Hello, I m Adrian, and today we're taking a look
at Hunter's fighting style in Star Wars: The Bad Batch.
The Bad Batch on Disney Plus chronicles the adventures of said Bad Batch,
or as they're defined by the shows Kaminoan scientist: Medically defective clones
whose cellular mutation enhanced traits desirable in a soldier. In other words,
the members of the team were genetically engineered clones with heightened abilities.
Hunter being specifically engineered to have heightened senses, he can even feel
electromagnetic frequencies. And as tech puts it, while maps can be wrong, Hunter never is.
So in other words, just by taking one look at him,
you can see that the series sought to answer the age old question
What if Rambo...was a Clone Trooper? and boy did it deliver in spades. Seriously though, Hunter
is an awesome character in his own right, and the show takes inspiration from all the best places.
The goal of these videos is to figure out just how many fighting styles our combatant is familiar
with by analyzing the specific moves featured in their footage and pairing them with the martial
art or fighting style which most aptly represents those moves. There is a huge amount of crossover
in martial arts techniques, and a technique that is present in one fighting style may also
be present in another, such as the roundhouse kick being present in multiple martial arts.
But in order to not give combatants multiple fighting styles for the sake of variety,
I have instead opted to list the most apt fighting style that best represents that
particular character, technique, or set of techniques. Also, there are various degrees
of knowing a fighting style, and although one may know elements of something, this
doesn't mean I'm saying the fighter I'm talking about is a master in every style I mention.
Since we are dealing with a character from Star Wars lore,
I will further clarify that in this particular video we are not going to be analyzing him
through the lens of fictitious fighting styles in Star Wars , such as the various lightsaber forms,
or its version of hand to hand combat known as Tera-kasi. If you'd like to learn more about those
fictitious styles, you are welcome to check out how many fighting styles does Darth Vader know.
In Hunter's case, we are going to be analyzing his techniques from a real world
standpoint and not incorporate any fictitious fighting styles.
I highly recommend watching Season 7 of Clone Wars and Bad Batch as this video will analyze
footage from those series. That being said, I will keep plot and story details to a minimum,
but do take this as your spoiler warning. Fighting Styles that Hunter may know in
any other form of media, such as in comics or novel form, or game series,
do not count. Without further ado, let's take a look at how many fighting styles Hunter knows!
Hunter is a skilled soldier with incredible hand to hand and weapon skills.
One such hand to hand technique is this useful grappling move
known as a rear naked choke. Chokes have plenty of variations, but in their most basic sense,
they prevent air or blood from passing through the neck. In Hunter's case,
he is executing what is known as a blood choke in Judo. You accomplish it by wrapping your arm
around the neck of your opponent and then grabbing your own bicep. This results in pressure being
applied to the neck on both sides preventing blood flow to the head, causing unconsciousness.
Hunter at one point finds himself pinned on the ground and has momentarily disabled his opponent.
We will find out exactly how he does this later on. He takes advantage of this short daze
to execute one of Judo's most popular throws in media, the tomo nagae. You grip
the opponent high and fall backward into a roll. Once the opponent is off balance,
you plant a foot on the opponent applying strong pressure while rolling on your back
with the opponent flipping over you and landing on his back. In Hunters case, since he's already
on his back and his enemy is off balance, he simply uses that leg to throw him up and over him.
He soon follows up this move with yet another technique from Judo.
Within Judo's throwing techniques, there are hip throwing techniques,
also known as Koshi Waza. In this case, Hunter is executing a technique known as an Ogoshi,
or major hip throw. The point is to break the opponents balance by lifting with the hip and
bending forward. Note how Hunter uses his hip to lift his opponent and flips him to the ground.
Hunter does modify the technique a bit because he chooses to roll with him.
Hunter is also not opposed to throwing people around as well,
whether it's right into a wall, or over his leg, his judo training no doubt coming into play.
But besides being a well versed grappler, Hunter is an excellent striker as well.
Let's start out by looking at some of his kicking techniques.
Displayed right here is a great demonstration of perhaps the single most powerful kicking
technique in Taekwondo, the side kick. The knee of the kicking leg is raised with the
heel tucked in. The leg is then straightened towards the target, driving the heel into
it. The drive provided by the supporting leg, combined with the proper aligning of the hips,
is what generates the tremendous power in this kick. In Hunter's case,
note how a single side kick propels his enemy backwards several feet.
And this isn't just because it's an animation, side kick demonstrations
typically end in very much the same way, check out Scott Adkins step in side kick for example.
Next up we got one of the most useful and easy to learn kicks in Taekwondo,
that is also readily seen in other martial arts. The legendary, the sensational, the awesome
You execute it by lifting your knee and then pushing forward by extending your leg.
In Hunters case he uses it to create distance to set up his next attack,
and to also push a droid to the ground before firing at him.
A pretty cool variation to the typical roundhouse kick is executed by Hunter right
after his aforementioned push kick, and it's the jumping roundhouse kick. In much the same
way that you execute a jump front kick by lifting your knee and then jumping with the same leg you
will be kicking with, instead of throwing a front kick, you throw a roundhouse kick.
Due to the added torque of jumping, Hunter spins right through the technique.
This kick is known as a front sweep kick. It's an excellent technique
for tripping your opponent, just like Hunter does.
What's pretty cool about this show is just how well animated it is. In case you've ever been
interested in animation, you can learn so many aspects about it on Skillshare.
