Flack wrote: Sat Jan 01, 2022 1:07 pm What follows will be SPOILER-FILLED reviews and discussions of The Book of Boba Fett. New episodes will air every Wednesday on Disney+, and the series is rumored to consist of seven episodes.

WRONG BASE!!

I thought it was a big dumb action episode, but fun. I like the black hat guy. I was waiting for Baby Rancor. It all made minus-infinity sense.

It was all fine.

We have arrived at the finale (season or series, TBD), and Boba Fett finally got what he wanted -- war with the Pykes.

Boba Fett has gone from one of the most cynical people in the galaxy to one of the most optimistic. After the destruction of the Sanctuary by the Pykes, Fett splits his paltry group of vagabonds into thirds to monitor Mos Espa. All of them are shocked and surprised when the town's crime families turn on Fett and company and side with the Pykes. Let's see... the Pykes control the spice, are paying the crime families, and have an army. Fett, on the other hand, will get you a deal on overpriced water. I know which side I'm picking.

Chekhov's Law states that "if you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it must absolutely go off." I'll give the writers credit -- pretty much every rifle they hung on the wall in the first six episodes fired in the finally. CGI Luke didn't return (too expensive, probably) and neither did the Tusken Raiders (although their influence was "felt"), but most everything and everybody from the series returned to lend a hand.

Was it perfect? Far from. Cad Bane had perhaps the most cutting line of the series when he asked Fett straight up, "what's your angle?" It's something I've been asking all season and never quite understood. I don't get Fett's loyalty to Mos Espa or even Tatooine in general. All this talk about "my people" ... since when?

I had a bit of a problem with Luke not showing up. I probably don't fully understand the Jedi code or whatever, but the people of Tatooine are more or less being held hostage by drug runners. Unlike Boba Fett, LUKE IS FROM TATOOINE. I get why Yoda didn't join Luke on his journey to Bespin -- that was more of a personal issue -- but when drug dealers are declaring a war on your home planet, I dunno, it might be nice to show up for that battle. I get why they can't do that from a narrative point of view, but I thought it was going to happen.

There were a lot of things I saw coming and quite a few I didn't. In a two-hour film, it's easy to remember things that you know will return later in the story. When dragged out over two months, it's easy to forget characters (and creatures).

In the end, Boba Fett went from being the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy to a hero in a way that Lucas would never do and Disney seemed determined to pull off.

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: Wed Feb 02, 2022 8:16 pm Episode 6 was fine, if this is just gonna be "The Star Wars Show" then cool - and Luke looked good in the last episode of the Mandalorian to my eyes, but he looks like they filmed him in 1984 for this. DAYUM, ILM!

After Disney released the final episode of Mandalorian season two that featured their CGI de-aged Luke Skywalker, a Twitter user named Shamook (known for making deepfakes) released his own version, which was significantly better than Disney's. Short version of the story, ILM hired Shamook, who did the effects on the latest episode of Boba Fett.

AArdvark wrote: Wed Feb 02, 2022 6:14 pm Weren't there spice mines on Kessel? There was a line from Episode IV where threepio thinks they'll be sent to the spice mines of Kessel

Yes. Like a lot of things, "spice" was mentioned all the way back in 1977 and not brought up as a major plot point until 45 years later in 2022. Lucas freely admits Star Wars was influenced by Dune. Not only do you have spice being mined on a desert planet, but you've got the Tusken Raiders (which resemble Fremen) and the Force (which is a lot like the Voice). And then there's that whole "chosen one" thing, which is totally different because Paul Atreides has black hair and Luke Skywalker is blond.

In Solo: A Star Wars Story, Lando and crew visited the spice mines of Kessel. Lando's droid/wife gets blowed up, Lando is injured, and Han takes a dangerous route when he leaves, making the infamous Kessel Run.

Episode 6 was fine, if this is just gonna be "The Star Wars Show" then cool - and Luke looked good in the last episode of the Mandalorian to my eyes, but he looks like they filmed him in 1984 for this. DAYUM, ILM!

Weren't there spice mines on Kessel? There was a line from Episode IV where threepio thinks they'll be sent to the spice mines of Kessel

I liked it. Worker ant robots is the best thing I've seen on TV that wasn't on The Righteous Gemstones (the BEST SHOW ON TV, chaeng mah maaand)

Pretty sure they just stole the word "Spice" from Dune without any more thought to what it was for, right?

REMINDER: THIS THREAD IS FULL OF SPOILERS.

