Apart from the two excellent Mandalorian episodes, I could have done without this show. Hopefully the next few Star Wars shows feel a bit more organic.
There is a post-credit scene.
Honestly I thought I would enjoy this episode more than what I did
it was just alright, nothing special and in many ways underwhelming
[7.4/10] I like what this finale does with Boba Fett. In its parting shot, the series delivers its thesis and purpose for the onetime bounty hunter. He has reformed. He comes face to face with an emblem of his rough and tumble past, the person who helped usher him into his life. Cad Bane taught Boba to be ruthless, to only rely on yourself, to...well...shoot first. Sure enough, he does, and gets the better of Boba not once but twice.
But Fett wins the day, bests his onetime mentor, and symbolically rejects his philosophy. Boba only succeeds because of the friendships he’s made, connections he’s forged, and kindness he’s shown. Rather than only relying on himself, he’s come to rely on a community. The strength of that is symbolized in his using his Tusken gaderffii to defeat his foe. He’s shown loyalty and compassion, after it was shown to him. He’s a better man for it and, after choosing to fight and risk his life for this place and these people, he’s earned their respect.
There’s a lot to like about that. The structure of season 1 of The Book of Boba Fett has been a little scattered. The splits between flashbacks and present day and detours to season 2.5 of The Mandalorian made it harder to follow a clear arc. And yet, looking at the bigger picture, there’s a sound character story about who Boba was versus who he’s become, and his defense of Mos Espa from the Pykes is the culmination of that.
There’s just a few problems with that. The first is that much of this resonance relies on knowing Boba Fett’s history with Cad Bane from the Star Wars: The Clone Wars series. If you’re not familiar with their past adventures, the dialogue between them gives you enough hints to get the gist and follow along. But I wonder whether this has the same emotional resonance and sense of character growth for folks less immersed in the history between those two characters based on the animated series. (In fact, their final scene together plays like a redress of a planned, but never animated arc that was earmarked for The Clone Wars, which is interesting in its own right.)
The other is that their confrontation features in...maybe ten minutes of the episode tops? The rest of it is a cornucopia of action which, while solid enough, doesn’t really convey story or character in the same way.
I like Robert Rodriguez as an action director quite a bit. He and writer Jon Favreau understand that fights need to have a rhythm and a story all their own. There’s something of that here. We get a predictable twist in the local crime lords not staying neutral and instead turning on our heroes to side with the Pykes. From there, the mods need a rescue from Shand, Black Krrsantan scraps his way through the trandoshans yet again, and the poor gamorreans meet their cliffside ends.
Rodriguez and company deliver a nice ebb and flow to the fight. Boba’s allies are outgunned and outnumbered. But then the Freetown posse arrives. Only then, the Pykes unleash scorpion droids which can’t be stopped. And yet, Boba arrives riding his rancor and the combination of Mando and Grogu, reunited once more, is enough to overcome them. The punch/counterpunch escalation makes these skirmishes more than just an aimless array of blaster fire and fisticuffs.
The problem is that I don’t care about most of these people. I could give a damn about the mods, who have barely any character beyond their costumes. The people of Freetown are represented by two characters who’ve had a handful of lines at most thus far. Black Krrsantan looks cool, and gets the slightest bit of shading based on his mentioned history in Trandoshan fighting pits, but is likewise a pretty one-dimensional character. The only new face here who’s really noteworthy is the Twi’lek majordomo, and he’s nothing but comic relief. So while the general flow of the fight is good, it doesn’t have much stakes because most of the folks fighting it don’t mean much to me.
I do care about the crossover characters from The Mandalorian. Amy Sedaris continues to steal the show as Pelli Motto, but she seems pretty shoehorned into this fight. Likewise, I love Din Djarrin and Grogu, but there should-be touching reunion gets the short shrift here when it gets jammed in the middle of a fight, with expected beats of each using their new talents and tools to fell the attacking droids. It’s sweet and a little unique when Grogu uses his powers to calm the rancor (shades of Star Wars Rebels!), but otherwise this plays like familiar characters doing quick-fire versions of their greatest hits, with moments that should be saved for their own show.
Plus Fennec Shand, one of the few other major characters to get real development in The Book of Boba Fett is mostly absent for all of this. She gets a cool scene where she assassinates the local potentates and dignitaries, gaining Boba his revenge against those who killed his people. But she’s one of the few other characters worth investing in here, and she’s far away from most of the rumble.
