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“Message” is the latest Book of Boba Fett commercial teaser, with a new moment and a few more frames added to previously shown scenes that changes their dynamics. Also, we’re connecting the “Book” with Boba’s statement about respectful rule… Punch it!
Check out “Message” right here:
Transcript:
Star Wars 7×7 episode 2710. So we’ve got another What to Watch Now episode here for your Saturday. And today we’re going to talk about the latest footage from the Book of Boba Fett. Punch it!
Hey, Rebel Rouser. I’m Allen Voivod. This is Star Wars 7×7, your daily dose of Star Wars joy. And thank you so much for joining me for it. So “Message” is the latest little teaser for The Book of Boba Fett following “Reign,” which we talked about previously, and the two of them came out one right after the other. “Reign” came out about a week ago. And then “Message” came out about two days later. And then it’s been radio silence since then. I’m kind of surprised considering they started out doing one and then two days later, another. And then the pace stopped. So yeah, that’s why we’re going to just take a moment and consider what we’ve got in “Message” here, which basically there’s a couple of new little things, but there’s also a couple of longer shots on things that we’ve seen previously.
So here’s one thing that’s new at the very beginning of this particular little trailer. And by the way, I will have a link to it at the blog post for the show’s episode at SW7x7.com and in the show notes as well.
So at the beginning, you hear the voiceover of him saying, I am Boba Fett, and he says that he was left for dead on the sands of Tatooine, and we get a scene that we’ve already seen before, Tusken Raiders moving through a desert sandstorm, and then we get a new shot that we haven’t seen before. It’s Boba Fett apparently lying down horizontal. So if this is a bacta situation, then bacta has gotten clearer over time, and it’s also gone horizontal instead of vertical, like the bacta tank we see Luke Skywalker in in The Empire Strikes Back.
So Boba is hanging out in that thing with a little breather tube in his mouth. And the thing about that is, it feels like this is not happening right immediately after the events of Return of the Jedi. Or maybe more properly, it doesn’t seem like that’s happening right after he was rescued from the Sarlacc Pit, because he looks like he’s in pretty good shape. Comparatively speaking, he looks more like he’s been cleaned up already, and he looks like he has his health back for the most part. So maybe it’s just ongoing medical treatment from some sort of long-term suffering of the effects of the Sarlacc.
Obviously, it’s hard to say for sure, but it really does have more of a feeling of being concurrent with the time of The Book of Boba Fett rather than the time of Return of the Jedi.
And shortly thereafter, there’s another slightly longer scene where Boba and Fennec go to meet that Ithorian. We don’t know who the Ithorian is. I checked to see if the costume that Dok Ondar wears at Galaxy’s Edge is at all similar to this Ithorian, and it doesn’t seem like it. But the longer part about it is that we see Boba and Fennec walking into the room and behind them comes that red shirt person that we saw in the previous commercial “Reign,” where Fennec had this person in chains and was leading them along.
Well, they’re bringing this person in front of the Ithorian as well in this new little commercial. It doesn’t seem like Boba bringing somebody in for a bounty along with Fennec. So, yeah, it has more of a feel of, hey, you, Ithorian, you sent all these slugs after me, and I beat a whole bunch of them up, and I got one captive, and I’m coming here to have a conversation with you about it. That’s kind of the feel that it seems to have. And we know from a previous trailer situation that there’s going to be some kind of showdown that happens within this … I’m loathe to call it a throne room, but it’s kind of a throne room, an audience chamber, if you will.
All right, let’s talk about another just slightly longer scene we’ve talked before, about how Jennifer Beals is in this as a Twi’lek of apparent importance. We’ve seen her in conversation with another Twi’lek and then kind of looking around and we know from the Empire Magazine cover story that she has a conversation with Boba Fett at some point, and it could be this scene. But this time in the “Message” commercial, her reaction is a little longer. And so you kind of get to see her have a change in reaction as she looks away from the other Twi’lek who’s talking to her. And then she looks at Boba Fett coming into the room, and it does look like there’s a dawning of recognition on her face. So what it seems like is that she, at the very least, knows of Boba Fett by reputation.
