> Intel Suspiciously Throwing 350 Watt Extreme Performance Mode At Raptor Lake

I never thought of Intel as a company that would panic. Or even be reactionary. Intel is usually the company everyone wants to be. They’re the powerhouse of chips. But this latest rumor of an “extreme performance” mode seems less like something Intel would do and more like something AMD would do to grab attention. Up until the last few years anyway.

Intel’s Raptor Lake flagship, the Core i9-13900K, is going to feature a new “Extreme Performance” mode on high-end Z790 motherboards. The new performance mode would essentially allow the chip to run at an unchained power setting, sipping over 300 Watts of power to deliver its fullest potential.

First off it’s only on high end boards. Most people building PCs aren’t spending that much on a high end configuration. I’d even argue most people can’t. A cursory glance at Newegg shows high end Intel 12th gen boards at around the $650 mark for the Asus Maximus Z690 Hero. That’s more than most people spend on a CPU. Then there was the ASRock Z690 Taichi coming in at much more reasonable $440. I can’t imagine a “high end” board that will have this feature being much cheaper than these.

Consider a boxed Core i9-12900K is going for $590 and a Core i7-12700K for $400. I didn’t bother to check the much more mainstream Core i5. So $840 pre tax if you go with the cheaper ASRock board and an i7. Going one step higher to the i9 will run you $1090 with the same board. I imagine that’s more than half most people’s build budgets and we haven’t even touched on DDR5.

It does make me stop and go “what the fuck” just not in a good way. Sure being the first to 6Ghz isn’t a bad thing. The way they’re doing it is.

As ProHardver explains, the Intel Core i9-13900K CPUs or the Raptor Lake Core i9 “K” series in general, are going to get a new profile known as “Extreme Performance”. This is also known as “Unlimited Power” setting on certain motherboards. What this profile essentially does is unlock Raptor Lake’s power limit and let it reach up to a power-gobbling 350 Watts at stock loads. The higher power results in higher performance but at the cost of the aforementioned power budget and thermals.

This “Extreme Performance” mode will be amongst the several overclocking and tuning options coming to the Raptor Lake “K-series” CPU lineup. An interesting thing that the site states is that high-end Z790 motherboards will be required and only a certain will be qualified to support the feature. It is evident that a 350W power design will require a lot of cooling, not just for the CPU but also for the motherboard VRMs. Also, whether this feature remains exclusive to Z790 boards or also comes to Z690 is something only time will tell. The high-end Z690 boards are capable enough so some vendors may release the BIOS with “Extreme Performance” mode for current-gen boards too.

We have already seen overclocks of over 6 GHz pushing the power consumption to 350W and this profile is going to do the same thing. Overclockers will definitely be setting their boards to run at the “Extreme Performance” mode for best overclocking results while users can stick with the standard power profile and still get decent performance out of the chip. It is mostly a matter of preference here since a 350W power draws on the CPU alone isn’t sustainable for the gamer’s room considering the heat that this beast would output. Even using a high-end cooling solution, one shouldn’t expect temps lower than 70-80C while running at full load.

The “K” series are the flagship series that are unlocked and can be overclocked and it comes with integrated graphics. It makes sense it would appear on this series first.

The problem that I have with this mode is that it literally screams of Intel just wanting to claim “First”. As if this were Slashdot circa 1997. But really this just reeks of insecurity. What does Intel know about the very soon to be launched Zen 4 and new Ryzen series chips that has them so worried that they need to resort to this? Because this really is just another checkbox on a feature list. This “feature” is pure marketing and isn’t really going to be used by many people. I certainly can’t see this factoring heavily into anyone’s buying decision. I just can’t see anyone saying “You know what? I’m going to get that new Intel chip and run it at 6 Ghz. Who cares if I burn my house down.”

I haven’t seen anything in the rumor mill that suggests that this wouldn’t be a close competition between Intel and AMD. Is it because at some point AMD is going to release a second round of Zen 4 series chips with v-cache and it will eat Raptor Lake’s lunch? Or perhaps even launch Zen 4 with v-cache? If these are new chips they should be fairly equally matched right? This shouldn’t be like the 11th gen Intel Core series chips all over again right? And V-cache did make AMD scale back some of their core clock speeds even if games got better performance. That pull back on pure clock cost them in other areas though so, at least for Zen 3, it was s compromise. It wasn’t a pure upgrade. But Zen 3 is now trading blows with Alder Lake.

