coroutine()))

This time the event loop executes three tasks in parallel, but each of them still runs in sequential order. Our long_running_coroutine() will await short_coroutine(), so "alpha", "bravo" and "charlie" are always printed before "one". We can't make any guarantees between the coroutines though. Maybe third_coroutine() finishes after fourth_coroutine() for some reason. It never happened on my machine, but there are no guarantees that the scheduling of the event loop is deterministic.

This is still running in a single thread with cooperative multi-tasking, so if any coroutine hangs, the whole event loop will hang. You can try this out by inserting while True:pass somewhere in a coroutine. Don't try this in production!

Game Loop vs. Event Loop

Running tasks/coroutines in an event loop with run_until_complete() can be appropriate for networked servers, but in our games, we don't want to leave the frame rate up to some opaque scheduling logic2. We want to stay in control of the game loop. Putting our game in a coroutine and running the input-update-render loop from the event loop is right out.

Calling run_until_complete() from inside our game loop will block until the task is done, so it is as bad as blocking i/o inside the game loop, with the added negative that there are useless await statements peppered throughout our code.

Instead, we can use loop.create_task() to create individual tasks from coroutine objects, and use this small function run_once() which looks like a hack but is the officially endorsed way to do this kind of thing according to the asyncio developers:

task = loop.create_task(long_running_coroutine()) task2 = loop.create_task(fourth_coroutine()) def run_once(loop): loop.call_soon(loop.stop) loop.run_forever() while True: run_once(loop) if input("Press RETURN >")=="exit": break loop.close()

With loop.call_soon() we schedule the loop to run loop.stop() right after the next piece of a task has been executed. So loop.run_forever() will poll for input events, futures or sleep times that are over, and either run a task or not if there are none available, and then call the function scheduled in loop.call_soon(). It looks wonky, but you can rely on this behaviour, because it is the intended way to let a coroutine task stop its own event loop.

Based on this, we can write a game loop that wakes up the event loop once per frame, and runs a task if there is work available.

We are going to put it all together in part II. Stay tuned!

Footnotes

1 Some of them will not be needed in this post, but in parts 2 and 3

2 If you want to write a networked server, take a look at the official documentation at I am skipping over a lot of stuff that is relevant to servers because I am focusing on game clients here.

[gospelofme]

@fus-ro-nah in honor of these tags

120,000 Republic credits just zipped by, followed closely by another 120,000 Republic credits. Cruiser’s shoulders dropped as he stared out the large window overlooking the airfield. He was waiting on the machine to finish making his caf. It wasn’t as good as what the Officers got, but sometimes you got lucky and received some caf grounds that gave you a nice, crunchy kick.

Ordinarily, Cruiser wouldn’t care about an Alpha-3 Nimbus-class v-wing starfighter or two flying by. They were at war and pilots needed to train, regardless of the experience level. But these pilots weren’t training. They were playing. Again. Cruiser held his breath as the pilots executed close passes and sharp turns. There were three beeps, signaling his caf was ready. Cruiser took a sip as he watched one fighter flip upside down and maneuver over the other, canopies nearly touching. If Cruiser had credits, he’d bet that Joker was giving Bravo a rude hand gesture.

He watched from the window as Bravo started doing barrel rolls. One look down at the edge of the hanger showed 6 clone pilots, split into two groups of three. One group, Bravo’s team, was getting increasingly excited. Cruiser could hear them slowly count the number of Bravo’s rolls out loud. Joker’s team was quiet, looking as if they still had hope their buddy could pull this off.

“Bravo is trying to break Joker’s barrel roll record again.” Cruiser spoke, the only other person in the break room with him was Captain Jag. Why he was in here and not the Officer’s break room wasn’t a mystery. One look told the mechanic that the Captain was running on empty.

“Yuuup.” Came Jag’s slow, tired reply.

“If he does it, you know what that means.” The mechanic said cryptically.

“Sure do.” Jag answered.

“11…12…13!!! He did it!! Ahahahaha!!!! Take that!!” Rocket, Bravo’s wingman cheered.

“He’s not done yet!” Whiplash replied. Cruiser sighed and tiredly walked out of the break room, trudged down the steps, and watched the birds come in for a landing.

“He’s steady, good landing, solid.” Rocket narrated like he was a sports announcer. He mimed holding a microphone. Joker’s canopy opened first.

“You keep your ass in that bird! Give my boy a chance!!” Rocket said fiercely, pointing at Joker. The other pilot rolled his eyes, or Cruiser was pretty sure he did. The pilot’s helmet was still firmly in place. Bravo’s men clung to each other as if their lives depended on it. They watched Bravo get out of the fighter, slowly. He took a couple wobbly steps but steadied himself quickly. The gathered pilots watched him intently.

