Star Wars: The Mandalorian

Can someone summarize the timeline/backstory related to the character at the end? We’re all confused at my house

Long long ago in a galaxy far far away, fanservice

So, there are a lot of variations covered in the novels and expanded universe, but just sticking with the movies here. Boba Fett was a Mandalorian armored bounty hunter that, in the original trilogy, was knocked into the Sarlacc Pit on Tattooine "accidentally" by a temporarily blind Han Solo, presumably left to slowly digest for a thousand years. He hasn't officially been seen in the movie/TV universe since (although his origins were covered in the prequel trilogy). At the start of the episode, the implication is that maybe Jawas managed to somehow scavenge his armor to sell to Cobb Vanth, but the end of the episode reveals he very much survived the Sarlacc incident.

TY Jon

So the timeline of this series is after the orginal SW movie trilogy...

Yes, not sure this is a spoiler but it takes place about five years after the second Death Star blew up in Return of the Jedi.

That is explicitly referenced in this episode!

Tbf they mention the aftermath of the Death Star II but did they say anything about the amount of time that has passed? Might have missed that.

I mean, it might not be Boba Fett considering there were roughly eight zillion clones, although the non-Boba ones would be considerably older than him since he wasn’t fast-aged to adulthood.

Given the planet and this episode’s salvaged armor plot device, probably it’s just him

They should have given W. Earl Brown more lines so I would have noticed that it was him!
https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-mandalorians-w-earl-brown-recounts-his-special-dea-1845549470

absolutely loving the pure joy in this tweet

The teamster pulls into the gate. Another person takes over and drives me onto the set….

Its Tatooine. I AM ON TATOOINE!!! HELL YEAH!!! FUCK YEAH!!!

I get out of the van. Right next to me — is a life-sized Bantha puppet. I touched it — A BANTHA!!! I TOUCHED A BANTHA!

14

— W. Earl Brown (@WEarlBrown) October 30, 2020

That's great!

It did bug me a little when Olyphant called the Weequay bartender "Weequay" instead of an actual name, but I wondered if that was a subtle commentary about when they'd call the Latinx characters in Westerns generic nicknames.

Why are we using spoiler tags? Are ppl coming here before watching each episode?

Tbf, so many Death Stars have been blown up over the years, it's hard to keep track xps

It would make a lot more sense honestly it was one of the surviving clones, as so many have been examined in Clone Wars (and from what I hear, Rebels) and the age of being ~60 yrs old makes more sense. Boba Fett should be in his 40s at the time of this episode, assuming it is him.

Oops, I mean, SPOILERS?

I was just following precedent when using the spoiler tags, since we have them now. Not sure how many that actually impacts.

I actually agree that the spoiler tags should be used this close to the airdate, I goofed.

Yeah, feel like it's pretty harmless within a couple days of a new episode.

If it turns out to be a random clone, that's really dumb.

Oh agreed, which is why I'm pretty confident that's actually him.

FWIW, here's an article with the same "maybe not..." speculation. (It points out that the clonetroopers would actually be older, due to accelerated aging - unless this one figured out how to reverse that.)

i think three days of spoiler tags is appropriate; how's the thread feel about that?

I agree! They're awkward

They should have revealed it was Al Swearengen instead.

perhaps sarlaac digestive juices have excellent anti ageing properties? xps

I didn't recognize that guy was supposed to be a clone trooper. I'll have ask the 8-year old superfan when he gets home from school if he figured that out.

xp No, it's the other way around - assuming it's BF, the No-Prize answer for why he looks older than 41 is that he's had a rough few years. There's no scenario in which a Clonetrooper ended up in the Sarlaac (unless there's some mega-retconning going on)!

i'm gonna stop spoilering posts now: are we meant to assume that the sand dragon ate the sarlaac, as mando suggested, and that was Jabba's sarlaac and that somewhere betwixt lips and hips boba got out, got stripped of his armor and is now living as a ronin amidst the sand dunes?
brb, got some fanfic to write

I believe that is the implication, yes (he escaped in the OG/"Legends" canon as well, so it's not out of the blue).

(And seeing Mando survive digestion by a Krayt dragon, while wearing similar armor, helps sell the idea that Fett could survive the Sarlaac.)

i guess the open question is what's he doing out there? why did the tusken raiders not bring him up with mando when they were talking about finding help tackling the dragon? maybe they're scared of him as the ghost of the desert and he's a TUSKEN HUNTER as potentially evidenced by his carrying a gaderffii on his back?

NB: the gaderffii is among the dumbest of the SW jerry-rigged props/action figure weapons but it sure is easily recognizable

ooh, maybe Kelly Reichardt is directing the next episode as a mandolorian/first cow crossover and boba could be stealing bantha milk and selling tatooine frybread back to the tusken commander

lol, i know more about this universe than i would like to admit but it's all limited to the original trilogy

xp We may get some of these answers! If Fett has "gone native," he may just be another weird dude in the desert to the Tuskens, and not worth mentioning (their concerns seem more... immediate). They also may not know that Fett ever wore the armor, if he ditched it soon after escaping the Sarlaac.

are we meant to assume that the sand dragon ate the sarlaac, as mando suggested, and that was Jabba's sarlaac and that somewhere betwixt lips and hips boba got out, got stripped of his armor and is now living as a ronin amidst the sand dunes?

Yeah wait, I missed that part. Of course it's a different Sarlaac.

gotta eat more than one sarlaac to get by my friend

(the script does a nice job of introducing the idea of multiple Sarlaacs with a throwaway line)

I liked when the raiders held up the egg at the end when they were harvesting the meat

sand dwellers love eggs

i think three days of spoiler tags is appropriate; how's the thread feel about that?

― Fuck the NRA (ulysses),

I kind think if you don't want spoilers don't open the thread till you've watched the episode, but maybe that's a bit harsh.

Not an egg, though:

https://screenrant.com/mandalorian-season-2-krayt-dragon-pearl-lightsabers-explained/

I mean sure an EASTER egg haha wait please don't kill me

I guess there are so many levels of in-universe references, callbacks, etc., that it's miserly of me to complain about the low-hanging ones that I do "get." That's just what the show is, for better or worse (but I hope the Obi-Wan series doesn't do the same thing!).

I feel like the Krayt Pearl is a good example of an easter egg done right - a definite nod to the hardcore fans but doesn't distract at all from the storytelling and doesn't change the viewing experience one iota if you don't get it.

that's an unfortunate typo

jesus, wow. sorry folks.

put in a mod request to hopefully fix that.

I don't think any of the easter eggs have been too glaring in this - even if you didn't twig who that was at the end episode one, a mysterious scary looking bloke tracking Mando is still a decent enough cliffhanger.

It’s Rex y’all

I kind think if you don't want spoilers don't open the thread till you've watched the episode, but maybe that's a bit harsh.

we've only had spoiler tags for about 3 weeks, it's cool to use 'em for things that are a bit ambigious imo