Something doesn’t seem right here and it looks like Intel saw something that freaked it out. This doesn’t pass the smell test. I’m wondering if Raptor Lake isn’t going to match up well and Intel knows it.

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> Facebook Meta Announces Horizon Worlds And Somehow Manages To Make Xbox Avatars Look Good

Mitchell Clark at The Verge:

Earlier this week, Mark Zuckerberg posted a screenshot of his digital avatar standing in front of the Eiffel Tower and what I think is supposed to be la Sagrada Família as a way of announcing that Horizon Worlds was launching in France and Spain. Unfortunately for him, the internet more or less immediately started dragging and meme-ifying the screenshot of the virtual reality platform — likely because the graphics were, as one Twitter user described it, about on par with the Teletubbies game for the PlayStation One.

I’ve always said that if any of these headsets would be successful it would be Facebook’s Meta’s. They were smart to hire John Carmack in 2013 because if anyone knows how to optimize a system for performance its him. The optimizations and things that he and his team at id Software did to get Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake to do what those games did on the limited hardware of the time was nothing short of genius. Buying a Quest, at least in terms of the system itself, means that you’re getting a solid hardware platform. Carmack simply understands hardware and how to use it, or trick it, to get the software to do what he wants. It’s a shame to see all that work put in to make something great only for it to essentially end up with the graphics of a Nintendo Wii. But this seems like typical Facebook Meta these days. Lots of things and no idea what to do with them.

Ultimately, though, graphics are secondary to what you do with them. Even if Meta’s new update to Horizon upgrades the visuals to the level of, say, Fortnite, that won’t matter unless there’s something interesting to see in its virtual worlds. That point is perfectly illustrated by this tweet dunking on Zuckerberg’s original post

Problem is it’s up to developers to make interesting things with it or good games that will get consumers to buy into it. That doesn’t seem to be happening. Carmack’s game dev days are over. There is no “Doom” coming to save this ship. Besides, they already tried that. While the second screenshot looks much better it does nothing to pique my interest. On the upside they finally got Zuck to look like an actual human. Unfortunately good graphics only go so far. Hell I’d even bet that if you had a really good game with mediocre graphics you could still sell some headsets. But don’t try and tell me this is the future when it looks like something my Nvidia Riva 128 from 1997 could run.

The thing about this whole Metaverse nonsense is that it’s being pitched as some Next Big Thing. But for who? When Facebook Meta announced the shift to Meta and all that entails last year it was met with a heavy dose of skepticism and rightfully so. While VR always leaned into gaming it’s a very niche gaming platform. Facbook Meta pitched it as a sort of office replacement. Problem there is it isn’t an apt replacement for an in person encounter. Sure there’s lots of uses for VR and I’m big on allowing a surgeon to practice a surgery before doing it for the first time or whisking a student away to fantastical version of ancient Rome. But again, these are niche uses and VR is great for that.

Maybe that’s the trick. Maybe it’s time to recognize VR for the niche product it’s always been and will most likely always will be.

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> Stray Cat Strut

Sometimes the best stories are told without saying a word. When the story unfolds around you, it opens up a sense of wonder and draws you in and does it in such a way that were the story told to you it simply wouldn’t have the same effect. It makes BlueTwelve’s story of a simple stray cat that much more interesting. Our main character never says a word and yet the story is told through the world around us. Honestly if the story were told through a fantastical talking cat I don’t think this game would have had the same appeal. What makes the game so interesting is its simplicity. Simplicity in both its story telling and its gameplay.

While the story is a wonderfully simple one, let’s talk about the actual gameplay first. Stray’s interface is incredibly clean and and easy to use. A simple prompt for what you can do and when you can do it guides you through most of the world. There is no map, mini or otherwise. But that’s ok. The early game is there to guide you through getting used to the controls. What to do, when to do it, and how to go about doing it. This allowed me to simply focus on the game itself instead of worrying about a complex set of controls. These simple controls let you explore as a cat should. A tutorial in such a simple game in 2022 is a waste of everyone’s time and not having one allows you to be curious 1 as a cat tends to be. And while Stray is short, there is plenty to be curious about. We’ll get back to this in a minute.

The way that BlueTwelve handled the jumping from platform to platform should be stolen by every studio making a platformer type of game 2 . It was nice to not have think about certain things when jumping from one place to another. It seemed like the game just had it’s path programmed and as long as you timed things correctly it generally led you to the appropriate place. There was no second guessing. Maybe it’s a little hand holdy but that’s ok. I’d rather focus on the game itself than being frustrated because I can’t figure out what angle I’m supposed to make this jump at. Sometimes simple really is better.

