I grew up a kid of the ’90s, which means my first real experience with the Star Wars movies in theaters is when they rereleased them in the late ’90s, and my oldest brother took me and another of my brothers to see them. (We were 26, 5, and 15, respectively, at the time.) But it was prior to the digital age when we can go back and watch the older Star Wars canon on a whim or do anything other than read what existed at the time and watch the original trilogy.
I lived for my brothers talking about the series, but there was one thing I never understood: My brother’s love of Boba Fett. The Boba Fett that I’d seen was a bounty hunter who died—one who helped capture the love of my life Han Solo and caused my heroes turmoil. Why would I think he was a “badass”?
Well, in came Disney+’s The Mandalorian, and suddenly I went from “Ugh, Boba, really?” to “Oh … I get it now,” and honestly, I deserve whatever sh*t my brothers now want to give me. To put into context how much I did not care about Boba Fett prior to this season of The Mandalorian, I can explain my emotions towards the cloned son of Jango with one word: Eh.
Didn’t hate him like some do. I knew enough to know that he wasn’t actually a Mandalorian, and then didn’t care to look into him further than that. I just thought it was one of those Star Wars things that I didn’t understand, and I was okay with that. But then I got a glimpse into a Boba Fett who has struggled his entire life, struggled to find a place where he exists in the gray area between the Empire and the rebellion, and now … oh no, I love him.
Throughout his arc on The Mandalorian, Boba is reminded time and time again that he is a clone of Jango, something that Star Wars briefly touched on in Attack of the Clones and the prequels, but we never really explored otherwise in the live-action space. Bo-Katan throws that fact in his face, talking about how she’s heard his voice thousands of times as the clones helped take over Mandalore in the war.
He took on the remnants of the Empire for Din and Grogu, he was willing to fight by his side because he’s a man of his word, and it explains why Boba helped Vader in the first place (to me). He’s not going to give up once he’s said he’d do something, and that’s that.
He was there for Din, he helped Fennec, and he constantly tries to help those around him and attributes it to his sense of duty, and maybe I’m a Boba Fett stan now? I love him?
(image: Lucasfilm)
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