The cheapening of the Han/Boba Fett relationship

I finished the TUF a while ago, which was the end of the NJO. While I was extemely happy to see Boba Fett return to the Star Wars Galaxy, I must admit I was unhappy with his return. To have Boba Fett say that his war was never with Han Solo, only with the Jedi makes all of the encounters between the two irrelevant. While I know many of you do not like the Han Solo trilogy and the author that shall not be named, for Boba Fett not to have disliked Han Solo on a personal level cheapens their fued. Han was nothing but a byproduct to him if we believe Boba Fett's line. And if that is true, why did Boba Fett work for the empire and Darth Vader who was a former member of the Jedi Order? If he hated the Jedi, why was he after Han Solo instead of Luke Skewalker, a jedi? In the Bounty Hunter Wars why did Boba Fett not want the rebel alliance or Luke Skywalker to know of the fabricated evidence against Xizor? This evidence would have made a Jedi vulnerable to Boba Fett. Maybe I have read Tales of the Bounty Hunters to may times, but one of the major personal conflicts throughout Star Wars has been Han Solo and Boba Fett. I might be wrong about the line in TUF cheapening the relationship between the two characters, but for Boba Fett to say I never hated you, I only wanted revenge against the jedi makes no sense to me. He didn't know Leia was a Jedi and he never went after Luke, Vader, and with all his contacts he would have known who Vader was, or the Emperor. All force users. The return of Boba Fett was horrible in my book. While I know many of you disagree I want to hear your thoughts.

 

Well, regarding Han, he was only after him all those times because he was paid to capture him. It wasn't personal, just business. And personally, I love THE HAN SOLO TRILOGY, my second-favorite SW books.

 

I like it because it helps show Fett will go after someone doggedly like he did with Solo for just the credits. It also helps tie the two trilogies together which is good though I may sound like I think it was a good idea I prefered it the way it was Fett shouldn't be a Jedi enemy he should be Han's enemy.

 

Well, Boba doesn't seem the one to really hold grudges.

Besides, no one nowadays is paying Boba to catch Han.

 

Not the one to hold a grudge? Have you even read any of the books about Boba Fett? If anyone screws him over he wants to get back at them. I suggest you read the Bounty Hunter Wars, Tales of the Bounty Hunters, The Han Solo Trilogy. Basically any of the non prequal era novels. He is one to hold a grudege. And just to clarify, I'm not talking about the new prequal Boba Fett, I'm talking about the real Boba Fett. The one from the classic trilogy and the following novels. Not a clone.

 

I think PB is on to something here and its how characters are being moulded from what pre-1999 EU material depicted characters as to the moulds the PT is placing them into, Fett is one such character.

Does it matter? Depends on where your involvement with SW began. If you read EU pre-1999, became interested in Fett and sought out the stories, you are perhaps more likely to be irked with the recent developments, in both PT and NJO.

Basically, to a faithful Fett fan, it can look something like this:

We go from an ice-cool, mysterious yet very proficient bounty hunter with a minimum of screen lines but prescence to spare to kid who had his dad killed by the Jedi whom he sought revenge on and nothing else.

Were it not for the mass of EU LFL-approved Fett stories this would not be a problem, but those stories exist and they construct a different character to the version now being pushed. It isn't just in regard to Fett's past either, PB shows how a good many of Fett's acts do not make sense on the NJO modus operandi given. Yes there is the line that Fett just does it for money, but the EU stories made the character be about more than money. Fett became very much a kind of rogue gunslinger, a man with his own code of ethics that may appear more than a tad dubious but one he lived by and stuck to 100%.

So what was any good about the Solo-Fett relationship anyway? It was two blokes in a tussle, neither gifted with Force abilities which made it different from the other fights, the character of Wedge gets similar interest on similar basis. Does Fett being a clone of Jango affect this? I don't think it does, at least not to a large degree, Fett is still just human, albeit highly skilled in certain aspects, as is Han.

I suspect we're going to see more of this type of activity, especially once ep 3 comes out and SW, film and EU alike, gets shoved into a mould so as to make the story fit. And the EU? Well, not sure what state it'll be in after it's gone through this meatgrinder.

JB

 

Maybe he just examined his reasons for hating Han and concluded they just didn't add up.

Oh and Fett saying that my grude was always with the Jedi doesn't mean necessarily that everything he did to Han was to hurt the Jedi.

More like he was saying:

"The only grudge I ever really had was against the Jedi. I may have hated you for a while but it was nothing compared to what I felt for the Jedi"

 

It was an insult to Han after "Last Man Standing" honestly.

