Jabba was an idiot...

...becuase he accepted a gift (two droids) from an enemy and then put them to work in his palace without even checking them for weapons or traps! You would think that a powerful gangster like Jabba would have a long list of people who like to see the end of him so surely you would take extra caution espcially when being given a gift by an enemy.

Is there anything in the screenplay or novels about C3P0 and R2D2 being checked for weapons or explosives?

I thought about this last night and it really bugged me for some reason.

 

It bugged me more that Bib Fortuna was a really bad aide to Jabba and just let anyone in the palace.

 

jabba did not know Luke. he never had any run in with him. how was luke jabba's enemy? what luke did was give jabba a false sense of security with a nonthreatening offer to negotiate Solo's release. the droids were as he said a token of his good will.
jabba was not an idiot.

 

It's true, in one day Jabba had a saber-carrying Droid, plus a false bounty hunter get through AND he had Lando there in a crappy disguise mucking about. What kind of security measures did Fortuna incorporate?

 

You're right. Fortuna is actually a big idiot.


They could have hidden bombs, listening devices and all sorts of things inside the droids. Jabba and Bib must have been on drugs or something like that.

 

Which does bring up an interesting possibility... Was it really a token of good will at all?

What if Jabba had said, "300,000 credits? Heck yeah you can have the statue back!"

Guess the droids would be his then eh?

Oh, you want the Wookie back too? That'll be another 150,000 credits...

 

Jabba knew that Luke was a Jedi, and that he was a friend of Solo's. Seeing as Jabba had Han frozen in carbonite and on display the chances were that Luke wasnt popping by for a cup of tea. Surely Jabba didnt get to be so succesful by assuming the best of everyone that came knocking at his door.

 

How can you call Jabba an idiot
It was all Fortuna that idiot.
Jabba didnt really care about Luke, he was never suppossed to be admitted into his castle and Jabba like most people in the saga he grew overconfident. He knew about Leia, so he cant have been that stupid and he had so many guards I doubt he saw one jedi as a large threat. Also he probably expected to have R2 searched by someone else.

 

i don't think Luke meant for jabba to keep the droids in exchange for solo, that was a ruse. i think a better question is why did leia expose herself before luke got there. i'm sure the plan wasn't for leia to be chained up in a bikini. the plan didn't go as planned, so what was the original plan?

 

actually bib fortuna isn't that much of an idiot because in the classic trilogy visual dictionary says that he always carries a concealed poisened dagger just waiting to kill jabba at the right moment

 

Yeah... he was an idiot for never using moisturizer!

 

Perhaps they did scan for bombs and comunications devices. Nothing really resembled either of the two so they cleared the droids. Jabba obviously had some use for droids in his palace. Completely dismantling Threepio and Artoo would have been a waste of time.

Jabba's problem was underestimating Luke. Jedi! Bah! Whatever! He seemed to have things quite under control. Han, Chewie, and Leia were prisoners/slaves. The droids were in no position to defeat Jabba themselves. Luke was dumped weaponless into a pit with a RANCOR monster. If I'm Jabba, I'm pretty pleased with the arrangement. Somehow, the guy kills a Rancor. Feed him to the Sarlac. Even with his lightsaber he can't take out several skiffs and a sail barge full of Jabba's lackeys. That's impossible! Ooops. He can. He wasn't an idiot, he just underestimated Luke. In this same movie, the great Darth Sidious underestimates Luke's resolve. Is he an idiot too?

Carnage

 

I've always wondered about that myself. My theory is that it was part of the plan for Leia to be captured. First of all, Leia's too smart to just take off her disguise like that if she wasn't supposed to. Second, if Leia had kept her disguise on and gotten Han out of there, then Jabba would have still had Chewie and the droids. Luke would have still had to go in and get them, except he wouldn't have the help of Han or Leia in fighting off Jabba's minions.

 

hmmm, interesting. look at that scene again. Did Luke think that he could walk in and shoot jabba with a blaster? cause thats what he tries to do, right before he falls in the rancor pit. i guess he didn't carry his saber for two reasons,

1) to reafirm jabba that he was there to negotiate the release of solo
2) if captured it wouldn't of been taken away.

even on the barge on the way to the sarlacc pit, Luke tells solo that he has everything planned. it just doesn't seem that it was.

