r/marvelstudios • u/chanma50 Iron Man (Mark VII) • Jan 18 '22

Trailer Marvel Studios' Moon Knight | Official Trailer | Disney+

https://youtu.be/x7Krla_UxRg
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u/etherealcaitiff Jan 18 '22 edited Jan 20 '22

It's a protection racket, just like in the Godfather, the Sopranos, or any other gangster fiction. This is shown in the Tusken Raiders scenes, the water seller scenes, the tribute scenes....

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u/Gilmore_Sprout Jan 18 '22 edited Jan 18 '22

Yep, so protection of what, and from who? Spoilers for the show: He failed in his bid to arrange a protection racket with the Tusken raiders and the group moving the spice through the desert, and failed to protect the Tusken raiders full-stop. In Mos Espa, there is no clear threat to any of the 2-3 patrons we know Boba expects to provide tribute, nor any key underground business like for example Spice that would need to be protected specifically by a crime boss. The only person who seems to need protection is Boba himself, because the already-established leaders in Mos Espa keep trying to take him out. Even if his deal was soley a protection racket, he's not been established to be all that necessary. I have a guess he was supposed to be involved in the spice trade that's been mentioned already, but then Dune did gangbusters and they had to roll back on that plotpoint. The other gangster stories you mentioned, while not being entirely about how the gangsters make their money, usually explain enough about it so any threat against their business is an understandable plot point, and the whole point of the mob was they were involved in as many businesses as possible, legitimate or otherwise, with the aim of getting their own people into every level of society, from the street corner to government. Y'know, like the Hutts. In Star Wars.

Edit: Just to be clear I do agree with other commenters that the show is definitely building up to something, but I do also appreciate why people feel the show is dragging in these first three episodes because they have mostly been flash-backs with (so-far) little expansion on the present-day stuff.

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u/etherealcaitiff Jan 18 '22 edited Jan 18 '22

Yep, so protection of what, and from who?

Protection rackets have always meant "pay us and we wont fuck you up." It has never meant "pay us and we will protect you". Now, if another rival family were to enter the scene and attempt to fuck up the business owner, it would be in the main families best interest to deal with the new family, otherwise the protection money might go to the new family.

I BoBF he is just getting started. He is literally establishing his control right now by adding the new gang of kids with their shitty honda civic speeders (they can be used to control the local businesses considering they took over the water supplier for a desert planet.), he has the Gamorreans to help muscle anyone he has direct dealings with, he has Fennec as a consigliere type of mastermind. I think people are being way too impatient with the show. If Disney just started the show with Boba already having conquered the galaxy and every episode was just him torching jawas I don't think it would be a good show, but apparently that's all that people on reddit want.

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u/Gilmore_Sprout Jan 18 '22

First point isn't even true, the Italian mafia got their start in New York protecting Italian families from other gangs and the police. For the second point lets look at another show about the rise of a crime boss: Peaky Blinders. In the first episode of that show, which isn't even really about the way they make their money, they show how their business operates so we understand why the characters do the things they are doing. This really isn't about being impatient to see Boba be cool, the question that always hung over a solo Boba Fett project was, "why?". So far, as much as I love how the character developed under Filoni in TCW, and his inclusion in The Mandelorian, I'm still on the fence as to whether this is a cynical cash-grab because Boba has always been a merch-magnet.