#TBoBF crit

[corellianhounds]

It feels like the writers of The Acolyte watched Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and similar movies and came away from it trying to mimic the ideas of what the different characters’ perceptions and desires of discipleship, weapons training, and teaching were, but without really have a solid understanding of what their own character motivations or development were going to be in the show they wanted to make. It feels like mimicking the ideas of eastern martial arts movies but only having a surface level understanding of why characters in those movies actually do what they do.

There’s no compelling drive to most individual characters in The Acolyte and no end goals driving a more logical cause-and-effect that result in an organic, character-driven conflict and story, and if you as the writer save whatever is supposed to be compelling these characters for the end of the story, everything before that needs to suddenly slot into place for your reveal to work, or large parts of previous episodes are still going to be left as weak storytelling, not just moments of “Oh the audience won’t understand the full story until the end.”

Whatever core ideas they were trying to do in The Acolyte feel messy and disjointed the same way The Book of Boba Fett felt to me where they were taking surface level ideas from organized crime movies to try to evoke that feeling in the Mos Espa turf war, but not knowing how to use them effectively as a narrative device outside of wanting the vibes of “drug war, intimidation tactics, controlling (what parts of?) a city, five vaguely “crime families” controlling different areas, them betraying the leader they pledged allegiance to later.”

None of the crime lord or western aspects of TBoBF land correctly because they still don’t have an understanding of what makes those genres work, and the story they wanted to tell was moving people around instead of giving them character depth and seeing what happens as a result. Surprise endings aren’t going to have any meaningful impact if you haven’t written a story laying the groundwork and foreshadowing leading to that reveal. You can’t just keep cramming in what you think are interesting visuals and aesthetics in an effort to make a good show. Bad art can carry a good story, but good art can’t carry a bad story.

[dilfdarthvader]

ngl besties i gave up on tbobf, and this week sealed the deal. i LOVE the mandalorian, but i just am not fond of having an entire episode dedicated to.... someone who isn't even the main character and who, let's be real, didn't really need to be a side character in this show.

if they wanted boba to be a bigger side character for the mandalorian, they could've just worked that into the mandalorian s3, instead of whatever this is.

[madhyanas]

The little BD droid doing its little tap dance when Din told it good job 🥺

aaaa he was very cute i have to say!!

[zindablake]

thats it im out i cant do tbobf anymore temuera and ming na deserved better than this shit

[silveryinkystar]

genuinely if the star wars franchise wanted to release a new season of the mandalorian in 2022 they could have done so. by calling it "the mandalorian season 3". they didn't have to go to the trouble of pretending they care about a cool / interesting side character, making him a main character and giving him a genuinely interesting character arc and premise to lead his show from, and then promptly shaft him back to a side character in his own show

[twerkstallion]

i have been watching and liveblogging TBOBF in discord

here’s my thoughts

[corellianhounds]

“Kill Your Darlings” to Streamline Your Story

Criticism of “The Gathering Storm” in The Book of Boba Fett

Word Count: 1,643

—

I mentioned here that “Kill your darlings” is editing advice that means to cut out something you as the writer really enjoy in a story in order to make the story stronger. If cutting something out makes your story better by clarifying something, narrowing the focus, reinforcing character or plot objectives, bettering the pacing, raising the stakes, or by clearing up valuable space wasted on something we don’t need to see, cut it out.

I think TBoBF suffered from a lot of weak writing choices, and in order to streamline the story a bit some of those characters, visual elements, scenes, or chunks of the script have to go. There’s too much “stuff” happening but not a lot of story, and the script itself isn’t all that interesting to listen to in the first place; a lot of lines just state the obvious or are clichéd and overdone jokes, and there is also a lot of exposition given in monologues vs the audience seeing the story play out for itself.

