Star Wars Introduces a Power Older Than the Jedi
The Jedi Order and the Galactic Republic were allies in their efforts to bring order to the Star Wars galaxy for approximately 25,000 years. Star Wars has now introduced something older and possibly of greater power than either. SPOILERS for the Star Wars: The Bad Batch episode "Entombed" follow. "Entombed" brings a different energy to The Bad Batch than what's typical for a Star Wars story. The episode finds the Batch between missions for Cid. Omega and Wrecker go looking for valuable scraps. While Tech doesn't recognize anything of value in their haul, Phee Genoa, Cid's treasure-hunting friend, does.
Phee sees an ornate compass with coordinates for the Kaldar Trinary system. The system is uncharted, but Phee believes there are treasures hidden within. Upon arriving, they land on a barren, ruined planet. The compass leads them to a forest and a structure hidden within a mountain.
Phee believes they have found the entrance to Skara Nal, a legendary site said to house a treasure known only as the Heart of the Mountain. Phee explains that the treasure belonged to the Ancients, who pre-date even the long-lived Jedi Order. Tech seems to confirm this information when he dates the structure within the mountain as being built before the founding of the Republic, founded around the same time as the Jedi Order.
An Indiana Jones-style adventure follows as Phee and the Bad Batch explore the ruins, avoiding traps and solving puzzles. But the Heart of the Mountain is not anything they were expecting. Upon taking it from its place, it activates an Ancient mecha-robot walker. Presumably created by the ancients, the walker's design looks more like something out of Star Trek or Mass Effect than Star Wars. The walker goes on a rampage until Tech puts the Heart of the Mountain back, disabling and destroying the walker.
That's only a taste of the power of Ancient technology. While we have no further details on the Ancients, the existence of Skara Nel suggests their technology could exist elsewhere, waiting for someone to find it.
As if to drive home the Indiana Jones vibe, the episode ends with Phee discussing a legendary chalice that might as well be the Holy Grail. Meanwhile, Star Wars fans are already comparing "Entombed" to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. That's partly because the Bad Batch's journey through Skara Nal resembles Fallen Order's exploratory gameplay. It's also because the Ancient's walker reminded them of the Zeffo technology Cal Kestis discovers in the game, even though no explicit connection is drawn between the two by this episode. Some also feel the technology resembles the monstrous Zillo Beast from Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch streams new episodes Wednesdays on Disney+.