The Book Of Boba Fett begins to make a leader from a bounty hunter
In “The Tribes Of Tattooine,” new antagonists are revealed and trains are hijacked
TV Reviews Boba Fett
Two episodes in and so far, The Book of Boba Fett is both a far more mundane and a far more bizarre story than I was anticipating. It began with another inauspicious trudge back and forth from Jabba’s palace and Mos Espa, but culminated in a hallucinogenic nose lizard. On a macro level, it’s not telling the most compelling story—I still don’t particularly care if Boba Fett achieves his newly discovered lifelong dream of becoming a Daimyo—but the show is packed with enough charming little details and moments that it’s enjoyable to watch.
Even a story point as dubious as the Rancor gambit at the beginning of the episode can be redeemed. The idea of a hardened assassin being so unnerved by the thought of being eaten that he spills his secrets without even seeing the creature felt cheap. But to have the camera linger for a moment in the beast’s abandoned den to show a lone womprat quietly nibbling away in the corner was disarming enough to dispel my annoyance.
It’s not just the gags, either. The scenes with the robot engineer aboard the spice train were hypnotic. The way it moved its multiple spider limbs across the instruments to reroute power were evocative of Kamajī, the Boiler Man from Spirited Away in the best way. Every Star Wars project post-George Lucas has tried to deconstruct the alchemy of influences and tone that made the original trilogy so unprecedented, and if The Book of Boba Fett has decided it’s going to focus on that feeling of entering the cantina for the first time and seeing a giant, intimidating alien idly rubbing his nose while playing cards? Well, there are worse things.
As for Boba Fett’s burgeoning criminal empire, it’s good that the identity of the mayor wasn’t drawn out as either a big mystery or a secret character reveal. We meet Mok Shaiz almost immediately, and he’s just some Ithorian guy. This prompts a slightly annoying and circuitous sequence of finger pointing as Shaiz deflects responsibility for the assassins, instead pointing Fett to the Sanctuary, where Garsa Fwip sends Fett back outside. It seems Jabba had a couple of layabout cousins, who, no longer content to just be literal debaucherous layabouts, have decided to lay claim to the outer ring syndicate.
Again, this shows a stunning lack of storytelling ambition. It’s the second Death Star in semi-ambulatory slug form. But the visuals of two Hutt siblings entwined on a palanquin together, one hiding demurely behind a too-small fan and the other mopping his brow with a rodent like an overheated southern senator is really fun to watch. A show cannot run on two such disparate tracks forever: Clever production design can only sustain a drab story for a finite amount of time, but so far that’s at least two episodes. Oh yeah, the Wookiee bounty hunter the Hutts brought with is cool too.
“The Tribes Of Tatooine” was almost twice the length of last week’s, and the bulk of it is spent with Boba Fett’s Dances With Wolves/Last Samurai/Lawrence Of Arabia narrative. Hell, Fett is even outfitted like a photo negative Peter O’Toole by the end of the episode. Throughout the entire sequence with the Tusken Raiders, I kept on feeling a twinge about how closely this story arc hewed to that tired white savior trope, but this was mostly allayed by the fact that Temuera Morrison is Maori, who knows the ethnicity of the people inside the sand people costumes, and also, they’re all pretend space people.
This story device is also worth it to gain a more shaded picture of what had been formally a one-note antagonist, completely anonymous and interchangeable by design. The chief explains to Fett that other tribes have resorted to violence in response to aggressive outsiders, but the Tusken Raiders, like everybody, are not defined by a single characteristic. Sure, they can and will happily throw down, but it seems there is a whole kaleidoscope of governing philosophies under the twin suns. And it’s understandable that violence would beget violence, as the tribe regularly comes under attack from a passing hover train.
This, too bears similarity to Native American history, where “hunting by rail” was a common for both idle sport and an attempt to deprive the plains Indians of their primary food source. I don’t know enough about either the migratory patterns of a nomadic desert dwellers or the shifting trade routes of drug trains to understand why just moving out of the way isn’t an option, so why not plan a train heist instead? This is the show’s first big set piece, and it was pretty impressive. While the effects weren’t flawless, the whole sequence had a complexity and kineticism that I wasn’t certain the series could pull off. Firstly, Tusken Raiders on speeder bikes are rad. Secondly, train heists are rad. There’s so much interior and exterior space to play around with. Characters can weave inside and out like little mice poking their heads out of a Swiss cheese. After the tribe champion makes her way through the cars like a dervish, Fett is able to bring the whole thing to an inelegant stop.
This is seemingly the first bloom of Fett’s taste for command. As he parleys with the executive of the Pyke syndicate, he seems to relish being in a position of power. And while it’s never stated where the spice is being transported, it’s likely an arm of the now deceased Jabba’s empire. Thwarting this shipment will likely have repercussions for the tribe going forward, and ultimately contribute to the reason Fett stone cold murders Bib Fortuna beyond just a sudden pique. Fett is rewarded for his exceptional service to the tribe with a lizard up the nose and the first head covering this bald, desert-stranded offworlder has had in weeks. The actual vision Fett experiences via psychokinetic reptile is very silly. Some stuff about identity and duality, some stuff about entrapment and escape. Sarlaccs, trees—that sort of thing. But whatever the spiritual significance of the journey may be, it also yields a very literal branch that he gets to turn into his very own Gaffi stick. Should we all be so fortunate to get big ol’ clubs as a reward for our supernatural insight.
Stray Observations
- There’s a whole scene where Boba Fett secures the speeders from a biker gang at the famed power-converter-dispensing Tosche station. A cut scene from A New Hope originally took place at the station, and this episode even recast Laze and Camie Loneozner—two peers of Luke he liked to whine around. I didn’t discuss it in the main review mostly because it’s the kind of easter egg that does nothing for me. It didn’t add anything and was mostly distracting in its winking at the audience. Also, concerning the Nikto biker gang, did they lean too hard into the American biker gang look? Not hard enough? It kinda had a Chewbacca Tarzan yell vibe to me.
- The robes Fett earns are the same ones he has when we’re first reintroduced to the character in The Mandalorian. So whatever happens between now and then, it didn’t merit a change of clothes.
- There are a lot of jokes about Temuera Morrison’s dad bod, especially in comparison to how Boba Fett looked in Return Of The Jedi. Which, sure, they’re different, but the dude is 61 and got into pretty impressive shape for this show.
- In general, I’m enjoying Morrison’s turn as Fett. It’s not a particularly deep role, but he has the bearing to pull it off well, and is capable of giving some dimension to the hard-assed tough guy cipher.
- Would this show be better if it wasn’t about Boba Fett, but instead a completely new character? Maybe Timothy Oliphant’s Cobb Vanth trying to bring law to Mos Espa? I guess that would just be Deadwood. Nothing about the story feels like it has to be Boba Fett’s, but then again, since he isn’t much of a character, there’s also no reason why it shouldn’t be.
- I absolutely love the massiffs—the Tusken Raider lizard dogs.
273 Comments
After this episode I have a feeling Fett’s ultimate goal is to help the Tuskens take back their place as accepted inhabitants of the planet instead of just faceless, mindless raiders the people who came from off-world need to be afraid of.Take over Jabba’s empire, cement your power, then say “deal with it, Tuskens are back in the cities, they deserve the same respect as everyone else.”Also, I know a bit about Star Wars, but had no idea of even the existence of this deleted scene from the first movie. Just played as any regular “badass goes to the bar, beats up the ruffians, leaves with their stuff” western-type scene. I doubt 99% of the audience even know it’s a reference to a deleted scene too.
People are plenty aware of it. In comments to Mandalorian S2, I literally asked for a revisit to Tosche Station, Fixer & Camie by the series, based on that pretty famous deleted sequence – the first one officially released, so early that it was via a SW cd-ROM.
People are aware of the scene, but I think you overestimate how many people. Heck, I’m aware of the scene, and I completely blanked on the reference in the show.
Also, I know a bit about Star Wars, but had no idea of even the existence of this deleted scene from the first movie. Just played as any regular “badass goes to the bar, beats up the ruffians, leaves with their stuff” western-type scene. I doubt 99% of the audience even know it’s a reference to a deleted scene too.That’s why it works, honestly. It’s a reference, sure, but the reference is entirely incidental to the scene’s purpose. Nothing important is taken away by not recognizing the reference, it’s just a fun bonus on top of everything else.
Yeah, it was weird of the review to call it “distracting”. It’s a couple of people in a tiny bar getting bullied by an alien biker gang. They don’t try to shoe-horn in any hints for the uninitiated, no “Gee, if only our old friend Luke Skywalker were here . . .” kind of stuff, within this story they existed to show that these alien biker guys were bad news so we shouldn’t feel bad when Boba shows up and murders the shit out of them.
I mean, that’s the entire point of Easter eggs – treats for knowledgeable fans of a show, movie, book. Not to mention it makes sense on its face – Luke gets whisked off the planet, while everyone else trudges towards whatever future is available on a sun-blasted rock at the edge of nowhere.
I did love how TOTALLY unimpressed Fennic was around the oh so scary assassins. “You’re paying for the name, they’re just people in masks.”
Tbh I thought it was a reference to Once Were Warriors.
…and build a Youth Center. For the kids.
(I’m still chuckling at that)
Yeah, I agree. If he can truly take control of Jabba’s apparatus, he can help the Tuskens out quite a lot. I’m hoping it’s not going to turn into a revenge story for the murder of his friends—there’s nothing in the “current day” bits to suggest he’s carrying that level of rage or something. My guess is he left the Dune Sea because he heard about his armor in Cobb Vance’s possession, then just missed it when Din picked it up. It turned into a longer errand than planned when he had to chase Din down. What I don’t yet see is how you get from that point to staying offworld with Din on a low-odds mission, if he has commitments on Tatooine. No rush, I guess?
I had no idea about the easter egg and now seeing it explained it adds literally nothing and is completely pointless and stupid, aimed I guess at smooth brained fans who just like seeing boxes ticked off
If you’re going to shoot a scene at a dive bar why not use one that exists in the canon already? No need for it to ruin your day
There was no reason for the scene to exist at all except for the laziest kind of fan service.
and also to show the resourcefulness of the protagonist, and add another facet the lawlessness of the planet, and to create tension for the audience who isn’t sure just what the plan is. What kind of tv do you usually watch just curious
If you wanna know what kind of TV I usually watch just ask your mom or check the DVR at your house
She says its just rick and morty and pretty little liars
I watch one of those
trust me, a lot of star wars nerds know about Tosche station
I like the show but the framing of the narrative is dragging it down for me. They would have been better off putting all of the present day stuff they’ve shown so far in the first episode then have his time with the Tuskans as one big extended flashback before going back to the present. That way his motivations in the present would be clearer than they are now.
