At the end of this week’s episode of The Book of Boba Fett, two characters, neither of whom are Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison), face each other and present the audience with an impossible choice: would you rather have a new mesh shirt, or watch everyone you’ve ever known and loved die?
Spoilers past this point, and also in the opening paragraph, but those two characters are none other than Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill, once again CGI body doubled by Max Lloyd-Jones), and Grogu (played by a puppet). In case you’re confused, yes, this is an episode of The Book of Boba Fett. And no, neither of these characters nor the choice presented have anything to do with Boba Fett. It’s Star Wars town, baby! Traditional rules of TV and coherence of narrative don’t matter here! We’re in the Wild West! Woop woop!
Anyway, a good chunk of the episode is spent with the sort of sequences that Star Wars fans have dreamed about for decades, as Luke trains his prospective Padawan, Grogu, in the ways of the Force. However, in the background of the episode is Din Djarin, aka The Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal), who has a present for Grogu. As we continue our parade of guest stars who are not Boba Fett, Din is stopped by Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson), who tells him that if Grogu finds out he was visiting Luke’s Jedi training grounds, it would interrupt Grogu’s learning and make his separation from Din (in The Mandalorian Season 2 finale) that much harder. Reluctant to remind Grogu he exists when the latter is on the path of the Jedi, Din gives Ahsoka a present made of Beskar he had crafted for Grogu last episode, which Ahsoka gives to Luke, who then gives it to Grogu, defeating the whole purpose of Din avoiding seeing him in the first place.
That brings us up to the end of the episode, where Luke pulls a classic “chosen one” move and places the present on one side of a piece of fabric, and on the other side, Yoda’s old lightsaber. Luke gives Grogu a choice: he can either have the tiny little chainmail armor Din made for him; or he can work incredibly hard for years to become a Jedi, outlive Din, and get a lightsaber.
Excuse me for cursing in another sci-fi show’s syntax, but: what the frak?
Let’s break this down, as if it was any choice at all. On one hand, you have a shiny new mesh shirt that looks perfect for clubbing on Coruscant, and the chance to see Din, who Grogu loves.
On the other hand, you have a lightsaber once wielded by Yoda, who is dead, decades training to be a Jedi with Luke — a weirdly CGI-ed man (albeit better than the last time we saw him, thanks to a YouTube wizard) — as well as the fun little side-note that Grogu will live long enough to see Din die.
So: mesh shirt?
…Or the death of the only person you’ve ever known and loved?
This is a real head-scratcher, and I’ll tell you what, I have no idea why given these crack training techniques that decades later Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) burned down Luke’s entire school.
Add in the fact that earlier in the episode, Luke made Grogu remember his most painful memory, which was watching a group of Jedi die at the hands of Clone Troopers while trying to protect him, and spent most of the episode shooting him with one of those laser ball training things from the first Star Wars movie, and you begin to wonder why in the world Grogu would be like “yeah sign me up for this Jedi thing, sounds great.” It’s also bizarre given that Luke went through the exact same thing in Empire Strikes Back, when he started training with Yoda and as soon as it got difficult left to go help his friends on Bespin. That’s clearly what director/co-writer Dave Filoni is riffing off here, so a generous interpretation could be that Luke is subtly sending Grogu on the same path he went on, rather than the strict “no attachments” rule Jedi lived by for centuries earlier.
A less generous interpretation is that Luke offered Grogu either decades of punishing training with no end in sight and the impending demise of his only friend, or a new shirt. I know what I’d choose, and it ain’t the lightsaber.
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