Boba Fett Jedi Killer or Not?

Hey all, this is my first topic, I apologize if this has been posted (and a mod can slap me around if it has been but I did a search and well it turned up a zillion hits and none of them looked like it and I'm a newbie around here so... Oops...) but I had this thought while mucking around on another message board and thought I would propose it here.

A lot of people claim that Boba Fett was the greatest Jedi killer in the Galaxy, even Jaina in the Legacy of the Force series.
I kind of doubt it, that may be his reputation, but reputations can also be lots of hot air as well.

Prior to Karen Traviss (and even after and during her) we never saw Boba Fett kill a Jedi. Ever. He claims to have done it, he has a reputation for doing it, however it does not mean that he has actually done it.

He said he did it, that doesn't mean he actually did it.

In fact in Legacy of the Force Boba Fett says, when someone mentions Jedi fading away, "Yeah they sometimes do that."

This statement can be taken in 1 of 3 ways:

1. He has seen some of the Jedi he has killed fade, and some not fade.

2. He has never seen one fade, but he's heard that they do.

3. He has seen one fade, but that doesn't mean that it was one he killed, and in fact at least one he has killed had to have not faded.

If it is number 2 then there is no proof that he even ever killed a Jedi. He claims to have done it and even has a lightsaber, however we know that non-Jedi have had (and used) lightsabers before.

It is very possible (given his age) that Boba Fett has never killed a Jedi. It is very possible that he killed a person he thought was a Jedi. It is also possible if he did kill a Jedi that it was a weak one, or an untrained one.

So what do other people think?

Technically this wouldn't even be a retcon... Unless I missed something somewhere...

 

Boba Fett's obviously inflating his record; he may have taken out scores of forgotten gunmen, but the EU has never showed Boba killing a single Jedi.

 

The character of Luke Skywalker says that he knows how to farm moisture. I've never seen or read about him doing it & it seems kind of hard for a wimpy kid like that to have to fight off hordes of Tusken's while getting sacks of water, but WE ALL just take it on faith that he knows moisture farming.

If Boba Fett says that he's killed Jedi, I believe him. He's never lied before, he doesn't correct lies told about him either but as a highly paid Bounty Hunter that kind of jedi-killer reputation helps. Everyone knows that Boba kills Jedi, IU & OOU.

Fett's braided wookiee hairs hanging off his shoulder. I've known these to always be wook, until I read a SWInsider during the PT movies fact-file article that said, those braids on his armor are now Padawan braids like the kind worn by baby Anakin. That retcon is enough proof to me that Boba pwns teh force! I think there was a retraction, then a quote from Ben Burtt & Sansweet & then it stayed as Padawan scalps. Whatever's the latest retcon.

 

Not prior to Bloodlines, they didn't.

 

Yeah, nobody thinks Boba has killed Jedi outside the Traviss novels (the canonicity of which are now in a state of limbo).

 

Maybe Boba's claim that he's a Jedi Killer is what actually kills the Jedi. In terms of... a Jedi laughing uncontrollably and being like, "Boba... stop! You're killing me!"

 

Well I wanted to first say that he doesn't have to lie to say what he said:

He never said he saw a Jedi fade away.

If you were Boba Fett and you saw some guy, with a lightsaber, during a time of the Jedi purge (the only time Boba could have done this) would you assume he was a Jedi? Sure.

It is very possible that Boba Fett killed one (or more) people that he THOUGHT were Jedi. That doesn't make him a liar, it makes him mistaken. As for Padawan braids, that is unlikely because post Order 66 there weren't a whole lot of living Padawans. Interestingly enough Padawan scalps doesn't mean he did the deed. It simply means that he scalped dead bodies.

 

I think there's nothing preventing Boba Fett from actually having killed Jedi. Certainly, he'll have the opportunity to do so during the Clone Wars as a twelve year old little psychopath rival to Ahoska. However, I will point out that there's an easy fix for this.

Jango Fett *WAS* a great Jedi Killer.

If people mistook Jango Fett for being Jaster Mereel, then nothing prevents people from confusing him with his father.

 

The 'canonicity' of the novels isn't in doubt. The only material that will be dropped is that which is blatantly contradicted by CWAS.

 

That's not quite accurate. The short comic "Being Boba Fett," published in Tales #18, implies that Bobby's killed loads of Jedi. It was labeled "Infinities" out of the gate, though, and Bobby's characterization didn't much jive with anything canonical. Like, he mopes around, and pines for his dear departed daddy, and--

hey wait a second--

 

Come now, Armchair, we didn't throw out Marvel's Star Wars comics, so we're certainly not throwing out Karen Traviss' books.


That said, I think Boba Fett's more of a Jedi-arm wrestler than a Jedi-killer. Though it's a little-known fact that his arm wrestling is done by his second: Chuck Norris. And Chuck arm wrestles by roundhouse kicking. It was, in fact, footage of such an ordeal that powered the Death Star.

 

At 200 remaining Jedi with a lot of them already being accounted for, I think the likelihood of Boba Fett having killed many Jedi Knights is very slim. I think it's more likely we'll have all of those accounted for before Boba Fett kills many, though I can certainly see Boba Fett popping off one or two.

However, if Djinn Altis' Jedi Knights are ever revisited, (unlikely as it may be) then Boba Fett could have killed hundreds of them along with Darth Vader.

Both of them having plenty of deaths to spare.