What’s more, the rumble itself just goes on for too long. Again, I usually like Rodriguez’s fireworks, but you can only handle so much of it in one big, continuous battle before it starts to become tiring. To boot, the editing is really choppy, and lacks the bloody balletic grace and sense of clear geography amid the tumult that you’ll find in Rodriguez’s other works. It’s not bad by any stretch, but pick a random stretch of the fight and check how many cuts there are, and how often those cuts take you to wildly different perspectives and angles on the shoot-out without much continuity between them. It’s disorienting and can turn even well-staged action into static.
Nevermind the fact that we never really got a second act with any of the people who join the fray. Boba riding the rancor is cool, but there’s no middle ground between “I’d like to ride this thing” and “Now I’m doing it!” We don’t get much of a transition between “We’re unruly mod teens!” and “We’ll fight and die for you, Boba!” The same goes for Black Krrsantan’s affiliation with our heroes.
The underfed nature of these progressions isn’t the worst thing in the world. There’s still enough setup and payoff to pass muster. But it leaves them feeling too threadbare to make a real impact at the culmination of this episode.
Basically, there’s a lot of surface level coolness to the finale. All of the good guys (or good-ish guys) we’ve seen to this point come together to fight all the bad-ish guys we’ve seen to this point. There’s thrills and neat moments galore. But when you stop and think about it, it’s all pretty much empty calories besides that stand-off with Cad Bane.
The stand-off is good! It’s a highlight of the series! It’s a memorable story beat for Boba and an important part of the character journey we’ve seen him taking since the franchise reimagined him as something other than “bumbling bounty hunter who stumbles into the sarlacc pit” when it came up with his backstory in Episode II. But that’s not where we spend most of our time and attention in this finale. More of it’s devoted to exciting but empty fights and The Mandalorian redux. It’s still an enjoyable enough way to end the season, but one that only grazes the potential of a deep dive on one of the most iconic characters in all of Star Wars.
That’s how I feel about this season as a whole. Nothing here is bad. Some of it’s even stellar. But it smacks of missed possibilities and meat left on the bone. The Book of Boba Fett is good, but it could have been great.
(Side note: I knew Cobb Vanth wasn’t really dead, but showing the same modder who fixed up Shand working on him is a nice touch.)
This is a good show if your 14 years old. It’s a shame all my life I wanted the Star Wars world to open up and here it is and it’s just too childish. As a kid the original 3 had more going for it then this does to any new generation. It misses the mark. I guess it’s Disney.
round the mill finale --- Cad Bane deserves much better... was happy to see him back in last episode, but bummed how the treatment ended.
Okay, the "Blast Off"-Scene of two armoured mandalorians fighting side by side was pretty sweet. The rest was incredibly bland and/or predictable.
What is just stupid and annoying is fucking Grogu being brought back by R2. That is just lazy circumvention of the Kylo Ren problem. But even more annoying to me because I was so happy The Mandalorian finally got rid of its McGuffin. Can't they accept that not everything in this galaxy must have a force wielder?
lol skad did nothing with that eye, so useless. Why not give him the rifle and send him to the roof. That cyberpunk gang had no business being in this show.
Also cad bane can’t be dead right? Only two episodes? Come on man.
Grogu force hugging Mando… heart breaking. Someone was definitely cutting onions nearby
That was not a good finale.
There were so many bad decisions made in a span of 10 minutes by the characters.
I thought it was pretty solid overall, just didn't realize it was the season finale till, well, after it was over and didn't see anything upcoming (I was a few weeks behind). Also, what's up with the aim on those battle bots or whatever they were? They couldn't aim for s__t. As much as I was rooting for the good guys, that part was extremely unrealistic, the aiming is obviously computer controlled and would have made quick work of the entire set. Classic case of imbalanced "oh this thing is so strong," if they were that strong they would have wiped everything out including the rancor. Like, instantly.
Really underwhelming end to an underwhelming show. If Mando and Grogu weren't in it I wouldn't have made it through.
Bad writing, pace and choices. Those teen 'mods' stick out like a sore thumb once again and cheapen an already terrible foundation. Even Fennec was underused. Terrible
Any episode with Boba Fett is certain to be lame. None of the characters behave as a person of normal intelligence would. The entire finale was idiotic and implausible.
This is so bad I don’t even know where to start. So I won’t. Because it’s not worth thinking or writing about. Just let it go Disney, you know nothing about Star Wars.
What a disappointing finale. If it hadn't been for Cad Bane, I'd have given this a 4 or a 5. It was basically one long shootout, and it wasn't very good. Really disappointed that they killed him off so soon too.
The Book of Boba Fett pitch meeting.
Robert Rodriguez: Three words. "Boba rides Rancor."