I played on PC and while my system isn’t exactly top of the line these days it still holds it’s own. Generally we’re talking about an i7700k with 32GB of ram and a 2070 Super. Good. Maybe really good. Not top of the line. I played with a spare PS4 controller I had handy and my experience was really good. Yes, I did experience some of the stuttering talked about in reviews but the shader issue is a distinct PC Problem related to the Unreal Engine. Maybe it’ll get fixed, maybe it won’t. It didn’t disturb my experience at all. Your mileage may vary. That said Stray looked as good as it played. The animation on our cat was as natural looking as one can probably get.

The world was well lit and full of character. The art in the game was beautiful and full of style. The colors of the neon signs that light the early cities are perfect and convey a sense that this was once a city bustling with life. Noodle shops, laundromats, bars. All these things tell us that life once existed here. There are even buildings left half built. To some extent life still exists it’s just not the same kind of life that exists there now. The piles of trash remind you that humans once lived here but not anymore. The fact that the current inhabitants feel the need to do nothing about it reminds us that while the city’s new robot in habitants try their best to mimic and emulate human culture, they sort of have a new culture of their own. The robot inhabitants of the game can be interesting to interact with. Even with their own versions of “dialogue” they all convey distinct personalities. Both in the way they act and even in the way dress. They are very much individuals even if they all generally look the same. Perhaps that’s a philosophical statement waiting for an analysis.

Our story begins with a day in the life of a cat wandering with his 3 friends. As you start to explore you’re introduced to the control scheme which is incredibly simple and straight forward. It also reinforces the idea that you are a cat and you are expected to do cat things such as drink, play, and scratch things. Sudden tragedy hits and you’re separated from them. As you start to explore your new surroundings it seems you’re in an abandoned city. Id say the story itself has no dialogue but the robots in the city do speak in their own way. I loved that this was how the story was told and that the developers didn’t, uh, stray, from that. Again the story was pretty, again, simple and uncomplicated. Though the idea that you keep unraveling the mystery little by little through interactions and collectables called ‘memories” makes the game feel like a giant puzzle in and of itself. That’s not a bad thing and it allows BlueTwelve the creative freedom to tell a story their way. I missed one memory and a few other things and the game is interesting enough that I wouldn’t mind playing through again to find them, just see that part of the story I missed.

I really do wish there was more to say but Stray is so beautifully simple and straightforward. In this case you really do get what you pay for. I was going to say “Nothing more, nothing less” but I think you get a lot more than you pay for. Especially since it’s only $30 instead of the normal $60. $70 if you’re playing on PS5 and paying the Sony Tax.

As reviews generally stated it is a short game if you don’t go collectable hunting but that’s ok. Sometimes less is more and keeping things short and focused is better than stretching things out and unnecessarily complicating things. I’ve seen it happen too many times. Something, be it a book, TV show, whatever, starts out with a really good and novel idea that seemingly has a plan to it. In the need to keep the story going for whatever reason the writers invent things along the way and then get stuck in the precarious situation of having to make it all fit into an ending that wasn’t planned for. It rarely works out. Stray doesn’t suffer from that. It’s short but it tells its story. Period. A story of kindness, forgiveness, friendship, among other things. But it also tells a story about bravery. Not just in the game itself but in the fact that it even exists. Making Stray was a brave decision for BlueTwelve. It’s different and it makes no qualms about that. BlueTwelve took chances and tried something new. That’s a good thing. In an industry that constantly feels the need to produce the next Halo or Call of Duty, or whatever top tier franchise comes to mind for you, Stray is not those things. Or at least it doesn’t intend to be. True to its name, Stray takes its own path and its own direction.

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  1. There’s even an achievement / trophy for it: Curiosity Killed the Cat ↩
  2. Respawn I’m looking at you. The platform mechanics in Jedi Fallen order, especially on Kashyyk, were awful. ↩
  3. Or her. We don’t really know as we’re never told and it doesn’t matter at all. It’s completely irrelevant to the story. But since I had boys I’m going with the masculine. ↩

> Warzone 2 Looks Like It’s Slowly Turning Into Blackout 2

Luca Di Marzo writing for Charlie Intel:

Industry insider Tom Henderson claims that Warzone 2 could introduce players to a bag system for looting purposes much like Escape from Tarkov. The same report also suggests that the sequel will come with a new way to store armor. On May 20, Tom Henderson published a Warzone 2 report which revealed various details that could be coming to the battle royale. While players are already excited by leaks of classic MW2 maps being involved in Warzone 2, they also got word of the potential inclusion of Pro Perks. Henderson’s report highlighted several exciting new features that are rumored to make their way to Warzone 2. Among these new features is a bag system for looting as well as armor vests that are similar to what players had in Black Ops 4’s Blackout. It seems the devs have decided to combine the current armor system in Warzone with the previous armor system in Blackout. In Blackout, players were tasked with searching for one of three levels of body armor that would increase their overall health.

