Mokko, the evil mining boss in The Bad Batch, comes from an old literary tradition. It's not the first time Star Wars has pulled from the same source.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch takes great joy in revealing the various corners of Star Wars underworld. With the Empire ascendant Clone Force 99 needs to stick to the shadows leading to their uneasy partnership with Cid and various missions of dubious intent. It lets the series step firmly away from the war stories and intrigue of Star Wars: The Clone Wars while examining the changes wrought by Palpatine's new order. Crime has always flourished in the franchise, and The Bad Batch takes advantage of the opportunity to give it all a good hard look.
Season 2, Episode 10 Retrieval finds a terrific wrinkle in Mokko an alien crime boss who gains possession of The Bad Batch's ship. He's a riff on Fagin the underworld antagonist in Charles Dickens Oliver Twist who uses an army of orphaned children to do his dirty work. It's not the first time Star Wars has turned to the character for inspiration and it makes for a durable archetype amid the franchise's never do wells.
Mokko Exploits Children to Get Rich
Oliver Twist depicts Fagin as an ethics-free fence who trains orphaned children in pickpocketing and other street-level crimes. Their efforts make him rich, yet he hoards his wealth: living like a pauper and keeping his young charges destitute. He's arrested and sentenced to be executed at the end of the book. The character was initially written as an antisemitic stereotype, though Dickens revised the novel later in his life to remove Fagin's association with Judaism.
The character's methodology has become a staple of pop culture, and Retrieval finds a terrific variation in Mokko. He lives on a nearly abandoned mining planet, controlling the small population of youths and enjoying a lifestyle far above theirs. He's seen noisily devouring an extravagant meal, while his workers jostle for scraps. The Bad Batch comes for their ship, which one of his thieves stole. The children, however turn on Mokko when they learn the extent of his abuse.
The episode mines a surprising amount of psychological insight from the dynamic, as the people Mokko treats the worst are the ones most ready to rise in his defense. One of them Benni Baro who stole the ship even betrays The Bad Batch before seeing the error of his ways and blowing the whistle on his former boss. It helps give the episode some distinction, as well as making Mokko more than a one-note bad guy.
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