Kathleen Kennedy: Here's a helmet full of money.
Rodriguez is Quentin Tarantino minus snappy dialog and clever story. His films are centered around a handful of undeniably cool scenes, then walks backward to create a story. It also helps that he is one of the most efficient filmmakers, getting a lot on a shoestring budget. Works like Mexico Trilogy, Sin City, and Alita: Battle Angel demonstrate his expert capacity for directing stylish films.
For The Book of Boba Fett, Rodriguez struggled with creating the arc for Boba Fett. He briefly experimented with the Tusken Raiders to create a backstory for his growth. While the Pyke Syndicate provides a rich template for a villain, that too, was not fully baked in the oven. It is ultimately up to the audience to fill in the meat to make this skeletal idea work. Add couple of episodes dedicated to The Mandalorian, we have The Book of Boba Fett.
Back to this episode. At its surface, this is a fun action-filled episodes. But your enjoyment requires shutting your brain for the duration of the episode. Both Boba Fett and Pyke Syndicate take the most simplistic strategies in the name of creating Yojimbo meets High Noon meets King Kong showdowns.
To its credit, this episode is very dense, as packed as the last two episodes of The Mandalorian, season one. Kids and action fans alike will love its peaks. But the bottoms are incredibly stupid, although not quite as stupid as the low points of Star Wars prequels.
All in all, as much as I hate to admit it, I had a lot of fun watching this episode. Like The Phantom Menace before it, I am sure this series won't hold up on repeated viewing, but I sure had fun.
I’m guessing BDH or Filoni didn’t direct this one. It’s no shocker the two (by far) best episodes were directed by them. Outside of having a cool costume, I never really understood why people go gaga over Boba Fett, other than the scenes with the Tuskens, he looked and moved around like my 80 year old dad.
Robert Rodriguez strikes again! This was nonsensical on every level, but to make things even worse there's no excitement whatsoever. You are left wondering how can so many talented people make something so incompetently. They even came close to ruining Mando.
Boba and Mando use the distraction that Majordomo provides by flying out... and landing right in the clear area without any cover where everyone can shoot at them as they please. Then they waste bunch of their best munition (flamethrower and a rocket) on obviously shielded drones. Then they just stand there, next to the scorpio drone, just discussing their options while scorpio drone gives them a moment to think about it. And rancor? Loved how rancor just f*cks off after defeating one droid because it would be too obvious for him to destroy both of them. Then everybody for some reason starts shooting at the rancor that just saved them, their bosses rancor for no good reason. Where's Boba to stop them? Also loved Fennek is explaining the plan to Boba as he has no say in it, or as if they didn't plan it out beforehand.
Disgraceful.
Season ends with a good episode. The last ones were good but had nothing to do with Boa Fett. This shows his allies help him fight for dominance of Tatooine in an honourable person, wanting the best for the people. What a change from the known Boba. As usual, Mando steals the show. Although Fett stil manages to kill Cab Bane in. 20 second fight.
The droids follow the stormtroopers creed "can't hit sh*t" even when the targets are all clustered and together.
The 8 given reflects the good parts and Mando's and the kid appearance with an entertaining plot but with lack of execution.
Found it better than the ones with Boba Fett and generally entertaining.
good fight, but the characters of Boba Fett pale before those of the Mandalorian
Keep mando around, he's what i want to see going forward
p.s. think of this. what if it wasn't Boba Fet that crawled out of the scarlet pit .. but rather, that storm trooper we saw in there with him (who used bobas suit to get out) ... ooooooooh. TWIST!
Can't believe they killed off my boy Cad Bane!!
Overall a good Season 2.5 of The Mandalorian, as a "standalone" series there was too much Mando in it and too little character development for the sidestorys. There should have been 1-2 more episodes highlighting how Boba trains the rancor. Also there should be more between "ok, we'll help you" to "we'll die for you" (the kids, Black Krrsantan, ...).
Notes
Fennec Shand: "That was fast."
Boba: "We'll lockdown at the palace."
Skad: "It's a bad idea."
[Boba turns.]
Boba: "Is that so?"
Skad: "...it is."
Boba: "And where do you propose we wait for reinforcements?"
Skad: "...here."
Boba: "...here? In these ruins?"
[Skad nods.]
Boba: "Nonsense."
Boba: "The palace offers greater protection."
Drash: "If you want to abandon Mos Espa and hide in your fortress, go ahead. We're staying. The people who live here need our protection."
Mok Shaiz: "Does Fett have any other resources to call upon? He used to live in a Tusken Raider tribe in the desert."
