As far as months go March has been by far the busiest one for me. There have been lots of personal stuff I needed to take care of, most of it good, and a bit of getting outside of my apartment more to see friends and family as the weather begins warming up. Because of all that there hasn’t been as much time dedicated to doing most of my at home leisure hobbies, except maybe reading and writing, as I would have liked. But I find small pockets of time where I can, and if things go well with the bigger personal life stuff I’m in the process of waiting on, I suspect more of my time will be taken up by that for the next few months.
In the meantime, here’s a quick roundup of what I have been up to in games, books, and TV.
Video Game
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy
If you have been following my blog lately you’ll know the only game I’ve really been playing has been Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy developed by Eidos-Montréal and published by Square Enix. Released last year, this surprise hit about a group of misfit heroes who band together to save the galaxy from each new threat that emerges has been extremely fun to play. The strength of the voice acting and story really makes the entire game worth checking out, especially for the skeptics like me who wasn’t particularly looking to play this game initially.
While not a super long game to play, 16 chapters in total, it has been a bit slower for me to finish between everything else I’ve got going on. I appreciate the episodic setup the game has, making it easy to play one chapter of the game each weekend for about an hour, if that’s all the availability I have. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how this adventure ends real soon.
Books
Grishaverse Trilogy
The Grishaverse Trilogy, also dubbed the Shadow and Bone series, by Leigh Bardugo is a YA fantasy series I decided to read after falling in love with the Netflix adaptation last year. It’s about a girl named Alina Starkov who discovers she’s the long fabled Sun Summoner after her latent Grisha powers are awakened during a crossing through the Shadow Fold that’s filled with dangerous and terrifying creatures known as the Volcra. While many believe Alina is the key to destroying the Shadow Fold dividing Ravka, she’ll have to face off against the Darkling who wants to use her power for his own dark purposes.
Because I’ve been working on my own original YA fantasy novel I figured it would be a good idea to spend an entire year reading from published authors who have succeeded in building out their world with complex characters who aren’t always necessarily good or bad. Bardugo does have a way of creating such a rich world full of history and messy politics while making her characters more grounded and not so cut and dry.
I’m currently on the third book of Bardugo’s series and it has not only been entertaining to go through the Grishaverse Trilogy, but it has also served as a masterclass on how to approach fantasy writing in general.
Television
The Book of Boba Fett
I haven’t been watching as much TV as I would like but the most recent series I managed to finish was Disney+’s The Book of Boba Fett. The series features the former bounty hunter Boba Fett, who was last seen on The Mandalorian, to give what should have been insight on who the character was in the past and who he hopes to become now as he attempts to be a good and fair leader for Tatooine.
The Book of Boba Fett had some good moments but I do feel like this series is the weakest of Disney+’s shows that seek to expand on the Star Wars universe. The show felt uneven and directionless a lot of the times with some episodes weirdly taking focus away from its main star to focus on other characters and plot points that probably should have happened on a different show like…ahem…The Mandalorian. A shame really because I do like Temeura Morrison’s Boba Fett and Ming-Na Wen’s assassin Fennec Shand. Both actors were underutilized and their talents wasted on a poorly written show.
This concludes my wrap up for the month! What have you been playing, reading, or watching?
simpleek 
Great post! I couldn’t agree more regarding Boba Fett. I had no interest in watching it until Mando showed up. While those episodes are excellent, I couldn’t help but think, WHY isn’t this just in Mandalorian Season 3? If Mandalorian did the reverse – have Boba Fett “steal” 3 episodes – I wouldn’t have been a fan at all. Their decision to cross pollinate the shows like they did was…strange. You literally can’t watch Mandalorian without at least being aeare of the Boba Fett show, which I’m not really fons of.
I have more opinions on the Mando and Grogu sideplot (like how S2’s emotional ending is effectively negated by BoBF), but I’ll leave it that. I thought Boba Fett was pretty dull as a show. The writing and story wasn’t very engaging (any time they talked about the spice trade, I’m pretty sure I lost 5 years of my life from boredom), and also, WHY IN THE HELL are we spending so much time on Tatooine?! Are there no other planets in this blasted universe to explore?! Boba and Fennec Shand were good inclusions in Mando, but it’s safe to say the characters couldn’t hold their own on the Boba Fett show. Such a shame because the actors are very talented, and deserved better.
Thanks! Yeah, I think that’s what baffled me the most. Why were the key plot stuff between Mando and Grogu on Boba Fett and not on The Mandalorian show? I almost forgot which show I was watching when it suddenly shifted to them. Once Boba Fett’s story didn’t show any signs of improvement, I was more eager to get to the parts with Mando and Grogu that I heard about.
You’re right about it being impossible to jump straight into the next season of The Mandalorian without watching Boba Fett. Without it you would miss out on the reunion between Mando and Grogu, and all these other developments with Mando. I guess if people weren’t really interested in watching the whole show, you could easily skip to the Mando and Grogu episodes without missing much.
It was really poor writing and probably not worth an entire show if Boba Fett wasn’t even a strong character to stand on his own. He was better served as popping up on The Mandalorian here and there along with Fennec Shand.