Why is Boba Fett So Cool?

Am I the only person who didn't have a problem with Fett's death scene?

All of the above. Also, his helmet. In a series full of great helmets, Boba Fett has the best one.

You guys have a weird definition of cool.

I would call the character "intriguing" at best, at least to nerds.

His death was silly (it was supposed to be), but I find the urge of fans to undo his death a little disturbing. They're at it with a zeal usually only displayed by revisionist historians.

Also please stop the constant attitude that anything from your childhood was great and everybody else's childhood sucks. TPM didn't allow kids to fantasize about the film? Oh please. Every film does. Even if it's just imagining different ways of killing Jar Jar. You have lost your imagination, that's what happened.

As seen on George Takei's FB ha ha ha

I didn't have a problem with his death either, Skeletor.

Michael Barnes wrote: His gear really does demonstrate the second-hand nature of legend-building, and that's a part of this two. Take stock of what we knew before fucking Jango Fett:

1) He wears Mandalorian armor. This has something to do with Mandalorian commandos. We know nothing about them.
2) His ship is called Slave-1, but we have no idea why a ship would be called that. Is it a slave-traders ship? Does it have something to do with a "master" ship? Who flies Slave-2?
3) His stuff is beat up. Is it his? Did he scavenge it? Who used to wear it?
4) He dies stupidly, but in reality even the badassedest of the badassedest can be felled by some dumb stroke of fate. But did he really die in the Sarlacc pit?
5) There's the whole Christmas special issue...canonical, or not canonical?
6) The toy was _dangerous_. You could shoot your eye out with it. It was recalled and changed. Have you ever seen one of the shooting ones?
7) Wookie scalps and strange insignias.

All of this adds up to TONS of second hand information that, as was suggested, we filled it for ourselves. It gives us a chance to participate in the story by speculating, which is one of the brilliant things about Star Wars. It gave us _just enough_ to WANT to know more, and when we were kids we would have conversations about all kinds of stuff related to Star Wars- mostly stuff that was pure speculation. Remember talking about how George Lucas was going to make all of these other Star Wars movies in the 1980s? Remember how supposedly he had everything scripted out in a book called the Journal of the Whills? Is Yoda a Whill?

All stuff that the prequels demolished by explaning everything away and giving the audience NOTHING to participate in, in terms of the world-building.

In sum, Star Wars was so great because it let us participate in creating it, and the whole backlash against the prequels and all of that is really a reaction to things like Boba Fett's origin being taken out of our speculative imaginations and TOLD to us. The books, expanded universe, all that doesn't count. Only the films do, at least as far as I'm concerned.

So really, you could look at Boba Fett as a symbol for where Star Wars went so terribly wrong.

Before this thread gets buried I just wanted to give kudos to Barnes for this post. It has to be the greatest interest post I've seen in years. It's just so awesome, so many cool points.

bravo

And what...I'm chopped liver? Pfft...talk to the hand Barney!

Gary Sax wrote: I didn't have a problem with his death either, Skeletor.

I couldn't give a shit how he died now.

But as a child that scene was heartbreaking.

Mr Skeletor wrote: Am I the only person who didn't have a problem with Fett's death scene?

Not his death scene. He's due to be digested for the next 1000 years.

My favourite part of his death scene is that acknowledges how insanely dangerous it is having a jetpack on all the time. If anything goes wrong, your body gains instant propulsion whether you want it or not. Obviously being in proximity to a lightsabre (no matter how inexperienced the user) is asking for trouble.

anyway, good riddance, we don't need that kind of scum



repo, it was a really cool thread idea, good job. But Barnes' post was EPIC

Michael Barnes wrote: This really should be "why WAS" Boba Fett so cool". The prequels pretty much ruined him with all of that Jango Fett crap.

The #1 reason that he was cool was that WE KNEW ALMOST NOTHING ABOUT HIM. He was mysterious. We knew bits and pieces....
No other reasons are necessary, because the more you explain the less cool he becomes.

Is this also why Snake-Eyes is cool? Would he have the same appeal if he took off his mask at the end of the mission to joke around with Clutch and Breaker, then make a couple wise-cracks before making out with Scarlett? This is why Snake-eyes is cool, and Quick Kick was so lame they had to kill him off. If Snake-eyes told you not to be in a hurry when building your treehouse at the end of the show, he'd be the one pushing up daisies.

What I always liked about Fett was that he existed outside the main story arc. Until the prequels (which are clearly not canonical) he had nothing to do with the Skywalker family drama. He was a reminder that there were powers and forces in the far-away long-ago universe that didn't give a shit about politics, ideals, any of that Rebellion vs Empire horse hockey. They did their own thing and if you had a problem with it, too bad. It gave the universe a real, lived in feel. Like Bombadil in LOTR.

As Lucas got more into himself as a "Campbellian storyteller" or whatever he sees as he looks in the mirror, everything had to be about the stupid Hero's Journey. Everything in the prequels is about Luke in some way.