I literally laughed out loud 
I do think this episode was bit toooo long. I generally am fine with the relatively languid pace of the show, but in a 30-35 min episode I think it works well. In a 50 min episode, it just feels way too long.
Is there reason to think that was Boba Fett? I know it was the same actor, but there were quite a few of these clones running around.
I view it as similar to us not knowing much about King Arthur. Most of us think he is a myth, the stories we get have been retold so often they have distorted and lost any truth there might have ever been in them, but some historians still cling to the idea that there may have been some real person the myth hangs on.
Instead of the mists of time, most of the Galaxy has the mists of distance. There are only 10,000 Jedi Knights, and they are spread thin around the galaxy, with Tatooine an example of the furthest from where real things are happening. It may as well be 5000 years rather than 50 since the Clone Wars as far as how they were impacted.
I can’t find it now, but someone (sorry nameless poster - I’d cite you by name if I could find the post) upthread pointed out that Mando went to Tattooine, the last known location of Boba Fett; found his armor, which had apparently been recovered by Jawas; if his armor survived and was recovered, it stands to reason that he might have as well; dialogue established that the krayt dragon ate a sarlacc and took over its pit, giving at least a vaguely plausible explanation for how Boba Fett survived and escaped; and his armor was a pivotal plot point in the episode. If, after all of that centering of Boba Fett, if the lurking figure was random Clone Trooper #1138 instead of Boba Fett, it would be a massive cheat. It’s not definitive that it’s Boba Fett, but that certainly seems to be the clear implication.
It wouldn’t be a cheat to have it be Captain Rex. Plus we already have it on pretty good authority that other people in Rex’s orbit show up this season.
I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing Captain Rex or another trooper from Clone Wars show up at some point, but given all of the set up we saw, I think it would be a massive cheat if the figure we saw watching Mando speed away with Boba Fett’s armor isn’t Boba Fett.
Plus, if it’s not Boba Fett, then the episode becomes even more pointless. It already felt disconnected from main plot. If it’s not even setting up the return of the most famous (in the real world) Mandalorian, then the whole episode seems completely irrelevant.
Is it ever stated outside the EU (which Disney has explicitly excluded from canon) that Boba is an actual, bona-fide Mandalorian? I always thought he was a poser who took on the mythos (like guys who get the tats and claim to have been Navy SEALs).
Nope. Take a look at the Star Wars Wiki, and the entries for Boba and Jango – and make sure you’re looking at the “Canon” tab, and not the “Legends” (i.e., no longer canon) tab.
In Jango’s entry:
The only canon Mandalorian reference for Boba is in that he, like his father, wore modified Mandalorian armor.
For what it’s worth, the actor playing the role is 60, and Boba Fett would be 40 at this point. But Rex would be older because of the advanced aging that the clones undergo.
I agree that Occam’s Razor is that it’s Boba Fett, but honestly, I always thought Boba Fett was tremendously over rated (I mean, does anyone die more pathetically and comically in the entire Star Wars universe?) and Rex was actually a much more thoroughly built out character.
About two minutes in I whispered (no one else was home)…
“This is the least Disney show I have ever seen.”
The soundtrack (which I noticed in Ep. 1 was full of “found” sound effects… “post-industrial”?), the characters, and especially the pace.
Very refreshing.
As far as I can tell, it’s never actually been established in current canon whether Jango and Boba were “actual” Mandalorians or posers. I don’t think it’s ever been firmly indicated on-screen anywhere, one way or the other.
There are apparently public statements from behind-the-camera folks, including The Mandalorian co-creator Dave Filoni, that the Fetts weren’t really Mandalorians, but promotional material for The Mandalorian apparently indicates that they were.
Also, what Mandalorians even are seems to vary considerably even within the current canon. The way they are depicted differs significantly from The Clone Wars animated series to Rebels to The Mandalorian, and Dave Filoni produced all three of them.
Finally, for whatever it’s worth, Boba Fett’s Wookiepedia entry unequivocally states that the figure we see at the end of “The Marshal” is Boba Fett, and uses that shot as his portrait.
We know that the clone troopers age faster than normal, and that Boba was “special” and not subjected to the same processes as the other clone troopers, but I don’t think we technically know for sure that he doesn’t also suffer from accelerated aging (it’s certainly a common trope for fictional clones, with some basis in reality). And spending any amount of time the Sarlacc’s gut probably ages a guy. And Temuera Morrison looked pretty good for a 60-year old in that shot; I think he could easily pass for a 40-year old who’s lived a hard life.
Considering that Boba Fett got about 5 minutes total screen time, and four very short lines, just about any of the Clone Troopers with a name was a more thoroughly built out character…
My headcanon is that the Mandolorian covert shown in The Mandalorian is an offshoot of the main culture, sort of a more fundamentalist group than the ones on and around Mandalore itself (like Sabine). Whether it’s because they’ve been cut off, or they’re a splinter group, I don’t know.
Another possibility is that following the Night of a Thousand Tears, there was some sort of diaspora from Mandalore, and an increased interest in and following of “the old ways”.
Heck, how many flavors of Christian, Jew, Muslim are there - even within a single broad religion, there can be massive differences.
We’ll probably find out more as the show progresses - especially if Sabine shows up and takes off her helmet!
That’s pretty much the headcanon I put forward in the Season 1 thread:
Who do you consider “the original Boba Fett”? Don Francks, who voiced him in the Holiday Special, died in 2016. Jeremy Bulloch, who played him in TESB and ROTJ, is 75, far too old to play a character who’s supposed to be 41, and additionally retired from acting in 2016. Daniel Logan, who played him in AOTC, has only appeared in B-movies since then.
I’d be very surprised if that turns out to be someone other than Boba Fett. That’s not to say Morrison can’t double as Rex as well. He looked a LOT older on Rebels already though than Morrison in this scene, and that’s about 15 years before The Mandalorian in-universe.
And I enjoy those headcanon explanations for the inconsistencies with Mandalorian culture, but I do hope the show will provide their own explanation at some point why Din Djarin’s group acted so differently from Mandalorians we’ve seen before.
Bulloch… bullocks… get it?
I watched it last night. I liked it.
I think the main point of this episode is Mando’s character growth. We see him develop more flexibility in the Creed when he accepts the Marshal’s bargaining. We see him leading a large band instead of acting alone or in a small group.
Of course he left with the MacGuffin, leading to wherever it goes.
Was I the only one expecting him to let the marshal keep the armor at the end? Like he proved that he was worthy of it.
I like that reading. If that’s the through-line of this season, that the Mandalorian grows in his understanding of the Way and becomes more thoughtful and less reflexively dogmatic, then I think I’ll retroactively like this episode more.
I think Pleonast is right, that by the end of the season he’s going to wind up there. I’m betting that in the finale, he goes back to the Marshal for aid (ala Cara Dune in Season 1), and at that point gives him back the armor.
I’m also wildspeccing that the Mandalorian will find Boba Fett, and try to return the armor, but Boba Fett will reject it for his own reasons, and they will discuss the Way and what it means to them, and our Hero will gain a new perspective, that eventually leads him to conclude that the Marshal should have the armor.