Boba Fett: seriously....I don't get it!

I am a 19 year old star wars fan who didn't get really into star wars until TPM. Though I did occassionally watch the origninal trilogy on the USA Network as a child, I didn't really care much for them as I deemed the movies too "old" for my tastes.

Now, I'd like to say that I'm a borderline "hardcore" star wars geek (in my dictionary, "geek" is good) who has learned much about the SWU since the release of TPM.

Anyway, despite my growing knowledge of the SWU, one thing I have yet to comprehend is why everyone is so enormored by Boba Fett. I don't understand why he is so beloved by the general fanbase. I personally find him to be really weak character for the following reasons:

1) The guy doesn't do anything in the OT: What exactly does he do in the OT to merit such a reputation? He stares at the camera, nods his head and shoots his blaster twice! Not exactly memorable.

2) His outfit isn't all that mesmorizing: It's all rags and a crusted up helmet.

3) He's not much of a bounty hunter: Did you see how he died in ROTJ?...That says it all. In addition, he wasn't really the one who captured Han etc. on Cloud City, sure he tracked them but in the end all he did was stand behind Vader after Vader did all the work.

And yes I know about the Mandolorian EU stuff and I know about that little animated thing that introduced him in the first place and all that does is further re-iterate my opinon that Boba is nothing more than the OT Nute Gunray: All talk and no action.

And no I don't hate Boba Fett or anything, I just don't get all of the hype! Please help me!



4)

 

EDIT: Got cut off by internet connection.

 

I guess you got a point there. Lucas did say that the PT would change the ways we view the OT. Perhaps if I was into Star Wars as a child, I may have understood it.

 

I am also a 19 year old fan and I got into SW about five years before Episode I came out. I suggest that you have to look at Boba Fett without considering the prequels and Jango Fett. Without Boba Fett, there would be no Jango Fett. This is logically speaking and not considering the order of the films.

When we first saw Boba Fett in ESB he was quite original. Everything from his helmet, jetpack, and ship made him stand out. He had a very mysterious presence and his pact with Vader also made him stand out. However, I must admit that he died a clumsy death. That's all that I can say about that. Yes, Jang Fett looks a lot cleaner and sleeker. But I feel that he would not be there without the fanbase of Boba Fett.

 

Plus he tricked the Imperials and Han Solo into tracking/capturing the Falcon.

Then he escaped Cloud City with Han and sold him.

Super cool.

 

I hate Boba Fett. Especially after he gave Obi-Wan that horrid dirty look in his apartment during AOTC. Stupid punk - I'm glad he saw his father die right before his eyes at the hands of my favorite Jedi - Mace Windu.

EDIT: Jango isn't really his father. Let me rephrase that-

Stupid punk - I'm glad he saw his predecessor die right before his eyes at the hands of my favorite Jedi - Mace Windu.

 

I never got the obsession with Boba Fett either. People say he stood up to Vader, but he didn't at all. He just wondered what would happen if Han didn't survive... plus, he got taken out by a blind man with a stick. Nothing more. The Expanded Universe makes him godlike, it's pretty annoying.

All the Fetts = very overrated.

 

I second that, Zanretsu. Well put.

 

I grew up watching the classic trilogy. Darth Vader and Han Solo where always my favorets. Boba Fett was cool looking to me back then too.People just liked the way he looked. I was very sad, when he endend up being someones dinner. Looking back, there is not much to him. He is like the Darth Maul of the classic triolgy.

 

Well said, Zan.

 

The Boba Fett fanbase was born solely because of his look, and grew because he had a large sense of mystery revolving around his life, meaning that fans could make up whatever they wanted and imprint their own personalities on the character.

It is the same thing that has happened with many of the throwaway jedi of the PT, such as Plo Koon.

When I was growing up with the OT, I admit that I was a Boba Fett fan, but I was never obsessive, and I gradually grew out of it. I sometimes wonder what I would have felt like growing up with the PT, seeing that Jango looks light-years cooler than Boba.



The simple answer: Back in 1980, he looked pretty cool.

 

Jango Fett is nothing special either, he could not even kill Padme by himself, he had to send Zam to do it (who failed).

 

Essentially Bobba Fett is just a stormtrooper, with a mind that isn't quite as dumbed down, and who isn't with the empire. We all know how stupid (and sweet) stormtroopers are.

 

I think that was more that he hired another bounty hunter in order to keep himself one step ahead of the Jedi in linking the crime to him. Unfortunately, his plans to remain hidden were foiled when they captured Zam and were interrogating her.


Boba Fett is sort "eh" to me. I think he's pretty cool, but I don't much understand the hype. Well, okay, I get it, but he just doesn't do anything for me.