For example, before any of this gets animated it has to go through the storyboard process.
And with Sue Anne Chan's informative class you can learn the different components of
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to creating an effective beat board which summarizes your entire scene
in one panel. I especially enjoyed the unique Illustrations she created to teach each concept.
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you can start exploring your creativity today! Now that we've covered his kicking techniques,
it seems like a great moment to explore his shooting skills. In short,
Hunter is an excellent shooter. From wielding assault rifle type weapons, to pistol type,
to even dual wielding, he is extremely accurate. It goes without saying that with him being a
highly trained clone trooper with enhanced senses, he is no doubt a master at combat shooting.
He can also add some flair to his technique, such as right here where he slides across the floor
stunning enemies along the way. I would like to add here that this reminded me so much of
Sam Gideon in the fantastic third person shooter Vanquish, as he can also slide across the floor
during high octane combat. And since we're on the topic of video games characters, take a look at
how he is holding his gun and knife in this shot. Remind you of another bandanna wearing warrior?
Indeed, his way of holding the knife and gun resembles Snake's technique in Metal Gear Solid 3.
If you'd like to learn more about Snake's CQC fighting style and how it relates to real
world techniques, check out how may fighting styles does Snake know in Metal Gear Solid.
Returning to Hunter, speaking of CQC,
does Hunter demonstrate any concepts from real world CQC systems? He does. The one
which most accurately fits his style is the Israeli CQC System known as Krav Maga.
Krav Maga is a simple and aggressive system of self defense that was developed to serve
in military situations, and later modified for civilians. It has a comprehensive system
of weapon based attacks as well as disarms. The components of any disarm in Krav Maga are to first
redirect the line of fire, then control the weapon, counterattack, and disarm. Now let's
take a look at How Hunter does just that. In this situation he redirects the line of fire
and controls the weapon by lowering it off and to the side. And at the same time that he is
doing that he also throws a counterattack in the form of a strong elbow strike.
This is yet another concept of Krav Maga where you always try to defend and attack at the same time.
He also executes those concepts in this disarm, but the difference is that he uses the weapon
as a melee striking tool. Using your firerarm as a striking tool is very common in Krav Maga.
Elbows are an important component of Krav maga due to fact that they can be executed from very up
close. Hunter uses them frequently when he finds himself in this situation. And since Krav maga
does have it's foundation in Boxing techniques, Hunter will sometimes throw a hook as seen here.
Krav Maga also uses techniques that may be considered a bit unorthodox, such as the headbutt.
The headbutt is by no means unique to krav maga as it's also seen in martial arts like Muay
Boran and Lethwei, but in Hunters case it works well to group it with his skills in Krav Maga.
This flying knee strike will be attributed it to Muay Thai,
as it's the most prominent martial art in teaching such a strike. It also connects well
to his aforementioned skills in Krav maga as both favor using elbow strikes in their repertoire.
A peculiar case to examine in Hunters Fighting style is this situation right here.
He is trying to keep this gun out of the line of fire while also preventing an overhead stab.
In order to disarm her, he simply uses his own strength against hers. By applying enough pressure
to her wrist with simple grip strength, it causes his opponent enough pain to drop the knife,
he turns around and does the same with the other hand, causing her to drop the gun.
You can tell he was using pure strength as note how he is trembling with the amount
of power he is putting into that grip. This is very different from this wrist lock. He
has successfully withstood this electrified whip and reaches out to grab his opponents
wrist. He then twists it to the side in a position that causes extreme discomfort,
making him drop the whip. This is the principle behind every wristlock,
and wristlocks are extremely common not only in Krav Maga, but Judo, and even
self defense portions of Taekwondo, lining up well with Hunter's fighting background so far.
And now it's time to discuss perhaps his most used weapon in the entire series,
and that is his trusty knife. He is truly beyond a master with said weapon, knowing not only to dodge
incoming attacks, but to wield it in such a way that it seems like an extension of his own body.
He slashes, lunges, strikes, pierces, and absolutely destroys his enemies
with said weapon and is even capable of dual wielding knives with no loss of effectiveness,
he can even throw them as well. There are plenty of arts that include knife training, but Kali,
also known as Arnis or Eskrima, fits best with Hunters style
as it is a weapons based combat system with a huge emphasis on knife work.
It frequently includes Knife throwing as part of its training, working great with Hunter's skills.
As a small aside here, I need to add that whenever he pounces with said knife,
his character also reminds me of the phenomenal beat em up games Shank and Shank 2.
Ninjutsu is an art with 18 distinct disciplines, and if you'ld like to see an in depth breakdown
of each one, you can check out my fighting styles video on Arkham Batman. In Hunters case,
he is a master in stealth tactics, often required to lead a team to infiltrate
a base without being detected. He is able to execute such a feat
due to his skills in shiniobi iri, or the art of stealth and infiltration within ninjutsu. He is
also an expert in Boryaku, which translates to military strategies, we get to see this in most
episodes where he leads his team, and especially when the bad batch takes out a platoon of droids
in season 7 of clone wars. He also has shown to be proficient in explosives, or kayakujutsu, such
as when he perfectly timed and threw this device to take out the transport his opponent was using.
In conclusion how many fighting styles does Hunter know in Star Wars The Bad Batch?
They are:
Bringing his grand total to 9 fighting styles!