This episode is… you know what, I give up, it’s mostly got nothing to do with Boba Fett. You should have just called this The Mandalorian season three, y’all! That’s okay, just let it be what it wants to be!
Recap
A group of Pykes are loading up a spice shipment into a speeder when Cobb Vanth (Timothy Olyphant) shows up. He says that he’s willing to overlook their trespassing into Mos Pelgo territory, but that he won’t be allowing it again. When one of the Pykes draws, so does he, and three of them hit the sand instantly. The Marshal leaves one alive to go explain the issue to the syndicate, and tells him to leave the spice behind. It’s worth more than the entire town, and Vanth dumps the box into the desert sand.
Din Djarin makes his way to the forest world where Luke took Grogu. He runs into R2-D2, who brings him to the site of a temple that is in the process of being built. R2 then switches off, leaving Din to wait. Grogu is meditating with Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), and learning to sift through his memories from the distant past. While Din is waiting, Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) shows up. She tells Din that she’ll take him to see Grogu if that’s what he wants, but that she doesn’t think it’s a good idea in terms of helping Grogu adjust to his new life. In the end, Din agrees to leave the armor gift with her and depart. Luke keeps training Grogu, getting his mobility up, showing him lightsaber choreography, teaching him balance. Ahsoka gives Luke the beskar shirt and he wonders how he should handle this situation. She tells him to trust his instincts.
Din lands back on Tatooine and gets the breakdown of how Fett and his crew plan to handle the Pyke situation. He tells them that he can get them more help on that front, and heads to Mos Pelgo—now named Freetown—to buy Cobb Vanth a drink. The townsfolk all believe that this isn’t their fight, but Din appeals to Vanth, and the Marshal agrees to try and sell his people on it. As he’s gathering them to explain the situation, a stranger comes into town (voiced by Corey Burton) and tells Vanth to stay out of this whole affair. Vanth’s deputy makes the mistake of trying to enter the showdown; the stranger shoots Vanth and kills the deputy with several shots, then walks away as the people of Freetown come out to care for their Marshal. Back in Mos Espa, Garsa Fwip notes two Pykes who come in and refuse to have their helmets cleaned. They leave a container behind that turns out to be a bomb; the Sanctuary explodes.
Luke sits meditating with Grogu and then presents the beskar shirt to him. He offers Grogu a choice, taking Yoda’s lightsaber from a box and setting it down before him. Grogu must chose one of them; if he chooses the lightsaber, he will be Luke’s first student at this new school. If he chooses the beskar, he can go home to Din.
Commentary
Ugh. It’s Cad Bane, y’all.
I’m sure they were hoping for a more excited exclamation (what I actually said to my television as he swam into view on the edge of town was “Are you fucking kidding me, is it Cad Bane?”), and of course it’s fun to see him live-action for the very first time, but if you know anything about his role in the animated series, particularly in Clone Wars, you can recall—this guy is the worst. Of the morally gray set in the Star Wars universe, Bane is unequivocally the least enjoyable. At least Hondo Ohnaka is fun, you know? Bane just cares about money, sneers a lot, and continually searches out more dramatic hats. (Okay, that part I sympathize with.)
He’s a hard character to render in three dimensions, both figuratively and literally, and I’m curious if they won’t tweak the design as he continues to show up. He could use some extra facial movement, particularly around the eyes. Right now, he looks a tiny bit out of proportion, but that might just be due to the fact that his hat literally cannot be big enough; they have the same problem with Ahsoka in live-action. Her lekku (or head-tails) can’t be as large as we last saw them in animation, it would have been too impractical for filming and movement and prosthetic attachment. Conversely, Cad Bane always had the widest brimmed hat, to a truly absurd degree, but trying to render that with a moving person on camera was never going to work out.
They finally got some deepfake folks to step up their CGI, huh? (Oh wait, it’s the guy who fixed Mando with deepfake tech, they did in fact just hire him.) This Luke looks so much better than the last time we saw him, I full-body sighed with relief when he started talking. And they’re being more careful about how they shoot him as well, letting him speak when the camera’s not on him, doing shots from a distance sometimes. It looks way less uncanny, and while it’s still not “right,” I was more willing to go with the illusion when he didn’t look quite so stiff. Because, you know, it’s Luke. My childhood hero. My heart. The warmth in Mark Hamill’s voice just does me in, every time. Also, they at least managed to nail Luke’s “don’t laugh, you’re a serious Jedi Master” expression in the CGI this time, which is important, because I imagine that’s probably his primary expression most days.
On the other hand, the fact that they can’t overuse computer-generated Luke means that we’re missing out on one of the most important factors of this setup, which is that Ahsoka Tano and Luke Skywalker know each other. Ahsoka is talking to Anakin Skywalker’s son (telling him that he’s like his dad!), and we can’t really get the emotion that we deserve from these moments, or the detail. This means that Luke knows his father had his own Padawan now, that he has this unexpected and precious font of information about his family. Their first meeting had to have been momentous, and it’s hard not to feel robbed in its absence. This show isn’t up to doing that deep work, unfortunately—it’s being used as a way station for half a dozen other threads. It doesn’t feel like The Book of Boba Fett anymore, it feels like The Book of Everyone We Need You to Care About in Five Other Shows (Four of Which Are Still Forthcoming).
Also, more importantly, does anyone want to explain why Ahsoka seems totally fine with Luke rebuilding the Jedi Order without… any changes to that system? Because we know that this choice goes wrong, but what we’ve gotten from her so far is the insistence that because she walked away from the Order, nothing that occurs regarding it is her responsibility any longer. None of this checks out with Ahsoka’s character, and she hasn’t bothered to explain her thinking on it either. I’m sure they’re waiting for the Ahsoka series to bring any of these ideas to the fore, but the result is a version of this character that I’m not sure I recognize right now.
