The Book of Mid Fett

By Colin Udall

The monumental success of Disney+ series “The Mandalorian” was, undoubtedly, well deserved. It brought life back to the “Star Wars” saga through a well-devised television format. This thought and life was expected equally of the Boba Fett series when it was announced. What fans were unfortunately served was not a plate full of method but rather haphazard pacing, characterization and storytelling. 

Photo of Boba Fett from “Flickr”

“The Book of Boba Fett,” actually had a decent start. The flashback sequences which showed Boba Fett crawling out of the jaws of the Sarlacc Pit and joining forces with the Tusken Raiders were a great callback and explanation for the characters' survival. These scenes also contain the best sequences you’ll find in the show, notably the train action scene. Where the series gets caught up in itself is in the entire rest of the show.

Boba Fett has terrible characterization—honestly some of the worst for the “Star Wars” saga—which has always been known for a fantastical and intriguing world. Boba Fett himself went from a stone-cold killer to a righteous hero with little to no development. His time with the Tusken Raiders may have given him some insight on their life, fine, but why does he play the hero of people entirely? It makes it feel like a missed opportunity for a cool Boba Fett show where he’s seen in the character that he’d been known as for years. You also cannot address the terrible character ideas without talking about the cyborg biker characters. Disney must have mistaken the Boba Fett project for one of their shows on the Disney XD channel because these characters are tacky. Everything about their story is cliché, and their costume design is abhorrent. Open to the barren sands of Tatooine, villages made of huts and rusted metal are all that lie beyond the dust. Then imagine three neon colored speeder bikes conned by teenagers in equally colorful outfits ride in to an upbeat music sequence reminiscent of copyright-free Youtube music. Everything about the speed biking teens was unnecessary.

Now back to Boba Fett; let's imagine for a second that despite his weird characterization, that the first few episodes would allow for some sort of character development or, at least, insight. Perhaps despite all of that, there would be some more fun action scenes. Maybe there would be something involving Boba Fett, considering the title of the show. To think any of these things is to be poorly mistaken. Two episodes out of the small seven are dedicated entirely to the Mandalorian character and his adventures. Trying to figure out exactly why this decision was made is clearly beyond the scope of this article.