Minor spoilers to follow from The Book of Boba Fett.
Boba Fett and Fennec Shand, seen here accompanied by “The Mods”
Much like many other fantasy or sci-fi shows, world-building is an important tool to make a film of television series immerse its audiences in its said world. This includes the addition of various unique locales and the many colorful characters that inhabit such places that are often seen through the protagonist’s eyes.
In the case of The Book of Boba Fett, however, there exists one particular addition to the world-building that sticks out like a sore thumb, much to the detriment of the show itself: the biker group known as “The Mods”.
Now, do not get us wrong, the premise for The Mods is pretty intriguing on paper: a group of rogue bikers that have purposefully integrated droid parts into their body to make them stronger and tougher beings, a perk that would be much needed on a socially and politically unstable planet such as Tatooine. But where the introduction of these new characters goes wrong is in the execution and overall aesthetic of the said characters.
Firstly, the so-called “bikes” that these characters ride around in are laughable, to say the least, akin to bright, candy-colored scooters that elicit more groans than cheers the more they appear on screen. In all honesty, this flawed design makes the group feel anachronistic to the entire dust-covered aesthetic that we have come to know about the planet Tatooine, making it a folly on the part of the design team that thought up the idea of these silly bikes. Furthermore, as to why The Mods choose to ride around in these ridiculously vibrant scooters on a desert planet is never even addressed throughout the show, leading one to believe that they were merely placed to sell toys to children and not to be taken seriously.
Aside from that, the characters themselves are neither interesting nor compelling, coming across as more irritating with each appearance. Their dialogue is poor, they serve no particularly unique function to their inclusion, and their dress code seems more along the lines of cheap real-world cosplay rather than actual inhabitants of the planet themselves. This only adds to the overall clunkiness of the show, as it is very obvious that the writers are bending over backwards in their attempts to make these characters recurring ones in a show that could have easily done without them.
Had the show chosen to forego these characters altogether, we believe that The Book of Boba Fett would have certainly been a more palatable experience overall. But alas, much like the infamous Jar Jar Binks of the prequel trilogy, it pains us to say that The Mods are now a part of Star Wars canon that we, the audience, are forced to live with.
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