Summary: Luke is training Grogu and slowly reawakening his memories. Mando comes to visit but meets only Ahsoka who cautions him from seeing Grogu and impeding his progress. Mando leaves his gift with Ahsoka and leaves. Luke offers Grogu a choice to take Mando's gift and leave or take Luke's gift, Yoda's lightsaber, and stay. Mando returns to Tatooine and learns that Boba needs manpower. He goes to meet with Cobb and tries to convince him to fight for Boba. Cobb agrees to think on it and prepares to hold a meeting. However, Cad Bane suddenly appears and threatens Cobb to stay neutral. Cobb refuses and Bane kills his deputy and possibly him as well.
The Good: This was an episode with some huge story progression, not for the plot of the show, but rather for the plot of the "Star Wars" franchise overall. We got to see Luke training Grogu, Mando's continued conflict about leaving Grogu, Ahsoka's return, the introduction of Cad Bane, and some set up for the battle between Boba and the Pyke Syndicate. There was a lot to digest here, but not too much. The episode was paced nicely and was consistently entertaining. True to the form of "Star Wars", there are lots of callbacks and references to the past, and they are mostly handled well. Luke's training of Grogu references his own training with Yoda a lot. While on the surface this is just some fanservice, it is a nice exploration of Luke's uncertainty when teaching because all he knows is what Yoda did when he taught him many years ago. So it makes sense that he simply tries to paraphrase what Yoda has already told him. The training itself is great to watch and it's nice to see Grogu progress slowly in his training. He's been presented with an interesting choice at the end of the episode, and I'm invested in seeing what Grogu chooses. The other character cameos are well done. It's good to see Cobb again, and his wild west influence gives the episode a more interesting style to play with. The return of Cad Bane is very well executed, and it was great to hear the same voice actor reprise his role. Bane is every bit as intimidating as he needs to be, and his showdown with Cobb carried a lot of suspense. Ahsoka's return was unexpected, but it made sense that Luke would foresee Mando returning and give R2 instructions to take him to Ahsoka instead. Once again Mando was the star of the show here, and he had a very strong episode. Mando is a constant reminder of Boba's failings as a main character (see: The Bad) because of how effective he has been in the last two episodes. Compared to Boba, Mando has so much more presence, charisma, and interesting character moments which make him much easier to connect to and appreciate. It also helps that his visual appearance is much more interesting than Boba's. I've enjoyed following Mando and I think he was given some good storylines. His big decision to leave the gift with Ahsoka and not see Grogu was heartwrenching and Mando's internal conflict was obvious to see. It's very impressive how Mando's obvious tension was communicated through subtle body movements and silences, overcoming the limitation of not being able to see his face. The Bad: So much for this being "The Book of Boba Fett". Boba and his story has been completely sidelined and ignored in these last two episodes which emphasizes how irrelevant and uninteresting his story is. Spending so much time with Mando has only made me fully realize how unsatisfying Boba has been as a main character. In the early episodes I tried to take a positive approach by giving the show some slack; I presumed that Boba would be developed more in the later episodes. But now that these last two episodes have been spent with Mando, I've realized that the Boba Fett from episodes 1-4 is all we're going to get. And he is so unbelievably boring and underwhelming. Despite not having a helmet, Boba is much less charismatic, entertaining and interesting to watch. His failure as a main character emphasizes the fact that making a TV show centered around him was an awful idea, and it's another reason why the people behind the scenes should be focusing on telling their own stories instead of catering to what people want. People wanted a Boba Fett show, and it failed spectacularly. Instead of just trying to give fans what they want, "Star Wars" should be trying to create compelling stories - by doing that, you will be giving the fans what they want anyways! As much as I have enjoyed the time with Mando, it feels extremely out of place. This should have been in season 3 of "The Mandalorian", but instead Mando's story has been inserted in the middle of someone else's story. Sure, Mando has improved this show by making it more interesting, but giving us a different story does not make the original story (Boba Fett's) any better. In fact, I'm left questioning why we have spent so much time with Mando when we could have been exploring Boba's story deeper and maybe finding something worthwhile there. Furthermore, the next episode is the season finale which means that we have to return to Boba and resolve the Pyke Syndicate story. And instead of setting up that storyline, this episode instead has us excitedly awaiting Grogu's decision in the next episode. As a set-up episode for the finale, this has completely failed because it has focused on the wrong storylines. I am certain that I am not going to care one bit about the Pyke Syndicate story in the next episode because it is clear that the show itself doesn't even care about it. While the last two episodes have been fun, they entirely failed to service the show as a whole. Lastly, I'm disappointed that "The Book of Boba Fett" is now mandatory viewing for anyone trying to follow Mando's story. Anybody watching past season 2 of "The Mandalorian" now has to trudge through multiple episodes of "Boba Fett" to get the rest of Mando's story, which to be honest, is just a waste of time. And I hate it when TV shows waste my time. I remain concerned with the direction that "Star Wars" is heading. With the appearances of Mando, Ahsoka, Luke, and Cad Bane in a Boba Fett TV show, it's becoming clear to me that "Star Wars" is trying to tell a single story across multiple TV shows. A connected universe like this sounds cool, but the big downside is that the pacing of the storytelling will slow down massively and these shows will now be forced to incorporate other characters not connected to the main storyline. This will be really problematic because it will degrade the quality of the stories being told, and for what? The only reason I can see for doing this is fanservice, which should absolutely never be a primary motivator in storytelling. But fanservice seems to be all that "Star Wars" is about now. "The Mandalorian" season 2 and now "The Book of Boba Fett" have their biggest moments based around callbacks to the past instead of forging any new ground for the future. It's really flat, uninspired, and it does not capture the imagination at all because I have already seen much of what the show is showing me. I've seen Cad Bane a lot, I've seen Yoda train Luke, and I've already enjoyed characters like Mando and Cobb. While it's fun to see them again, it is not necessary and it doesn't get me excited and invested in the way that seeing something new does. I want "Star Wars" to innovate again, but with the amount of praise that the franchise gets for these extremely safe, fanservice-heavy episodes, I suspect that this may just be a pipe dream. As for specific things about the episode itself, I have a couple gripes. Some lines felt clunky and lacking in subtlety, and that has been a problem for "Star Wars" since its inception. These clunky lines did break my immersion throughout the episode. I found it laughable that Mando went to Cobb's town to get muscle. Recalling season 2 of "The Mandalorian", it is blatantly obvious that nobody here would be fine in battle! Fighting a monster is completely different from fighting a war, and it's strange that neither Mando nor Cobb pointed this out at all. In reality, there is no way that these untrained soldiers would ever fight or ever be considered a threat. I find it hilariously unbelievable that the Pykes felt so threatened by this puny town with just a single capable fighter that they sent Cad Bane to threaten them. This is a clear-cut case where the story that the writers wanted to tell did not make any realistic sense, yet they told it anyways. The Unknown: How did Grogu escape the temple? His flashback was cut off right when he was about to be attacked. This has been teased for a while so I'm wondering what mystery is being hidden from us. Will Grogu choose to stay with Luke? I suspect he will. What will be the significance of this choice? Is Cobb dead? I presume since he was only shot once in the shoulder that he will survive. How will he react to Bane? Will he fight with Boba or remain neutral? Best Moment: Mando opting not to see Grogu was emotional and engaging. Quality stuff. Character of the Episode: Mando. Conclusion: This episode did a lot for forging the future of "Star Wars", but I can't help but note how little this does for "The Book of Boba Fett". Add on some concerns with the direction "Star Wars" is heading, and this fun, enjoyable episode goes down a few pegs. Still, it's a good episode, the one I've enjoyed the most all season, as for once it feels like there is something worthwhile to talk about. Score: 61
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
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