The Ringer-Verse - 'The Book of Boba Fett' "Chapter 2" Deep Dive | House of R

Episode Date: January 7, 2022

Mal and Joanna are off to visit the mayor and dive into the second episode of 'The Book of Boba Fett' (03:48). They discuss all of the deception afoot on Tatooine and uncover the action of a good train heist. They also offer up their influences, Easter eggs and theories of what may happen in the episodes to come (84:41). Later they bring on Ben Lindberg to educate us on some new characters from 'Star Wars' lore (89:16). All before calling in Jomi to answer your mailbag questions (103:27). Hosts: Mallory Rubin and Joanna Robinson Producer: Steve Ahlman Social: Jomi Adeniran Additional Production: Steve Ahlman, TD St. Matthew-Daniel, and Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Here is the tribute I offer. Some advice. Running a family is more complicated than bounty hunting. Is that it? Go to Gaza's sanctuary. You'll see what I speak of. And welcome into the ringerverse here on the ringer podcast network. I'm Mallory Rubin and it is my absolute pleasure to invite you not only to hop aboard the long speeder,

but also to join us on the ringer's nexus podcast feed for all things fandom. Joining me today to talk about the book of Boba Fett chapter two, fresh off a night out at Tashi Station. And what a night it was. It's my house of our working title. Go host. And my favorite Gaffy Stick Forger, Ringer, senior staff writer, Joanna Robinson. Mallory Rubin, can I just say something really quickly about our listeners? These lovely folks, did you know that they've started a subreddit for us?

No. There is now an R-slash-R-R-R-verse that exists. Van asked for it. The listeners delivered. It exists. So I'm just saying that's a place that people can go. They want to talk about Boba with like-minded individuals and other things. How wonderful.

So I just want to shout out the enterprising listeners or listener who put that together. And yeah, and just give gratitude for this growing community. That is lovely. How wonderful to hear that. How beautiful. I can't wait to check it out. And see it continue to grow and thrive. Delightful.

delightful. In addition to that subreddit, a few other notes and programming reminders very quickly before we climb onto our litter for today's podcast. The Midnight Boys, Vianna and Charles. We'll be back, of course, next week, Wednesday with their instant reaction to the third chapter of the book of Bobafet. Joe and I will be with you next Friday for our deep dive on the third installment, and we'll have some peacemaker talk coming on the feed soon, too, so stay tuned for more on that front. Follow all of that by following the pod on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast, by following our social feeds. And of course, for today's episode, as always, bear in mind our friendly neighborhood. Spoiler warning, today's podcast will feature plot details from the book of Boba Fett chapter two, the tribes of Tatouine, as well as details from the wider Star Wars canon. given a blanket Star Horse spoiler warning here.

If it is existing canon, we might talk about it. So proceed with more caution. Then the Tuskins did went on corking that water car. You want to have the canisters open first. That's all I'm saying. I had some notes. It gave me a traumatic flashback to the end of Mad Max Fury Road when they do a similar thing. When I'm just like, no, it's a cinematic.

But get your Naljeans ready, guys. The water's coming. Trying to bring the oceans back to Tatouine, maybe, you know. Joe, we are talking about Chapter 2 today, directed by Steph Green. Listeners might be familiar with Steph's directorial work from the wonderful Watchman episode, Little Fear of Lightning. Amazing. You're a big fan of that episode. I'm a big fan of that episode.

Love Watchman around here. Who was the DP on this episode, Joe? And what might the listeners know the DP's work from? Well, I was, this was flagged for me by our front of the pot, Eric Voss, pointed out that the DP on this episode is Dean Kundee, who did all the Back to Future films. And Eric was pointing out the similarities of the train sequence of Back to the Future 3 and in this episode. But then also, I mean, Dean did Jurassic Park. Ever heard of it, Mel? Ever heard of it?

Ever heard of it? Ever heard of it? Ever heard of a little movie with some dinosaurs? Yeah. So, I mean, I thought this was, I. We'll get into it all, but, like, I think the direction by Steph and the, and the DP work by Dean, I thought this was a really incredibly, like an incredible looking episode with a lot of action that could have gone south pretty easily. So I thought it was really great. Yeah, that's a great call out there. And shouts to Eric, as always.

He's doing a fabulous job breaking down. Yeah. No surprise. Check out everything he's doing over into rock stars. This episode was written by Johnny Favs. series creator, John Favreau. Run time for this puppy, a robust 53 minutes.

You put a chunkier 53 minutes in the outline, which I loved. We talked a lot last week about how tight and compact, almost surprisingly so. The premiere was booted up Disney Plus for this second installment. And it's like, wow, this is an hour of television. And yet, and we can go right into our thoughts on the episode from here. You want him more. breezy and joyful.

It flew by. I didn't believe it when it was over. Joe, what did you think of this episode? This gave me so much more of what I wanted from the premiere, and it really did reinforce for me that I think they either should have done a chunkier premiere premiere or put these two episodes together. I thought this was great. And a lot of that has to do with balance.

I've been thinking, of course, a lot about the Godfather, as we talked. talk about this. And something that I learned recently is that the godfather part two, which has flashbacks to Robert De Niro as a young Vita Corleone and then your present-day storyline with Al Pacino, et cetera, they had to recut that movie because when they originally screened it, they were flashing back and forth between the past and the present too often, and it was disorienting for viewers. I don't think there's anything disorienting about the way the flashback cuts are done in this, but I think especially in a tight time of the first episode, going back and forth twice just makes you feel like you're not spending enough time in either

location. And it's also a lot to acclimate to. Yeah, exactly. And in this episode, it's split. Well, it's not even split. It's heavily weighted towards the past, but we're in one place and then we're in the other place. And we're not jumping back and forth so we can settle in to something.

And I thought that balance worked a lot better. And this episode just made me even more excited for the season. I thought it was a huge step up for. me in terms of what I wanted from a Boba Fett show. How about you? I loved it. Yeah. It's so fun. Oh, my goodness. It was so fun. I loved the action. I loved the real poignancy and emotional resonance of this Boba Tuscan found family evolution and initiation. I loved the parallels. That unfurled over the course of those initiations that worked in both ways, the training sequences that worked in both directions, the Tuskins trading Boba, Boba training the Tuskins, these shared missions, these shared endeavors, and the shorthand that develops between people so rapidly when they have a common goal and a common interest and a common pursuit, the parallels there between something like Boba forging his gaffy stick and a young Jedi Padawan, forging a lightsaber, we'll talk about that more later.

I just so many little touches and delights. And I thought this episode really achieved one of the things that we've talked about before and I think will be a through line of all of our Star Wars discussions, not just for Boba. I thought this episode had the right balance of winks and references and connections

to existing canon while also giving us a lot that was new. There's a lot of new canon in this story. Shouts to the Order of the Night Wind. What a name. Can't wait to break that one down a little bit more. etc. Dure. All of this, all of these little new canon nuggets and of course just fleshing out so much more about figures and places and groups. You said shouts. You know, like when someone

says shouts and then pauses, you're like, your brain fills in what they're going to say. You said order to the night went, a great choice, but I definitely thought you're going to say nose lizard. Like, I don't know how we, in terms of like lore and world building, I don't know how we top a lizard that went up a man's nose and then gave him a spirit journey. I love the sequence that ensued. And as you know, I love an animal.

But actively repelled by the idea of it. Recoiling into my brain against my will. Hard pass for me. I recoiled in fear. As Lindbergh, who will be joining us later today, we should tease, by the way, for a little lore history lesson deep dive on our new,

Wookey pal called the lizard. I believe what he said in his recap, which everyone should read on the ringer.com. It's a fabulous breakdown of the episode was some reward. That was summing up his take on the lizard sequence. Here's a gift for you. Some reward. I want to talk a bit more about what you mentioned about the balance of the timelines.

And before we dive into the more specific plot aspects inside of the episode, let's just dive into that for a little bit structurally. because we don't know how the season is going to play out. We don't know ultimately how long or in what fashion this dual timeline structure will be maintained. I was so fascinated by the change in the calibration from the premiere into the second episode, because as you noted, we went really back and forth quite often in a shorter span of time, which exacerbates the sense of how often it is, even though it's not really that often, right, in the first episode.

And here it's 14 minutes in the present timeline. There's a lot packed in to that stretch. That 14 minutes includes like the opening title card and previously on, etc. So it's even less than that. And at that point in the episode, then we go back into your flashback to. And we're there for the rest of the episode. We don't leave. And so the bulk of this 53-minute installment is set in that

5 ABY right after the escape from the Sarlac Pit right after the events of Return of the Jedi timeline. Does that in any way change anything you felt last week about what the ultimate structure of this season of TV might be? How much time we'll spend in the past learning about those years on Tatooine and that part of Boba's story in life and rebirth? Or do you think that this is mostly going to be concentrated

in the early part of the season because we need to kind of get caught up on how Boba got to this point, and then the calibration will shift to the present day. I don't know. I mean, I think the scenario you outline of it shifting to present day is likely. What I think is interesting, I was listening to other friends of the pod, the folks over Empire, and their spoiler special, they're not as high on the show as you are, as Van certainly is, et cetera.

and I think they have a lot of frustration with the flashbacks. Not all of them. It's not a monolith. But there's a certain frustration with the flashbacks. And I think it all feeds back into this question I was asking last week, which is, why is Boba doing what he's doing in the present? And I think they're intentionally making a little bit of a mystery box about that without shouting out that it's a mystery box. another friend of the pod, Alan Seppenwall, interviewed the show's leads over on Rolling Stone, and he was telling me, he and I had been talking about the show sort of, you know, on the side,

and we had been talking about this question of like, what's the central motivation for our main character in the present day in the show? We don't know. And he said he asked the actors that, and that was the only question he got a we don't want to say sort of answer. Right. Here's the quote in reply to that. Because that struck me, that struck me too. This is from, this is from Alan's interview on Rollingstone.com, which you can check out. The question was, so why does Boba want to stand Tatooine and run Jabba's Empire? It seems like kind of a hassle to me. Alan, the best. And Morrison said in reply, that's a very good question. We're going to start somewhere, I guess. We're going to be branching out and looking at other things to do. But yeah, we'll start small and then we'll venture out. If you focus on the job, you'd better ask. the writer of that. So I believe that we will figure out what the motivation is eventually in the flashback, whether it's that this newfound family is tragically wiped out and he's looking for vengeance or whether they're still out there and he's looking to build a better world for them that

they can enjoy their home more safely. You know, those are two possible scenarios. But the absence of that connected tissue between the two, at least from what I was hearing on the Empire Spoiler Special when they were talking about this is they felt like there wasn't enough of a relationship between the flashback and the present. You know, they want to see more of what you'd get on, say, a TV show, Lost, have you ever heard of it? Where on an episode of Lost, you would flashback, you would see something happen in the characters past and he would inform what's happening on the island and the present. And right now, there's nothing really overt connecting those two. We can, we can draw our own connections, for sure. That's, it's not a huge

sticking point for me, but I can understand why people might have that issue. And it is, it is certainly a challenge of them trying to keep this as a mystery of like, what happened in the desert? We know who we got his gaffy stick. We know he got his robe. We weren't like that curious about that. But I'm like, what happened emotionally to you out there? What happened to your found family that you are now doing this? And what is it you want from this? So that's a big question. And, you know, it's a really good point. And to the point about whether his found family, his Tuscan tribe, the tribe that we are spending time with in these flashbacks, is still around. I mean, obviously, we have seen Tuskins in the present day timeline in the Crate Dragon sequence in Mando, you know, et cetera.