Whether she knows him personally is another matter. But she does seem kind of shocked to see him. And if he has been off the grid for five, six years, then yes, you might be surprised to see him to suddenly walk into the room where you’re at, whatever this place is a bar or restaurant.
Then there’s the bit with the swoop bikes flying around. And in a previous situation, we see what appears to be Boba Fett riding on one and then one coming behind him. We talked about how there were two people on the bike that was sort of to the right and behind following him, and that it didn’t necessarily look like Fennec Shand and her prisoner in there. It looked like a couple of different people. And the helmet profile of the person who was driving that other bike, it didn’t seem like it was Fennec Shand’s bike. So now we actually get a couple more tenths of a second, basically, of this scene.
And there are two more bikes, speeder bikes, swoop bikes, whatever you want to call them, that are following behind as well. So now it definitely does seem more like a chase scene, and I’ve looked to see if there’s any theorizing being done about who’s on those bikes, and there’s nothing I can come across, and it doesn’t look like there’s anything particularly identifiable about them yet. So yeah, that’s still a bit of a mystery.
And the rest of it is mostly stuff we’ve seen before or just Boba and Fennec entering a room, and it’s not necessarily all that remarkable, at least as far as whether it tells us anything. We do get the same voiceover of Jabba ruled with fear, and I intend to rule with respect, but it’s also overlaid on Boba taking his frustrations out with vibro-axes and whatnot and looking all crazy and stuff.
So you can imagine that if he’s going to try to rule with respect and people aren’t respecting him, well, then he’s going to have to go to the fear thing until everybody’s ready to just start working with the whole respect idea again.
So that’s just about everything that’s notable in the new “Message” commercial for The Book of Boba Fett. I will flag one other thing, if I may, that is related to stuff we’ve seen previously, and I don’t think I made the connection directly, but when I talked about the idea of The Book of Boba Fett and what that title actually means previously, there had been suggestions, theories that it was about Boba Fett keeping some sort of journal of people who had wronged him. And this is how he’s going to be getting revenge.
Well, it doesn’t necessarily seem like the case since he keeps talking about ruling with respect. And also, as we’ve gone through other Boba Fett stories, I’ve been trying to pay attention to who has wronged Boba Fett, in the course of the stories that were being told about him in the new canon storyline in the timeline, to see whether there’s anybody that he might be harboring grudges for, that he might decide to revisit in this thing – doesn’t seem like that’s the case. And in the Empire Magazine cover story, they reinforced the idea that for a genre upon which the Book of Boba Fett is drawing: it’s Mafia and Prohibition type stories. And we talked about the notion of a “book” in Mafia speak, a book meaning a membership within a Mafia.
Having the book be open means that they’re bringing new people on board into the Mafia cruise. And if the book is closed, then they’re not bringing on people anymore, or at least for the time being. So this line about I intend to rule with respect really does seem like it’s kind of a recruiting pitch, as it were, when you think of it in that fashion.
And going back to the dinner that Boba Fett and Fennec Shand are hosting at Jabba’s Palace with the Trandoshans and the Aqualish and the Klatoonians. right? That does seem like a situation where the book is open and these are Jabba’s former captains and he’s welcoming them to join the new organization if you will. And they’ve probably been out in the cold for a while, especially since there’s no real Hutt Clan leadership, apparently. And who knows what Bib Fortuna was doing.
So this is Boba Fett welcoming them back into the fold and creating his new group of people, his new book being opened and admitting people into a roster of his new criminal organization. At least that’s my take on it right now and I’d love to hear what yours is. So if you have a different take on that, let me know. Chime in wherever there’s a comment section, wherever you’re catching this podcast, or if there isn’t one there, then come on over to home base for the show at SW7x.com and leave a comment at the blog post for the show’s episode.
And that right there is going to do it for today’s episode. It just remains for me to say thank you so much for joining me for it as always. And may the Force be with you, wherever in the world you may be.