The Book of Boba Fett - Disney's Limited Series

[Dave]

SPOILER ALERT:

I think the better question to ask is how what Boba Fett does in the next episode to the biker gang any worse than what Anakin did?

Both are revenge. Our world is full of conflicts whose basis is revenge. I can't say more than that here.

 

[ctg]

Exactly!

 

[Phyrebrat]

The Book of Boba Fett Is Making Me Feel Real Weird About Attack of the Clones

The TV series' portrayal of Tuskens has made one of Episode II 's most infamous scenes even more uncomfortable.

gizmodo.com

Someone else felt the same way as we did.

I read the article and found it ridiculous. Making an issue from nothing. This knee-jerk reaction from ‘content creators’ is pearl-clutching chicken-licken farce.

The Tuskens in AOTC might have been anywhere on the humanity spectrum. Anakin’s slaughter of them all is a powerful and necessary scene that charts his fall to the dark side far more effectively than his fear of losing Padme.

It’s hard to know where the fan boy ends and the genuine criticism starts regarding the BOBF. Star Wars is full of missteps but this journalist is reaching.

 

[ctg]

Star Wars is full of missteps but this journalist is reaching.

It's a perspective. Some people just made their connections and like you said the Anakin scene makes his fall more prominent than fluffying around the Padme issue. Some people also have had blinds on for most of their lives and they've just realised how dark the world really are.

 

[ctg]

On and off-topic question, Maul's brother, Sith or not Sith? Think it in the light that the Witches of Dathomier gifted him the powers and he chose the alignment later. He never really went through the Sith training and it was on Maul who visited and explored the temples.

He was also one of the few who survived Emperor's purge of Dathomir. By the time we thought he was a sith, but from what we know he was just a force user. Does that make him Sith?

 

[Phyrebrat]

When Dooku trains him on Serenno he commands him to tap into his hate, firing lightning at him to make him angry. This results in him passing his training. So strictly speaking I suppose that makes him Sith trained, but not a Sith follower(?).

It’s an odd one. I’d say he’s got the Sith combat but not the Sith philosophy.

 

[Toby Frost]

While it's easy to retrospectively pick holes in each episode, I think The Book of Boba Fett is overall quite good (up to and including Episode 4) but nowhere near as good as The Mandalorian. To me, this show has got one fundamental problem that comes from its own background and Disney's.

First, in the lore and fandom, Boba Fett is set up as a very skilled, very dedicated but ultimately amoral hardcase, who does the job and then goes. A lot of his appeal comes from this. Any focus on the character is going to lose some of that feeling, and The Mandalorian has already claimed a lot of the "faceless professional" territory.

Secondly, Boba Fett has inherited a crime empire, but is almost never shown actually committing crimes. Apart from fighting off rivals and their minions, I can only remember him collecting protection money from a friendly bar. Logically, he ought to be doing the sort of stuff that happens in The Godfather: smuggling, extorting, muscling in on legitimate businesses and so on. The trouble is that all of these are immoral and ultimately harm innocent people, and I doubt that's what the show wants him to do. It would largely be solved if "Daimyo" meant "ruler" in the Star Wars world (maybe it does?), and he could be portrayed as a sort of smaller version of Duke Leto Atreides or someone like that instead of Al Capone - feudal, but fair.

So I think the show has a fundamental problem of being about a dangerous man in a ruthless business, but it has to keep pulling its punches about this. I don't particularly want Boba to go on a murdering, torturing rampage, but I think the show has got a tricky problem to deal with here. I'd be interested to see how it all pans out.

 

[Parson]

I don't particularly want Boba to go on a murdering, torturing rampage,

I think I've already seen this. It wasn't pretty.

 

[ctg]

This completely erases the notions that Boba would walk to Mos Espa from Jabba's palace. The distances are measured in hundred and tens of kilometres. Not something you'd take a leisure stroll on afternoon. Speeders and hover-bikes makes sense as does Bantha's. Not walking.

 

[The Crawling Chaos]

Ouch. This hits where it hurts most.

 

[Toby Frost]

Overall, that's a fair point, but it should be said that it's the writers' fault, not the actor's. I wonder if the whole concept is just flawed from the start, and was ruined by the continual Star Wars need to (1) wring money out of every single aspect of its universe and (2) give the obsessive fans a story about every single aspect of its universe (which will usually disappoint). The truth is that Fett was a minor character who was overhyped by fanboys and was always going to be a letdown because he's a mysterious deadly killer on a family-friendly show who must, at some time, do stuff that isn't mysterious deadly killing.