But we don't know just because Bobo's watching doesn't mean that those are his tribe members. And in fact, probably the opposite because then when. he would be participating or helping. So, of course, part of what we learned in this episode, which was a really, like, lovely sequence is when the leader of the tribe is explaining to Boba how the tribes differ and how the way that they approach life on Tatouine differs tribe to tribe and that some choose to fight and kill and attack. And some, like this tribe, choose to live a quiet life and remain in hiding.

Yeah. So we don't know. that is a mystery. I think for me, yeah, while I am eager to see, of course, how that mystery unspools and how those puzzle pieces ultimately fit together so that we are forging a path from one timeline to the other, I'm really engaged with this as a Boba reset origin story regardless of any of that.

And, you know, we talked last week in the premiere. breakdown about the imagery of the emergence from the Sarlac Pit and the sense of rebirth, you know, coming out of this coffin into a new phase of life. And that, that rebirth imagery emerging from a womb of sorts is doubled down on in this episode in the cuts between various sequences during the lizard guide. The nose lizard trip. Yep, yep, yep. When a whole lizard It's very tough. When up his nose, where did it sit? There isn't, is there room for a lizard?

Upper nasal cavity? Do you have room for a lizard in your head? I don't know. Chilling on a brain lobe. I'm hearing that in my head to like a dog beat. Banging on a trash can. Chilling on a brain lobe. I think it sounds like a Jimmy Buffett song.

That too. Tremendous. And so, you know, I'm really invested in this timeline just to learn more about how this version of Boba has come into existence. And I think so many of the questions that I will say it does seem like the response was much more positive to this second episode broadly than to the premiere. Correct. But for the, and not that everybody has the same, you know, critiques or opinions, but I think a recurring through line of the people for people who are not enjoying this as much is what you just outwe. like, why am I, why should I be as engaged in the past? Or more specifically, well, this isn't the boba I'm seeing here is not the boba I thought I would see. And again, we talked about that last

week. Like that's one of the core challenges, but also I think one of the really interesting propositions is taking a character who was famous for being this enigma, this mystery, literally a symbol more so than a fully fleshed out person and taking in the live action in a really central visible project, much of what we've seen in Clone Wars, comics over the years, etc. and building toward a full understanding of this version of the guy underneath the helmet. And that doesn't make the helmet less interesting. It means that when he puts it back on, on top of the Tuscan robes, he's forging this new persona. So I'm really, I'm really digging the dual timeline. I feel like whether we switch to going back and forth more actively across the episode

or ultimately shift to being more actively in the present, like I feel like I'll be with any of it as long as the episode works. But the other thing I just wanted to mention on this front is that I actually found myself really more excited than I anticipated being to spend more time in the past as opposed to the present because we know this whole in the timeline of the Mandalorian idea, all of these spinoffs that are going to ultimately overlap and exist in the same point of canon. That's exciting and presents many opportunities for fun crossovers. But it also means we're going to get a lot of other shows, Mando, Asoka, etc, that are set in that 9-A-B-Y-ish timeline.

So let's spend more time somewhere else where we don't know as much, where there's so much else to learn. And that will ultimately make everything that comes after more fulfilling. I want to follow up on what you said about under the helmet. There's a whole idea that, like, you know, the boba we've known for so long, a lot of what we talked about in episode one in terms of Boba's legacy of being like an action figure before he was actually a character. about how the look, the external shell of the character was so much more important for so long than who was actually in there. And I just really love what the show is done

both in this episode and in episode one, putting such an emphasis on the robing of him. We shouted this out in episode one when the droids put the armor on him, when you have the mirror moment. And again, that would have been maybe an opportunity to flash back from a flashback into the present that felt a little bit more connected of like the robing.

But maybe that just feels a little too heavy hand in and obvious. But like the big, the big like robing, getting the stick and getting his robe seen. And how much of that idea of the clothes he wear now it's not just, wow, it's a cool action figure. You're like, that's his dad's armor. And that's like the robe of this family that he found in the desert. And it becomes that external shell becomes so much more meaningful. Plus, he looks amazing. So I just think it's really smart and interesting what they're doing with all of that.

And, you know, coming off of Mando where, of course, his armor is so spiritually connected to who he is. So, yeah. I completely agree. And as you're noting from the Django connection and everything we learned way back, not only through Clone Wars, but all the way back to attack of the clones, we've been building toward this fuller sense of who Boba is and what role he occupies inside of the clone army and the galaxy and the bounty hunting apparatus and now this crime syndicate life for quite some time. This feels to me like maybe more of a progression than a hard reset.

So I'm digging it. All right. Let's dive into the episode itself. We're going to go pretty much. We'll move around a little bit, but pretty much chronologically here. We'll start in the present. And then we'll move into the past. We must, of course, begin where the episode does with this order of the night wind reveal.

Fenwick bringing this lone assassin back to Jabba's palace, putting him in front of Boba. 8D8 is there with all his warnings. He's not going to talk. He won't say a word. They're fabled for their silence and their toughness, etc. Order of the Nightwin. New to canon. Yeah. What do we think of this name? I feel like they put several fun words into a hat and pulled them out and put them in whatever order they wanted. And it's fantastic.

I love it, Order of the Nightwin. I think it sounds incredible. What do you think? I think it's wonderful. Yeah. It's literary. It's intriguing. It's also almost impossible to not make a fart joke when you say it, which I have to assume. as part of the intention. Oh, genuinely had not occurred to me. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No?

Really? I feel like I let you down, yes. Oh, boy. No. What had occurred to me was this. We get this fun shot of Fenick, you know, walking him up. It's meant to invoke Return of the Jedi. You know, there's shot for shot comparisons.

But what many people have pointed out is that Java's palace is so far on the outskirts of Mosaspa and they're constantly walking into town. Like, do they have to walk? Anyway, they're getting their steps in is the point. Get the steps in. Yeah, exactly. I mean, like, no wonder everyone's like, I didn't see your litter or any kind of vehicle. And Boba's like, I'm getting my steps in.

We know, too, that, you know, Boba had the assist back to the, to the healing pod. And Fenwick just strolling, pulling, pulling this assassin quite aggressively. I love her. I did love the Return of the Jedi shot callbacks for both 3PO and R2D2 and Luke's entrance. We get a couple really memorable entrances through that rising gate in Jedi. So that was really fun. If you, like we do, devour all the Easter egg breakdowns you can find, and there are many, about Boeufa Fett, what becomes increasingly clear is that John Vavro and maybe Dave Flonie,

maybe Robert Rodriguez, sat in a room and said, give us all the footage you have of Tatouine ever. And they're like, every critter in every corner, we're going to find it. We're going to use it. We got a wart in this episode.

That was in the flashback when he springs out of the sand and is ultimately devoured before they realize the long speeder's coming. But a wart, another classic critter shot from Return of the Jedi. You're right.

I mean, it is, it's a great point, and it's one of the reasons that I just love the shows these guys make, because they are so unapologetically and unabashedly fans of the thing. And it makes me think of, you know, Jason, I used to talk about this in the binge mode Marvel pods a lot with like, why did this work? How did they do this? And there are a lot of answers to that question. You know that better than anyone. You are quite literally a Marvel scholar. one of the reasons is because so much of the creative energy there,

Vavs is one of the guys, a key figure in the birth of the MCU, of course, loving the thing and understanding what other people love about the thing. I think that the understanding what people love about the thing part is, as we know, and we don't need to talk about this for too long here, but we will throughout Star Wars discussions, hard with Star Wars, because there's a lot of division inside of the Star Wars fandom.

But I think that this ability to say, oh, this is something that will just quickly tap into a little bit of nostalgia, but not for the sake of it, because it's also achieving that more fully realized version and view of what Tatooine looks like now. Those things are really effective and wonderful. And to do it without requiring that your audience be a Star Wars scholar in order to understand your show. So you put these things in here. You know, you put a black-pelted wookie in here. and to a certain segment from a certain point of view, that means a lot to a lot of people.

And then for the people, they're like, You just did your own version of an Easter egg. I did it for you only. And then for other people, they're just like, wow, that's a cool character design. And in the dialogue, they give enough context clues for you to understand who this character is and what he means. And so, like, you know, on this show,

we always want to go many levels deeper if we can. But it's a thing that I love an Easter egg, but there are definitely times when people, you know, over egg their show in a way that, like, makes it incomprehensible to other people, you know. And, you know, you don't want to, you don't want to Ralph Boner it. You want to, you know, make sure that it, that it all works out. So that's still tough. So hurts. So that's where we are.

But, but yeah, like even the, even the, like little rodent creature that the hut, you. chooses to like mop his brow, a tough watch, I'm sure for Mallory. Like, we see that outside of Java's Palace and Return of the Jedi. And that's wild to me. They're like, what's that tiny mouse that we see for a second? Let's put it in our show. You know, it's amazing. I love it.

Can someone get the Hut twins some sweat-wicking performance wear, please? Athleta, sponsor the Hudson. Come on. Leave these poor creatures alone. Good God. Speaking of creatures, Joe. And speaking of callbacks, we must, of course, talk about the Rangorbit for a moment. What a delightful stretch of the episode this was for so many reasons.

And, of course, it's not only, as you're saying, a fun callback, but it opens up some theorizing because of how it leads us then to the mayor. What did you think of the rank carpet? I mean, mostly that moment offers an incredible line delivery for Mignawain, where she's just like, it's empty. Like, she's just like, you idiot. She was embarrassed for him. Yeah.

She's mortified on his behalf. I love her. I want to braid her hair and carry her helmet for her. She's amazing. I love it. I love it. I think one of my favorite little details here, a lot of people were observing, you know, the rancor heads that were carved and etched into the throne.

This is an update to the palace. It makes you wonder sort of when this all happened because that's not what it was like when Jabba was there, right? But there is no rancor in the pit. So did Bibb Fortuna add those, even though he didn't have? So the rancor heads were there on the bottom of the button one. Because Jabba didn't have a throne. He had just like a platform, right?

So when Bip Fortuna installed himself, he made, he had a slab that he lounged on. Bip Fortuna wanted a chair. So yeah, when he built a chair, he built it to match the thing. But what I like to imagine, because the rancor, you know, please don't kick me off the pockets of I'm wrong. But like the rancor minder lived, right, through Richard of the Jedi? He lived to be very sad about the loss of the rancor. Disponded by the gate crushing.

