Mini Series What Would you Change About The Book of Boba Fett?

I enjoyed the Book of Boba Fett, but it's impossible not to notice the generally mixed response. This is not a bashing thread, but rather things you would have liked to see or done differently with the show.

I'm not going to go into how they could have utilized various EU sources to tell a post-ROTJ story. Rather, I think the show could be improved upon while still keeping the general integrity of what we got. Namely, the flashback scenes were jarring to many viewers the way it disrupted to the flow of events: why not place the show in chronological order?

The biggest change: start the show during the Sail Barge assault in Return of the Jedi, but frame the conflict from Boba's point of view. The whole sequence wasn't more than a couple minutes for Boba, especially cutting out the shots focusing on other character's. Something we know for a fact is that there's a wealth of cut stunt footage of Boba Fett during this fight... if there was ever an opportunity to unleash it on the world, THIS is it. I think Boba's appearance in ROTJ suffered due to poor editing, and a Fett-centric re-cut would correct that. A different music choice would also be more fitting for this POV... and it turns out that already exists! John Williams scored an alternate version of the Sail Barge Assault that's more suspenseful and serious than the heroic and swashbuckling final version:

The sequence plays out the same up until Boba is knocked into the Sarlacc Pit (can we finally get Temuera Morrison to redub the screaming if his voice is going to be used in Empire?), then cut to black. Then we enter into Sarlacc escape scene as it's shown in the show... this scene was perfect.

I stress that opening because I think it's super important to tie the show back to the main films, since unlike The Mandalorian, they're not establishing a new character. Rather, they're expanding on an existing one.

Anyways, from here we enter into the Tusken captive flashbacks in chronological order. I feel that in this format, the pacing would be more consistent, and it would be more apparent where you can trim the fat.

The flashbacks directly tie into the Mandalorian once it catches up to the present. Despite the fact that Fennec's backstory was really a Mandalorian story, I think TBOBF handles it perfectly by showing us the events from a different perspective, and only showing what's pertinent to Boba's POV. The one major cut I'd make is the return to the Sarlacc pit. Fans can argue that a groggy Fett forgot he was wearing his armor outside of the pit, but the viewer knows it's pointless and doesn't lead anywhere.

Then we get to Fett reclaiming his armor, which was another Mandalorian plot point. This, however IS pertinent to the story and should be glanced upon to create a more self-contained story. It's controversial, but I'd make a mini clip show to fill in the gaps between Mando season 2 and TBOBF. Primarily, we'd need clips from The Tragedy. The scenes that we need for context are Boba tracking Mando and introducing himself, then offering a deal to reclaim the armor, Stormtroopers attacking, Boba taking the armor from Razor Crest, and Boba offering his services until Grogu is returned. Then comes a recap of the post-credits scene before we are now fully up to speed with the show.

It's clear after finishing the show that we are missing a sequence with Cobb Vanth. Boba knew he took his armor, but it's never elaborated on. BOBF avoided any interaction between the characters to an obvious extent. So it looks like they've pushed this piece of the story off to another spinoff, but I don't think it's too crucial to include.

Anyways, at this point the show is progressing mostly as normal in the present timeline. Because the flashbacks were done away with, we can do away with most of the bacta tank scenes. I will say that the Geonosis/Kamino flashbacks were too good to cut, so I'd keep those since this is the most natural place to keep them. Now here's another extreme/controversial alteration; remove episodes 5 and 6. These episodes are peak Star Wars HOWEVER they do nothing for the show's main character and sideline the plot. Cut and paste them into Mandalorian season 3 because they're an important part of the story, just not Boba's story.

There is a crucial bit of episode 6 that needs to be kept; Cad Bane's introduction. I think the Mandalorian's conversation with the Marshal and the subsequent showdown wouldn't be too distracting from the show. It would have benefitted from that bit of history between Cobb Vanth and Boba, but that should be forthcoming.

I wouldn't change too much about the finale. There may be a lot of Mando-centric moments with Grogu being sent back to Tatooine, but there's no way to neatly transfer those scenes into the Mandalorian.

Now I've strayed from more fanfic-y elements, but I believe one additional scene could help build up the conflict with Cad Bane: filming the deleted Clone Wars shootout

It should be brief and abbreviated, but still follow the gist of the scene. Bane makes allusions to the event, but an unfinished animatic is the only capacity that it exists in. Due to Bane's limited presence in the series, we really need all of him that we can get. And the more Clone Wars the better.