Here's much the same view from The Guardian: Boba Fett is dead: how Disney+ ruined Star Wars’ coolest character

A quick additional thought on this: what the show needs isn't more "grit" but more moral condundrums. Say some villains arrive and Fett needs guns to fight them, but he has to buy the guns off a very bad slave trader? In Episode 4, Fett agrees to leave his rivals alone while he deals with the Pykes. What if this means leaving his rivals to murder, rape, steal and enslave? The show hasn't really grappled with the idea that you can't run a criminal empire without getting you hands (and morals) dirty.

 

[The Crawling Chaos]

Overall, that's a fair point, but it should be said that it's the writers' fault, not the actor's.

I only read the piece I linked to once but this is not what I took from it. In fact, they even linked to an interview of Temuera Morrison himself agreeing that his character talked way too much on the show. I've always loved Morrison (Once Were Warriors!) and to me he will always be the one and only face of Boba Fett (and Jango, clones, etc.) but he was really hung out to dry by the series' creators and directors. It is hard for me to understand how the Boba Fett who witnessed his father's decapitation by a Jedi at age 10, the Boba Fett whom Vader had to admonish not to disintegrate his targets, the Boba Fett who stood still and looked cool and uttered five lines, one of them a scream, over the course of two movies is the same Boba who keeps running his mouth, has no clue how criminals think and behave, and spends most of the time wiping the floor while Fennec Shand does the fighting.

The truth is that Fett was a minor character who was overhyped by fanboys and was always going to be a letdown because he's a mysterious deadly killer on a family-friendly show who must, at some time, do stuff that isn't mysterious deadly killing.

True. But let's be honest: There are hundreds of films, series, novels out there with charismatic, quiet antiheroes as the protagonist. So it's not so much that Boba Fett could never have been the lead character in his own show without losing the aura of mystery that made him cool in the first place, but rather that these particular writers, showrunners and filmmakers dropped the ball in many more ways than I care to count. For once, Boba Fett should never be seen without his helmet. Ever. His helmet is his face as the character once stated himself in a story of the now defunct Expanded Universe. It is the face that made him, the one people fear and respect. There's no need for Morrison to show his scarred mug so much after getting his armor back. Another benefit from keeping Fett under the bucket is that you can now have younger stuntmen performing the action sequences. Morrison is over 60 and it shows. Although this might also be due to poor fight choreography.

A quick additional thought on this: what the show needs isn't more "grit" but more moral condundrums. Say some villains arrive and Fett needs guns to fight them, but he has to buy the guns off a very bad slave trader? In Episode 4, Fett agrees to leave his rivals alone while he deals with the Pykes. What if this means leaving his rivals to murder, rape, steal and enslave? The show hasn't really grappled with the idea that you can't run a criminal empire without getting you hands (and morals) dirty.

Preaching to the choir here, but we all know Disney can't go that route in what they want to be a family-friendly show. Why they chose to make Fett a crime lord of all things in their family-friendly show is incomprehensible and the largest, most poisonous thorn in the series' side.

 

[Toby Frost]

I think The Mandalorian did a lot of the stuff that a Boba Fett show ought to have done. In fact, I'm not sure why the Mandalorian himself wasn't Boba Fett, at least at the start of the story. Some of the later stuff would have needed tweaking - he can't meet himself! - but it could still work fine.

Why they chose to make Fett a crime lord of all things in their family-friendly show is incomprehensible and the largest, most poisonous thorn in the series' side.

Definitely!

I do think the more adult/honest treatment of crime could be done without needing to be particularly graphic. You just need a shot of what crime entails (people being robbed/driven into slavery at gunpoint, or some addicts/paupers being unhappy in squalor, all of which could be PG), and then Boba brooding as to whether he wants to be part of this. Maybe he then kills the villain, or makes the long-term goal to dismantle the whole criminal underworld, which could lead to fights and action.

Regarding Morrison's age, he could have a slightly more regal air, delegating the fighting to his minions (which feels realistic for a master criminal) and making decisions and having the occasional shootout. I do quite like him as an actor, but I agree that he doesn't fit with how I imagined Boba Fett to look and behave. That said, the character is probably in a later stage of his career. Perhaps the show should make more of this.