Yeah. So let's imagine that he processed his grief through art and carved, you know, a tribute to his dearly departed Rancor into the throne. That's what I choose to believe. That's honestly beautiful. I think that there's, there's one other possibility. We know that Bib, big rancor guy, because of course in Bad Batch, we get a rancor-centric episode with our dear Mucci.

We both spent some time wondering, fair to say, I think, worrying what befell, our beloved Mucci. We don't know, because that Bad Batch plot line, is set in 19 BBI, so maybe Mucci is also dead. Maybe Mucci is off living a great life somewhere else, but Mucci is a different Rancor. Maybe Mucci went to college. What do you think? Rancor study? Like general drooling, I think. But I think that, yeah, I'm a little worried about Mucci,

but I choose to believe that Mucci is frolicking somewhere. But yeah, if folks haven't seen it, and that would include me up until a couple weeks ago when I watched all the bad batch in order to be on Mallory's level, hope to be. Anyway, there's a baby rancor that is fetched for Viv Fortuna. You know what other detail I absolutely loved in this sequence? I can't believe we're talking about the Rancor PIP for like 20 minutes,

except I can. The Gammorians jumping out of the way when the gate opens such a delightful little nugget because, of course, when Luke slides down into the piece, in Return of the Jedi, a horror be false, the Gormorian who slid down with him, munched in half, right?

So I like to think that our Gimorians here in this plot, very aware. Learn, adapt. Of the perils. Adapt. Yeah, and I mean, that they can think

their more nimble design. Thank you, John Favro, for a design that enables us to leap out of the way. That was not possible with the old design. This episode is brought to by Whole Foods Market. Spring is here, so celebrate it with fresh, juicy, seasonal produce

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Enjoy the fresh flavors of spring. Save at Whole Foods Market. I'm here to see the mayor. Do you have an appointment? I found one of his stray pets. I'm here to return it to its master. Should we go see the mayor? Let's do it.

Let's do it. And they head to the mayor, of course, because the Order of the Nightwind assassin unafraid of the blade at his neck, ready to die to keep his secret, and yet crumbles in mere seconds at the prospect of becoming a rancor snack. And what does he say?

He says that the mayor sent him. So whether this is true or not, he may think it's true. It may be a cover story, right? A lot of different possibilities, plenty that we can theorize on. But regardless, this leads them to, I guess, most Espa's city hall. Very salty front desk guy there. Quite rude.

Love him. Again, I love all the functionaries of Tatween. I love learning about all the, like, bureaucracy. I'm a fan. It's great. What did you make of this entire sequence? And the, first of all, the little clues. and potential signifiers that we got during the walk to this point, to the, to the,

to the mayor's office, because there were some notable glances from, from some watching transdotions. We had three at one table. We had two at another. Did you read that as, oh, I'm surprised to see Bova Fed alive. Maybe they're in on it, right? Or did you read it as, oh boy, they're dragon and assassin of the night wind? This can't be good. Something's about to go down. Also, as we learn mere moments later, every single person on Tatooine other than Boba and Fennick knows that the twins are on their way. So it might be that too. They might be bracing for the conflict to come. That's another thing that I think people might be like in the modern plotline, what we've seen so far from Boba is not instilling a ton of confidence that he at all knows what he's doing.

But then again, he's got this assassin. I like, I like your interpretation of like they're like, oh, oh, we didn't think you'd make it, bud. Oh, you're still here? All right. Well, we'll keep watching. We'll consider. And, you know, you go back to that Doc Straussie, like, super weird and kind of maybe, like, vaguely coded threat in the tribute sequence. Oh, you know, why not? But I love, I love, you know, the walk to the way in which this, like, one street in Mos Espa feels very alive to us. And then, and then all, like, my guess about what happened with the assassin with the mayor, etc., is that. I don't think the assassin's lying.

I think the mayor did send the assassins, but the mayor is taking orders from the twins, would be my guess of the order of operations there. I think so, too. I think that the mayor is involved. One possible alternate interpretation could be that the major domo has gone rogue and is operating inside of the mayor's power structure, but the mayor may actually be ignorant.

I mean, I think the involvement, it seems clear, given that whole delegation, you know, where you'll get a visit from a delegation student comment in the premiere and the whole, oh, he knows. It's clear that the mayor is aware and unhappy about Boba's presence. I like the idea of that major domo character coming into the, in the story in a more major way. And maybe he's trying to maneuver under the mayor's. a Jafar move is that what you're saying oh wow wow wow oh boy the or we can make a yet another little finger reference and say little finger or whatever but yeah i mean i mean i find the major domo a delightful character so i wouldn't mind it absolutely wonderful i think stacking up the context

clues because like when they go to the sanctuary garcif whip looks similarly like sort of stressed and surprised to see boba yeah so uh he says the beautiful line you're sweating like a gumta on Mastafar. Like, I think that, um, yeah. Also new canon. They, uh, Mustafa, obviously not, but. What happened on Mustafa?

What happened on Mustafa? You know, a finger too. I have a question about the, the topography of Mustafa. Are there, is there like a low ground and a high ground on Mastafar or is it just like one flat sort of surface? I have the high ground. It's over. It's over it again.

You are my brother. As you know, one of my favorite sequences in movie history. I fucking love it. I love it. I think you're right, though, that regardless of whether the mayor is involved or a front, the Major Domo is involved or not, the twin and hut connection is one to latch on to here, especially, I think, because of the line that we get here about how the night wind, assassins are not supposed to operate outside of Hutt space.

And of course, Hutspace is not referring to the area of Tatooine on which Java's palace has built. Hutt Space is a chunk of the galaxy, a region of the galaxy in which the Hutt clan controls space and runs their operation, right? So the fact that these assassins are coming from that Hutt space feels like notable. And that's very mafia, right? Like, you know, you've got your territory and you don't, your operators don't, don't function outside the territory. But I think that. Unless there's a collective. Yeah, like, you know, Godfather, five family stuff, all this sort of stuff.

They call it the, you know, five syndicates. I mean, we're all over the timeline right now. But, like, there's a lot of a lot of precedent and possibilities. I have so many shadow collective thoughts. That's obviously way earlier in the timeline. But given the Pike presence in this episode, I think they're priming us for just remembering that these various syndicates can align and then fall apart. Can I tell you what my note was when the twins, the huts came around the corner?

And this is before I heard Charles talk about this on the House of Midnight. It says in my notes in all caps, the twins are sitting too close to one another. Can I tell you what it says in my outline? Yeah. Lannister incest vibes, question mark. Yeah. Yeah, Jamie and Circe have come to town. Oh, boy.

Oh, boy. On a litter. Yeah. Boy, the twins, we have a lot to learn about the twins. And I frankly can't wait. It's delightful to meet new Hutt characters. It always is. Is it always?

I don't know. Well, I think I might be more partial to zero the hut than maybe some others are. But can I ask you before we go to sanctuary about? the lines that led Boba to sanctuary? Because the mayor sends him, right? One more, Boba doesn't know what everybody else knows, moment. Here is the tribute I offer, some advice. Running a family is more complicated than bounty hunting.

So maybe this is the mayor's intel and hard-won learnings from just the time on Tatooine and being around the Hutt clan, bib, et cetera. But one of the things that this made me think of, just in terms of the language, there were a few different things that were really fascinating about this. I mean, there's the boba-centric aspect in terms of his character development when they try to give him the money and he says, I am not a bounty hunter, to which the mayor says, is that so I've heard otherwise. And remember, this is now five years post-Sarlock pit emergence. So he has been, in his mind, totally reborn. Reimented. Yeah, reinvented.

Yeah, reinvented, exactly. But that complicated language, it strongly evoked to me and then like builds off of what I consider an iconic Mandalorian line from Werner Herzog himself, the client in the mando. I'd like to see the baby. That was. Well, that is literally my favorite line in the history of television. So I'm always happy to talk about that line. But when he says in the premiere, yes, alive, although I acknowledge that bounty hunting is. a complicated profession. And then here we get running a family is more complicated than bounty hunting.

So we're like building and layering on these phases of Boba's life and also reinforcing how one aspect, one pursuit, is still connected and entwined with something else. So I really liked that little moment. And again, and also just serves the purpose of getting Bobo over to our galcarse, whip crushing it once again. Amazing. I iconic. I think that, also it highlights the, you know, if we want to interpret some of these looks that Boba is getting of like surprise of I didn't think you'd make it this far, if they're just thinking of him as a bounty hunter, it means they don't know the desert power that he is accrued from his time. Like they they aren't privy to the flashbacks like we are. So we don't know that he does seem to have

found a family. Well, they already kept them. I don't know. But he has a family like that he is created for himself. So that. A crime syndicate family yet. But even so, even so. That's a great point. I love that because it sets up all of these different ways in which various foils and foes and potentially even certain allies could underestimate him. That's a rich storytelling possibility. All right. Take us through Sanctuary.

Max Rebo back, crushing it again. Will we get Max Rebo in every single episode? In my dreams, we do. Will we have a full new album at the end of season? Well, we have a music video? I hope so. I hope so. Yeah.

I mean, all of this stuff that happens in sanctuary and then when the twins show up. I mean, is there more than you want to say about what happens inside the sanctuary? I want to call out one thing. In addition to, I mean, Boba calls out, you know, the Mustafa sweating comment, he is observing. She's not happy to see him, right? Something is off. People are unsettled. But just the look on her face when one of her lieutenants or.

whatever the exact relationship is there, goes over and just points out that Boba's there. It's interesting to parse that. Is it like, oh, this is just, we don't need to, I don't want to be worrying about this guy, or oh, he is, this increasing dawning realization that he's going to be a problem, right? He's going to be someone they actually do have to reckon with

and contend with. But I also just loved the, thank you for the honor of your patronage, Mr. Fett. I have a seat at the bar, and I'll see if I can free up a table. Like, our guy, Boba. is walking around, taking tributes. Now, on the one hand, he's like, I don't need a litter.

You know, I can walk on my own two feet. But also, insult after insult, have a seat at the bar while we see if we can free up a table. It's, like, iconic as a dig. I loved that. No, he deserves a matrietya to, like, carry the table to the front of the Copacabana for him and, like, give him the nicest seat in the room. No, but it is interesting. And the very dismissive, you haven't heard. The Michael Corleone's stuff with Boba Fett is so interesting because one of the main,

there are several things that Michael does that make him successful in what he does. And one of them happens to be that he was like in the godfather, he's a war hero. He comes back a war hero, right? So he's a general. So we understand strategy. And we see that in like the flashback stuff. We see Boba being like sort of the general of his Tuscan Raider family. The other thing that Michael Corleone does that I don't never understand how he does.

it and Vito does it too, is they are always able to figure out who the real, like, power behind or who the traitor is. And I'm just, it's a constant shell game. And they're constant, like, people put in front of people, put in front of people to hide the real power. And that's what's going on in Tatumene. But, like, Michael can always figure it out. And I'm always like, how do I do that? How did you know, Michael?