I’ve a feeling the Tuskan flashbacks will end up being over half of the season. Maybe the finale will be flashback-free?
Honestly I like the Tuskan stuff better right now. I kind of wish they would have just focused on that for the first half of the season but then Ming-Na Wen wouldn’t get much screentime in the earlier episodes which may have been why they decided to do this back and forth.
Yeah, they are too in love with the Bacta tank dreaming as a framing device and not confident enough in episodes as a story telling device. One standalone flashback episode would have been better than this constant back and forth where you are clearly less invested in one half over the other.I do appreciate that they start off with the faded OG 35 mm film grain and colour grade as a transition though.
The visual storytelling is working for me fully still at this point, to the degree that so far I’m not even bothered by the fact that they just did essentially introduced Dancing with the Wolves to Star Wars.Having written that, I disagree a bit with the review on that nothing about this feels like a Boba Fett story, but not in a sense of defending the show. Watching this episode, I realized Boba never really had a culture as he was a clone of Jango, but not really a Mandalorian. He never had a family or a distinctive identity that brought, which resulted in him just being a silent badass. So from that perspective I thought I got what the show was going for as it was him finding a family and culture. The issue is that the show never really establishes that motivation and I can’t argue that my interpretation is right as there’s very little on what we’ve been shown that would support my argument.
In Clone Wars they kinda make him end up being raised by bounty hunters, like Bossk, or just another of that species or something, but also all they end up adding to him as a character is “I GOTTA KILL MACE WINDU AND AVENGE MY FATHER!!!” and it goes nowhere. So even Lucas had no idea what to do with him as a character.
They still had more Boba Fett-centric episodes being worked on when Clone Wars was cancelled (There’s a Boba/Cad Bane shoot out in animatic form floating around out there). The un-cancelled Final Season didn’t include them. but they were going to get more deeper into Boba. And a cancelled pre-Disney buy game was supposed to be young Boba-centric
Lucas knew exactly what to do with him:Treat him as a flat cipher who creates fun plots.“We’re brothers, don’t shoot!” is one of my favorite moments of the show.
‘…essentially introduced Dancing with the Wolves to Star Wars.’Dances With Star Wolves? Someone call Sandy Frank!
Wasn’t that the one where Costner plays a dead body?
That’s Radcliffe.
you’re thinking of The Big Chill.
so far I’m not even bothered by the fact that they just did essentially introduced Dancing with the Wolves to Star Wars.Sure . . . if the Kevin Costner character was motherfucking Rambo. But yeah, the train taking pot shots at the Tuskens was a pretty damned on-the-nose analog to the Plains Indians. Almost as on-the-nose as giving the bullying assholes at Tosche Station literal biker vests. It’s tough to really establish Fett’s internal motivation. He was already taciturn and stoic to begin with and he doesn’t really have anybody to chit-chat with, and pulling a true Dances with Wolves and layering over endless voice-overs would’ve been disastrous, so we just kinda have to guess and read between the lines. For my money, I think it’s that Fett hasn’t had anyone to really care about. He hung out with some Bounty Hunters for a while as a kid, but if memory serves they ditched him when it suited their needs. Now that he’s found a people who both suit him and accept him, he’s found purpose beyond just following in daddy’s footsteps and being a stone cold Bounty Hunter badass. (If I had to guess, I’d say a Tusken tribe massacre is forthcoming, courtesy of the Pikes, with Fett as the only survivor.)
Sure . . . if the Kevin Costner character was fist motherfucking Rambo.
Thanks a lot, now I want to see that movie. (And yes, it damn better be a full-length movie. Anything under 90 minutes is a wasted opportunity.)
Now don’t go over the top!
you are on the money. I even expected the tribe leader to be killed off in this episode, too.
The split timeline of the show is so rote it got boring quick. I also can’t believe they dived right into the White Savior, Last Samurai, Dances with Wolves end of the spectrum. There’s no way this doesn’t end without Boba calling in his Tuskan army and I wouldn’t be shocked if we see a Tuskan take their mask off.
So just for the record, over here this episode was pretty well received largely because Temuera isn’t white, he’s Maori. He’s fighting for indigenous peoples’ right and a lot of his dialogue mirrors a lot of what you hear local Maori talking about when it comes to Pakeha. The weapon Temuera uses was specifically designed to be more like a taiaha, and his training weapon closely mirrors a Fijian war club. The dance at the end too, mirrored a lot of more traditional dances out here. I mean this episode was just dripping with Pacific Island cultural influence, even in the desert. So to keep reading the White Savior trope, just feels wildly reductive, when it’s something so much cooler
You uhhh know Morrison aint white, right?
Apparently he’s close enough.
Yo he’s half white bro
I have a feeling the split timeline is leading to something. And it really dodges the “White Savior” trope. One, because Morrison isn’t white. Two, and this is REALLY important, there’s no bit where he magically becomes better than the natives at their own thing.
That’s THE key aspect of the trope you’re talking about. That the new guy is better at being them than they are. Without that, no trope.
Given this is a space show where minority culture is represented by non-human aliens, I don’t think Morrison’s own ethnicity can dismiss that claim on its own, the story is hitting every beat of the trope so far.
I don’t think you’re making that up, especially as there are some pretty obvious parallels between the Tuskans and Mandalorians, what with earning Tuskan robes and the ceremony and meaning of their sticks, and Mandalorian armor and weapons.Boba never earned the right for his armor, it was given to him. His quest to get it back is basically making up for that, signified by going through a similar process with the Tuskans.
Maybe it’s because I’ve watched that story more recently, but I got a big Dune vibe from that episode. Boba as Paul and Tuskens as the Fremen (what with their caches of water and supply of secret sticks). I have a feeling the whole “desert power” thing is going to come into play before the season ends with Boba taking on those Huttlets with an army of sand people at his back.
And derivative as it may be, I’d be cool with that!
Yes the whole thing was like a dumbed down dollar store version of Dune with the elements you listed as well as Boba’s drugged out journey being similar to Paul’s experiences with spice
I enjoyed this episode, it felt like a classic Samurai Jack helps teach a tribe to defend themselves yarn.
Since part of the allure of Boba Fett was the blank canvas, a lot of fans filled that in for themselves. Once you ignore who you think Boba Fett was 40 years ago, the show is much more enjoyable.
Temuera Morrison also projects a lot of inherent nobility that the original OT Boba Fett did not. It makes sense that a show with him as a lead would lean into that.
Its more A Man Called Horse imo –
The way the flashback ended in Episode 2 you get the feeling that story arch ended. Let’s now focus on Boba’s present situation.
By the way, Boba’s criminal organization continues to be such a hilariously weird operation. Apparently it is a pretty big city and somekind of an important hub worth a lot of money, yet Boba seems to think that he could run it all with him, his right-hand woman and two muscles. Like no information network, no reliable hands that could be called up, nothing of the sort.
So far the Western theme makes it work, but I can’t figure out what scale do they want this story to be.
So you are saying he is a Stark? 😉
Tony?
One assumes that he’s planning to expand the operation, but first needs to find people he can trust.
It almost makes sense, in that from what little we know of him, Boba Fett would have no idea of how to run a criminal empire. But it also makes no sense, in that he’s clearly spent his entirely life in the galaxy’s seedy underbelly, so he should at least know enough to know he’s going about this in a weird way. Does he expect to be coasting on his reputation as a notorious bounty hunter? Because so far, not only is it not working, but he was nearly killed by some mooks in public.
Being a hired gun is very different than being a mafia don, and I’m still really unclear about what motivated him to make the leap from one to the other. I assume the show will eventually explain that, but sheesh, maybe hire some more goons before you threaten the rival crime lords.
It’s like the showrunners don’t know what a criminal empire even is. You don’t just walk around being threatening and then people throw money at you. You have dudes who work for you, and dudes who work for them, in a big hierarchy, and they’re all engaging in or being accessories to criminal activity, like selling drugs or weapons, or murder for hire, or smuggling, or sapient trafficking, or whatever. It’s not just that he “runs it” with him and three minions. It’s that the entire organization appears to consist of him and three minions! (…and a droid.) It doesn’t matter how badass you are, rival gangs would swoop in and murder you all in five seconds.
Didn’t realize you were such an expert at the underworld, Dirts.
I am the one who knocks… over liquor stores.
I think this is Fett’s journey. This series is going to be about him learning what the underworld is really like, what the path to power and leadership in a criminal empire is really about. You can’t just walk up, shoot the guy in the chair, and that’s that.Remember, in Mando season 2, Fett himself quoted his dad saying “I’m just a simple man trying to make my way in the universe.” Which, okay, understatement, but that sets the hook for Boba’s entire life experience. Young Boba was raised by bounty hunters and lived by that code, even when he was pseudo-leading his own little team.
Yeah, I am OK if the basic story structure here is that Fett is eventually confronted with the fact that his vision for how to take over Jabba/Fortuna’s criminal enterprise is naive and unworkable, leading to some sort of conflict with the values he acquired during his time with the Tuskens.And I would even be OK if the story instead is that the Tuskens will show up at some point as his muscle, and for now his plan is just to feign a naive lack of support so that his enemies/rivals will all feel confident in exposing themselves.If, however, the story turns out to be that of COURSE you can take over a sprawling criminal empire the “nice” way, with just two pig-men, an assassin you tell not to kill people, a torture droid you don’t let torture people, an empty animal pen, and just a whole lot of gumption . . . that would kinda suck, probably.
It’s implausible that Fett doesn’t already know the basics of how the criminal underworld works. He worked for Jabba the Hutt. And he’s been a bounty hunter for many years, which would inevitably involve hunting down wanted criminals.Not to mention that if you walk in and kill the mafia boss and say you’re taking over, that boss has underlings who have no reason to like or respect you. Where are those people? It’d be one thing if the show depicted Fett taking over a functioning criminal organization (and having to learn the ropes along the way), but there doesn’t appear to even be an actual organization. Where are Fortuna’s lieutenants? Where are their minions? What kind of crime are they involved in? This whole thing reads like it was written by a ten-year-old who doesn’t know how anything works.
When you think you’re the best at doing something, and you think you know what you need to know, you’re wearing blinders. You get cocky, and then suddenly you find yourself falling into a Sarlacc. Literally or metaphorically. But as it is, we’re two episodes into a show that so far has been more about what happened to Fett between waking up in the Sarlacc and getting his gaffi stick than anything. I suspect that as per usual for a Filoni project, things are getting ready to take off.
