"Make it Stop" had a good example of making the show feel like part of a larger narrative while still allowing it to stand alone. The flashback when they first met was pretty self explanatory, the imperial soldiers were wiping out a while population. You can take it at face value as the Empire being oppressive. In Bad Batch, we see the Empire first employ this tactic. They're phasing human (as opposed to clones) in as the main army, and they're conditioning them to be ruthless by having them execute civilians associated with rebels. You can look at it as just part of the standalone show, but it fits in with the broader narrative with shoehorning.
I noticed something similar with the Ghorman Massacre. When they purposely sent in the underprepared recruits to get slaughtered. In Rebels, Kallus talks about his first mission on Lasan. It was a bunch of new recruits that got slaughtered by a particularly brutal Lasat. Then the empire used experimental weapons and nearly wiped out the Lasats. Kallus doesn't have to appear in this show for it to improve his character, now that we've seen the empire purposely sets up recruits to justify retaliation.
My sister's dog bit a hole in my Super Mario Land cartridge. It still works though
- Skye Reynolds