And so I'm just hoping that Boba gets, gets on Michael's level and is able to see through all the stuff. Because right now he's just asking people and being sort of, like, let him. around by the nose. And I would like him to start, you know, I would like to see him turn to Fennick and be like, it's actually the rodent on the litter or something, you know, something like that and figure it all out. So we'll see. Yeah. No, I think that's a great point. And the, you know, ultimately still pretty limited time that we've spent with Boba elsewhere in Canon, I think we've actually gotten a lot of moments. And they're sort of charming and I think actually help build our

empathy for him. But a lot of moments where he's sort of makes the wrong read, actually. Or it's just too myopic, like something like his, the way that he lets his pursuit of vengeance with Mace Windu guide him, or an alliance of kind of necessity, but ultimately like a mistaken alliance

with a character like, or a Singh, right? And, you know, like, letting someone like Cadbane kind of use him as a lackey. And then, you know, there's a, before this episode, there's a Boba train heist, Clone Wars episode that, you know, people might be interested in checking out as another bit of a Boba train canon,

my guy gets absolutely dunked on by ventures, etc. And just has no, and he's like literally a kid at that point in the canon. But I think it's a really, really great observation that you're making. And I like that, you know, after the FIP, you haven't heard, heard what, the twins have laid claim to their late cousin's bequest. Bobba says the twins are preoccupied with the debaughtry of Huta, are too preoccupied with the debauchy of Huttoe to bother with any ambition on Tatoo-Ween, that's like a rich thing to parse for a lot of reasons.

And it does indicate that he has some sense of events in the galaxy. Like he is attempting in some way to read the board and think about the power dynamics, like thinking about what might be happening on Nal Huta, where the Hutt council rules, the home of the huts, etc. But what's the first thing that he says when they step outside, when they start hearing the drums and the foot pounding and the arrival of the litter. He asked Fennick to watch his back. And so that is like a certain type of awareness that he possesses that I find charming.

He actually knows he needs help. I think basically Boba has been off Twitter for like five years. You know what I mean? Like he's Intel is old. Yeah. Well, we don't know. Maybe that'll be one of the things we learn. Maybe he has all sorts of intel that other people don't or that like you said,

they don't know he has. But yeah, you're right. That's a thing. A big question that people have is like, why are the huts showing it, why are the twins showing up now if Bibb Fortuna was, was, you know, sitting on the throne for five years? My guess here would be that, like, Bib was working for them, right? And so that, like, he was their, you know, emissary. It's kind of the only thing that makes sense, right? Like, why?

Yeah. And so then when they find out this, like, you know, scruffy-looking bounty hunter shows up and kills their guy, they're like, excuse me? Oh my God, we have to get on a plane and go see about this when of course they would rather not. So, yeah, so the twins are here. And they're paying off the recurring we didn't see your litter a bit, right? Which is great.

Which is great. These two huts, the twins, as far as we know, these are not characters that we are familiar with from elsewhere in canon. There are a lot of other huts outside of Java in the expanded canon. Zero previously mentioned mere moments ago.

Some very memorable sequences from our guys, Zero the Hut in Clone Wars and also with Zero's mother back on Nal Hutta, Swamp Planet. I cannot stop thinking about one hut, though. Stinky. Little Rada, the hutlet. Jabba's literal child, His son, his spawn, his progeny, the entire Clone Wars series begins with a maligned movie that centers on Anakin and Asoka going to rescue Jabba's son. Where is stinky?

Did he just renounce the hut crime life? I think maybe the twins had him assassinated on Lake Tahoe somewhere. Like he strikes he as a real Fredo, Corleone. Like, I don't think the huts would let him. This is what I was worried you were going to say. This is what I was worried you were going to say, damn it. But it's not just the huts, right?

Like who else is coming to town? Mallory, who's here? Well, Joe, we got what I think is fair to say was an incredibly exciting moment for Star Wars comics readers in particular character arrival here. We're only going to talk about this for like a second here because we're actually going to devote an entire segment later in the pod. Ben Lindberg will be joining us for a comics canon

lore reveal on our new wookie gladiator pal BK himself, Black Cursanton, who very quickly as a teaser, stay tuned for Ben's segment, has comics connections to Vader, Jabba, Boba, Obi-One,

which has some tantalizing possibilities for a little series that you might have heard of. And you want to see you and fight that wookie, don't you? Well, we, we, I mean, think it's safe to assume that it happens in the live action as well because we do have a little bit of a little bit of that head scar that you can spot there. And of course, BKK's comics connection to Dr. Afra. We got so many mailbag questions about what this might mean on that front. This has been a big, big topic of fan discussion in the last couple days. Does this signal that the DAC,

the good doctor, is coming to live action soon? Anything you want to say here, we'll save most of it for Ben's segment later, but anything you want to say here, this was just like a delightfully menacing little sequence. To quote, my good friend in yours, Maz Kanana, I like that wookie. Oh my God. I love it. I love it. Good old Maz. Great stuff. I thought again, it was like an effective shorthand when Booba says you can bring as many gladiators as you wish,

but these are not the death pits of dirt. I am not a sleeping Trindotion guard. This territory is mine. Now go back to Nalhata. First of all, because he's just like unflinching, right? He is really fearless throughout both timelines in the episode, even in pretty uncomfortable circumstances, but also because it hints at so many connections there that we're going to learn about over time. And it clearly establishes for us that there is that shared history

that he recognizes right away. He knows exactly who this is. So it's just a cool character design, and there's enough context for us to understand how he relates to Boba. And then for fans of the Star Wars comics, there's just nine more layers that they can get excited about. And Ben can tell us why. But we'll get to that later.

But yeah, I mean, great stuff. Great showdown on the streets. He needs permission to kill the twins. And the big question here is who needs to give him permission to do that? Again, that's a very godfather thing of like you can't, you can't just go ahead assassinating dons unless he's had to go rogue like Michael does. So, you know, who is the one giving permission here? I mean, I think we should just throw our, our,

Amelia Clark, Kira, Watch 2020 conversation right here. I thought that the way that Fenwick phrased it was interesting to, their huts. We would have to get permission if you want to kill them. So it establishes more broadly the connection between the hut family and whoever this looming figure behind all of this in charge of all of this,

in charge of all of this is. Do you think it's the power broker? Could it be the power broker? I... Erin Kata herself? I... How dare you invoke the power? I'm sorry. I couldn't help it. I was thinking a lot during this episode in this moment, and Jomey's chiming in to say,

as long as it isn't Mephisto. Great stuff. Great stuff. I kept thinking about... Yes, of course, Kira and Crimson Don, but also the Shadow Collective, which is another group that Darth, not Darth at that point, Mall formed. And the Shadow Collective is well earlier in the timeline than where we are here. So I will say that and acknowledge that. Yeah. But this is a group that Ma created to basically rival Sidious, right, to rival the Sith order.

This just stemmed as basically every decision that Mall ever made life for, if we're being frank, from some hurt feelings, you know, some hurt feelings. Poor bud. And it's a collection and alliance of various other syndicates and orders, you know, Black Sun, Death Watch, the Hut clan. The huts were part of the Shadow Collective, the Knight Brothers, Pike Syndicate. The huts and the Pike Syndicates, two. key groups, two key figures in this episode, Joe, were part of the Shadow Collective. Founded

in 20 BBI, basically fractured in a complete fucking debacle of a mess, shouts to Previsla and Mandelor, now and always, by 19 BBY, and then sort of reforming in and out various permutations of the alliance. And then Maul is just like, all right, Crimson Don, I'm going to do this thing now. And then we know, of course, in 10BY, the solo timeline is when we start to learn about Kira's connection to Crimson Dawn, and then she's running it from that point on. So is the shadow collective active at this point in the timeline that is not what I'm saying. However, I think that the fact that various crime families were part of that are active across the two timelines in this episode, the Pikes in the past, right, in the five ABI and the huts

here now with the twins and nine ABI should make us think about the way that these families have worked together before. and whether there could be some connection between them and the mayor, those families together, whatever Kira is running at this point in the timeline with Crimson Dawn, has she forged another collective like Maul did before her? I mean, so, you know, we should be clear for folks who don't know that, like, Darth Mal seemed like he died in the Phantom Menace, and he didn't. Cut half.

It was just a mere... Road literally to a trash planet to bite his time. A mere vivisection. he's fine. He had robotic legs going forward. That's right. But then he's deed, dead. Dead. Full on dead.

Yeah. Dead, dead. Incredible Star Wars Rebels episode. Watch it if you happen. A great animated episode. But like, you know, for folks who haven't watched the animation, like, might not know that like he had this whole other life, you know, in the animation. But he's dead, dead, dead now. So for folks who are speculating that Darth Marl is going to show up in this show, that timeline doesn't really work out for you.

But I do think it enriches the cure of a possibility given their shared history in Crimson Dawn and everything she would know about his shadow collective past. If one had to guess who would take over from all, it would be Amelia Clark's Kira who we met in Solo, who we who felt like a character, Lucasville really wanted to do something with, has had a life in the comics. And so if someone were to show up, again, we don't want to get to like Mephisto about it. You know what I mean? But like, this is not much of a reach, I don't think. We know definitively inside of the canon that she takes over Crimson Dawn. For sure. So I think the only reach is, does she then try to tap into that?

I'm going to build a team here, right? I'm going to bring the families together around the table. I'm going to build a collective of my own. I think she would. Maybe so. She's a lady with a plan and some ambitions. I love it. All right, Joanna, take us back into the past.

All right. listen with boba a training set it's not quite a montage we will get a montage though but it is a training session between boba and a character who's called in the credits tuscan warrior um this is a female character uh well we know she's played by a stunt performer joanna bennett you know love a joanna obviously um who has uh who has done stunt work for brie larsson captain marble and and for galgaotte in wonder woman and a bunch of other stuff um um She's kind of incredible. I was like, spending a lot of time on her Insta this week. I love that they coded this character

as female by giving them cloth hair. Like, I thought that was just like a really, really, it didn't occur to me until the train heist when the hair was whipping

in the breeze. I was like, oh, is that supposed to be a lady? Gender is a performative concept anyway. But the point is, they're training here. I want to say something

really quickly. This is something my friend, Aeman-Worman, brought up on the Empire. Spoilers. special, which is like for all the work that the show is doing to give us a more in-depth,

well-rounded idea of who the Tuscan writers are, I wouldn't mind if some of these characters had names. Like calling her the Tuscan warrior, that's a badass title to have, obviously. But like, if we're trying to, I don't humanize as a weird word to use here, but if we're trying to, you know, like flesh out these people, you know, why don't they have names rather than like the chieftain and the warrior and stuff like that? They're archetypes rather than like characters. Maybe we'll get them.