“Just do it, you know you want to Bravo. It will make you feel better.” Whiplash encouraged. Cruiser shook his head. Bravo quickly doubled over and grabbed his knees, Joker’s team looking to be on the verge of victory. But, dramatically, Bravo held up a finger. He slowly stood back up, paused.

“1…2…3….”

He took a steadying breath as his voice shook on the number 3.

“4….5!” He finished. His team cheered!!

“YES! We win!! You know what that means Joker!! Pull that loud handle!!” Rocket threw an arm around Bravo’s shoulder. Joker sighed, defeated.

“Uuughhhhhh.” Cruiser heard him groan as he sat back down in the fighter, canopy closing. A few seconds later, the canopy exploded off the Alpha-3, Crusier watching all those credits spiral off. The ejection chair rocketed Joker out of the fighter. Cruiser followed the pilot up into the sky, watching the seat separate and the parachute open. The unceremonious landing Joker experienced once his boots hit solid ground gave Cruiser some satisfaction.

Giving a sigh, Cruiser went to retrieve a new ejection seat. Time to make the bird useable again. He used a levitating cart to escort the new chair to the fighter, turning the corner of the hanger. He was greeted by a sight he knew he’d find. Rocket patting Bravo on the back as his wingman threw up everything he ate into the trash receptacle.

“It’s okay buddy, there ya go. Just get it out. You took one for the team.” He soothed, giving Cruiser a thumbs up. The mechanic shook his head, this would be a regular occurrence until Revenant Squadron shipped out again. As much frustration as these guys caused Cruiser, and they were serious pains in his ass at times, he knew he’d miss them.

We didn’t have much material in the show surrounding clone pilots.

Gimme clone fighter pilots painting nose art on their birds.

Gimme clone fighter pilots with their number and name painted on the rim near the cockpit.

Gimme clone fighter pilots ejecting themselves from their fighter jets from the ground on a dare.

Gimme clone fighter pilots doing “fancy flying” and judging each other’s moves.

Gimme that sweet POV camera angle of a dogfight.

[aion-rsa]

Star Wars: The Bad Batch Episode 16 Easter Eggs Explained

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This Star Wars: The Bad Batch article contains spoilers.

In the two-part finale of The Bad Batch, the Kaminoan cloning labs go down in fire and water. With no home left to lose, the clones scramble for survival. Alongside them is Crosshair, formerly eager to turn them over to the Empire. His decision provides the main emotional push of an episode that also shows the wreckage of an era. Take a look at all the Star Wars facts and references we spotted in this episode …

Kamino

– As the clones’ homeworld, Kamino is as special to them as Alderaan was to Princess Leia Organa. The water planet premiered in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, in which Obi-Wan Kenobi’s detective work lead him to the cloning labs.

– Despite their world being covered with water, the Kaminoans are not an aquatic species. Canonically, the planet’s oceans rose at some point in their distant history, forcing them to adapt with their domed and stilt-legged cities.

Stream your Star Wars favorites right here!

– Two water creatures appear in this episode, both of them formally unidentified for now. The manta ray-like animals that appear outside the window could be juvenile Aiwha, large versions of which carry Kaminoans on their backs in the movie. This is just speculation, however. – The sea monster that menaces the Bad Batch in the tunnels is a brand-new creature. It looks like it took design inspiration from a turtle, a manta ray, and/or Star Wars’ own craggy-faced rancor.

The Empire

– The Imperial emergency siren heard throughout the background of both finale episodes is a Star Wars staple, appearing from the Old Republic in Legends to the Death Star in the Original Trilogy. – The Imperial ships that opened fire on the labs are Venator-class Star Destroyers, a renaming of the Republic attack cruiser. Ironically, in the Republic era these ships were heavily associated with the Jedi, since they were usually flagships for Jedi generals. These ships are smaller than the Imperial-class Star Destroyer that followed them, completing the transition between the Prequel and Original eras to the iconic ships from A New Hope. – The brief glimpse of the Imperial base at the end of the episode includes the Rho-class transport shuttle. As is the case with the Empire transitioning over from Republic warships, this was also previously used by the Republic, primarily as a medical transport.

– The transport is accompanied by Alpha-3 Nimbus-class V-wing star fighters, the kind of ship often piloted by clones supporting a Jedi in a Jedi starfighter.

– As seen earlier in the season, some of the clones who joined the Empire have switched to armor that looks similar to the Republic Commandos from The Clone Wars and Legends. Republic Commando lore established a lot of what Legends fans knew about Mandalorian culture, as they were clones who were directly trained by Mandalorians.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Imperial Science Base

– The planet where Nala Se winds up at an Imperial base is a brand-new location.