 

Boba Fett was underplayed in the movies on purpose. The books flesh him out more, and that's probably where the largest BF fan base grew. There are some books that follow the "Bounty Hunter Chronicles" or something like that (it's been a while since I've read them, so forgive me for not remembering the titles). Those books explain that Boba Fett didn't die in the desert: He killed that beast and crawled out of it (find the books for more info on that). The books describe him as a busy guy that had a lot of connections and took a lot of "bounties". That's why he wasn't given a larger presence in the movies. Expanding his movie character would have made the movies longer, and may have introduced some irrelevant tangents to the stories. He was in the parts that he was directly involved in for the movies. To fully appreciate Boba Fett, you gotta' read some books. You're all correct that the movies don't do him justice.

4ceful1

 

he didn't die in rotj his armour protected him and he was rescued by another bounty hunter in one of the books

GET THE FACTS RIGHT

 

hardly any of the stormtroopers were clones,
lucas said it himself that by the time of the OT most of the clones had been killed in action and replaced with people from the general population who were trained relentlessly

 

He just looks really cool, don't hate the bounty hunter, hate the screenwritter who didn't give him enough screen time

 

Fett did something very smart that most people don't relize. He got paid by the Empire for tracking Solo down to Bespin, and he got paid by Jabba the Hutt when he took him to Tatooine. And he didn't get his hands dirty for the most part.

Also, he mouthed off to Vader a couple of times and lived to tell about it.

I tried to read that Bounty Hunter Trilogy, it was a set of the most boring and poorly witten books ever.

 

I've never gotten the Boba Fett thing but I remember when I was a kid there was a cult around him before ESB even came out... someone refresh my memory, wasn't there a toy that came out before the movie? And then there was all this cult around him between ESB and ROTJ and then he dies in a really boring way.

I remember when the OT was rereleased in 1999 and when we saw ESB at a hyped up first day audience, and when Boba Fett appeared there was the inevitable appluase, and then this one guy hollers, "Boba Fett sucks!!"' I guess you had to be there but it was really funny.

His backstory in the PT is very cool though.

 

"I tried to read that Bounty Hunter Trilogy, it was a set of the most boring and poorly witten books ever."

Mandalorian Armor (or Helmet? The first one) was the only Star Wars novel I started but never finished. Not even Children of the Jedi could do that to me. Ack! Awful.

I don't care much for Boba Fett either. Mostly because I agree with "He doesn't do anything!" He's some sort of plot device, that's all.
Granted, he looks cool, and seeing him in Shadows of the Empire, Jedi Academy and Galaxies are definitely cool moments, but nothing else.

That said, the above book would have been a lot better if it had more Fett, even though I don't like him that much. Go figure.

My favorite Boba Fett EU story, however, is the one in Tales from the New Republic, No Disintegrations, Please.


Sorry, back to the movies. I actually liked Boba as a kid in AotC. His childish eagerness to get Obi-Wan killed is just too entertaining, his immediate distrust of the stranger is a nice touch and ... he did more than in TESB (firing Slave I's cannons at Obi-Wan)
However, Jango was a lot cooler.


So, yeah, I don't get it either

 

How can you disgrave Boba Fett?

If you read enemy fo the Empire he stood up to Vader and almost beat him .( an amazing feat without the force)
He has an almost flawless bounty rate two. Just claresian and solo got away. He even wups Vong but in NJO. And tyhen he has some of the coolset armor around.

 

Yea i used to really like him when I was a little kid, but I grew out of him, and after seeing how annoying he was in Clones, i Dislicked him more, but i watched Empire last night and he was preety sweet.

 

You know, I liked Boba Fett...I had his figure, had books about him, comics, etc. The coolness of the character was the fact that you didn't know what was under his helmet, where he came from, or anything like that. He said very little, he looked very cool and he was a mysterious dude.

I think one of the biggest failures of the prequels is that Lucas tried to explain too much and I think in doing so he ruined the Boba Fett mystique that the fans had created.

Before, he was a mysterious mercenary who was able to track down one of our favorite characters. Now, he is some clone dude with a kiwi accent...bleh



-matt

 

You dare to disrespect the Fett?

He single handedly found where Solo was hiding (on the back of the SD Avenger) and then followed him by pretending to be part of the trash

He then told Vader where Solo was headed so the Imperials could get there first

He got the reward for finding Solo, then got the reward for giving him to Jabba, thats sneaky bargaining

He destroyed IG-88 and left him in the bowles of Cloud City (you can see IG's remains in the scene where Chewie is saving 3-PO from the Ugnaughts in the junk area).

And no slagging off the armour, there is no armour greater or stronger then Mandalorian armour.