Maybe it's like Sylvie and Loki where we'll get like a name for them. But, but yeah. And I had a moment only because my brain is so infected by like all the Godfather movies that I've been watching and stuff like that is that, you know, Boba has this cool relationship with this warrior where she trains him. they do the train heist together. She's an absolute boss on the train heist. And they do this dance at the end of the episode.

And I was like, is Bobafat going to get a Tuscan wife? Like, is that going to – it just – I thought about Michael Corleone goes to Sicily and gets a Sicilian wife and then she dies. And that inspires a lot of what he does. And I would prefer there not to be a wife who dies to inspire Boba Fed on his current path. That would be my preference. That's all I'm saying. That's a fair note. Oh, boy.

The training sequence, and there are many across the episode, but the initial one with the Tuscan Warrior and Boba made me think a little bit of Aria and Argyzirio, the kind of training sword and specifically this focus and this frustration that then turns quickly into like a real investment in the tactics, how would you grip this?

How would you not let it fall? And I just kept thinking of Syria, you know, it's a sword must be a part of your arm. Could you drop a part of your arm? And the parallels there with the gaffy stick. And I loved the way that the stick and Boba's comfort with it in relationship to it. And, of course, then direct investment in it, forging his own developed over the course of the course.

But I thought of Thrones there, of course, had to mention it. to you. Of course. I love to think about water dancing. Dune Sea dancing. I love it. We get a little train attack here, a long speeder. Just a little one. Pinpoint precision. Pinpoint precision. The whart emerges. My beloved massifs are just chowing down on a midday snack. And then we hear this menacing sound. Did you think at first that this was a crate dragon? Because that was what I thought. Zero percent. And it wasn't a, until I, you know, read some other people or they pointed out that the sound was similar to or maybe identical to, that of the crate dragon.

No, I didn't think it was the crate dragon, only because we got a massive critter last week, you know, massive monster fight last week. And an entire episode of Mando dedicated to... Yeah, the crate. So... But I like the theory that if it is the same sound as the crate dragon, I like the theory that, you know, these spice runners use the sound of the crate dragon to, you know, scare creatures away on their, on their track spice run through the desert.

But yeah, a bit of the dice. And I'm wondering how you're feeling about it, no. Not great. I mean, again, to call back to the crate dragon, bantha was just a snack, a little midday munch for the dragon. I don't think now getting eaten by a crate dragon is one thing. I don't know that the pantha should die this easily. Like one shot and just boom keels over.

But, you know, hanging around in the sun. The work is hard. Maybe, maybe, I don't know. It was devastating. I don't know why the banshas always have to die. It's not the last, yeah, many bantas died to bring us this episode. It's really sad. But yeah, so we get to Spice Runners.

Fascinating. Yes. So obviously we learn during the ensuing train heist sequence that these are, these are pikes. They are working for the Pike Syndicate. They are running spice. I've been fascinated by the number of, boy, this sure seems like a dune ripoff, you know, tweets and comments this week. Now, I have two thoughts on that. One, it quite literally is. I mean, George Lucas is like famous for all of the things that he, uh, borrowed and incorporated from other stories. I heard those air quotes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Frank Herbert's Dune is certainly formative to shaping not only spice, but the desert planet, etc. Right.

And I think there were heavy Dune vibes in general across this episode, not only with the spice, but all of the corollaries between the Tuskins and the Fremen, the relationship between a character like Paul and the Fremen and a character like Bowman and a character like Boba and the Tuskins, et cetera, on and on and on it goes. There was a part of me that was like, this feel, we're feeling this much more keenly because we all just watch Dune. So it's a little bit unfortunate in that respect. Of course.

And like the design of the like of the spice in this, which is just like glitter sand is the exact same that Denisville Nive used. But I copy this from somewhere, probably a Reddit comment. I don't know where I grabbed it from. So I apologize that I'm not sourcing it. But in response to both. Oba's dreams of Camino and the oceans of Camino and stuff like that. Someone wrote, it's just something about a prince from a water planet being relocated to a desert planet where he finds spice.

I mean, sure. I love it. Here we are. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, the doom parallels are a clear. That's definitely true. And I think the, I mean, we can talk about this more when we get to the actual other train heist sort of. I mean, we should just say, train heist are such a staple of the Western genre,

of Western films. We've gotten them in Star Wars before. In Solo, we've gotten them in a number of things. The most obvious comp of this episode is probably not doing is probably Lawrence of Arabia. The literal concept art that plays over the end credits of this episode is shots from Lawrence of Arabia. so like which is another film that George Lucas borrowed heavily from when he put together Star Wars. One of these seminal influences.

Yeah. So, but it's kind of, I mean, it's kind of, I think it's really fun to watch this Disney Plus show and be like, oh, Lawrence Arabia is here, Dune's here, and Godfather's here. Like, I think that's really, it's a fun, fun, sexy time for us, I think. I agree. I agree. Joe, before we get back to the train, though, and the bites and the spice and all of it. I was going to go to Tashi. station to pick up some power converters. Can I do my, can I do my look impression?

Please. But I was an at Tashi station to pick up some power converters. That's my favorite Luke line. And the way that Mark Campbell delivers it. A whiny little moisture farmer boy, Luke Skywalker. Absolutely incredible. I'm thrilled that we're at Tashi Station. My other favorite Tashi Station reference is, um, Jim Rund Robot Chicken did the, like Star Wars segments. And they cut, like Luke goes, I want to go to Tashi Station to pick us and power converters. And they cut to Tashi Station and it's a strip club and the power converters and the name of the strippers.

They're like, welcome to the stage, the power converters. Anyway. Unbelievable. Yeah. Tasha Station. I'm wearing my Tashi Station T-shirt today. I'm so delighted to have a real direct hook here. And this was a really fun sequence in a lot of different ways.

the return of our Nekdo Swoop gang from the first episode. I think on the one hand, we're yet to learn exactly who this insignia belongs to, who they might be working for. But the fact that the same group is back and quickly dispensed with, but back in a second episode, these are the bikes that Boba takes. We get to linger many times on that insignia of the kind of double curvy L. But also then there are other insignia of this like the hulking skeleton, droid type thing. So this could have been any group, but it was the same group. And we're thinking then

again about what that insignia is, what that sigil is, who they might be connected to, et cetera. But we also got some other Mando-Boba connections. You know, if we think back to the Mando premiere and our first experience, you know, the way that he's framed in the entrance way to the catina, right, going for the Miloth, the way that Boba, we first see his shadow against the wall and then see him framed in the doorway. And one of the things that we've had a lot of fun just talking about on the side is we've been watching this is like how much time our guy Boba Fett is spending. In his long johns. He has neither in his new robes nor in his armor, but in his undergarments. I is someone who spends. It is crusty, rusty, sarlac. A lot of sarlac goop on there still.

Oh my God. Those look like they smell atrocious. Yeah. I respect and admire it because I I spend as much time in pajamas as possible as you know, but it is notable. This incredible man shows up in crusty long johns. And then just cleans everyone's clock and seals a bunch of bikes. With great ease. Yeah. This is maybe Boba's like, um, fine or sour. I mean, is this, is this the only reason we saw the swoop gang in last week's episode?

I don't think the insomnia. I still think we're going to learn. Yeah. in this prior, in this earlier timeline, who they're working for and who that group is. Now, maybe they're just connected to the huts in some way, but I feel, I feel like we wouldn't be lingering on the shots of that sigil if it weren't going to bear some sort of fruit.

But they're, of course, not the only figures who are present here. Who's there? This has to be. So I watched the episode and then immediately edited Limburg's recap, and I will be very candid that this, I did, I was like, wait, okay, I know I'm supposed to like, figure out who these people are. These are, like, clearly people who I'm supposed to, like,

remember or recognize you'll be able to piece together. But, you know, the wee hours, low on coffee, didn't click for me. I gasped out loud when I got to this paragraph in Limburg's recap. It's fucking fixer and gammy from an absolutely fabled, deleted scene from a new hope. And also from the novelization for the last Jedi. So they fixer Cammy and Biggs are in,

you can go to YouTube and find this deleted scene in 30 seconds. They're present in this scene. So they're like friends. They're in Luke's life. They're part of the fabric of his existence on Tatooine. The novelization, Luke is dreaming about an alternate life, an alternate course of existence in which he's married to Camie. So this is like Luke Skywalker's boyhood crush.

It's a big deal. His high school sweetheart. And she's just, you know, they're just still hanging out at Tashi Station. It's kind of a cool thing to think about, like, you know, this, yeah, this could have been Luke Skywalker's life. Except he became a big old hero of the galaxy and, you know, Fixer and Cammy are still hanging out at Tashi Station on a Friday night. But, yeah, and I liked the, again, I kind of like this idea of like, it's Fixer and Cammy. Again, it doesn't matter that they are that you know who they are. It's not integral to your understanding of the episode.

So it's a perfect Easter egg, right? Because they're there. The closed captions and credits confirm that that's who it is. They hired other actors. Obviously, those original actors are a different age now. I don't know. It's just fun. It's perfect.

Ideal. It is. It really captured the fashion sense from the New Hope deleted scene, too. Just wonderful. So Boba takes the bikes. Takes them back and we get Driver's Ed with Boba Fett. I found this utterly delightful. How about you?

Just wonderful. Well, now it's time for me to invoke Thrones. When they were hopping from bike to bike, it felt really like, you know, the Dothraki Raiders, like, standing up on their horses. I just got so hyped when they did that. Yeah, I love, you know, I love a training montage. Love a montage. And Boba looked so proud of his pupils. So I love this.

That was part of what I enjoyed so much. I mean, first of all, we got a new meme, you know. It's like a bantha. We've But, and the bouncing, as he's saying like a bantha. But I loved not only the comedy, but the charm of seeing Boba in that teacher role. And also like the insight of learning something more about galactic life.

Like what would it be like to learn to ride a speeder for the first time? How hard would it be? You know, how quickly would you take to it? I love little moments like that where we get a sense of how, how you would approach this thing that we just kind of take for granted as the norm. Riding a speeder. Wonderful. Should we talk about the train heist and where they take those speeders to?

I mean, I love a freaking train heist. I'm never upset about a train heist. And this is incredible. There isn't a fantastic droid running the train. The action is great. A bunch of Tuskins speaking. of many bansthas died.

More bans died. A lot of Tuskins died in this thing. And Boba looks genuinely distressed, of course, that that happened under his watch. But they take down the train. And I think it's an incredible thing. Probably poking the bear of some crime syndicates if you want to talk about. I mean, yeah, in one episode, Boba's pissed off some a biker gang and, you know, a mob family. Good job. Good job, bud. I'm sure, I'm sure there will be no consequences to this.

