What makes a cool character “cool?” New RetroZapper Steve Mcgillivray explores the idea and sees how it applies to The Force Awakens.
There won’t be many Star Wars fans that disagree on who the coolest character is in the Star Wars universe. Boba Fett. The bounty hunter with Mandalorian armor makes his first appearance in The Empire Strikes Back. Disregarding his token appearance in the Special Edition of Star Wars, he’s only seen in two movies. He even suffers a rather feeble “death” for someone of his stature, tumbling into the Sarlaac with a rather pathetic scream.
I’m also going to disregard the Legend Universe as it’s no longer part of Star Wars canon. It is worth noting that Boba Fett does show up in the trailer for Star Wars Battlefront’s Battle of Jakku DLC, but what’s canon and non-canon in that video game could take a long time to figure out. From what I can gather, that DLC is canon and confirms Fett survived the Sarlaac.
Regardless of whether DLC from a video game is now canon, the status of Boba Fett as something of a fan favorite is without doubt. The question then becomes “Why is Boba Fett such a fan favorite?” He has around five lines of dialogue across his original trilogy appearances. He’s only in a handful of scenes and then there’s the aforementioned rocket propelled date with the gaping maw of the Sarlaac.
So why is he so popular? What is “The Fett Effect”? What makes a character with five lines of dialogue across two movies such a cult hero?
Boba Fett made it to the last four in the official Star Wars website Character Tournament in 2015, losing to eventual winner, Revenge of the Sith Darth Vader. What is his long term appeal, and have we met characters in The Force Awakens to whom the Fett Effect can be applied?
The first time Boba Fett appears, standing with a rogues’ gallery of bounty hunters on the command deck of the Super Star Destroyer Executor, he stands out from the others. Bossk looks good, snarling at an Imperial officer but he doesn’t have an air of mystery. He’s all teeth, claws and bad attitude. You get what you see. Dengar looks like he’s homeless and not sure where he is. 4-LOM is an insectoid protocol droid, while his sidekick Zuckuss looks like a moth with a gun. Then there’s the washing pole crossed with TV aerial that is IG-88 the assassin droid. None of these guys look like they’d give Han and Chewie much trouble.
Then there’s Boba Fett. Impossibly cool in his Mandalorian armor, featuring that T-visor and a rocket pack. There’s even a cape. What’s not to love about a cape? He’s also holding a pretty nice looking EE3 blaster rifle. There’s an air of menace and supreme confidence about him. Later, it’s discovered that he even has braided wookiee scalps on his armor. This is a guy that can get the job done–and against wookiees no less. Vader then singles out Fett, demanding that there are to be no disintegrations. This guy obviously has a reputation that precedes him. “As you wish” he replies coolly. No simpering in front of a Dark Lord of the Sith for him.
By this point in the film, I’m worrying about Han and everyone aboard the Falcon. It’s almost with a sense of relief that Han is spotted coming out of the asteroid field. He then makes his suicidal run at the bridge of the Avenger before disappearing. While he’s attached to the hull of the ship figuring out what to do, the Imperials figure he’s disappeared into hyperspace. The fleet breaks up, dumps the garbage, Han releases the Falcon and waits for the Avenger to jump to light speed before heading for Bespin. Just as the Falcon kicks in the sub-light engines and leaves, Slave I emerges from the debris field and begins following the Falcon. Boba Fett is no man’s fool. He knew all along what Han had done.
His appearance in Jedi doesn’t have quite the same impact as Empire. He’s just a background character in Jabba’s Palace for most of his scenes. There’s some tension during the attempts to free Han Solo because you know Boba Fett is there. When Leia, disguised as Boushh, threatens Jabba with a thermal detonator Boba Fett reacts with lightning speed, aiming his blaster rifle at the disguised Princess. He also acknowledges Leia’s move with the detonator by giving her a respectful nod. He admired the guts and inventiveness of the move. When Leia is busted freeing Han, there’s Boba right beside Jabba again. The guy is like a coiled spring and seems to be a step ahead of everyone.
The appeal of Fett would seem to be twofold. He looks extremely cool in his Mando armor, and he is smart and resourceful. It seems to be a matter of course for him to wait out Solo, track him to Bespin then lead Vader there before Solo has even arrived. There hadn’t been anyone like that in Star Wars before and most fans were drawn to him straight away. The Empire had been the big threat up to now, and here comes one man in cool armor who could derail the entire Rebellion by himself.
It’s such a pity the way he ends up tumbling into the Sarlaac, especially given the fact that he doesn’t hesitate to jump into the fight with a Jedi. He has no fear. He evens seems to get the better of Luke when he uses the rope to bind Luke’s arms. Then comes the accidental contact from Han and into the Great Pit of Carkoon he goes, squealing like a Gamorrean.
It’s not an end befitting a bad-ass bounty hunter.
When Attack of the Clones introduced Jango Fett, I got a bit of a thrill. The moment he says “Boba” I let out a little cheer. Here he was as a kid. While his story arc in Attack of the Clones wasn’t startling, with most of the action being given to Jango, it was pretty cool to see him nonetheless. What he witnesses in Attack of the Clones clearly impacts his actions in the original trilogy. He meets a Jedi in Kenobi, whom Jango clearly doesn’t trust. Kenobi and Jango end up in a fight on a Kaminoan landing pad, with Boba watching from Slave I. He sees his unaltered clone father go toe-to-toe with a Jedi Knight and while he doesn’t kill or even injure Kenobi, he clearly wins, as Kenobi is sent tumbling off the landing pad allowing Jango and Boba to leave on Slave I.
