Ever since Marvel and Star Wars shows started airing on Disney+, I have felt no sympathy for those who set outlandish expectations for how the finales of those shows would go. When WandaVision completed its run, people were shocked that so many theories about what was really happening fell completely flat; meanwhile, I adored that finale and thought it supplied perfect character moments and closures of their arcs. The same can be said for shows like Loki and The Mandalorian. Fans expected one thing and either didn't get it or got even more than they could've dreamed (Luke Skywalker's return is still amazing).
I say all that as a preface to defend my mindset on the Book of Boba Fett finale. I love making outlandish predictions as much as the next guy (as my previous blog indicated), but I feel like I had realistic hype going into this finale. I base my feelings of the finale on what happened, not what could've happened.
My verdict? It was okay. Maybe even a bit underwhelming.
I sound spoiled, I know. Look, the shock value was pretty high. The action was packed with crowd-pleasing moments galore. Boba Fett riding around on his rancor was an absolute blast to watch, especially when he tore up the Annihilator droids (basically grown-up versions of the Droidekas we know from the prequels). A grand duel between Cad Bane and Boba was a dream come true (especially if you know anything about the infamous unreleased Clone Wars episode during which they fought each other to a tie). And then, to see Boba and Mando teaming up and flying around using their jetpacks while shooting up the place brought out the nerdy excitement I was hoping to feel. Mando even got to use his darksaber (curiously, he didn't seem struggle with it at all). Fennec Shand had her awesome moment as she shred through the Pykes' security detail and the other territory leaders who said they would remain neutral; she swiftly assassinates all those figureheads in rather cool ways (I'm glad they got what was coming to them). To top it all off, Grogu, who chose Din's armor gift instead of Yoda's lightsaber, had some of the most awesome moments in any episode of the Star Wars shows thus far, including putting the rancor to sleep, similar to how he used the Force on the Mudhorn creature in The Mandalorian Season 1 (it's also the same force technique Anakin Skywalker used on the Reek creature during the arena scene in Attack of the Clones).
As a caveat, several scenes were poorly executed. I blame director Robert Rodriguez. Whether it was poor cinematography, poor choreography, or just plain dull, unoriginal camera motion, there were too many moments when I was pulled out of the excitement and felt the cringe of bad direction.
Despite the "cool" factors, the episode more or less felt hollow and didn't accomplish much outside of what was to be expected.
First of all, Boba's arc felt incomplete in some ways, especially when it comes to the Tuskens. While we got incredible backstory with them, we kind of just moved on from that. Other parts of Boba's arc felt forced. Cad Bane calls Boba Fett soft and trash talks him. So what does Boba do? He agrees; Boba just replies by saying, "We all do." Later after winning the battle, the people of Mos Espa bow to Boba in the streets and pay him tributes. As if that heavy-handedness doesn't insult the audience enough, Fennec had to smash the point home by saying they're doing those things out of respect. As if the audience didn't know that Boba craved respect the entire season.
Then, there's Boba's decision-making process to consider. Boba is persuaded (it's annoying Boba isn't even a strong enough leader to make his own decisions) to forgo using his palace as a fort to bolster defenses; instead, he stays holed up in the tavern that got blasted in last week's episode. Later, during the battle, he's totally fine flying off to pick up his rancor at his palace instead of, you know, hopping in his Slave I ship and using that to blast the enemies to smithereens in seconds. Sure, that wouldn't help the episode's runtime by any means, but it makes too much sense to ignore. It would've been a perfect moment for the entire city of Mos Espa to witness his firepower. Now before you go reminding me that Boba wanted to rule out of respect instead of fear, let me remind you that he still brought his rancor into battle. Ruling with respect doesn't disallow you from showing some muscle.
As for the rest of the episode, we witnessed the biggest troll of all time when Grogu pulls up into Tatooine in Luke's X-Wing. We got a similar scene near the end of The Mandalorian Season 2 when Luke arrived, so when we see an X-Wing fly, we've been trained to think Luke is ready to bring the heat! Nope, it's just Grogu chilling while R2 plays chaperone.
Cad Bane's death felt like a total waste of a good character; however, I am clinging to the notion that he actually didn't die. Boba seemingly leaves him for dead, but Bane had some device beeping, perhaps sending a signal for help. I sure hope he comes back, because he's an awesome character who could be such a natural rival for Boba going forward.
