The Book Of Boba Fett (December 2021)

[Bravomite]

So, as I mentioned earlier, I decided to watch Episodes 1-4 and 7 today with no pause and no Mandalorian intermission. I'm going to honestly say that I enjoyed the series a LOT more the second time around. Maybe my expectations were lower, maybe I've been suckered by the cool HT 1/4 Fett, or maybe watching it week to week just didn't provide any continuity to the story. With episodes 1 and 3 being weaker than 2 and 4, watching back to back really helped tie things together a bit more. I watched the finale for exactly what it was: a ridiculous battle royale with silly RR stunts, Rockette knee dart shots and questionable strategic decisions, but at the end of the day I can say that I'm OK with the BoBF. I think some of the questionable things that bugged me the first time, bothered me less the second time:

1. Boba crashing Slave 1 in the Hanger was better this time as the hanger door is closed, it's dark and he can't see, plus it's a tight squeeze. I see they were trying to build drama in the escape and maybe missed the mark.
2. Slave 1 in the Sarlacc. Chalk up him forgetting where his armor went to the time passed out in the desert. He thinks it's dead, so he's just trying to see inside it when it grabs on. The sonic charge was cool. Not as terrible as the first time.
3. The rabbit droid in the kitchen. Yeah, this was still stupid. This is trying to add that Jar Jar type humor but you just can't do it with Fett.
4. Like a bantha. We got a great meme out of it and in reality, he's bonding with his adopted Tusken tribe and trying to educate them on how to ride a speeder. It's goofy but I didn't hate it this time around.
5. Helmet off. I guess knowing that the helmet was coming off lessened the annoyance for me. I actually found that it wasn't off as often as I recall and it wasn't as wildly inappropriate as I remember it.

Now, bring on 1/6 Boba, Cad Bane and Black Kristin.

This is Khev’s way

 

[ebor]

I like to think of myself as the Star Wars fan in the background. You can't make out the disgust on his face in this shot, though.

So you like to wear gold flip flops too! Live your best life!

 

[a-dev]

So Bane is alive, right? The light on his chest blinking and beeping meant he survived?

I expect he is alive. And this near death experience is going to immediately turn him into a good guy who wants to be a 'crimelord' who vows to represent and protect the people of a town on a backwater planet because of an obscure connection he feels that will not be explained

 

[a-dev]

Thought this was a good article

https://www.polygon.com/star-wars/22929592/book-of-boba-fett-hero-vs-villain

 

[ZE_501]

Thought this was a good article

https://www.polygon.com/star-wars/22929592/book-of-boba-fett-hero-vs-villain

From the article:

"His greed and incompetence defines his backstory, too. The flashbacks where he finds peace and respect among a band of Tusken warriors are enjoyable, but that idyll ends purely because of his avarice. When he uses the Tuskens for a shakedown racket that hurts and humiliates the Pykes, they respond by wiping the Tuskens off the map. The show plays this as a tragedy for Boba, but it’s far more of a tragedy for the sandpeople who took him in, listened to his overreaching and short-sighted advice, and made enemies out of people with the reach and power to destroy them."

LOL yes. Ragged band of cargo-cult nomads skulking in the inhospitable desert vs. a heavily armed, well-funded, well-equipped and ruthless interplanetary crime syndicate.

Like setting a village of indigenous peoples against Pablo Escobar.

...and:

"Boba claims he’s somehow started the gang war on behalf of the people of Mos Espa, who he’s barely spoken to, and who in no way stand to benefit from his bloody rise to power. Cad Bane sneers at those pretensions, and points out that Boba is just a thug, and always has been. “I knew you were a killer,” Cad chuckles, just before Boba lives up to the jibe by killing him. He clearly sees that Boba isn’t clever enough to be a schemer or foresightful enough to be a leader, and that his only real skills are violence and ruthlessness. He isn’t just amoral, an anti-hero, or a gray character. He’s a full-on villain who doesn’t care if he gets his subordinates bombed, his allies shot, or his town smashed, as long as he gets his way and comes out on top."

All true, yet all unintentional. All still wildly reaching:

"In the end, season 1 of the show isn’t any of these things — it’s a farce, and a pretty subversive one."

The only thing this show subverted was the idea that Disney would put care and competence into crafting quality entertainment around a beloved legacy character.

You can engage in post-modern hand-waving all day long, but it's just poor writing.

 

[DeChino]

I know I'm a disgusting cis-het toxic male, but yeah....Jennifer Beals is hot. Ming-Na Wen is hot. I know it's a show for children and all but I'd have really liked a scene where Boba wakes up in his water tank and stretches and goes downstairs for his morning coffee and he catches Jennifer Beals sneaking out of Fennec's room.

Then Fett and Shand have an uncomfortable breakfast in silence, and when Boba goes to say something she just gives him the side eye for the 800th time.

Hmmm. Just cause we didn't see it, doesn't mean it didn't happen. There. It's now in my head canon. Along with a lot worse stuff.

