I can definitely understand being underwhelmed by episode 6 if you're not going to be swayed by the nostalgia factor of Luke training a kid of Yoda's species in scenes mimicking ESB. That's why I qualified my post by saying, "for me."
Weren't a lot of the Pyke soldiers defeated by Vespa girl and her new pal on the rooftop, and not Fett? And wasn't that after Fett deferred to Vespa girl when it came to the tactical decision about where to stage the battle from?
Fett upstaged by Fennec, Cad Bane, Mando, and Grogu? Maybe in the comedic episodes but not when it counted.
Fennec and Mando didn't even believe they were capable of defeating the Pykes and that was even before the Annihilator Droids showed up. So she jetted off to take out the high command only for Fett to end up defeating the Pyke army without her. Then when she got there the Pyke Boss said they were leaving anyway (thanks to Fett and the Rancor) so her murder spree wasn't even that necessary.
Fett upstaged Mando in the finale by a wide margin. Fett defeated Cad Bane in single combat. Grogu? Yeah it was cool that he put the Rancor to sleep after Mando showed that he couldn't handle it like Fett but that doesn't mean that Fett couldn't have gotten it under control himself.
Then when all was said and done Fett got to do something that no SW villain has ever done in live-action: turn good and live.
Bane was definitely cool in the series. I was lukewarm (at best) about the character in the animated stuff because I thought it was too on-the-nose of an aesthetic homage to Angel Eyes, but in live action the character was undeniably a highlight. And would've been a highlight even if the series had been great.
Fennec was fun. Probably deserved better. My wife did a drinking game every time she called out Boba’s bad decisions or bailed him out of a bad decision.
He still took out way more Pykes than her (and everyone else.) Plus he recruited her so even her assistance can be traced back to his foresight.
They might have been high ranking individuals but taking them out wasn't some amazing act of badassery unlike say ridding the city of an army atop a rancor that only you can ride.
Awesome villains make for awesome heroes. Main villains should be characters that the good guys must defy the odds to defeat, IMO. So I thought it was great that they made Bane so badass and seemingly the better gunslinger/gadget guy. He had to get close to remove Fett's Beskar helmet to get the guaranteed kill so I don't fault him for that especially since everything else he did was tactically sound and totally competent. And he was only defeated by a seemingly impossible move with the gaffi so Bane's combat wherewithal remained intact to the end IMO.
Fair enough. Han is different for me because his look never seemed all that different from some of the other background people walking around Tatooine. But yeah, my childhood sensibilities probably continue to inform my "adult" view of those original movies and characters.
One big difference between Cowboy Han and Cowboys Bane/Vanth was that while Han might have looked and acted the cowboy archetype they didn't put him in situations that were also on-the-nose cowboy tropes. Compared to BOBF where you have characters acting like cowboys...in desert towns squaring off against each other in quickdraw duels. The closest Han got to that was Cloud City when Vader appeared but everything about that scene was so magnificently Star Wars-ey (Vader, the stark white halls, being up in the sky, etc.) that it didn't feel like a straight copy and paste from another genre.
The Pyke syndicate chief wasn't just some high-ranking leader, though. He was the guy who ordered the hit on the Tuskens, and Cad Bane made it clear to Fett and to the audience. So, there was a personal retribution to be had. Also with the mayor who Fett knew to have sent assassins after him. That was what I was getting at.He still took out way more Pykes than her (and everyone else.) Plus he recruited her so even her assistance can be traced back to his foresight.
They might have been high ranking individuals but taking them out wasn't some amazing act of badassery unlike say ridding the city of an army atop a rancor that only you can ride.
And I do find that there's a certain coolness to him basically saying "you guys are such losers I'm just sending one of my underlings to take care of you." Plus it's in the tradition of Leia, not Han, being the one to end Jabba.
Awesome villains make for awesome heroes. Main villains should be characters that the good guys must defy the odds to defeat, IMO. So I thought it was great that they made Bane so badass and seemingly the better gunslinger/gadget guy. He had to get close to remove Fett's Beskar helmet to get the guaranteed kill so I don't fault him for that especially since everything else he did was tactically sound and totally competent. And he was only defeated by a seemingly impossible move with the gaffi so Bane's combat wherewithal remained intact to the end IMO.
Honestly if apart from everything else that we disagree with about the finale you also think that Cad Bane had a poor showing then we really have no hope of anything past "agree to disagree," lol.
If Han is 70% on the Western Gunfighter Scale, Cad Bane is easily 98% which is about 28% too much for Star Wars, in my opinion.
Agreed. As Wor-Gar already noted, the subtlety found in the George Lucas style of utilizing his inspirations and paying homage is often missing with his successors.
