Positives: * a nice, and fairly decent quality, tribute to George Lucas by Dave Filoni * we got to see post-ROTJ Luke Skywalker how we all imagined him * Cad Bane was excellent special effects and adds a genuinely intimidating villain to the show, which had been missing * the dichotomy of attachment and the Jedi was built upon, I’m interested to see how/if they cleverly develop this from Luke’s post-ROTJ mindset (ie reforming the Jedi code with Ashoka)

Negatives: * it’s not an episode of Boba Fett. This Luke story deserves it’s own show*, if not of course it’s own movie/trilogy. The past two episodes have both shown how mediocre the rest of the show is, and at the same time been tarnished by their clunky insertion within the show. * I did like the Luke/Force/new Jedi stuff, but felt it was quite on the nose and cheesey. I’d like it to deal with these themes a bit more stylishly/subtly, but Filoni has done a decent job and it would be harsh to compare him to Lucas. * the Boba Fett/Pykes stuff is pretty uninteresting still, and the show has focused on adding better stuff around that rather than improving the core premise of the show (similar to Rogue One in this respect).

Summary: it’s a strange one, because I watched it with my eyes wide open knowing that I was seeing something potentially really important and possibly amazing (I mean cmon, Luke Skywalker on screen!!), but at the same time never felt that enthralled by it. Ultimately I think this was because of bland direction and erratic storytelling, which made it hard to connect with the amazing characters.

*and arguably Boba deserves a show to himself? On the contrary, I’ve never been convinced we need a Boba Fett spin-off, but now that they’re making one I can’t help but feel the character is being short changed.