But yeah, I thought it was incredible. I loved it. Incredible action. I loved how long this sequence ran for, not quite pot racing length. That's even longer. But this is like pretty luxurious. You know, it stretches over a good span of time. And the pacing and the clip of it was just like really kind of balletic, but also really intense and like edge of your seat. As you said, the cinematography in the episode was just beautiful. In terms of the conversation with the Pikes at the end, again, I was really struck by how firm Boba was in his conviction, not only for himself,

but the way that he felt comfortable acting on behalf of the Tuscan tribe at that point, it really spoke to how quickly and how far they had come together, the Pike family. So they're from Obadiah, but of course they mine the spice on Kessel, spice is a drug, right? Who could the Pikes be working with in that timeline?

Are they just running in 5A, B.I? Are they just running the product through Tatouine, maybe? Are they working on something more specific as an arrangement with Jabba's dead right then, but he only died recently with the Huts. They were a part of the Shadow Collective, as mentioned,

but that was much earlier. And their relationship to that alliance was very fraught. They don't really work super well with others, which I think is kind of interesting. There's a Pike Crimson Dawn alliance, though, that is also kind of like shaky, but I think bears mentioning in terms of our Kira theorizing, this is again the 5ABY, not the 9ABY,

but still it's there for a reason, right? It's setting up them as figures for a reason. During the Bad Batch season, there's a Durand crime family Pike Spice plot. So, I mean, they're moving product. Of course, they're going to work with various families and have various arrangements. But when does a business arrangement move into a potential meaningful alliance? We know, of course, that Kira has direct Kessel Pike interaction in Solo in 10BUI in that sequence. So I think it's pretty fun to think about how this could play out.

but the way that Boba says, you're right. Like, not only, okay, these are the rules now, right? And this is how you will behave, but also walk. You're going to pay us. Single file. Another. Sure. But also he's like, you're going to pay us a fine.

Like, no, their bosses are not going to, that's not going to fly with their bosses. It will presumably be some retribution. Retribution. So I'm worried. I'm worried about any, any in old Tuskans we can easily identify. Speaking of, we've got the chief sits down with Boba for like a fireside chat obviously after this.

This is of course when our guy the nose lizard shows up but what do we learn about like Tuscan lore that you want to highlight here? I think you know, as we mentioned earlier, the fact that as we were sort of discussing and speculating about last week that this might kind of unfold quickly in the show,

the chieftain says there are many different Tuscan tribes since the oceans dried. We have stayed hidden. Other tribes have survived by killing. This helps us as an audience kind of reconcile our history with Tuscan characters. The fact that they don't all behave the same way, so the group that, as we talked about last week,

kept Schmey, Anakin's mother, prisoner, and tortured her. That's not the same tribe as this tribe. Can I say that there's a line in a new hope that makes Obi-1 look like such an idiot, right? And here's what he says. And these last points, too, accurate for sand people. Only imperial stormtroopers are so precise.

Hasn't aged well. Unless Obi-1 is being deeply sarcastic there. It's just, it is now doubly stupid. Yes. That one is a, that's a real what's age of the worst line contender for our sister pod, the rewatchables right there. One of the things I was really struck by on that fireside chat, though, in addition to just this expansion of the canon for both the Tuskins and Tattoine,

That history of Tatouine as an ocean planet, a forest planet, is actually established in the canon. But I think for a lot of viewers, this will be the first, this is like hitting the mainstream now as insight. There are some, not exactly one-to-ones, but like we think of a planet like Mandelor and how like lush and teeming with life that used to be and how it was decimated by all of the ensuing conflict. Like I think we will, well, will we learn more about what actually unfolded on Tatouine to change that? or is this just kind of enriching our sense of Tattoine's past? Either way, I think it's interesting. But the thing that really struck me in this fireside chat was the, was when a lizard went on someone who's not.

Also that. But the real kind of like hopelessness and sadness in the chiefsons voice when he said the off-worlders have machines, like this sense of how could we even try? How could we even try to contend with these people who have come in and dominated our home and taken it from us. And the way that Boba kind of rallies them and allows them to find that hope again, you know, you have machines now too, but not just the machine, not just finding the thing that they have that the other people have, but what do only they have, right? Which I love that aspect of how he replied here. And you know every grain of sand in the dunes sea. Like, this is their

home. Desert power, baby. Yeah. And I mean, I think that that feeds into this idea that, like, this that perhaps whatever Boba is doing is to build a safer world for the Tuscan Raiders maybe that may not be what people want from their badass bounty hunter this sort of peacetime Mandalorian sort of idea of what this new world should be but I think that might be what we're building towards um what I think when I when I when I when there's a lizard and a sort of drug trip thing I have to go to the doors um and the lizard king that is Jim Morrison. Truly a tremendous film. No, it's not. If you've ever seen it, Val Kilmer, baby. But yeah, this is an incredible, a really rich drug trip, you know,

mission, dream sequence, the tree. We see the ocean, the sand dunes turned into those oceans that once, you know, were the topography of Tatween. We get the flashes to Camino, his home planet,

where he was born. um the the those oceans and then we get the tree and it turns it to a sarlac and um i mean it's just it's incredible imagery and then he comes back with his very own murder stick it's a great i i just loved it i loved this whole thing it's a very and it's very conan the barbarian again honestly conan hangs on a tree and it's a whole thing so like you know it's very north mythology and it's all this stuff i just thought it was very rich mythologically rich and i loved it. I loved it as well. And while it had this like highly as a, you know, a quite literal drug trip, hallucinogenic quality to it and this dream likes the vibe and aesthetic, it is actually

a thing that's happening. Not everything that he's seeing is happening, but he comes back with the branch. So this is, these trees are there on tattooing somewhere. And I was really, really interested in that and fascinated by it because again, it speaks to how much we have to learn and discover about the secrets of Tatouine, but also what the Tuskans know about Tatouine, that so many others don't. And I agree with everything you said. I loved this part of the episode. The trees made me think a little bit of the two trees from Lord of the Rings canon. You know, they're this source of like light, right? And then we'll save that for future podcasts, but...

2022, Lord of Rings. Amazon Prime. These two trees. So again, the trees must be real because he's... he does come back with the branch. But in terms of the sequence as a whole, I loved the cuts between past, present, future. I loved the use of mirrors and reflections as imagery. The way that Django and Boba are connected, past and present, the way that Boba sees himself and his father,

a literal clone, an unaltered clone, a reflection and recreation of another human being. And then how, if that is your life, no matter how much you love that person and how much you miss that person, how hard it would be then to become your own person, right? And how crucial then those rebirth images are to reinforce that for Boba, this is this reinvention. I love that term reinvention that you used earlier. When he puts the armor on and we know now that it is on top of the robes that the Tuskins cloaked him in when he returned to welcome him into this family, it's not just this rebirth, but it's this forging of identity.

You know, I've been thinking like, well, what does it mean that he put the armor back on? And it's not that he's leaving one life behind, is that he's combining them. He is combining all of these aspects of his past and his history and all of these parts of who he is. You know, the ocean and the sand, the Camino, the old home, tattooing, the new home, but also like Tatooine's secret history, cloth and armor, old and new. What will become new? What will become joined? This was just like a really rich sequence. And of course, I adored the ensuing forging of the gaffy stick and all of the parallels there that we hit to that earlier between.

I mean, of course, it makes me think of the wand choosing the wizard. But inside of Star Wars, the cannon around forging a lightsaber is like one of my favorite things inside of Star Wars. And, you know, I would recommend people watch the episode The Gathering in Clone Wars where you can see young padouins go to Ilam. And the way that the Khyber crystal calls out to you. And you build, you forge this thing that is sacred and inextricable from your identity as a Jedi. And the fact that Boba and that the Tuscans more broadly have their version of that, I just thought was really cool and I really loved it. And it really heightened from me like that found family theme that we've discussed so much,

which I just think is so interesting with Boba in particular because his, his relationship to family, the way that he has thought about family has always been so interesting. You know, again, it grows up very attached to, proud of, well, almost reverent toward his own father. But he is a copy of him, right? And how he then finds himself and builds other relationships after he is mourning his father, trying to, the way that he, like, reacts to other clones. The fact that Boba is a pure clone does not mean he is not surrounded by legions of other clones of his father. So I've always been fascinated by that. He sees his face everywhere.

There's that great moment in the Mandalorian when Casca Reeves that basically like dunks on him by saying, I've heard that voice a thousand times, right? And how one of the things I love about Clone Wars is that it allows us to really see

how each of the clones found their own identity and became a fully realized individual and found that sense of self despite being a part of this collective. And Boba is doing, that in a way that is like utterly unique to him. And it also then connects to how we view Tatooine because I think it's really interesting to reposition Tatooine in this way. We tend to think, not always, but most famously, certainly inside of Star Wars, we think of Tatooine as a place that

people try to escape, a place that they cannot wait to leave, right? Anakin and Luke cannot wait to leave Tatum. Give me out of this binary sunset hell. Yeah, yeah. Steve played the score. But for Bova, it is a chosen new home. He didn't choose to go into the Sarlac Pit, but he's choosing now to stay and build a life. I love it. I like we said about all the parallels are so interesting. I really like this idea of, you know,

speaking of like having Star Wars without a Jedi and the Force, I really like this idea of this Tuscan tradition, this ceremony is very similar to something that we see in the Jedi and this idea, you know, that we have in our own culture of different cultures interpreting the same myths, but differently as they match their own culture. This all ends with this beautiful fireside dance, which is like a little bit,

a little bit, a little bit, something else. A lot of people are bringing up dances with wolves. Of course, there's a fire dance and dances with wolves. It's quite cringy if you want to go look at that. I'm going to do a little Luke Skywalker brushing the dust off my shoulder and say, I was talking about dances of wolves last week.

So catch up. But yeah, we had the listener to Tim Roden and said, are we allowed to call Boba dances with Bantha's, or is there a better name? So I thought that was really funny. But yeah, and like we want to talk about some of the other influences really quickly on this episode. We've talked about some of them already.

But Francis, who's actually a real life pal of mine, Rodin, to shout out Arrow, which is something that I hadn't thought about. But of course, it's true, this idea of like a five-year, Francis wrote, like, with the two timelines showing the hero's five-year absence and how he trained to become the person he is now and how the status quo is changed in that time and how the hero finds his place and the new status quo is anyone else reminded of arrow. So yeah, Bib Fortuna, you've failed the city. Like, it's arrow. I love it.

I haven't thought about that at all. We talked about Lawrence Arabia. Shout out, there's a train episode of Firefly, 310 to Yuma, the great train robbery. The harder they fall, great Western that came out this year on Netflix. So, you know, it's just like, you know, I love a train heist. Same. We've also talked a lot. We talked about the Easter eggs.

