The Animated Legacy of Boba Fett – Part 2

See Part 1

After “Attack of the Clones,” Boba Fett continued to have a complicated history after he first appeared as a young, vengeful character working with his father’s associates. Fett wasn’t originally planned for “The Clone Wars” animated series but, after his first story arc, he was officially involved. His plot for revenge caused much chaos before it finally backfired on him. Bossk ended up with Young Boba in a Republic prison, while Aurra moves on to work with Cad Bane after recovering from her injuries. Meanwhile, the Slave I Firespray ship was left to get repaired, refurbished and used by the pirate and Jango associate, Hondo Ohnaka.

Hondo eventually makes use of the Slave I on the planet Florrum, using it in a battle with General Grievous to save Jedi Initiates and assist Ahsoka, before being forced to retreat in “The Clone Wars” Season 5 Episode 9, entitled “A Necessary Bond.” The Jedi spared Hondo of his past wrongdoings and he held on to the ship until Boba Fett eventually took it back after he spent awhile in jail. That was where Boba most notably helped orchestrate a riot with Bossk’s help as a favor to the hunter Cad Bane, who had been looking out for him on the inside. Bane owed Jango Fett for something in the past — perhaps Jango had mentored Cad Bane or simply helped him on a bounty or got him out of trouble. Bane saw potential in Boba as well, much more than he saw in Bossk, confirmed in the novel “The Clone Wars: Stories of Light and Dark.” He also offered Young Boba a mentorship of sorts as well, as seen in incomplete Bane/Boba Arc and implied by Bane himself in “The Book of Boba Fett.”

Unfortunately much of that story is unknown beyond the helmet dent from the Boba and Bane shootout, just as the history between Jango and Bane is mostly unknown, plus how and when Boba Fett got his Firespray gunship/Slave I from Hondo Ohnaka. There’s a lot of unexplored material that will either never happen or may happen in the future. But it’s why it is debatable to what degree Boba Fett’s legacy in animation is, because beyond the non-canon content which tends to be well received and favorable, the animated canon has not fully developed him and seems more intent in building lore out of his legacy rather than focusing on his life.

Even in Boba Fett’s final episode in “The Clone Wars” (Season 4 Episode 20), we are given more questions than answers. In this episode we see Boba Fett with his own crew of bounty hunters known as Krayt’s Claw, the one that he formed behind the scenes after he left prison. Even elite hunters like Embo are doing business with Fett. Among Boba’s core hunters are Dengar and Bossk, whose first appearances in Star Wars were alongside Boba Fett in “The Empire Strikes Back,” but by that point in the timeline they were no longer in a crew. Alongside them are a droid C-21 Highsinger and the Theelin female bounty hunter Latts Razzi, whom Boba Fett did not stay in contact with after “The Clone Wars” ended. (Boba is not seen with Latts or Highsinger, who reappear in the “Tales of the Underworld” TV series.)

Krayt’s Claw had a headquarters in Tatooine and that’s where they meet Asajj Ventress, the former apprentice of Dooku. Ventress had to defend herself against Oked, a member of Krayt’s Claw, who bothered her in Chalmun’s Spaceport Cantina on Mos Eisley. He was struck down dead. Coincidentally Ventress’ lightsabers originate from Dooku’s former Jedi Padawan in Legends continuity. She helped wipe out the True Mandalorians faction led by Jango Fett. Jango Fett eventually got his chance at revenge when Dooku (as Tyranus) hired Jango to hunt her down, in which he was rewarded with a chance at being cloned. Jango’s decision to have Boba Fett as a son came about after the hunt for Komari Vosa, the original owner of Ventress’ red bladed lightsabers. Ventress would ironically be the Han Solo of the episode “Bounty” on The Clone Wars (Season 4 Episode 20), being offered a job in a Cantina after having to put someone down. Bossk and Latts tell her to join Boba’s syndicate to replace their fallen associate whom she killed. She agrees, not wanting negative attention, and because she needs the money but acts surprised at how young Boba Fett is.

Boba Fett has no problem speaking down to anyone. He truly feels he is the best to operate a hunt and Ventress agrees. They travel to a planet where they need to smuggle a package to the planet’s leader via train, but there are raiders in the way. Kage Warriors attack Krayt’s Claw. Most get knocked out of the train except Boba Fett and Ventress who successfully fought off most of the raiders. However it turns out that the package was a kidnapped young female, being trafficked to a disgusting leader. Despite the revelation, Boba Fett feels committed to the job, even if he may not like it. However, Ventress will not commit and turns the tables on Boba, while saving the remaining Kage Warrior and his relative. Boba Fett proves to be an effective fighter in the episode but he prioritized money over morals and a force-sensitive punished him for it. In a way this episode mirrors the original trilogy, where Boba Fett’s love for the hunt backfires in a situation with a force-sensitive (Luke Skywalker) and it ends in a bitter failure that he has to learn from. It’s a good Boba Fett story within somebody else’s arc. Also noteworthy was Young Boba Fett’s helmet in the “Bounty” episode looks based off early concept design for Boba Fett’s helmet made by Joe Johnston. Fun fact: the character Rako Hardeen on “The Clone Wars” similarly had a helmet based off another of those early designs. Rako was appropriately called the Marksman of Concord Dawn, just to hammer the point home that he is another creation based off Boba Fett’s legacy.