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I read a funny theory today -- that Disney filmed different versions of episodes 5-7 of this show, one for if Boba Fett was a hit and one if... well, the ones we're getting.

90% of episode 6 was another episode of The Mandalorian. Mando, missing his little green buddy, travels to visit him and we discover Luka, Ashoka, R2-D2, and Grogu. This show is pulling no punches with it comes to trading nostalgia for ratings. Look, Luke is doing flips like he did in The Empire Strikes Back! Look, Luke has a training remote, just like the one he used on the Millennium Falcon! (Why does Luke have one of these laying around? Who knows!)

Oh, and look -- it's Cobb Vanth! I knew he was coming back because frankly they're bringing back everybody Din has ever met. We also get Cad Bane who, if you didn't watch the Clone Wars cartoon, you have no idea who he is.

At least we got Boba Fett for 2 minutes this week. And more importantly, we now have (I guess) a bad guy in Cad Bane. We see the Pykes blow up the Sanctuary in an act of domestic terrorist, so at least we're getting an itty bitty taste as to why these guys aren't to be trifled with. Still, it feels a bit like "too little, too late" for me. Showing us why the bad guys are bad 10 minutes before the final episode seems like a bit of a stretch. It would be like meeting Darth Vader for the first time when he kills Obi-Wan in Star Wars.

I still don't get the big deal with Spice. Obviously like Dune it's supposed to be a drug, but we've never seen any harmful effects of Spice anywhere in any Star Wars movie (that I can recall). I also think every issues the Pykes and everyone else have had with moving Spice across Tatooine could be solved by, like, moving over one mile. The whole planet is a desert! If they were to move where their train went, or make drug deals out in the middle of the desert, would anyone care? Cobb Vanth literally told them, go somewhere else and we won't have a problem! Couldn't these guys buy one spaceship that flies and move things around that way?

We are going to beat that out of you.

I'm enjoying it.

I like Mando, he's probably the third most interesting character on all of Star Wars after Luke and Han. But what you said is a failing of the universe. The rebellion is always good, the Empire always bad, there's no chance Mando is in a toxic cult because nobody has ever been in such a thing in Star Wars. But he is! Gold Helmet Girl didn't lift a finger to help him get that black light saber but is obnoxiously railing on him as a voice over because she STILL won't get up as he tries to use it? Fuck you!

Stephen King, in his book On Writing, said "Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings." (For what it's worth, he wasn't the first to say it.) When writing, write down everything, and when editing, you have to be willing to cut out every single thing that doesn't move the plot forward. That could be a character or a subplot. It could be something as big as a chapter and as small as a sentence or even a word. Only leave what's essential.

That scene with Mando checking his weapons has no payoff whatsoever. Assuming he took public transportation to wherever he exchanged that guy's head for a bounty, he already knew the rules of public transportation. And even if he didn't, and we didn't, who cares? Why can't people take weapons on public transportation if they are allowed to roam the streets fully armed? Have we ever seen a character in Star Wars say, "aw man, I really need a weapon but I just can't find one!"

Also, maybe it's me but I don't remember the Darksaber being particularly difficult to wield in the last season? And I think I already mentioned this, but what a bunch of ungrateful buttholes the Mandalorians are.

I am halfway through episode 5 and this is terrible. Because of the world building, effects and cinematography I assumed I'd keep getting this show but the scene where Mando is trying to "learn how to use a sword" with the Mortal Kombat style announcer telling him how bad he is is unwatchable.

These idiots telling each other "This is the way" is awful television.

They eat food right? "Have you ever removed your helmet?" -- what? God, this is stupid.

So the broad in the gold helmet is telling him the only way to "redeem" himself is to go to the ... "Mines of Mandalore"? HAYYYYY good thing she became the taste-maker of all this and was given the gold helmet when she started, because if she didn't start out with it and got it later it means she either took her first one off or what, they just threw the gold one on top of the other one like a Russian egg doll?

It was dumb to bring Boba Fett "back" and this show --- wait a sec. I am watching this live and MANDO CHECKED HIS WEAPONS AS LUGGAGE?

Hahahahahahah what? They really need to get him another character trait aside from gullible.

Oh wait, 30 seconds later he got them back again. So that was pointless.

The scenes between the main gal and Boba are terrible. I am confused if the two actors have never seen people talk to each other before or if they are doing a great job and the writers have never seen two people, much less a man and a woman, converse?

There are 10 people on this BBS and the other ones I go to that can write better dialogue. God, imagine getting to work on STAR WARS and finishing your day typing that limp gruel into Final Draft.

