#I think Fennec has at least four in as many episodes

[baronessofmischief]

I think Tarzan also has one of the best setups for a villain who monologues their true intentions at the end of the movie.

Clayton’s introduction is someone we hear before we see, spending the entire time hacking through the brush bragging about his accomplishments as a safari hunter. He lives for the thrill of the hunt and the recognition, praise, and notoriety those exploits garner. It means when Tarzan is restrained at the end on the boat, it’s entirely in character for Clayton to brag about exactly what he plans to do in betraying them and capturing the gorillas. He doesn’t even have to do it for long, just long enough to break the spirit of the hero before throwing him to the lowest point he’s been in the story.

If you’re going to have a character monologue it can’t feel out of place or disrupt the flow and pacing of the movie, and it definitely can’t be out of character for that particular character to give it. Too often monologues can sound like they were written for the satisfaction of the writer instead of serving the story, and when that’s the case it’s a “kill your darlings” scenario; every word in a monologue has to be necessary, or else it needs to be cut out

[theloneliestshipper]

Book of Boba, Ep. 6 Review

Below is my review of The Book of Boba Fett, Episode 6: From the Desert Comes a Stranger. IT CONTAINS SPOILERS.

In any given Star Wars project, you’re going to have a percentage of fans who love it and a percentage of fans who hate it. This might seem like an obvious statement, but it’s also worth remembering that loving or hating something is just part of the rich tapestry of being human. Not everything is a statement that requires a response. Some things are just a matter of personal taste.

That being said, whether you love The Book of Boba Fett or hate it, I think you could reasonably expect Boba Fett to be in it. Maybe even as the main character for more than four episodes?

The show opens with Cobb Vanth.

(Fun Fact: I hate Cobb Vanth.)

Okay, I thought. It’s going to be a Cobb Vanth episode. He’s going to have some role to play in the war with the Pykes, but at least we’re back on Tatooine.

Then we return to Din, who has left Tatooine to pay Grogu a visit. Like a lot of fans, I was really excited to see Luke’s Jedi school. I thought it would be more than a pile of rocks, but a pile of rocks is all you can afford when you’ve spent all your show’s money CGI-ing a man’s face.

Din tries to see Grogu, but he’s discouraged by Ahsoka. She tells him that Grogu needs to tough it out at his stuffy boarding school and Din being there to offer emotional stability will only make that more difficult. That sound you hear in the background is definitely not me playing “Grownups Come Back” from Daniel Tiger on repeat.

Okay, I thought. It’s going to be an Ahsoka Tano episode. Oh, wait. Nope, she’s leaving.

About 27 minutes into the episode we finally get back to Jabba’s palace. Boba has the whole crew assembled, you know, him and her and that guy. All the people we've spent 30 seconds getting to know each episode.

Master Assassin Fennec Shand introduces Din and does some quick exposition for all the stuff they didn’t have the time to show us after so many cameos.

Turns out they need foot soldiers, so back we go to Cobb Vanth! Din asks Cobb for help, Cobb says we’ll see.

Remember that duel between Boba Fett and Cad Bane that was supposed to happen in the canceled season of The Clone Wars? No, no special reason I’m asking. Just wondering if you remember it.

Oh, and then for no reason other than a half-hearted attempt to raise the stakes with villains who barely seem like a threat, some Pykes blow up Madam Garsa.

And then we’re back to Grogu. Okay, I thought. It’s going to be a Luke Skywalker episode. He’s going to reflect on his father and how they never had a relationship and understand what Grogu needs.

*chugs wine*

Look, I am really enjoying this show. I don’t want you to think otherwise, but there isn’t a narrative arc to be found in this thing. At best, it’s a tie-in comic.

Things I Loved:

Din and Ahsoka’s round of “my weird religion vs. your weird religion.”

The mayor’s assistant. I really hope Boba continues the trend of hiring his foes and he becomes the majordomo of the palace.

Boba’s helmet on the throne in the background. Great visual.

Things I Didn’t Love:

I don’t like Cobb Vanth because he’s a conventionally attractive white cowboy stereotype who will summarily be shipped with everyone and partially because the moment he was created he became a bland and easily castable stand-in for Boba Fett and the fact that he ever wore Boba’s armor is an abomination. I will fight Chuck Wendig if I ever meet him, I swear I will.

CGI Luke...ehhhh. Is it a stunning technological achievement? Yes. Does it sound like Mark Hamill? Also Yes. There’s still something cold and robotic about CGI characters to me and I wish they would have just recast him.

Did I mention the fact that Boba Fett appears only briefly in this episode and has zero lines of dialogue? If he wasn't in the title you would never know he was the main character.

Monster of the Week: The Krayt dragon skull on top of the Jawa crawler. Now that’s a hood ornament.

