The Book of Boba Fett (2021-Present)

*Some casting spoilers.*

I’ve watched all the live-action Star Wars series as they’ve come out on Disney+—I’m holding off on the newer animated stuff until I catch up on the older ones. But while I’ve reviewed The Mandalorian, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and of course, Andor, I never got around to writing about The Book of Boba Fett, which might be its own indicator of how I feel about the show.

After killing Jabba the Hutt’s successor, Boba Fett takes over the crime lord’s territory, attempting to amass power and respect in a Tatooine that’s not prepared to accept the new head honcho. As Boba tries to get his house in order, with a little help from Fennec Shand and a few other allies, we flash back on his time between Return of the Jedi and the present (which, like The Mandalorian, is set about ten years after the original trilogy.)

By now, everyone’s already talked about The Book of Boba Fett and, in many cases, where they think the show went wrong. I’m not against the series, and I don’t have a hatred for the mod kids who roll with Boba, but it is my least favorite Star Wars series by quite a bit. The story had a tough time holding my attention, and many episodes are notable more for what Boba doesn’t do than what he does.

One major sticking point is that, throughout the series, I don’t get what exactly Boba’s trying to do. He takes over a crime syndicate, but then it seems like he kinda doesn’t want to do crime? He’s not interested in running spice or whacking his enemies, and his rivals see his general disinclination towards violence as weakness, not mercy. This makes his position precarious, though again, I’m not sure how he’s so intent on holding Jabba’s former seat if he doesn’t actually want to be a crime lord. This disconnect leaves the whole show feeling like it has a bit of an identity crisis. What is the series trying to accomplish?

It's telling that one of the most popular episodes of the season doesn’t even have Boba in it. Titled “Return of the Mandalorian,” the fifth episode delivers just that, and Mando—along with Mando-adjacent characters—plays an important role through the rest of the season. And don’t get me wrong, I’m all about seeing Mando, Grogu, and co. again. Especially in 2021, when The Book of Boba Fett was only the second game in town, seeing these Mandalorian characters and giving them major plot focus beyond simple guest-star status was 100% welcome. But they add to the identity-crisis feel too, because the second half of the show seems a lot like season 2.5 of The Mandalorian. Everyone comes together in the finale, but it’s not quite satisfying for me.

None of this is the fault of the actors, who all do well with the material they’re given. Temuera Morrison is frequently hampered by Boba’s inaction, but he delivers whenever he gets the opportunity. Ming-na Wen’s Fennec is allowed to be stoic, badass, and not much else, although she keeps the character from feeling too flat. Pedro Pascal is great as always as Mando, as is the Grogu puppet—the way they emote through zero facial expression/being inanimate consistently kills me. Plenty of other characters from The Mandalorian and elsewhere also show up, including Amy Sedaris as Peli Motto, Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano, and an animated character making their live-action debut.

Warnings

Violence, mild language, drinking/references to space drugs, and thematic elements.

Relationship Spotlight: Grogu & the Mandalorian (The Mandalorian)

*There be spoilers ahead.*

Ah yes, the timeless story of a lawless killing machine and his adorable moppet. That may sound like sarcasm, but it actually is a classic archetype, the gruff outlaw of few words having a soft spot for someone cute and cuddly under his charge. While the specifics change – It might be a baby, a plucky young orphan, or a precious dog – it’s a reliable way to create a highly-watchable tonal balance between sharpness and sweetness in a show or movie.

But for all that, I think hardly anyone had “the high-stakes bounty is Baby Yoda” on their bingo card of The Mandalorian anticipation. Not much was known about the show going in, and no one really knew what to expect, but I doubt anyone was expecting that.

And yet, it immediately blew the show wide open. I’d been enjoying the adventures of the taciturn, seemingly-nameless bounty hunter going after a big score for a shady client. The show was giving us a good mix of nostalgia and new content, the production design was fantastic, and I got a kick out of the back-and-forth between Mando and IG-11, a droid all but hell bent on self-destructing. But when that pod opened up, Grogu stared up at us with those enormous eyes, and Mando shot IG-11 to keep him from “eliminating” the baby, it was suddenly very clear what sort of show I was embarking on.

All the hallmarks are there. While Mando initially protects Grogu, he still views the bundle of adorableness as a bounty, an asset, and he does his best to resist Grogu’s innocent charms. But under that armor, he isn’t made of stone, and we watch him slowly start to crack. The moment when Grogu reveals his Force sensitivity at a critical moment, saving Mando from a charging mudhorn. Grogu’s mischievous tenacity trying to play with a particular knob on a control in Mando’s cockpit. Grogu’s cries when Mando hands him over to the client, Mando asking what the client wants with the child, even though bounty hunters are paid not to wonder such things. It’s a gradual progression, but it’s no surprise that Mando immediately regrets turning Grogu over and is prepared to do anything to take him back.

The big action moment of rescuing the baby is of course memorable and dramatic, but it’s what comes after that’s even more impressive to me. Because Mando basically blows up his whole life for this kid. Grogu still has a bounty on him, so they’re on the run, and Mando’s rescue stunt has burned his bridges with the bounty hunters’ guild, so his usual livelihood has dried up. Part of the reason so much of the show feels like a series of side quests is because Mando is working to keep them both alive one step at a time. Every week, it’s, “Find some kind of work to keep us in the air a little longer,” or, “Find some out-of-the-way planet where no one can track us.” In season 2, it becomes more, “Chase down this lead to find someone who can point me in the direction of a Jedi who can help the kid,” and later, “Figure out how to take the fight to Moff Gideon, because he’s not gonna stop coming after Grogu.” Everything he does becomes about protecting and providing for this child.

