RJ Writing Ink

Boba Fett is one of the most iconic characters in Star Wars. Despite having only seven lines in Empire, his kickass armor and quiet demeanor made him a merchandising goldmine. His fans call him one of the biggest badasses in the Galaxy. The naysayers wonder if he’s overhyped. Some even question if Boba’s a true Mandalorian. After today’s new epiosde of The Mandalorian, let those doubts be silenced. Boba Fett’s every bit the legend he’s been built up as over the last forty years!

To be fair, I already knew that. Expanded Universe, after all.

Boba Fett Returns

In a slight break to its formula of “main story, side quest, main story,” The Mandalorian jumps straight to Tython. There, in the ruins of an ancient Temple, Baby Yoda meditates to unlock his connection to the Force. Unfortunatley, they’ve got company in the form of Boba Fett. He’s not alone, either. With him is Fennec, the woman who betrayed Mando and got left for dead. Boba found her and restored her with cybernetics.

Many fans speculated that Boba Fett was the one who approached Fennec. Right now, I imagine they’re celebrating being vindicated. Now she works for Boba, who wants what was taken from him. He wants his armor back.

When Boba and Mando meet face-to-face, I noticed a few things different about him. On the surface, he’s scarred and grizzled thanks to his encounter with the Sarlaac. However, his demeanor’s changed, as well. He’s willing to talk things out with Mando, negotiate to get his armor back. Either it means that much to him, or the near-death experience made made him more willing to talk things out.

Talking goes out the window, though, when the Empire shows up to get Baby Yoda.

Skirmish on Tython

the rest of the (relatively) short episode consists mainly of a scene straight out of a first-person shooter. Mando, Fennec, and Boba Fett go on a rampage, mowing down Stormtroopers in an action sequence that would make Game of Thrones green with envy.

This show’s already given us its fair share of great fight scenes. That said, in this episode is by far the best. It easily approaches the level of the films, and gives us several great moments. Like this.

And this.

And this!

Pure, unadulterated fanservice.

Alas, the trio’s efforts are for naught. While they fight, Moff Gideon’s ship arrives and his Dark Troopers capture Baby Yoda before the others can reach him. And to add insult to injury, they destroy the Razor Crest.

Boba Fett is a Mandalorian

Ever since “The Mandalore Plot” in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, there’s been controversy over Boba Fett’s identity as a Mandalorian. One character in the show, a Mandalorian, claims that his father, Jango Fett, was little more than a common bounty hunter who wore Mandalorian armor. I ignored it at the time. However, this made people doubt if Boba was a Mandalorian. Tonight, those doubts are silenced.

After the battle, Boba shows Mando the chain code on his armor. Not only does it prove that it belongs to him, but to his father as well. In other words, Jango Fett was a foundling.

Given Boba’s status as a clone, people may still want to debate this. Although this may be true, I don’t think that matters in the grand scheme. Boba Fett is a Mandalorian. And he’s ready to pay his debts.

Mando Goes to War

With Moff Gideon now holding Baby Yoda captive, fans are left wondering how Mando will rescue his charge. The answer’s simple: he’s going to war, with Boba Fett and Fennec at his side.

Given how the episode ends, the next one will focus on the group freeing one of the criminals Mando left on that prison ship to mount a rescue.

This is the one complaint I have about the episode, though. Why rescue someone who they don’t know if they can trust when there are others who can help. Bo-Katan and the Nite Owls would gladly help if it gave them the chance to take out Moff Gideon. Moreover, seeing a bunch of Mandalorians fighting together kicks ass.

Regardless of how things ended, it’s clear that the show’s going to do something explosive for its season finale. Will Mando rescue Baby Yoda? Will Baby Yoda misuse his newly acquired Force Powers? Am I right about Gideon’s endgame? These are all great questions that are making me yearn for the next episode, and I love it.

Also, it proves that Boba Fett is the badass everyone thought. This is the Way

I Give “The Tragedy” a 5/5.

Stray Observations

• The Dark Troopers are now canon. If you don’t know what they are, they’re experimental battle droids from a 90s video game. Great story to them.
• Anyone curious how Boba got his ship back?

