Lots of people like Boba Fett. He is an iconic character.

In the original trilogy, he does the following:

Follows Jabba about a bit.

Turns to look at the camera at at least one point.

Listens to Darth Vader talk.

Talks to Darth Vader, briefly (which in fairness, took guts).

Takes off after the Falcon.

Fires some pot-shots at Luke.

Lets some minions push the Solo-cicle onto his ship.

Stands around with an inscrutable expression.

Touches an attractive dancing girl's face.

Lassoes Luke.

Gets knocked into the Sarlaac.

Have I missed anything? And is he over-rated?

I think almost anyone is first naturally overrated because they are of course more known and so more popular.

But then also unnaturally popular because they get so much extra made up about them in books by the people that don't come up with their own ideas for characters.

(Personally I don't like that Darth maul and boba both apparently lived after their supposed deaths in the films)

So does Boba Fett need to regain his status now that the EU has been axed?

Lots of people like Boba Fett. He is an iconic character.

In the original trilogy, he does the following:

Follows Jabba about a bit.

Turns to look at the camera at at least one point.

Listens to Darth Vader talk.

Talks to Darth Vader, briefly (which in fairness, took guts).

Takes off after the Falcon.

Fires some pot-shots at Luke.

Lets some minions push the Solo-cicle onto his ship.

Stands around with an inscrutable expression.

Touches an attractive dancing girl's face.

Lassoes Luke.

Gets knocked into the Sarlaac.

Have I missed anything? And is he over-rated?

Well I would say yes, except that I have since read the Fear rules in EotE and given the sample difficulties they suggest for Darth Vader, he must have a Willpower stat high as the sky not to run screaming. I honestly don't know how there's anyone left on the bridge now that I know the difficulties - Vader's flagship must smell permanently of ammonia if you know what I mean.

My recent assimilation and opinion of the EotE Fear rules aside, I think he is, but then I also think that of most of the characters in the setting. Solo, Luke, Chewbacca et al. are basically low-level characters in Episode IV. Han is always having to tell Chewie that he's putting some part in the wrong way around, 3PO is about as competent as a spoon and R2-D2 has "dump stat" written all over him.

That said, he's the only one smart enough to have worked out how Han "disappeared" outside that Star Destroyer and if you watch TCW series, you get to see a young Boba Fett almost assassinate Mace Windu and get his bottom spanked by Ventress (not literally) whilst running his own bounty hunter cabal at around 14 years old. So he may not be the ultimate badass, but I have to give him credit for having moxie, which he has in abundance.

The reason people are still on the bridge despite their fear is because they failed the fear check required to face up to the fear of what would happen if they left the bridge.

Boba Fett was initially famous thanks to the marketing run-up to the release of Empire Strikes Back. He was originally meant to be the Big Bad chasing down the heroes, with Vader standing behind him as the Bigger Bad. Changes to the script over time cut his role down to a very minor part, and his pursuing Han Solo simply became a plot point.

However, he hung onto the mystique surrounding him, partly because he's just a cool looking character. The marketing also kept his background hushed up, so he was still considered enigmatic. His death in Return of the Jedi left something to be desired, though, so the fans continued to latch onto him.

Enter the EU. He has a long and sordid history in the various media and I don't want to go over everything, but suffice to say every inch of his personal history has been established, retconned, and explored up to the hilt. For a good while in the nineties and again when the prequels were big, the market was over-saturated with Boba Fett. Disney giving the EU a pink slip means that most of it has been invalidated, but in the minds of older fans he's still this monolith of mixed emotions and limited run action figures. To younger fans, at least, he probably seems pretty cut and dried: at worst he's under-utilized (as their fathers and grandfathers believed, in their time) and at best he's one of the longest call backs ever.

Is he overrated? Absolutely. I like what The Clone Wars did with his character, because it gave him depth and cunning that was denied to him elsewhere in the EU. However, regardless of Boba Fett surviving the original trilogy and making an appearance in the new films, I think Disney would be better served creating a new character based on the same concept as "enigmatic cool-looking guy" rather than trying to "restore" Fett as the badass he may once have been but is now not.

