Jungle planet, and not fish people, according to the old Legends page. I’d think Kevin and Jon would keep true to this more than anything Disney was planning to do.
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I think Star Wars is just inconsistent with Bacta colors
Third episode was a bit lacklustre after the previous week’s episode, shorter, too few Tuskens, and a seemingly dissatisfying end to the Tuskens. I assume they will reappear, at least the warrior, in taking down the Kintan Striders.
The chase scene, while cool, didn’t feel very much like a chase scene, it felt very slow - even if that makes sense given the amount of obstacles, like they could’ve run to keep up. But it was awesome that they did a speeder chase, and show off the new crew.
I liked:
- The new cyborg crew
- Rancor as a gift
- Danny “Machete” Trejo as a beastmaster
- War with the Pykes
- Phone booth
Felt a bit weird that Boba didn’t recognise Krrsantan, or didn’t at least show some kind of familiarity with him, but who knows why they chose that, whether not interested in being too close to the backstories from Marvel comics, or to show that time has passed and Boba is a new person, that Boba tries to hide it for whatever reason, or perhaps he’s forgotten…? Meh. Not a biggie. Just a bit weird.
All in all this was a nice setup episode, very enjoyable. 
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This episode was mostly good, my only real problems with it come down to the question of world-building and economic sense.
Said problems
Why change the world-building of Tatooine? “Terrestrial planet that was overly exploited by mining conglomerates, thus resulting in it becoming a desert with various bits of mining equipment (sandcrawlers) being left behind” was a perfectly good explanation. Making it a former water world leaves more questions than answers and seems a nonsensical change.
I don’t mind when they change/remove the old Legends stories, but I can’t stand it when they mess with the worldbuilding. If you don’t like a particular thing, omit it, or minorly modify it. That can be on a small scale, like not going into the backstory of a particular planet, or that can be on a larger scale like ignoring a whole planet or culture. But I deeply dislike the contradictions, which have never, as far I can remember, been meaningful or necessary.
And now they seem to want to turn the Tuskens into victims, probably to make some ahistorical simile to the American Indians. The old Star Wars canon took a much more nuanced and interesting approach.
As for economics, you aren’t able to charge a price people aren’t willing/able to pay because they won’t pay it. Either competition comes along (maybe the farmers say “hey, you aren’t selling any of our water!” and take it to someone else) if it isn’t already there, or you manage to drive yourself out of business by not being able to sell any of it. Now if he pays the farmers up-front, I can see how they’re covered and might not want to sell to anyone else. But if he can’t sell it, what happens? Either the water goes to waste if it can “spoil” or it just sits in his inventory until he can’t take on any more, and then he can’t buy more water from the farmers who look to sell it to someone else. Either way, he loses a lot of money by not being able to sell. Add to that, he’ll be unpopular and everyone will be itching to sell to his competition.
Now, if it was a cartel, some sort of criminal outfit that had a forcibly-held monopoly in the water-monger business, then I can see it. That would be an interesting angle, if still economically unfeasible (they’d pursue other sorts of “payment”).
But fiction writers and journalists are not renowned for their economic sense, and we’re dealing with fiction writers here.
Other than that, I enjoyed the episode. The cyborg biker gang was cool. Perhaps more appropriate on Coruscant and their bikes were a bit too shiny, but cool nonetheless. The rancor could be an interesting ongoing development, I like the reference to Nightsisters riding rancor (I can’t remember if that’s been mentioned elsewhere in Canon, if not, good on them for mentioning it), Krrsantan could be interesting if he reappears.
The fight in the palace was cool, but it is a pet peeve of mine when in action sequences a character with a ranged weapon (in this case a blaster pistol) thinks it a good idea to RUN TOWARDS a melee combatant. If anything, you should be backing away!
As for the race, it was fast enough, the speed was correctly limited by the circumstances. Oftentimes speed is more a trick of camera angles than an actual representation of speed, and this was a situation where the speed seemed entirely appropriate to the crowded streets. My only real complaint is that Boba isn’t going to be very popular after his swoop gang’s chase resulted in the destruction of months-worth of many citizens’ wages. I hate excessive collateral damage, and this had that in spades. I winced every time they took out a fruit stand, which seemed to happen just about every time he turned a corner, went straight, turned, or otherwise moved his vehicle in a given direction. >_<
It has been established in Legends/EU for years (KOTOR and the introduction of the Infinite Empire are now officially years ago 
) that Tatooine had oceans, which the Tusken chieftain corroborates, however the water monger claims it was “covered in water”, which is most likely shorthand for saying there were vast oceans (whereas now there are none). I think its a nice nod, like the rancor riding witches of Dathomir, to in-universe legends that may, or may not, be true. It is not incompatible with the Republic/Empire’s history, its just older and/or tied to myths more than history. I don’t see what’s nonsensical about it.
