Orders from the Head
In "Decommissioned" (The Bad Batch 1.6), Cid tasks the Bad Batch with retrieving the head of a defunct Separatist tactical droid so she can sell the valuable intel it contains. During the mission, Wrecker's inhibitor chip starts to act up, giving him a debilitating headache. The prominence of the two heads in this episode – Wrecker's head and the tactical droid's head – draws a parallel between Clone Troopers and Battle Droids.
To get out of a firefight with local police droids, the outnumbered Bad Batch create a diversion: they use the tactical droid's head to send a signal that activates and controls the decommissioned Battle Droids in the factory. Commanded to attack the police by the tactical droid's severed head, the droids comply immediately: "Orders are orders!" At the same time, the chip in Wrecker's head is causing him to mindlessly repeat the phrase, "Good soldiers follow orders."
In Attack of the Clones, the Kaminoan prime minister Lama Su tells Obi-Wan Kenobi that clones are "immensely superior to droids" because they can "think creatively." Ironically, however, the Kaminoans also implant the clones with a chip designed specifically to make them unthinkingly follow orders instead of thinking for themselves. The inhibitor chips make the Clone Troopers more like the Battle Droids they are supposed to fight against, underlining that both sides are ultimately puppets in Palpatine's scheme to become the head of the galaxy's government.
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Characters: Wrecker
Shows: The Bad Batch
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