The Book Of Boba Fett
Young Reporter Georgia gives a deep dive into the in’s and out’s of Disney’s most recent series set in the STAR WARS universe The Book of Boba Fett.
SPOILER ALERT! This article will discuss the episodes of The Book Of Boba Fett so if you’re not up to date on the episodes and don’t want any spoilers then don’t read just yet!
Boba Fett is a frequent character in Star Wars, he appears in movies 2, 5 and 6 as well as popping up in The Mandalorian and the clone wars series. Originally, George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, didn’t plan for Boba Fett to be such a famous and well liked character. He had planned for Boba Fett to be a background character who wouldn’t get a backstory because he only had 4 lines and 6 minutes of screen time in total in the original trilogy. But the fans immediately took to Boba Fett and demanded more about this character, this is why Boba Fett still is making an appearance today and is now the star of his own show so let’s get into it.
Episode one came out on the 29th of December 2021 and made a big splash with fans beginning right where we left off in Return of the Jedi with Boba falling into the Sarlacc Pit after where he was presumed dead. Of course there were rumours and theories that Boba survived but it was only confirmed when he showed up in season two of the Mandalorian.
We do of course see Boba’s past in Star Wars the Clone Wars as he is obsessed with avenging his father since it’s the Mandalorian way. But eventually in a confrontation with Mace Windu he realises his anger is misdirected and is actually caused because of the sadness of losing his Father, as well as the Mandalorian expectations of the suppression of emotions. Watching your own father get beheaded right in front is bound to give you emotions, but as we see in the Book of Boba Fett he has learned to overcome his trauma and uses it to become a Daimyo (Gang Boss on the desert planet Tattooine).
Boba also appears throughout the clone wars era as he takes up his Father’s mantle as a bounty hunter and shows himself to be an aggressive yet capable character.
Episode1 of Book of Boba Fett contained a recap of the previous goings on in the Mandalorian as Boba Fett comes in to reclaim his armour from Din then after a brief adventure, returns to Tatooine and becomes the Daimyo. The first episode of any series with an old character contains a lot of relevant exposition which was cleverly showed through flashbacks in Boba’s memories to build up the story for the next episodes.
In these Flashbacks we see his memories with his Father, giving the audience some vital background information of his Father’s death and his own upbringing on calming Kamino as a clone which is radically different to his every once in a while adventures with his Father, Jango. As shown in Attack of the Clones with their dogfight over Geonosis with Kenobi. This gave Boba a lot of experience in the dangerous environment that is the galaxy.
Eventually the flashbacks catch up to when Boba gets swallowed by the Salaac and this is where his story truly begins.
Once Boba awakens inside the Salaac he fights to get out as he utilised his flame thrower to dry out the gooey fluids coating the inside of the stomach so he can try and climb out. As soon as he climbs his way out without being fried alive by the stomach acid he collapses from exhaustion. Then jawas steal his armour and drive of in their sandcrawler. Boba is then awakened by the Tuskens who bind him and drag him along the dunes to their camp.
The next scene is a vital moment as Boba awakes tied to a post. A young tusken with black robes and a red snood approaches, curious of the stranger, he pokes him with a stick a couple of times and then proceeds to beat Boba.
Other young Tuskens join in for fun. The next time Boba awakens it is night and there is another prisoner next to him, a coral pink rodian. Boba, in an effort to break free of his bonds, lures over a Massif (tusken dogs) to subdue it and use its sharp teeth to break free. He then asks the Rodian if he wants to be free too, to the Rodian raises the alarm and Boba makes a run for it. He is then caught up to by the tusken warriors where he then tries to fight them. But as Boba has no armour and is armed with a stick, he loses quite quickly. This is where the flashback ends as Boba is awakened by Fennec. Boba has been in his Bacta tank the entire time of the flashbacks as he is healing from his encounter with the sarlacc.
We then proceed to an iconic scene of Boba putting on his restored armour and striding into Jabba’s throne room and sits very intimidatingly on the throne with Fennec poised on the side with her blaster at the ready. As they are receiving tribute from the different families of Mos Espa. An aqualish and a trandoshan come and go with their gifts and blessing and throughout it Boba and Fennec are whispering to each other little comments about how they have no idea what they’re doing. Then a Twi’lek enters, bearing no gift, and he nods his head as he happens to be the Mayor’s major-domo (basically the assistant). This scene is really important because it shows the tension between the two authoritative powers of Mos Espa go head to head. Because the major-domo did not bring tribute but in fact expected tribute from Boba. This caused a brilliant comment from Boba.
“What?! I’m the crime Lord, he’s supposed to pay me!”