They clearly made the Freetown deputy all trigger happy and a little dim so that they could make sense of why Vanth wasn’t going to wind up dead—Bane is a known crackshot, but he didn’t have the chance to aim as carefully as he might have because he’s busy swerving to stop that kid, meaning that Vanth has to be alive. Which is good because you do not waste Timothy Olyphant, particularly when Din finally got up the courage to flirt with him properly. Bought him a drink and everything.
So this is stacking up to be a “Tatooine rises up unilaterally to kick the Pyke Syndicate out” kinda finale, which is fine, I suppose. Then again, I’m pretty disappointed at the lack of focus on Boba Fett for a show with his name plastered all over it. I’ve seen a number of hot takes claiming that the issue is Fett as a character, and it’s not. Fett has reams of excellent story attached to his name, and they’ve mined every other side of the Legends canon for this stuff already. The real issue at hand is Star Wars trying to build itself into an MCU-style story house, and demanding that we all go along with an endless rotation of previews and side quests for other stories.
And here’s my problem with the Foundling section of the plot:The tension of what Grogu might choose in this situation is nil. You know why? Because Peli Motto built him a spot in that starfighter. He’s gonna sit in it. Even if we saw a little light in his eyes at the sight of Luke wielding a lightsaber, the story already showed its hand on this. Luke’s point that Grogu’s going to be extremely long-lived actually makes this even less fraught—whoever trains to be a Jedi in the future, they’re not all going to be younglings, like the old Jedi tradition. Grogu can go get raised by his Mando dad and come back to the Force when he’s all grown up if he likes. He can build his own lightsaber later. But if he wants Din in his life, he has to say yes now. So we know he will.
Which means that this whole departure with Luke was ultimately just a power-up aside to make the kid more mobile, and… well, you know how I’m feeling about that.
Bits and Beskar:
- Not that I don’t love the ant-builder droids, but I dunno, I was always under the impression that Jedi temples were built using… the Force? This feels like cheating to me, Luke. I’m pretty positive none of the other temples we’ve seen were built with ant-droids. Maybe the one on Coruscant. Maaaaybe.
- So the point is, the older R2 gets, the more he uses the “I’m asleep” gambit when he doesn’t want to be bothered by people. Relatable.
- As usual, time in these sections makes no sense—for all I know, Luke could have been training Grogu anywhere from one day to several weeks, and it’s completely unclear which one I’m supposed to guess. But if it’s one day, I’ll be pissed. And it kinda seems like it’s supposed to be one day. Two, by the end there.
- The whole time Luke is running with Grogu in the backpack, all I could think of was the Seagulls song. “I can be your backpack while you run…”
- The renaming of Mos Pelgo to Freetown is an attempt to get these shows to settle up with the book canon, which is still a weird choice to make when they’re willing to make so many other little tweaks that keep them separate (like how Vanth got Fett’s armor in the first place).
- Krrsantan first appeared in the Darth Vader comics, and has also appeared in the Doctor Aphra comics, and I didn’t notice it was him because Aphra calls him “Black K,” and a couple other nicknames, I believe?
- The skull that the Jawas have fixed atop their sandcrawler is the krayt dragon’s that Mando, Vanth, and friends slew last season.
- Fun aside that was likely unintentional: The Twi’leks have certain physical differences in their secondary sex characteristics, one of them being that the men generally have “regular” shaped ears, while the women generally have ear cones. Fwip has (what appear to be) a male and female Twi’lek assisting her at the Sanctuary, but both of them have ear cones. Which could mean that the male Twi’lek is a trans guy?
Next week, the finale! Obviously Boba Fett will be riding a rancor, but I hope he also gets to do a few other things. Seeing as it’s supposed to be his show, and stuff.
Emmet Asher-Perrin did love Luke trying to jog Grogu’s memory by being like “you know anyone who talked like this weirdo?” You can bug them on Twitter, and read more of their work here and elsewhere.
Finally! A scenery chewing bad guy! Lee Van Cleef lives!
Other than that, why didn’t they make this an anthology series? Call it Star Wars Tales or whatever, but they might want to rethink the structure of this thing. It’s weird.
We watched this in the morning since I was working from home, and I hate avoiding spoilers and I am SO glad I did.
I had made a joke about going to Luke’s Academy. I did not think we would get that. And when the screen cut to Luke I almost dropped my tea mug (ironically, I was drinking the Republic of Tea ‘Luke and Grogu’ themed tea!) and I completely teared up. My eyes were just full. (I have the same very deep rooted attachment to Luke Skywalker, lol).
On one hand, part of me does NOT want to see the academy because we all know what happens, and I actually am not really thrilled with the decision to show Luke (and Ahsoka) trying to replicate so assidiously the Old Republic ways. However, I think even the sequels seemed to establish that he had gone that way – and it’s disappointing to me, but I’ve had to learn to accept the sequels and its timeline are never going to give me what I want, which is a new resurgence/rebalancing of the Jedi ways. Given that Luke himself chose attachment over a hardline stance against attachment it just feels like a forced choice, and I also am not sure why Ahsoka also seems to be going along with it (although it at least makes sense that she may still unconsciously believe it).
But omg. Luke AND Ahsoka in the same episode, I died. I wish we had gotten MORE of their interaction! Have they talked about Anakin? I’m actually really sad we don’t get to see how/when she learned Anakin redeemed himself. I’m absolutely dying here.
I was excited to see Luke teaching (and hey, another Order 66 flashback, haha – with CIN DRALIG!) but at the same time I wanted MORE. But as I said, the way this Temple appears to be going isn’t how I would have written it. I definitely understand WHY Luke would do this – with nothing else to fall back on, of course he might try to re-emulate some idealized version of what his Masters were, especially if Ahsoka is encouraging him in this way, but I kept yelling at the screen that he should KNOW BETTER than to enforce such a strict dichotomy. Note that I don’t think he’s entirely wrong – sometimes detachment can be a good thing, and there is some value in making a sacrifice at times; there may be individuals in the Order who feel called to truly devote themselves in that way. I have some friends in the religious life who – depending on the order – have cloistered themselves during a novice period, but it’s not permanent. So there’s a lot of room on the spectrum, I think.