As you can tell, I've given it a lot of thought. How much or little would you change?

 

I agree with most of what you're saying. It wasn't the content of the show but how it was presented. I would have either done it your way OR done the show like the early seasons of Arrow ie Boba's current narrative intercut with related flashbacks that inform the present. I would have liked that to include flashbacks to the Rebellion era to show his earlier interactions with Black Krrsantan and flashbacks to the Clone Wars era to show his time with Cad Bane. These could have included cameos from some of the other TESB bounty hunters that we know Fett used to run with back during the Clone Wars. I think it would have been interesting if the overall theme of the show was highlighting how Boba Fett came to see the strength in having a tribe/team after the younger version of him lost trust in others after his father was killed and all his bounty hunter friends betrayed him.

 

All the stuff with getting out of the Sarlaac and the time with the Tuskens would be put up front in the first 2 to 3 episodes culminating in the Tusken massacre. His finding Fennec and getting Slave 1 would be the end of that series of episodes delineating the before The Mandalorian episodes and after. He comes back to Tattooine to find those responsible.

The big bad is not the Pykes...It is Tig Fromm (yes the guy from Droids). After Jabba's death Tig made some big moves to expand his families criminal empire. He hired Cad Bane and a bunch of other mercenaries (Puggles Trodd and Zardra from Legends along with some other old and new characters) and was able to kill some of the leaders of the crime familes on Tatooine and pay off others to work for him. Bane was set up as the Marshall of Mos Espa and the other mercenaries are his deputies. They are in it from Boba returning to Tatooine to the end

Over a couple more episodes Boba and Fennec assemble their own team. Fennec reaches out to Din. Cobb Vanth is sick of the spice running throuhg his territory. Krrsantan is on Tatooine and laying low and runs afoul of the Trandoshans and Boba and crew help him out so he joins. No Mods...but the Kintan Stryders (led by Danny Trejo) also agree to work with Boba...they are not really bad guys just some regular blue collar types...with several military veterans...sick of what the criminals are going to their city and are fighting back in their own way by taking down some of the criminal operations. Garsa Fwip is a mostly honest business woman who has been keeping tabs on who's who in the criminal world of Mos Espa because her staff keeps their ears open and she has collected a lot of information that Boba and crew. Maybe even Embo..and his little dog too.

Din would get a new ship...but something a little bigger than a starfighter. Throw in copious amounts of gritty action, some space battles and mix well. During the war with the crime families the "heroes" take a nice cut for themselves in the way of the bounties on any criminals...and money taken from the criminals.

It all comes to the big showdown at the end where you have these two groups of hardcases going at it with Boba and crew winning. Cobb and Krrsantan do get some serious injuries in the final showdown but are healable in bacta. Final showdown with Boba and Bane but Boba is quicker and shoots Bane thru the chest...but also still catches Bane's shot in his arm. A few dead and a lot injured on both sides. Tig Fromm gets taken down a New Republic patrol while trying to get away and firing on them.

Din flies off to take care of his business. Cobb returns to Freetown. Garsa Fwip becomes the new mayor. Boba becomes the new marshall with Fennec, Krrsantan, and the surviving Kintan Stryders as his deputies.

No Rancor, no Twins (even though I think they are the best lookng CGI Hutts ever), no Mando Interlude for 2 episodes, no Mods, no giant droids, no Luke, Ahsoka or Grogu.

 

It was called The BOOK of Boba Fett, so it really should have been somewhat chronological. There are very large gaps in the story, so it is more like A Couple of Randomly Chosen Chapters in No Particular Order of Boba Fett.

Now I don't think this would have provided enough run time BUT to make it more coherent, it needed more episodes, especially if they wanted to spend episodes focusing on other characters, so maybe something like:

Chapter 1 - The Present (establish Boba as whatever he is in the present day and bring the Pykes, Mando AND Bane in here)
Chapter 2 - The Beginning (Fett growing up on Kamino and you can even bring Omega in here plus all sorts of cameos of clones)
Chapter 3 - The Dark Times (Fett in TCW / Empire era trying to find himself and maybe even running into Bane, leaves dint in helmet)
Chapter 4 - Bane (Give some background to Bane and why we should care about this rivalry and bring in the Pykes here for more development - essentially show the other side)
Chapter 5 - The Sarlacc Pit (Self-explanatory and add in some more past/present Pykes stuff if need be)
Chapter 6 - The Tuskan Epiphany (Here we get his Tuskan transition and rescue of Shand)
Chapter 7 - Shand (Give her a backstory episode)
Chapter 8 - The Fortuna Double Cross (Like you know, actually let us know what happened here)
Chapter 9 - The Coming War (Add in Mandalorian stuff here, recruit the mods)
Chapter 10 - Kryssantan (Give some backstory here about why this guy is scary and have him working with Fett / intersperse with Grogu stuff / Vanth and Bane, etc)
Chapter 11 - The Battle (Bring it all together, Fett has an epic showdown with Bane because now we know why it matters and conclude however you want)

