The Book of Boba Fett e106: … But What About Boba?

Right on the tails of the most talked-about episode of the series, Chapter Six of Boba Fett will prove to be no different, if not more. In Chapter Five, we got to see some familiar faces from other Star Wars stories that we’ve been highly anticipating: The Mandalorian, Armorer, and Peli Motto, to name a few. In this penultimate episode, however, they’ve turned up the nostalgia storytelling to 15, bringing in some of the most beloved characters from The Mandalorian, as well as introducing a character that has only been previously seen in an animated series but has already proven to be the buzz on social media, merely hours after the episode release.

The storytelling here didn’t suffer because of it, either. Although I was excited to see these characters on the screen again, the story was even more compelling. There are more revelations about a character’s past, an update on another’s status since we last saw them, and two characters who are forced to make a decision that will impact both of their lives (and others) forever. We get a more grounded experience of the space western feel that the show originally started with, but continues to add to the story by pulling in other elements of Star Wars lore in a way that we haven’t seen to this extent yet in any Star Wars property.

That said, the episode isn’t without its flaws. But in order to point them out, there will need to be spoilers. So continue reading at your discretion.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

As we anticipated after the way Chapter Five ended, many people highly anticipated the return of Grogu and possibly Skywalker, and that is exactly what we got. Although part of me was hoping to see Sebastian Stan take the role of Luke Skywalker, I have to admit that they have done a much better job of making Luke Skywalker much like himself from the Return of The Jedi days and not the half-baked VFX that we got in Season 2 of The Mandalorian (hiring deepfake YouTuber Shamook must have paid off!). However, even though his physical appearance was great, his voice was left a little bit jarring. The sound, pacing, and quality were almost exactly like how it was in the early ’80s, and that was the problem. It stuck out like a sore thumb because of it. The directors and editors were definitely trying to give him a “wise master” sound, but because they emulated his original voice so much, it was clear that it was off since it didn’t match the rest of the style of the episode.

Another issue, which I also mentioned in my review of Chapter Five, is that the show’s protagonist is very absent from the episode. Although he wasn’t present in Chapter Five, he did show up in this episode; one scene, a whole whopping 45 seconds. At this point, I have to ask: Is this even about Boba Fett anymore? I think Favreau and Filoni would have done better if they gave it a different name that was a little more encompassing of the entire series. It’s one thing to have an episode that is focused on a particular character; it’s another to have the titular character completely missing from 1/3 of the show.

We also saw some brief scenes of Luke running through the forests with Grogu on his back, much like we saw him do in Return of the Jedi with Yoda. He spent most of this time running that I’m starting to wonder if the Force Dash we saw in the prequels somehow became extinct by the time Order 66 came about.

Lastly, I do want to point out something I noticed in the episode that will lead to a prediction I have for the next episode. We saw a little of Grogu’s history when Luke did the Force Meld and revealed to him what happened during Order 66. We get confirmation that he was, in fact, not one of the Padawans at the Jedi Temple, but he appeared to be somewhere else, behind another Padawan and two masters while the Clone Troopers killed them. However, it also appears that Grogu was in some sort of force field during this time, and the Clone Troopers didn’t seem to notice him. We also saw that the Mandalorian gave Grogu a gift of beskar chain mail, meant to serve as a shield for him (cue the awws). Given these juxtapositions, my guess is that Grogu is going to give up the ways of the Jedi to join the Mandalorian and use his force shield to protest them.