The problem with Boba Fett
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Like many kids my age, I was introduced to the cooler-than-carbonite Boba Fett in my favorite Star Wars film, The Empire Strikes Back*. There was smething so fascinating about the enigmatic character. He bested our favorite heroes while hardly saying a word throughout the film. And when he did say something – just four whole lines in the entire film – his voice had a certain mystery to it.
This was a bad dude. He even had to be reminded that disintegrating his target was a no-no. I mean, what kind of guy has to have Darth Vader remind him to keep his cool?
Just who was that man under the battered helmet?
We just had to know. And some of us couldn’t wait. So we got our Boba Fett action figures (without the much-rumored rocket launching backpack). And some of us (read: not me) were lucky enough to get our hands on the toy version of his Firespray attack ship, Slave I. We made up our own backstories about this mysterious man and sent him on our own special missions to capture the dregs of the galaxy.
Then Boba Fett got even cooler
In Return of the Jedi, my favorite movie, the helmeted man of mystery was back and even cooler than before. He didn’t say a word, but you knew he was one nasty dude. Now he hung out with gangsters. And flew with a rocket backpack. He could shoot a cord-like, rope-like, whip thing from his right wrist and a blaster attached to the armor on his left wrist. The coolest, most mysterious man in the galaxy became even more mysterious, thanks to his cool toys.
Then he fell into the sarlacc where he would be slowly digested for over a thousand years inside the Great Pit of Carkoon.
And the sarlacc burped.
That was the end of Boba Fett. Or it probably should have been. Because things got weird after this.
Rumors of Boba Fett’s demise were greatly exaggerated
Things changed after the Original Trilogy. People wanted more. I thought I did, too. I wanted to peel back that visor and find out what made that character tick. But then I started hearing rumors. And I didn’t like them.
I never got into the Star Wars comics growing up. There was a short time in college when I really got into the Tales of the Jedi, series but that’s a much different post. I’m not even sure if I knew there were Star Wars comics while I was growing up. That’s probably a good thing, though. Because I’m sure I would’ve wanted to buy them. All of them.
It wasn’t until I was in high school when I heard rumors of Boba Fett’s survival.
In Marvel Comics Star Wars #81, released on March 1 (hey, that’s a good date!), 1984, Boba Fett crawled out of the mighty sarlacc and eventually found his way onto a Jawa sandcrawler. That sandcrawler wound up falling back into the Great Pit of Carkoon.
I also heard rumors that he used a thermal detonator to blast his way out.
However he escaped, it seems that Lucasfilm couldn’t keep a good bounty hunter down. But this really shouldn’t be much of a surprise – right? I mean, you’re only *mostly* dead in the Star Wars universe.
Darth Maul. Palpatine. Bib Fortuna. Even Mace Windu, allegedly. After all, no one is ever really gone in the Star Wars saga, after all.
Unless your name is Padme.
Even though I was only in high school when I heard such rumors about the return of Boba Fett, I had a bad feeling about this idea.
Boba Fett lost his cool factor
In 1997, I got a chance to watch my favorite movie – A New Hope – on the big screen for the first time, thanks to the arrival of the Special Edition. It was glorious. True, there were some miscues in the digital updates, but it was a great experience and a solid film.
Except that much-maligned Jabba the Hutt and Han Solo scene in Docking Bay 94. It was a bad use of digital technology. I know, I know. George Lucas shot this scene to be used in the original film. I know, I know. They didn’t have the time or money to overlay Jabba the way they wanted, so they cut the scene. But not only is the digital Jabba awful in this scene^, but the insertion – that small piece of fan service that they thought would be fun – really takes away from the lonesome and mysterious vibe that Boba Fett had oozed for nearly 20 years.
This scene just tells us that Boba Fett was really not much more than one of Jabba’s cronies. Yeah, we had been told that he was one of the most-feared bounty hunters in the galaxy. And that might have been true. But he was also just one of the vile gangster’s toadies.
Boba Fett wishes they’d stopped there
Of course, they didn’t stop there. They removed absolutely every ounce of mystery about the coolest bounty hunter in the galaxy when they made him the “son” of Jango Fett – making all of the clone troopers his “brothers.”
And what happens when you remove the mystery from a famously mysterious character?
He loses his cool factor. And Boba Fett has definitely lost his cool factor. He’s literally just like every other trooper in the Clone Wars. He is now a copy of the prototype, just like every other clone. I’m sorry, but that’s pretty lame.
While Boba Fett was already on the decline, I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that Attack of the Clones ruined Boba Fett.
The Book of Boba Fett hasn’t helped
As of this writing, we’re still in the midst of the first season The Book of Boba Fett on Disney+. After everything I’ve said on here, you can probably imagine that I’m not overly-impressed with the show. The classic Western-meets-The Godfather-meets-American Graffiti genre really doesn’t seem to work for this Star Wars rendition. The pacing is sloppy. The characters are not very compelling. The unique “lived-in look” of the Original Trilogy is gone. It all feels to sanitized – even in the middle of a sea of sand.
And let’s be real for a moment. If this series was anything other than a Star Wars story, y’all would have stopped watching in the middle of the first episode. I know I would have. And yet, we keep watching while holding our breath and hoping for something amazing.
We might be waiting a while.
When will the madness end?
Endnotes
*I know. He was officially introduced in the Star Wars Holiday Special I never saw it as a kid. In fact, I still haven’t watched it, honestly. I’ve tried once or twice. But I always have a bad feeling about this.
^Speaking of the Hutts…
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