 

Ah, an interesting topic. Honestly, there are some alternate ways it could have been improved it is hard to pick one. Honestly, I kind of felt like the biggest problem was a lack of focus - picking any one element to focus on as oppose to splitting attention everywhere would work wonders regardless of what they chose to focus on.

Hmmm....though going just on personal preference, I think I would do thus:
-Leave most of the Din stuff and the Luke academy stuff for next season of Mando. Or at least the Luke and Grogu stuff. Maybe leave the Din episode mostly as is other than him deciding to visit Grogu after helping Boba. Though if so, there better be an air competent to the final battle and have Din's N1 play a crucial role.

-Don't kill off the whole Tusken tribe. Rather, have the retaliation strike on screen, with an emphasis on the death of the chief. Afterwords, either Boba decides to leave until he can make Tatooine stable enough for the Tuskens to be safe, or the Warrior becomes the new Chief and exiles him because his reckless actions led to the attack. In either case, there is a reconciliation near the end and the Tuskens help turn the tide of the final battle just as things look bleakest.

-Have the Hutt twins rather than the Pykes as the main villains. Bring in Gank mercenaries as the primary mooks of the series.
(Alternatively, the Red Key raiders, aka the guys from Cobb Vanth's flashback, might have been interesting for multiple reasons. Or maybe just focus on the locals and leave a more powerful gang cutting in for the second season escalation.)

-Develop the side characters more, and the local politics. In particular, have the Hutts and Boba genuinely compete over the loyalty of several factions, and Boba get some genuine wins in with his philosophy - in particular, I think I would only have one of the three gangs betray him rather than all three.
Bonus points if we can get the Hutts/whoever the bad guys are win people over by promising to protect them by wiping out the Tuskens, to contrast with Boba's goals and approach.

(I would also like to expand the conflict to at least include a handful of nearby worlds...but in retrospect I am not sure how I would fit in amongst the other stuff I want to add to a short runtime)

-Have the final battle be at Jabba's palace, with Boba both hopping to use the defensive advantage and to avoid any collateral damage to the town.

I also have some smaller changes, but those are the mains ones. And honestly the last one about the location isn't that important.

 

I would shrink Mos Espa considerably. It just goes against my image of Tatooine being a backwater dump.

It's easy to say "Take out Mando and Luke and all of that stuff", but... people liked that stuff. Maybe even just a 10 minute segment where Boba is recruiting allies or learning to ride the Rancor or something might have been enough.

In the Boba episodes, there were awesome ones and meh ones. I think it just needed it's writing tightened up. Give people an extra "Wow" moment in some of the lesser ones.

 

It's hard to say when we don't know where they are going to take the story.

Even so I wouldn't change a whole lot as I was mostly fine with it. Two things do come to mind:

• I'd have liked it if it included a flashback sequence to Boba's bounty hunting days. This was what I was looking most forward to, and it didn't come
• I don't think it should've been marketed as simply The Book of Boba Fett, which implied it's separate from The Mandalorian. At the very least, it should've perhaps been called The Mandalorian - Season 3: The Book of Boba Fett.

 

They should just write it better. I know it feels like I'm trivializing the problem but it's true. It was not competently written and I wish it was. It's hard to pick specific things because the whole story idea seems bizarre to me, and ultimately it all reduces to "just write it better".

