Mandalorian S2:E6 Chat (SPOILERS)
Let's talk about it.
Forum Discussion
First off, I'll say that they did a good job of hiding their thinking on a lot of things, since they had previously only discussed 4 series & then announced 9 series + a movie for 10 projects total. I really didn't anticipate that they were going to go all in like that. My biggest interest is in the Ahsoka series & the Rangers series, which curiously enough are both being led by the same creative team as The Mandalorian. (They are also the only 2 of the 10 new projects being led by that team. I guess I'm just lucky?) I'm curious about Rogue Squadron, of course, and the director is an interesting choice. She's done very good work & her dad was a fighter pilot which I had no reason to know before. Even so, the project isn't due to be released until 2023, so despite the curiosity & the good choice for director, it's hard to get excited about just yet. (Likewise I'm more excited about the Ahsoka series than about the Rangers series, in no small part because of Ahsoka herself, but also because the series is closer in time to its debut.)
But apart from that, I want to address the conversion of Boba from antagonist to protagonist. While it's believable that Boba might have had a life rethink after being half-digested by the Sarlacc, the reasons for the transformation are always best understood by examining the writers and their art form rather than any given character itself. You can rationalize a change of heart towards any number of new perspectives, even a pacifist one, if you want to do so.
So the question is, why do the show writers want Boba to be a good guy? I find that question more interesting for a number of reasons, but not least is this: they want Boba to be a recurring character with lots of screen time. They know Boba is a character that many have been intrigued by from his limited (but important) appearances in the movies. With such key actions in a globally beloved franchise yet so little backstory, there's bound to be interest in tech character. People **want** to see more of Boba. But the studio has a hard time lionizing a villain. So, they convert him to a hero with a complicated past.
Any transformation will hopefully be written well, and it's not unlikely the Sarlacc pit will have something to do with the character's new outlook. But that doesn't "explain" anything. It's a fictional character. They could have had him get angrier & angrier & commit genocide if that's what they wanted to do with him.
They didn't. And you understand that by thinking about what the studio and the writers want from the character better than you can understand it by thinking about what we know about the character so far.
But apart from that, I want to address the conversion of Boba from antagonist to protagonist. While it's believable that Boba might have had a life rethink after being half-digested by the Sarlacc, the reasons for the transformation are always best understood by examining the writers and their art form rather than any given character itself. You can rationalize a change of heart towards any number of new perspectives, even a pacifist one, if you want to do so.
So the question is, why do the show writers want Boba to be a good guy? I find that question more interesting for a number of reasons, but not least is this: they want Boba to be a recurring character with lots of screen time. They know Boba is a character that many have been intrigued by from his limited (but important) appearances in the movies. With such key actions in a globally beloved franchise yet so little backstory, there's bound to be interest in tech character. People **want** to see more of Boba. But the studio has a hard time lionizing a villain. So, they convert him to a hero with a complicated past.
Any transformation will hopefully be written well, and it's not unlikely the Sarlacc pit will have something to do with the character's new outlook. But that doesn't "explain" anything. It's a fictional character. They could have had him get angrier & angrier & commit genocide if that's what they wanted to do with him.
They didn't. And you understand that by thinking about what the studio and the writers want from the character better than you can understand it by thinking about what we know about the character so far.
