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Enjoying the series, for what it is.

Thoughts about Ep. 5:
I think Fett will end up with the Dark Saber and turn Tatooine into the new home world for the Mandalorians and be their leader. That's how he gets his tribe, and forces, to fight the Pikes.
Din will gift Grogu with chainmail made from the Beskar Spear. This will ensure Grogu survives Kylo Ren's attack on the students.

That suped up N-1 was really nice looking.

I love Amy Sedaris!

Voss wrote:
I was under the impression that Bo-Katan and company were taking the ship for... whatever their plans were.

Same here. Bo-Katan seems like she could actually drum up a crew to man the cruiser. Din can't. He'd have no use for it even if he wanted to claim it.

Another option is that the ship is impounded by the Republic. Which probably wouldn't go down well with Bo-Katan since she has ambitions and those might get farther if she has a warship.

 ProtoClone wrote:
Enjoying the series, for what it is.

Thoughts about Ep. 5:
I think Fett will end up with the Dark Saber and turn Tatooine into the new home world for the Mandalorians and be their leader. That's how he gets his tribe, and forces, to fight the Pikes.
Din will gift Grogu with chainmail made from the Beskar Spear. This will ensure Grogu survives Kylo Ren's attack on the students.

That suped up N-1 was really nice looking.

I love Amy Sedaris!

I'm pretty sure that the gift is a shiny ball of Beskar, but I agree in the forging montage there were pretty clearly what looked like chainmail links flying around, so I'm open minded.

Well. I enjoyed this ep a lot more than the rest of the series, although I wasn't expecting we'd get something like this. Mando works a lot (like a LOT lot) better as a series MC than Boba.

It’s pretty embarrassing how much better Book of Boba Fett is when Din Djarin is the protagonist. This episode is not perfect or anything but I enjoyed it so much more than the previous four specifically because, despite going in very hopeful and with an open mind, the way Boba has been handled is just downright puzzling. Why does he insist on intimidating a tiny cartoonish droid? Why does he pilot his spaceship to physically look into the sarlaac? Why is he a completely inept negotiator? Ugh. It’s a thousand times better to see Din slice his own damn leg with the damn Darksaber and get kicked out of us his cult. Was the point of Book of Boba Fett to make me realize how much I prefer Din Djarin?

I mean, apparently? ^^

Not that I personally needed it, mind, I've never liked the character much. But I'd watch anything with Ming-Na Wen on it, so...

I've seen a few comments on Facebook and elsewhere i aggree with and will echo here, that i think part of the problem is that Fett has so far been very passive, throughout the series. hes constantly reacting to others, but not really driving the plot. He doesnt have a clear objective, or sub-objectives he needs to complete in order to further his cause. he starts the series having effectively "won" the only thing we knew he was aiming for (jabbas throne), but isnt really able to use that position to inlfuence events and make changes to mos espa. about all he's done so far is survive a few assassination attempts, piss off one of the few people that pays "tribute"/protection money to him, and collect assorted misfits to work for him, none of which really help his stated long term goal of rule "based on respect"/not based of pure fear. hes not really managed to convice....well, ANY of the local centers of power to support him, and doesnt seem to have a clearly explained plan of how hes going to do this.


DJinn, by comparison, is much more active, and is moving the story he is in along. he basically always has clear objectives, and is almost always working towards those. He want to find his fellow mandos, he wants to redeem himself by their creed, he wants to give his gift to Grogu, he needs a ship, he needs to fix to the ship etc. the plot feels better because hes actually making progress towards these goals.


Djinn moves his plot forward, but the plot moves around Fett, and it feels like djinn's story has moved forward more in 1 episode that Fetts story has in 4 episodes.

xerxeskingofking wrote:
Djinn moves his plot forward, but the plot moves around Fett, and it feels like djinn's story has moved forward more in 1 episode that Fetts story has in 4 episodes.

Please! Don't rush the elderly!

I wonder if they're trying to make Boba into a genius masterminding a specific plot and his happy go lucky approach will be revealed to be part of it, and a deliberate ruse. I could see it. If the writers didn't know what to do with the character they would have just gone with easy fan service and made him a total badass. Anyone who's not into him would be rolling their eyes just as hard as they are now but at least they'd get cheers from the Boba fans. It's such a low hanging fruit. Which makes me think that they have a plan that they don't feel like sharing with the audience.