Concord Dawn was an invention that came about from Boba Fett’s lore. New fans of Star Wars fans may know of Concord Dawn from the cartoon series “Rebels,” which featured it as a battle-damaged planet and Mandalorian Colony run by Mandalorian Protectors like Fenn Rau. The whole concept comes from Boba Fett who was a Journeyman Protector of Concord Dawn in his tale from “Tales of the Bounty Hunters.” Fenn Rau was made possible because of that. Likewise the antagonistic Imperial Supercommandos — the Mandalorians loyal to the Empire — are based off Boba Fett’s legacy as well, as George Lucas had originally conceived the armor as Imperial Super Trooper armor. The early prototype Boba Fett armor test footage had the armor white, looking much like what Imperial Supercommandos look like. In the episode of “Protectors of Concord Dawn,” Rex makes an official canon connection to the Mandalorians of Concord Dawn and the Clone Army of the Republic, sharing how Mandos helped train clones on Kamino. This was already established in Legends (aka Expanded Universe) but Rex confirming the lore was nice.

“The Clone Wars” and “Rebels” as series are much better understood if you are familiar with the Legends works that inspired them. For example the faction of Mandalorians known as Death Watch has its lore rooted in Jango Fett lore. Death Watch first appeared in the comic book “Jango Fett: Open Seasons.” They were an evil group of Mandalorians who killed Jango Fett’s family on Concord Dawn during a Mandalorian Civil War simply because they helped Jaster Mereel’s men. Much later in the war, Death Watch killed Jaster Mereel and Jango took over the True Mandalorians. However his reign as leader was short-lived as the “True Mandalorians” were framed by the “Death Watch” for murder and manipulated the Jedi through political deception to war with Jango’s Mandalorians. The Tor Vizsla led clan of Death Watch enjoyed their deception and elimination of their honorable rivals for some time, until Jango Fett could get revenge on Tor. But there was another Vizsla, named Pre Vizsla. Much like Tor, Pre was occupied with conquest and immoral, and after conspiring with the likes of first Dooku and then Darth Maul, he would also lose his head like Jango did. The Death Watch died out much like the True Mandalorians, except they had no honor, which is why the Mandalorian Bo-Katan Kryze left the Death Watch behind despite being a member. New Mandalore politics were complicated. They had abandoned their warrior heritage and it backfired on them when those warriors exiled to Concordia conspired with enemies, which led to New Mandalore’s downfall. While Prime Minister Almec saw Jango Fett as nothing more than a common bounty hunter, it’s men like Jango that Mandalore needed and lacked, which is how Maul was able to take over temporarily. Eventually the Empire would target Mandalore as well, killing millions. It’s clear that Mandalorian Civil Wars made it all the easier for the Empire. For Mandalorians to truly survive and thrive, they would need to unify and live honorably much like guys like Jaster Mereel had intended for the True Mandalorians, rather than having such a divisiveness and drama that came from the Mandalorians in the animated realm.

“Clone Culture” is proof of how much more united the Fett clan was in comparison to other Mandalorians. Clones were very united. It was a brotherhood. Stories like that of the Republic Commando video game featuring Delta Squad showed how effective clones could be as an elite team. A cartoon story like “The Bad Batch” featuring Clone Force 99 also showed how effective clones with a special skill could be as a team. The clone Wrecker exhibits superior strength. The clone Tech exhibits superior intelligence. Crosshair exhibits superior marksmanship/sniper skills. These are all traits that Jango Fett had, so any amplified trait would be on the level of a prodigy. Then there was Omega, who fans refer to as Omega Fett, as she is the only other pure unaltered clone of Jango Fett. Boba Fett is unaware of his sister however, but Clone Force 99 read about him from the Kaminoan data where Boba is described as the “Alpha” clone of Jango Fett. It’s unknown if they ever shared that information with Omega. It’s also unclear if Jango ever knew of her existence. It’s somewhat a parallel of Luke and Leia in Star Wars… they did not know about each other for a long time as well. Perhaps Boba and Omega do meet in the future but for now it seems like they lived separate and different lives despite sharing the same genetic material.