Final Thoughts: My prediction for the finale? Lots of cameos. All your favorites will be there. Cobb Vanth will do something heroic. Cad Bane will do something villainous. Garsa Fwip will never be mentioned. Somehow Darth Vader has returned. In the last five minutes, Rex will give Boba a book he made as a child where he drew pictures of himself with a family and pet rancor and the figures will look eerily similar to the people he’s with. There will be no explanation for this or why Rex has it. The audience will love it. Star Wars Twitter will claim that Disney has reinvented television, storytelling and the wheel. I’ll go back to writing fanfiction instead of television reviews.

[aion-rsa]

How The Mandalorian Season 2 Finale Could Give Us the Ezra Bridger Moment We’ve Been Waiting For

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This Star Wars: The Mandalorian article contains spoilers.

The Mandalorian season 2 finale is poised to be the series’ biggest episode yet. Mando and the cruel Moff Gideon are set up for a rematch, and this time, the stakes are higher than ever before, with little Grogu’s life hanging in the balance.

Fortunately, Mando won’t be taking on the Empire on his own. He’ll have help from Boba Fett, Fennec Shand, and Cara Dune, but is that enough? Gideon not only commands a brigade of stormtroopers but also has the fearsome dark troopers at his disposal as well as the Darksaber. Even for the galaxy’s greatest bounty hunters, those odds may be too great. That’s why some fans believe the stage is set for one last big cameo that could turn things in Mando’s favor.

Stream your Star Wars favorites right here!

Ever since Grogu used the Force on Tython to contact any Jedi who might be listening, fans have been speculating about which Jedi might answer the call. There are plenty of theories. The most obvious Jedi who might be coming to Grogu’s rescue is Luke Skywalker since he’s the only Jedi besides Ahsoka Tano who we know for sure is out there. Fans of more recent Jedi characters have put their hopes on Cal Kestis, the young hero from the Jedi: Fallen Order video game. A more far-fetched candidate is Mace Windu, the Jedi Master from the Prequel Trilogy who met his end in Revenge of the Sith but who some believe is still alive somewhere.

While any of these Jedi could potentially break the internet on Friday, there is one other beloved Star Wars character who many fans hope will make his live-action debut in Chapter 16: Ezra Bridger, a hero who not only could still be alive during the time of The Mandalorian but who also has direct ties to other cameo characters like Ahsoka Tano and Bo-Katan Kryze. In fact, ever since the latter two animated characters were confirmed for the live-action series, many have wondered if they were paving the way for this third major guest appearance.

For those who missed Rebels during its original run or haven’t binged it on Disney+ yet (shame on you), Ezra is the main protagonist of the animated series, a young, Force-sensitive freedom fighter who joins a band of rebels known as the Spectres in the years before the official start of the Galactic Civil War. He’s one of the earliest rebels and a key player in the formation of the Rebel Alliance, and even brushes shoulders with many of its leaders, such as Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, and Princess Leia.

In the years just prior to A New Hope, Ezra also becomes one of the few Jedi left in the galaxy when former-Jedi-turned-Spectre Kanan Jarrus decides to train him in the ways of the Force. Together, the master and apprentice delve deeper into the secrets of the Force, the Jedi, and the Sith than any of the characters in the movies have. But while Ezra’s connection to the Force and his life as a Jedi padawan are integral to his role on the show, his storyline always goes back to being a rebel on his home planet of Lothal, which he tries to free from the Empire throughout the series.

Finally, in the series finale, “Family Reunion — Farewell,” Ezra gets his chance to liberate Lothal once and for all. But it comes at a cost. While fighting Grand Admiral Thrawn’s forces, he and the Chiss Imperial are zapped into hyperspace to parts unknown, leaving the fate of both the hero and the villain unresolved. Two years since the Rebels finale, we still don’t know where Ezra is.

Fans of Rebels undoubtedly perked up when considering the implications of Ahsoka’s return on The Mandalorian and how it might open the door for Ezra to come back, too. After all, the last time we saw Ahsoka (chronologically) was on Lothal, where she reunited with Sabine Wren (another Mandalorian) before heading out on an adventure together to find their missing comrade.

Ahsoka and Sabine’s reunion is actually an epilogue to the show set a year after the Battle of Endor and the fall of the Empire. That’s 5 ABY (After the Battle of Yavin). Meanwhile, The Mandalorian is set in 9 ABY, four years after that epilogue and not too long after Ahsoka and Sabine set out to find Ezra.

When Mando finally meets Ahsoka in “The Jedi,” we learn that she’s a step closer to finding Thrawn. In fact, she’s on Corvus because the tyrannical Magistrate Morgan Elsbeth knows where the Imperial villain is. While the very mention of Thrawn on The Mandalorian could suggest that Disney is interested in retelling one of the most beloved post-Return of the Jedi stories from the old Legends continuity, it’s just as likely that Ahsoka needs to find the villain because he might know where Ezra is.

Fans who have been following executive producer Dave Filoni’s Star Wars work from The Clone Wars to The Mandalorian know that he loves to follow story threads from one series to the next. With so few years having passed between the Rebels epilogue and the start of The Mandalorian, the live-action series provides a very easy way to explore what happened next to Ahsoka, Bo-Katan, Ezra, Thrawn, and other characters he used for the animated series. But due to the toy box mystery nature of the show, it’s unclear just what chapter of Ahsoka’s journey we’re seeing in “The Jedi.” Has she already found Ezra and is now out to end Thrawn’s reign of terror for good or is the Rebels hero stil missing?