 Albertorius wrote:
I mean, apparently? ^^

Not that I personally needed it, mind, I've never liked the character much. But I'd watch anything with Ming-Na Wen on it, so...

Agreed. I was a fan of hers in Stargate Universe and am glad to see her back in space scifi (never watched Agents of Shield though). This pic (likely from the 90s given the scanned physical photo quality instead of digital) definitely doesn't dissuade me either!

 Geifer wrote:

xerxeskingofking wrote:
Djinn moves his plot forward, but the plot moves around Fett, and it feels like djinn's story has moved forward more in 1 episode that Fetts story has in 4 episodes.

Please! Don't rush the elderly!

I wonder if they're trying to make Boba into a genius masterminding a specific plot and his happy go lucky approach will be revealed to be part of it, and a deliberate ruse. I could see it. If the writers didn't know what to do with the character they would have just gone with easy fan service and made him a total badass. Anyone who's not into him would be rolling their eyes just as hard as they are now but at least they'd get cheers from the Boba fans. It's such a low hanging fruit. Which makes me think that they have a plan that they don't feel like sharing with the audience.

Deconstruction of the mystery anti-hero, maybe?
This show reminds me of the HH novel series complaints, that telling the story sucks all the mystery (and more importantly) possibility out of it.

Boba as a mastermind seems like a reach at this point, there isn't enough time for anything more than a perfunctory 'all according to plan' which will come off as deeply unsatisfying. We still have to have an actual confrontation here, after all.

I hope the ending is it all blows up in his face and he just leaves with Mando. Ming takes over the crime stuff because shes competent and boba becomes Mando's partner on search of water on Mandalore.

 warboss wrote:

 Albertorius wrote:
I mean, apparently? ^^

Not that I personally needed it, mind, I've never liked the character much. But I'd watch anything with Ming-Na Wen on it, so...

Agreed. I was a fan of hers in Stargate Universe and am glad to see her back in space scifi (never watched Agents of Shield though). This pic (likely from the 90s given the scanned physical photo quality instead of digital) definitely doesn't dissuade me either!

Spoiler:

Man, it’s been so long since I watched Universe I don’t even remember her, or really anyone, in it. She did kick quite a good bit of butt in Shield though. She was The butt kicker on that team.

Voss wrote:

 Geifer wrote:

xerxeskingofking wrote:
Djinn moves his plot forward, but the plot moves around Fett, and it feels like djinn's story has moved forward more in 1 episode that Fetts story has in 4 episodes.

Please! Don't rush the elderly!

I wonder if they're trying to make Boba into a genius masterminding a specific plot and his happy go lucky approach will be revealed to be part of it, and a deliberate ruse. I could see it. If the writers didn't know what to do with the character they would have just gone with easy fan service and made him a total badass. Anyone who's not into him would be rolling their eyes just as hard as they are now but at least they'd get cheers from the Boba fans. It's such a low hanging fruit. Which makes me think that they have a plan that they don't feel like sharing with the audience.

Deconstruction of the mystery anti-hero, maybe?
This show reminds me of the HH novel series complaints, that telling the story sucks all the mystery (and more importantly) possibility out of it.

Boba as a mastermind seems like a reach at this point, there isn't enough time for anything more than a perfunctory 'all according to plan' which will come off as deeply unsatisfying. We still have to have an actual confrontation here, after all.

Granted, depending on runtime of the remaining episodes whatever they have in mind could be a tight fit.

I have a completely bogus idea, real tinfoil hat stuff, but it would explain a lot. We know he's going to confront the Pykes and that will probably be the big finale. What if he's snorted a lizard again and the whole underworld boss thing is just the framework for getting revenge for his tribe? He doesn't really know what he's doing, nor particularly care, because of the Delirium Lizard guiding him on his path. He's all about honor and respect since that's what he picked up from his tribe and those values take precedence over practical considerations of how to set up and run a criminal empire. It's all about avenging the Tusken, which has been the focus of the show for so long and explains why the underworld boss plot is just a side show between the dreams/flashbacks. And when he's done, his tribe has been avenged and he and the lizard go their separate ways, he just so happens to be in a good place for a happy end because he's at the top of a functional, little criminal empire.