But obviously the old way didn’t work the first time…and I think this is in part to set up Luke’s eventual failure, so that also makes it a little tough to watch because we know he could be better but the sequels force the writer’s hands here. (And I do think there is a case to be made that he reasonably SHOULD know better…I would have loved an arc either here in the sequels where he basically says…why not both? Which could have been equally true to his character and believable even if he fumbles a bit along the way.)
I am wondering if Ahsoka’s comment to Luke to follow his instincts is her way of telling him to follow his heart…I just wonder how much he really believes what he is saying and how much he feels like he has to teach it. His attachments ended up saving the galaxy so it just…argh, it’s frustrating for me. I also wonder if the ‘choice’ is some other type of test. Like, if he picks the armor, that’s actually the ‘right’ choice. (I’ve actually also kind of wondere did if the Armorer wasn’t really casting Mando out but just setting him on a quest she knows he needs to take for his own self discovery. Perhaps in a way she knows he’s better off finding a new way.)
I also hope that they aren’t going to do something where, maybe he does relax a bit and then it’s going to be implied THAT was the mistake he made. I guess we just don’t know enough about what happened with him in Kylo, aside from the temptation to kill him, and if any of what spurred Kylo’s turn (and Luke’s inability to stop it) had anything to do with attachment at all. I guess I don’t want to see the narrative potentially punishing the characters for that. It’s frustrating because we’ve seen a few examples of failed Jedi Orders but I’d really like to explore what a healthy one would look like.
I’m still a little unclear at what Grogu’s ‘mental age’ is, and if he’s regressed, or not. Is his developmental state normal for a species of his age?
As for the rest – I did really enjoy the Cobb Vanth/Cad Bane cameos? And, honestly I really love seeing all the little developments we’re getting on Tatooine’s culture and the different regions. I just think it’s so cool.
The music was good – there was a really great arrangement of ‘The Marshal’s Tale’, and ‘A Friend’ which just delighted me so much. A Friend is one of my favorite tracks and the fact that they added a new variation to make it thematic just delights me. My one real nitpick is that I really felt like Cad Bane needed some of his theme because I kept expecting to hear that Morriocone-esque guitar strum as he showed up for the high noon showdown and it really felt a little lacking with out that!
And yet, despite being spoiled for cameos I still want Qi’ra to show up, but I just don’t know that we are going there. Or maybe Hondo could show up, haha.
Anyway, from an overall story, it doesn’t do a ton to further Boba’s specific plot…it seems like a LOT to wrap up in one episode (especially as I was hoping for more payoff with the Tuskens) and in some ways I think it does detract from the development/symbolism of Boba’s arc which I think really does deserve its own story. It certainly seems to be setting up both Mando season 3 and Ahsoka’s show – she’s probably heading off to find Ezra now.
But as an episode I loved it.
Every time they pull this the galaxy seems smaller. This episode was almost comical in terms of ‘there are maybe 4 people in this universe here they all are.’
You more or less said what I was going to say — this has ceased to be The Book of Boba Fett and become The Book of the Star Wars Universe in General. Or maybe The Book of Jon and Dave Playing with All their Action Figures at Once. It’s Cobb Vanth! It’s Mando! It’s Artoo! It’s Luke! It’s Grogu! It’s Ahsoka! Oh, okay, here’s Boba and the rest of the stars of our show, and — oh, hey, it’s Cad Bane!
Like last week, we basically get the hour divided into two barely-connected halves, one of which is a drawn-out, self-indulgent look at a process that could’ve been summarized in one or two scenes (building the fighter last week, the Grogu sequence this week). Certainly it was an unexpected surprise and somewhat interesting to actually see Luke Skywalker onscreen training Grogu and talking to Ahsoka Tano. But as a writer, I couldn’t help feeling that the pacing in these past two episodes has been way too languid, not to mention that it’s ceased being the series it was in the first four episodes.
The digital Luke looked more convincing this time, yes, but the performance was too flat, both facially and vocally. I saw in the Mandalorian behind-the-scenes special that Luke’s voice there was digitally constructed from samples of Hamill’s voice from the ’80s, rather than actually performed by Hamill, and this sounded like more of the same. It sounded like Mark Hamill’s voice, but it didn’t sound like a Mark Hamill performance, with his distinctive delivery and rhythms and personality.
Speaking of voices, it’s cool that they brought back Corey Burton to voice Cad Bane, but he seems to have dropped the Peter Lorre accent he had before. So I couldn’t be sure it was Burton until I saw the credits. Although I recognized Bane’s silhouette almost immediately, even way in the distance with the smaller hat brim. I once read that the mark of a good animation character design is that you can recognize it from the silhouette alone.
Also… a gunfight between Cobb Vanth and Cad Bane? Those names are just too similar. Maybe that’s why Bane didn’t actually introduce himself — so as not to confuse the audience.
It was an unexpected pleasure to see Dawson back as Ahsoka. I continue to be impressed by how well she captures the personality Ashley Eckstein brought to the role. Though I don’t get why they shrunk her montrals so much. They say it’s so they won’t encumber her stunt work, but if they could make a digital Luke Skywalker and Cad Bane, why couldn’t they digitally extend Ahsoka’s montrals? It’s very distracting.
Are we sure that Twi’lek females’ ear cones are actually part of their anatomy rather than something they wear? Have we ever seen one without some kind of headgear? It is very strange that the males and females were designed with different kinds of ears when both were introduced in the same movie. Although I wonder if Bib Fortuna was originally meant to be of the same species as Oola, since he had a more bulbous forehead and I think he has three head-tails instead of two.