– The scientist who welcomes her is a new character, credited as Medical Officer and voiced by Helen Sadler. Her costume provides some intriguing clues as to what her role might be. It’s similar to Dr. Pershing from The Mandalorian, who worked with the Imperial Remnant to try to extract blood from baby Grogu. It’s hard to tell whether the symbol on her uniform is the same as his, and she’s working almost thirty in-universe years before the time of The Mandalorian. But we do know that Nala Se was last working on a way to refresh the clones’ genetic material to possibly make more, as well as that she had been experimenting with making the changes to Jango Fett’s DNA that resulted in the Bad Batchers and Omega. Could this have something to do with what Dr. Pershing is working on a generation later? It’s certainly canon that Emperor Palpatine’s plans stretch that far.

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Star Wars: Battlefront II (Dice) - Jinata Security V-wing fighter by Mark Tome

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Alpha-3 Nimbus Class V-Wing Starfighter Concept Art

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Star Wars: The Bad Batch Episode 2 Easter Eggs Explained

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This Star Wars: The Bad Batch article contains spoilers.

The second episode of The Bad Batch, “Cut and Run,” sees our heroes searching out a clone deserter to find out how to survive after the Republic’s war is over and the Empire’s has begun. Naturally, it proves difficult for all parties involved to gain their footing in a galaxy changing so quickly.

There are not a lot of wink-nudge Star Wars references in this one. Instead it’s an episode that brings back some familiar characters and creatures.

Here’s what we spotted:

Cut Lawquane

The most significant connection to The Clone Wars is the clone the Bad Batch run to after their escape from Kamino. Introduced in the season two episode “The Deserter,” Cut left the army out of a desire to embrace his individuality and do what he wanted with his life. Captain Rex sees him as a coward, but the two come to an understanding after Cut helps hold off a Separatist attack.

“Cut” is presumably his nickname from the clone corps. He’s abandoned his given number and taken his wife’s last name to further express his individuality. Cut’s wife Suu, and her children Jek and Shaeeah, all previously appeared in “The Deserter” as well. Her kids are half-human, which was more obvious in The Clone Wars when they had speckles of tan skin. Official material generally implies they aren’t Cut’s biological kids.

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The Planet Saleucami

– The planet Saleucami, which is located in Sector J-19 (or the Suolriep Sector), first appeared in the aforementioned episode of The Clone Wars, “The Deserter.”

– The little creatures running around the planet’s surface are nunas, essentially space turkeys. They first appeared in The Phantom Menace, and have since been in the background of multiple animated shows and other material. Nuna meat is also one of the in-universe substitutions for Earth food when it comes to Disney’s Galaxy’s Edge vendors, standing in for turkey.

– The farm is menaced by a predator called the nexu, which first appeared as a CGI creature in Attack of the Clones‘ gladiator arena battle. Nexus are aggressive and opportunistic carnivores.

– Along with the Twi’leks, we also see some other aliens. The vendor who tells the Batch about the chain codes is an Aleena, a common background species in The Clone Wars.

– There’s also a quick glimpse of a Rodian, a species that has appeared in a ton of Star Wars media since their first representative, Greedo, menaced Han Solo in A New Hope.

– Being hassled by the stormtroopers is a classic cantina alien, a big-jowled Snivvian. Other aliens that started out in the cantina and appear in this episode include the Bith and Gotal.

– Various background droids include the R-series of astromechs (like R2-D2), wrecked battle droids from the Separatist army, and the ubiquitous GNK-series power droid first seen in A New Hope.

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The Empire

– The man ushering in the Empire in the hologram announcement is Vice Admiral Rampart, a human Imperial officer. This is his first appearance.

– While many ships in the Imperial era used tractor beams, the impound vessel in this episode uses a force field to pick up its unfortunate unregistered prey. It’s officially called a clone impound vessel.

– There’s also a brief glimpse of an Alpha-3 Nimbus-class V-wing starfighter, a single-person ship used by the Republic Navy.

– The Imperial forces have transitioned over to the type of stormtrooper armor seen in the Original Trilogy, with its skull-shaped helmet with prominent vents at the bottom instead of the more Mandalorian T-visor-derived clone helmets.

– Chain codes were created for The Mandalorian. In terms of what they did for the plot of the show, they were a way to help members of the Bounty Hunters’ Guild find and identify their targets. In the fictional universe, New Republic law enforcement also used them to find fugitives. Information encoded on the chain code included the individual’s name, age, and family history.

The Bad Batch provides new information: they were created by the Empire, with the Republic apparently allowing travel with less identification or a different form of identification required. However, it was implied in The Mandalorian that chain codes had been in common use for a long time, since at some point Boba Fett acquired one.

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