Hello, I'm Adrian and today we're going to be discussing two of my favorite characters
in Star Wars, Boba Fett and The Mandalorian. I would like to clarify that this video will have
tons of spoilers from the both the series of The Mandalorian as well as the Book of Boba Fett and
the Star Wars films in general. With that out of the way, let's take an in depth look at the Boba
Fett series and why it wasn't as well received with fans or critics as the Mandalorian was.
At the end of Mandalorian Season 2 Boba Fett walks into what we recognize as Jabba's Palace from Star
Wars Episode 6 and straight up eliminates the sitting Daimyo Bib Fortuna to become the new one.
And fun fact, the term Daimyo actually hails from Japan. Daimyo were feudal lords,
who as leaders of powerful warrior bands, controlled the provines of Japan from the
beginning of the Kamakura period in 1185 to the end of the Edo period in 1868. So now you can
see why that term fits so well in Tattoine. In any case, Boba Fett usurps the throne once held
by Jabba and a title card informs us that his story would continue in the book of Boba Fett.
As I eagerly watched the first episode, while I was entertained by that opening
sequence in which we finally get to see him escape the Sarlacc Pitt,
I was a bit let down that the show seemed to have a much slower pace than the Mandalorian's.
As the show went on, I didn't really like watching it. Which seemed weird to me considering that Boba
Fett is one of my all time favorite characters in Star Wars. Sure, things sure pick up in the
final couple of episodes leading to an explosive finale featuring Boba Fett, Din Djarin, Cad Bane,
and of course this adorable little guy which has quickly become my mom's favorite character
in all of Star Wars. But even though I really enjoyed the last few episodes,
I still wanted to analyze what went wrong in the earlier ones to make them feel so...off. And to
get to the root of that, we need to go back a little bit to the premiere of The Mandalorian.
When this show first streamed, it was truly something else. It had incredible visuals,
amazing production value, an engaging storyline, at least one outstanding action sequence per
episode, well thought out characters, the first appearance of arguably one of the most popular
characters now, lovingly named Baby Yoda by the fans, and was just an all around great series.
Fast Forward to about a year later and Season 2 is equally as entertaining if not more so.
It was a great expansion of the Mandalorian universe featuring appearances by fan favorite
characters like Bo Katan, Ahsoka Tano, and Luke Skywalker himself. For me, the coolest
reveal was that Boba Fett had not died in that Sarlacc Pit, but had found a way to survive.
The Mandalorian finally reunites him with his armor and he proceeds to make short work of a
band of Stormtroopers, easily decimating their ranks with a bit of close quarters combat and
intelligent use of his projectile weapons, including firing his long range missile
which he never got to do in the live action films up until then. He even got to use his
seismic charges with what might be the most awesome sound effect in all of Star Wars.
So with that aforementioned finale of The Mandalorian, I could not wait to see what
adventures lied ahead for Boba Fett...and grew progressively more disappointed with
each episode that I saw. Din Djarin is an undeniably cool addition to the franchise.
But the problem he creates for The Book of Boba Feet is that he took several
of Fett's coolest aspects, leaving Boba Fett with little to do on his own show.
Din Djarin is a bounty hunter. A Mandalorian with armor that looks like Boba Fett's.
A man of few words. A man with a mysterious past. A man who never removes his helmet.
Note how every one of those things is what Boba Fett is, or at least was supposed to be.
Boba Fett was the OG who wore that armor, the bounty hunter who had the courage to speak to
Vader as if he were his equal, the mysterious helmeted man who had only four lines of dialogue
in the entire original trilogy. That being said, Mando wasn't a carbon copy of Boba either.
He had a very good sense of morals, and became an incredibly good father figure for Baby Yoda.
This was in direct opposition to Boba who had up until then been portrayed as a ruthless
bounty hunter who continually worked with the bad guys like Jabba the Hutt and Darth Vader.
However with Boba Fett now being very much alive in the world of Star Wars,
it leaves a dilemma. How do you have two versions of essentially the same character?
Two mysterious armored bounty hunters who only talk when they need to? They handled it well for
his appearance in Mandalorian Season 2, but now that he's the main character it's going
to be more challenging. The easy answer, and the one that they took with Boba Fett,
was to completely change one of those characters into something else.
Boba Fett's show couldn't also be about his adventures as a Bounty Hunter
because they had pretty much just done that with Season 1 of The Mandalorian.
That would be repeating themselves. They couldn't have Boba Fett zipping around the galaxy with his
ship because The Mandalorian just did that too. He can't be a man of few words because,
again, The Mandalorian is now a man of few words. He can't always leave his helmet on,
because that's what Mando does now, it was even written into his creed.
So this led to quite a bit of changes into Boba's character and demeanor.
Perhaps most distracting was that throughout the series we rarely get to see Boba with his helmet
on. He puts it on, occasionally, but he's mainly seen without it.
Alarmingly so I might add as we see him carry it around like an awkward trophy or he uses
it as part of the room decor instead of using it like the helmet it's supposed to be. Again,
because Mando always wore his helmet, now Boba was the one that couldn't always wear his helmet.
