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Nathaniel Reed's
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:: An ongoing episodic story of fan-fic set after Episode VI Return of the Jedi, and inspired by George Lucas' historical draft concepts ::
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| December 2021 |
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'The Book of Boba Fett' TV show begins
31st December 2021 |
The 29th of December marked the arrival of the latest live-action TV show from LFL : The Book of Boba Fett. This is a seven-part series focusing solely on Boba Fett's survival from the Great Sarlaac, and revealing his adventures as he then moved to take his place as a gangster warlord of Tatooine.
Overall, the first episode was fun and entertaining, and I'm keen to see how it plays out, but, obviously (!), it's not without my observations and criticisms :
Daniel Logan was credited at the end, but either the angles used were unused AOTC footage, or there were two actors playing Young Boba perhaps (in newly created scenes) ?
Why wasn't the Sarlaac moving at the point Boba Fett punched out of the sand ?
Surely that wasn't Droopy McCool playing, but a 'cousin' instead, since Droopy would have died on the Sail Barge [along with Bib Fortuna, which is my gripe with the epilogue of The Mandalorian S2 !!!]. There are reports, apparently, of non-filmic (ie, comic/novel) sources that had these two survive the Battle at the Great Pit of Carkoon, but personally I have always looked on the visual material as being 'canon', with printed material supplementing this.
Post-Sarlaac Boba (helmeted) should have been played by a slimmer actor ; possibly a Temeura-lookalike for the Jawa & Tusken scenes too ? Perhaps his fuller build (comparing Bulloch and Morrison) could have been justified by the Sarlaac digestive juices, or the subsequent rehabilation in the bacta tank ?
The show identifies the city as Mos Espa... but TPM implied an open desert around the town/city, and even the rocky terrain where the Boonta Eve was held was 'out of town'.
I have since had a look at TPM and AOTC, and other than a 'ridge' or 'bluff' of rocky terrain, in my opinion this suggests that Mos Espa is pretty flat. I then went back to the opening shot of Mos Espa in TBOBF, and, since it's a pretty quick vertical pan, it's easy to only focus on the crater/valley where the urbanisation lies.... and miss the rest of the sprawl up on the flat open desert... so perhaps the implication is that Mos Espa has grown considerably ?
Once again [Grrrr !!!!!], people understand droid speak - NO, THIS IS NOT RIGHT ACCORDING TO GL's LORE [and the whole purpose of C3PO/Anthony Daniels/protocol droids].
Boba Fett appears to move sluggishly and fights weakly.... but one could argue that his time in the Sarlaac might easily have weakened him. It's currently not clear what the timeframe is for the period spent inside the Sarlaac, be it months or even years.
My long-held assumption ss that the Mandalorian armour must be activated from inside the helmet (or a button/switch on the armour itself, as seen in AOTC and ROTJ), but Boba Fett had neither when he fired a small missile from his arm gauntlet. I think it has been proposed (in the Mandalorian TV show ??) that all or some of the armour weaponary is thought-controlled from within the helmet.... but TBOBF has now shown a device being fired by Fett without his helmet.
Unsurprisingly a fairly violent and martial-arts-orientated show, and once again, I can't help but think a couple of blows from a gaffi stick will severely injure or even kill someone [especially Boba post-Sarlaac !!]. Seeing chips of armour fly off stormtroopers in the Mandalorian episodes didn't sit well with me - surely it's wise to retain the 'house style' set by George Lucas for the level of explicit violence ? This may not be a "kids show" anymore, but it still comes from that genesis, and it begs the question how necessary is the graruitous violence to tell the story ?
The nature of the show will presumably move us away from the 'silent brooding mercenary gunslinger' image that Boba Fett had represented in TESB and ROTJ (if not Mando), especially if he is to work his way into becoming less of a bounty hunter and more of a gangster overlord.
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The illustrated virtual edition of Episode VII : Plague of Doom continues, and, following Commander Kane's release of Captain Prue and his troops from the cells where they had been captured, the Imperials race to the tunnel exit, only to find the last of the priosners escaping to a nearby Star Destroyer !
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| You can see the VE artwork in the 'Kessel' art gallery as well as in the online illustrated story, and you can discuss this in the forum here ! |
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My prose writing for virtual edition Episode X 'The Riddle of the Pirates' continues towards its epic climactic batle and conclusion, with the pirate chief Yuide personally leading the counter-attack......
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| Nathaniel Reed, 31st December 2021 |
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“How’s it goin’ ?” asked Han, pacing back and forth between Harker and Fondon and the other techies.
“Same as it was when you last asked,” responded Fondon grimly.
“About five seconds ago,” added Harker wryly.
The tech team had set up portable consoles in an array around the super-computer’s primary access console. Artoo was plugged in at one of the consoles, whirring away to himself, while Threepio stooped over him, quietly providing a running commentary.
The Force pricked at Leia, and she announced, “We have incoming.”
There came the sound of gunfire from further up the south corridor, then the grunts of a brief skirmish, followed by screams of pain, then silence.
Leia shot a glance to her husband. “The two commandoes are down,” she reported.
She moved to face the corridor and gripped the handle of her lightsabre in readiness. Chewie growled and stepped past her, and then took up station a few metres beyond. He too raised his lightsabre, the handle fashioned from wood and metal.
A blur smashed into view and, as lightsabres ignited, it came to an abrupt stop, revealing itself to be Etoille.
“Masters !” the Jedi gasped. “We were attacked... They’re right behind me... one of them is....”
The pirate’s roar of anger and frustration heralded his arrival, and the mass of dark energy that was Yuide exploded into view.