Something that’s very important is who Boba is, he’s still trying to find himself after the salaac incident and feels lost with the loss of his armour. But throughout the series we see Boba’s true image. Especially in episode 2 though, as gamoreons that served under Bib and Jabba are presented before Boba. The droid tells Boba that the optimal decision would be to torture them for his reputation but Boba refuses and decides to enlist them instead as a show of good faith and loyalty. This is also seen later when Fennec comments on how they should travel about in a litter for their image and Boba responds with a speech on how he’s independent and should not rely on such luxuries that make one seem grand and instead, show them through your actions.
Later on they are ambushed by order of the night wind assassins and successfully fend them off. Here we get to see master assassin Fennec Shand’s famed prowess in action. We do of course see her in the Bad Batch and the Mandalorian but I love her character and any scene where she gets to show her stuff is a good scene. Because as we know in bad batch she has a face off against Cad Bane, and WINS. If you’re a hardcore Star Wars fan then you know that Bane is not to be messed with so clearly Fennec has some real potential here.
We’re back to a flashback as the Young tusken wakes Boba up and begins to drag him and the rodian across the dunes in chains. As they’re walking they see sped bikes approaching and they duck behind a dune to hide. They watch as these speed bikes stop in front of a house and The Nikto hop of them and graffiti the house then speed off laughing. The little tusken seems irritated by them but continues to drag Boba away until they reach a dip in the sand where the tusken orders them to dig for the black melons (it’s the water source of the tuskens).
After very little success for Boba and a lot of successes for the rodian he finally finds a black melon and tries to drink from it, however the young tusken snatches it away from him and gives it to the mastiff instead. Boba is about to complain when a deep rumbling comes from the sand around where the rodian is digging. The rumbling abruptly stops and there is a moment of silence before a massive lizard fist rises out of the sands and grabs the rodian by the neck, yanking Boba by their connected chain. More massive lizard fists follow as this creature pulls itself out of the sands as it looks like this trandoshan thing that’s a lizard with 4 pairs of arms, except that one pair of those arms function as legs.
As it crawls across the sand and builds itself up to its full height and towers over everything. It emits a piercing screech as it pummels the rodian into the ground, effectively killing him, and grabs Boba’s chain and dangles him from the air. The Young tusken charges forwards and stabs the creature through the foot as it howls in pain and smacks the tusken aside. This is where Boba’s face turns as his whole demeanour changes, he loops the chain around the beast’s arms and uses it to swing onto its back before choking it with the chain.
The important thing here is the symbolism with the chains, the thing that kept him enslaved has now been the tool of his freedom. So as he finishes strangling the beast the music reaches its crescendo and he steps down with the chains in his hand in front of the glare of the sun and grins. We now flick to The Young tusken carrying the head of the beast back in triumph. That’s when Boba comes in behind them, it’s a very dramatic moment as all we see is his silhouette behind the sun before he comes into focus.
We move on now as the speed biker teens are a controversial topic in BOBF because, after getting opinions from different people, I’ve seen that some people dislike them because it doesn’t apparently feel like Star Wars
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The speed bikers come in in episode 3 and I will admit their whole interaction and recruitment feels a little rushed and unsatisfactory however this is not why people dislike them.
The speed bikers do have a very 80-90s era appearance which is unlike the futuristic clothing we normally see. However another thing they dislike is that they have cyborg limbs. I personally love the fact that they have droid enhancements because wouldn’t it be amazing if you had a robotic arm? But apparently from some perspectives it just doesn’t fit the Star Wars universe.
My argument to that would be that if we are considering amputating limbs and replacing them now then why can’t we see it in the future? But the real reason people dislike them is not because it doesn’t fit Star Wars, but because it doesn’t fit the Boba Fett narrative. Boba’s story has a spaghetti western theme, like most mandalorians, as well as the theme of action thanks to the clones (Boba Fett was raised on Kamino as a clone after all).
In this episode we get to take a closer look at the Sand people (also known as Tusken raiders) because as Boba is now free he’s living amongst them and learning their way of life which means we get to see just that. As People
I absolutely love the fact that a rancor gets involved. The rancor is a gift from the hutt twins who try to assassinate Boba in his sleep, as a form of an apology.
In the episode we take closer looks at the rancor and it’s history, how rancor are more than great hulking beasts. As we see in clone wars, rancor as tranquil creatures that have a complicated mind that allows them to have proper sentience like a range of emotions, emotional connections and relationships and an extensive memory. Upon researching, rancors are native to dathomir but it is rare to see one there as they are much more findable on other planets such as Felucia.
Although their looks and colouration vary from planet to planet, they all stem from Dathomir. Dathomir was home to the night sisters and brothers before they were wiped out in the clone wars by count dooku and general grievous. The reason the night brothers and sisters lived on dathomir was because of its strong connection to the dark side of the force as many dark side wielded that we know of come from there such as Maul, Savage Opress and Ventress. (Although Ventress does turn out to be a good person in the end).
