Full Series TCW Season 2 Retrospective Thread (np: S02E20-22 The Boba Fett Trilogy)

It's not the fact that the ship crashed that bothers us, but the fact that Aurra Sing was brought down by a Padawan in a large and heavily-armed ship.

 

Oh, ok. Doesn't bother me, but I can see your point.

 

I do see your points and it can certainly look that way. My view, though, is that Ahsoka had a lot of help from Plo Koon in making that arrest, and that he was the one who ultimately subdued Boba. I do agree that it might have been more digestible if Plo Koon, an esteemed Jedi Council member with a history of being a badass underdog, had taken down Slave 1, however. Would have been poetic justice that Boba and the Slave 1 were beaten by an underdog before becoming fan favorites themselves. XD

Interesting that people think it's realistic for the legendary, mythical figure of Boba Fett to be mighty and legendary as a child. I mean, it's not like he's Chuck Norris roundhouse kicking his way out of the womb...the kid was cloned, raised on a weird water world, and then emotionally traumatised. I'd say he's pretty badass for his age and background. The only people in Star Wars who should receive such treatment are Kyle Katarn and Darth Revan.

 

There's not much a ship can do when some Jedi's jumping all over it. At least Slave I didn't get trashed by a barrage of seeker missles while hovering in one spot like the SOTE video game.

 

Still not really sure what the Fett trilogy accomplished.

 

My sentiments exactly.

 

Even then, Anakin should have remembered meeting Jango in the droid factory, and not from Obi-Wan's report about Kamino, right?

 

Indeed, thats exactly how i feel too.

As a matter of fact we should make it a new rule to never put up with a CW episode that doesn't have a purpose/accomplish something --LOL!

 

(scraps a large number of TCW episodes)

Not sure how serious you are about that, but a large number of episodes are characters-we-know-will-survive getting into and out of dangerous situations. Bounty Hunters, Lethal Trackdown, the Droid Duology qualify, but serve to expand or illustrate the personalities of characters we've seen before in ways that we might not have anticipated.

In fact, you could argue that a LARGE part of the cast (besides clones) falls into this category of 'they'll survive so there's no point'. What I find important is the journey itself, and the exploration of characters as they deal with the situations.

The actual product still needs polishing and a sense of being connected, of course, but still, I think that's a better way to look at a midquel series.

 

There's obviously many episodes like that, and indeed the entire series is stuck between AOTC and ROTS, so as we've discussed before, obviously certain characters cannot die, which takes away from the conflict.

But I guess my fear was that I wasn't sure what TCW would be able to accomplish with a young Boba Fett that would really add to his mythology.

This wasn't simply a Clone Wars trilogy, it was a trilogy focused on expanding the Legend of Boba Fett, and I just think it failed completely.

 

I totally agree.

The ending was so disappointing... from what happened in 'Death Trap', I had hoped it would ultimately come to a confrontation between Boba and the other bounty hunters.

For example, since Death Trap Boba realizes that he has a sense of honour, which he inherited from his father. It would have been cool if he had come into conflict with Aurra and Bossk over the execution of the hostages. Just imagine him disabling Sing and delivering her to the Jedi, feigning remorse over what he did to the clone cadets and wanting to make up. Then of course when delivering Aurra he could double cross the Jedi once again by tipping off Dooku about the location of Plo Koon's lone cruiser. Enter huge separatist fleet...

Now that would set him up as the ruthless free agent we all know and love.

Instead they got him arrested and yelling 'You started it!' at Mace like a little toddler. Ãœber pointlessness.
The expression 'Epic fail' comes to mind...

 

I think it was Boba that Anakin knew about from Kenobi's report.

 

Hm, you may be right.

But there's more silliness they could have avoided. The whole 'they must have been sucked out into space' remark wasn't necessary. They could have simply wondered about the assassinated clone troopers and stumbled upon the helmet without the silly reasoning.

 

Agreed Humble_Jedi. The epic fail between that Boba trilogy in TCW and the young Anakin in TPM are one in the same for me. I went into TPM expecting a young 9 year old Anakin to walk around in dark clothing, force-choke people, and say things like: "You have failed me for the last time!".
Likewise, with the young Boba. I expected him to say things like "He's worth a lot to me" and "Put him in the cargo hold" and....ummmm...."Aaaaaaaahhhhhh".

All right, I'm being a bit sarcarstic, but that's only because we seriously need to stop expecting young kids to be the cold-blooded killers we see later in the Star Wars saga. I thought they did a great job with the Boba story in TCW and as Dave Filoni pointed out, the young Boba caused WAY more damage and destruction than the Boba in the classic films.

 

The Boba Fett trilogy would have been a lot better if Mace Windu took a more proactive role in it. Being predestined to live was bad enough, but not doing a damn thing about it himself over the course of three episodes just made everything seem all impersonal and stuff. I bet that the only reason this trilogy was even made was to simply cash in on TESB's 30-year anniversary.