For starters, they should have had more clear in their mind what they wanted to do with the character. He's not convincing when he explains why he wanted to be a crime lord, and at the end it almost looks like he didn't really want it after all.
By the way, crime lord is a position that doesn't work well with a character who's famous for wearing an helmet all the time and be involved in cool action scenes. So, I'm not a fan of the starting idea to begin with.
Then, they should have decided in a more definite way what being a crime lord means precisely, because that was kind of confusing as well. At some moments it felt like he was just a random gangster, and in other he had more the role of protector of the city.
They should have wasted less screen time in pointless things. For example, episode 4 is full of action, but the story barely moves anywhere. Or take the Hutts. The Hutts turned out to be useless. I even remember when people were saying "of course the Hutts are the main enemy! I would be surprised otherwise!". They disappeared in the most anti-climatic way possible. And stuff like this kept happening over and over. They built so little story-wise, and I found myself the day before the last episode without any involvement in what was going on.
Finally, the characters.... they were flat and boring, almost all of them. The closest thing to a character with a vague idea of a personality were Garsa and the majordomo, who served their purpose well enough and were ok but they were very minor and pretty irrelevant anyway.

Even in stories that are supposed to be dense with action scenes, the writing is crucial. Never neglect the story.

 

I wonder if the title "The Mandalorian" refers to all the goings-on with respect to the Mandalorian(s) and therefore TBOBF makes some sense. (But I agree, more Boba would have been great as it was his book whatever way you look at it).

Maybe The Mandalorian S1 and S2 will be renamed "Books" in future, a la "Episode IV" rather than "Star Wars".

 

I'd change the design of these embarrassing mods and add an episode for introducing Bane as the bad guy.
Further I'd include some additional stuff with the Hutts, add Bossk as backup for Bane, let Bane survive and have the Tusken fighter lady and the boy join the crew.
As a last thing I'd have that moron mod making two spins instead of one.

Edit: I'd let the pigs survive. The galaxy needs Gamorreans

 

I think it got off to a bad start as we seen Boba coming out of the sarlac. He was a thin guy when he went in, clearly didn't eat anything when he was in there yet came out as a much fatter version of himself. That alone took me right out of it. How difficult would it have been to get somebody closer in shape to Jeremy Bulloch for that one scene then a small time skip to him being with the sand people could explain him gaining weight.

 

Mando appears only as cameo, put the Grogu story for mando 3.
Cad Bane as the villian since episode 1.
The flashbacks should be in 1-2 episodes.

 

I'd keep his rebirth and reformation under the Tuskens, followed by a tragedy which takes that family away from him. That was a good concept.

I'd axe the Boba as a crime lord.

Instead, I would have Boba take revenge on the many layers of organized criminal leadership that contributed to the massacre of the Tuskens. Episode by episode, he visits a noble and righteous vengeance on different crime lords, which leads to an organic reorientation of power dynamics on Tatooine (not something enforced by Boba from the top down).

And I'd keep some Tuskens in that story to help him get revenge. Who are then shown to be an integral part of Tatooine's power structures after the decimation of the criminal system.

ETA: And make all of that wild and crazy. Throw all the TESB and TCW bounty hunters into the mix. Give us a real Mad Max meets Godfather meets Star Wars vibe to it. A massive Tatooine throwdown that completely upends the status quo of the planet (and perhaps, of Hutt space) once it's over.

 

boba should have badassed his way out of the sarlaac then badassed his way off tatooine .. hooked up with ig88 dengar bosk and gone on some other empire related bounty hunts and mixed with the rebels and empire and other bounty hunters .. fn boba in his undies was trash .. he should never take his helmet off and fat doctor evil in his undies is not a good look for boba .. and the power rangers were trash too .. f disney .. they ruin everything

 

I was thinking about this while I took a walk today. I could go crazy with this (for example, part of me thinks it would have made more sense for Boba to have become an avenging Punisher-type character after the Tusken massacre), but I'm going to play within the boundaries of the show. I'm going to take it for granted that this show is about Boba becoming the daimyo of Tatooine and undergoing a character arc where he leaves behind his life as a lone wolf, amoral bounty hunter and becomes a man who is more community-minded and altruistic.

There are some simple things that would have gone a long way:
- Tell the story linearly. There was no reason to tell it with flashbacks.
- Give Boba more of an edge. He is becoming a better person, but I think it should be more gradual. He went from lethal killer in Mando to a big ol' softie (killing the biker gang notwithstanding) like a lightswitch.
- Remove the Mando episodes and put them at the beginning of Mando Season 3. I loved these episodes, but they took the focus away from Boba to the point that when we returned to Tatooine, I didn't even care about him. When I don't care about Boba Fett in the Boba Fett show, that's a problem.
- Use the space gained from the absent Mando episodes to develop Fennec better as a character and add more political maneuvering with rival factions. There really wasn't any reason to take a plot detour with Din Djarin because there was plenty to do. The Twins just disappeared. Mok Shaiz became allied with the Pykes (which is less interesting than if he had his own bid for power). Fennec seemed to be questioning Boba's methods, but then that never went anywhere.
- Have some of the Tuskens survive the massacre and come to Boba's aid during the finale. That would have been a much more satisfying Chekov's gun than the rancor.