 

[a-dev]

From the article:

"His greed and incompetence defines his backstory, too. The flashbacks where he finds peace and respect among a band of Tusken warriors are enjoyable, but that idyll ends purely because of his avarice. When he uses the Tuskens for a shakedown racket that hurts and humiliates the Pykes, they respond by wiping the Tuskens off the map. The show plays this as a tragedy for Boba, but it’s far more of a tragedy for the sandpeople who took him in, listened to his overreaching and short-sighted advice, and made enemies out of people with the reach and power to destroy them."

LOL yes. Ragged band of cargo-cult nomads skulking in the inhospitable desert vs. a heavily armed, well-funded, well-equipped and ruthless interplanetary crime syndicate.

Like setting a village of indigenous peoples against Pablo Escobar.

...and:

"Boba claims he’s somehow started the gang war on behalf of the people of Mos Espa, who he’s barely spoken to, and who in no way stand to benefit from his bloody rise to power. Cad Bane sneers at those pretensions, and points out that Boba is just a thug, and always has been. “I knew you were a killer,” Cad chuckles, just before Boba lives up to the jibe by killing him. He clearly sees that Boba isn’t clever enough to be a schemer or foresightful enough to be a leader, and that his only real skills are violence and ruthlessness. He isn’t just amoral, an anti-hero, or a gray character. He’s a full-on villain who doesn’t care if he gets his subordinates bombed, his allies shot, or his town smashed, as long as he gets his way and comes out on top."

All true, yet all unintentional. All still wildly reaching:

"In the end, season 1 of the show isn’t any of these things — it’s a farce, and a pretty subversive one."

The only thing this show subverted was the idea that Disney would put care and competence into crafting quality entertainment around a beloved legacy character.

You can engage in post-modern hand-waving all day long, but it's just poor writing.

Oh I agree but I feel like the writer was far too aware of all the problems the show had to seriously be handwaving any of it away as some deliberate, 'clever' subversion. Am I wrong?

If I've missed the overall conclusion of the author the article nevertheless raises so many of the shows major issues in one convenient location.

 

[ZE_501]

Oh I agree but I feel like the writer was far too aware of all the problems the show had to seriously be handwaving any of it away as some deliberate, 'clever' subversion. Am I wrong?

If I've missed the overall conclusion of the author the article nevertheless raises so many of the shows major issues in one convenient location.

To be honest I couldn't tell if the author was going Full Khev or just taking a run at this piece of garbage.

At any rate, Star Wars is dead.

 

[jye4ever]

Oh I agree but I feel like the writer was far too aware of all the problems the show had to seriously be handwaving any of it away as some deliberate, 'clever' subversion. Am I wrong?

If I've missed the overall conclusion of the author the article nevertheless raises so many of the shows major issues in one convenient location.

I freaking love it that he lead the Tusken’s down the path to ruin just because they had the unfortunate luck of running into him lol

 

[DeChino]

To be honest I couldn't tell if the author was going Full Khev or just taking a run at this piece of garbage.

At any rate, Star Wars is dead.

i would t say it’s dead, look at all the stuff they’ve done besides the disney movies. mando is great, obi is shaping up to be really interesting - people seem to love the animated stuff.

i just think the “prestige” of SW is fading. it’s like the MCU, we’ve got great things but then there’s those cheesy shows. we’re now in the iron fist/agents of shield moment of disney SW. they can turn it around like marvel did, and get some of that prestige back.

 

[Sassafras]

So, as I mentioned earlier, I decided to watch Episodes 1-4 and 7 today with no pause and no Mandalorian intermission. I'm going to honestly say that I enjoyed the series a LOT more the second time around. Maybe my expectations were lower, maybe I've been suckered by the cool HT 1/4 Fett, or maybe watching it week to week just didn't provide any continuity to the story. With episodes 1 and 3 being weaker than 2 and 4, watching back to back really helped tie things together a bit more. I watched the finale for exactly what it was: a ridiculous battle royale with silly RR stunts, Rockette knee dart shots and questionable strategic decisions, but at the end of the day I can say that I'm OK with the BoBF. I think some of the questionable things that bugged me the first time, bothered me less the second time:

1. Boba crashing Slave 1 in the Hanger was better this time as the hanger door is closed, it's dark and he can't see, plus it's a tight squeeze. I see they were trying to build drama in the escape and maybe missed the mark.
2. Slave 1 in the Sarlacc. Chalk up him forgetting where his armor went to the time passed out in the desert. He thinks it's dead, so he's just trying to see inside it when it grabs on. The sonic charge was cool. Not as terrible as the first time.
3. The rabbit droid in the kitchen. Yeah, this was still stupid. This is trying to add that Jar Jar type humor but you just can't do it with Fett.
4. Like a bantha. We got a great meme out of it and in reality, he's bonding with his adopted Tusken tribe and trying to educate them on how to ride a speeder. It's goofy but I didn't hate it this time around.
5. Helmet off. I guess knowing that the helmet was coming off lessened the annoyance for me. I actually found that it wasn't off as often as I recall and it wasn't as wildly inappropriate as I remember it.