Peli Motto: "It's an X-wing. What's an X-wing doing here?"
Peli: "Well look who it is!"
Boba: "I thought I smelled something."
Cad Bane: "Before you get any ideas. I've got back shooters too."
Drash: "Hey... Thank you."
Fennec: "Manners. I like it. You're welcome."
The Mandalorian: "It's against the Creed. I gave you my word. I'm with you until we both fall."
Boba: "You really buy into that bantha fodder?"
The Mandalorian: "I do."
[Boba nods.]
Boba: "Good."
The Mandalorian: "We got real problems."
The Mandalorian: "Our energy weapons can't get through, and our kinetic weapons have too much velocity."
Pyke: "Sleemo!"
The Mandalorian: "Okay, little guy. I'm happy to see you too."
Drash: "Can you pick off some of the fighters?"
Freetown fighter: "I'm used to desert hunting. Can't miss at this range."
Peli: "Peli's got you covered."
Cad Bane: "What's your angle?"
Boba: "This is my city. These are my people. I will not abandon them."
Cad Bane: "Like the Tuskens."
Cad Bane: "Let's find out."
Boba: "This is my city!"
Cad Bane: "You tried to go straight."
Cad Bane: "I knew you were a killer."
Freetown Bartender: "The rancor's on the loose!"
The Mandalorian: "It's gonna be okay."
Peli: "Where'd you go, kid?!"
Boba: "Thank you."
The Mandalorian: "All right. But this is the last time."
"Directed by ROBERT RODRIGUEZ"
Review
Btw, I still like this episode. And I've gotten complaints that I'm just being negative for no reason, but to preemptively combat this, let me say it's because I'm trying to study the shows I'm watching because I'm a screenwriter. I also criticise stuff I like.
6/10
This show was so much better than mandalorian. Hope we get a season 2.
Force Hugs are the best hugs.
As one of the few viewers that prefers plot over action, this was an OK finale. The five families Godfather-esque storyline was the least interesting part of the show. So I'm glad that was resolved. I wonder what a second season would be about.
Apparently I am not the target demographic for this anymore. But when my 14 yo son keeps highlighting that they keep mindlessly shooting the fucking battle droid when the shield is on and when it is finally off they stop shooting then you just must realize that this technically brilliant show was created by morons and for morons. I expected a lot more than SW eye candy.
Wow that was boring and uneventful.
A couple nice moments and a lot of confusing ones. Boba may need a timeout.
They had no right to kill off Cad in such a poorly scripted action sequence.
Tactically very little of the battle makes sense. But overall it's entertaining and satisfying.
Cad Bane hopefully not dead? Though seemed pretty final. They didn't really make the most of him, he was pretty stiff and static throughout.
Riding the rancor and the fight versus the droid was pretty great.
The overall storyline is a bit unimpressive but compared to most sci-fi shows I've watched over the past year or so this is much better. Foundation for example, or that god-awful Star Trek Discovery.
Well how about that? I was expecting this finale to be a lot worse then it was honestly considering how much of a mess the show has become over the past six episodes, but this finale, "In The Name of Honor", is actually quite, hell even very good. It doesn't necessarily make up for the missteps of the series as a whole but as a season ender it does a great job at wrapping up all of the major arcs and storylines in satisfying ways. Seeing the town of Mos Espa come together to fight off the Pykes was a great way of tying the themes of the show together as well, and while it wasn't a huge scale battle the stakes FELT big which is mostly props to the writing.
And while Din and Grogu do threaten to overshadow here as their moments are very good, Boba Fett is still the focus here and his final confrontation with Cad Bane might actually make the whole series. Bane is a fascinating character for how he relates to Boba's overall story in the franchise and seeing that culminate here was sublime. The action was great too, if a bit cheesy, but I like my Star Wars cheesy anyways so that's a non-issue in my books.
All those little service robots? Adorable! The Kid? In a space ship? Awesome! The kid eating? Cute! The kid using the force in battle? Great! The Mandalorian (the shiny one)? Cool! The little green alien man without a name? Intimidating! The other aliens? Astonishingly creative costumes and make up! Nice too look at!
The 80s Gothic Vespa/Cyberpunk gang? Stupid. Fennec? Boring! Boba? Couldn't care less!
How did they get that wrong? Constantly? I'm attached to every little service robot a lot more than to Boba...
Plus, it's a weak finale. All that alliance building, diplomacy, politics, befriending local townsmen, Boba in the back story shown as a man who became wiser and more experienced, all that parcours training was totally inconsequential. In the end, it was raw firepower of two guys in an armour and ä donated (!) beast. Yeah, I know it's stupid Star Wars and they love their lasers, but it feels pointless. Plus, the HAL killing robot's aim is extremely poor.