Mando doesn't talk and Baby Yoda can't and yet their scenes were a trillion times more interesting.

"I have credits. What I need is muscle." / no expression
"Credits can buy muscle." / no expression "If you know where to look. / smug smirk her character and the writer has not earned

DURR I HAVE CREDITS! THAT'S GOOD!
I NEED MUSCLE! THAT'S BAD!
CREDITS CAN BE EXCHANGED FOR (etc)

If the closest thing your scene maps to is Homer Simpson and the green skinned-guy talking about frogurt, then you are a terrible team of writers. It's like they forgot that Star Wars was garbage for 30 years because The Mandalorian was good and they didn't just magically prevent themselves from being unwatchable too because of that other show. (Who I now see is starting episode 5.)

What the heck is going on with this show?

For the fifth episode of The Book of Boba Fett, we got an episode of the Mandalorian. All Mando wants to do is please his two Mandalorian buddies and use his recently acquired Dark Saber to, if I understood correctly, SAVE THEM. Of the two people he meets, one decides to fight him for control of the Dark Saber, and the other excommunicates him from the clan because he took his helmet off a couple of times. Tough crowd.

We spend the second half of the episode with Mando acquiring a new ship which turns out to be an old ship (a Naboo Starfighter) and the type of callbacks I absolutely hate. Ooh, there's the ship from Episode 1! Ooh, there's where they went podracing in Episode 1! Ooh, there are some X-Wing Fighters!

In the last 30 seconds of the episode, Fennec arrives and asks Mando to join Boba Fett in his upcoming war against the Pykes, something we knew that was going to happen at the end of the fourth episode. The only thing we learn in this episode is that Jawas, under their cloaks, are furry.

When this show is over I hope someone takes all 7 episodes and cuts them down into a two hour watchable movie.

Flack, any idea why they had Boba look in the sarlac pit for his armor? He knows he had it on because it saved him and he used his goddamn flame thrower to get out. The Jawas took the armor.

Episode four was hit and miss for me.

The Tuskens are done, but the flashbacks are back. We get Fett saving Fennec's life, and Fett recovering his ship, the [s]Slave 1[/s] Firespray. Both were fun, I guess, but these are two things that we already know happened. Star Wars has been doing this for years now. In A New Hope we get Han talking about the Kessel run; in Solo, we get to watch it. We know Fennec won't die from her wounds, we know Boba Fett will recover his ship, and we know the Sarlacc won't suck them in because we've seen what happens in the future.

Every shot of Fett riding on his Bantha in the Tatooine desert makes me wonder just how far apart things are on Tatooine. In every shot all we see is sand. Does it take hours? Days? Weeks? Didn't it seem like Luke had to travel for hours in his Landspeeder just to find civilization?

After Fett and Fennec broke into Jabba's Palace (at least they didn't waltz in through the front door this time -- but still, a couple of iron bars covering a door-sized entrance doesn't seem smart), I started getting a strong Phantom Menace vibe. Here come the funny droids. Maybe I won't dislike it as much upon second viewing, but on one hand you've got essentially a mafia film and then you drop slapstick stuff in the middle.

Don't get me started on the modders.

Each time I guess something may come back, I push it way too far into the future. I assumed Black Krrsantan would return in episode six or seven, but no, we get him here again. Will the series' newest Wookiee decide to work for Boba Fett? My guess is yes, since it appears they spent a lot of money on that costume.

The "family" scene toward the end was cool, but even better was finally getting a glimpse at Boba's motivation. We don't know how Bib Fortuna backstabbed him, but we now know he did. We also know why Fett wants to be a crime lord instead of a solo bounty hunter. And finally, we now know why Fett appears ready to go to war, even if it ends up being him and a rag tag group he's assembled against an army.

I think the Sand Train, as awesome as it was, is a good example about what's awful about this series: unoriginal

I started out thinking: Why a Train? No point actually asking why a train versus other means of transportation, why go across the stupid desert at al? There's no possible rational explanation why you would load up a speeder train, staff it with guys with guns and then go speeding through dangerous desert when you have stuff like, IDK, SPACESHIPS. Why not just land the damn ship wherever you want? They didn't do any of it because it makes sense.

They used a train not because it made sense but because they wanted to do a Star Wars train heist scene with all the cliché bells and whistles. It's like those Youtube videos showing disney cartoons that are exactly the same except re-skinned. This scene could have been almost copied from hundreds of westerns, probably also one of the versions of the Great Train Robbery. It's goddam lazy. So many examples of them just taking the easy way and copying from pop culture instead of coming up with something unique.