Today’s episode of “We Interrupt This Season of The Book of Boba Fett to Bring You Season 2.5 of The Mandolorian” was great fun. As long as you are not a fan of Boba Fett, that is, but love moments that make you point at the TV and say, “Hey look, it’s…”
I loved Cobb’s scenes, and hope he’s OK. I also hope the nice twilek lady who runs the bar is OK. The Jedi Academy scenes were pitch perfect, but I hope Grogu chooses the beskar shirt, because he has that great booster seat waiting for him on the new Naboo fighter. Luke giving the little guy a choice shows he is already trying to be more flexible than the old Jedi Order. Ahsoka’s presence was intriguing, kind of a “We Interrupt Mando’s Interruption of Boba’s Show to Bring You This Preview of Ahsoka” moment.
Can’t wait for the final battle with the Pykes, and lots of gunfights and explosions. And still wondering if the Sand People might weigh in to help Mando.
I think Bib Fortuna and Oola were always meant to be the same species, and Bib only had two head-tails
I think they marketed this show wrong. They have a bit of MCU syndrome going on. I’m not sure how to market this correctly but it’s clear the emphasis is on this team up to take down the Pykes.
@6/bgsu98: “I think Bib Fortuna and Oola were always meant to be the same species”
If so, then why such different foreheads, ears, and eyes? Not to mention the pronounced extension of the top/rear of his skull, which is what I mistook for a third tail. Really, the tails are just about the only things the two makeup designs do have in common. Maybe they were meant to be related species, or maybe the makeup designers just figured that more than one humanoid species could have head-tails (after all, Twi’lek and Togruta both do). I looked through my old copy of The Making of ROTJ, and it just said that Bib Fortuna was a “near-human” creature, with no mention of Oola that I could see. The name “Twi’lek” wasn’t coined until 1987, in a role-playing game supplement book.
I agree that Cad Bane is the worst; he’s always been a stock character who’s only real plot purpose is to act as an obstacle for our heroes. BoBF has been odd and shows a lot of inconsistencies in how the writers are treating established lore, particularly that of the Clone Wars series. Sometimes it seems to want to distance itself from Clone Wars and at others it clings tightly to the idea that people have seen it and want more. Honestly, I want more Star Wars projects to be self-contained without the need to have Wookiepedia close at hand to get the full experience.
Full disclosure: I am not a fan of Clone Wars. It’s got too much filler and even the newer episodes nauseate me with the play-dohey looking animation.
I’m glad to have Cad Bane aboard, because up to this point BOBF has been sorely lacking in proper villainy. Yes, there has been scum. There have been biker gangs, sweaty slugs, alien roughnecks, and goofy ninjas here and there, but what’s up with not giving Boba Fett a real, intimidating boss bad guy to sneer at and eventually fight? Was Bossk asking for too much money?
Ahhh, and thinking about this episode again (my kids got home from school and are watching it) – that whole conversation Ahsoka has about how Grogu really misses Din and that’s such a PROBLEM is like…straight out of the Jedi being so up in arms that Anakin misses his MOTHER and that’s going to be a PROBLEM. (And like, yeah, in a way it was, but it was a problem at least partially of their own making). Both Ahsoka and Luke definitely were kinda guilting both Din/Grogu for having this perfectly normal attachment and I kinda wish Din would have stood up for himself a little more (I wish he would have with the Armorer, too). And I get that yeah, there can be value in saying if you are going to choose this path you have to be dedicated and it does mean making sacrifices but to just act like even having Din’s gift is going to mean his heart isn’t fully in it, instead of honoring an old relationship that helped make him who he was is just…frustrating. I mean, does Luke still associate with Han and Leia? I don’t know, maybe he doesn’t at this point. But for me one of Luke’s key, definining characteristics is his ‘caring’ (I care being his arc words) so it kinda hurts to watch a version that feels like he needs to strip himself of that.
It’s just really frustrating watching them make the same mistakes over and over again. Now I want Hayden to show up as Anakin’s ghost to smack them on the head ;)
But man, that screen cap of Luke and Ahsoka together. My heart. My heart. My heart. This on its own could be a whole movie/show in and of itself. (So I do agree with the more meta criticisms of the pacing, focus, etc of this show. I’m still not really sure what it’s ABOUT.)
@2/ Lisaarie:
Given that Luke himself chose attachment over a hardline stance against attachment it just feels like a forced choice, and I also am not sure why Ahsoka also seems to be going along with it (although it at least makes sense that she may still unconsciously believe it).
Back in Legends, I remember Timothy Zahn addressed this in Survivor’s Quest — which came out after AOTC and among others tried to recouncile the pre-PT depicition of the NJO with the revelations of Episodes I-II.
IIRC, Zahn had Yoda tell Luke about the ‘no attachments’ off-screen during ESB and Luke had struggled privately with this in the years since founding the NJO (and which came back to the forefront with his then-recent marriage to Mara Jade).
Again, IIRC, Luke genuinely didn’t understand the ‘No Attachments’ dogma. He didn’t understand why the old Jedi thought they could effectively serve the galaxy by cutting all connections and ties to the very people they were serving. Luke ultimately felt it was an anachronism (and a factor that got them all killed) and best left in the past.
I do wish the ST had gone down this route with the NJO. Killing off the inaugural class, as it were, was just a big, f****g mistake and waste of potential.
@2 / Lisamarie
My eyes were just full. (I have the same very deep rooted attachment to Luke Skywalker, lol).
Luke is my favorite character in the entire franchise and on my Top 5 Favorite Fictional Characters list. I understand entirely.
Actually, it’s kinda funny. when I was in Grad School in the mid-2010s, I realized (after a long period of questioning) that I was Queer. So it was…interesting going back to the classic Star Wars and Indiana Jones films and looking at Hamill and Ford from that perspective.
Luke and Indy are both beloved childhood heroes and a defining characters…and realizing the younger Mark Hamill was your type is definitely kinda a weird experience, LOL.
By the way, I meant to ask: Is the episode title an allusion to something? It sounds like a quote.
@11/Lisamarie: “(So I do agree with the more meta criticisms of the pacing, focus, etc of this show. I’m still not really sure what it’s ABOUT.)”