Whether already back in action by the time of The Mandalorian or miraculously guided home by Grogu’s call through the Force, the Ezra we’d meet in live-action would be a bit different from the young hero we last saw on Rebels. For one thing, he would be a bit older in 9 ABY. Born in 19 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin), Ezra would be about 28 if he were to appear on The Mandalorian, paving the way for Disney to cast an older actor in the role. This would allow showrunner Jon Favreau and Filoni to reintroduce the character but in a slightly different way. And how have Ezra’s adventures after Rebels changed him? We could very well meet an Ezra who is much stronger in the Force than the last time we saw him.

Or, if Star Wars follows its long tradition of sending light side characters to parts unknown and bringing them back corrupted and evil, we could meet an Ezra who’s given in to the dark side. Rebels season 3 teased that Ezra had a dark side, and bringing him back to Star Wars as a villain would really add some complexity and stakes to Ahsoka’s own story on The Mandalorian.

Regardless of what Ezra would be like in his late 20s, a story of this magnitude really deserves its own space to breathe instead of being shoved in as a sub-plot in Mando and Baby Yoda’s adventure. This might be where the newly-announced Ahsoka spinoff series might come in. A show focusing solely on Ahsoka’s search for Ezra, as well as her further adventures, seems like a more appropriate place for the young Jedi’s return.

But that’s not stopped people from hoping for Ezra’s return on The Mandalorian or from fancasting the character. Who is the front runner? The Haunting of Bly Manor‘s Rahul Kohli, who has been the subject of many rumors over the past few months, chiefly that he’s been cast as Ezra in secret and is set to make his debut in Chapter 16.

While Kohli has denied being involved in any way with Star Wars, the actor has not been shy about his interest in playing Ezra. In September, he sparked a new round of rumors when he tweeted, “I’ve gotten into that Lothal orphan, force sensitive, trained by Kanan Jarrus kind of shape. For no particular reason.” The tweet excited such a furor among fans that Kohli had to walk back the post, explaining that he’d made it in jest on his way to the gym.

Seriously, for no particular reason.

— Rahul Kohli (@RahulKohli13) September 24, 2020

But since then, Kohli has joined in on the fancasting, often retweeting fan art imagining himself as an older Ezra.

I got Bosslogic’d! 👀 https://t.co/XcznVUU8B8

— Rahul Kohli (@RahulKohli13) November 29, 2020

At first light, on the fifth day. At dawn, look to the East. https://t.co/b2W7T59Uyf

— Rahul Kohli (@RahulKohli13) December 12, 2020

This hasn’t helped dissipate the rumors, of course. Commenting on why he’s encouraged fans who want him to be in Star Wars, Kohli put it simply: “Lemme set the record straight real quick, why do I fancast or engage with fancasting? Because unless it’s rammed down people’s throats, ain’t nobody thinking of casting an Indian guy in iconic roles. If I keep pushing, maybe one of us gets through.”

Lemme set the record straight real quick, why do I fancast or engage with fancasting? Because unless it’s rammed down people’s throats, ain’t nobody thinking of casting an Indian guy in iconic roles. If I keep pushing, maybe one of us gets through 💕

— Rahul Kohli (@RahulKohli13) December 12, 2020

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Personally, as a Latino who has enjoyed watching actors like Pedro Pascal and Oscar Isaac play major characters in Star Wars projects, I’m absolutely here for what Kohli is saying. I do hope he gets cast as Ezra.

Whether this has already happened in time for Kohli to thrash his way through Gideon‘s forces in The Mandalorian season 2 finale remains to be seen. And what would happen next? Would Ezra decide to train Grogu? The two Jedi have at least one captivating connection: both of their lives have been devastated by the Empire (Ezra’s parents were killed by the evil government), and while Ezra grew up after the fall of the Jedi, his master was a padawan during Order 66. We watch Kanan pass on that history and many of the traditions of the old Jedi Order to Ezra throughout Rebels, so Ezra would understand where Grogu comes from and why he’s afraid to be a Jedi even after the fall of the Empire. In many ways, it would make sense for Ezra to become Grogu’s master.

But even if Ezra is about to hit The Mandalorian, it seems very unlikely that he’d actually take Grogu away to train him. After all, Mando and Grogu’s relationship is the core of the show. Why would Disney want to break away from the formula that has made the live-action series such a success?

Still, seeing Ezra in live-action for the first time would pack one final punch in a season full of exciting guest appearances. Star Wars has always strived to be one long, cohesive story, and The Mandalorian has truly excelled at connecting its gritty post-Return of the Jedi corner of the galaxy to the animated universe inspired by the Prequel Trilogy. And if Ezra isn’t the final guest character of the season, there’s a chance it could be Sabine?

Keep up with all of The Mandalorian season 2 news here.

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