In a show with only seven episodes, they don’t have time to dwell on anything that doesn’t directly add to Boba’s main plot or character arc, the parts of the world he is operating in, and the other main characters relevant to that story. Though there are other examples, I think a concise example of one of the biggest wastes of space is episode 4, “The Gathering Storm.” Three-fourths of that episode is a loooong long flashback to Boba’s team-up with Fennec, which doesn’t tell us anything new about the characters or the world. The things the flashback tells us are:

Fennec Shand was brought back to life aided by cybernetics (Which was established in a few lines of dialogue in “The Tragedy” of season 2 of The Mandalorian)

Boba formed a partnership with Fennec Shand (Which was established in “The Tragedy” of season 2 of The Mandalorian)

Boba got his ship back (Which was established in “The Tragedy” of season 2 of The Mandalorian)

Boba was searching for his armor (Which was not only foreshadowed in a three second wordless scene in “The Marshal” in season 2 of The Mandalorian, but was established and resolved in “The Tragedy” of the same season)

Boba and Fennec took over Jabba’s Palace (Which was not only more effectively conveyed in a two minute credits scene of the previous season of The Mandalorian, but are also the establishing circumstances of the show we are currently watching)

You see what I’m getting at?

The audience already knows cybernetics exist in this world, and that they are relatively quick, effective, and easily accessible. There is also zero tension in seeing a character come back to life in a flashback when we are watching a show where that character is already alive, and whose presence was also established in a previous season. We don’t need to see Boba get his ship back because we as the audience know Boba Fett is a capable person, so him simply showing back up in a previous season with it doesn’t really have us scratching our heads as to how it was achieved. We don’t learn anything new about his and Fennec’s relationship since we can already tell Fennec doesn’t have a problem working for him and he already treats her as his equal and partner. We don’t need to see the layout of the palace, we don’t need to see them defeating a couple of nobody droids, we don’t really need to see Boba bonding with the bantha, we don’t need the cybernetic mod-parlor, and tbh we don’t really need to see him destroy the Sarlacc.

The only new information the flashback provides is that Boba used the ship to get revenge on the Nikto speederbike gang he thinks killed the Tuskens. In my opinion, the Niktos should have been cut out entirely and more importantly, the Tuskens should have still been alive up until the episode where Cad Bane reveals himself to Boba, and Bane then makes a comment to the effect of “It sure would be a shame if something happened to those closest to you,” which makes Boba realize his tribe could be in danger. That puts the action in the present and presents a physical and emotional obstacle for Boba to overcome.

Boba immediately flies out to either warn them or verify for himself if they are in danger, leaving the Palace defense weakened to the point the Pykes or whoever they hire can attack while Boba is away. They don’t even have to deceive him and cast blame elsewhere, having already murdered the tribe to get back at him and send a message. He already has beef with the Pykes, and they are using this attack against what he holds most dear as their means of weakening, if not destroying him. Get him out of the palace, divide and conquer his defenses while he’s gone, and cause a serious emotional blow to Boba right when they are on the precipice of war, making him emotionally unstable and more likely to be reckless or distracted as a result of the provocation, thus easier to defeat.

They can also be gambling on that anger being enough to push Boba over the edge and have him resort back to his more ruthless past self as a killer, gunning down anybody who would stand in his way on his warpath back to the Pykes, which breaks down the reputation he’s been trying to build being a leader based on having people’s respect, not fear. Then he would have nobody backing him up and he truly would be fighting alone.

Going back to Boba and Fennec, anything they wanted to explore concerning their character dynamics should have been done in the present timeline. Don’t tell the audience “These two are on good terms” and then have zero conflict OR growth between them— Show the audience how these characters interact within the conflicts presented and how their relationship develops in the present.

Something they could have done to strengthen Boba’s character, develop his relationship with Fennec, and consolidate extraneous characters and scenes into stronger ones is if Boba had been the one to save Fennec’s life directly. Cut out the cybernetic mod-parlor and have Boba recognize Shand and drag her back to his own base of operations he established after leaving the Tuskens. Show me Boba doing the work patching her up, Fennec gasping back to life and demanding to know what happened and where she is, and now you’ve given her character a reason to feel even more indebted to his service.

You can then go two ways with their relationship, either with a sense of friendship and camaraderie, both with similar pasts as hunters for hire and both barely escaping the brink of death, OR give them just a bit of conflict and tension, Fennec not liking the fact she feels indebted to Boba for saving her life, and now being forced into a sedentary life that puts her at risk of enemies being more readily able to find her.

