Star Wars Theory Gives Hope for the Return of a Missing Prequel Era Character
Tech may have fallen to his death in Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 2, but that hasn't stopped fans from hoping for his return, especially in the wake of Project Necromancer...
This Star Wars article contains spoilers for The Bad Batch.
The end of The Bad Batch season 2 saw a beloved member of the team sacrifice himself so that the rest of Clone Force 99 could escape the Empire in one piece. Tech seemingly fell to his death on the planet Eriadu during a mission to learn more of the Empire’s Advanced Science Division, and has since been mourned by both his teammates and fans of the show. However, a mysterious new stormtrooper in the season 3 episode “Shadows of Tantiss” has fans wondering whether he might just be Tech back from the dead, now under the influence of the Empire.
According to eagle-eyed fans, this stormtrooper is too reminiscent of Tech to be pure coincidence. From the more slender body shape to the way the stormtrooper crosses their arms to the almost familiar way he hovers near Crosshair, many are convinced that this is proof that Tech was brought back somehow by the Empire.
Norra on X (formerly Twitter) even went so far as to point out how the lines drawn behind the stormtroopers’ helmet align almost too well with the placement of the antennae on Tech’s helmet.
As Norra points out, animation tends to have more control over what exactly appears in a frame. An animated show isn’t going to have a random Starbucks cup appear in the shot a la Game of Thrones unless someone draws it into a shot on purpose. This doesn’t necessarily mean that Norra is automatically correct, lines could just be lines, but the intentional nature of this medium certainly lends itself to this argument.
We also already know that Dr. Hemlock and his team of scientists at the Mount Tantiss base are performing some very weird experiments for the Empire, including something top-secret codenamed Project Necromancer. Even if Tech wasn’t fully resurrected or cloned as part of the project, it’s not impossible that Hemlock could have brought him back from the brink of death in some other creepy way.
“But why would Tech be working for the Empire?” you might be asking. Well, it turns out that Tech fans have several answers for this question as well. There’s the possibility that Tech – resurrected, cloned, or otherwise – was brainwashed, perhaps implanted with another inhibitor chip like the one used on the Clone Army during Order 66. We also know that the Empire isn’t beyond a little torture and mind games to make people more pliable. However, some fans have rightfully pointed out that Tech’s brain was specifically engineered to work on a different level, and therefore might not be as pliable as the Empire thinks.
There’s also the possibility Dr. Hemlock did try to brainwash Tech, and Tech is playing along to try and gain the upper hand. He’s not really under their influence, but is instead biding his time until he can find a way out of the facility, or at least find out what the Empire is up to and get word back to his squad.
While these theories are unfortunately still just theories, they certainly offer hope for fans of the lovable and awkward clone genius. One thing we do know for sure is that resurrection is never far out of reach when it comes to Star Wars. If Palpatine and Asajj Ventress can come back from the dead, then why not Tech?
Star Wars: The Bad Batch is streaming now on Disney+.
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Brynna Arens (she/her) is a freelance writer who studies movies, TV, and pop culture through an intersectional feminist lens. She'll watch almost anything tbh, but it's…