In a franchise where it's not unusual to see characters coming back from the dead, The Bad Batch made a bold choice and stuck with it – earning the respect of Star Wars fans in the process.
Back in season 2, Tech tragically and heroically sacrificed himself, as the fan-favorite character's life was cut short. Ahead of the third and final season, fans were convinced the beloved character would be returning with a huge twist in a Winter Soldier-style scenario, but none of that happened. Tech is unequivocally dead, and a recent Reddit conversation featured some of the fans' reactions to this narrative decision.
"I was honestly afraid that CX-2 was going to turn out to be Tech the whole third season and I'm glad they didn't go that route. Tech's life and his death was beautiful, there's no reason to undo his story," wrote one.
"The Bad Batch show may have its flaws, but I'm glad they had the balls to keep this character's death permanent," added another fan, with a third writing: "There’s nothing worse to happen to a show is to have fake out deaths. Have the guts to kill a character."
"I was so convinced that he would return that i never even "mourned" him," added one user, "I thought it would like a typical star wars fake out death and then by the end he truly is just gone It was totally the right call for the show but I dislike that Star Wars has conditioned me so so much of the whole "if theres no body theres no death" thing that his death lost the impact it should have had for me."
"I loved Tech so much I spent the whole third season kind of hoping they would turn out to be fine. But I acknowledge their death staying permanent was better for the narrative," continued a like-minded fan, while another added: "I'm rewatching it and seen this episode last night and it hit just as it did 1st time. It was the heartbreak of losing a key member of the team and it's good [they] kept it permanent."
Not everyone agrees with Tech's death, however, with one Star Wars fan criticizing the decision and providing a theory: "I actually think this is one of the few times a character staying dead kinda sucked. He was literally in the middle of a character arc that they just dropped. It was clearly done because there was too much overlap in his and Echo's roles for the team which made it hard to write action scenes so they had to write one of them out of the story and it couldn't be Echo since he had already "died" so it would make his return and all the effort spent on it feel pointless, plus he's a fan favorite."
For even more on the animated Star Wars shows, check out our guides on everything you need to know about Star Wars Rebels and how to watch The Clone Wars in order. You can also see what's coming up next in our list of all upcoming Star Wars movies and TV shows.