Then we can move forward in the present with a number of different possibilities. Fennec should have been serving in the background undercover instead of the foreground anyway, keeping her role as a stealth expert going and adhering to her demand that Boba keep her presence a secret for her own safety and discretion. You could have Fennec resentful of the fact she has to rely on Boba to modify her cybernetics, making her feel further indebted to him while also giving her a weakness she has reason to keep hidden from others. Fennec is not someone who likes to rely on people, a character trait that is paralleled in Boba. All of that would have given her more depth and meat to her role, providing a solid objective for what that character wants within this story. (As the show stands right now, Fennec is static without her own character arc or change throughout the show. She’s more of a yes-man to Boba, a capable character who can accomplish what the plot needs to happen, but not really that interesting to follow on her own because Fennec is established to be content to go along with whatever. She does cool stuff, but it’s more like watching an action figure and less like seeing a character develop.)

Making Boba responsible for saving Fennec also means we could have had his relationship with Cobb Vanth come full circle at the end; instead of simply providing the bacta to heal Vanth, the end of the season should have been Boba personally being the one to fulfill the debt he feels toward the people of Mos Pelgo and the marshal by tending to the marshal himself.

Vanth was Mos Pelgo’s primary defense, he was shot by Boba’s primary emotional and physical antagonist, and he was mortally wounded because he no longer had his biggest defensive advantage: the very armor Boba now has back in his possession that the marshal gave up to Mando in season 2. Cad Bane went out to Mos Pelgo after the people there were contacted as backup for Boba’s conflict, and the people of Mos Pelgo showed up in the fight at the end because of their marshal, not because of Fett. Their presence meant Fett was able to succeed however, and Fett is also not someone who likes being indebted to people. Him doing the actual work the cyberneticist was there for at the end would have further reinforced Fett being somebody now who helps the people who could not or cannot defend themselves. It directs the story’s focus back to him and cuts out extraneous side characters and gives these characters’ relationships a lot more weight, actually threading these individuals together while simultaneously reinforcing Boba Fett as a capable, resourceful, interesting, and meaningful character.

[corellianhounds]

For the character ask game… 25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now? (Din, Grogu, Boba and Fennec—all, some, or just one if you don’t want to do too many 😉)

I LOVE this question tysm 💕

My first impression of Din was colored by intrigue; I knew next to nothing about the show going into it, but I’ve always loved silent stoic masked characters, and then they made him a cool, capable lone gunslinger type?? Awesome, I’m already into it

And then as the first episode went on and we get the religious/cultural aspect of his code going into the covert, the deference he gives the Armorer and the mere GLIMPSES of his past in the flashback (all of this sequence of scenes scored by Ludwig Göransson’s incredible soundtrack), I was suddenly SUPER invested in this guy. They’ve already made him complex and interesting and I’ve loved every second so far, what’s next??

And then they introduce the kid at the end. And he’s possibly the cutest thing to come out of Star Wars. And you know just from looking at him what his species is meant to imply. And the second Din shot IG-11 I knew immediately what kind of story this was going to be and I was hooked

I was a fan of Star Wars before season 1 of The Mandalorian, but season 1 made me a Star Wars Fan™

I was also super intrigued by Fennec and was really impressed with Ming-Na Wen (no surprise there, she’s a great actress) and I was SHOCKED that they legitimately killed her off bUT THEN WE GET A POST-CREDITS SCENE!! I’M ALL IN BABEYYY! GIVE ME MORE OF HER!

As far as first impressions go of Boba Fett, I was passingly familiar with the character beyond surface level canon lore and I’d read half of one book where I really loved his character (The Mandalorian Armor by K. W. Jeter, Boba’s characterization there is solid and a lot of the basis for how I’ve always viewed and written him), but his reintroduction via “The Tragedy” was one of THE BEST character intros EVER. It’s one of the best fight scenes in terms of how it was shot and how he’s depicted; Fett is framed as and successfully shown to be a POWERHOUSE of strength, skill, intimidation, and sheer stage presence. It’s one of my favorite sequences to come from Star Wars, especially season 2 of Mando. I was so jazzed about it I was scream-texting my sister and I could just KEEP going on about it. Boba Fett in that episode is SOOOOO GOOD

Aaaaand… Then season 2 finishes and we get TBoBF.