Not all deaths are equal in the world of nerdom, as Marvel fans can attest. Cobb Vanth (The Marshall) was shot to death by Cad Bane (thankfully, the people of Freetown still came to Boba's aid). But in the finale's post-credit scene, we see he's in Boba's bacta tank, and the modder who fixed up Fennec is ready to work his magic to fix Vanth, too. Good. I like that character.
I will give the writers credit. The finale was primarily about Boba. But too much inconsistency in the season and too many underdeveloped threads of story or character development made it almost impossible for the finale to truly hit home. Everything felt scattered.
What next?
While not seeing surprise characters like Qi'Ra or Han certainly felt like a missed opportunity, that's not the true problem with where the showrunners ended things in this spin-off season. If this is a one-off season, then we certainly got enough to make it worthwhile. Outstanding questions about Boba's escape from the Sarlacc Pit were handled quite well. I absolutely loved the story arc with the Tuskens. But once we quit bouncing back and forth between flashbacks, when we actually caught up to the present day, things fell apart with too many distractions. In the end, Boba feels too different from the character we knew in Return of the Jedi (more on that later).
Obi-Wan Kenobi is the next show on the schedule, and I'm looking forward to that, but it takes place before A New Hope, as does Andor, the show next in line. We likely will have to wait until The Mandalorian Season 3 in December (rumor at this point, but all signs point to that month once again) before we return to this post-Return of the Jedi era. That's a bummer, because they have so many stories to tell now, but it seems like we will be waiting quite a while before getting more of those.
Are the similarities to the sequel trilogies on purpose?
One of the biggest themes in the finale, and really in moments throughout the season, is how characters don't necessarily do what you'd expect them to do.
Boba turned out to be a different kind of anti-hero than we thought he would be. He's softer than we expected. Cad Bane confirms that Boba earned his reputation throughout the galaxy as a deadly bounty hunter you don't want to mess with, yet in this finale, Boba struggled to take claim of one town from a small handful of Pyke thugs? Really? Give me a break. This parallels exactly with what many longtime fans thought about Luke in The Last Jedi. Original Trilogy Luke was willing to risk death to save his father, and he even recklessly abandoned his training to save his friends, yet after making a mistake during his training of Ben, Sequel Trilogy Luke decides to run and hide like a coward? Ridiculous.
Grogu spurns his opportunity to learn the ways of the Force, but when you're Grogu and you already know how to Force heal and put Annihilator droids to sleep, who needs training, anyway? Sound familiar? That was the biggest knock a lot of people had on Rey. She didn't know anything about the Force nor did she receive any training whatsoever, yet she was able to use a lot of Force tricks instinctively. As an aside, you might be thinking that Grogu was trained during his time at the Jedi Temple (he is 50 years old, after all), but if that were the case, why did Luke need to retrain Grogu at all? Sure, unlocking his memories might have helped, but Grogu was using the Force long before that happened, so there's definitely inconsistencies here, to say the least.
Then there's Luke's moment with Grogu. On one hand, it seemed like he was employing the very technique Yoda taught him, the technique the Jedi Order has always followed in regards to forbidding attachments. But the fact that Luke just let Grogu fly away in his ship and didn't bother to help out just felt odd. Likely the reason that happened is we needed some excuse to see Grogu in The Mandalorian Season 3, even though I was fully prepared (and excited) to see Luke training Grogu instead. The other reason may be that the writers didn't want to mess with continuity since Ben is supposed to be Luke's first student.
To me, all of these examples are subtle ways of attempts to vindicate the decisions of the sequel trilogy. Lucasfilm is trying to provide more context to why Luke has softened up by the time we see him in The Last Jedi. They're trying to justify Rey's abilities without training. Even other story threads - like the science experiments in The Mandalorian Seasons 1 and 2 - really suggest that they are trying to corroborate how things went down with Snoke and Palpatine. I'm not saying this is a bad thing. I like continuity. But I hope they don't handcuff themselves creatively too much. I still have high hopes for more shows in this era of Star Wars. The only thing standing in their way is how much they feel obligated to tie in to the sequel trilogy.