He is Mandalorian which = Badass

He has awesome armor

He is known to disintegrate people

He got the shaft hard in Return of the Jedi but in the EU climbed out of the Sarlacc pit

Cool original trilogy voice (Side note: The Imperial Officer that escorted Leia in cloud city and used her as a body shield when Luke shows up is the guy who played Boba Fett. So he got some actual Face Time. He is also the Pilot in Senator Bail Organa's ship in episode 3)

In closing Yes I still love Boba Fett even though Geogre Lucas could have done more with him in ROTJ. It would have been awesome to see him and Han actually duke it out. I also introduced him to my group in the Long Arm of the Hutt at the end to retrieve the still living Teemo the Hutt and it gave everyone chills.

So I guess PRESENCE also counts in Boba's favor

is he over-rated?

Hmm...I've read somewhere that Boba Fett is getting a complete re-write. Here it is: http://screenrant.com/star-wars-7-boba-fett-spinoff-new-character/ Basically says Jango Fett's clone would not be the Boba Fett we saw in the Original Trilogy. But then again.. this is all rumor, albeit not a good one.

In the original trilogy, he does the following:

This is why I like TCW so much, they take more time to explore these ancillary characters...the Boba arc and the Bounty episode establish him as capable even as a kid.

In the original trilogy, he does the following:

This is the same mistake people make when they try to shoehorn Obiwan into minimum XP by only accounting for his onscreen activities in TPM. It misses everything that's implied by his presence that the movie doesn't have time to go into. Boba must be capable because he's there, and Vader wouldn't suffer fools or n00bs. He's a known disintegrator, so he must have a history of bagging at least a few prey. It is too bad he went out like a punk, but the story wasn't about him, and the characters needed to get away.

This is why I like TCW so much, they take more time to explore these ancillary characters...the Boba arc and the Bounty episode establish him as capable even as a kid.

I get the logic - Boba Fett must be highly skilled because he gets to the interview stage with Vader. But it's no guarantee. C3-P0 plays an integral part in the trilogy and we rarely see anything approaching competence from him. Jar-Jar binks is so close to Padmé that when Padmé is drawn away from Coruscant he actually speaks on her behalf (proposing a motion that Padmé would never herself have approved of) - thus lending Padmé's considerable political weight as the voice of anti-war factions to Palpatine's new powers. And Jar-Jar is an incompetent boob for the most part. Chewbacca never does anything of technical note in the entire OT and frequently actually gets things wrong, but he's still there mainly so far as I can see through his association with Han Solo. The point that I'm making is that Star Wars is filled with people who are, not exactly ordinary, but hardly the best in the business. Reality just doesn't work that way - there are often people at the top of their profession who are not the best at what they do. Maybe Boba just has good connections and some lucky hits.

And Vader's stern warning about disintegrations isn't a sign of Boba's professionalism. Real skill is in bringing back people alive. What Vader's warning says to me is that he doesn't trust Boba not to do sloppy work!

Boba fett is/was a pragmatist. If a bounty said dead or alive, it is easier to drag a dead body (or just the head) than a live one that can cause problems. The "No disintigrations" line meant, I think, more that the bounty is only payable if brought back alive. And, of course, that Vader did not want his kid killed because he was trying to seduce him to join them.

Some great trivia coming through here guys, thanks a lot. Some interesting responses.

And thanks for putting an Imperial hit out on me, Millandson. Just when I thought life was getting easier...

He's either overrated or George Lucas somehow successfully reversed "Show, don't tell."

Seeing what George Lucas does when he doesn't have anyone to answer to, I'd say the latter is the case... And it also explains why that never got to film.

There's always...

This:

http://moviepilot.com/posts/2014/09/26/boba-fett-killed-who-in-star-wars-this-explains-everything-2299242?lt_source=external,manual

I get the logic - Boba Fett must be highly skilled because he gets to the interview stage with Vader. But it's no guarantee. C3-P0 plays an integral part in the trilogy and we rarely see anything approaching competence from him.

Then I'd say you don't get the logic. I never said "he's great because he's visible". His capabilities are implied by how he's treated, the position he holds, and the coolness of his costume. C3P0 is purposely made the buffoon, I have no idea why you would use that as a counter.

I get the logic - Boba Fett must be highly skilled because he gets to the interview stage with Vader. But it's no guarantee. C3-P0 plays an integral part in the trilogy and we rarely see anything approaching competence from him.