The mystery of how he survived in the deserts of Tattoine up until we meet him in Season 2 of
the Mandalorian was also completely gone. It was exhaustively explained how he was robbed by Jawas,
beaten and forced to work for the Tuskans, and eventually trained by them.
As opposed to the Mandalorian, the action sequences with Boba Fett were also few
and far between. Granted, the train heist sequence was exciting, but it was mainly
Temuera Morrison in his pajamas instead of Boba Fett. No armor, no helmet, no blasters,
nothing there showing the iconography that is so closely associated with the character.
And not only that, Boba changed from barely speaking to being quite the chatter box,
constantly talking to those around him, explaining himself and how he feels, and letting people know
that his name was Boba Fett, despite never once uttering a line like that in the original trilogy.
But perhaps the biggest change with the character was the drastic way in which his character was
rewritten. Gone was that ruthlessness which was associated with him. This was a man who
was explicitly told by Vader himself that no disentegrations were allowed. But now
he seemed so..nice. Don't get me wrong, it's always cool to see a villain redeem himself,
Venom is my favorite supervillain turned antihero of all time. But to see it happen so suddenly and
out of nowhere just felt odd. Right from the get go after getting captured by the Tuskans he wanted
to help the other guy that was also captured instead of just thinking about himself. A mini
ark that could have happened here was that the Tuskans changed him. But even before he was taken
in by them as their equal he was already being portrayed as not ruthless, but compassionate.
After the flashbacks, Boba doesn't have much to do other than stroll around the streets of Tatooine
with Fennec and his army of two goons. Even when he is given an opportunity to show some backbone
he is always portrayed as so nice and polite. When the mayors slimy assistant
is totally disrespecting him in his palace and later in the mayors office, he doesn't
just blast him or even threaten to do so. And when Fennec threatens harm to that assistant,
Boba Fett himself remarks that perhaps that was a bit heavy handed.
What!? Why would he say that? If anything Fennec should be the one trying to hold him back,
as she rightfully does in the final episode with Cad Bane during their initial standoff.
Then there are the meme worthy moments like the brightly colored vespa like speeder bikes
that would even embarrass the Power Rangers. Then there's the fact that the setting of the
first few episodes is so bland and repetitive. Nothing but his base, the bar, the mayors office,
and the deserts of Tatooine. Over and over again. He doesn't even get cool fight scenes early on.
Fett does get to beat up some bikers in a bar, but he also gets thrown around like a
rag doll with no armor, and is promptly defeated by these guys too. And he of
course did not have his helmet on since he removes it every single chance he gets.
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Returning to Boba, I was so disenchanted by the show that I didn't recommend watching
it to my friends or family. I even told my brother, who is also a a huge star wars fan,
not to watch, it since I found it all to be so underwhelming and boring. But then...Chapter
5 premiered, and everything suddenly clicked.
The Mandalorian walks in to a random meat locker and recites his line he said in his
pilot not so long ago, then the dark saber is wielded. And then you get amazing production
value with the each location he's in. Suddenly there are more than a couple
people on screen at a time, suddenly you are back in the world of Star Wars.
Before you know it Mando's new ship is a retooled Naboo fighter from episode 1,
he even takes it through the same course that Anakin did on his pod racer,
ILuke Skywalker shows up, and Baby Yoda is here. Mando's recruited by Fennec to help Boba and they
are backed into a corner and now they are fighting back and Boba is finally wearing his helmet..and
you get the point. It just becomes an insanely fun and entertaining star wars adventure.
I immediately told my family and friends to see it from Chapter 5
onwards and was glad the production crew gave the series such an awesome finale.
But it was sad that in order to be such an awesome finale, Boba had to be sidelined in it.
The visuals, storyline, production value, and action sequences really didn't kick into high gear
until Mando showed up. Then it all made sense. The Book of Boba Fett was never meant to be a
series dedicated to Boba Fett. It was meant to be a budget saving mini season of the Mandalorian.
With Disney launching multiple star wars projects besides just The Mandalorian,
there simply wasn't enough time or money to do a full season of the Mandalorian, so they
did the next best thing, make it a miniseries event and introduce it under the banner of Boba
Fett. That way you get to make four episodes on the cheap with minimal sets, costumes,
actors, crew, and production design and save it all for three amazing Mandalorian episodes.
Boba Fett was just filler episodes before we got to an extended preview of Mandalorian Season 3.
And this brings us back to the underlying Mandalorian problem with Boba Fett moving forward.
There are an innumerable amount of stories that could be explored with Boba Fett before
the events of Episode 6. But because that would be treading dangerously close to what is already
being done with The Mandalorian, that's not likely something that's going to happen anytime soon.
So instead we deal with the period that happens after Episode 6. And because Boba Fett can't be
too similar to Din Djarin, which is a bit silly to think about considering Mando owes all his
coolest aspects to Boba, Boba has been forced to change into something else. He removes his
helmet now. He's a nice guy now. He doesn't want to be a bounty hunter now. He rarely uses his ship
now. In an effort to make him so different from the Mandalorian, they've put Fett in a place that
even he doesn't really want to be in as he's even semi complaining to Fennec by the end of the show.
Boba Fett needs to do something else, go somewhere else, even be someone else, but not this.