We’re an intense lot, aren’t we? Certainly, I understand all too well how seriously we take our respective fascinations, and I can appreciate how – from time-to-time – we will take to the World Wide Web to voice our displeasure over the direction of a particular property, show, or franchise. We’ll bitch. We’ll gripe. We’ll moan. It all comes from the heart – where passion resides – and even though we might bend a bit too deeply into the deep end of the pool, I honestly do believe it’s an activity we undertake because we care. Besides, restraint has never been a strength of the human race.
Unlike so many who write about entertainment, I generally don’t see anything wrong with it. Sure, it can go overboard and get a bit destructive if not either controlled or moderated but living in a world where free speech is tolerated means that we have to take the good with the bad (and the ugly). There’s plenty of blame to go around – if that’s your thing – and while I may not agree with your opinion of a program I’ll always appreciate your right to sound off. That’s just who I am.
So I went into this week’s installment of The Book Of Boba Fett after having read a rather vicious thread tearing “The Streets Of Mos Espa” into tiny little pieces. There wasn’t a single unifying focus of this – erm – let’s call it ‘hate,’ but quite a bit of it centered around a group of youngsters inducted into Fett’s new Tatooine ‘gang.’ This lot of droid-enhanced gangbangers all truck around the desert world on – yes, yes, and yes – the ugliest collection of floating mopeds quite possibly conceived in Fantasy.
See there, peeps? I’m agreeing with you. Those speeder bikes were ugly.
Yes, I’ll even concede that they were a bizarre creative choice, and I don’t know who thought they were a good idea. (Favreau? Are you listening? Filoni? Are you asleep?) They look nothing like any other speeders we’ve seen in the entire Star Wars universe (no, I disagree with those who insisted the streets and skies of Coruscant had similar color schemes), and – from a narrative standpoint – they make little sense. Gangs seek commonality amongst their members, but this group apparently think individuality and bright shiny colors that clash are the way to go. Why, it’s their own violent little rainbow. How quaint.
Yes, yes, and yes (again). It was a bad decision.
Also, they were a bit young for my tastes.
Given that The Book Of Boba Fett appears somewhat intent on demystifying the ‘legend’ that longtime Star Wars fans have always ascribed to the bounty hunter, perhaps Fett’s conscripting local youth into his posse shouldn’t come as a surprise. The show’s first chapter took the man to a lowly place, indeed (robbed by Jawas, enslaved to the Tusken Raiders); but the second chapter somewhat restored fandom’s expectations when it delivered big moments we’d been expecting all along. If anything, the man is proving a measure of unpredictability, and that trait alone can make for an exciting experience. I’m just hoping Chapter Four doesn’t have the singular sensation and Fennec Shand decided to pack it all up, get hitched, and raise a few younglings of their own. That’ll be a bridge too far.
My wife is no slouch when it comes to Star Wars. She may not be the Jedi Master I consider myself to be, but she knows the difference between a Bantha and a Tauntaun … and that’s something. We watch these Disney streaming properties together, and it’s one of our shared interests. When these kids rumbled onto the small screen in the Mos Espa city square, it was a scene that even brought her to laughter. She immediately suggested that these new characters looked more like Power Rangers than deadly threats to Jabba’s rogue’s gallery.
As the episode unspooled, it did get a bit better as these street rats were given something to do other than look tough on their shiny mopeds. By the finish, they had proven themselves as capable henchmen, though not much more than that. Here’s hoping that they’re granted a bit more dimension in whatever remains of this season; otherwise, Tatooine is looking like ‘slim pickings’ for the new criminal underworld under Fett’s charge.
-- EZ