According to Henderson, “players will need to find a tiered armor vest in order to equip armor plates,” in Warzone 2. If leaks are true, players can expect both armor plates and a version of body armor, aka armor vests, in Warzone 2. The report claims that there will be three tiers of armor vests, and each tier will hold one more armor plate than the previous tier. Furthermore, “your armor vest does not break, but your armor plates do.” These claims suggest that plating in Warzone 2 will abide by a similar structure to the familiar Warzone system.

I don’t know how I feel about this. As someone who doesn’t play alot of Warzone I feel like this adds complexity to something that was already working and working well. The armor system in Warzone is simple and a level playing field. Part of the reason I hated Blackout was it was too complicated and thus I couldn’t get into it. While I certianly wouldn’t say that Warzone would be as big as it is without the Call of Duty branding, part of what I think has made it such a huge success is its simplicity. I feel like there’s a bit of nostalgia for Blackout here, possibly because it was the first and Treyarch has it’s own fanbase, but first doesn’t always mean best. As I said, Blackout was complicated. Warzone is not. I know whenever I come up on an opponent in Warzone that there is a certain expectation depending on the weapon I’m using. Complicating the armor system complicates that and takes away from how good the gunfights feel. It will make them feel less solid and predictable and more random which will just frustrate players.

I know this type of system exists in other Battle Royals but there is a reason Warzone is consistently at the top of the heap even with all its issues.

A lot of people also like to think that the reason Blackout failed was because it was behind the paywall of Black Ops 4 but I’d argue that if Blackout was as good as people want to believe it would’ve helped sell more copies of BO4 and thus Activision would’ve found a way to keep it around.

Another interesting aspect of the report was the suggestion that Warzone 2 could adopt a bag system, with similar functionality to that of Escape from Tarkov’s. Henderson stresses that the bag system is in early development and far from finished as a new feature.

RIP Console players. There’s no way they’re going to be able to manage this efficiently if this is true. There just aren’t enough buttons.

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> Apple Discontinues The iPod Touch Officially Ending The iPod

“Music has always been part of our core at Apple, and bringing it to hundreds of millions of users in the way iPod did impacted more than just the music industry — it also redefined how music is discovered, listened to, and shared,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Today, the spirit of iPod lives on. We’ve integrated an incredible music experience across all of our products, from the iPhone to the Apple Watch to HomePod mini, and across Mac, iPad, and Apple TV. And Apple Music delivers industry-leading sound quality with support for spatial audio — there’s no better way to enjoy, discover, and experience music.”

Apple ending the iPod Touch is truly the end of an era. They may have ended the iPod Classic and all of the other iPods ages ago but this was the last survivor. It was always looked at as the iPhone without the phone but it was also a glimpse into what Apple could and would do in the long run.

The king is dead. Long live the king.

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> Modern Warfare II Logo Reveal

While I’m catching up on things, this dropped about two weeks ago. I like it. Using the new Modern Warfare 2019 font with the old Modern Warfare 3 colors is a nice blending of old and new.

I guess the marketing has officially begun.

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> Vanguard, And By Extension Skill Based Matchmaking, Ain’t Doing So Hot

From the Activision Blizzard Q1 Earnings report:

  • Call of Duty® net bookings on console and PC declined year-over-year in the first quarter, reflecting lower premium sales for Call of Duty: Vanguard versus the year ago title and lower engagement in Call of Duty: Warzone™. Call of Duty Mobile net bookings were little changed year-over-year.

  • The Call of Duty teams delivered substantial gameplay improvements for Vanguard and Warzone in the first quarter. Development on this year’s premium and Warzone experiences, led by Infinity Ward, is proceeding very well. This year’s Call of Duty is a sequel to 2019’s Modern Warfare®, the most successful Call of Duty title to date, and will be the most advanced experience in franchise history. The new free-to-play Warzone experience, which is built from the ground-up alongside the premium game, features groundbreaking innovations to be revealed later this year.