The reason why Boba is gifted a rancor is because, back in the time of jabba’s reign, there was a rancor who lived in the dungeon that would eat people who displeased Jabba. But since Luke killed it back in Return of the Jedi there has been need for a new rancor.
Honestly, the chase scene in episode three was very underwhelming for me. When the speed bikers are chasing the mayor’s major-domo the whole sequence was quite sloppy and lacking any adrenaline, thrill or tension that is necessary for a good chase sequence. Although the meiloorun fruit at the end was a nice touch. But the music doesn’t fit the scene and doesn’t fit the show overall.
Episode 4, Boba is eating a meal at night and in the distance we see flares light up the night sky. Very similar to the flares Din uses in the mandalorian. No surprise then when Boba tracks the flares and finds Fennec Shand at the bottom of the mountain. Boba takes Fennec to the mod parlor where the man replaces her damaged organs with droid parts, thus saving her life. One thing to note about this scene is the music; it is wildly different to the orchestral and wood wind pieces that we’ve pegged as ‘Star Wars type’ music. It’s is supposed to be montage music but it doesn’t really fit the Boba Fett narrative, much like the speed bikers. I think it’s brilliant how they tied in both of the series and lined up the timelines properly though. But what’s even better was combining their theme songs, the transition was beautiful and it added to the overall atmosphere.
Episode 4 is a very important episode though, as it shows how Boba and Fennec’s relationship developed. It displays their connection and how they interact which is essential in understanding Boba’s goal of forming his own house further.
Another key thing about this episode is that Boba is finally healed, his past injuries have now been resolved (and not just the physical ones). It’s something that was well overdue with Boba as he had a lot of trauma from his childhood that needed processing. And so now he can finally start building things up again. Which he does in hiring Krssantan as muscle and establishing alliances with the Mos Espa families.
Now Krssantan, we take a dive into his backstory too as Garza tries to convince him to calm down when he attacks some trandoshans out of nowhere. As a clone wars fan I know that the trandoshan species kidnap and hunt down other species for sport. Of course not all of the trandoshans do this but it is know that many do and it is seen as part of their culture. As aforementioned, during the clone wars, Ahsoka has a run in with these trandoshans as they kidnap her and then proceed to hunt her down for sport. Whilst she’s on the run she encounters chewbacca, who has also been kidnapped, and the two team up and take the trandoshans down. So as part of trandoshan culture they would particularly kidnap Wookiees and either hunt them or pit them against each other in fights. This would be a horrific and tragic experience so no wonder why Krssantan dismembered that trandoshan.
Episode 5 kicks off with the action packed entrance of Din Darin as we see him face off with Klattoninians but more importantly we see how the dark saver has now started to take effect on Din. Now, the dark saber was forged many years ago by the first and last Mandalorian Jedi, it was used to unite Mandalore and bring peace. However once the Jedi died it was stored in the temple where one day it was stolen by the Mandalorian clan Viszla and taken back to Mandalore where it was used to unite it once again and to strike down any one who rebelled.
Centuries later, after it had bounced around from place to place, it found itself in the hands of Pre Viszla who tried to use it to defeat Duchess Satine during the clone wars. However his plan was taken over by Maul who used Pre Viszla to overthrow Satine and then kill her. Maul then betrayed Viszla as he took over Mandalore with the dark saber still in his possession. Although he lost Mandalore to the republic when order 66 happened. The dark saber was given to Bo Katan by Ahsoka, this was not the way though as it can only been won through battle. This meant that Bo did not earn the throne and therefore led to chaos and the saber being lost.
The dark saber eventually found its way to the night sister’s temple on dathomir (The dark saber is like the ring in Lord of the Rings if you’ve ever read or watched it). Where it was later taken by Sabine Wren who earned it later on and then passed it onto Bo Katan again. Who then eventually lost it to Moff Gideon and then it was passed onto Din.
So that’s how Din Djarin has it, for now, but he hasn’t really earned it yet. To earn the dark saber you don’t just have to earn it of its previous wielder, you also have to earn its respect. Yes, the dark saber, it holds within its blade the life force of all it has slain and all who have wielded it. If you are deemed unworthy or are simply not strong enough then you will have your mind tainted with the voices of the dark saber as they will begin to take hold of you. This is why Din struggles with the heaviness of the blade, it’s the weight of all the people trapped in there who Din will have to bend to his will if he is to properly wield the blade.
Another important bit in this scene is the flashbacks we get of the night of a thousand tears. As horrific and upsetting as they are it really shows us who the empire really is and why there are so few mandalorians out in the open. The armoured also mentions the moon of concordia which pops up in clone wars and again in rebels as we see that clan Viszla has survived because they were on that moon.
So overall this show has definitely met my expectations of a deeper delve into Boba’s past and present. As well as taking another look at the culture of different planets in the Star Wars universe, as it is a very important topic that would be giving some history and context to creatures and species of the galaxy.