The following contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 2, Episode 5, "Entombed," now streaming on Disney+.
The Death Star is a uniquely fitting symbol for the Empire's tyranny in the Star Wars saga. The ominous gray globe carries the ability to destroy a planet, and its destruction marks the triumphant conclusion to Star Wars: Episode IV -- A New Hope. The trick worked so well that Star Wars repeated it more than once, but nothing can top it as the sinister embodiment of Palpatine's cruelty and oppression.
Season 2, Episode 5 of Star Wars: The Bad Batch quietly adds an ominous wrinkle to the Death Star. "Entombed" finds the team inadvertently unleashing an ancient artifact patterned after kaiju-style monsters. The very existence of such threats gives the Empire all the excuse it needs to construct a weapon such as the Death Star, and might even convince the public to support it.
The Bad Batch Reveals a Planet-Level Threat
"Entombed" constitutes an Indiana Jones-style treasure hunt as the team joins their new ally, Phee Genoa, in search of an ancient artifact. The Star Wars universe is far older than the Republic, and powerful devices from the distant past are a recurring theme in the franchise. In this case, it's a crystal called "The Heart of the Mountain." Phee removes it from its resting place, only to realize that the name is literal. The mountain itself is a colossal robot, which activates and promptly goes berserk. It takes some quick thinking and last-minute heroics to destroy it before it destroys the team's ship.
The implications go further than that. The robot is presented as all but unstoppable and could theoretically wipe out all life on a given planet's surface. That likely designates it a superweapon, one of the saga's doomsday devices capable of unleashing destruction on a grand scale. A similar weapon appears on Star Wars Rebels Season 2, Episodes 21-22, "Twilight of the Apprentice," and General Grievous's ship the Malevolence -- which makes regular appearances throughout Star Wars: The Clone Wars -- falls into that category, too.
A Superweapon Could Be an Effective Propaganda Tool
The Empire typically seeks to control such weapons, and in the case of the Death Star and similar devices, it's built a few itself. It doesn't need an excuse, and indeed, the Death Star is actively in the planning stages before the Clone Wars even begin. Palpatine wants the Death Star in order to wipe out any resistance, and comes within one Luke Skywalker trench run of actually getting it. Yet at the same time, incidents like the one in "Entombed" suggest a very powerful means of getting the Empire's citizens to support such a weapon. A mechanical kaiju running amuck on a civilized planet could readily inspire fear throughout the galaxy, followed by calls to develop an appropriate response. It's all the more alarming considering that rogue Clones and criminals activated the thing, letting the Empire claim that the Death Star is necessary for protecting its citizens from "rebels" or "terrorists."
Palpatine pulled off a similar trick by instigating secession, then producing the Clone Army during the events of Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones. Autocracies like the Empire thrive on manufactured crises, and the giant robot in "Entombed" makes an ideal case. A more public incident with a similar weapon could easily push the populace to call for protection, and the Empire could respond with the weapon it always intended to unleash. Fear put the Emperor on the throne. The mech in "Entombed" is scary enough to keep him there.
New episodes of Star Wars: The Bad Batch stream every Wednesday on Disney+.