What we have been shown so far suggests there is a sort of feudal structure to Jabba’s former organization. There are subsidiary bosses the top boss lets run all sorts of different enterprises, but that the top boss still claims to own, with the power to transfer control if the top boss is unsatisfied. And those subsidiary bosses are supposed to make payments (tributes) to the top boss in return for being allowed to run their enterprises.So, Jabba was the overlord, people like the Mayor, Beals’ character, and others were his vassals, and their various enterprises were the fiefs that Jabba had granted to them. And now there is a brewing “war of succession” with both Fett and the twins claiming Jabba’s former position as overlord. For that sort of system to work, though, a couple things are generally necessary. First, people need to accept the overlord does in fact have the practical power to reallocate fiefs in the event of displeasure with a vassal. Second, the lord-vassal relationship is supposed to be reciprocal, meaning in the event of certain needs by the vassal (like for protection from hostile lords and their vassals), the lord would respond with help.So far the only former vassal who has overtly questioned Fett’s position as overlord is the Mayor, and even he seemed to back off, at least superficially, once Fett directly confronted him. But if this was a realistic portrayal of such a system, then the vassals should at least be watching to see how he deals with the twins, other vassals should be watching how he deals with the Mayor, and so on. And at some point they could decide to reject him as overlord.
Again, a very plausible conjecture, but the show has done little to nothing to support it. Even in such a structure, the top-level boss always has a small army of warriors to protect him and enforce his will. Fett has three people. (And a droid.) In any realistic scenario, the other vassals would immediately pounce and kill him, and then get involved in a war between themselves to determine who comes out on top. They’d have no reason to like or trust this guy who has no experience running a criminal organization; it’s only because he’s a Fictional Badass Who Can’t Be Killed, which is a perfectly fine trope when the rest of the narrative is organized around that, but putting that into a narrative about criminal gangs leads to this weird-ass story we’re getting.
And we still have no idea what crime is even involved. So far the only vassals the show has identified are Garsa Fwip and the Mayor, one of whom runs a presumably legal bar/gambling den/brothel (given that it’s packed to the gills in bright daylight on a major city street, evidently it’s not concerned about law enforcement, which either means it’s legal or they have the police totally in their pocket, and the entire city is being run as a criminal enterprise), and one of whom… we have no idea. The Mayor might actually be the civil administrator of Mos Espa (and spends most of his time doing so, and some of his time on criminal hijinks), or maybe he’s only nominally the mayor but spends all his time on crime (in which case, who’s doing the civil administration?), or maybe it’s just a weird title.
My assumption is the Mayor is in fact the Mayor (he seems to be described literally as such by the torture-droid when his emissary visits Jabba’s former palace), and yes the city is totally corrupt in that sense. Although exactly who is sovereign in the city at this point in time anyway? I note my understanding is outsiders would call the Hutts “crime” lords because they were frequently at odds with the Empire and such. But I believe the Hutts themselves did not think of themselves as criminals, but instead as superior beings, indeed basically divine beings, who were a law onto themselves and not beholden to the dictates of lesser beings.Anyway, at least what I called the feudal structure was very clearly laid out. It started with the tribute scene at the beginning of the “present” portion of the first episode, continued through the casino, the Mayor, the twins, and so on. Incidentally, we meet a couple more “vassals” in that first scene—the first guy they can’t understand, then the dude with the wookie pelt, who torture-droid describes as the leader of his family, “protector of the city center, and its business territories.” Fett notes he used to work for him, and yet he welcomes Fett as his new “daimyo” anyway . . . but to Fett it sounds like a threat.Which leads me to the next point—it is true an overlord should ultimately be able to command an army, but a lot of that army would actually be supplied by his vassals, and directed through them. An overlord might also have an armed force reporting directly to him, possibly a large one, but they would not necessarily travel around with the overlord all the time. Instead, the overlord might feel secure enough in a relatively small personal guard.OK, so thinking through what we have seen so far from the perspective of a former Hutt vassal—do they know what sorts of forces Fett might really command? If one upstart vassal attacks him and fails, might he be able to order the other vassals to get rid of the upstart? And even if they did manage to kill Fett, would that really advantage them? Would someone avenge him? Could they step into his place and hold power themselves? Would a different replacement, or no replacement, actually be better for them?So eventually one or more vassals might conclude they can either replace Fett themselves, or profitably support an alternative. But they might not be inclined to rush to do so until they gather more information, plot with others, prepare for what happens next, and so on. And in fact, the apparent assassination attempt (and we still do not really know for sure who was behind it) could also have been intended as something of a probe—how weak is Fett? How will he respond to such a threat? Who is loyal to him? Can he be manipulated into attacking rivals? And so on.My point is really just that I don’t think the image of Hutt’s vassals jumping on Fett like a pack of wild dogs simply because he has a small personal guard is necessarily all that realistic either. In the Hutt’s system of organization as we know it, there could be a lot more patience, plotting, probing, maneuvering, subterfuge, and so on involved, even if ultimately some vassals do decide to move against him.
It’s fair that the situation might be as you describe (the vassals don’t know enough yet about Fett to know if they can take him on), but again, it’s a lot of conjecture; the show hasn’t really provided us many details. And that’s what bothers me. It tells us that Fett is a fearsome criminal leader but hasn’t shown him actually doing anything that would qualify as “running a criminal empire” (and by “running” I mean dealing with the day to day business of getting shit done; receiving tribute and talking to one or two vassals does not qualify. What does this organization actually do??).
Let me mention that my approach to media criticism is to start with how the art makes me feel, and then look for reasons why. All my complaints here are not because the show doesn’t live up to some rigorous structural standard; it’s that I kept feeling unsatisfied and confused while watching the show (in a way that does not happen with most shows, where it’s usually fairly clear what’s going on; even complex shows like Legion don’t leave me anywhere near this confused), and the obvious candidate for me is that a dozen times per episode I say to myself “what? why?” Guessing at a few things that the storytellers have left deliberately opaque is one thing; having to conjecture to fill in all the blanks is quite another, and very unsatisfying.
Yeah, I guess we are starting from different subjective feelings. My feelings are more that so far the story is pretty basic, but not hard to understand. My wife also seems to be feeling like she is following the plot so far quite easily.That said, it is absolutely the case that we are only gradually learning about the nature of Jabba’s empire (although so far, it looks to have fingers in every pie), who might else be trying to take control of it other than Fett, who the various underbosses/vassals are, what they might be plotting, and so on. For that matter, I think it is unclear what Fett is really planning (meaning I believe he wants to take control of Jabba’s empire, but exactly why, or really even how, and so on are not at all obvious), what role, if any, the Tuskens who we are meeting in the “past” will play in the “present”, and so on.But again, at least subjectively, I don’t mind all that because I feel like it is all quite intentional. Meaning I don’t feel like I am missing anything, I feel like the story is deliberately structured to only gradually reveal the answers to questions like that. And along the way there may well be misdirections, twists, and so on. And I more or less expect the season to end with some of those questions answered, some perhaps still hanging, and some new unanswered questions.OK, so why did the guy with the wookie pelt not just kill Fett instead? Anyone running protection for a whole major city center can presumably put together a force to overwhelm just Fett and Fennec (Fett did not even have the pig-men yet!), so why does that guy decide to at least start by accepting his former subordinate Fett as his daimyo? So far Beals’ character seems like the least threatening/most loyal vassal. But is that actually true, or is she just playing a long game? When the Mayor pointed Fett back at her, was he referring to the twins (who showed up there), or was he actually pointing at her? Did she maybe stage the assassination (you are paying for the name!) and try to set up the Mayor? And who are the twins’ allies and enemies among the vassals? And on and on.I don’t know the answer to these questions, but not knowing doesn’t make me feel anxious or unsatisfied. It just makes me curious to find out.
I understand the story they’re trying to tell. I understand the plot. But a lot of the narrative connective tissue is missing, and that’s why I keep feeling unsatisfied and annoyed while I’m watching it.Whatever, we’re having the same argument in two threads; let’s drop this one and stick to the other one.
A good handful of thosegoons were killed off in Episode 3, though? (Asking for a casual fan)
Star Wars writers in general have no idea how criminal enterprises work or how a rebel army would work or how a quasi-feudal galactic empire would work or how a galactic Senate before that or how trade works or anything. None of these topics, though they are raised, have ever been explored in any kind of depth or detail. It’s just silly space adventures with pew pews not an in depth or grounded exploration of any of these things. These settings are just incidental
I’m not expecting The Wire in space, but at least some details that make it at least feel like it’s plausible would be nice.
Right but the reason such details will not be forthcoming is that if they were provided you’d be getting into types of content that aren’t appropriate for a PG-rated Star Wars TV show. This universe just isn’t equipped to show the nitty gritty of drug dealing or sex work or human trafficking for example. The very first star wars movie ended with the heroes killing likely millions of people and getting medals for it, without for a second pausing to consider the morality of that act
I assumed all the tributes in E1 were from his underlings working in the underbelly.
It makes no sense. No one on earth would just accept him as “boss” when he has no way to threaten the people he wants to take over and he has offered them nothing of value in return.
I’m with you. I guess in the Sopranos Tony often just kind of hung out and intimidated people but we’re eventually gonna need a scene where some earners are out cracking skulls or something
It would’ve been very easy to provide some minimal plausibility, too. Just add in a couple lines in that scene where the two green ogre dudes pledge their loyalty to Fett. Have the droid say that these two goons are actually respected leaders in the green ogre goon community, and that with them comes all the manpower of all the green ogre goons who follow them.
No mention of the homage to the “combing the desert” gag from Spaceballs at 14:25? Too bad, I laughed out loud.
“We ain’t found shit!”
“So then Black Krrsantan shows up.”
“That’s the guy from the comics!”
“He sure is, sir!”
“So does he do anything?”
“No.”
“Boy training Tusken’s to ride speeder bikes well enough for a train robbery is gonna be really hard!”
“Actually no! Super easy, barely an inconvenience!”
“Oh really?”
“Yeah see Boba just kind of makes some hand motions and then we milk it for comedy for 5 minutes and suddenly they’re all great riders!”“Super!”
I would say this kind of exemplifies a certain issue with this show as it not only assumes that everyone watching it is a Star Wars fan, which is fair enough, but that they all also have a deep understanding of the Star Wars galaxy and its various inhabitants. So it doesn’t need to waste time explaining literally anything.In a certain way it works as it allows for that visual focus as there are no exposition dumps to interrupt it. However at the same time there are so many ‘Should I know this?’ moments already after two episodes.
As someone who’d never heard of the character before, his simply being a black-furred, intimidating Wookie who makes Chewie look like a cuddly teddy bear was plenty to make his presence pop.
yeah i’m actually disappointed to learn he’s from something else. i thought they introduced a cool new wookie but i guess they introduced a cool old wookie.