These past couple of episodes have reminded me of gamers wandering around in an open-world MMORPG just to immerse themselves in the environment rather than actively pursuing the goal of the game. “So the mission is to help Boba Fett drive the Pyke Syndicate off Tatooine? Okay, fine, but first I want to hang out with Peli Motto and build a cool new fighter.”
From the 1983 ROTJ novelization: “Chained to him, chained at the neck, was a sad, pretty dancing-girl, a member of Fortuna’s species, with two dry, shapely tentacles sprouting from the back of her head, hanging suggestively down her bare, muscled back. Her name was Oola.”
Excellent review! I have to admit I find the preview of the season 3 of “The Mandalorian” more compelling, but you are right that the haven’t given screentime to Boba Fett in his own show.
Excellent point about trying to be MCU
Luke gave Grogu a choice that Anakin wasn’t given.
That choice will save Grogu’s life. Choosing the lightsaber leads to death, something that has concerned me since Grogu went off with Luke.
I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that production scheduling was impacted by using a resident of New Zealand in the main role at a time when that country is all but sealed from the rest of the world. It may account for the non-Boba Fett padding.
Cad Bane is not morally grey.
@12 – hah, well, I’m straight, but I have basically been in love with Luke since I was like 14.
The Zahn approach is actually the one I ended up taking in the (many, many) pages of fanfic I wrote about what I thought Luke’s academy would look like so I also really wish the ST had gone that route (which certainly still has room for Luke making mistakes, struggling, etc), but ah well, we got what we got.
@13 – that’s a great analaogy. That and the ‘playing with their action figures’ – it’s both the best and weakest part o fthe show. I do truly love the immersiveness of it, but it does sometimes mean the story both wanders, and also can suffer from some ‘small universe’ syndrome. I will be honest that the small universe syndrome doesn’t truly bother me as I almost always enjoy it, and they usually do also introduce new characters. BoBF has been a little lacking on this front though – the Mods are fun but they don’t seem to be as enduring as, well characters like Fennec and Din and Grogu from the Mandolorian.
I think it would’ve worked better if they’d structured the season so that the Din Djarin parts were a subplot going on in the background of every episode. Like, in episode 1, we cut away from Boba’s stuff to see Din collecting that bounty and hurting himself with the Darksaber; in episode 2 we get his return to the Armorer; in episode 3, he arrives at Peli’s and begins work on the ship; in episode 4 he finishes the ship and heads off to find Grogu; in episode 5 we see the stuff with Luke and Ahsoka; and in episode 6 he gets recruited by Fennec (because inserting the Mando scenes would mean the Boba scenes were spaced out further and the decision to hire him would’ve been at the end of episode 5) and tries to recruit Vanth.
@19 – I Like that structure…except I wonder if it would get too confusing with all the Boba in the desert flashback stuff stuffed in there as well. Perhaps if they divided the whole season into 9-10 slightly smaller episodes, and the first two episodes involved all that flashback stuff?
So much to take in, this episode was. Tomorrow, rewatch it, I will.
I was super excited to see Cobb Vanth back at the top of the episode, and it only got better from there. I agree that there was something noticeably off about Luke, but it was still enjoyable. Despite disliking the Episode I references last week, I felt like the training course scene was a nice reference. Seeing Ahsoka was a pleasant surprise. And I cannot describe my excitement when I realized it was Cad frickin’ Bane walking out of the desert! I said audibly “awwwwwwww crap!” in a very enthusiastic manner. I didn’t think twice about his hat, but he looked much too pale.
And am I the only one bothered by the fact that Luke appeared to be shooting at Grogu with live ammunition? Every time a “training” blast hit rock just inches from Grogu, there was a significant puff of smoke, sparks, and at least once burning of the rock. Imagine what would have happened if Grogu suddenly had one of his “I don’t feel like it” moments!
I didn’t read Aksoka as being fine with the Jedi Temple or cool with whatever Luke’s doing. Rather the opposite: when she said she can’t control others wants, she’s saying she knows there’s no way in hell she’s talking the son of Anakin out of doing the one and only thing he believes has always been his destiny to do, even though she has very conflicted feelings about how that sort of thing tense to turn out. Her presence is a signal that she damn well intends to keep tabs on what’s going down. And her leaving is a signal that she has no intention of getting pulled in too deep (again). Basically, she’s demonstrating how she learned her lessons by acknowledging that Luke still has his own to learn.
Perhaps this is wishful thinking on my part, but the cool detachment in Rosario Dawson’s performance gave me that vibe. And Luke’s almost boyish (and characrisric) “will I ever see you again” cemented it: he needs her more than she needs him and they both know it. The thing is, she also knows way more than he’s ready to understand.
The thing is, did Boba Fett even need his own series? Maybe the finale will change my mind, but it seems to me there’s only about two hours of actual material here: Boba gets saved by the Tuskens, runs afoul of the local warlords, then becomes a warlord himself to avenge the deaths of his friends and build a better Tatooine. Pretty sure that could all fit in a two-hour TV movie, without all the crossover stuff, of course. (Yeah, old-fashioned thinking, I know).
@22 – I might agree with you if she weren’t also willingly playing interference between Din and Grogu…like, maybe she’s playing some kind of mind game, but given that she also gave similar reasons for being nervous about training him in the previous season, I think she does still buy into the ‘attachment’ stuff on some level.
But I do think she is basically gonna let Luke do what Luke’s gonna do, even if she isn’t going to take part in it. And I kind of felt the ‘trust your instincts’ comment was maybe her way of trying to tell him to do so instead of feeling beholden to the old teachings. But that’s my wishful thinking, I guess.
I think the Boba Fett series needed a bit more polish and tightening up. It feels like the story is there, it just doesn’t quite come into focus the way it should.
When Luke brought out the training ball, I expected him to explain it to Grogu as, “It will give you owies.”
Meanwhile, Luke is trying, but he’s really not doing a good job at this parenting thing. Maybe it’s hereditary.