 

Fett's not a free agent. I'm pretty sure he has exorbitant rates.
Bad joke aside, while I get the appeal of the mysterious, hyper competent bounty hunter (with lasers, flamethrowers and a JETPACK) who's pragmatic about who he works for, I note that we don't actually SEE much of this in the movies. I can understand his being expanded on in the EU and support materials, though.

Sorry, but I just don't believe that it's viable for any child character to be a dark, calculating, manipulative anti-hero, even (or especially) one as complex as Boba. DEVELOPING into one, being DRIVEN from that point onwards, sure, but not instant-Machiavellian-plan level.
We've seen signs that he can perform well, but we've also seen him need a parental figure, feel uncomfortable with betrayal by that figure and wholesale slaughter. THAT, I feel, offers a lot more character and a lot more depth to him than if he was just 'some kid being corrupted by revenge'.

Maybe it WAS whiny the way he yelled at Mace Windu, but I thought that it captured two things: First, his adamant refusal to back down from his revenge. Second, the fact that he has a vague sense of morals inherited from his father.

Could it have been executed better? Of course. Was it bad characterisation? I'd say no. That's my opinion, though, and while I feel strongly about the characterisation, I do understand that the myth and expectations of a character can reach truly epic proportions. If I didn't I wouldn't be a fan of Plo Koon.

Sorry, don't mean to start anything here, but I genuinely feel this way. I love the movies, and I love wild speculation about characters based on movie shots and the rare bits of EU material we get, but I feel it's unwise to judge the show mostly on the basis of what we've seen before, rather than its own merits. Its own shaky, occasionally plothole ridden merits, but still!

 

Well, I think I actually liked young Boba more than adult Boba, and I'm wondering if we'll see him again in TCW. If we do, how will he have changed, now that he's 'seen he's done wrong things'? Not to mention being abandoned by his 'mother' figure.

 

koonfan, impassioned defence as always. and you make some good points.

but can someone tell me what this really did to add to Boba's character? Oh, he wanted revenge against Mace Windu for killing his father? REALLY, HE WANTED REVENGE AGAINST MACE????? O RLY??? Oh, he's not a sociopathic Hannibal Lector Junior and can't execute people in cold blood yet? O RLY??

I could have written this story on a cocktail napkin in about 5 minutes.

 

Thanks, Garth.

Hmm, I have to admit, 'adding' is something really hard to find. I guess I'm defending it because for my part, I enjoy character elaborations, even if we already know them. Look at it this way: Who wouldn't enjoy seeing Obi-Wan be the Negotiator, or Anakin the Hero Without Fear? We already know that's part of who they are, but we often go along for the ride anyway.

But yeah, I can't say anything about the slip ups or the fact that, fun as it was, Artoo's slapstick adventures totally ruined the feel they were going for. All I can do is trust my instincts and hope that, with a little luck, they'll further refine the character-showcase process. And if not, we can always bring in the flamethrowers.

 

The whole Boba trilogy didn't establish anything, except for maybe the fact that Boba has some vague sense of honour, but the writers didn't go anywhere with that.

He wanted, revenge, he failed, tried again, failed, tried again, failed and got captured.

GENIUS!

 

I thought the Boba trilogy gave him more depth, as this kid who's been 'orphaned' and has revenge on his mind, but values life unlike Aurra and the other bounty hunters. Having Aurra around as his 'Palpatine' figure helped bring this out and show his struggle, and where he might end up in the future if he continues down this road.

But I'll agree the ending conversation with Mace was a letdown. It probably would've been better if Mace hadn't said anything at all.

 

That Boba story arc was weak, just like the Mandalorian one. Basically Boba didn't change. You can probably can say the arc began with an interesting episode but the last episode ended weak. Mace and Boba's meeting at the end of Lethal Trackdown was completely terrible. I never liked it. That Lethal Trackdown episode was one of worst for me, along with the other Boba ones and Mandalorian ones, with the exception of Voyage.

 

That's what I'm trying to say: we already know Boba would be struggling as an orphan, we already know he would want revenge against Mace, and we already knew he wouldn't be the same Boba Fett as we see in ESB because he's too young.

 

^Unless I'm missing some EU stuff, we really don't know how he would react and what he would do after Jango's death, or what means he would go to to get revenge.

I'm not saying the story couldn't have been handled better, I defintiely think it could, but I think the Boba arc had its moments, and did pretty well in showing an inner struggle with Boba.

 

The first episode of the Boba trilogy, despite the flaws in the episode such as not killing the cadets, raised my hopes high. The episode was just an intro but I could see all sorts of opportunities for the storyline.

But the second and third episodes just didn't deliver at all. Sure, Aurra was great and Coruscant underworld was nice, but it had nothing to do with Boba's character.

It was flawed, but it wasn't just the flaws. The story simply didn't go anywhere at all. That's why it felt so anti-climactic as a season finale. I can't watch Lethal Trackdown without thinking '... what the hell actually happened?', when it's over.