The biggest change I would make would be to change the title of daimyo from meaning "crime lord" to being an ancient Tusken title from before the Hutts took over Tatooine. During his time with the Tuskens, he could learn their legends about the ancient daimyo who brought justice to Tatooine and then were destroyed by the Hutts. This would kill two birds with one stone. It would remove the confusion about Boba wanting to become crime lord but also wanting to remove the crime from Tatooine and it would give a more logical progression from Boba living with the Tuskens to wanting to become daimyo.

 

The primary issue with the show is the structure. Its convoluted, distracting, (mac)clunky and adds absolutely nothing except an amateurish air.
I agree with @SlashMan and others who say the show should start right before Boba falls into the Sarlacc. From there, just tell the story in chronological order.

I would be very interested in seeing a cut that simply does the above. Yes, I have several other gripes like visual aesthetic of and the manner in which cybernetics are portrayed, but these type of problems (and there are several) are quite minor in comparison to issues with the overall structure. The flashback thing is just so over-the-top for a narrative device that should be an absolute last resort in the first place.

More like a hood ornament.

It very much seems like a series that once had a specific, cohesive direction, but was dissected and reassembled by committee of individuals with opposing goals.

Agreed.

 

First of all I would have removed Mandalorian from the show completely. He is cool and his episodes were cool, but had no place in this show for real. Maybe he could've had cameo at best. But no episodes of his own. Save that stuff for Mandalorian instead.

Second I would have started from sarlacc in the chronological order, mostly just jumped over the mandalorian parts of the story (how he regained his armor)

Third, I would have added flashbacks about Cad Bane and Jango. To add more meaning to the confrontation in the end.

I would have explained the feud between Boba Fett and Bib Fortuna. I would have made it clear Boba Fett has troubled history with spice and he would be willing to be a crime lord, but without any connection to the spice trade.

I would've edited the end battle to make bad guys seem more competent. Scorpenek-droids could for example have tendency to overheat their lasers or something to make it possible to take them down with a clever plan instead of relying on character shields and other plot holes.

I would've made pyke bad guy more charismatic and personal and added more background story to the mod gang.

I would've made it clear that people of Tatooine fear gangster families and suffer from their spice trade. In the end some civilians of Mos Espa would join Boba Fett and attack pykes.

 

I'm unsure because there could be things being set up in a far larger story arc than what is apparent at this time. Only time will tell if killing Cad Bane brings forth other legendary characters to gain revenge over Boba.

I don't think the rumours of Han appearing helped either, after Luke appeared in TM finale expectation levels were sky high...

 

• The Tusken Warrior and Garsa live.
• Cad Bane has a bigger role and is responsible for killing the Tuskens.
• Tuskens should have been explored more, seen behind their mask, and returned to help Fett.
• The mods have a harder look.
• More bounty hunters.
• Less flashback, more linear. Or make the flashback more resonant with the present storyline.
• Boba is more active, less reactive. Also, not clueless.
• Escape from Sarlacc should be slightly longer.

 

No Flashbacks not DIn or Grogu

 

I think Mando being involved would be worth it purely for the team up between the 2 in the last episode. It was fun watching them together.

 

I have to admit killing the Gamoreans but letting all the humans live felt a bit racist.

 

More generally, Gamorreans were underrepresented in the casting choices. They just put two of them there to please the Gamorrean market, it's hypocritical.

 

1) Cover Boba's Tusken experience (which I loved) in one hour-long premiere episode.

2) After that, the show is a chess match between Boba and the Pykes. Boba and Fennec take out the crime families who refuse to join them. Pykes respond by sending Cad Bane to assassinate him. Boba retaliates by sending Black Krrsantan to take out their head honcho. Pykes ally with Crimson Dawn to crush Boba. Boba convinces the people of Tatooine, including the Tuskens, to stand up to Crimson Dawn. CD sees Tatooine united and backs off.

3) Betrayals! Can't have a great crime show without double-crosses. Either Fennec should grudgingly betray Boba because she thinks they can't win against Pykes/CD. Or she pretends to ally with the enemy... only to betray them as part of a plan she and Boba cooked up.