  • Activision continued to rapidly expand its Call of Duty development resources in the first quarter. Its growing teams are focused on delivering even more compelling content to the community on PC and console, as well as expanding Warzone to the mobile platform.

No surprise that sales are down regarding Vanguard. While it’s not a bad game in and of itself it’s sort of the game nobody wanted. Nobody wanted a World War 2 game at this point though I do get where the creatives are trying to go in terms of world building. It makes sense in that regard. Part of the problem with sales, in my opinion, is that this “shadow” skill based matchmaking that-we-all-know-exists-but-the-developers-can’t-even-acknowledge is creating a poor experience for players. Perhaps the WW2 thing would have been better received if matchmaking was normal and made things fun instead of needlessly competitive. I shouldn’t be punished for playing the game well. I think the other thing to blame here is that Cold War’s matchmaking was even more strict than I remember Modern Warfare’s to be. I know for a fact that sent most of my group back to Halo. It also doesn’t help that the general multiplayer experience is just meh. We’ll talk more about that later but it just feels like Sledgehammer just couldn’t make design decisions and dumped them on the player in the name of “customization”. We also won’t discuss the incredible amount of bugs this game shipped with. Games ship with bugs but I feel like both Cold War and Modern Warfare were in much better places by this time in their cycles.I won’t call bullshit on those substantial improvements for Vanguard1 but they aren’t even close to fixing a lot of the issues with this game. Let’s not talk about map rotation and how people are playing the same maps over and over again. I havent seen Berlin, Gavutu, or most of the launch maps since…. well, launch actually. Still haven’t played Gondola. At this point Vanguard just feels abandoned with the seasons filling the void for when Modern Warfare II launches in October. And then there’s the cheating problem. No wonder Monthly Active Users were down 7 million for the quarter and 50 million year over year. > ▋

> The Book of Boba Fett: A Metaphor.

When it was announced that we would get a show directly centered around Boba Fett most of Star Wars fandom, especially the boomer crowd, was excited. Finally we could find out what was behind that warning from Vader about disintegrations or maybe just get some history that would finally be canon on a major player that we still know little to nothing about. Finally we would get to see Boba Fett do what Boba Fett does best and lots of it. One of the things that was expected was that the show would fill in the gap between where we left him in Return of the Jedi and where we found him in season 2 of the Mandalorian. While that was how it started that is not necessarily where we ended up.

What better character than to use for a crime drama-rise to power in the criminal-underworld type of story. There might be lots of bounty hunters in the galaxy, but there really is only one we all want to know about. While we did get some of the criminal underworld stuff, most of it, confusingly, was pushed to the periphery. Mostly it just moved the story along and didn’t really serve any real purpose. That said, mafia crime gangs often use the term family because it symbolizes the closeness of its members. Much like the term “family” is a metaphor for Italian crime gangs, it’s here that we find the metaphor for The Book of Boba Fett. Much like Boba Fett was able to create his crime “family” to run and begin to clean up Tatooine, Tatooine’s story is one of digging itself out from the pits of hell. Like Boba and the Sarlacc, if we take things from a certain point of view. It’s the only way this show makes sense.

After we see Boba’s escape from the Sarlacc we get our first take into how the stories start to fit together. Both had been through a sort of hell and stuck in a place of despair. Pain and suffering are what happens to those in Pit of Carkoon and for generations under Jabba that was what the residents of Tatooine have gone through as well. So when we see Boba claw his way out and then collapse from exhaustion and malnutrition, it’s almost as if the same thing were happening across Tatooine. Free from the Hutts and the Empire at last. It’s fitting that along come the Jawas to strip him of his armor. It’s the thing that gives him an edge on everyone else making him, well, normal. Between losing his toys and his weariness, he is at the bottom and starting over. As we came to learn throughout the course of this series, Tatooine used to be a place full of life but is now the barren and harsh desert that it is with little to offer. Much like Boba without his armor.