From Wookiepedia (canon): It was homeworld to the native Jawa and Tusken Raider species—and presumably with vast oceans of surface water and lush rainforest. And cites this as the source. So, not contradicting anything really.
Yeah, the economics, always an iffy thing when its about space fantasy drama and action (it’s something too few have any real knowledge about) … but gangsters, essential life-sustaining water… he probably sells water, but urchins, an unemployed speeder gang, that spent all their money on cybernetic upgrades (and shiny new speeders), just can’t afford it, and turns to theft… sounds like some players of mine 
that will spend all their cash on upgrades and weapons, then break in and rob the med centre to get a couple stims; whether the price is 25, 50, or 1000 doesn’t matter at that point.
We know the urchins claim the water-monger took one months wages for one week’s supply, and perhaps 1300 credits is the mean monthly wage on Tatooine, it’s hard to know. We are led to sympathise with these cyborg-urchins, which we sort of do. But there are too many unknowns and unreliable sources, so his price may not mean that he is not selling to people who can afford it (and he may just demand more from these half-machine-half-man urchins because he disapproves of their lifestyle choices). Anyway, I’m not trying to bicker about Star Wars-economics, that’s a pointless and nonsensical rabbit-hole 
because, as you said, fiction writers
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Perhaps, with previous mentions in this thread of Canon suggesting it to be a “water world” I read too much into it. If they really just mean that it had surface water, then I don’t have any issue with it since that’s what it used to be.
Oh yeah, I’d believe it, my problem comes when Boba Fett seems to accept what they say as the truth, with no implication that he’s being duped. 1,300 seems a reasonable “monthly wage” in that sort of place, especially when you consider my pet theory about the value of a credit.
I must admit, many of my perceptions of what I’m supposed to perceive from the on-screen action is derived from what I expect to be expected to see, unless there is something that clearly subverts the trope. In this case, there was nothing that clearly subverted the trope, even if I could see ways to do so.
Yeah, that’s my issue with it too, but it could be that he recognises them for what they are: dangerous, resourceful, and hence useful? They scare the water monger, they don’t have jobs, they have weapons, speeders, and appear confident, and he needs more bodies, to gain respect, and eyes and ears…
But he then orders the water monger to slash his prices, which, if he isn’t overcharging, would likely drive him out of business as he is now selling the water for less than is feasible.
In the situation as you describe, I think Boba should have said “I’ll pay your debt, you work for me now,” making everyone happy and getting some henchmen. The way he did what he did angers the water monger, making him more likely to support a rival syndicate. Too much of that, and you erode your support base. Too much of your henchmen taking out fruit stands also erodes your support base. Hopefully this isn’t ignored as the story continues.
Now, if the water monger was overcharging (leaving aside the aforementioned difficulties), he instead could gain support from the civilian populace who now have lower prices for water. But if he’s seriously selling a week’s worth of water for a month’s pay (or even if that’s an exaggeration, make it a 1:1 ratio), he just isn’t going to stay in business (if for no other reason than that his customers all die of dehydration). Something doesn’t add up, and I’m inclined to blame short-sighted writers whose economic literacy is… lacking.
Well, we don’t know by how much he (allegedly) overprices. That matters, and also how much it is be cut by. Too few datapoints to really make a reasonable guesstimation of non-outlier consequences. Although, the water monger’s promise to double his tribute, suggests he’s pretty well off (assuming tribute is a significant and substantial amount).
Boba “invites” the urchins to work for him before he pays their debt, and he “invites” the monger to move to Mos Eisley if he doesn’t cut his price after hearing what water costs, and he seems surprised (and the monger doesn’t explain or justify). He shows a kind of benevolence to the urchins and he asserts authority by telling the monger to have more (presumably) reasonable prices, while also showing that he has henchmen to back up this order. The newest of which are, as the monger said, cyborgs with deadly modifications… no more overpricing then…?
What is interesting, is the leader urchin’s initial dismissal of Fett as yet another crime boss, then she and her crew joins this crime boss. So, by demanding a price cut, Boba appears as a daimyo (as opposed to a crime boss) to the street urchins, but he now risks appearing more as a crime boss to the water monger… I think this is how leadership rolls most of the time…
Putting too much thought into this is going to deconstruct it to silliness.
Well, we know that despite the initial statements that the reset cleared the way for a single, cohesive continuity, filmed content (movies/tv) have slid back into a position of taking precedence over published content. (See: Clone Wars season 7 superseding details of the Siege of Mandalore from the Ahsoka novel and The Bad Batch altering Caleb/Kanan’s Order 66 experience). The official response has been that the larger elements remain the same (Depa and Caleb still being on the same planet when Order 66 hit, but the specifics of what happened were different), with the difference in details being chalked up to different interpretations of the “mythology” - that what we’re seeing are stories told through the lens of many years and translations later, like a story “based on true events” dramatizing things.
