It's Saturday, and you know what that means. Spoilers for Episode  3 are now fair game.

Well, so much for my theory about the Tusken Raiders becoming Boba's key allies. Seeing Boba putting the Tusken kid's stick on the fire really hit home.

Black Krrsantan was awesome. He was played by Carey Jones, who is primarily a makeup artist and makeup supervisor. He's probably been waiting for that gig his whole life.

I wasn't sure about the cyberpunks, but I think they've earned their spot. They and their bikes have a very different aesthetic from most of Tatooine, but it's growing on me.

I'm hoping Fennec Shand gets some more time to shine.

I don't think ALL the tuskens are dead and that the Kintan sand riders are the fall guys. They're bikers. Their thing is riding their speeders and swoops terrorizing moisture farmers and beat up people in bars, not attacking Tuskens.
To me it makes more sense that its the Pykes wanting to take revenge on the Tuskens. Waiting for Boba to pick up the protection money, maybe tracing his trail back to the camp and hit it before he returned.

There were simply not enough bodies on that pile for all of them, and it makes sense that the Pykes took any survivors as prisoners to be sold as slaves to the spice mines. (as "compensation" if nothing else.)
Putting the blame on the Kintan sand riders is just a ruse, and I think Boba is clever enough to see through it. But he is also very aware that he can't take on the Pykes by himself. Saving Fennec might just have been a lucky coincidence, but pardoning the Gamorreans, hiring the Mos Vespas, (i don't care if they have a official name, I call them that and im gonna stick with it) and letting Krrsantian go is just him building up his forces from the ground up. (the wookie will be back and join him -maybe not full life-debt thing, but at least "well, you told me to not work for scugholes, and you seem like a decent chap")

I see a lot of people online being less than charmed with the Mos Vespas, but as a role-player is see them as his level 1-2 hirelings. They're not supposed to be bad-ass at this point. He trained the Tuskens to ride speeders. Under his tutelage he can make these teens level up a bit.

A finale where Boba frees his Tusken "family" with all his recruits makes sense. Maybe the entire crimelord thing is just a charade and he is still a bounty hunter at heart going after criminals, but this time he is taking down an entire syndicate.

Quote from: Lurkndog on January 15, 2022, 10:26:03 AM

I wasn't sure about the cyberpunks, but I think they've earned their spot. They and their bikes have a very different aesthetic from most of Tatooine, but it's growing on me.

I really didn't like the cyberpunks or their bikes. I felt like they were really out of place on Tatooine, and they could have saved them for another place (like if Boba went to Nar Shaddaa for some reason). I'm not crazy about Tatooine becoming more cosmopolitan.

Quote from: HappyDaze on January 15, 2022, 12:04:31 PM

Quote from: Lurkndog on January 15, 2022, 10:26:03 AM

I wasn't sure about the cyberpunks, but I think they've earned their spot. They and their bikes have a very different aesthetic from most of Tatooine, but it's growing on me.

I really didn't like the cyberpunks or their bikes. I felt like they were really out of place on Tatooine, and they could have saved them for another place (like if Boba went to Nar Shaddaa for some reason). I'm not crazy about Tatooine becoming more cosmopolitan.

I did raise an eyebrow at the Pykes arriving by Starliner. "Hang on? Tatooine got a Starliner route!?"

Quote from: Wntrlnd on January 15, 2022, 12:37:50 PM

Quote from: HappyDaze on January 15, 2022, 12:04:31 PM

Quote from: Lurkndog on January 15, 2022, 10:26:03 AM

I wasn't sure about the cyberpunks, but I think they've earned their spot. They and their bikes have a very different aesthetic from most of Tatooine, but it's growing on me.

I really didn't like the cyberpunks or their bikes. I felt like they were really out of place on Tatooine, and they could have saved them for another place (like if Boba went to Nar Shaddaa for some reason). I'm not crazy about Tatooine becoming more cosmopolitan.

I did raise an eyebrow at the Pykes arriving by Starliner. "Hang on? Tatooine got a Starliner route!?"

I still don't get why the Pykes were transporting spice (from off world) by train across an asscrack planet like Tatooine.

Quote from: Wntrlnd on January 15, 2022, 12:37:50 PM
I did raise an eyebrow at the Pykes arriving by Starliner. "Hang on? Tatooine got a Starliner route!?"

That "starliner" seemed more like a bulk freighter. It also seemed to be in a "You came in that?" state of repair.

Quote from: HappyDaze on January 15, 2022, 01:57:21 PM

Quote from: Wntrlnd on January 15, 2022, 12:37:50 PM

Quote from: HappyDaze on January 15, 2022, 12:04:31 PM

Quote from: Lurkndog on January 15, 2022, 10:26:03 AM

I wasn't sure about the cyberpunks, but I think they've earned their spot. They and their bikes have a very different aesthetic from most of Tatooine, but it's growing on me.

I really didn't like the cyberpunks or their bikes. I felt like they were really out of place on Tatooine, and they could have saved them for another place (like if Boba went to Nar Shaddaa for some reason). I'm not crazy about Tatooine becoming more cosmopolitan.

I did raise an eyebrow at the Pykes arriving by Starliner. "Hang on? Tatooine got a Starliner route!?"

I still don't get why the Pykes were transporting spice (from off world) by train across an asscrack planet like Tatooine.