Click here to learn all there is about Star Wars with Wookiepedia, the Star Wars Wiki.

Click here to see more of my Star Wars Stuff.

Ever since he was introduced back in “The Reckoning”, fans have been asking questions about the new villain, Moff Gideon. We know that he’s dangerous and that he wants to get ahold of Baby Yoda, but why? What’s his endgame or master plan? After seeing the latest episode, I have a theory as to what Moff Gideon’s plan is…and it’s not good for anyone.

Return to Nevarro

So, after it becomes apparent that the Mon Calamari that fixed the Razor Crest last episode did a terrible job, Mando makes a detour to get his ship fixed at Nevarro. And the first thing that he notices is that the town’s changed since Moff Gideon’s men got driven out. Under Cara and Greef Karga’s leadership, things got a lot safer and cleaner. They even turned the old bar into a school! Obviously, life’s gotten a lot better, except for a single remaining thorn. Not far from the city lies an Imperial Base loaded with weapons and ships. Karga and Cara want it gone, so they recruit Mando (and a mark that Mando captured in the first episdoe) to blow the base to kingdom come!

I, for one, liked seeing Nevarro becoming such a safe place for people to be. Throughout the franchise’s history, the Outer Rim’s largely been the equivalent to the Old West of America. Crime is rampant, there are varying levels of infrastrcuture, and people have to fend for themselves. They can’t count on the New Republic to help them out. Ergo, seeing the town prosper makes me feel hopeful about the sector’s future.

A future that’s being threatened by Moff Gideon.

The Unholy Plans of Moff Gideon

Whilst running through the base as its about to go sky high, the team stumbles on something disturbing. There’s an entire room full of beings floating in tanks, but a lot of them are misshapen and deformed. What’s even more unsettling, though, is a recording that the group finds in the base’s computers. It’s a message from the Doctor that we saw experimenting on Baby Yoda to Moff Gideon. The message clearly says that the Doctor was drawing blood from Baby Yoda in order to tranfuse it into other people in order to give them a high “M-count”.

It was at this moment that everything clicked into place for me. The M-Count has to refer to Midicholrian Count. For those who don’t know, Midicholrians are micro-organisms found in the cells of all life and tied directly to the Force. The higher the count, the stronger they are in the Force. Baby Yoda is Force-Sensitive, so it’s the only explanation. There’s only one reason Moff Gideon would draw blood from Baby Yoda, then: he’s trying to artificially create an army of Force-Sensitives.

This isn’t a new idea, either. In the old Expanded Universe, an Imperial Remnant led by a Dark Jedi tried to create an army of Dark Side-wielding warriors artificially imbued with the Force. While that succeeded due to extenuating circumstances, no one was able to do so otherwise. And from the sounds of it, Gideon’s remnant has also been met with failure. However, the thought of him somehow succeeding is terrifying. An army of Force-Users loyal to him and the Empire could conquer the entire Galaxy.

They Need Ashoka, Now!

In the end, Mando’s team manages to destroy the base and kill the Imperials in it, and the Razor Crest is good as new and ready to take him and Baby Yoda to Corvus to find Ashoka. Which is a good thing, too. Now that I have an idea of what Moff Gideon’s plans are, I know that the two will need the aid of the former Jedi. Especially since one of the Moff’s spies put a locator beacon on board the Razor Crest during the repairs.

Some people may say that this episode was filler, but it’s filler done right. Besides offering a fun side quest and giving Carl Weathers a chance to show his directing chops, it advanced the plot of the show in the best way possible.

Overall, this was another stellar episode from a season that’s already given us plenty of good episodes. While I’m bummed that we didn’t see Ashoka this week, the next episode has to have her one way or another. Why?

Case closed. This is the way.

I Give “The Siege” a 4.5/5

Stray Observations

• This episode made jeans and tees canon in Star Wars!

• There’s a statue of IG-11 in the town. A tribute to the droid that helped save it.

Click here to see more of my Star Wars Stuff.

Click here to learn all there is about Star Wars with Wookiepedia, the Star Wars Wiki.