Whatever it is that caused Tatooine to become the barren wasteland that it is we may never know. But Tatooine now, post Hutt and Empire, is in a new place. A place where it can be whatever it wants and that is where Boba is now. After being rescued by The Sand People he is essentially offered a fresh start, which much like Tatooine is a little chaotic at first. Both resist in their own way. Tatooine by forming gangs and suffering through lawlessness while Fett resists his Tuskan captives. But the Tuskans and Boba are both harsh and tough. They’re the type where respect is earned, not given. Boba earns the respect of his captors by saving one of their younglings while forcefully out digging for black melons and eventually becomes one of their tribe. He in return has learned to respect the harsh desert. As our story progresses we see the changes occurring in each. As Boba becomes part of his tribe and the people of Tatooine begin to come together in their communities. We see a glimpse of this in The Mandalorian where Mos Pelgo fights for its freedom against the Mining Collective. When we catch back up to them here they’ve chosen a new name: Freetown.

Its in these next few episodes that we begin to see the real theme emerge: finding your tribe. Suddenly we’re cut away to Din Djarin and it’s jarring. So jarring that I had to make sure I was watching the right show but if we stick with it though it begins to make sense. During the fight with Paz Vizsla it becomes clear that Din has removed his helmet, breaking Mandalorian code. Din Djarin is now excommunicated from his faith and the things that bind him. We see him travel back to Tatooine and to meet up with Peli Motto. We then catch up with Luke and Grogu. And it’s a similar story: all this time we assumed Grogu was meant to be a Jedi. What if he isn’t? Like Mando he thinks he belongs to a tribe because that’s what he’s been told. Given the opportunity to choose his own path he chooses Mando.

This theme of tribes has been slowly collecting throughout the series. When it was clear the Boba would be rejected as Daimyo by not just the crime lords but by some of the people as well. The Gamorreans who were loyal to Jabba and Bib Fortuna are now alone and would probably have been killed under normal circumstances simply to send a message. The Mod gang is given reprieve even though they stole and the merchant is told to lower his prices to a fair price. Krrsantan is initially sent to kill Boba by the Hutt twins but after his failed attempt and the rejection of returning him to his employer Fett eventually offers him a job. Fennec recruits Din Djarin. Boba not only found his tribe but these characters found their’s as well. Even Fennec when she agrees to stay with Boba after repaying the debit she owes him for saving her life.

The metaphor of Boba Fett and Tatooine falls into place as we continue through the final episode and see it all come together. Everyone eventually meets up at the bombed out club. Mando stands with Boba. The Freetowners arrive. Boba’s group returns even after all looks lost for them. Even Grogu and Peli show up and Grogu adds a small but effective effort at the end. As Boba and his tribe not only fight off the local crime lords, they fight off the Pyke Syndicate as well. This is the fight that Tatooine, as a planet, is engaged in as well. The people of Tatooine are fighting for their freedom just as Boba has been fighting for his through Mos Espa. The statement before the battle breaks out sets this up:

You will leave this planet and your spice trade. If you refuse these terms the arid sands of Tatooine will once again flourish with flowered fields fertilized with the bodies of your dead.

This is a statement from both Boba and the people of Tatooine. We will fight for our world.

What’s upsetting is that as the series went on it never really settled into the crime drama it wanted itself to be. We see Boba begin to cut deals with the local cartels. There are hints of drug running. We see what it wants to be but we never get there. The only time we come close is in the final episode at the Pyke office in Mos Eisly where the whole betrayal is revealed. The setup was there the entire time and yet it’s never used. We flirted with it. We played coy with it. We took it to dinner. And then we dumped it. And that’s probably the most disappointing thing about the whole affair. We never really get to see Boba Fett actually be Boba Fett with the exception of about five minutes during the final battle before he takes off to get get King Kong the rancor. We get nothing more than some taunting from Cad Bane who clearly has a relationship with Boba. Why did we not explore this relationship further? Or for that matter with Krrsantan? They clearly know each other and have some kind of past. We even could have explored the Hutt’s relationship to Tatooine.

This show should have been dark, gritty, for adults, and we all would have loved it. Even if Disney didn’t want to go whole hog into crime rings and drug smuggling they still could have done it in such a way that it at least would have been family friendly and still made sense while expanding on a much beloved character. Instead they took the safe route. The quote above is a beautiful bit of prose but is so out of place since the show itself is so soft. I just kept waiting for it to get to the point and it never really seemed to. It wasn’t until my second watch through because I was so utterly confused that I was able to pull these themes out and find enjoyment in this series. Which is a shame because I really did enjoy the production. The acting, I thought, was great.

If we remember way back to shortly after Disney bought the Star Wars franchise we were going to get a Boba Fett movie. My gut says they couldn’t make it work so they went and did this instead. It just feels like Disney trying to repeat the formula they used for Marvel on Star Wars. Except that’s not how this works. That’s now how any of this works.

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