 

[ctg]

The Book of Boba Fett releases new episodes on Disney+ every Wednesday, and the show was met with mostly positive reviews from critics, earning an 85% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, viewers have been a little more mixed on the series, earning the show a 60% audience score. There's a lot to love on the show ranging from its exciting cameos and character reveals to speculation about the future. However, some fans have complained that Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) talks too much on the show, and they're not alone. Morrison revealed in an interview with NME that he tried to cut down his lines while creator Jon Favreau was out of town.

"'I've got all these paragraphs here! I think we should get rid of it,'" Morrison remembered telling a crew member. "'And Jon's gone to Atlanta, so don't tell him!' Next morning on set, I get a call from Atlanta: 'Uh, Jon wants you to say all that dialogue.'"

The Book of Boba Fett is set to have three more episodes, and Morrison previously teased an exciting finale, which will hit Disney+ on February 9th. In a joint interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Ming-Na Wen (Fennec Shand) stopped Morrison from revealing too much about "Chapter 7" ahead of its debut. "Yes, full of surprises. The Book of Boba 'full of surprises' series," Morrison quipped. "Yeah, we've got some good stuff coming up. Ooh, wait till episode seven, wow!"

The Mandalorian spinoff follows Fett and Shand as they fight for control of Jabba the Hutt's criminal empire on Tatooine. Morrison and Wen's tease comes amid the rumored return of a Star Wars icon, but the actors aren't giving anything away. However, in another interview with TVLine, the actors teased more exciting characters.

"Oh, yeah. We're not allowed to mention too much about these incoming actors, but yeah, we look forward to it," Morrison replied when asked if audiences should be on the watch for upcoming villains. "That's just the beginning. There's some colorful chaps coming in to upset the works and that's a part of this wonderful series, too, the introduction of all these elements that come in all shapes and all kinds."

The Book of Boba Fett Star Temuera Morrison Tried To Cut Down His Dialogue While Jon Favreau Was Away

The Book of Boba Fett releases new episodes on Disney+ every Wednesday, and the show was met with mostly positive reviews from critics, earning an 85% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, viewers have been a little more mixed on the series, earning the show a 60% audience score. There’s a lot to love on...

comicbook.com

 

[The Crawling Chaos]

Regarding Morrison's age, he could have a slightly more regal air, delegating the fighting to his minions (which feels realistic for a master criminal) and making decisions and having the occasional shootout. I do quite like him as an actor, but I agree that he doesn't fit with how I imagined Boba Fett to look and behave. That said, the character is probably in a later stage of his career. Perhaps the show should make more of this.

Well Morrison is 60+, but the character Boba Fett is supposed to be just over 40 years old at this point in the timeline ('born' in 32 before Episode IV, while the Disney+ show is set 9 years after that movie).

One could say that after 25 years or so of living rough and bounty hunting to the galaxy's outer rim and back, Boba's lifestyle could already have taken quite the toll on him but 40 isn't 60 (how did he ever get fat running after his preys?), and experience supported by dozens of secret weapons stored in a full suit of beskar has to count for something, right? So even with a performer who's no longer able or willing to keep up with exhausting rooftop chases and never-ending fisticuffs, why not make him a rugged and ruthless brawler who fights dirty, using every trick in the book to prevail? Morrison wouldn't have to break much of a sweat and the viewers would be happy.

Instead we get the "Ninja" fight in episode 1. An embarrassment. Boba gets caught with his pants down (or rather, with his helmet off) in the middle of the street, in a town where he knows all the local gangs want him dead. He allows himself to be surrounded by six or so ninjas and he doesn't even think about using his jetpack to fly away or his flamethrower to burn his way out... or even the now infamous 'Whistling Birds' that Din Djarin of The Mandalorian fame is so fond of, and which Boba also carries on his gauntlet. Instead he... wait, what? He fires a mini RPG at a guy hiding behind a laser shield not 3 feet away from him and knocks himself down in the process. Dear old Jean-Luc Picard would have facepalmed his brains out.

 

[ctg]

or even the now infamous 'Whistling Birds' that Din Djarin of The Mandalorian's fame is so fond of, and which Boba also carries on his gauntlet.

"Ammo is hard to come by," that's what the Armourer told to Mando. It is a relic piece and since the purge, I cannot imagine that there are many who manufacture ammo for the mandalorian pieces. Although we have to allow some flexibility since it cannot be super rare.

I have no qualms with his fights. He is doing them well. It might be a writer problem, and somewhat directional problem, but those situations he has been in he has come out from them as winners. Also you cannot be OP in every conflict, in some you will struggle even if you're beyond capabilities of your opponents.