@21/Echthelion: “And am I the only one bothered by the fact that Luke appeared to be shooting at Grogu with live ammunition?“
It was the same kind of training drone that zapped Luke in ANH, so presumably it just stings a little. The VFX people may have gotten carried away in showing its effects.
@23/Cashew: “The thing is, did Boba Fett even need his own series?”
Honestly, I don’t think so. I’ll go even farther and invert my previous proposal — this would’ve worked better as a side plot in a season of The Mandalorian. A lot of the material has been languidly paced and immersive, and could’ve been tightened up to fit in a considerably shorter time frame.
Maybe Ahsoka’s last comment to Luke (how much he is like his father) is what gets Luke to re-think the whole attachment thing.
@18 / Lisamarie:
The Zahn approach is actually the one I ended up taking in the (many, many) pages of fanfic I wrote about what I thought Luke’s academy would look like so I also really wish the ST had gone that route (which certainly still has room for Luke making mistakes, struggling, etc), but ah well, we got what we got.
Yeah. I remember watching TFA in theaters — and the revelation of what had happened to Luke’s students. Looking back, I think that moment, more than anything, was when I gave up on the ST deep down. It was a catastrophic narrative miscalculation and only cemented the ST was retelling the basic OT narrative rather than forging its own path.
Anyway, to go back to my earlier Zahn answer, there was another revision worth pointing out (albeit from Walter Jon Williams rather than Zahn). It was I was talking about re: Luke’s feelings on the old Order’s aloofness.
When Luke finally reforms the Jedi Council late in the New Jedi Order books, he deliberately includes non-Jedi reps from the galactic government in its makeup.
Again, Luke felt the old Order’s insularity was a big part of what got them all killed — and not just their lack of connection with the citizenry they were supposed to be serving.
Their one, true official link outside the Order was the Office of the Supreme Chancellor — and once someone like Palpatine got into that Office and corrupted the Chancellery, it was game over.
So including reps from throughout the government was Luke’s way of ensuring the NJO would never be that isolated again (and likewise address legitimate civic concerns of NJO following their predecessors more controversial moves.)
I also highly reccomend Stover’s Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor by Matt Stover (also Legends EU) which isn’t about Luke setting up the Temple, but it does involve him deciding to distance himself from his military role. And it’s a really great exploration of Luke facing darkness/despair/having no idea what to do that I think works better than what the sequels gave us. I actually read it AFTER TFA came out and there were parts that almost made me cry.
@29,
Yeah, Stover’s Star Wars novels were great. Shatterpoint and his ROTS novelization are favorites of mine.
I miss him in the GFFA. I miss James Luceno, too.
It just seems like pretty much all the literary old guard from the Del Rey years (and even the Bantam era) are pretty much gone at this point. The only veteran still active is really Zahn (and now that his Thrawn Prequel Trilogy’s wrapped, I don’t know how much longer he’ll be sticking around).
If it’s a choice between thinking Zahn’s books are canon or movies 7-9 are canon, I know who’s got my vote.
@30 I absolutely adore the RotS novelization. I was actually a bit worried about how he’d handle a Luke book because I felt like it might get too dark but he actually nailed the tension between light and dark perfectly.
I used to be really into Stackpole, including reading a bunch of his original fiction, and my boyfriend at the time was a big Battletech fan, so I read a bunch of those books too :D It’s too bad that Allston passed away, though. I think Stackpole did tweet about the Rogue Squadron movie (which sadly is in limbo now).
I’m actually going through a reading quest of getting through all the Legends EU I never got around to – when I was in college (and the NJO books were coming out which I didn’t totally love) I kinda fell off the wagon a bit, so there are a bunch of books/authors from the 2000s that I didn’t really pick up.
Traviss is probably my other favorite SW author even though I know there’s some beef between her and the fandom, lol. She takes more of a hard line against the Jedi than I do, personally, but I LOVE her treatment of the clones as actual people and the exploration of those implications so much. (Ironically, given the subject matter, I’m not actually THAT into the Mandalorian stuff, but come to think of it, I feel like she contributed a lot that ended up bleeding over into what we view now as ‘how Mandalorians are’ with stuff like foundlings and what not. I feel like that came out of her books, unless she grabbed it from somewhere else).
@32,
I absolutely adore the RotS novelization. I was actually a bit worried about how he’d handle a Luke book because I felt like it might get too dark but he actually nailed the tension between light and dark perfectly.
I remember especially liking Stover’s callback to the recurring “All things die, Anakin Skywalker. Even stars burn out” monologue from — and contrasting Luke’s reaction and coping to his father’s.
Plus, if nothing else, Stover revealed the ultimate fates of the surviving Shatterpoint characters.
Traviss is probably my other favorite SW author even though I know there’s some beef between her and the fandom, lol.
That’s…putting it mildly, LOL.
I mean, re: the whole Traviss Mando fixation debate…There’s nothing wrong with having Author Appeal in your tie-in work. Allson and Stackpole, for instance, loved the X-Wing characters. James Luceno did frequent tributes to his old colleague Brain Daley (who wrote the original Han Solo novels).
And to play devil’s advocate, having an anti-Jedi perspective in the Commando novels (the first one in particular) at least had merit given the flaws and hypocrisy of the old Order during the PT era. Some of the points did have validity I agreed with at the time.
But the consensus is ultimately that Traviss took thing too far and lost her objectivity. Shoehorning the Mandos into her Legacy of the Force novels in particular really didn’t play well with the readership (on top of, ah, other creative decisions, but that’s a rant for another time).
I think Traviss also ultimately forgot one of the cardinal rules of any tie-in-work: You don’t own the sandbox and are merely invited to play in it. You have to be prepared for, and accept, the likelihood of on-screen canon contradicting it down the road.
