At the end of the first season of The Bad Batch, we saw a brand new planet where the Empire brought the imprisoned Kaminoan scientist Nala Se for further cloning work. It seemed awfully familiar, and sure enough, the episode guide confirmed it: the location was Mount Tantiss, on the planet Weyland.
That might not mean much, but allow me to briefly explain the history behind Mount Tantiss and why it’s exciting to see it appearing here. The location was first introduced in Legends back in 1991 with Heir to the Empire. The mountain housed vast storehouses for Emperor Palpatine, containing some of his most closely guarded secrets. Among the secrets hidden in the mountain were a very large number of cloning chambers, and given the extreme importance surrounding the mountain, it was guarded by a cloned dark Jedi named Joruus C’baoth.
In that story, set five years following the Emperor’s death at the Battle of Endor, Imperial Grand Admiral Thrawn returns from the outer reaches of the galaxy and wages war on the Republic. He does so with strategic brilliance and begins acquiring resources for his war, which leads him to Mount Tantiss. There, Thrawn enlists C’baoth as his ally, but also manages to clone a large army capable of staffing his large new fleet. Thrawn’s efforts nearly proved successful, but he was defeated, and the storehouses on Mount Tantiss were destroyed by a group of heroes including Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa (Solo), Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Lando Calrissian, working with new allies like Mara Jade.
Obviously that’s not canon any longer, but it’s notable that Weyland is still a place known for housing Palpatine’s secret storehouses, and Mount Tantiss is still a site of top-secret cloning activity. And, well, with Thrawn set to return in The Mandalorian era at some point soon, perhaps Mount Tantiss will have a bigger role to play than we realize right now. Even if not, though, it’s proving to be a key connection point between canon and legends, but also between these storylines as we see the Emperor’s fascination with cloning rising to the surface.
Just what else might be hidden in Mount Tantiss is anybody’s guess, but it’s more than just a Zillo Beast.
Star Wars Thoughts 