Rockets shooting from where? Watching your dad's head get lopped off by a Jedi
is bound to mess you up, but how does the new ruler of Jabba's Palace define himself today?
Even by the standards of other bounty hunters in Mandalorian armor,
Boba Fett has a special relationship with deadly gadgets. Fett's jetpack comes complete with a
missile that can take down entire ships. His armor comes equipped with special knee
rockets he can fire while walking toward his targets. In several non-canonical stories,
it's established that Boba Fett's signature helmet, aside from looking cool,
also gives him 360-degree vision. While this didn't seem to help him avoid Han Solo's blind
attack in "Return of the Jedi," this feature may make a return in Fett's new canonical stories.
Considering how Boba Fett's armor makes him a one-man army, it's no wonder that Marshal
Cobb Vanth was reluctant to part with the armor in the season 2 "Mandalorian" episode
"The Marshal." Even among Mandalorians, Boba Fett's tools make him a force to be reckoned with.
The "Star Wars" universe is a rough place where you have to fight dirty,
but sometimes Boba Fett makes fighting dirty downright filthy. Initially, this was only
hinted at in "The Empire Strikes Back" when Darth Vader singles out Fett by telling him
that there will be "no disintegrations." In the canon comic book story "Star Wars:
Age of Republic —Jango Fett" #1, a 10-year-old Boba executes two experienced bounty hunters when
they try to take him hostage, proving he had the ability to be brutal even at a young age.
But it's in "The Mandalorian" season 2 episode "The Tragedy" that we learn just how merciless
Boba Fett is with his targets. Stripped of his armor, Boba uses a Tusken Raider gaderffii stick
against a squad of Stormtroopers who probably all wish he would just disintegrate them. Fett
caves in their skulls and brutally impales them with his melee weapon,
giving them some of the most painful-looking deaths in "Star Wars" history. Later,
he recovers his armor and takes out the remaining Stormtroopers with bombs, blaster shots,
knee rockets, and a very well-placed jetpack missile. By the end of this scene, everyone knows
that when Boba Fett has you in his sights, you can forget about running away. You're already dead.
"Star Wars" characters face adversity all the time, but few of them face it as much
as Boba Fett, whose entire life seems to be fighting with his back against the wall.
While Boba receives training and guidance from his father Jango for the first few years of his life,
he essentially needs to make it on his own from the age of 10 after he's orphaned in
the Battle of Geonosis. He chooses to make it in the cutthroat world of bounty hunting. Then,
at the height of his reputation, he falls into the Sarlacc pit in "Return of the Jedi"
and must keep himself from being slowly digested over the next thousand years.
Yet somehow Fett survives all of these impossible odds, adding to the aura of danger and mystique
around him. When we see him in the end credits scene of The Mandalorian episode "The Rescue,"
he's seemingly acquired a position of great power as the new crime boss of Tatooine,
but it's basically a given that this will require him to perform
even more impossible feats when "The Book of Boba Fett" debuts.
Boba Fett may have initially shown up in the service of the Empire,
but he quickly establishes that he's really just following the money, and in it for himself.
Shortly after tracking Han Solo to Bespin for Darth Vader in "The Empire Strikes Back,"
Fett collects the bounty on Captain Solo by turning in his carbonite-frozen form
to the Tatooine crime lord Jabba the Hutt in "Return of the Jedi." He remains in Jabba's
employ until he falls in the Sarlacc pit, and then roams the galaxy alone, eventually
forming a temporary alliance with Mandalorian Din Djarin against the remains of the Empire.
As Fett clearly states to Din Djarin in "The Mandalorian" season 2 episode "The Tragedy,"
"I give my allegiance to no one."
Unlike Mandalorians, who follow a specific creed that dictates their actions, Boba Fett makes his
own rules. This might make him unpopular, but for this bounty hunter, it's the only way to live.
Of course, just because Boba Fett lives by his own rules doesn't mean he's an entirely
lawless man. He may be brutal, but he will honor the terms of any deals he makes with others.
Sometimes those deals are formal contracts he makes with regimes like the Empire or powerful
men like Darth Vader. Other times, they're verbal agreements he offers to bounty hunters like Din
Djarin, which places him in the Mandalorian's debt until he helps him save the Child known as
Grogu. Either way, Boba Fett shows he will stand by deals made with his employers and allies.
That said, once the terms of the deal are complete or his employers try to stab him in the back,
all bets are off. Fett may have been working for Darth Vader in "The Empire Strikes Back,"
but he has no problem killing Stormtroopers or blowing up TIE Fighters in "The Mandalorian"
once he enters into a new deal with Din Djarin. He may be a dangerous mercenary,
but as long as he's working for you, Boba Fett will go the distance.
Until Boba Fett acquires a partner in Fennec Shand after he saves her following the events of The
Mandalorian season 1 episode "The Gunslinger," he usually travels alone. Nevertheless, this bounty
hunter is far from a man without a past or a family. While he doesn't necessarily identify
as a Mandalorian, Fett is proud of his family line and identifies strongly as Jango Fett's son.
This causes him to respond with extreme anger if someone tries to write him off
as just another Clone Trooper. He gets into a violent brawl with Koska Reeves after she and
Bo-Katan sneer at his clone origins in "The Mandalorian" episode "The Rescue."
He also takes great pride in showing Din Djarin the record of his family tree stored
in his armor, which just provides him with an additional reason to reclaim his famous suit.
If there's one thing that distinguishes Boba Fett, it's his trademark Mandalorian armor. While there
are now multiple Mandalorian bounty hunters and warriors running around the "Star Wars" universe,
there's just something about Fett's battle-scarred green and gray armor that tells people they're in
the presence of a dangerous man with a very personal connection to his chosen wardrobe.
"I don't want your armor. I want my armor."
In recent episodes of "The Mandalorian," Fett has cleaned up the scratches and blaster
marks from his armor, and re-established the important reasons for wearing this particular
suit. While Boba Fett clearly has the means to have a new armored suit built for him,
he insists on tracking down his original armor.
The suit initially belonged to Jango Fett, after all, and is his strongest link to his father.
For someone who's lost as much as Boba Fett, his armor truly is irreplaceable.
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