The thing is, I doubt we’ll ever get an explicit reference to that “something else.” Readership of the Marvel comics is comparatively low versus those who’ve seen the movies and subscribe to Disney Plus, they’re not going to confuse viewers with the more obscure parts of continuity. So yeah he’s technically not a “new wookie”, but he might as well be.
If it helps you feel any better, having read the comics and being familiar with the character, that’s a pretty dead-on description. He and Boba used to both work for Jabba in the comics, so they’ve got a history and I’d expect him to pop up again.
These are kind of the dueling priorities of Star Wars. In the original movie, there was a deliberate tension between the strangeness of the settings / characters and the very straightforward plot. Decades later, there’s so much stuff in the Star Wars lore that the answer to the question “wait, what’s that thing?” isn’t an intriguing “I have no idea” but a mundane “it’s a reference to a movie/video game/comic/cartoon you haven’t seen.”
That’s what was so enthralling about the original cantina scene – Luke was obviously scared shitless, and as viewers we had no idea which of these odd characters were dangerous, outright hostile, etc. He’d obviously heard about the types who hang around the space equivalent of the docks but no way he’d been in there before. I don’t need backstory to understand how uneasy and on-edge you’d be in there.
Let’s not get crazy here – there’s nothing about the scene to suggest that it’s supposed to be scary for the audience or that Luke is scared. He tugs on the bartender’s shirt to order a drink, he seems more puzzled than scared when Walrus Man (I know he has a name) starts pestering him, and even after watching Obi Wan hack off a dude’s arm, he feels confident enough to argue about Han Solo’s piloting fees and the low resale value of his speeder. He’s imminently collected (for comparison, Peter Jackson stages the Bree scenes in Fellowship of the Ring to be overwhelming and frightening). The cantina scene doesn’t evoke fear or wonder or even much tension, it evokes interest. That’s what Star Wars does at its best – it gives functional dialog to weird looking aliens in creative settings, which makes the story more interesting. But familiarity and repetition undermine the whole thing, especially when there’s a mundane, expensive alternate reality to explain everything on the screen.
I don’t have a huge understanding of Star Wars, I’ve seen the first three and last three movies, and know a little of the legend.I enjoyed the first episode and look forward to this. Sometimes these series unfold like a book. You have to take your time and set up the story for the pay off.
In a certain way it works as it allows for that visual focus as there are no exposition dumps to interrupt it. However at the same time there are so many ‘Should I know this?’ moments already after two episodes.Well, wasn’t that part of the appeal of OG Star Wars? This world just existed, these characters would show up who were badass and/or intriguing and they were just part of the scenery. We wanted to know more about those cool as shit Bounty Hunters Darth Vader was talking to, even though only one of them actually mattered to the plot.
It can work the same way now if you want it to, but now if you see a character you’re really curious about it’s entirely possible there is a whole cool backstory for them if you want to chase it down. But I also haven’t seen anything that assumes you’ve read every comic and seen every spin-off and animated continuation in order to make sense of what’s happening on-screen.
I mean, we know the Hutts like employing badass bounty hunters (at least Jabba did), and there’s a badass WOOKIE bounty hunter. Sure, he’s been around the SW universe in some comic series, but we don’t need that. Just, “HOLY SHIT, WOOKIE BOUNTY HUNTER” is plenty.
Not in the sense you mean, no, as everything that was relevant the story was established even in the old movies. Or at least given lip service.Here’s the thing, and this is on me considering the comment I responded to with this, it is completely true that we don’t need to know who that Wookie was. To me it was just shot in a ‘Look who we have here’ way, but it isn’t any kind of a detraction from the scene.Do you know what would have been neat? Once it is stated that they can’t kill Hutts without permission that in the 30 minutes remaining of the episode after that statement someone would have explained why.
Haven’t seen it yet, but sounds like the Hutts are the equivalent of made guys as established by whoever they do business with off of Tatooine.
I don’t think that whole “permission to kill Hutts” line was part of some deep mythology from some other medium, just that there’s some organization to the Organized Crime of the Star Wars universe. The Hutts, as a group, are really powerful so you’re inviting a world of hurt if you just knock one (or two) of them off. As long as it doesn’t sound utterly stupid or wildly counter-intuitive, I’m fine with them just saying how things work without getting into all the nitty gritty details around WHY.
Yeah, the Hutts are clearly made.
Yeah, it makes intuitive sense. Vs the whole Sith “Only two there are” which is both meaninglessly cryptic and CLEARLY FULL OF SHIT.
I don’t think it really needs to be explained why killing a Hutt is a pretty bad idea. I don’t follow SW lore much, but they’re clearly established as an interstellar empire of sorts (obviously not a literal Empire – there’s already one of those). I assume killing one is kind of like killing a US ambassador – if you’re in a failed state then you can do it, sort of, but if so you’re likely in for a world of hurt.
I thought he was new. I’m annoyed that he’s from something else. I’m sick of shit like that
More people are happy that a character they like is now canon. But even more don’t care at all either way.
Eh. His appearance works just as well as a “Big Scary Wookie Muscle” as “That guy from the comics!”…which I actually think is a strength of the show.
I mean I had no clue it was Tosche’s station.And still have no clue about that Wookie’s backstory or character beyond “oh, he looks tough and rather menacing.”And I’m fine.It’s not a big deal.
Do you *need* to know the deep lore or is it like the MCU where they work really hard to ensure that anything you need to understand the current movie is either from a previous entry in the same series or given quick background?
So you needed a lot of lore and backstory to appreciate a giant angry bear ape being revealed as an antagonist? That’s not how it works, this isn’t fan fiction.
Sorry, what’s the issue? You don’t need to know everything about SW lore/cannon to enjoy the appearance of new characters like the badass looking Wookie. If you do happen to know about this character from comics, novels, whatever, then yay for you. If not, you have the option of looking them up online, or just continuing to watch and see what’s revealed.
I understood that reference
Understanding references is TIGHT
I mean, I still loved seeing him. Black Krrsantan is great and it’s one step closer to seeing Doctor Aphra in live action.
“Ah, it might be hard to justify that to the fans!”“Actually it’ll be super easy, barely an inconvenience!”
It’s just the second episode! There’s plenty of time to get further into Black Krrsantan and his badassery. And potentially some of his other contacts could show up, *cough* Doctor Aphra *cough*
You know what Chekov said, If you’re going to introduce Black Krrsantan in the first act, you netter use him by the third act. Patience, padawan, patience.
I knew nothing about that character before the show so his appearance meant nothing to me except “holy shit that’s the most badass Wookie I’ve ever seen”. I can just about guarantee they are setting up a Boba/Wookie showdown for later in the season. The way that scene played out looked like some major foreshadowing.
Guys from the comics are TIGHT
Not knowing more than what’s presented in the movies and cartoons, what do the Hutts control? This isn’t their world, but it this a part of a syndicate throughout several worlds, and Boba Fett was looking to take over Jabba’s territory? Or is it more like a local baron, and he would deal with anyone as long as he gets a cut? Basically, would he need to be part of a larger operation, or does it stop at this level?
To the best of my memory, Hutts are essentially the Star Wars mafia. The galaxy has other syndicates like the Black Sun, but I think they’re more generically criminal. The “Hutt planet” is Nal Hutta with the moon Nar Shaddaa and while this would be considered the heart of the Grand Hutt Council, their syndicate was considered a power player throughout the entire Outer Rim.
You think Italian Mafioso are finicky about being able to trace lineage to Sicily, imagine looking like a sand slug on top of it.
Another fun part of Matt Berry being in this show is that Toast of Tinseltown, the Toast of London sequel series, just aired in the UK, and the reason Toast comes to the US is that he has a part in the new Star Wars movie (“Yeah, sure” – everyone he mentions this to throughout the season.)
the image of him on the speedster had me lolzing.
I thought it was Mini-Me at first glance!
It’s weird that they brought in Jabba’s cousins instead of his son from the Clone Wars movie. That’s a character with ties to Ahsoka, it’d be a connection for crossovers.
The less said about Stinky, the better.
There was also already a baby Hutt that they tried to install on the throne in the Aftermath books, but they forgot that one too.
Anyone see either of Tatooine’s suns? I feel like they only conveniently appear for picturesque tableaux.
Starting to feel Temuera Morrison’s teeth are distracting. Those are some chompers
They’re distracting enough in the present day stuff, in the flashbacks with the contrast of his brutally scarred face they’re outrageous. Does Morrison have a clause in his contract saying they can’t be altered or something?
I dunno. He seems like the type to be borderline obsessive with his dental care.
Boba Floss
Great, now he’s gonna go full-Gene Simmons and start sticking his mug on everything?!
Definitely veneers.
This was a big step up in terms of entertainment. Whether it goes anywhere and delivers on a bigger story, hard to say, but I loved watching this one.
i will never be able to get over boba fett’s perfect veneers. also that bike gang really had me laughing out loud. the fact that they’re JUST bikers, and there isn’t even really a fantasy twist (except for their faces), is somehow very faithfully star wars’y and also dumb as hell. evens out in the end i guess.anyway, i will continue to watch and shrug my shoulders. show is fine so far!
they’ve had a space-’50s-diner so alien space bikers is pretty subtle in comparison.
like i said it’s nothing if not faithful.
I don’t know why, but Mos Espa reminds me of Cincinnati.
Meh. I don’t see it. Mos Espa seems to have some taste for theater.
Oof, hard burn on… Mos Espa.
Or a collapsed Rio de Janeiro.
A Man Called Bantha.
The Man From B.A.N.T.H.A.
Worth pointing out that the cinematography for this ep was handled by Dean Cundy?
From Back to the Future fame, no less.
Seems pretty clear none of this story will need to be told, and it will be bland fan service until the inevitable run-in at Mos Eisley with a CGI Han Solo, and fans will lose their minds on the internet and forget/forgive the show’s overall lack of substance – just like Mando, but without a cute Baby Yoda creating memes.
until the inevitable run-in at Mos Eisley with a CGI Han Soloyou fool, you can’t just go and say that kind of thing, now you’ve willed it into existence
Fans who got upset when Star Wars tried something different with The Last Jedi, and then Disney ignored the critical and commercial success of the movie and catered to their online tantrums, willed it into existence. Star Wars will be safe fan service from now on. No more, no less.
Its not that they tried something different its that they failed spectacularly on every level. The new trilogy is the safest Star Wars has ever been.Rogue one and alot of the animated stuff is where they succeeded.
Yeah, TLJ is roughly as smart and substantive and innovative as Dawn of Justice.
Two pretty dire films with completely different reasons why.
Failed spectacularly huh. Spoken like a true objective regular movie goer there.
My opinion. Its funny how objectivity only applies with positivity.
I really don’t think you understand “objectivity.”
Please enlighten me oh genius one. How was my opinion not objective. Do you know me.