Now, bring on 1/6 Boba, Cad Bane and Black Kristin.

It's like I THOUGHT I was gonna get steak and lobster but got tacos instead. But I'm having tacos for dinner so......

After stepping back (and not being up at 3 in the morning like I was for the finale) and a rewatch - still feel the same.
Mostly it didn't have the execution/pacing/editing or even the script that really draws you in; and I question Morrison's approach
at times (e.g. he looks baffled in places vs. Ming-Na who know how to work with what she's got)

But they did come up with an original, IMO acceptable arc for Fett. Bein' a Mando fan I also appreciate bringing in Din D'jarin; assuming Fett becomes tangled in the battle for Mandalore, now they've spent enough time there'd be a reason for Fett to join as an ally.

I get why folks are unhappy, especially Fett fans. But the narrative overall IMO isn't bad. I wonder what a director like Chow would have done; like I remember Favreau laughing that Chow had asked him during Mando season 1 if she could kill more stormtroopers. So we got Mando taking out a lot when retrieving the Child.

My bro isn't a SW fan; more a comic fan; but he binged TBOBF yesterday. Said it wasn't as bad as folks make it out to be, which is about as neutral opinion as you can get. I hope they do a second season with different directors.

 

[Wor-Gar]

At any rate, Star Wars is dead.

This all seems so very familiar to me...

 

[Khev]

I freaking love it that he lead the Tusken’s down the path to ruin just because they had the unfortunate luck of running into him lol

And lol at your new avatar too.

I don't think it was Fett's greed that got the Tuskens killed. I think he genuinely wanted to help them claim ownership of the territory they lived in in a way that not only kept them alive but also allowed them to profit. He was just out of his element with such an endeavor and they paid the price.

Getting back to your avatar it just occurred to me that for all Fett's Slave I derpery it was still his initiative in going back to the Sarlacc that led to its death. Yes I realize that Fennec pushed the button, I didn't say Fett's competence led to its death, just his initiative, lol. Which means that because of Boba Fett the ongoing torment across hundreds of years of countless victims came to an end! Probably the greatest act of heroism (intentional or not) of any character in the history of Star Wars.

Luke and/or Anakin saving you from the Empire? That's nice but their oppression would never exceed any given person's lifetime. Same with Rey and the First Order. But being saved from 1,000 years of torment inside the Sarlacc? Holy crap nothing tops that.

 

[Khev]

So, as I mentioned earlier, I decided to watch Episodes 1-4 and 7 today with no pause and no Mandalorian intermission. I'm going to honestly say that I enjoyed the series a LOT more the second time around.

You know I've been mulling over this idea and really like it! An alternative would just be to ditch the idea of Fett having his own series altogether and *only* watch episodes that Mando appears in. Then you watch Mando S1, S2, and then after Din says goodbye to Grogu the very next episode is him off on his own slaughtering guys in meat lockers and pining for his lost little buddy. His travels then take him to Tatooine where he runs into Fennec who tells him that Fett (who now was last seen blasting Fortuna and taking the throne) is involved in a turf war and is looking for help.

Next episode he visits Luke's planet then heads back to Tatooine so that we can experience Fett's turf war solely through Mando's eyes and we get to watch them team up and kick ass against the Pykes and Cad Bane. Obviously Fett showing up on a Rancor would then seemingly come out of left field but that's how it must have felt for Mando too!

Eliminate those first four episodes and Fett's back to Tython level badassedness, possibly even moreso.

 

[ZE_501]

i would t say it’s dead,

Eviscerated then re-animated into a grotesque, shambling caricature of narrative picked up on a candy-coloured floating Vespa before being ground into pixels on a drooling accountant's P & L spreadsheet.

 

[matticus]

There is only one true hero of the Book of Boba Fett:

 

[The Clown Prince of Crime]

Robert Rodriguez likes spins. It's one of his trademarks. They looked cool in Desperado, but that was a long time ago.

 

[Wor-Gar]

With more money you would have the camera counter-move the spin AND in slow motion.

But that was a long time ago too.

 

[DeChino]

There is only one true hero of the Book of Boba Fett:

 

[darth dennis]

You know I've been mulling over this idea and really like it! An alternative would just be to ditch the idea of Fett having his own series altogether and *only* watch episodes that Mando appears in. Then you watch Mando S1, S2, and then after Din says goodbye to Grogu the very next episode is him off on his own slaughtering guys in meat lockers and pining for his lost little buddy. His travels then take him to Tatooine where he runs into Fennec who tells him that Fett (who now was last seen blasting Fortuna and taking the throne) is involved in a turf war and is looking for help.

Next episode he visits Luke's planet then heads back to Tatooine so that we can experience Fett's turf war solely through Mando's eyes and we get to watch them team up and kick ass against the Pykes and Cad Bane. Obviously Fett showing up on a Rancor would then seemingly come out of left field but that's how it must have felt for Mando too!

Eliminate those first four episodes and Fett's back to Tython level badassedness, possibly even moreso.

I can dig it! Maybe next weekend!