I'd laugh if this was even a remotely accurate prediction.

Not sure if what we're seeing is much of a deconstruction. It's a continuation of the young Boba stories in Clone Wars where Boba is the ideas man but other bounty hunters do a lot of the heavy lifting for him. He hasn't exactly had a stellar showing in the original trilogy. Even in Episode V he has the same bright idea as Han and then lets Vader catch his bounty for him. In terms of what seems to be canonical under Disney, Book of Boba is more of the same. but, I'm not big on deconstructions and don't usually see what people find so interesting about them, so I don't have much to say about that.

 AduroT wrote:
Man, it’s been so long since I watched Universe I don’t even remember her, or really anyone, in it.

Isn't that good? Shouldn't we strive to forget that Stargate Universe ever existed?

Not sure if what we're seeing is much of a deconstruction.

I wasn't particularly serious about that, just that filmmakers seem to reach for that as an excuse when their film or show is bad (or just poorly received)

Voss wrote:

Not sure if what we're seeing is much of a deconstruction.

I wasn't particularly serious about that, just that filmmakers seem to reach for that as an excuse when their film or show is bad (or just poorly received)

Yeah pretty much. It's usually either that or they directly say that toxic fandoms or specific subsets of people (usually men) are a certain "ism" and thus were what caused it to do badly.

How glad I am that I'm rarely exposed to that kind of nonsense.

 Grimskul wrote:

Voss wrote:

Not sure if what we're seeing is much of a deconstruction.

I wasn't particularly serious about that, just that filmmakers seem to reach for that as an excuse when their film or show is bad (or just poorly received)

Yeah pretty much. It's usually either that or they directly say that toxic fandoms or specific subsets of people (usually men) are a certain "ism" and thus were what caused it to do badly.

Nope. Only the former. Don't bring that crap into the discussion, or at least don't attach it to what I said.

Voss wrote:

 Grimskul wrote:

Voss wrote:

Not sure if what we're seeing is much of a deconstruction.

I wasn't particularly serious about that, just that filmmakers seem to reach for that as an excuse when their film or show is bad (or just poorly received)

Yeah pretty much. It's usually either that or they directly say that toxic fandoms or specific subsets of people (usually men) are a certain "ism" and thus were what caused it to do badly.

Nope. Only the former. Don't bring that crap into the discussion, or at least don't attach it to what I said.

I wouldn't say only the former when you have garbage like Santa Inc doing terribly because it's fundamentally a bad show, but its creator Seth Rogen tries to address its bad reception due to the intervention of white supremacists. (also see Ghostbusters 2016)

But I'm going off topic. With only 2 episodes left, I feel like even if Boba ends up beating the Pykes, it doesn't seem like he'll have much of an underworld Empire afterwards given how small scale his operations are and how little people give a fart about him even if he manages to drive the Pykes off. How is it going to try and follow up with a second season of Book of Boba if it feels like nothing has really changed for Boba's status as a would-be kingpin?

Voss wrote:

 Geifer wrote:

xerxeskingofking wrote:
Djinn moves his plot forward, but the plot moves around Fett, and it feels like djinn's story has moved forward more in 1 episode that Fetts story has in 4 episodes.

Please! Don't rush the elderly!

I wonder if they're trying to make Boba into a genius masterminding a specific plot and his happy go lucky approach will be revealed to be part of it, and a deliberate ruse. I could see it. If the writers didn't know what to do with the character they would have just gone with easy fan service and made him a total badass. Anyone who's not into him would be rolling their eyes just as hard as they are now but at least they'd get cheers from the Boba fans. It's such a low hanging fruit. Which makes me think that they have a plan that they don't feel like sharing with the audience.

Deconstruction of the mystery anti-hero, maybe?
This show reminds me of the HH novel series complaints, that telling the story sucks all the mystery (and more importantly) possibility out of it.

Boba as a mastermind seems like a reach at this point, there isn't enough time for anything more than a perfunctory 'all according to plan' which will come off as deeply unsatisfying. We still have to have an actual confrontation here, after all.

Maybe Luke can fly in with his x-wing for the finale. Or maybe CGI Han will let bygones be and save the day.

So here is my hot-take, which has actually already been mentioned here a bit:

I like the show.