In any case some of Fett's actions don't add up with his weird code of behavior such as *any* attacks on the Empire (except perhaps when he was a man outlawed) and the Bounty Hunter Wars

 

Yes, this annoyed me to death. Why even bring the issue up? They should just've let people draw their own conclusions so that those who wanted to could choose to think Han was just a way of getting to the Jedi but the rest of us could go on knowing about Boba vs. Han.

-Paul

 

Even though I liked Fett's cameo in TUF, I still think they should have left well enough alone with Last Man Standing.

 

It was an insult to Han after "Last Man Standing" honestly.

It only barely stood within continuity. I think the other sources are more authoritative in respect to Fett's feelings, not to mention more consistent.

 

It's obvious from pre-prequel EU that Boba carried a grudge against Han Solo for years, and it's now apparent that he also carried one against the Jedi for killing Jango. In "The Last Man Standing," he finally put aside his resentment of his arch-nemesis. Perhaps in doing so, he realized he no longer hated the Jedi either, if he hadn't already done so before then. I see Fett and Solo's exchange in TUF more as banter between old acquaintances than retconning.

Even though I liked Fett's cameo in TUF, I still think they should have left well enough alone with Last Man Standing.

So do I. Unfortunately, YJK brought him back long before TUF. His appearance in TUF was immensely better than his one in The Emperor's Plague, IMO.

 

Yea, Ive heard that the YJK stuff was pretty scary.

 

Unfortunately, Boba's cameo in TUF also cheapens the Mandalorians as well. They should have replaced TUF Boba with Fenn Shysha, who not only had already resurrected the Mandalorian Supercommandos, but also commanded them in battle along side the Alliance against both the extragalactic invasions of the Nagai and the Tofs.

Fenn Shysha and the Mandalorian Supercommandos would have been the perfect fit for TUF, and it wouldn't have done anything to the Han/Boba relationship.

Instead, we ended up getting Boba because it was the "kewl" thing to do.

 

Ah come on, seeing goold ole' Boba again was nice

But I do agree that the "my grudge was always with the jedi" remarks does cheapen the han/boba thing a bit

But it does go along with the PT more IMO

 

I agree that Fett's NJO appearance cheapens the long-running rivalry. Given 'Last Man Standing', the NJO comments seem incongruous from any interpretation. Then again, there are a lot of continuity blips within the EU, especially based on characters' motivations and how they are perceived. Just rationalize it the way I do: pretend Fett was messing with Han's mind, and he still hates him at some level, deep within his twisted psyche. Or something.

 

Well, you can't always take everything everyone says at face value. I mean, what Boba said was at the end of arguably the worst threat the galaxy has ever known. After all they've been through, perhaps Boba let his grudge fall and let bygones be bygones. He couldn't exactly punch Han on the shoulder and say "Aw, shucks. Put her there." To settle the long standing dispute, he could've just said the jedi remark.

Or maybe I'm just overanalyzing.

 

Realize Han should not have been hated by Boba Fett. Han was a single mark that was meant to be not even that difficult and only for some spending cash ("pin money" as Zardra said in the Bounty Hunters sourcebook)

YET HE KEPT GETTING AWAY

Finally accidentally costing him nearly his life in the sarlacc

 

I think of his final line to Han as a way of returning to that image of the cool professional that we of the pre PT had known. After "Ast Man Standing" Boba realized he'd done something he should have never done: let a matter get personal. He'd done it with Han. And he'd done it with the Jedi. Now, none of those who could even be remotely related to Jango's death were alive, so why should he let the matter continue? Thus, let it die, and simply do business, whether collecting bounties, or killing Vong.

Boba Fett, as the EU knows him is back. Force help the GFFA.

 

I couldn't agree with you more Poster Boy. Although I was excited to see the resurgance of Boba Fett, it wasn't what I expected. I don't think he should have said the line, it is clear to me that there always was a grudge between Han and Boba. Also the whole double gun twirling annoyed me. I like to distance the images of Jango and Boba as much as possible. I hope to see some sort of book or maybe comic book series on Boba and his new "friends". Maybe they are the New Mandalorian Super Commandoes, or I hate to think it, but maybe they are more clones he found and now he is showing them the ropes. Damn. Now I just pissed myself off. I hope it's the mandalores.

 

boba could have easily lied, or lied by omission... sure his grudge was once with the jedi... but then he moved on.... and had Han run into his life... not truly an enemy, but a challenging adversary... they have ruined each other's lives on various occasions, but in the end, they realize they aren't enemies so much but simply opponents and don't have to keep playing the game...