Compared to the previous two episodes this was more than a little underwhelming. But it was the expected finale with the equally expected twists. The whole Pyke storyline felt put-on from the start. Overall still a good addition to the SW universe.
I was surprised that Grogu came back. Makes little sense other that Disney wants the character to be a regular in Mando season three. He is crowd puller and sure sells merchandise. Would have been better for him to become a full Jedi.
Boba riding the Rancor was a cool sequence. I'd hoped for that. I don't know if there is another season planned and quite honestly I didn't know where to go from here. I still hope that Fett and Shand will make appearances in other shows again.
Lacking any nuance, it was a somewhat disappointing conclusion.
Boba Fett : "They're gonna destroy my city"
Also Boba Fett : brings a rancor into the city
i literally only watched this for the mandalorian.
A nice season finale :) Quite a lot of action!
The twist with the Pykes being responsible for killing the Tuskens and blaming the speedbikers was very unexpected.
I had to laugh hard when Grogu arrived with R2D2 in the X-Wing and had Mando's shirt/armor on xDDD
I just wish I could've seen Luke's face...
I didn't expect that Grogu would actually choose Mando.
Fennec: "Manners, I like it, you're welcome."
Mando: "We got real problems."
Indeed... :o The Pykes should've lead with those droids... :D
I was kinda hoping for R2D2 providing air support with the X-Wing but I guess that would've been to easy.
Boba vs. Bane was interesting and I din't expect Bane to die after just being introduced.
Fennec is really a master assassin.
I'm glad that most of Boba's loyal crew is still fine.
His two bodyguards weren't particularly powerful or interesting but very loyal and I already miss them a bit for it. RIP.
And what a cliffhanger at the end (again!). It looks like there's still some hope for Mando's friend though.
PS: Of course the people of Freetown would show. Bane gave them a real cause to fight for.
Honesty, the thing that interested me wasn't on screen... instead we got 1 hour of fighting...
All that shooting at the shields like idiots the. When the shield is actually down lets stand up and watch the creature get fucked :man_facepalming_tone3: and making the pike run away too
Boba fett and the creature destroyed the city more than the pike :joy:
Really a little fire blast and he runs away lol
Really like the way the alien guy talks. Really good villain.
For all the talks about how good Mandalorian’s are they sure do get beat up a lot lol
Where did Boba Fett get another rocket?
Where tf is Boba to control his pet
The boys are back!!! Roadtrip!!
Man i missed Ming-Na Wen from Agents of Shield. Cant believe she’s 58
The season finale was weaker than the earlier episodes concentrating on the Mandalorian, as it was mainly action and battle scenes, with Boba's teams fighting against an overwhelming number of the enemy, in the end they win against impossible odds. The most important things these episodes were that Grogu apparently chose staying with Mando and not continuing his training as a Jedi (as seen from the fact that he is wearing the bescar armour) and coming to visit Mando, unbeknownst to him. Grogu comes at the moment which is not very fortuitous as the battle against the Pykes rages in the city, including two mechanical beasts which have terribly effective magical protective shields, making them almost impossible to take them down. Even though Grogu gave up formal training, his Jedi skills come in handy during the battle and help to save Mando's life. Mando also starts to using the Darksabre more effectively, though he drops it in the battle and it is not shown that he retrieves it, so maybe it would fall into some unsavory hands. Boba's rancor participates in the fight and takes down the battle drones but later gets out of control and it takes Grogu's Jedi skills to pacify it. In the meantime, Fennec takes down the Pykes main command, with the traitorous mayor and treasonous leaders of the city. Boba kills the Pyke emissary, having learnt that it was the Pykes who murdered his Tusken family. Everything ends happily, with all main characters alive and Mando travelling happily with Grogu on his new racing spaceship (though the previous one was much more spacious). Overall, it was fine but inferior in comparison to "The Mandalorian" season finales.
There is one cringe moment in this episode where it involves one of Boba's biker gang you know it when you see it. XD
binged it. too long obviously. good comes with the bad right.
Shout by Tank0BlockedParent2022-02-09T10:12:51Z
A season final by the numbers. You could see the twists coming from a mile away but I enjoyed every minute of it. Maybe we have become a little spoiled, this was a pretty decent episode but it's very hard to beat the previous two episodes.The duel between Boba and Bane felt a bit underwhelming, maybe it got hyped to much but I can't help but feel there was more in that scene. Ah well . WEEEEeeeeee to next season