Then I'd say you don't get the logic. I never said "he's great because he's visible". His capabilities are implied by how he's treated, the position he holds, and the coolness of his costume. C3P0 is purposely made the buffoon, I have no idea why you would use that as a counter.

You excerpted one snippet of my post (and my post wasn't even that long). C3-P0 was one illustration that many of the characters who have an important effect in Star Wars are not especially (or even at all) competent. And I wrote that because some people elevate them up to be the best of the best just because they're important in the story. Many times in real life and in Star Wars also, someone achieves great success without actually being all that good at what they do. At least good at what they're supposed to be doing - they're often good at networking or somehow being in the right place and time. And I believe that I do get the logic. Even the snippet of my post summed up your position as "he must be highly skilled because he gets to the interview stage with Vader". Is that not the essence of what you are arguing?

Jar Jar Binks delivers one of the most important speeches in the history of the Republic (the one that leads to its end, in fact), but does that mean he's the best or even great? No, history conspired to bring him to that point. Basically, I'm just saying that Boba Fett might be a competent bounty hunter, but may well not be at the top or even close to the top of his profession.

Keep in mind that Boba Fett has been tracking Solo for quite a long time on behalf of Jabba. So it entirely makes sense that he should be drawn in even if he's a mediocre bounty hunter. I have been pulled into meetings with people far above my level where I'm the only person in the room without an Ivy League MBA, but I'm there because I'm specifically relevant to the business unit concerned and familiar with the business under discussion. Same could well go for Boba Fett. "This bounty hunter has been tracking Solo for a while and might have some leads." "Okay, send him along."

I'm not saying he's not competent, I'm pointing out how he easily might not be that great, despite getting a face to face with Vader.

He is overrated.

/end thread

agreed.

/resume thread

You excerpted one snippet of my post...

Yep, it's how I roll. It's a reference, and doesn't require repeating. If the reader wants to see the full thing they can click the link in the header.

Jar Jar Binks delivers one of the most important speeches in the history of the Republic (the one that leads to its end, in fact), but does that mean he's the best or even great?

You're still missing it, because now you're tossing Jar Jar into the mix. To repeat: "I never said 'he's great because he's visible'." I'm not making the argument that just because a character is in the story, they are fantastic in some way, but this is what you're arguing against.

The important thing is the context in which these characters appear. You can speculate any which way about what that context means, but it seems to me the minimalist approach that requires the fewest assumptions is to assume everybody on that bridge is known as being successful. Why? Because as a storyteller, I wouldn't waste time filling that void with people who don't matter. By this point the story has already established Vader's credentials, he's not one to surround himself with idiots, ergo, the people on the bridge know what they're doing.

Of course, you can interpret Vader's warning about disintegrations any way you want, but it seems like a pointless exercise. I think there's a path of least resistance there too, but it's not that important.

In RotJ, Boba Fett - who posseses weapons that attack at range - flies closer to someone wielding a lightsaber and gets knocked into the pit by a melee attack. Based on his actions shown on screen, he doesn't seem like the brightest of individuals to me.

In RotJ, Boba Fett - who posseses weapons that attack at range - flies closer to someone wielding a lightsaber and gets knocked into the pit by a melee attack. Based on his actions shown on screen, he doesn't seem like the brightest of individuals to me.

To be fair, he flew over, entangled Luke with his grappling line, lost his balance when Luke barely deflected a shot coming from Jabba's barge into the skiff, and when he was lining up another shot on Luke, who had since jumped to another skiff, Han smacked his jet pack, activating it and sending him flying, where he then crashed down in the pit and was dragged down by the sarlacc.

In RotJ, Boba Fett - who posseses weapons that attack at range - flies closer to someone wielding a lightsaber and gets knocked into the pit by a melee attack. Based on his actions shown on screen, he doesn't seem like the brightest of individuals to me.

To be fair, he flew over, entangled Luke with his grappling line, lost his balance when Luke barely deflected a shot coming from Jabba's barge into the skiff, and when he was lining up another shot on Luke, who had since jumped to another skiff, Han smacked his jet pack, activating it and sending him flying, where he then crashed down in the pit and was dragged down by the sarlacc.

Someone rolled lots of Threat and Despair at the same time someone else was rolling Triumphs and spending Destiny Points!