Some very good points as usual from others around here. Well the 6th episode had some neat moments along the way, but it was yet another mixed bag for me overall.
The ‘cliffhanger’ that this penultimate episode ended on - ‘Grogu’ having to CHOOSE between learning to be a Jedi or rejoining Mando - is going to be the most important indication of how season 3 of THE MANDALORIAN is going to turn out. If ‘Grogu’ decides to stay with Luke, then Mando will be freed up to have adventures on his own without having to worry about having the child around anymore. Perhaps he could end up more like a ‘lone wolf’ kind of character, or perhaps end up with some other form of sidekick partner eventually? Either way, the show might feel refreshed somewhat if it goes down this route.
Additionally. we wouldn’t need to see ‘Grogu’ (or ‘deepfake’ Luke) again if he chooses this option. and the implication would be that ‘Grogu’ MIGHT be one of the students that were eventually massacred by Kylo and his followers in THE LAST JEDI movie… And seeing as Luke is portrayed as being dogmatic about the established Jedi ‘rules’ of ‘attachments’ in this latest episode, it adds weight to him beating himself up so much when we see him in that movie - adding to the impression that when he rails against the dogma of the Jedi order to Rey, he’s actually railing against himself and his own dogmatic ‘teaching’ failures too, and has understandably been brought low and cynical by the deaths it resulted in. Despite disliking the direction that the Sequel Trilogy storyline took with Luke and other characters, there’s a part of me that wishes that Disney and co. would go down this ‘dark’ route, and retire the cutesy character of ‘Grogu’ altogether at this point, to allow for this possible scenario to tie-in with THE LAST JEDI’s ‘training temple’ outcome. Hell, they were content enough to kill off ALL three of our main heroes from the Original Trilogy after all, so why not?
But the kids needn’t worry, as the chances of that happening are ZILCH…because there’s ongoing ‘Grogu’ merchandising to consider, no doubt…and a ‘starfighter’ toy with little Mando and ‘Grogu’ figures in it WOULD look pretty neat I suppose… 😉
During the previous episode, the mechanic Peli Motto made a point of saying that she had ‘hollowed out’ the space where an ‘astromech droid’ would normally fit on Mando’s ‘starfighter’…so as sure as ‘Grogu’ is green, I’m gonna guess that he WON’T end up wanting to be a Jedi after all…and that we will see him merrily whizzing around with Mando once again, come that show’s next season…
I just felt sad for the little guy for being made to ‘choose’ one or the other in the first place…as you just know that he desperately wanted a shot of that little lightsaber!
Anyway, the final episode is also going to determine how good an ending THE BOOK OF BOBA FETT show is getting, and I don’t mind admitting that I’m kinda nervous seeing as it’s another one by Robert Rodriquez! Hopefully he (and the writers) have come up with something better than his 2 previous episodes - the ‘MOD gang’ has been very muted since their initial appearance thankfully, and I just hope he doesn’t go overboard with any involvement they may have in this last episode. Someone on another site wished the youths had been given a more grungy, ‘Mad Max’-look to them and their bikes overall, rather than looking like something from a trendy ‘Coruscant’ fashion show…and I agree.
So we’ll soon find out if this particular show goes out on a high or not…but either way. I reckon that THE MANDALORIAN show in general is now inextricably linked with this one, and that fans of Mando and ‘Grogu’ really need to watch BOTH shows to understand things better - especially if Mando and a ‘chainmail’-wearing ‘Grogu’ start off their next season adventures in the ‘starfighter’. Still, anything could happen in the finale of THE BOOK OF BOBA FETT, so I’ll be watching with interest.
As far as the ‘facial look’ of Luke’s scenes in episode 6 go - although not all of them were 100% convincing, there were some that I thought were truly excellent. And some of the musical moments were really great during those scenes too, I thought. I wonder if these were 'Shamook’s first ‘official’ deepfake efforts since joining Lucasfilm? Some terrific work overall, but having studied those scenes a little more, I reckon I’d prefer to shorten some of them to remove the less effective shots I wasn’t too keen on, while retaining the ones I liked best. It’s pretty straightforward to do it the way I’d like.
In fact, there’s SO MANY potential ways that the entire show could be cut and re-arranged, that I might play around with more sections of it for fun, if the final episode makes it worthwhile for me. For instance, although I showed a possible way to alter the show’s opening scenes more to my liking back on page 10, there’s a very different style of opening I’d prefer to see now - INSTEAD of showing Boba having ‘flashbacks’ in his ‘bacta tank’ right from the off…I quite like the notion of the first episode starting in a much more straightforward, ‘linear’ way before that aspect of the show is introduced…which would involve kicking things off with a drastically cut-down version of Boba’s ‘Sarlacc escape’ which leaves it open-ended about HOW he actually got out…
We begin like this…
…then once the familiar blue wording fades to black, we open with twin suns against a blue sky, as we pan down to a certain desolate part of Tatooine…
…but instead of seeing Boba’s hand burst through the sand, we CUT to hearing heavy breathing from inside a familiar helmet as the music kicks in at this point…and we see an exhausted Boba collapse to the ground, as the music fades down again…
…then things continue normally as per the episode, as we transition to a Sandcrawler coming across Jabba’s barge wreckage at night, as the Jawas then steal Boba’s armour and knock him out…
…and then we continue on as normal, as the Tuskens come across Boba and take him back to their camp as a prisoner…as THE BOOK OF BOBA FETT titles appear…and Boba (who’s now shackled) then gets tormented by a group of young Tuskens, and gets stamped on his head, as everything goes dark…
…and at some point AFTER all this, I’d eventually introduce the fact that Boba is actually having ‘flashbacks’ of his desert experiences from inside a ‘bacta tank’ somewhere inside Jabba’s palace…and would have his first PRESENT DAY storyline ‘flashback’ be the scene of him and Fenec Shand infiltrating Jabba’s palace and killing Bib Fortuna, as he then takes Bib’s throne for himself…before eventually being wakened by Fennec…
But I hope to elaborate on all that and more on another thread someday, and in the meantime, it just remains to be seen if we get any more ‘scooter gang’ antics in the final episode, or not… 😉
IMPORTANT NOTE - if anyone wishes to comment on any of this, please DO NOT re-‘quote’ the entire post. Thanks!