The Book of Boba Fett Already Knows Exactly Who Its Hero Is

When Boba Fett returned from the useless in The Mandalorian’s second season, it provided him up as an archetype his personal legacy had helped set up: the template that the complete Mandalorian tradition was constructed upon for many years of tales. The Book of Boba Fett begins by diving slightly additional into its titular protagonist’s latest previous—however does little thus far so as to add texture past what we already knew.

Thematically, “Stranger in a Strange Land” and its predecessor in The Mandalorian’s “The Tragedy” are in lockstep with one another, as The Book of Boba Fett’s premiere spends a lot of its runtime re-establishing Temuera Morrison’s taciturn warrior the identical method The Mandalorian did a yr and a half in the past. Since the writing is already happy with its thought of who Boba Fett was and is on this new Star Wars canon—a warrior of honor, like his father earlier than him, and like lots of the Mandalorians which have adopted in his footsteps—the episode is much less keen on poking at this thesis than it’s portray within the gaps it took to get there.

“Stranger in a Strange Land” is an episode that’s refreshingly gentle on thriller. It follows the interwoven timelines of Boba’s previous (protecting his escape from the Sarlacc pit after the occasions of Return of the Jedi) and his present current as of the ultimate scenes of The Mandalorian’s sophomore season. Boba and his new associate Fennec Shand (the returning Ming-Na Wen, who stays a cipher since her personal return from past the grave) are actually dealing with the political realities of a post-Jabba Tatooine.

Like its titular hero, this episode is blunt and to the purpose about what Boba’s present state of affairs and his path forward. There isn’t any Luke Skywalker in a hallway right here, neither is there a child Yoda… nothing to upend what we might anticipate out of Star Wars’ established order. How did Boba Fett escape the Sarlacc? He obtained out of it. What’s he doing on Tatooine now? Exactly what you’d anticipate. Who is Boba Fett? Who you’ve got at all times wished him to be.

G/O Media might get a fee

20% Off

Select Nuraphone Styles

Get award-winning personalised sound
Grab the Nuratrue Earbuds, Nuraphone headphones, or the NuraLoop earbuds at a beneficiant low cost.

On the one hand, which means that The Book of Boba Fett’s stakes usually are not all that prime. That’s not a slight: I truly recognize the restraint, provided that Star Wars has these days been inclined in the direction of the best stakes attainable in a galaxy the place everybody you already know is at all times simply across the nook. On the opposite, it implies that The Book of Boba Fett doesn’t have a lot to say about its titular character but. The Mandalorian re-forged Boba in a template his lengthy historical past in Star Wars’ expanded universe had established for the sort of roaming mercenary characters that may are available in his wake. So he feels acquainted and lacks thriller, although this can be a model new story.

In presenting this as who Boba at all times was—even when, as we see in flashback, he’s stripped of his iconic armor after his sarlacc escape, dragged alongside as a debased sufferer of Jawa scavengers after which as a prisoner of nomadic Tuskens—The Book of Boba Fett doesn’t enable the viewer to query our preconceptions of Mandalorians, or of our titular hero. If Boba was at all times the stoic, honorable and enduring warrior he’s now, there’s little room to play with our expectations within the method that The Clone Wars did with Mandalorian society, or The Mandalorian did in its first season. Of course Boba would show himself to his Tusken captives by honor and power, defending a youngling that stored him in chains through the use of these chains to combat a multi-armed creature stalking Tatooine’s dunes. Of course Boba would preach respect and honor to Jabba’s former vassals, at the same time as he merrily and brutally blasts and wrist-rockets his well beyond anybody who would oppose his new rule. Is this not the Boba Fett we at all times wished? Is it not the identical Boba we obtained in his Mandalorian return?

That is to not say there aren’t hints of one thing extra right here, at the same time as “Stranger in a Strange Land” chooses to play it protected. There is the query of simply how Boba and Fennec will select to navigate the politics of Tatooine’s (not-so-under) legal underworld. There’s already friction within the type of uneasy new allies like Jennifer Beals’ Garsa Fwip, and new foes just like the assassins despatched to take away Boba from his throne. There can be, simply as there was in “The Tragedy,” extra allusions to the concept Boba has but to grapple with the trauma of how he misplaced his father, as Bacta-pod-induced flashbacks hang-out him with photographs (ripped straight from Attack of the Clones) of the second he found Jango’s finish.

If The Book of Boba Fett intends to chase down these threads, even because it re-assures us that its titular hero is who we at all times wished him to be, it might add some intriguing texture to the person behind certainly one of Star Wars’ most iconic masks. For now, although, it’s merely content material to be as direct: It is aware of who Boba Fett is. For now, and for a lot of, that will probably be sufficient.

Wondering the place our RSS feed went? You can decide the brand new up one right here.