So when TCW introduced the Mandos and the higher canonical classification superseded and contradicted her take…ah, Traviss didn’t take it well and burned her bridges with LFL
Oh, I loved those connections. I think there might also been a part where Luke does something very similar to Anakin’s landing of the cruiser in Revenge of the Sith but I might be misremembering it – but he did such a good job comparing and contrasting the two.
Regarding Taviss: I actually think her views on the Jedi make at least SOME sense, especially as how various citizens may have viewed them. So I appreciated the take, in some ways. I thought both Etain and Bardan were interesting examples of Jedi, especially as I also kind of like reading about the ‘average’ Jedi.
I wasn’t that into the LotF series anyway so bringing in the Mandos didn’t really bother me that much on top of everything else going on (ironically, LotF was the main reason I was kind of glad the EU was going to be jettisoned because, cool, now we can tell a story that doesn’t end with one of the Skywalker descendents going to the Dark side).
But yeah, I feel like you can kind of compare and contrast how Zahn and Traviss have handled their work getting superceded.
I still love her Clone Commando books though :D
(And FWIW I’d argue that Filoni is the same way with Ahsoka regarding shoehorning her into basically every era. But I suppose he – and the character – have earned it in a sense as she’s basically considered a main-level character at this point. But I’ve noticed a lot of the EU authors have their ‘pet’ character that cameos into something.)
@34:
So I appreciated the take, in some ways. I thought both Etain and Bardan were interesting examples of Jedi, especially as I also kind of like reading about the ‘average’ Jedi.
Yes, heh, not every Jedi gets to grow up to be a Skywalker or a Kenobi.
Those kind of Jedi stories were always more compelling for me. I loved Sean Stewart’s Yoda: Dark Rendevous for the same reason with Scout and Whie.
As an old EU continuity geek, I did at least like how Traviss eventually worked Callista into the plot of Commandos (and reconciled her Jedi portrayal in Barbara Hambly’s novels with the PT depiction of the old Order).
Children of the Jedi will never be a favorite of mine, but I did at least appreciated that bit of patching.
@34/Lisamarie: “And FWIW I’d argue that Filoni is the same way with Ahsoka regarding shoehorning her into basically every era. But I suppose he – and the character – have earned it in a sense as she’s basically considered a main-level character at this point.”
It works because Ahsoka is a rich, appealing character. She has the advantage of having been an original character created for a TV series. The TV shows add up to far more screen time than the movies, but the movie characters in TCW had to remain fairly static to remain consistent with the films, while Ahsoka was free to grow and evolve and deepen, and to earn our affection and our loyalty as we watched her grow up before our eyes. And by virtue of being an adolescent at the time of the Clone Wars, she’s of an age that plausibly lets her span the bulk of the franchise.
And it certainly doesn’t hurt that she gives the franchise another prominent female lead to balance out the menfolk. I’d say Ahsoka and Leia are my two favorite SW characters.
I can see people’s complaints about this turning into an MCU-style show, but I feel like I’m part of the problem, because that’s exactly what I wanted.
There’s a trope in fiction that I refer to as the Alderaan Moment (there’s probably a more “official” term for this). It refers to the point when a character or group makes a decisive move that they believe will lead to a certain result, but which instead does the exact opposite: the Empire destroyed Alderaan thinking that it would break the will of the burgeoning Rebellion. Instead, it hardened it (it also pushed every surviving Alderaanian directly into the Alliance, including the ones in active Imperial military service, with access to vital intelligence and resources).
I bring this up because this episode is *full* of Alderaans: Vance runs off the Pykes to protect his town, which instead puts him directly in their crosshairs. The Pykes blow up the Sanctuary to warn anyone thinking of supporting Fett, thereby sending a message to the other Mos Espa gangs that the Pykes cannot be trusted to respect neutral ground. Din tries to reunite with Grogu, only to be convinced to turn his back on his only remaining family. Luke chooses to reaffirm the Jedi tradition of detachment, which will eventually lead to the destruction of his academy. The Pykes (via Bane) shoot Vance, thereby turning him into a martyr and *guaranteeing* that the Freetowners now see the Pykes as their problem when they didn’t before. And now, Luke faces Grogu with his own life-altering choice.
All of which raises the question, what tragic error has Fett made that we haven’t noticed?
@37/Cybersnark: I don’t care if it’s “MCU-style” or not — the problem is simply that it’s not a cohesively structured narrative. The past two episodes of this series have been a continuation of a different series — not just a crossover with it, but a near-complete abandonment of the Boba Fett story arc in favor of the Mandalorian story arc that belongs in a different show altogether. That’s just not a competent way to structure a series, no matter what kind of “universe” it belongs to.
I should point out that the MCU itself does not actually do this. Yes, its movies and shows set up future material, but as a secondary element to telling their own core stories. They’ve never spent the second act of a Captain America movie ignoring Steve Rogers in order to continue Thor’s story arc. They didn’t spend two episodes of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier doing a swerve back to WandaVision. It’s not about whether there’s continuity, it’s about how it’s handled. Having continuity with other stories does not absolve storytellers from their responsibility to employ basic competence in telling the current story.
Also, critically, the original “Alderaan Moment” happens relatively early in that movie, giving us time to consider the evil powers our heroes are going up against, ramping up the stakes, and allowing time to build to a satisfying conclusion. Here it’s happening way too late, making the story feel rushed and disjointed. Plot points like blowing up the casino should’ve occurred far earlier.
Probably shouldn’t have stopped off for that nap so close to the finish line, rabbit.
Yes, some of these moments, like the introduction of the main villain enforcer (Cad Bane) should’ve happened earlier. At first I thought Black Krssantan and the Hutt cousins were the antagonists, but that turned into nothing. The Hutts are gone and BK became an ally.
It seems that Max Rebo luckily had the evening off. I suppose he’ll turn up in Freetown next.
I confess I’m really enjoying the departures from storytelling norms. This is a new era of television, and all to often what we get is stuff that was the best ideas the 90s had to building and maintaining audience. I wanted more Picard sharing screen time with Sisko, I wanted to see the Enterprise help take back DS9 from Dominion occupation.