I do not know you, but I do know “failed spectacularly on every level” is hardly an objective statement. Objective opinions generally don’t skew that hyperbolic. And it’s hard to see where any of the Star Wars movies, even Rise Of Skywalker which I very much disliked, are actual cinematic failures. To fail spectacularly on every level, we’d have to account for editing, camera work, music, marketing and PR, etc. The finished film was accidentally shot upside down. Shots linger after you audibly hear the director yell “Cut!” Someone presses play in the multiplex and a 42nd Street porno starts playing in front of millions of confused kids, that’s a failure. Last Jedi was a competently made movie that a lot of people thought was decent and told a good story, and a lot of other people reacted viscerally to in a way that seemed, charitably, a bit much.
So. . . no, I don’t think that’s objective.
Fair enough and i generally agree with what you said. I took umbrage with what i felt was you questioning the integrity of my opinion and applying the visceral backlash the movie/trilogy got, to me. I think our barometer of ‘failed spectacularly on every level’ is vastly different. Which is okay. I happen to think the film/trilogy wasn’t even made competently but agree the backlash was way overboard.
and then Disney ignored the critical and commercial success of the movie *Insert eye roll here
In no way are the two D+ plus shows some kind of opposite answer for TLJ. They are just Filoni and Favreau westerns on TV. The old fights about the ST don’t matter anymore.
Couple things:
1. Critical success these days means very little. Any film view and/or promoted as pushing a social message will always receive near universal praise no matter how good/bad it actually is. No one wants to be seen giving such a film a bad review for fear of the internet mob accusing them of attacking woman or actors of Asian descent (which is the common retort when anyone criticizes TLJ). Also see Ghostbusters 2016.
And not for nothing, Rian Johnson is a film critic darling. They love him and it’s hard to imagine any movie he ever makes getting bad reviews.
2. TLJ was a commercial success but that’s not the whole story. It actually underperformed expectations by hundreds of millions of dollars and saw sharp week over week falloffs which is textbook sign that a highly anticipated film isn’t landing with its audience. The fan backlash carried over to Solo and Rise of Skywalker, both of which also underperformed in part to TLJ backlash.
=======================================
Anyway, with all that said, I find it a bit comical to suggest The Book of Boba Fett falls into the category of “fan service”. Pretty sure all those die-hard SW fans that’ve been having Boba Fett fantasies for decades didn’t fantasize about him playing house with Tusken Raiders and carving sticks.
I also doubt they’re going to enjoy where the series is going, which seems to be in the direction of Boba Fett not being a bad-ass crime lord/bounty hunter but rather the savior of indigenous people who’ve had their land stolen by invaders.
TLJ didn’t try something different, TLJ just sucked, and actually this recap explains why: A show cannot run on two such disparate tracks forever: Clever production design can only sustain a drab story for a finite amount of time
even worse it’ll be alden ehenreich aged up!
I like my Alden Ehrenreich’s young and sassy.
Co-sign.
Free range?
Of course!
Would that it were so simple.
*Aldens Ehrenreich
I’m holding out for Baby Black Krrsantan, a lhasa apso with an ammo belt.
without a cute Baby Yoda creating memesYou say that now, but just wait for the airbrushed Baby Tusken memorial T-Shirts!
Are those really the only two options? Stories that “need to be told” and stories that are nothing more than fan service?Specifically, suppose a Star Wars story is admittedly just the latest twist on one of the many familiar stories in the history of stories, in the sense that, say, Rogue One was pretty much just a twist on the classic “suicide mission” war movie, The Mandalorian was pretty much just a twist on the classic “lone wolf plus cub” Westerns (and related samurai stories), and so on. But, as in those cases, it is not a classic sort of story told already in the live action Star Wars, so new to that content at least. I agree those classic stories do not “need to be told” (or rather retold) in any strict sense of “need”. But if you really know the history of stories, there are a very few stories that even CAN be told that are truly new. A lot of good story-telling is therefore in the details/execution, such that what is basically an old story finds a new audience through a new presentation.And suppose that story also explores aspects of the Star Wars universe that have never before been seen in the live action content . . . but might include elements familiar to fans of comics, animated shows, or so on. But suppose also that those elements don’t need to be familiar to non-fans of that other content in order for the story to work.In fact, I believe Filoni and Favreau have explicitly said their intention with The Mandalorian and this show is to give some cool moments to deep-dive fans while at the same time making sure that people completely unfamiliar with that content can just experience it all as a fun, self-contained exploration of this fictional universe.I am certainly not arguing that anyone needs to think these are groundbreaking shows. But people I know who are at best casual Star Wars fans are finding them very enjoyable (honestly, I’d include myself as a casual). And I think it is precisely because the producers have made sure that the “fan service” is a bonus and not actually critical to their appeal.
Mando at least tried to spend a season being it’s own thing before going hard in to the member-berries for S2.
I was with you up until “Just like Mando,” which was genuinely interesting and fun well before the second season became callback city.
Yeah, no point in telling a story that so far has subverted white savior tropes. Definitely.
I did not expect to feel this strongly about going and joining a Tusken Raider tribe, but here we are.
I would have expected they were the gypsies of the planet, entirely insular.
Yeah I think the biker cuts were too on the nose. They were a violent speeder bike gang brawling in a bar. We get it.
One of my main issues with this show is that we have no idea why Boba wants to be the Daiymo. I can’t tell what his motivations are or why he needs the bacta tank now but not in the Mandalorian.The slow burn with the current day storyline is also hurting the show for me. This episode was about 48 minutes long after credits, and ~35 of it are flashbacks.
Boba Fatt has really been hitting the bags of Doritos, no? Not to Frito-Lay shame him, of course.
I think he’s in better shape than he was in those scenes in the Mandalorian.
I wholly agree with the sentiment that story seems like a weakness for this series, but that it’s made up for (at least so far) by the detail in the world building, and by visual spectacle with the sets, costumes and special effects. I enjoy it in a similar way to how I enjoyed the new Dune movie, which also suffers a bit on the story-telling front (because it’s only half of the plot). There’s a lot of joy to just being in the world and exploring it, even when I’m not really invested in where the plot is heading. The fact that this is a desert episode with several explicit references to the “Dune” is coincidental.
Oh gosh yes, my household LOLd when he brought up “spice”. FFS!
Thats funny, because I feel like the show looks terribly cheap and somehow low-budget in a way “Mandalorian” did not. All of the established alien designs look like cut-rate knockoffs (why are Gamorreans now shirtless fat dudes? Why do all Tuskens now look alike when they were established to have different costumes depending on gender and age? Why do Twileks all have stubby, motionless headtails now?). The cityscapes look much less distinct. Things like the biker gang don’t even try. The mere fact that it all takes place in Tatooine makes it feel much more limited than other Star Wars.
The absence of any space travel makes this feel smaller than Mandalorian, certainly, but the sets are either massive or are flawlessly rendered and composited CGI, at a level I’ve not seen anywhere other than Mandalorian. Even Marvel movies tend to feel more CGI-ish in open-world “alien” settings like this. And I don’t share any criticism of the alien makeup/prosthetics, there are tons of them and they all look very convincing to me (with the exception maybe of some of the cantina band players, but I think that’s because they’re limited by the original designs that were made on a shoe string budget). Starting right from the lead actor, this show is definitely pinching pennies in a way that Mandalorian didn’t, but I don’t see them seriously cutting corners on the world building. I think the cutting of corners is mainly that they’re recycling the same sets and characters over and over more than they would on Mandalorian.
Nothing about the story feels like it has to be Boba Fett’s, but then again, since he isn’t much of a character, there’s also no reason why it shouldn’t be.Definitely feeling something along these lines. It’s curious how they got the name, the armor, the actor associated with the role, and yet the Boba Fett of this show feels nothing like the Boba Fett from the past couple of decades. That speaks to the general lack of insight into Fett’s character before this series outside of him being a stoic bounty hunter. I’m fine with whatever direction they take the character, but it does feel like the flashbacks would’ve worked better if they tried to show how his experiences are re-shaping his values and goals. The ending of the train heist is a great example – when the spice runners are asking if they’ll be executed, I thought the show was about to contrast Fett’s past (ie. take-no-prisoners) with his present (a more benevolent approach). But in the end Fett spares the spice runners, so it feels like the flashbacks lack a point other than to show how Fett earns his robes and beating stick.
Right? In this show so far, I keep asking, “wait why is he nice ever? Didn’t he kill/capture (aka lead people to their deaths) for money for like, a Good portion of his existence?” Even in the little “I’ll spare this child/offer to free the other captive” moments – these are supposed to be Right after he worked for Jabba the Hutt/got Sarlacc’d, no? Mandolorians seem to have a Kind of code of ethics, but is Boba Fett a part of that? Ugh – oh well. I’ll continue to watch this “And Just Like That” series anyhow
The fight choreography is crap and Fennec Shand is useless. She’s a lightweight who adds no useful insights or stratagems for Boba. He needs a proper consigliere. The show kinda sucks. I don’t see how it gets a B when it’s miles worse than Mandalorian. It’s turning out to be more Boba Fett: Warrior Princess.
Also, is it just me, or does anyone else immediately see Eli Wallach when Temuera Morrison grits and bares his teeth?
Boba’s motivations for the career change and wordlessly gunning down Bib Fortuna and the lack of Tuskens in the present day storyline: Maybe Bib blew up all the Tuskens and it’s been a Boba Fett revenge story that we saw the end of in the Mandalorian post-credit scene and he just took over his role to forego any more Tusken slaughter.
DMT in Star Wars was fun.
Camie would still troll Luke as a Jedi.
Camie: Oooh! Master Wormy is it?
Master Luke: Still hanging out here like a loser?
I’m assuming his adventures with the Tuskans are probably leading into the reason he’s trying to be a crime boss guy.
I’m hoping Cobb Vanth will appear in this show at some point.
This sounds just awful
Man… and I thought Hawkeye didn’t really have a plot.
I think D+ shows are taking their audiences for granted.
Taking for granted that it has an audience that can enjoy fun, atmospheric shows without nonstop twists/shocking reveals?
Who said anything about nonstop twists/shocking reveals?
Don’t argue against what people haven’t said. It’s just silly.
Hawkeye didn’t have much of a plot but it was about characters and relationships. This doesn’t have a plot or characters or relationships.
Still in “meh, I’ll wait and see” mode with this show, but I genuinely liked how Hawkeye was less plot-based and more just about two characters becoming pals. I think the other MCU shows in particular have really been weighed down by the seeming need to explain what’s happening to the world after Endgame and setting up plot points for the next phase of movies.