The pirate recognised the Jedi he had pursued, who was now stooped panting. He flicked the light-whip high into the air, and brought the single red tendril down across the man. The Jedi twisted away, but the whip caught his arm and sliced it clean off. The Jedi howled in pain and slumped to the floor.
Chewie matched the newcomer’s roar with his own bellow, and swung his sword in a wide arc.
Without pausing, Yuide flicked his right arm out and to the side and the light-whip batted away the green sword.
Leia leapt forward to engage the pirate and snapped her blue sword back and forth to parry the returning whip tendril.
A salvo of red blaster bolts rained past the two combatants as Han tried to provide cover for his wife, but the pirate simply danced from foot to foot, turning his shoulders this way and that.
Two new pirates now barged in. They regarded the situation, then fanned out either side of their leader. One raised his lightsabre above his head in a two-handed grip, and advanced upon the Wookiee. The other stepped to the left of Yuide and provided a wider angle of attack against the Jedi woman before them. Two remaining Jedi had positioned themselves just behind and either side of the woman. A middle-aged man in a military tunic touting a blaster at his hip seemed to be providing a laughable defence for a handful of nerdy techies trying to hack their way into the pirates’ super-computer.
Yuide snarled, and leapt forward to engage the woman, punching out at her with his three-bladed tekken in his left fist. His opponent side-stepped swiftly and swung her blue blade, but Yuide, with super-human speed, twisted and blocked the blow with the tekken. He immediately followed with the whip, slashing down and across to catch her legs. The Jedi nimbly leapt vertically, and Yuide noticed that her lower left leg was cybernetic. He crouched and hit out with the tekken once more, but the blue blade arced down and blocked the red. An un-lady-like kick caught him in the head, and he was momentarily thrown back, tottering but not falling. He angrily flailed out at her with the whip, which kept her from advancing.
The pirate beside Yuide ran forward to meet with the Jedi on his side, and the two engaged with their swords. The remaining Jedi circled around the woman and moved forward to support her against Yuide.
Several bright clashes between the Wookiee and his opponent forced the pirate to retreat, who was unable to cope under the physically heavy blows meted out by the towering beast. The pirate saw the second Jedi move around the woman to get into a better position to attack his chief, and he swung a blow against him. The Jedi sensed the ambush, and twisted to block the blade. At the same time the Wookiee swung his green blade once more, and the pirate was forced to back away.
Yuide lashed out with his whip, and the single tendril caught the Jedi across the shoulder, slicing off the arm. Emboldened, the pirate leader flicked the whip again at the woman, and she was forced to twist and parry the blazing red tendril with her sword. A brief hiss, and the whip leapt high into the air once more, whirled in an arc, and came down once again.
Leia deftly rotated her blade as the whip came down a second time, and the blue and red became entangled. She tugged at the energy arc, felt resistance, and then tightly rotated her blade again. The two combatants were brought closer. The pirate growled in frustration, and Leia saw his thumb de-activate the whip. As the fizzling red disappeared, and the weapons became separated, she flicked her sword in a wide arc. In a blur, the pirate punched again with the tekken, while his right hand now sported the re-activated light-whip, this time with many tendrils flailing wildly as if it had almost a mind of its own.
The multi-stranded whip zipped back around and Leia was forced to adjust her attack to defend against the tendrils and the close-quarters tekken. Twisting her blade to the vertical she rebuffed the red blades, but several tips of the whip stung her left arm and back. Without giving in to the searing pain, she pushed out her palm, and the pirate was thrown across the chamber where he thudded in to the wall. To his credit, although winded, he slid to the floor and landed on his feet.
The sole Jedi left duelling fiercely with the other pirate near the comp station had landed several injurious blows, and his foe was bleeding across his arms and legs. The pirate was only barely keeping up a defence, and would soon succumb.
Chewbacca had pounded his opponent with heavy blows, and the pirate had retreated back towards the doorway they had entered.
Yuide saw his injured crewman near the comp station collapse to his knees and then slump over. Movement just beyond showed the military man aim and fire across the room, hitting the pirate at the doorway squarely in the chest. Behind the shooter, Yuide could also see lights on the computer interface flicker in a rapid rhythm, and he correctly guessed that they had broken through its defences. The woman and the wookiee were cautiously advancing towards him.
A clatter of boots prompted him to turn his gaze to the north corridor and he saw three Jedi run in, closely followed by two more commandoes.
A wild thought came to Yuide’s mind. If the comp is lost to them, then he’ll make sure no one gets out with it alive !
It was as if the buzz was re-energised by this idea, and to Yuide it felt almost as if the dark energy had even been waiting expectantly for this realisation and turn of events.
The black fire swept up and through him once more, and without sparing a glance back, he moved as a blur and departed the chamber.
Leia looked at Chewie, who glanced down at her with his head cocked to the side, and then to Han and Alana.
“We need to get after him,” she announced.
They all nodded in agreement, and then hurried towards the south corridor.
Han shot a glance over his shoulder as he went.
“Fondon, wrap it up here, and get everyone on board the Falcon.”
From the airlock at the side of the chamber, eyes wide from what they had just witnessed, Gana and Corsa surreptitiously peeked out. They watched their parents, Chewie, auntie Alana, the Jedi, and the two commandoes race away down one of the two corridors. The five technicians were busy closing down their application consoles. The twins looked at each other, then nodded. They focused their attention on the doorway leading to the corridor that everyone had just used, and then called upon the Force to whisk them across the chamber and into the passage, out of sight of the techies.
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