It's star wars. It doesn't have to make sense. Never has. Mandalorian had that "transport explosives across country where pirates tries to blow you up" episode after all.
But if I gave it a try, the pykes have a spice refinery hidden way out in the desert, and if they pick up their cargo by spaceship, they can be tracked. So they transport the spice from and to spaceports by speeder train.
And shoots Tuskens for shits and giggles.

The cyberpunks asthetic did bug me a little. They don't look like they fit on Tatooine.
Maybe that's the point, and their history will come up later.

Otherwise really liked the episode. It's got some nitpickable problems, but eh.

Boba Fett's reaction to one of the most feared superpredators in the Star Wars stories: "I want to ride it!"

I liked the cyberpunks, didn't much care for the Space Vespas - they didn't look like "go fast" was an option at all, more like Space Rascals. A minor complaint, though, it wasn't a show wrecker.

Loved the rest of the chase though. Had the 70s music going, had crashing through a plate glass window equivalent, had crashing into a fruit stand.

Quote from: Lurkndog on January 15, 2022, 02:44:36 PM

Quote from: Wntrlnd on January 15, 2022, 12:37:50 PM
I did raise an eyebrow at the Pykes arriving by Starliner. "Hang on? Tatooine got a Starliner route!?"

That "starliner" seemed more like a bulk freighter. It also seemed to be in a "You came in that?" state of repair.

If Podracing is still a sport and popular, I can understand starliners bringing fans and tourists to Mos Espa. Jabba may have been bored by the races, but he would have understood the economic significance of them (plus large groups of people moving to and from a world makes good cover for smuggling).

Quote from: Thornhammer on January 15, 2022, 08:08:51 PM
I liked the cyberpunks, didn't much care for the Space Vespas - they didn't look like "go fast" was an option at all, more like Space Rascals. A minor complaint, though, it wasn't a show wrecker.

Loved the rest of the chase though. Had the 70s music going, had crashing through a plate glass window equivalent, had crashing into a fruit stand.

The space vespas make a certain amount of sense for urban use. If you go tearing around a city at speeder bike velocities, you will tend to get speeder bike results.

I wonder if the cyberpunks are offworlders, or if they are native to Tatooine but deliberately imitating offworld styles? It reminds me of certain Japanese subcultures like dekotora or bosozoku, or the fashion subcultures in Akihabara. I think that giving them retro vibes works really well, as the droids they emulate have similar retro styling, and it takes them away from the 80's sensibility of non-Star-Wars cyberpunk.

Quote from: Shrieking Banshee on January 05, 2022, 01:41:08 PM
I don't comprehend how people have this much tolerance for just needless nostalgia fluff.

Its more like needless obsession with boosting up essentially a throwaway character.

Quote from: HappyDaze on January 15, 2022, 12:04:31 PM

Quote from: Lurkndog on January 15, 2022, 10:26:03 AM

I wasn't sure about the cyberpunks, but I think they've earned their spot. They and their bikes have a very different aesthetic from most of Tatooine, but it's growing on me.

I really didn't like the cyberpunks or their bikes. I felt like they were really out of place on Tatooine, and they could have saved them for another place (like if Boba went to Nar Shaddaa for some reason). I'm not crazy about Tatooine becoming more cosmopolitan.

Wonder if they are supposed to be related to the speeder racers from the first story arc of the Droids cartoon way back? That arc had more than a few cyberpunk elements to it if I recall right. Been ages.

Or a callback to the Tatooine Swoop racers from Old Republic?

Quote from: Lurkndog on January 16, 2022, 08:52:31 AM

Quote from: Thornhammer on January 15, 2022, 08:08:51 PM
I liked the cyberpunks, didn't much care for the Space Vespas - they didn't look like "go fast" was an option at all, more like Space Rascals. A minor complaint, though, it wasn't a show wrecker.

Loved the rest of the chase though. Had the 70s music going, had crashing through a plate glass window equivalent, had crashing into a fruit stand.

The space vespas make a certain amount of sense for urban use. If you go tearing around a city at speeder bike velocities, you will tend to get speeder bike results.

Yea, but they looked like shiny vespas from earth, except for the hovering part. A more rugged, desert adapted asthetic would fit the planet better, no matter the capabilities of the vehicle.

Quote from: Ratman_tf on January 16, 2022, 08:17:06 PM
Yea, but they looked like shiny vespas from earth, except for the hovering part. A more rugged, desert adapted asthetic would fit the planet better, no matter the capabilities of the vehicle.

I get what you're saying, but I'm not sure I agree.

On the one hand, there is definitely an established aesthetic for Tattoine. Everything is given a mock-arabesque feel. And I'm OK with that. After all, Star Wars was originally intended to be Flash Gordon, and Flash Gordon is a mock-travelogue that echoes a lot of real cultures. And having a simple unified aesthetic makes it easier for the audience to become immersed.

On the other hand, reality has no problem putting shiny lowriders and dusty jeeps together in the same city.

On the third hand, I think there is a relationship between the size of the city and the number of subcultures it can support, and I don't think Mos Espa is supposed to be all that big a place. Going from Jabba's palace to downtown is merely walking distance. So a small city a couple miles across?

The podracing stadium suggested a larger population, but if it's the only podracing stadium on the planet, it's also drawing from Mos Eisley and all the other smaller settlements like Anchorhead and Toshi Station. A pod race is also a special event, like when Nascar comes to town.