Boba Fett was far more interesting when he didn’t have lines. At least I could imagine he was this amazing and feared bounty hunter, rather than a guy who gets redeemed through a hamfisted retread of Dances with Wolves.
I’m 100% convinced that female Tuscan is Fennec. Her body language and badass moves on the train are totally Ming Na Wen.
I like that idea, but it’s more likely that the female Tusken (well, all of them) are going to get massacred and Boba will shed a single solitary tear before he retrieves his armor and engages in a quest for vengeance, or whatever he’s doing.
Besides, in Mando, Fennec is just a bounty hunter trying to capture… whoever that guy was… and Fett rescues her from the desert and fixes her up, so she sticks with him after that. For her to be the Tusken, to leave them (and uncover her face) and become a regular human bounty hunter, and then have Fett rescue her and fix her up, would be weird.
I honestly forgot that’s how they (apparently) met in Mando, but it wouldn’t be the first fudging of events in this universe.
Silly me, I forgot how Fett saved her in Mando.
Fennec Shand was in “Bad Batch”, which takes place at the same as the Tuscan flashbacks here.
Eh? Bad Batch is pre-ANH, the flashbacks are post-ROTJ.
D’oh, you’re totally right. But the point stands that she was already Shanding about, chasing after Omeeeega 25 years before Boba became involved with the Tuskans, so it’s unlikely she’s one of them.
That’s a possibility, but I’d rather have more than one fighting woman character. In most of the Star Wars movies there is one female lead and you need a magnifying glass to find anyone else who has more than two lines. As Yoda said, “There is another!”
We don’t know at this point whether she is the headman’s wife, consort, lieutenant, or even his daughter.
It’s interesting, but hasn’t Fennec Shand been around for years with a fearsome reputation in the extended universe? I thought these flashbacks were only five years ago.
I’m getting the vibe that may be a love story (possibly tragic) in the making, which would then be REALLY strange if it was actually Fennec.
I’m enjoying the scenes set in the “present”, but the flashbacks aren’t doing it for me. Maybe they’ll get better, but so far I’m just not interested.
That one screenshot, Boba riding future-but-really-the-past Harleys.
Get your Boba runnin’ …
When I heard they were struggling with the storyline for the Kenobi series, I wondered why they didn’t draw on the good (but non-canon) novel by J.J. Miller. Now I understand, because they seem to have borrowed quite a bit from that novel in this series.
I was a little high when I watched this episode so I got excited when I thought the big Wookie was gonna be Goldar from Power Rangers
I mean, Fett is lookin’ a little like Zordon these days.
My son keeps saying he’s a bad-ass Jeff Bezos.
I love how stupid the Banthas are, refusing to move, just standing there getting shot to shit.
Much like the Buffalos they are modelled after
Bison.
Bye, dad!
I don’t think they can go that fast anyway.
But now I’d like to see one do a cartoonish run-in-place-kicking-up-sand then zipping away to the sound of a penny whistle. Is that asking too much? This show does seem to be fond of its gags.
I’ve never dove into all the lore, backstory, books and whatnot (I just watch the shows and movies) so I need someone that has to explain this to me. Why exactly are Hutts feared and respected? They’re just giant, fatass slugs. Couldn’t you just outrun them? Can they even fight? Do they have some kind of super strength or ability that’s never been shown on screen or something where its just understood “Don’t mess with them. They’ll fuck you up”? Why would anyone ever put up with them to rise to the stature that they are?
I’m not sure how much is canon anymore, but at some time in the distant past, the Hutts ruled the galaxy — before the Old Republic. I think they discovered hyperspace, or something? IDK if they ever explored whether they were more… ambulatory, back then. But they decided they liked the corruption, not the government part of ruling the galaxy, and retired to lives of crime and (shudders in grateful bewilderment) debauchery. There’s probably a George Lucas-style ethnic joke/comparison in there, about Italians going from the Roman Empire to Big Sal with the stereos that ‘fell off a truck’, essentially? But in practical terms, imagine the mafia has their own planet (Nal Hutta), and millions of thugs on their payroll. Other than that, yeah, they’re gross giant booger-people, not much of a threat (except they live for a really long time, are impervious to some force powers and very strong).
They are like fat aristocrats who ruthlessly command the services of many other people accomplished in committing violence. They became aristocrats because they are cunning, long-lived, ruthless, ambitious, egotistical, have strong family bonds, and are careful with property . . . basically, the usual reasons. And they can command the services of others because they actually do a good job rewarding people who serve them well.So, the fact they may not fight you personally makes them no less dangerous to you, and anything you care about. And in fact, as the show makes clear, when you are in a potential violent confrontation with one Hutt lord, really you are in a potential conflict with their whole clan, and the whole Hutt system. In the same sense that a commoner violently attacking one aristocrat could de facto mean they were taking on the whole aristocratic system.
Meh. None of this is very interesting or makes much sense, but it’s Star Wars, so I’m watching it.Can we admit that Temuera Morrison is just not that good an actor. Certainly he doesn’t have the acting chops or charisma to carry a whole show.Also, please stop making the Dances With Wolves jabs. The show have very little in common with that movie, apart from the very very common trope of person from more advanced culture meets group of people from less advanced culture and learns from them/joins their band/etc.
People are literally claiming he’s as good as Toshiro Mifune on these threads. Pfffft.
Clever production design can only sustain a drab story for a finite amount of time, but so far that’s at least two episodes.This is it in a nutshell. Mando (and this show so far) routinely make really odd dialogue and narrative choices, and while the impressive production design and amusing or cool details make up for it to a degree, when I’m watching these shows I’m constantly finding myself wondering “why did they do that? what the hell does that mean? why aren’t these characters doing the obvious thing any halfway smart person would do? why is everyone an idiot?” in a way that I never wonder when I’m watching a show made by someone who really knows what they’re doing, like Legion or The Great.The big offender in this episode was the setup for the train heist. On its face, the idea is fine: smugglers are running a spice train through this part of the desert, presumably because it keeps them off the radar of the authorities; but the area is inhabited with Tuskens, who are hostile, so it’s risky. Gunfire is exchanged, and our hero says he’ll help the Tuskens stop the train. Fine so far.
But then the details as presented just make everything confusing and weird. Why does the train open its windows and shoot at the Tuskens at all? I realize it’s a reference to real-world historical things that white settlers would do to indigenous Americans, but as presented here, the train walls appear to be blaster-proof, and the train would be completely safe from the Tuskens if they just ignored them and kept the windows shut. Why do the Tuskens even bother trying to shoot at the train since, evidently, they normally take huge losses every time the train goes by, and the train takes nary a scratch? It may suck, but they’d be a lot safer if they just moved one dune over.
And then when they do attack the train on speeders, everyone on the train turns into an idiot. They leave way more windows open than there appear to be armed men to man them. Tusken snipers are suddenly deadly shots, where before they couldn’t hit the broad side of a bantha. Also, why was the signaling necessary? Could the Tusken snipers not see the train coming across the wide-open desert from fifty feet further away than the little kid with the mirror? And after the train crashes, a horde of Tuskens runs up to it immediately. Like, it was going 200 miles an hour for a couple of minutes after it passed the ambush point, and all five of the speeders went off after it. It would have been miles away when it crashed.I don’t want to get distracted by piddly details like this, but these shows make it damn hard.
Because Pykes are assholes and shooting the natives is fun.
It’s one thing if the natives can’t shoot back, but here they can, and with just a tiny bit of effort the natives are able to not only kill some of the guards from a distance, but board the train and crash it. Deciding to antagonize people who both outnumber you and have a really good chance of killing you is incredibly stupid. Maybe the Pykes really are stupid, but they come off as a stupid plot device rather than deliberately stupid characters.
So again the train leader says something about believing the Tuskens were uncivilized raiders. I think we are supposed to understand that one of the implications of that is the Syndicate did not suspect the Tuskens would have the organizational sophistication to pull off that sort of ambush—and of course they did not expect them to have the means of catching the train either.In that sense, it wasn’t just more effort that it took for the Tuskens to crash the train, it was both a degree of planning and a type of technology that the Pykes didn’t expect the Tuskens to use.Of course that may well have been stupid, but it is a type of stupid that happened a lot in real history (people underestimating the ability of other peoples they consider “uncivilized” to surprise them with previously unseen capabilities).
It took Fett to generate that spark of motivation and effort though. The Pykes clearly had been doing this for some time and the Tuskens just freaked out and didn’t organize a response, so it’s pretty simple to assume that was the norm. Fett went out and obtained new resources (speeder bikes) for the Tuskens, and then taught them new tactics, and that established the new resolve for the Tuskens that they could do more than just cower and maybe take a potshot or two at the train. That’s what caught the Pykes by surprise, and why they were beaten. And it wasn’t a cakewalk, either. Fett and the Tuskens almost blew it.
The Pykes clearly had been doing this for some timeIn which case the Tuskens should have been totally decimated, given how many of them got killed in the two runs we saw. They’d long since have been wiped out, or would have moved out of the area as a self-defense mechanism.
I think we are supposed to understand the shooting of Tuskens from the train as an attempt to force them to entirely leave the area. The train leader says something like, “We thought you were uncivilized raiders and we were trying to protect our route,” the implication being they were not in fact confident the Tuskens could never be a problem for the route. So by killing them on sight, apparently the Syndicate was hoping the Tuskens would go away entirely, thereby eliminating them as a possible threat to the route. Personally, that does not strike me as all that implausible—I suspect the idea of running your freight train past armed raiders every day, hoping they never figure it out, would not make much sense to a well-organized criminal gang as a long-term plan.I think we are supposed to understand the Tuskens shooting back, despite its futility, as happening because they believe this is their land, they are proud warriors, and they don’t want to just hide or run away without fighting back. A bit of a cliche, but again when Fett says something like that the Tuskens have an “ancestral claim” to the area, I think it is supposed to be an explanation of their behavior.When they first show the windows opening, it looks to me like there is a shooter appearing in each window. The Tusken snipers take a couple out, Fett drags another out, and then the shooters start heading up to the roof. But I think originally it was probably a shooter per window.I think the idea of the kid signaling the snipers to get ready, and them already being in carefully selected firing positions as the train rushes up, helps explain why they are more effective snipers than when they previously fired back at the passing train on an ad hoc basis. But I agree it was a bad decision to show the Tusken who saw the kid’s signal then just shift and zoom a bit to immediately see the train coming right behind him. That strikes me as a lack of trust on the part of the show that we would understand the flow of the action without that reminder.After the crash the Tusken raiders are shown running up from a significant distance. You are right that is still an implausibly small distance if that is supposed to be happening immediately after the train crashes. And certainly a lot of action content, not least Star Wars, involves such “distance continuity” errors. But that said, I don’t think we necessarily have to believe that shot of them running happened immediately after the crash, and in fact it then cuts to them looting the train. So, you could charitably interpret that as a bridge shot that happens in time after the crash, and before they actually arrive at the train.