I LOVED the Mandalorian... but this one, eh, I like it. I totally agree with the criticisms of storytelling, plotting, character development... but also: it has the kind of ridiculous spectacle and silly weirdness that makes Star-Wars, well, Star-Wars. At least to me.

Is it a great show? Nope. Is it even a "good" show as in a specific level of quality above some kind of norm... probably also nope. Is it a FUN show that I enjoy watching for the above reasons? Absolutely.

I guess that's enough for me. That may seem like a low bar, but it's also nice to have a show that isn't super-dark and depressing or silly. It's just entertaining television where the effects are shiny, the characters look cool, and quite possibly someone will ride a Rancor like a fething horse by the end of it.

I'm not really looking for anything else right now.

leerm02 wrote:
So here is my hot-take, which has actually already been mentioned here a bit:

I like the show.

I LOVED the Mandalorian... but this one, eh, I like it. I totally agree with the criticisms of storytelling, plotting, character development... but also: it has the kind of ridiculous spectacle and silly weirdness that makes Star-Wars, well, Star-Wars. At least to me.

Is it a great show? Nope. Is it even a "good" show as in a specific level of quality above some kind of norm... probably also nope. Is it a FUN show that I enjoy watching for the above reasons? Absolutely.

I guess that's enough for me. That may seem like a low bar, but it's also nice to have a show that isn't super-dark and depressing or silly. It's just entertaining television where the effects are shiny, the characters look cool, and quite possibly someone will ride a Rancor like a fething horse by the end of it.

I'm not really looking for anything else right now.

I'm glad you're able to enjoy it, but I think a lot of the reason why people can't is because it's entire premise is based around a character that has fandom reputation and mythos of being a badass due to the expanded universe and just his mystery in the original trilogy, which seemed to be justified upon his return in the Mandalorian. So for things to turn into a total 180 with mostly bland and boring scenes ruffles a lot of people's feathers. I'm not one for excessive fanservice, but the show seems to actively go out of its way to make Boba seem incompetent, especially compared to Fennec.

I'm sure people would be more forgiving and willing to turn off their brain if it was a new character rather than an existing legacy character. It mainly follows the same trend of the OT characters like Luke and Han basically having character assassinations.

That is fair. I guess I never really cared one way or the other for Boba Fett. I mean, sure, he looked pretty cool in the original trilogy, but so did the emperor's Imperial Guards (the dudes in the red cloaks) and they never amounted to anything.

So, I think I have a lot more tolerance for him basically being just some pretty decent fighter dude with a great reputation turned wanna-be crimelord after going through the storyline of "Dances With Wolves".

You know, that perfectly normal storyline ;-)

leerm02 wrote:
That is fair. I guess I never really cared one way or the other for Boba Fett. I mean, sure, he looked pretty cool in the original trilogy, but so did the emperor's Imperial Guards (the dudes in the red cloaks) and they never amounted to anything.

So, I think I have a lot more tolerance for him basically being just some pretty decent fighter dude with a great reputation turned wanna-be crimelord after going through the storyline of "Dances With Wolves".

You know, that perfectly normal storyline ;-)

I wish they at least let him keep a Tusken raider posse instead of the Mos Espa Vespa gang, at least he would have a crew that's somewhat intimidating.

 Grimskul wrote:
I'm glad you're able to enjoy it, but I think a lot of the reason why people can't is because it's entire premise is based around a character that has fandom reputation and mythos of being a badass due to the expanded universe and just his mystery in the original trilogy, which seemed to be justified upon his return in the Mandalorian. So for things to turn into a total 180 with mostly bland and boring scenes ruffles a lot of people's feathers. I'm not one for excessive fanservice, but the show seems to actively go out of its way to make Boba seem incompetent, especially compared to Fennec.

I'm sure people would be more forgiving and willing to turn off their brain if it was a new character rather than an existing legacy character. It mainly follows the same trend of the OT characters like Luke and Han basically having character assassinations.

For what it's worth, I'm not particularly attached to the EU version of Boba as a badass, and I've mentioned elsewhere before that I would have been just as happy if Disney had gone with the precedence set by the original movies and the Clone Wars cartoon of the him being a bit of a try-hard with an undeserved reputation thanks to Daddy's armour and being in the right place at the right time... So it's not the characterisation that I find fault with (although I wish he wouldn't talk so much... an opinion apparently shared by Morrison).