 

And most criminals are..that is why they get caught eventually. Jabba was a gangster and his seedy ways finally caught up with him. He probably thought that he was so untouchable that he let his guard down and is now scattered to the four corners of Tatooine.

 

I'm going with the "Jabba was over confident" theory here.

He didnt think Luke was a jedi, and even scoffed at the idea.
Jabba also kept Leia, as a prisoner, even though she warned "we've got powerful friends"

this may be a stretch, but who is to say that R2 and 3PO werent checked for conventional weapons and explosives.
Why would they think to check for a light saber?? They checked for blasters and explosives...
The droids were also a gift of goodwill, and tried to give Jabba a false sense of security.

Bib, was made the fool, by Luke, using the jedi mind trick. Bib is guilty of being a "week minded fool"...

Id say, Jabba's overconfidence in himself and his Palace, and his underrating of Luke's abilities, is what lead to his downfall.

As far as Luke's ultimate plan goes...I can never recreate a working plan in my mind. Was the plan to take down the whole Jabba syndicate, or merely free Solo. Everytime it seems to make sense, another problem arises...I suppose Luke planned to make it seem like Jabba had complete control, and then make his move.

 

Since, at that moment, he wasn't I would say Jabba was right to laugh.

It wouldn't matter anyway, since he wouldn't care even if he really was.
See my sig line from the novel.

 

Interesting way to look at it...I always thought Luke was sort of a jedi knight not master, or in light of the PT, a padawan...I mean, he clearly had Jedi skills and called himself a Jedi....thats where i got my statement from.
I know Yoda and Luke's conversation on Yoda's death bed suggests he wasnt a Jedi yet, but i thought that basically meant he wasnt done training, or in PT terms,a Jedi Master yet. he could only be a true fully trained Jedi, by facing Vader again. I picture Luke, in Jabba's palace, very close to being a Jedi... (look at AOTC, anakin isnt done training but he is still called a jedi on Naboo.)

For me, Luke becomes a lower level jedi in ESB when he looks at his blaster and realizes it is no longer any use to him...

I also agree that it is understandable why Jabba scoffs at Luke, however, it was that underestimation of Luke (regardless of logical rationalization) combined with his overconfidence (like in your quote) that left Jabba's open for exploitation...

I never read the novel, but i do like that line!

 

I think it's a little of Fortuna being an idiot AND he was planning to betray Jabba and take over (As was the case with many other denizens of the Bloated One's palace.) So I think that Fortuna didn't care what happened to Jabba at the time.

 

Fortuna was planning on Betraying Jabba and taking over? He doesn't seem clever enough to pull off a scheme like that.

DS - The quote from the Novel is cool.

Carnage

 

Yup, just consulted the book Tales from Jabba's Palace.

It says this:

"Jabba's majordomo had big plans for himself-to overthrow the Hutt and take over his palace and his riches."

But yeah, he probably wasn't clever enough to actually pull it off.

 

here's why I think Jabba's an idiot. Apparently he's a powerful crime-lord and bussiness-thing. But when offered 3 times the payment of the shipment Han dropped, he refused and froze him in carbonite for absolutely nothing. Not to mention the huge bounty price he paid to Boba. Whats the big deal anyway? It was just one shipment of many that Han had done for Jabba, and he was Jabba's best smuggler - read the Han Solo trilogy and see for yourself. It just doesnt' fit.

RJ

 

I think that is the difference between a Crime Lord and a wannabe. Han screwed Jabba over and was on the run from him. I don't know the time between the Greedo incident and the end of ESB, but it's a decent span of time. To a crime lord, respect is everything. If Jabba let's someone screw him over and avoid him untill he has no choice but to pay up - more smugglers may try the same thing. If Jabba instead catches the smuggler encases him in carbonite and hangs him inside his palace for everyone to see what happens to people whom betray him, he's most likely going to be able to maintain control of his operation. I think it was wise on Jabbas part. The money wasn't the important factor...the respect and control was.

Carnage

 

He was no Vito Corleone, that's for sure...

 

I also don't think he's an idiot...just over confident. Is there another thread discussing the "original plan" to get Han out? I'm curious about that...I didn't see it under the search.

I'll make one but I don't want to if it exists already.