Monday, May 10, 2010

Last One Standing, The True Story of Boba Fett



Attack of the Clones is by far the worst of all the Star Wars Prequels. Almost the entire movie is made up of extraneous plot written only to lead up to the Clone Wars cartoon.

The two major points of contention are Boba Fett and the Clones themselves. According to Attack of the Clones, Jango Fett was chosen to be the genetic base for a clone army created for the Republic by a Jedi Master called Sifo Diyas.

According to Star Wars history from before the Prequel movies were released, the Clone Wars was a conflict about Jedi at war with cloned Jedi who had been twisted to the Dark Side. The conflict also included battles with other enemies of the Rebublic including the Mandalore warriors.

Boba Fett's introduction as the unaltered clone of Jango Fett is one of the worst parts of the entire Prequel Trilogy. Especially considering that he had already been given a beautiful backstory by Daniel Keys Moran in Tales of the Bounty Hunters, published in 1996. This book is a collection of short stories centered around the bounty hunters introduced in the Empire Strikes Back.

In this story we read the tale of Jaster Mereel, a Journeyman Protector (a sort of Police officer) from the planet Concord Dawn. He was exiled for the murder of another Protector. Jaster was offered the chance to be redeemed if he would just admit he was wrong for killing this man. He refused saying that the killing was justified because the Protector was corrupt. He was exiled, disappeared for many years and returned as the mysterious Boba Fett. No one knows exactly where, or how he acquired his Mandalorian armor.

According to Official Prequel Star Wars history, Jaster Mereel was the adopted father and mentor of Jango Fett. He was a Journeyman Protector, from Concord Dawn, and was exiled exactly as mentioned. He became Mand'alor, the leader of the Mandalore Warriors. He attempted to unite them and make them into proper mercs. He was betrayed and murdered.

Also according to Official Prequel history, Boba Fett later on in life took the name of Jaster Mereel and became a Journeyman Protector on Concord Dawn and was himself exiled for the same crime as his adopted grandfather. Seems rather redundant doesn't it?

The saddest part of this is that Fett is a money maker and had to be in the Prequels for just that reason. Like many, I feel his story should have been left alone. It was great as it was!

That is why Boba Fett will not be appearing in the Improved Star Wars Prequels. Jango Fett has been erased completely from the Improved Star Wars history. The vicious war-like Mandalore Warriors will still be a major part of the Clone Wars.

The events of the Clone Wars will be represented as the second installment of the Improved Star Wars Prequels, as it should have been. Not as a stand alone cartoon used to fill the space between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.


2 comments:

  1. I was impressed with the treatment that Karen Traviss gave to the whole Mandalorian culture in the Republic Commando novels. She has taken a lot of the earlier mythology and developed it into an indepth history of the mandalorian people, as well as opening up the warlike, yet deeply honor driven code of the Madalorians. It is sad that after the 501st, there will be no more books, and the readers are left in limbo about the fate of so many well developed characters who embraced mandalorian culture

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  2. My Latin teacher and I are total Star Wars purists and eagerly await reading your blog/graphic novel. May the force b-w-u, man!

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