In this specific case, I think it’s a choice made to streamline storytelling - use an existing character that fits the story’s needs (Black Krsssantan) rather than creating a new one that duplicates a role the existing character could fill. Beyond that, referencing their shared stories from the comics (which will always be seen by fewer people than watch a tv show) opens up the question of, “What? What does Fett mean, saying they know each other? Oh…that must be another flashback that’s coming.” then leaving those viewers still flummoxed when that flashback never comes.
But, that’s what the Story Group has said they’re really there to do…not to rule over continuity with an iron fist, but to suggest (when asked) by, say, a Robert Rodriguez, “Well, there’s already a Wookiee bounty hunter in current canon that would fit in well as the intimidating presence here. And, for anyone who’s read those stories, there’s a connection to Boba and Jabba, too.”
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That makes enough sense.
I’ve definitely learned to temper my expectations of a multimedia shared storytelling universe ever since Avengers: Age of Ultron. Because he’d written & directed it and its predecessor, as well as being an Executive Producer for Agents of SHIELD, and with Kevin Feige, Jeph Loeb, and others touting the “it’s all connected” mantra and hashtag, many expected Jss Whdon to have the Agents of SHIELD characters appear in the movie. After all…the lead character, Coulson, was prominent in the first, and his death was what had galvanized the team to become the Avengers. But, Wh*don’s explanation for their absence made too much sense. To paraphrase, “More people see the movies than watch the series. To those people, the last time they saw Coulson, he was dead. To have him show back up means either stopping the Avengers’ story cold long enough to summarize a season’s worth of a tv show that brought him back, or having a large portion of the audience thinking we’re idiots who don’t remember a huge event from the last movie.”
After reading that explanation, I came to accept that such cross-continuity typically only flows one way: in the direction that serves the largest audience.
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Why not both? The world was once nearly covered in oceans. Valuable mineral(s) were located and mining began. But, this was not easy since these ancient prospectors were mining below water or in marshes. Thus, we have a more plausible reason for the extreme climate change then just, “over mining”. In Star Wars style, terra-forming technology was brought it to dry up the planet a bit in what is now ancient times. The yet untested tech of course went way too far, resulting in an extremely arid world. The miners of course didn’t care that the local life was almost wiped out by this event. They brought in their mining crawlers and were able to more easily strip the world of its once prized minerals, doing even more damage.
I completely agree. They just didn’t fit in too me. I liked it, but they borrowed greatly from cyberpunk which would have been more appropriate on Coruscant or some other non-Frontier world. At least scuff up the bikes a bit, make the cybertech look old and used.
When the water tanks were knocked over by the speeders, I immediately thought of the Edge of Empire beginner adventure. It seemed almost copied from a scene in that adventure where the players are fleeing in a landspeeder, being chased, and there’s an option of a water tower being knocked over with a Triumph to slow down those chasing on speeder bikes. Am I recalling that correctly or is that just how it turned out when I ran it?.
Those are perfectly good answers to the additional questions the change (if it was, in fact, a change, and not a misunderstanding on my part) brings up.
I have no idea, I didn’t play through that.
I was thinking why Boba Fett is in so much pain. I’m wondering if he has a long term injury from the Saclacc pit. With the acid that will digest you over a thousand years. If the acid is in his system. It could take a long time to remove in a Bacta tank. Next possibility I see is he is feeling the effects of being a clone. Even though he was unaltered. Clones may have issues with old age vs normal humans. Lastly it could be a combination of both. It’s also interesting that he seems more in pain now after Mandolorian 2 season.
With bacta shown being able to cure such severe acid damage, I am wondering why Fennec had to get cybernetics stomach replacements. They could have grown her some new organs and let the bacta heal the rest.
This is probably just the divide between writers wanting to think ahead to what our forward technology will be and forgetting this show was a long time ago.
Cybernetics are faster and cheaper, I’d say. She was shot in the stomach, so there was probably some pretty extensive damage. I’m rather surprised she survived at all, and she likely needed immediate organ substitute/replacement.
Quite possibly, she was hooked up to a variety of machines to keep her alive and then offered a choice: speedy organ replacement via cybernetic organs, or a more lengthy wait for much more expensive organs to be custom-grown, with a chance that her body could reject them, leading to another wait and more credits.
Alex Damon of Star Wars Explained has suggested that it’s psychosomatic, that Boba’s feeling conflicted about being the person he was literally created to be - a carbon copy bounty hunter - and the person he was forging for himself with the Tuskens.
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This is a very interesting view on Fett.
Having failed at the life laid out before him, he wanted to try something new. That’s some decent character growth for him.
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