Tag: Favreauverse

By: “The Watchman”

What has happened to this show? Seriously, it was so irredeemably stupid on so many levels, and now it is absolutely amazing. Again, there was very little actual Boba Fett in this episode, and I don’t care, because every single thing I saw on the screen today was Star Wars. It was both heartwarming and incredible, which a genuine respect for the lore and characters of the established universe, and a focus on everything the next generation of Star Wars could and should be – and very well might still become.

[MOSTLY SPOILER FREE REVIEW]

This is a “Mostly Spoiler Free Review”, so I will talk about different elements of the show without discussing almost any specific plot points. This is a review for Episode 6, however, so there WILL be spoilers for previous episodes as we set the stage for what happened this week. If you are not caught up through Episode 5 before reading this review, you might want to do that first.

Last week’s episode, which was essentially Season 3 – Episode 1 of “The Mandalorian”, was a much-needed change of pace from the first four episodes of “The Book of Boba Fett” which were awful. Until this point in the show, violence has mostly been toned down or outright forbidden, and we’ve wasted much of our screentime watching street thugs and failed pig guards save an old and useless version of Boba Fett from repeatedly losing fights, often in humiliating ways. Only Fennec Shand has been allowed to shine at all, repeatedly telling Boba Fett what to do, and succeeding in everything from sharpshooting to information gathering – even operating Boba’s own ship better than him – as Boba Fett himself fails at these same tasks and needs her help, and everyone else’s help for that matter.

At the start of Episode 5, however, Din Djarin (the Mandalorian) changed the tone of the show in an instant – drawing the Darksaber out of nowhere and cutting a bunch of criminals in two. He delivers the head of a criminal in a bag to claim a bounty, wanders across an incredible-looking Halo-style ringworld, rejoins his old Mandalorian clan, gets into a duel for ownership of the Darksaber, and then proceeds to do about fifty other extremely exciting things that kept spitting out rapid fire on screen to my drooling amazement. I could sit here all night long writing about it, and still smile ear-to-ear.

Much to my surprise, this episode picks up where the last episode left off, ignoring Boba Fett while continuing to focus on The Mandalorian and other side characters in order to build up to what might very well be an extremely satisfying conclusion in Episode 7 (or not – Rodriguez is directing it again). It starts with the satisfying return of Cobb Vanth, the cowboy sheriff from Episode 1 of “The Mandalorian” Season 2, and continues by showing us Grogu, training with you-know-who on a mysterious forest-like planet with a very familiar looking Astromech droid, the show building up more and more of a fleshed out new Star Wars universe by adding cameo after cameo of old and new favorite characters until I could only sit back and watch in silent awe at what was happening on the screen, understanding, at last, why all my friends were calling and texting me all evening repeatedly asking me if I had seen it yet.

Like I said at the beginning of this review, Boba Fett barely gets any screen time here in Episode 6, or any lines, and the same goes for most of the rest of his little “Breakfast Club” of ragtag misfits, which is fine with me, as I care very little for them (except maybe for Krrsantan), based on how poorly they have been fleshed out in “The Book of Boba Fett” so far. (Especially by Robert Rodriguez – I looked through IMDB, and he directed both of my least favorite episodes so far, Episodes 1 and 3. I can’t believe he’s slated to direct the final episode of the show. Please be a typo, IMDB. Please! Dave Filoni himself directed this episode, by the way.) The focus again is on the new canon of Star Wars characters being birthed into the Favreau-Filoniverse and their building interconnectivity to create a Star Wars that feels, for the first time, like the Star Wars of the original trilogy days.

This episode helped me finally understand why it was Mando got a Naboo starfighter to form the basis for a new ship. I thought it strange, from a writing perspective, to change the main character of your flagship Star Wars franchise’s mode of transportation from the much more interesting Slave I rip-off he had before (the “Razor Crest”) into a souped-up starfighter from The Phantom Menace, one of the least liked of all Star Wars movies, sequel trilogy included. Then, today, it hit me – they are establishing the limits of their new canon. By including characters like Ahsoka and Bo-Katan in “The Mandalorian”, they’re showing what parts of the Star Wars universe outside of these new Disney Plus shows should be considered part of the revised mythos going forward. By including a Naboo starfighter in “The Book of Boba Fett” as Mando’s new wheels, it fixes the anchor of canon for the Favreau-Filoniverse as including the Star Wars prequel trilogy all the way back to, and including, Episode I – The Phantom Menace. There is a reason for all these callbacks and cameos, beyond simple fan service – this is world-building!

I can also basically confirm after seeing this episode that the rumors that Kathleen Kennedy might have had her contract renewed, but basically have a window seat at LucasFilm, must be true. I cannot see how, in any stretch of the imagination, this episode could have occurred if she had any say over the Star Wars brand anymore beyond her stupid new hotel that had been approved long before all of this. The return of a certain someone at the end of “The Mandalorian” Season 2 was, according to rumor, kept secret from her, but for him to appear again in this episode in the way that he did, represented correctly and respectfully, rebuilding the very character Kathleen Kennedy worked the hardest in her failed sequel trilogy to destroy, confirms to me that Kathleen Kennedy really is out of power at LucasFilm, and we have a genuine chance of more good Star Wars like Episodes 5 and 6 of “The Mandalorian” (excuse me, “The Book of Boba Fett”) being born in this new frontier of restored canon.

Overall, this was a very exciting and well written episode, that kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. I think it may have been even better than last week’s outing, as I didn’t like some aspects of the long Naboo starfighter segment last week, but never failed to enjoy a minute of “The Book of Boba Fett” this week… except when they briefly showed Boba Fett and his little team. Maybe I’m biased, but I’m going to go ahead and give this episode an incredible 9/10 because of how much I loved it, even if writing-wise, it might have been more of an 8.5. I want Episode 7 to be just like this!

Final Score: 9/10 – “A heartwarming nod to everything wonderful in Star Wars, and the opening of a gate to a better future for the franchise, where Favreau and Filoni restore some balance to the Force while Kathleen Kennedy can only sit back from her window seat and watch. Truly enjoyable.”