The Book of Boba Fett | Disney+ | Season 1
by Evie Totty on January 6, 2022

Evie Totty | January 6, 2022
The Book of Boba Fett | Disney+ | Season 1 | Episodes 1: “Stranger in a Strange Land” & 2: “The Tribes of Tatooine''

Episode 1:
IGN Summary

Temuera Morrison first played Boba's father, Jango in Attack of the Clones, but is now playing Boba in the series.

Do they show us how he survived the Sarlacc? Yup, in gross detail. How he lost his armor? Yup.

We get scenes from the present and the past. In the present, he talks about how he will rule with respect and doesn't want to be carried on a litter. The past shows him the prisoner of Tusken Raiders.

I have to be honest: the man is old. We saw it in The Mandalorian and it's glaring to me in Book. And he seems to have false teeth that are very white and super creepy.

We see him "fight off" an assassination attempt today and earn the respect of the Raiders in the past by killing a creature and thus saving one of the Raider children.

Episode 2:
IGN Summary

This episode is more of today and the past. We find out who tried to assassinate him - kinda. The revelation is a humorous scene.

And we find out Jabba's twin cousins have come to claim his throne - and Boba pretty much tells them to go fork themselves.

The past shows us how he got the gaderffii - a Tusken Raider staff. You apparently find a piece of wood - with the help of a lizard entering your brain and "guiding you" - and make it yourself, much like a Jedi makes his own lightsaber. The reward is a result of him planning and executing an attack upon a train that as it runs through the desert, shoots and kills many Raiders unprovoked.

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I do not like this show as much as I'd hoped. I stayed up until 3 am to watch both episodes and perhaps that has something to do with it, but I do not plan to do the same next week.

Evie Totty | January 12, 2022
The Book of Boba Fett | Disney+ | Season 1 | Episode 3: "The Syndicate"

As a reminder, these updates will contain spoilers.

Ok, this was a much better episode and we had Stephen Root (a water monger) and Danny Trejo (an rancor trainer).

The episode just ended, so there is not a summary up yet, so I'll link it later.

It opens with Root's character coming by and attempting to ingratiate himself with the new ruler of Mos Espa. We quickly find out that he overcharges for water - "A month's pay for a week's worth of water" from a group of young people with brightly-colored cycles. When told they need to get jobs, they tell him there are none... so he hires them.

Next is a flashback to Boba going to the Pykes to pick up the protection money they were informed they were to pay. He was informed that the speeder bike gang (Nikto?) is also charging and have been paid. Fett said he'd handle it and left.

He arrives at the camp only to find it has been burned down and everyone has been killed (as far as I know). Much sad :(

BTW - the flashbacks all happen as memories he is experiencing while he "sleeps" in his bacta tank. He is abruptly yanked out of his tank by Black Krrsantan - the bounty hunter introduced in the comics and who appeared in last week's episode alongside the twins.

A fight ensues (with the new youngsters coming in to help) and ends with Black Krrsantan being tossed into the empty rancor pit. The twins pop by to apologize for sending the Wookie to kill him and bring him an actual rancor as a present. Fett says they'll be square as long as they leave Tattooine. They inform him that the mayor has promised the area to another party and that they were peacing out because of that anyway. Fett attempts to give Krrsantan back to them and they were like 'nah'.

So Fett lets him go anyway.

Trejo brings in the rancor and we next see it on the ground, unchained, not moving. When Fett asks why - Trejo informs him it's depressed, but doesn't say why. He does say it was spawned from fighting champions. When asked why it has blinders on, he says it's because they imprint on the first human they see.

Boba tells him he wants to learn how to ride it - apparently, that's something people don't do. The droid comes in to say the mayor is not available for "the next 20 days".

Fast forward to the city and after a (what seems to be a low-speed) chase through the city, they find out the mayor is with the Pykes and upon a recon they find out a LOT of Pykes have arrived and are preparing for a war. /end

I will say that the chase was ... terrible because they made it would have been really cool had it not been low speed. It was laughable - but hey. It's TV and not everyone can have The Mandalorian's budget.

Scott Hardie | January 12, 2022
There are some dumb and cheesy elements on this show, like the street gang's go-go-power-ranger bikes, and the extremely broadly telegraphed perfidy of the mayoral staff, and the sped-up combat scenes to account for Morrison's age. But the show is so good in its quieter moments, particularly the flashbacks of Fett bonding with the Tuskens, that I'm encouraged to stick around and see where it's going.

I've heard criticism of the show's clumsy premise, that bounty hunter Boba Fett would want to be a local crime boss or that he could be successful without acting like a normal crime boss. But I'm willing to buy that he's probably playing the long game towards a larger goal, and that he's pulling a Ted Lasso and trying to earn respect and cooperation instead of relying on fear. Notice how he converts everyone into an ally in a uniquely personal way: The piggish guards are spared death because it earns loyalty in their culture, the cyborg kids get hired because they want to earn a living, the palace droid gets asked to speak his mind instead of having to fear upsetting the boss, the cantina owner gets a mutually beneficial business arrangement, the water-monger gets to keep money he wouldn't have under Jabba, the rancor trainer sees Fett bond with the creature and quickly likes him, and so on. I assume that the Wookiee was set free for the same reason, because it would earn his respect and he'd return later to help. Fett is showing a remarkable amount of emotional intelligence for a character who previously said little and worked solely for money.

Is it a problem that the show is inconsistent with previous Star Wars characterization? Not to me: Like The Mandalorian's depiction of imperial officers who perceive themselves as the good guys bringing peace to the galaxy by force, The Book of Boba Fett is doing some long overdue work of broadening the saga's moral palette beyond strict black and white, such as in its humanizing of Tusken raiders as a soulful and dignified race. Those stupid color-coded bikes are a reminder of the show's kid-friendly marketability, but it has a lot more going on under its surface than it seems.

Evie Totty | January 12, 2022
I agree. We are on the same exact page.

Scott Hardie | February 3, 2022
Given that this show has been about everyone except the title character for two episodes in a row, I like that someone online joked, "This is a tribute to the Star Wars movies, where Boba Fett was set up to be this amazing important character and then he was barely in it."

Evie Totty | February 3, 2022
Bwahahaha! I'm behind on my reviews - I've been crazy busy! Also behind on the MCU. I shall catch up though!