I still love Mando and the kid as they were originally written, but I don’t love what they’ve done with the story and direction of this (and adjacent shows). Season 2 was messy and I wasn’t as big of a fan but I thought “okay maybe the story’s just going in a different direction and I should see what the creators have in mind” but by TBoBF I realized (with all four of those characters) OH, no, the showrunners didn’t have a cohesive game plan or long term story planned out with any meaningful thought, and by season 3 I realized I was pretty much done with whatever direction the original creators were taking the characters. I have better ideas and creators of something I used to like aren’t above criticism and they’re not immune to fans expecting better of them. You have control of one of the biggest franchises on earth and you can’t afford better writers? I don’t care about production quality or quantity of shows if the stories themselves are bad. Do better.

(Also not only are the stories not great, it sucks to see TBoBF, a show led by two veteran actors and people of color, be as badly written and received as it was. It, like many things, wasn’t the actors’ faults. It had a bad script and bad direction and now it seems like Boba’s character— one that has had a long and LASTING cultural presence— is being put on a shelf because the show wasn’t received well, but Disney/the Star Wars producers aren’t admitting to their role in its failure.)

These actors deserved better, the source material deserved better, and I’m disappointed by how quickly it went downhill and, in my opinion, isn’t salvageable based on how they’ve handled all of the original story hooks and character arcs. I have zero excitement for the movie and aside from Andor (which is not without its own flaws in other ways) I’ve haven’t enjoyed any of the other Star Wars shows in the last four years 🤷‍♂️

So I guess I’m short, love the initial characters, dislike the present depictions based on later material

Ask Game

[corellianhounds]

If you want to establish a reputation as a peaceful leader ruling through respect (and also keep your armed resources on a need-to-know basis) you don’t introduce your dressed-like-a-ninja lieutenant in the first place, and you definitely don’t introduce her as “Master Assassin Fennec Shand” by name.

[corellianhounds]

Toro Calican was more intimidating than these rich geeks on bikes and that’s saying something

[corellianhounds]

Water boy rolls up and says “the YOUTHS!! they’re stealing from me!! and they’re all hopped up on gadgets and gizmos to make themselves stronger, faster!! DEGENERATES!! Get rid of them “mister” Fett 😌🌸 ” and Fennec Shand’s entire cybernetic self is sitting right there and they don’t say a word the whole episode

[corellianhounds]

It almost seems like they designed this season to sell toys. Every new character is flashy and unique but not everyone looks like they’re at home in the universe, there’s the whole gentrification of Tattooine + population, the weird out-of-place cyberpunk vibes, and some notable props and bigger pieces through the episodes that provide more appeal to younger viewers, but the world itself (up until this last episode) is too clean and the sets are too basic for me to believe they’re in a universe— and specifically a backwoods desert planet known for being kind of shady— that’s been ravaged by war where people are scraping by with what they can. It’s too sparse, it’s disjointed, and the new characters seem out of place. It feels like they designed people first and tried to force them to fit into a story that doesn’t serve Boba Fett in the way it should.

Part of the reason this is important is because they’ve removed a lot of the canonical grittiness and layers of dubious ethics that these people should have, Boba Fett especially. This is too light and diplomatic and palatable to be the story of a guy running a criminal underworld, and I’m convinced they wanted to gear it towards a younger audience, but they’ve dumbed it down at the same time. The cords on Boba Fett’s original armor were braided from the hair of dead Wookiees he killed. Darth Vader had to rein this guy in. Boba Fett was not a good guy.

I’m not asking for a grim-dark extension of Star Wars, but I do wish they’d let the characters be the established, complex, nuanced people they realistically would be.

This is coming from someone who likes Star Wars toys, but I don’t like when a story is almost dictated by the marketability of merchandise. Boba Fett overall has been Disneyfied in both substance and character and there’s a lot of the story that’s suffering for it

[corellianhounds]

So what gives, Favreau + writers? Did you save up all your writing juice for one ep and hand the rest to the interns or are you going to admit you didn’t put as much thought into Boba as you should have

[corellianhounds]

All TBoBF directors know is “heft weight of pouch in hand” eat hot chip and lie

[corellianhounds]

Tbh if Favreau is the only one on the script then my criticisms of the Mando episodes where he’s credited as the writer also stand. I don’t think his scripts are that good on their own, it’s better when he has other writers collaborating on it

[corellianhounds]

I can’t even make jokes at this point. It wasn’t fair to bill this as a Boba Fett show and let it get hyped up as much as it did only to handle forty years of history and love for a character as badly as they have and people, most importantly those who saw themselves represented by Tem and Ming-Na Wen, are allowed to be angry at the injustice of it.