Not that Mando suddenly becomes a perfect surrogate dad. Far from it. He puts his own life in immediate danger way too often for someone who has a baby to take care of, and he repeatedly acts as if saying, “Stay on the ship,” is enough to get Grogu to listen to him. But his life is about this kid now, and it’s really gorgeous. I love his fond resignation when he lets Grogu have the knob from his control panel, and I love his mostly-futile attempts to stop Grogu from eating live frogs. I love when Grogu rides in his lap in the cockpit, and I love that they apparently bunk together on the ship. I love Mando’s veiled but pointed warnings for Grogu to behave himself around the Frog Lady’s tasty eggs, and I love Mando trying to get Grogu to help him with electrical repairs on the ship (true, it’s another “wildly imperfect dad” moment, but Exasperated Mando Trying to Talk Grogu through Wiring Instructions is definitely the best Mando.)

With all of that, it’s completely believable that Mando goes to the lengths he does when Moff Gideon finally comes for Grogu near the end of season 2. Not just the danger he confronts, the violence he wreaks, or the laws he breaks, but the code he breaks. Twice – once out of mission necessity, once for deeply personal relationship reasons – he breaks the Mandalorian code so sacred to him that he once was prepared to die rather than let someone see him without his helmet. For Grogu, there’s nothing that Mando wouldn’t do.

Favorite Characters: The Mandalorian (The Mandalorian)

Yes, I know his actual name is Din Djarin. But while I’ve gradually gotten used to saying “Grogu,” 1) no one really calls Mando by his given name, and 2) he doesn’t introduce himself that way. So we’ll stick with the Mandalorian/Mando (some spoilers.)

In his introduction, the Mandalorian is immediately presented to us as a stone-cold badass, laying waste to some smartmouthed fools in a bar and capturing his bounty with the ominous warning, “I can bring you in hot, or I can bring you in cold.” His adherence to the code of his people means that, extremely-lethal competence aside, he cuts an imposing figure. His face is forever shrouded behind the blank glare of his beskar helmet, his quietly self-assured voice processed through the helmet’s vocoder. Everything about him says “don’t eff with this guy.”

But one thing I love about Mando is that it doesn’t take long to show us the cracks in his armor (metaphorically speaking – that beskar is nothing to mess with.) While he’s generally pretty unbeatable, he’s far from untouchable, and his impressive weaponry/fighting prowess is married to a high level of determination in the face of unfavorable odds. I like that he gets knocked down, that he doesn’t know how to ride a blurrg and doesn’t always anticipate when someone will betray him. With his armor, coupled with the unreadability of his hidden facial expressions, there’s a temptation to mythologize him, but the show doesn’t play coy with his fallability. For all that his look and vibe are designed to make fanboys wet themselves with excitement, at the end of the day, he’s just a guy in full beskar doing his best to stay alive from one job to the next. He’s incredibly good at what he does, but he’s not superhuman.

I always really appreciate how well his personality comes through beneath the helmet. Kudos to Pedro Pascal (as well as the stunt doubles who also inhabit the armor) – Mando is made to be inscrutably, unspeakably cool, but the performance tells us who he is through his vocal inflections and body language. He’s a wary guy, always reading situations/people and prepared to draw one of the many weapons in his arsenal the second he needs to, and he doesn’t let his guard down easily. He’s also frequently exasperated: by the trouble that inevitably follows him around, by the ambitions of unscrupulous people who try to get one over on him, and by Grogu’s frequent mischief, which teaches him that bounty-hunting is a cakewalk compared to raising a 50-year-old toddler while on the run. And of course, while he erects a very noticeable wall between himself and others, the show finds him gradually acquiring family, friends, and allies. Grogu is the first to crack his stoic veneer, but over time, he comes to value/respect plenty of others who help him on his ultimate mission to protect Grogu and keep him safe (including a droid, which, for Mando, is a huge deal.)

I didn’t include Mando back when I wrote up my Top Five examples of non-toxic masculinity, but I find him very refreshening as a male action/genre lead. While he may not be as overt in his feminism as Ben Wyatt or as in touch with his emotions as the Fab Five, I love that he’s a sci-fi extension of a lone gunslinger archetype who’s not toxic and/or sexist. He knows exactly how good of a warrior he is, and other men sometimes try to bait him into a pissing contest, but on the occasions that he fights back, it’s to get them out of way, not stemming from any urge to prove his masculinity. Likewise, he allies himself to plenty of badass women (Cara, Fennec, Bo-Katan, etc.) without ever feeling the need to assert himself over them. There’s no jockeying for dominance, no need to run the show – they work together, each taking the lead at various times. And just the fact that his central plot is about developing a deep paternal love for Grogu is so massive. Whether he’s sighing over Grogu getting them both into trouble, moving Heaven and Earth to keep Grogu safe from those who would hurt him, or just being quietly affectionate during a private moment between them, I adore Mando’s love for his young charge/surrogate son.

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Since it appears that Tony Leung Chiu-wai is managing to avoid most of the press stuff for Shang-Chi (Hong Kong’s quarantine rules are pretty strict, so I don’t blame him for not coming to LA,) I’m instead on the lookout for other people from the production talking about him during their own interviews. Here, director Destin Daniel Cretton talks a little about what it meant to have Leung in the movie – I love that he says, “As soon as Tony came on, we knew the type of movie we were making and the type of character that we had to create in order to make that character worthy of an actor like Tony.” For so many years, I haven’t known anyone IRL who’s a fan of his like I am, so it’s gratifying to hear the folks behind a big Hollywood production (a Marvel film, no less!) clearly loving and appreciating his talent. It makes me excited to think of all the people who are about to see him in action for the first time – we’re getting so close!