Oh, yes; this is the stuff that I’ve been wanting to get out of The Mandalorian! After last week consisted of attack of the ice spiders, it felt like the show lost some of its steam. However, it not only got said steam back this week, but went into overtime. Since there’s no way for me to talk about this episode without spoiling it, I’m going to assume that if you’re reading this, then you already watched the episode. That, or you don’t care about spoilers. Buckle up for ‘The Heiress’, because it’s going to tie back to some fan-favorite shows in Star Wars.

The Titular Heiress of Mandalore

So, after getting Frog Lady to her husband safely on the water moon of Trask, Mando gets the info he wanted: the whereabouts of other Mandalorians. A group of Quarren take him on their boat…only to try and kill him and feed Baby Yoda to a sea monster.

At the last minute, the Mandalorians that Mando was looking for swoop down and save them both. And they’re not just any Mandalorians: it’s the Nite Owls, led by Bo-Kotan Kryze.

If you never watched Star Wars: the Clone Wars or Rebels, Bo-Katan is a Mandalorian that was introduced as part of a terrorist group that sought to bring back Mandalore’s warrior past. When the Empire took over, she fought against them as their leader. She was also the previous owner of the Darksaber, now in Moff Gideon’s hands.

With that fact in mind, when I saw that Gideon had the Darksaber, I was afraid that Bo-Katan may be dead. The fact that she’s not can only mean that Gideon stole or won it in battle. As a result, the heiress is gathering forces to bring him down

She and Mando don’t get along at first.

This is the Dank Farriq Way

Back in Season One, we learned that Mando’s tribe never took off their helmets as part of their warrior creed. I thought it was weird at first, but didn’t question it; thought it was something new that they adopted after the Empire drove them into hiding. It turns out it’s not.

Bo-Katan drops a massive bombshell on Mando and the audience, revealing that the group that took him in is, in truth, a fringe group of Mandalorians that broke off from everyone else. They’re so strict that even Bo-Katan, the heiress of Mandalore, curses when she learns he’s one of them.

This revelation that what he knows may not be the norm for his people shakes Mando to the core, and will no doubt have some long-term implications. However, it may be for the best though. Even when he was with his Tribe, Mando didn’t seem like got along with that many members. Learning that there are other ways for Mandalorians to live may encourage him to be more open-minded. At the moment, though, he’s more focused on finding a Jedi to help look after Baby Yoda. So, after helping Bo-Katan out, she points him in the right direction.

Which ends up confirming Star Wars fans wildest hopes.

The Return of Ashoka

This is not a drill people! Bo-Katan Kryze herself has confirmed it: Ashoka Tano is going to be in The Manadalorian! While it had been all but confirmed months ago, hearing her name being dropped in-show is still a big milestone. As a result, we finally get to see the next chapter in the incredible story of Ashoka Tano.

Canonically, the last time we saw Ashoka, she and Sabine Wren were going on a quest to find Jedi Padawan Ezra Bridger. That happened sometime after the Battle of Endor. Yet according to Bo-Katan, she’s living on a forest planet called Corvus. Either she and Sabine succeeded in finding Ezra, or something happened. Still, the former Jedi is Mando’s best bet in keeping Baby Yoda safe; and personally, I think she’d make a great teacher.

‘The Heiress’ Hit all the right notes

By a wide margin, ‘The Heiress’ is one of the best episodes of the show thus far. It hits all the right notes, balancing the world-building, action, and fan service to deliver an amazing chapter to this amazing show. What makes it all the more impressive is that, at thirty-six minutes, it’s one of the shortest episodes of the series. If you haven’t seen this show by now, then for the love of all that’s holy, go watch it! This is the way.

I Give “The Heiress” a 5/5.

Stray Observations

• Mando needs to get the Razor Crest fixed or find a new ship. Because it looks like it’s not going to last much longer.
• Baby Yoda doesn’t eat any more eggs!

Click here to learn all there is about Star Wars with Wookiepedia, the Star Wars Wiki.

Click here to see more of my Star Wars Stuff.