Somehow, blink-and-you'll-miss-them cameos in The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi have conspired to make Boba Fett, 'bounty hunter' (George Lucas didn't actually know what a bounty hunter was when he came up with the character) and retconned badass into one of the central characters in the Star Wars mythology. Partly it's his laconic, swaggering silence, based on Clint Eastwood's portrayal of the 'Man With No Name' in Sergio Leone's three greatest spaghetti westerns. Partly it's that totally awesome body armour, which the Star Wars expanded universe of books, comics, video games, mugs and pencils has given a back story to (because in the years between Return Of The Jedi and The Phantom Menace they'd take apart every single nut and bolt of the original Holy Trilogy for parts for new stories). It's Mandalorian battle armour, the legacy of a mighty race of warriors who dressed like a cross between knights of old and archaic astronauts. Bizarrely, despite barely appearing in the original three movies and certainly not being namechecked as belonging to this ancient martial race, the concept of the Mandalorian warrior and his/her personalised battle armour has become one of the most popular in the whole of Star Wars fandom, with fans regularly creating their own battle armour suits for use at conventions and tea parties. You'll see whole platoons of clattering, armoured cosplayers posing with their carbines and their inscrutable visored helmets, and bloody brilliant they all look too. That's yet more massive helmets, though. What is it with George Lucas and characters with massive helmets?
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