While the animated canon lacks any classic Boba Fett, he still lives on in non-canon, and not just in the world of LEGO Star Wars and cartoons like Robot Chicken, but in the world of “Star Wars: Visions.” The show’s first season took a departure from the norm with Anime-style animation and stories that were non-canon and fresh in its approach and use of the Star Wars universe. However, despite its focus on originality it still had an episode use a few familiar faces, that of Boba Fett, Jabba the Hutt, and Bib Fortuna, in the episode “Tatooine Rhapsody.” While Boba Fett wasn’t meant to be the focus, he steals the spotlight in this episode. We see Boba Fett doing what he does best — bounty hunting. He hunts down a young rebellious Hutt in a rock band with a former Jedi padawan who survived Order 66. After disrupting the Hutt’s rock concert Boba Fett chases the bounty down in the sky with his Slave I ship before shooting his target down and dragging the Hutt to Jabba. Jabba eventually spares him and his music band after they perform their way out of an execution when Jabba’s audience finds their music engaging enough to save them. Even Boba Fett seems to enjoy the music at the end — although the music was the weak point of the episode, to be frank. It was refreshing to see a classic portrayal of Boba Fett, with Temuera Morrison voicing him. It was fortunate that the team who made the cartoon seemed to favor Boba Fett, with one member of the studio admitting in the behind the scenes bonus material that he put more Boba in it than originally was planned.

Eventually, we got even more classic style Fett in animation with another leaked sequence from an unfinished episode of “The Clone Wars,” showing Boba Fett using his jetpack fighting Jedi Anakin Skywalker within the setting of busy city traffic. Unfortunately, it’s an unfinished sequence and likely won’t ever get finished, so it’s bittersweet yet cool to see what-could-have-been.

So, I think we can conclude that the legacy of Boba Fett has indeed have had an impact of animation. He played a big part in vintage and modern Star Wars but in very different ways. Modern Star Wars has used Boba’s legacy, and Jango Fett’s legacy (which is the same thing) to expand the universe and create new characters and yet the character himself seems to have been relegated to a sort of status quo. The stuff that happened to Boba Fett in “The Clone Wars” we could have guessed after watching the Prequel and Original Trilogy. We could have guessed he’d want revenge against the Jedi. We could have guessed he’d end up with his father’s associates. We already knew he would become a bounty hunter. Based off the original version of the Expanded Universe, we also could have guessed that an evil/misguided group of Mandalorians were involved in the Clone Wars. But these stories are still fun regardless, but they also don’t feel like requirements to be a Boba Fett fan.

While Boba Fett’s influence is seemingly everywhere Young Boba Fett is ultimately in a total of 5 episodes (excluding the multiple unfinished episodes he was in) and Adult Boba Fett is spread out between two vintage appearances (“Holiday Special” and “Droids”), one Visions appearance, and the many LEGO/non-SW cartoon appearances, which are funny and great but don’t add to the lore. “Galaxy of Adventures” and Hasbro Star Wars were also interesting animated web micro-series made for the younger audience that featured Boba Fett. In “Galaxy of Adventures,” we see the Skywalker Saga moments remade and thus we get moments from “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi” that feature Boba Fett — from Darth Vader hiring him and his bounty hunter peers, to his fight with Luke nearby Jabba’s sail barge. But the shorts throw in some extra Fett moments not seen in film but were alluded to, like Fett disintegrating a bounty for example. In the Hasbro Star Wars shorts, there’s a bit more of The Mandalorian/Din Djarin but one of the three shorts featured him and Boba Fett versus Stormtroopers in Mos Espa, which is nice.

Overall, the bad news is that there isn’t much Fett in animation. But the good news is that there is still a lot of potential there, and his influence is still there and never really left. I think while Fett has had quite a film/comic book/novel/action figure/video games legacy, his legacy in animation isn’t as strong because he’s so neglected. I theorize perhaps people enjoy the status quo of Boba Fett being a mystery. Too many Young Boba Fett stories hurt the image he originally had of being villainous. Too many adult Boba Fett stories hurt the image of him being that victim of war who lost his father. “The Clone Wars” cartoons had viewers sympathetic to his situation, up until he was a bounty hunter doing an immoral mission and then he was an unseen character for all the follow-up cartoon series (“The Bad Batch,” “Rebels,” “Tales from the Underworld”). One might as well imagine his vintage cartoon appearances from “Droids” and the “Holiday Special” as canon events in order to fill in that gap between Season 4 of “The Clone Wars” and Boba’s appearance in “The Empire Strikes Back.” Hopefully the future sees a Boba Fett cartoon story that explores Boba in the prime of his career, or a story that explores Jango Fett in his prime. Either way, Fett is due for a return to animation.