We talked about how often there are too many Easter eggs and things, but I think this is a perfect light touch. Is there any specific Easter egg that you want to shout out, Mallory? Beyond the ones that we've already covered, I think my favorite in this episode had to be the Nightwing Assassin invoking the Ichuta. Oh, nice to see a familiar face. Ichuta. How rude. Steve, you can splice in the soundbite there. Curse.

Because, of course, it makes me think of our guy, 3PO, you know? How rude! And his response to hearing that in Empire. Delightful. What about yours? Did you have a favorite beyond the ones we've already covered? Not beyond, but I just have to, it's the Gomorian jump. It has to be, as you already shouted out.

I think that's incredible. What are any big wild theories that are kicking around this episode? Other than all the Kira stuff we've talked about, What's top of your list on Theory Watch right now? Okay, there's a couple things going on. Let me just say. None of this is spoilers, because I don't know anything about this season. Again, this is completely unsubstantiated.

Is that possibly Harrison Ford has filmed a Han Solo cameo. Would you want it, Mallory? Alla, Mar Camel doing, you know, they would obviously massively DHM, a La Mar Camel in Mando, season two. Do you want it? I don't really trust myself to speak. on it. I will just say that I always want Harrison Ford in anything and I'll leave it

at that. Okay. I have my doubts, but we'll see. My all-time faith. We'll see. My all-time faith. One day I'll tell you about how I every now and then just scroll through photos of my on my camera roll that are just pictures

I've taken of my TV of Harrison Ford and Witness. And now we're all caught up because I just told you right here right now. Oh my God. That is the thirstiest movie of all time. Harrison Ford and Witness is I don't think anyone has ever looked better. Peak. Wow.

The best. Before we bring Ben on, should we do Secret Scroll Watch 2021 in Star Wars? Do we have the same pick? To me, this was a clear pick. And I love our recurring bit. Nonsensical, though, it may be. It's a delight to me. Camion Fixer.

I have to be. Obviously scroll plants inside of the Star Wars universe. Yeah. Secret invasion, Cammy and Fixer. The secret invasion started at the Tati station. It's confirmed. All right.

Amazing. Let's bring on Ben. This episode is brought to by Paramount Plus. Beth and Rip are back in a new series, Dutton Ranch. Kelly Riley and Cole has a returned, and this time they're taking on Texas. As Beth and Rip build a future together,

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I'm excited to talk to you about this. As Jedi librarian, Jocasta New once said, if an item does not appear in our records, it does not exist. I love Jicasta. She was totally wrong about that, and I might miss something too. But that's the level of accuracy we're striving for here. So a little history here about our boy BK, after Disney bought Star Wars, the Star Wars comics license returned to Marvel for the first time in almost 30 years, just some corporate synergy for you.

And one of the first series they announced as part of that change was Star Wars Darth Vader by Kieran Gillen. And Black Crescenton, known as Santee or BK, to his friends, not that he has many friends. debuted in the very first issue of that title. So 2015. And since then, he has been one of the most prominent and recognizable original characters in the comics. He's been mentioned or appeared in about 50 issues. He's crossed over between multiple titles and points in the timeline. So for him to show up on screen this week is a pretty big deal, not only in terms of what it might mean for Book of Boba Fett, but also what it might mean for BK's role in upcoming streaming series. And maybe

for other potential crossover comics characters. So we want to run through everything you just teased in the next few minutes here. The boba and Vader comic ties and what that boba history might imply for this series, then obviously one of the most intriguing things here is the Obi-1 Canobi comic ties. Joanna and I, and this is a promise from us to you and us to the listeners, will never miss an opportunity to talk about Obi-1-Kin-Kinov, right, ever. And so we must do that now. I know that about you.

I haven't heard in a minute. A minute. You're there. And by right, in a minute, you mean since we texted each other, hello there, gifts last night before bad as we do every night. And then, of course, the doctor aphra bus. Okay, but can I ask really quickly, you know how we saw a lizard go up Boba Fett's nose in this episode?

I remember that, yes. Can you talk to me about how BK's knuckles are allegedly filled with metal? Yes, I can. So when he was a gladiator, which Boba refers to, he had various enhancements implanted. He had subdermal plating and endoskeleton enhancement and also metal in his hands. So he's basically Wookiee Wolverine. Oh, yes. I mean, he crushes blasters and skulls with his bare hands.

He is almost unbeatable. At one point, he fights chewy and just basically kicks his ass. He's also extremely bloodthirsty and just generally mean. Like, his growls and roars don't get translated in the comic. So he doesn't have lines per se, but you get a good sense of his character. and he is not an easygoing guy. Like Boba refers to Trandotions also when he shows up here. Trandotions have a history of hunting and enslaving wookies.

That's why you see the Trandotian in the book of Bober Premier offer a wookie pelt to Boba as tribute. Not politically correct, but that's what Trandotions do. And before he left Kashik, Black Cresan injured another wookie and used its bleeding body as bait to attract the Trandotions so that he could kill all of them, except the ones who used their captains. as gladiator. So he wants to be a professional life or death fighter. He is into that. Just for the fun of it, he is not a well-adjusted wookie. And after his gladiator days, he becomes one of the galaxy's most infamous bounty hunters and he works for some of its most notorious figures, including Jabba and Darth Vader. So after, right, and now the twins, so he came highly recommended from Java.

After the first Death Star's destruction, Vader visits Java partly to get supplies for the empire, which is stretched pretty thin at that point, and partly to work out his own private arrangement, he hires Java's two best bounty hunters who happen to be Boba Fett and Black Crescenton. So he hires Boba to find Luke, and he hires BK to track down a scientist who's been working with the emperor to create rivals to Vader. So it isn't so much an adversarial relationship between Boba and BK as it is that they had the same employer. They were both respected bounty hunters. They were probably competing for some of the same contracts or going to some of the same bounty hunting parties. So that's the relationship between them. Ben, they don't seem to be

vibing here, though. No, I mean, I wouldn't say that get along. BK doesn't really get along well with anyone. So it would be surprising, I think, if this were a one-off BK cameo. Right? I mean, it's Chekhov's wookie. You show the cool-looking wookie. He's going to come back at some point. You have to hope that there's going to be a boss battle between BK and Boba and Fennec and maybe their Gamorian guards, although they might as well not bring them because in the comics, BK proves himself to Jabba initially by just slaughtering some of his guards. So not much of an obstacle. I'm trying to pick my favorite phrase that you just said, and it's either Wookie Wolverine

or might be well-adjusted wookie. It's one of those two. As for BK versus Boba, I don't know how to handicap that if they fight in this series. I mean, Boba is the star of the series. His name is in the show. But if not for that. my money would be on BK because he is not going to get knocked into a Sarwack pit by a hibernation sick smuggler. Like he gets out dueled by Basque at one point, so he's not invulnerable, but Boba is not moving so well these days.

Boba's good buddy Basque. Yeah. I mean, Boba had to go right to the healing pod after the night wind deck. What about Boba plus Fenwick? Just a burst of the night wind, you know? Right. Who hasn't been there? I just can't help it.

I'm sorry. So the implications for future series. So BK crosses over into the main Marvel Star Wars comic series, some episodes of which feature stories that Obi-Wan wrote down in his diary and Luke later reads. So there's an arc in that series where Obie breaks cover to stop some of Jabba's thugs from stealing water from moisture farmers. And Jabba hires BK to hunt down this mysterious man who took on his enforcers. Owen Lars leads him right to Obi-Wan and Obie and B.K. fight. And initially, he has the upper hand, the upper paw, because Obi-Wan is trying not to use his lightsaber. He doesn't want to reveal that he's a Jedi. But eventually he has to. So he force throws some sand in B-K's eyes. And while B-K is blinded, O-Bee gives him a couple slashes with the old saber and almost takes an eye out. So B-K has a scar in his face that isn't clearly visible in his Book of Boba.

debut, but maybe he's had some work done. It's there. There's like a box a time. A slight trace of it. Yeah. If you zoom, if you enhance, enhance, enhance. It's not up the contrast. Certainly not as visible as in the balance.

Yeah. Yeah. Like Boba Fett. He's had some work done. Some neosporan. So by the way, quick note, while we're talking about Obie and Black Crescenton, a very brief note about black melons, which contained that Tuscan beverage, Boba has been drinking.

Yes. I think some. A restorative milk. Yeah. Some Boba watchers were kind of confused about what those are, where they come from, whether the moisture farmers know about them. They actually appear for the first time in one of those Obi-Wan comics where there's a great drought on Tatween.

It's drier than usual somehow. That fucker Jabba is taxing water. Right. Yeah. It's a protection racket, basically. Obi-Wan tries to tell a merchant about the black melons, which he says grow in the genlun waste and are safe to drink because Tuskins have been using them for years. So it's implied that people in the quote unquote civilized areas of Tatween are not aware of the blackmelons.

And I really like that because it shows that the Tuscans are the true natives of Tatouin, right? They're the ones who are at home here, even though they've been pushed out. And everyone else is ignorant of this natural source of sustenance. And they're just relying on technology to harvest water from the air. So I still have a lot of questions about how these things grow because they seem to be buried in the desert without trees or vines or anything. But I like that they're a Tuscan secret. It's part of the rehabilitation of the Tuskins, the former sand people. We don't say that anymore that's taking place across all of these series.

And it suggests that there's still a lot to learn about Tatween, even though we've spent a ton of time there already. So the implications for Obi-One, you had that matchup in the comics, and Obi-Wan Kenobi, the show is supposed to take place about nine years before a new hope. technically the duel between them in the comics takes place about a year before that. But that seems close enough. They could fudge the timeline a little, just include the same encounter. Because after he fails to take down Obi-Wan, BK just pieces out of the planet. He just leaves Tatooine because he knows Jabba won't be happy with him. But he does return to Tatooine at some point.

So I guess it could be a rematch between Obi-Wan and a B-K who's even more mad now because he's scarred from their first fight. So he's bringing a lot of memories in this cameo here. A lot of memories from Tatouine. When you were talking about the melons, it made me think to, I wanted to mention earlier, seeing the Jawa's in the tree. Right. Like that really reinforces to what you're saying here, that idea of like the native inhabitants,

the original populations of Tatouine being the ones who really understand and know its secrets. Great stuff. Yeah. So Dr. Affref, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We got to get to her because I think a lot of people saw BK.

They're happy to see BK, but often where BK is, Dr. Afra is not far behind or vice versa. Let's do it. For those who don't know, Dr. Afra is basically Indiana Jones, if he were an Asian lesbian woman who is only out for herself. So she is not a hero. She is not a villain. she ends up on both sides of some of the galaxy's central conflict. So for a while, she's working with Darth Vader and helping him hunt down Luke. Then she fakes her own death, and then she's on the other side.

Later, she teams up with Luke. So she's kind of playing all parties, all sides, whatever benefits her. There aren't a lot of ethical lines. She won't cross. And she will banter with anyone. Like, she will banter with the emperor. She will banter with Vader. She's got a great rapport.