On Geonosis, Boba witnesses Jango kill Jedi Master Coleman Trebor. Jango then tangles with Jedi Master Mace Windu, only falling when one of the creatures charges him and damages his jetpack. Windu beheads Jango after it fails to ignite during their battle. It’s no surprise that Boba then has no hesitation in attacking Jedi Luke later in his life. Whether you like the prequels or not, there’s lots of interesting insights into the origins of Boba Fett.
(For more on Boba’s development as bounty hunter, watch The Clone Wars, and for more of Fett in original trilogy action, read the 2015 Marvel Star Wars and Darth Vader series. -Ed.)
Some people are immune to “The Fett Effect,” including a friend of mine. When I asked him his opinion on the bounty hunter, he replied, “Boba Fett as a character baffles me. He does nothing in either movie he is in, yet he is perceived at a near godlike level of cool.” He went on to add that he never really bought into the “Boba cult,” as he called it.
I can totally see where he is coming from. Aside from leading the Empire to Bespin and being a glorified courier, taking the frozen Han to Jabba, he doesn’t do anything. My friend did concede the point that he looks cool though, which is probably a major factor in the Fett Effect.
Another friend was firmly under the spell of Boba Fett. He cited the fact that Fett isn’t fooled by Han drifting off with the garbage, his armor and the fact Vader singles him out, alluding to his reputation in the Star Wars universe as a man to be reckoned with. He even went further and delved into Attack of the Clones, and Jango’s influence on a young Boba and how the events he witnesses mold him into that deadly bounty hunter we meet in The Empire Strikes Back.
Differing opinions, but I think it’s safe to say the Fett Effect has infected more people than not.
With the release of The Force Awakens, I did wonder if there were any characters that conform to the Fett Effect in the new movie. There are certainly plenty of very interesting and cool characters like Poe, Rey and Finn, but they can be likened to more rounded characters like Han, Leia and Luke. They’re not really similar to Boba Fett in importance in the film. Two characters that may be imbued with the Fett Effect are Captain Phasma and Captain Sidon Ithano.
Phasma is instantly striking. Towering over the regular First Order stormtroopers, she looks great in her chrome battle armor. I am a big fan of all the troopers’ armor and she certainly takes it one step farther. Thanks to the The Force Awakens Visual Dictionary, I have since learned that the armor is coated with chromium from a Naboo yacht owned by Palpatine himself.
This makes for interesting speculation. Who was she, that she had access to that ship in the first place? Did she know Palpatine? How did she come to be the Commander of the First Order ground troops? I hope that she will return in Episode VIII, as is rumored, so we can find out more about her.
Phasma commands fear and respect from her troops. While she’s not in very many scenes, she is in a pivotal scene. She gets jumped by Han, Finn and Chewbacca, the latter landing a hefty punch. The three then “persuade” Phasma to lower the shields on Starkiller Base allowing the Resistance attack to commence.
Phasma acts out of practicality in this scene. She’s facing a former subordinate who doesn’t like her and two heroes of the Rebellion, one of whom is a wookiee. She knows there’s no point resisting. She does stay cool under pressure though, never pleading with her captors. I have heard rumblings from casual fans that she seemed to buckle too easily in this scene, before being deposited down a garbage chute, but to be honest what would you do? Chewie could pull your arms off and beat you to death with them. Let the wookiee win.
Captain Ithano is no less intriguing. He looks great in his red armor and with his introduction alongside Quiggold it brings to mind the scene when Luke and Obi-Wan meet Han and Chewie in Mos Eisley. Again, the Visual Dictionary gives a little more information on him. He goes by several names – the Crimson Corsair, the Blood Buccaneer or the Red Raider. He and his first mate are pirates. Like Boba Fett and Captain Phasma, he wears a very distinctive helmet. Ithano’s helmet is Kaleesh, who are a reptilian species.
The people I spoke to about Ithano were mixed. The majority didn’t really see him as anything other than a very minor character, who briefly touched the main story when Finn was set to leave with him and his peg-legged friend Quiggold. There was a consensus among the people I spoke to about his armor and general look. Like Phasma, he looked really good in his armor and a few friends particularly liked the way he and Quiggold were sat in the corner of Maz Kanata’s castle, echoing Han and Chewie in Star Wars. Sadly, it looks unlikely that they will appear again in the cinematic universe, but there’s a good chance they’ll pop up again in canon novels. Ithano already has a story about his exploits prior to The Force Awakens called “The Crimson Corsair and the Lost Treasure of Count Dooku”.
Whether any of the new trilogy characters will ever reach the lofty heights of cool that Boba Fett occupies remains to be seen. Perhaps another new character will blow us all away in Episode VIII. Maybe Phasma or Ithano will have their story expanded. It’s probable that the new canon will provide answers.
Until then, nobody can touch the main man Boba Fett as the cult (anti)hero of Star Wars lore, but as the canon expands, the clock is ticking.