But even as someone who will happily consume pretty much anything Star Wars related and enjoy it, this series (or at least the 'present day' portion of it) is just dull. Whether or not he's a badass, have him actually do something aside from wander aimlessly around Tattoine telling people who he is and hoping they'll give him money.

 insaniak wrote:

 Grimskul wrote:
I'm glad you're able to enjoy it, but I think a lot of the reason why people can't is because it's entire premise is based around a character that has fandom reputation and mythos of being a badass due to the expanded universe and just his mystery in the original trilogy, which seemed to be justified upon his return in the Mandalorian. So for things to turn into a total 180 with mostly bland and boring scenes ruffles a lot of people's feathers. I'm not one for excessive fanservice, but the show seems to actively go out of its way to make Boba seem incompetent, especially compared to Fennec.

I'm sure people would be more forgiving and willing to turn off their brain if it was a new character rather than an existing legacy character. It mainly follows the same trend of the OT characters like Luke and Han basically having character assassinations.

For what it's worth, I'm not particularly attached to the EU version of Boba as a badass, and I've mentioned elsewhere before that I would have been just as happy if Disney had gone with the precedence set by the original movies and the Clone Wars cartoon of the him being a bit of a try-hard with an undeserved reputation thanks to Daddy's armour and being in the right place at the right time... So it's not the characterisation that I find fault with (although I wish he wouldn't talk so much... an opinion apparently shared by Morrison).

But even as someone who will happily consume pretty much anything Star Wars related and enjoy it, this series (or at least the 'present day' portion of it) is just dull. Whether or not he's a badass, have him actually do something aside from wander aimlessly around Tattoine telling people who he is and hoping they'll give him money.

Yeah, I think you've nailed the biggest problem of the show, and its on the sin of it being boring. Fett does basically go about asking for handouts for whatever reason, he'd probably have more luck doing that on other planets than a place like Tatooine.

I just started e5. I think it's funny that I am now more excited to see Mando on screen than Fett.

Show was pretty bad until the most recent episode.

So having watched the first three episodes, I'm kind of confused.

I thought this was supposed to be a show about Boba Fett being a crime lord.

Instead it's like someone made a Dances with Wolves remake and a really gakky crime drama filled with people who don't know how to crime and decided to make some TV episodes that bounce back and forth between both movies for no reason.

The whole plot in Mos Espa is especially weird. Like the Dances with Wolves stuff with the Tuskans is okay and mostly ruined by the split focus (though I'll point out it's so insanely derivative of Dances with Wolves it's more surprising for how unoriginal is than anything else). The Mos Espa plot is bizarre and underdeveloped. It seems filled with people acting like they're in a show about criminals but none of whom know how being a criminal works.

And that's just really weird because Boba worked for criminals and in the underworld for an entire career. How does he not know how this works? His character is entirely too old to be acting so naive and not come off as a total moron.

Even if you decide not to continue watching (perfectly valid choice as I agree that it's been at best meh overall), definitely watch the latest episode (5?). It's pretty much a stand alone prologue to the next season of mando and Boba doesn't even show up except in the previous episode recap.

I'll keep watching cause it's not so bad that I want to drop it.

It's just kind of surprising that the show is so... All over the place and not particularly good? It's quite surprising actually. I didn't like the Bad Batch for many of the same reasons. Most of the first three episodes feel like stuff happens because there's a show and they need stuff to happen. There's a disconnect between what is happening on screen and any sense of weight that the events matter.

A show about Boba Fett feels like it should be easy even if it were mediocre but even setting aside the years of fan build up around the character, this character doesn't act like a professional bounty hunter. He acts like a much younger man with far less experience and far too much naivite. Ezta Bridger and Ashoka when they first appeared were more competent than this and that's saying something.

EDIT: And then you get to episode 4, which continues the story's bizarre split-plot with a massive timeline issue (the events of the flashback seem insufficient to cover the 10-15 years between RotJ and Mandalorian) but this feels like it's where the series should have started except Boba continues to be a bit too naive and incompetent for his apparent reputation. Still, the actual balance feels a bit better before basically going back to continuing to be a show bizarrely about a wacky old guy who should probably retire and stop trying to be a main character XD Watching him talk about how he's smarter than his former employers is just kind of laughable after the first three episodes of this show.