And most of her common sidekicks, like her most common companions are assassin droids, B.T. and Triple Zero, who are like Mirror Universe R2 and C3PO, sort of. So she also debuted in the Darth Vader comic series, but quickly became a breakout character and then landed her own series. So she's been starring in Dr. Afra Comics almost continuously since 2016. And I guess you could say she's sort of the Asoka of the comics in terms of. of her significance to fans, her ability to sort of steal the show in a legacy character series. So there have been rumors for two or three years at this point about an Afra streaming series. And now that BK has shown up, those rumors are resurfacing. And she's very well connected in the Star Wars underworld.

So it would not be surprising to see her show up here as sort of a backdoor pilot for her own show. Here's my only concern or reservation about that. I think Boko Boba has done a great job so far of mixing in callbacks and crossovers in a pretty unobtrusive way. You know, like episode two has the scene that features two of Luke's childhood friends and takes place in Tashi Station where the whiny adolescent Luke wanted to pick up power converters. But there's no line that's like, well, here we are. Two characters cut from episode four having a drink at Tashi Station. It's more of an if you know you know sort of situation. And if you don't know, then you don't know that you don't know.

And it doesn't bother you. So when BK shows up, it's fun for fans who recognize him. But it's also fun for everyone else who just thinks, like, damn, I wouldn't want to fight that wookie. Right. So he doesn't have to say anything or have a huge expedition dump to fit in, which is kind of a contrast to Mandalorian season two, where phaloney heads like us were psyched to see Asoka and Bocatan and co. But some of the more casual watchers were like, wait, I thought this. was a show about baby Yoda and his adopted dad, right? Like, who's this Grand Admiral Thrawn guy they're talking about?

So I've been in that boat when I've watched other things where I'm not as familiar with the source material. And it can be a bit off-putting. So I'm just saying that it would be tougher, I think, to convey the appeal of Dr. Afra in a quick cameo like BKs. And there are only five more episodes to work with. So I just wouldn't want them to rush it and not do her justice or confuse fans of this series. who might not understand.

Why should they? Yeah, maybe a post-credit scene for the finale, just like Bookabova, right? That could work. Yes, let's do it. BK. and Dr. Afra take out Boba and Fenwick. Oh, wow. Yeah, why not? Boy.

Oh, boy. Well, that was a dismaying twist right there at the end. I was with you until then. Ben, that was wonderful. Eliminating. Yeah. Thank you so much for joining us to chat in the rancor pit of knowledge. Who knows?

I'm going to try to find a reason to say well-adjusted bookie. So thank you for that. BK will not give you a reason to say that. Thanks, Ben. Thank you. Okay, Mal had to dash off, but that is not going to stop me from doing a mailbag segment because I got Jomey here to do the mailbag with me, Jomey. What are listeners want to know about this episode of Bobafet?

I was so happy listening to you, Mal and Ben, talk about. Santi's name. Because on the Midnight Boys, we did not pronounce it correctly. Not one time. Not once. It's not Black Cranston? Is that not? It's not the canonical. It's not Chupacca. For some reason, you know? I thought that was

canon. I'm surprised it's not, actually. George Lucas. Let's make that happen. All right. Our first question comes from Robert. Robert asks, do you want to see Bobo react to the fall of the empire? I don't know, Jummy. What do you think? Like, do you think that

like Bobo would be delighted. I mean, so we keep talking about the fact that this episode takes place, like the flashbacks had placed after Return of the Jedi. But in truth, it's happening sort of concurrently, right? He crawls out of the Saralak Pit, but, you know, I think the plot of Return of the Jedi takes place over five days thereabout, about a week. It takes about a week to topple of the Empire.

So, you know, they are still battling with Ewoks theoretically while he's in the desert. So, like, do you want to see Boba dance to Yubnub? Like, what do you want to see from Boba, Joey? It would be really funny if, like, he was just walking through town and somebody mentioned it. And he was like, oh, for real? Oh, yeah. Of course.

Yeah, duh. Those dummies. Like, they can't aim worth crap. Of course they didn't win anything. It just goes out upon his day. You know, like, that would be interesting. I mean, I think, I think the Tuskins might be delighted. at fewer stormtroopers out in the desert.

So if he and his fan want to have a like a desert, like nose lizards for everyone, those lizards all around when the Empire falls. It's been such a two, two like months for lizards so far. Between Spider-Man No Way Home and the first two episodes of Boba, it's just been great time to be a lizard.

It's true. I mean, 2020, it's really their year. It's the year of the lizard. The year of the lizard. See, none of this, all this stress were having, none of it would happen if we're a lizards. Like, think about it. Think about it. Our next question comes from Max.

Doc Conner said nothing wrong. Yeah, go ahead. If only one timeline was going to be the whole show, which would you pick? So far, like the flashbacks more than the present and wonder if trying to do both just ends up diluting the whole thing. You know, we talked about this a little bit. I don't think I could pick. I guess I would be sad to not spend any time with Fennigshan, who is a hard fave for me.

So as much as I do love the flashbacks, and I wouldn't want to kick them out. I also just don't know that I would want to do the show without Mingna Wen around to make fun of nightwin assassins. What do you think? So I said, I mentioned this on the Midnight Boys. Pee.

Yeah. Having them, Renica currently is, you know, it's literally like for the story. So the past is going to inform the present. So whatever is happening with the Tuscan Raiders, it's going to inform what happens in the city. So we're setting a lot of time with the Tuscan Raiders with Boba in the sand now.

So in the future, whenever that plot line gets more advanced, it'll have massive implications to him being the Diameo right now. That being said, I kind of feel like him being in the past is what we've always wanted to know. about Bobo? Like, if he got out of the pit, what would he do? And this is it. This is the answer to that question. So that would, if I had to pick one, it would probably be the past. And there's a lot more, you know, some people are saying like, okay, well, we've seen him get his robes. He's got his stick. Is that enough? Like, have we seen enough of the flashback? But I'm like, no, there's so much more to see. They're like, he, I would like to see him finding Fennick Shan in the desert. And, like, what makes him decide to, like, help her. And I would like to see him, I don't know, spying on Timothy Olifold. which I imagine he did for like, I don't know, a good year. So, you know, there's a lot more that I want to see from Boba in the past. Listen, I'm not even going to cap. I would spy on Timile Oliphant too. Who's to say I'm not doing that right now?

So, you know, we respect a light stocking, a light safe stocking of Timothy Olifat. What else? I respect the vibes. What are the questions do we have? All right. Craig wants to know, is the rancor that much scarier than death by slit throat? I think

I'd rather go out fighting personally, even against a rancor. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Slipped my throat. Have you ever been chewed? No, I mean, slit my throat, I feel like that's pretty fast. Getting chewed and digested? Oh, like, you know,

like assuming the rancor doesn't get you all in one bite, like it's just, I don't No. Yeah. No, I don't want to be chewed to death. I would try to, like, but getting dumped it to the rank or would give you, like, a fighting chance. Like, like, if, well, here's the thing.

I'm not, you know, intergalactic bounty hunter with weapons all on my body, right? But if you gave me a knife, I would try, right? I would have the illusion of survival. And sometimes that's all you need. You know what I'm saying? Because if you slip my throat, it's a grab. I'm done. Like, I've lost, right?

But if you throw me to the Rancor, I might have a chance. I have a higher chance of surviving than with my cut throat. It's levels. I think I have no chance against a Rancor. So I'm just like, oh, let's just give this over with. I might have no chance, but I still have hope. And sometimes that's all you need. Can I ask you a quick question?

Because I know you're like a DC TV fan, I think. What did you think of the Arrow comparison that my friend Francis wrote in about? So, like, the idea that, like, Book of Boba Fett is a five-year time gap between a flashback of a guy who, like, is, undergoes training and then returns to the city and does all this stuff? And we flash between the present and the past, like, does it feel like we're doing Arrow on Tatouin? And would you be mad if that were the case? No. I'm not mad about it. No, no, no, no.

I think ultimately is a little different because my man, my man, Boba, got. got it out the mud, you feel me? He wasn't out here. He's not Oliver Queen. He ain't got the money. You know what I'm saying? He's not just doing it for kicks. You know what man? Boba Fett, he needed to survive. Sure. Yeah. You know, from the ground up. That's different.

Boba could do, Boa could be Green Arrow. Green Arrow could ever be Boba Fett. Let's think about that. 100%. 100% right. They both look good in green, but they're not interchangeable. So that's a good point. Last question comes from Mike. I love a good, I love a good math question.

Mathematically speaking, where there enough people carrying the huts? I count about 20 people. Jabba is reported to weigh around 3,000 pounds. So two huts would be somewhere around 6,000 pounds. Or is this quarter flipping? Ashted quarter gate. Here's my question.

Here's the real question. you think they could have invented a litter that, you know, has, like, works like a jetpack, like works like a hoverboard? Like, did they really need to put these people through this? No. So, like, this is just... I think it's like a show thing. I think it's a show thing.

It's a status thing. Yeah, forget, you know, you could, we could just fly, hover in. There's no fun in that. We're not subjectating anybody. Right? We're not, you know, putting people's backs out, right? So, what's the point? So, to Mike's question,

though. I think we should, we gotta have Zach Cram on that. Zach Cram would know the answer to this question. But the fact that it wasn't, there was no center. They were just holding the sides. It was a real sagging situation. It's true. Like, the structural integrity

of that letter, I had questions. Right? Questions and concerns. Yeah. Like, you go to Trader Joe's and you mess up with your bag and the whole bottom will fall out. If you're not being careful. I'm just saying, if I were the twins, if I were creepy, incestuous,

Twain huts, I would want a sturdy platform with like some jet propulsion underneath it. And I would just hover my way through town. That's what I would do.

Oh yeah, easy. I would never, I would just scoot, scoot, all around everywhere. Scoot, who needs people

when I can just pass people? Yeah, it's the future. Well, that's actually a long time ago far, far away,

but still. All right. So hoverboard litter's for everyone and we should all be lizards. Is that the takeaway from this episode? I'm just the same. You know what I'm saying?

We wouldn't have these problems if we're all scaly and green. That's all I'm saying. I'm just not going up anyone's nose. All right. Well, that's it. That's it for the moment. That's it for this episode.

I think we did it. The Midnight Boys Pew Poo will of course be back next week on Wednesday to break down episode three to get into more conversations about the gentrification of Tatouin I'm loving listening to you guys. Break down the episodes every week.

It's so good. You can follow us at Ringerverse. We're on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. Now a subreddit. Go check it out. Send your questions, ideas, and thoughts there. Thanks, of course, to the great Steve Allman, back from Vakey to produce this episode.

We're so glad to have you here. Thanks for our favorite Spicerunners are Juno Ramtapal and TD St. Matthew Daniels for their additional production work. And to our very own Gaffy Stick Forger and social guru, join me a dinner on. Thank you all so much. Mallory and I will be back next Friday with more deep guys. Bye.

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