 

I remember there was a big debate about this when Revelation came out (and probably for the rest of the LotF books with Boba in them), as some of us wonder how Boba Fett was known as the best Jedi killer in the galaxy when as far as I know, we don't have any story of him killing a Jedi. Ever. Although I haven't combed through every article on Wookieepedia, so I could easily be wrong, so if someone could reference a Wookiee article or just an EU story where Boba does just that, that'd be fine.

Now, is Boba Fett a very good warrior? Sure, that's part of his character, one of the best non-Jedi fighters in the galaxy. The problem is why everyone in LotF thinks Boba Fett is the best Jedi killer ever, and how ridiculous it was that Jaina went to him for training when a good deal of her extended family (and their old friends) were some of the most skilled people in the galaxy (including her own father, who knocked Boba Fett into a sarlacc pit when he was blind! Accidentally, sure, but with luck like that, who needs skill?). Then again, Revelation was such a atrocious book, Boba Fett being an expert Jedi killer was just another idiotic plot of that book, so it fit in with the rest of that waste of paper and ink (just like how apparently everyone knew Jacen was a Sith sometime after Fury but before Revelation).

As to a canon explanation for why he's known as that, well, we can chalk Boba's own words up to him lying or exaggerating, or just misremembering, since he has issues. As for everyone else... um, Force madness? Or you can just chalk it up to the generally screwed up continuity between the three trilogies of LotF. If they did retcon at least a third of Lotf, that would definitely improve the series by a lot.

I know there was a Tales comic where Boba and Vader fought over who would capture Solo (and he escaped while they were fighting) but not sure if its canon, and there might be another story where Boba and Vader fought (something about a cliff?), but... its very debatable whether Boba was just barely able to keep from getting killed, to Boba fighting Vader on almost equal terms.

I don't mind a story where Boba Fett maybe killed a few redshirt Jedi (either during or after the Clone Wars), but painting him as the best? Especially when you had someone like Vader alive in the OT time period? Well, maybe Boba could be the best surviving supposed/alleged Jedi killer (as most of the other villains are dead), but only because he kept being blown away (or thrown back into the sarlacc, depending on what's canon ). Although confusing him with Jango could be a nice canonical way to explain (as long as they explain that it is a misconception IU).

At least we won't be subjected to too much more of this nonsense in the future.

 

By limbo, I meant that we're not quite sure what will remain canon and what will not. Otherwise, I would have said "non-canon".

 

Actually, what's amusing to me is that Luke Skywalker is probably the most prolific killer of Dark Jedi in the history of the Jedi Order with the possible exceptions of Darth Revan and Kyle Katarn. He butchered all of the Dark Jedi Knights on Vjun, killed a bunch more during the Jedi Outcast game, and defeated a few Sith in his time as well.

Seems odd to choose Boba Fett, even if it's only because he theoretically has stuff that Jacen hasn't seen before.

 

Wow, that was a long & hard road to say that Boba Fett's a redshirt Jedi killer, who has lightsabers, padawan braids & a reputation. Whether he's the best Jedi killer or not & that kind of discussion & slagging Traviss for inventing it could derail this discusssion pretty quickly, since everyone knows that Emperor Palpatine was the best Jedi killer. He's killed at least 99,999 more Jedi than Boba.

 

And in the end, his clone got wasted for the final time by Han Solo. Jaina should have gotten anti-Sith training from her father, and proven Sith killer.

 

Boba Fett has been long established as the No. 2# deadliest man in the galaxy (No 3# if we're counting the Emperor). So, Tricky, as much as we disagree; I'm not going to argue with you about Boba Fett's deadliness. I think that we rarely see Boba Fett take down the kind of super strong targets that he should for a man of his reputation. I think we should honestly see more stories like where he takes down a Garrison single handedly.

I will state though, we've never seen Boba Fett's lightsaber collection outside of Tales, however. Furthermore, wearing padawan braids isn't exactly a mark of distinction.

They're a bunch of kids. That's wearing 14 year old Mandalorian Boy Scalps.

 

Gah.

Those're Wookiee scalps.

 

Don't rub it in. Fett knows Solo's the coolest guy in SW. So does Luke, Leia, all the kids & Kyp & Katarn. Everyone knows except for Lando. Nobody beats Han Solo.

 

As I told my SAGA friends.

"Buy all the lightsaber talent tree you want, nothing beats a good Sneak Attack."

 

I always had the general impression that he'd killed at least a few, just because he was that good.

The whole "BEST JEDI KILELR EV4R!!!1!!1!11" thing was over-the-top, but it didn't really bother me.

 

Yeah I get that, C19. Official canon has IU characters believing he's killed Jedi & Fett himself agreeing, but some people want more actual proof than the mystery that they prefer for characters like Palpatine & his Sith Master or Yoda & the secret of the Minchy species.

Like Palpatine's past, Fett's Jedi bounties are left a mystery, left open for the fans to make up their own minds. Without Traviss or anyone elses Boba Fett book, if someone is asked to be a replacement writer, we'll never get solid proof that Fett kills force userz at will! At least that mystery was almost revealed, Palpatine's & Yodas will never be revealed.

 

Hey, everybody, there's already a thread about this topic.

 

Yeah, I remember that thread, Too many people got hung up on Traviss' "best Jedi killer" thingy, when I never asked anyone that question. It pulled the thread off-topic right from the 1st reply & the Mods never seems to be able to convince everyone to get back onto the topic of "Did Boba Fett ever kill a Jedi?".