Those are generally reasonable conjectures, but they’re not really supported by the text. We don’t get any information about how long this has been going on, what either side thinks about the other side, or any of the details of the train shipments. Given how many Tuskens are killed during each of the train sequences, it’s implausible that this could have been going on for any length of time, because the Tuskens would have been completely wiped out after a few passes.A lot of it could have been cleared up by a ten-second scene on the train where one Pyke says “Hey, wanna go shoot at some Tuskens?” and another says “Haw haw, sure, they can’t hurt us!” and boom, you’ve got all the motivation you need. And then one line from a Tusken to Fett, “They defile our lands and kill us, but the train is too fast and the armor too strong.” (Although that still wouldn’t explain why the Tuskens, who can forge detailed melee weapons, and know how to acquire and use blaster rifles, are baffled by speeder bikes, which they obviously know about and are in widespread use.)
So I previously noted in the conversation between Fett and the train leader, the train leader explains why they were shooting Tuskens (they saw the Tuskens as uncivilized raiders), and Fett explains that the Tuskens claim ownership of the land, but are civilized enough to let them leave with their lives as long as they are willing to consider a deal over paying tolls for use of the route. It is indeed a quick conversation, but I do think that was intended to provide us with the necessary explanation as to their respective thinking up to that point.Similarly, in the scene around the fire, right before Fett gets his lizard, he has a brief exchange with the Tusken tribe leader, who explains how they apparently were originally an oceanic people (before the oceans dried up). Fett praises them as “warriors,” but the Tusken leader explains the “off-worlders have machines,” and then Fett responds now they have machines too.Again, this is a bit cliched, but I think we are supposed to get from that the reason the Tuskens did not just adopt use of the speeders and such is that they put them in a mental category, “machines”, that they think of as not being something Tusken. Obviously there is a sense in which their rifles, their binoculars, and other things they use are also a type of machine. But they seem to have previously avoided adopting vehicles (and apparently droids and various other types of machines). And plausibly that is because they are comfortable adopting evolutions of the types of things they might have had before as an oceanic people, including distance weapons and seeing devices, but not things they see as entirely new.
It was a pretty weak post-facto explanation, and it meant that everything before it was viewed while having no context for why any of these people were doing any of this. Giving the basic context for a narrative at the end of the narrative is really hard to pull off. And it’s still not a very satisfying explanation: given what we see (the train is essentially invincible against the Tuskens), the Pykes would have left the windows shut and just ignored them. If there’s a plausible reason why the shooting ever started to begin with, the show doesn’t provide any evidence for it. They say they thought the Tuskens were raiders (which they are), but you don’t raid a rocket-propelled train by shooting at it with ineffective weapons from hundreds of meters away. (Actually, you don’t raid trains at all. You raid fixed settlements. That’s what a raid is!) And it’s unclear how the Tuskens survived this long, if it’s been going on a while. They should have been wiped out by now, given the casualties they take on each pass.“now they have machines too” is pretty vague. Even if they manage to strip the train to its bones, there’s no indication they’ve suddenly acquired any useful amount of machinery, much less something like manufacturing capacity, or technical know-how (they didn’t even know how to ride a speeder bike before five minutes ago). There’s still only a handful of them. The Pykes could—and would, if anything in this show made any sense—come in with a single lightly-armed starship and bomb the Tuskens into oblivion, and the Tuskens wouldn’t be able to do a damn thing about it (handheld blaster rifles being ineffective against starship shields, and the Tuskens having no more powerful weaponry).
So I agree the full explanations for everyone’s behavior don’t come before or during the relevant behavior. I personally don’t mind that sort of narrative structure, one where we sometimes learn more about motives and thinking after the fact, but that is a matter of taste.As for how satisfying the ultimate explanations provided by the episode might be—I do think the show is basically relying on some well-worn tropes, some of which are pretty historical actually, and some which are more myth and arguably problematic. And whether or not you find all that satisfying is again pretty personal.But I think in the end, for good or ill, it will all be pretty easy for most viewers to understand. The basic story of more technologically advanced invaders trying to violently run off what they see as just uncivilized isolated threats to their interests is a common one (and I still don’t think it is plausible they would just leave them in place if they thought they could easily run them off instead). The basic story of those people trying to stand their ground anyway, with no initial success, is also a common one. The basic story of those people then surprising the invaders with a change in tactics, technology, or so on, is also a common one. Sure, we happen to have entered this story at a convenient time, before the Syndicate drives them off or succeeds in committing genocide. But that sort of plot convenience is not uncommon either.Finally, I personally find it plausible the Syndicate would then recalculate how to handle the Tuskens, rather than continue with their original plan to violently run them off. As you noted before, there may be a lot of Tuskens in total, and the Syndicate now has a new appreciation for their ability to organize, steal and use new technologies, and so on. So, from their perspective, the Tuskens they saw along their route went from a problem they thought they could solve easily through a little low cost violence, to a problem where there is at least a substantial risk that a violent solution would be costly and hard.And Fett gave them an enticing alternative—just pay the Tuskens off, and the problem goes away. As long as the price is reasonable, that could be a good deal.Again, you personally might not find this satisfactory, but I personally think it is plausible (for a fictional universe, after all). And I definitely do not think it is something that would not occur to most viewers, precisely because it is such a common sort of story.
one where we sometimes learn more about motives and thinking after the factMore, sure. I’m fine with getting a little bit of context, and then we find out more later. Here, we get no context. A train shows up and they start shooting at each other and we have no idea why until the very end, when we get a half-assed explanation that doesn’t make a lot of sense.
The basic story of more technologically advanced invaders trying to
violently run off what they see as just uncivilized isolated threats to their interests is a common oneSure, I agree, it is a common story. So are all the other story components you mention. But the execution is rife with confusing, irritating details, and that’s what keeps bothering me. Strong narratives include details that cause the presented world to make sense without the audience being aware of that happening.To switch tracks for a minute, consider the crime empire half of this story. The show so far has depicted almost nothing to show us that the other criminal elements of Mos Espa should be afraid of Fett. The only specific example is that he fought off assassins in the first episode. This is supposed to demonstrate to us that Fett is a badass, and can hold his own against other criminals who might try to take him out.Okay, except the details of that sequence (and later elements) as shown undermine the narrative. The show tells us in various ways that the assassins are scary badasses: they wear masks and scary outfits; they’re totally unafraid of being beheaded (but are terrified of being eaten by a rancor); at least one person explicitly says that they’re scary badasses. Then it shows us things that would lead us to believe that the assassins are, in fact, total morons: they take the riskiest possible approach to killing Fett (surround him in broad daylight on a busy street and attack him with nonlethal weapons), rather than something more surefire: when Fett first enters Fwip’s, he and Fennec take their helmets off and stand by the door facing inward. Neither Fett, Fennec, nor the gamorreans watch their backs. An assassin could easily have walked in and shot Fett in the back of the head while he’s standing there. (In fact, several people do enter the cantina and walk past them while they’re standing there, and neither Fett nor his retinue even so much as glance at them.)Even after he leaves the cantina, he still has his helmet off, and the gamorreans are nowhere in sight! The assassins, who were presumably at that moment lurking on the roofs above, could have killed both Fett and Fennec in seconds with headshots using nothing more than a blaster pistol. Surely badass assassins can hit a slow-moving target from ten meters away. Or maybe a sniper from longer range.And I definitely do not think it is something that would not occur to
most viewers, precisely because it is such a common sort of story.To be blunt, most viewers have no concept of how to structure a narrative, or why a narrative feels unsatisfying to them. If there’s enough cool explosions, most people will say yeah, it was pretty good, and not think much about it beyond that. That doesn’t mean there’s no validity to other opinions.Besides, I’m telling you why I found it unsatisfying, through an analysis of the provided details. If you really liked it and you weren’t bothered by it as you were watching it, good for you. You don’t have to agree with me.
You could argue that the bad guys werent expecting pushback.
You’re right about all those points. The biggest one to me is that they keep getting shot by the train smugglers instead of simply lying prone in the sand until it passes. Sometimes – most of the time – you just have to enjoy the ride.
Wooo, live action Black Krrsantan.
The scenes with the robot engineer aboard the spice train were hypnotic. The way it moved its multiple spider limbs across the instruments to reroute power were evocative of Kamajī, the Boiler Man from Spirited Away in the best way.I thought this was a superb homage to The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix
I don’t know how, but somehow I got to crowbar “So whatever happened, it didn’t merit a change of clothes” into a conversation.
I kept on feeling a twinge about how closely this story arc hewed to
that tired white savior trope, but this was mostly allayed by the fact
that Temuera Morrison is Maori, who knows the ethnicity of the people
inside the sand people costumes, and also, they’re all pretend space
people.
That may take care of the racist aspect of the trope but it doesn’t correct the fact that this is still predictable as hell.I’m also having serious issues with the main character. So far, the show is focusing on making him look like a badass but there is very little characterization there. As for Morrison’s performance, I don’t find it particularly compelling: he’s pretty stoic and doesn’t have the range of a Pascal, or a Sackhoff.I’ll decide next week if I keep watching the show, or if I put it on the backburner. It needs a turnaround.
That may take care of the racist aspect of the trope but it doesn’t correct the fact that this is still predictable as hell.I think it’s great that Disney cast a Maori man in a series-leading role, but IMO Morrison’s Maori ethnicity did very little to allay concerns about the white savior trope. In the SWU, Maoris don’t exist as an ethnicity, and this is just a human dropping in to save a bunch of indigenous savages from the “big train” and teach them the basics of speeder bike maintenance. Does he earn respect and acceptance because he tries to understand their way of life, or shows respect for their traditions? Nope! He strangles a sand kraken, steals some horses, and robs a train. After which he practices ritualized martial arts moves around a campfire, goes on a vision quest, and gets dressed. Ugh.
Also, while this is not necessarily a criticism, Boba’s white long-johns gave me a very Chuck-Heston-as-marooned-astronaut vibe. All very weird.
“In the SWU, Maoris don’t exist as an ethnicity, and this is just a human dropping in to save a bunch of indigenous savages from the “big train” and teach them the basics of speeder bike maintenance.”
Star Wars is made for an Earth audience, not a SWU audience. The episode is making a point about Indigenous land rights in the real world (and only really works because Morrison is Maori).