 

[The Crawling Chaos]

"Ammo is hard to come by,"

Sure, and that's understandable when you're a group of underground Mandos hiding in a network of tunnels on the far rim of the galaxy. Doesn't work as well when you're the most successful bounty hunter ever for whom "money's not a problem" (paraphrasing) as Boba said himself in the fourth episode. Based on his fight against stormtroopers in the season 2 of The Mandalorian, he doesn't quite strike me as somebody who will spare a few rounds of exotic ammo when he needs to even the odds. May I add that when your life's on the line, not using a weapon for fear you might not be able to reload it later is a bit careless? In any case, that was only one example among many. Again, he has a jetpack, a flamethrower, and he is supposed to be a competent warrior.

I have no qualms with his fights. He is doing them well. It might be a writer problem, and somewhat directional problem, but those situations he has been in he has come out from them as winners. Also you cannot be OP in every conflict, in some you will struggle even if you're beyond capabilities of your opponents.

Yes, I never said Morrison was the problem. I worked for TV and movies in the past (not on that scale) and I know that when an actor's shortcomings are evident on the screen, it is always, invariably the fault of the producer, director or both. They are the ones who call the shots, who tell an actor what they should do and how they should do it, who move on to the next scene when they figure the previous take was good enough, who pick the shots they like and assemble every scene like a jigsaw of a million pieces in the cutting room ("Take 5 had the best delivery, but I like her face on take 2, let's try and sync the sound from #5 to the picture of #2." "Oh, take that glance he does in take 3 and splice it in")... If your lead actor has physical limitations, you should shoot around them. Frame the scenes differently, bring stuntmen in, cut scenes faster to give the illusion of speed and use sound effects to give the illusion of strength. That's just filmmaking basics. It is never the actor's fault.

If the Ninja scene was just a one-off, I would agree wholeheartedly with your point. But I find these flaws to be consistent. Boba loses pretty much all of his fights and needs to rely on Fennec Shand to tip the scales or give him an edge. When Boba's not to blame for getting himself in trouble in the first place. Rat-catcher droid scene? Check. Ninja fight? Check. Ninja parkour chase? Boba's not even able to do it because... reasons. Some guy shows up at Jabba's palace to threaten him? Boba lets him, and Fennec needs to step in. Some guy shows up at Jabba's palace without a tribute for the new daimyo? Boba asks Fennec what should be done.

The list goes on and on. He is the most uncool crime lord ever. Always looking like a deer caught in headlights, unsure of himself, unaware of customs he's supposed to have spent his life observing. When in a fight, he always looks too old, too slow and clumsy.

Now, there are exceptions. It's not all bad. The bar fight scene in episode 2 showed exactly how every other fight scenes in the show should look like, proof that it's not Morrison who is to blame, but the people who write him as a clueless fighter or those who could not direct a toilet paper ad to save their life (looking at you, Rodriguez). In fact most exceptions would probably be found in Episode 2, which was also the only good episode in the show so far and kept my hopes up in spite of Episode 1 and until the seriously low blow of Episode 3.

 

[ctg]

Looking at Jon Faveous biography list I cannot see him having anything crime related in series or in movies. He has a lot of credit on other things, but not on crime stuff. Maybe that's why Dave Filoni is getting the writing credit (ep 6) at the end of the season.

The curious thing is why these didn't come up on Disney's test viewing?

 

[The Crawling Chaos]

The curious thing is why these didn't come up on Disney's test viewing?

They got complacent, because they can afford it. The Book of Boba Fett is riding the wave of The Mandalorian, which was a huge popular success that made Disney+ millions - and it's not undeserved. The interconnectivity of these shows and those that have yet to come (Ahsoka, etc.) means Disney can allow themselves to cut some losses and only explore the characters and shows who will bring the most money. They took a bet on Boba Fett considering how popular the character was (but only after testing the waters with his beskar-clad cousin), but something tells me we won't see a Book of Boba Fett season 2, and that this show will simply end up being an interlude between two more successful seasons of The Mandalorian.

 

[ctg]

I think they need a writer team rather than Jon trying to tackle the task on his own. They need to talk the episodes through in the writers room and be able to take critique from Lucasfilm and Disney. Because at the moment you're right, they are not doing good enough job.

Thing is that Lucasfilm came up with PR release where they claimed that they're focusing on the SW, Indiana and Willon IP's. But ... we are also speculating that the rest of the season is going to flop, while the actors are hyping that the end will fix everything.

I for one want season 2. I want them having a second chance to fix things.