Friendship is the most important aspect in any Star Wars adventure. From Han and Chewbacca in the original trilogy to Anakin and Obi-Wan in the prequels to Finn and Rey in the sequels, we’ve seen it before. But, where does that place the unsavory fellows who end up being dropped to their supposed deaths and allegedly eaten by a Sarlacc? Yes, we’re talking about Boba Fett, the clone “son” of Jango Fett and “brother” to our favourite clones. Before we jump in, we need to caution that this article does contain spoilers for The Book of Boba Fett Chapter 1: “Stranger in a Strange Land.”
Friendship requires trust and respect
With the premiere of The Book of Boba Fett, we’re seeing a new friendship or rather, mutual respect between Temuera Morrison’s Boba Fett and Ming-Na Wen’s Fennec Shand.
Fennec owes Boba her life after he saved her from death after she is wounded and left for dead in The Mandalorian Season 1. When we first see the pair together, Shand wakes Fett from his bacta bath, telling him that people have gathered to pay their respects to their new crime lord.
Boba doesn’t snap at her and allows her to relay the news. It’s clear from just this moment that he respects her. He also trusts her enough to tell her that his dreams have returned of how he pulled himself from the gut of the Sarlacc.
In return and out of respect, Fennec sits off to the side of the throne as people come forth to welcome the new crime boss. Boba, even asks Shand if she understands what the Aqualish is yammering on about. Under her breath, she says she believes he’s talking about friendship.
This exchange shows how much Boba values Fennec’s opinion. Ultimately, this is a very different scenario to that of Jabba and Bib Fortuna. The Hutt had zero respect for anyone, regardless if they were on his side. As Boba points out, the giant slug ruled with fear, which earned him a long list of enemies.
Jabba pushed Bib around and called him a “fool” for falling to Luke Skywalker’s mind trick in Return of the Jedi. The Hutt also had a habit of feeding those who displeased him to his rancor. If anything, Jabba and Bib’s relationship was more reminiscent of King Kong attempting to befriend Godzilla.
Moreover, Jabba didn’t have friends or acquaintances. He had minions that he loved to terrify with death if they didn’t obey. Boba, however, values opinions and doesn’t believe in ruling in fear. Though, Fennec tells him that having a fearful reputation ensures enemies and allies stay in their lane.
Boba has seen things
Another aspect that Boba has on his side that Fennec admires is he has experiences Jabba wouldn’t have. Outside of the friendship aspect, Fett is an unaltered clone of Jango Fett and is, therefore, his “son” making him the brother or the “alpha” clone of the clone troopers that were created to fight in the Clone Wars.
When he was a child, he saw Jedi Master Mace Windu behead his father during the Battle of Geonosis. This gave him a blinded hatred for the Jedi as he went after Windu several times during the war. Though, he did have dealings with former Jedi such as Asajj Ventress, according to Boba’s page on Wookieepedia.
Also, we cannot forget that Boba and Jabba were around during that same time period, though it doesn’t appear that they interacted.
Moving over to Jabba, and Fennec tells Boba in the first episode of The Book of Boba Fett that Jabba rarely left the castle given how many enemies he had.
Fennec acts as a second pair of hands for Boba while Jabba often sent bounty hunters out to do his dirty work with Bib not being a fighter.
People person
As we’ve already seen in The Book of Boba Fett, Boba is a people person and actually enjoys having Fennec around. This is in great contrast to Jabba who only has Bib around because he needed someone to boss around. Also, he prefers to walk rather than ride like a noble. That’s his inner warrior talking. He also doesn’t mind if Fennec calls him “boss” as he knows she respects him even without it needing to be referenced.
Jabba apparently didn’t like interacting with people unless it was totally necessary. Any person could have tried to kill him.
Boba was also willing to introduce himself to the local people just to let them know that he was now the new crime lord.
Sense of humor
For our last point, we have to point out that Boba has a sense of humor as he says to Fennec that even when Trandoshans are issuing someone a compliment, it still sounds oddly like a threat. Jabba never had this trait as he saw everything as a threat and he took his paranoia out on Bib and those around him. He all but functioned off compliments whereas Boba only requires respect.