I’m all for Star Wars making a point about indigenous land rights, but (a) they could have done it without going full Dances With Wolves, and (b) what exactly was the point they were making? Indigenous land rights should be respected so long as the indigenous people in question are strong enough to enforce those rights with violence?I didn’t completely hate the episode and I give them points for trying. But what sticks in my craw is that at the end of the day the Tuskens were given neither personality (any more than your basic “noble savage”) nor agency. Boba was the one who got the bikes, came up with the plan, led the assault, and did the negotiations afterwards. Tusken contributions were limited to stick-fighting techniques, a bunch of anonymous soldiers, and one dreadlocked ninja. Oh, and a montage of Tuskens hilariously failing to drive and jump to/from speeder bikes. Wocka wocka wocka.Maybe this is a lot to ask of an hour-long show, but it wouldn’t have been hard to give them some agency. Even a ten-second shot of a Tusken planning the train assault in the sand with Boba would have redeemed it a little bit.
So the flashback this episode actually starts with Fett learning their stick-fighting style, before the first train attack. That night when he proposes he can stop the train, he asks only that he be allowed to take their traditional weapons (a rifle and a stick). During the runup to the ambush, he keeps working on his stick-fighting, and there is a cute little moment where you see a bunch of Tusken kids doing the moves too, with the Tusken leader nodding in approval. Then in the attack on the train, he uses the stick. The of course the lizard thing ends up with him getting a branch, which he makes into his own stick, and the episode ends with him dancing around with the Tuskens, using their sticks.I actually think the stick thing was borderline excessive in terms of how it kept hammering home the theme . . . but this is Star Wars after all. And I certainly think its constant presence from the start through the finish of the Tusken part of this episode was designed to have just that purpose—to show that while Fett thought he had something to contribute to the Tuskens, he also intended to adopt their ways.
At the end of the day the Gaffi stick thing was pretty cool, if a little overdone. Perhaps what bugs me is the boiling down of a whole people and their entire culture to a cool fighting stick just rubbed me the wrong way.
I am struggling with caring about this show. They’re attempting to service the “past” (post-Jedi) timeframe and Fett’s survival of the Sarlacc pit, loss of his armor, enslavement and recovery, while also trying to tell this post-Mandalorian story and the result is that neither feels particularly well-told or full. It’s like 1/3 of a story, 1/3 of a story and there’s a missing third folded into each that isn’t.. there.I really have enjoyed Disney+ content for the most part, but this feels unfulfilling.
Yes, it IS like you’ve only seen 1/3 of story.
Top Image: Boba Fester.
That is all.
I wouldn’t say the bar scene was “winking at the audience” when 99% of the audience had no idea it was a nod to that deleted scene until you mentioned it—this guy included, someone who’s been obsessed with SW for 30 years. I had no idea that existed and just enjoyed the scene as Boba being a bit of a savior to the common folk—but not really because he’s especially caring or anything, he just wanted some goddamn speeders.I don’t know where this is going, and yes it’s continuing to trade on nostalgia for the OT like every Star Wars property these days (remember Jabba? Here are some new Hutts! Remember those sticks the sand people had? They’re a whole thing in their culture!) … but I don’t find myself as cynical about this as you seem to, Nick. I’ve been plenty cynical about Star Wars ever since the shitty fan reaction to The Last Jedi and subsequent shitty wrap-up to that series, but I just had a blast with this.Temeura Morrison just has that x-factor. I just root for him even when he’s a bit of a prick, ha. I’m loving this and the different tone and direction it has compared to the Mandalorian, and I really can’t wait to see where it goes.
I swear, some reviewers are just looking for things to complain about. It makes sense that the Hutts would want to take over Jabba’s operation.Re: the “white savior” argument, I thought those scenes were powerful and the metatextual intent of that storyline is pretty clear given that Morrison is Maori. He is doing such a wonderful job in this role and making Boba distinct from Jango. This was honestly one of my favorite pieces of Star Wars media in years.
Try drinking every time Boba nods meaningfully at Tusken, or vice versa. Woowee.
The reason why I hate Harry Potrer And The Chamber of Secrets.
I didn’t pick up on the Tosche Station / Cammie / Fixer angle either. If it’s winking at the audience, it’s winking at a very specific element of the audience that sees canonical references in everything… and in this case they happen to be correct.For what it’s worth — the original Cammie was Koo Stark. I know it’s not great so far, but I kind of like this show. We definitely need a LOT more badass Ming Na though. Hell, just do a buddy cop show with Shand and Ahsoka and I’d be quite happy….
It hasn’t been what I thought it would be so far, but I’m actually pretty stoked about that. They have quickly established layers of dimension to Boba. Yes, he’s clearly a badass, but he’s not actually quick to anger or even resort to violence. Kind of the opposite.He’s clever and always playing the long game. He knows that backing the mayor into a corner is more valuable than intimidation at that point, so he uses threats judiciously, his primary goal being to gather and triangulate information. The confrontation with the Hutts plays out similarly, but it’s clear they get it too. I have a feeling they will be a much more formidable foe than the mayor or Bibb Fortuna. And the train battle. Lots of build-up, but the backstory with the tribe clearly establishes that Boba is a master of reading the room and thinking before he acts. He also knows the train will quickly be replaced by another, so he uses the victory as leverage for something bigger. They’ve done a good job convincing me that there’s a reason Boba has survived as long as he has.So far I’m thrilled that the show has leaned as hard into character development as it has.
1) All of these D+ Star Wars series don’t need to be space westerns. Making Tusken into Native Americans feels like a pretty dangerous road to go down, given how the movies have treated them over the years. And it doesn’t seem like Boba Fett, Western Protagonist, is a particularly rich vein to mine.
2) We’re now two episodes in and no one has any idea WTF Boba would want to be a crime boss. He’s also the most hapless crime boss ever, consisting of four people and a woefully underused Matt Berry droid stumbling from one set piece to another. This feels like watching someone else’s mediocre tabletop roleplaying game. (“Go to this NPC. … Fuck it, you are terrible at figuring stuff out. Just go outside and I’ll drop the big antagonists in front of you.”)
3) Why would you run a hover-train across the desert instead of just flying it out? If you’re going to use uncomfortable Native American imagery, go all-in and have these be shitty racists hunting the natives for sport, because otherwise, it makes no sense for them to be transporting illegal goods this way.
4) The rancor joke works once and now everyone knows the rancor is dead. Boba Fett is not doing so well as to be able to discard any of the cards he should be holding close to his vest.
5) Ming-Na Wen deserves better.
I didn’t really get the rancor bit. We’re what, 5 or 6 years past the events of Return of the Jedi at this point? Did Bib Fortuna manage to keep the rancor’s death a secret for half a decade? Shouldn’t he have figured out something else to do with that pit in the subsequent years, maybe turn it into a nice wine cellar or something?
Ok, so a procedural question here: Do the Tuskens need to trip balls in the desert every time they need firewood or a new tent pole? They used an awful lot of wood for being inhabitants of a desert planet.
I’m sure that’s only when they get their personal special weapon. Like selecting a willow branch to make into your wand. (A real wand, not Harry Potter.)
I much preferred when they made a bounty hunter in to lunch desert monster.
…they’re all pretend space people.The Na’vi were pretend space people and that didn’t help stop the white savior trope from coming through loud and clear in Avatar.
So…Boba of Arabia. Well…it took Mandalorian two episodes to finally get cracking with Baby Yoda.
So far, this show just doesn’t work for me. I don’t hate it; it isn’t laughably bad like “The Rise of Skywalker” or boring and fan-fictiony like “Solo”; but it feels dumb and cheap. Not fun-dumb like Star Wars often is but just “this doesn’t make a whole lot of sense in any universe” dumb. It really starts with the premise—one would think that even in the Star Wars universe someone calling himself (and being treated as) a “crime boss” would actually have to work at it or do anything that would convince lackeys to…give him money. Fine, you don’t have the time to show him rise up slowly through the ranks, I get it, but why on earth would anyone in Jabba’s former empire pay a guy tribute when he has exactly one hired gun and he isn’t doing anything strategic or contributory to the enterprise? It’s just weird—sitting on a throne might make you king in some fantasies but it doesn’t make you a crime boss.As for cheap, this just looks unfinished and unresearched in a way that “Mandalorian” managed to avoid. They stick in massifs while forgetting that the same movie that introduced them also had very distinct outfits for women and children in the Sandpeople community that have been forgotten here. They put Mos Espa in a giant crater for…no reason. They forget Boba Fett has a jetpack and have him defeated by people on land with fancy shields. They give every Twi’lek stubby, foam-rubber-looking head-tails that are all the same size and all too short. They forget Gamorreans actually wear clothing so they can just body-paint fat dudes and stick them in masks. It just looks low-budget and cobbled together.I also have wondered since he first showed up in “The Mandalorian” why they didn’t just get Daniel Logan to play him. It would have been far easier to age Logan up a couple years than it has been to convince anyone that Temuera Morrison is 40 years old and somehow gained weight in a sarlacc, lampshading jokes aside.
I kinda wish we still knew nothing about Boba Fett…
what if, conceptually, the guy who recapped boba fett actually enjoyed star wars?
A show cannot run on two such disparate tracks forever: Clever production design can only sustain a drab story for a finite amount of timeyou figured out why the last jedi sucks at least
I’d the the reason why this has to be Boba Fett’s story is directly tied to the vision quest.
Boba Fett is a clone of his father, who was brought up to be exactly like his father, a bounty hunter, the best in the business. But where did that get him? Devoured by the Sarlacc after getting knocked in by a blind man holding a stick.
He’s NEVER had a chance to figure out who HE wants himself to be. Now he’s discovering who Boba Fett is with this second lease on life. He’s reinventing himself. That’s why this is the Book of Boba Fett and not the Book of Cobb Vanth or something.Also, the Wookiee is Black Krrrssantan, who has history with Boba. He was in the canon comics. Expect him back. He’s cool and scary but not as evil as you’d think. He helped out Aphra a lot.
I thought Tusken Raiders were not a race of beings, but an amalgamation from different races that follow the Tusken creed and way of life. Maybe I read that in “Kenobi,” JJ Miller’s novel, so not canon?
That sounds a lot more like the Legends depiction of the Mandalorians than anything I remember in the Kenobi novel.
I really enjoyed Tems little Maori Warrior inspired facial expressions in the bar before he starts fighting with the club.
is a story about a fat old badass bounty hunter the boomerbait turn star wars was always going to turn into?
On a macro level, it’s not telling the most compelling story—I still don’t particularly care if Boba Fett achieves his newly discovered lifelong dream of becoming a Daimyo—but the show is packed with enough charming little details and moments that it’s enjoyable to watch.This is exactly how I feel. I’ll stick with it, but lets go.
Interesting show so far
It’s watchable and I like Morrison but some of the fight scenes are painful. Morrison fights like an old man, he’s too sluggish and it reminds me of De Niro’s beat-down of the shopkeeper in The Irishman.