No-one is coming to this new, no-one is starting from here, you have a whole galaxy as your canvas. Don’t limit yourself to a portion of it.
They wanted Mando to be in a certain place for the beginning and end of the finale, why the hell not put the effort in to making sure that it’s as filled out and *real* as possible? A cameo implies that he’s a secondary character in this universe and he’s not, and neither is Luke. Make their screen time worthwhile. I’m sure everyone can keep up, and if a few can’t then I’m very sorry – you’ve got to be this big to go on this ride. Making the bottom line work isn’t about appealing to the dip-in-and-out casuals anymore.
As long as we’re all being entertained, and I have been thoroughly entertained by every episode of Mando and now this. Thoroughly, thoroughly entertained. That doesn’t have to come from seeing one episode directly built on the last, it can come from enjoying each paint a different part of the canvas. The joins can come later.
@42/jmwhite: “They wanted Mando to be in a certain place for the beginning and end of the finale, why the hell not put the effort in to making sure that it’s as filled out and *real* as possible?”
That’s fine, but intersperse it throughout the first six episodes alongside Boba. Interrupting Boba’s story with two whole hours about Mando is terrible pacing. It’s like a pizza where 2/3 of it is just sausage and the other 1/3 is just cheese. It’s better when they’re intermixed.
“Making the bottom line work isn’t about appealing to the dip-in-and-out casuals anymore.”
It’s insulting to suggest that my criticisms of the pacing are about anything that superficial. Hell, if anything, I think you have it backward — the casual viewers who are just here for the superficial experience would eat up the nostalgia-fest, but those of us who look deeper at the substance and structure of stories can see how poorly the parts fit together into a whole.
Christopher, that wasn’t in response to any specific point you made, or actually you in particular. But it’s just a fact that the beats and the artificial rhythms of shows that were typical in a era where viewing was either wholly or primarily broadcast over-the-air aren’t needed in an era where you know everyone will have seen every episode.
If this was over-the-air, and you missed an episode, you’d be more confused seeing something that looked entirely different. One way of countering that would be to do it like your pizza, spread each thread over each episode, so everyone can be caught up to speed on everything by the end.
That’s not how the great novelists would always do it. Sometimes there would be a good chunk of a book leading up to a moment, perhaps a pivotal moment, then that would be put on hold while another thread was fleshed out over perhaps many several chapters before the two strands would be reunited. You knew that the first thread wasn’t lost, you wouldn’t believe it was a different book you’d gotten into, you’d have faith that this was all going somewhere. There’s no reason TV can’t do the same now.
It’s not a pizza, it’s a proper meal with multiple courses. You may want something like a pizza mixed, but if you were having a real substantial meal you don’t want your pudding dumped over your main course. It’s better to enjoy them both separately.
@44/jmwhite: “Christopher, that wasn’t in response to any specific point you made, or actually you in particular. But it’s just a fact that the beats and the artificial rhythms of shows that were typical in a era where viewing was either wholly or primarily broadcast over-the-air aren’t needed in an era where you know everyone will have seen every episode.“
It’s got nothing to do with that. The basics of good story structure have been around far longer than television has been around. There’s nothing “artificial” about it. This is a slapdash, crappily constructed narrative by the standards of any medium. It just doesn’t work to do one show for four episodes and then go back to doing a different show for two episodes when you should be doing the one you started with.
“Sometimes there would be a good chunk of a book leading up to a moment, perhaps a pivotal moment, then that would be put on hold while another thread was fleshed out over perhaps many several chapters before the two strands would be reunited.“
Yes, but they were both part of the same story and they connected to each other. For instance, A Study in Scarlet had Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson solve the case, and then we got the whole long story that explained the background of the crime. There was a logical narrative continuity leading from one to the other. That wasn’t the case here. Book of Boba was just put on hold in order to continue threads from The Mandalorian that had nothing to do with BOBF’s narrative. It would’ve been completely incomprehensible to anyone watching BOBF without having seen TM, and that’s breaking one of the most important rules of storytelling: that every separate story or series should be understandable with no prior knowledge, that anything relevant to the story is explained or serves a purpose within the story. Even when a story is part of a larger series or continuity, it still needs to work for a reader/viewer unfamiliar with that larger whole. For instance, you don’t need to be familiar with The Clone Wars or Rebels to understand the Ahsoka Tano episode of TM, because we’re following the story through Din’s eyes and he’s not familiar with Ahsoka, so we learn about her as he does. You get more layers of meaning if you do know Ahsoka’s history, but the story is comprehensible if you don’t.
But there’s no way BOBF eps. 5-6 would be comprehensible to someone who’d never seen an episode of TM. Even worse, people who watch TM without also watching BOBF will have no idea why things have suddenly changed between seasons 2-3, because something vital to that series was established in a separate series. And that’s just terrible story structure and unfair to the audience. If they wanted to tell a story that depended on prior knowledge of TM and that was partly a continuation of TM’s character and plot arcs, then they should’ve made it a season arc within TM, as I already suggested. Giving it a different title created false expectations.
I’m all for experiments in using different narrative structures, but do you really think that’s the aim of Lucasfilm or the behemoth that owns it… Disney? That’s not exactly an avant garde studio.
No, there’s nothing really new here with BOBF. It’s quite old what they did, and quite common among all us humans. Happens every day. They screwed up.
The Mandalorian had an overarching story, but was quite episodic. Several episodes didn’t advance the long story at all. So in order to understand the BOBF story completely, one needs only watch The Mandalorian episodes A, B, C and Z, or whatever.
Maybe some fan will produce a video of the essential bits of TM as a foreword to BOBF.
@47/BeeGee: If a story can’t be understood without reference to outside works, that is a failure of basic storytelling. Connections to other works should be an extra, not a barrier to entry. If they wanted to tell this as a story that couldn’t be understood except in the context of The Mandalorian, then they should’ve done it as season 3 of The Mandalorian.