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 | Don't Step on Jabba's Tail... |
 According to the timeline, at the time of Star Wars Han Solo had been smuggling for roughly six years.
In that time he'd built a powerful reputation as a guy who got the job done, would do reckless but ultimately skillful things to get out of tight scrapes and in the process made a great reputation.
And, he worked for Jabba the Hutt, the primo ganglord in the outer rim.
So, when Han comes across an Imperial cruiser, presumably caught by surprise, he is forced to dump his cargo and scratch gravel.
Naturally our friend Jabba is not best pleased.
So, given these circumstances, how come Han is visited by Jabba, a character notorious for not leaving his court? How come he gets away with stepping on his tail, and in the presence of Boba Fett! How come he calls him a wonderful human being? Jabba drops dancing girls into rancor pits if they don't please him.
You could say that, back when George shot the scene back in '76 with the late Declan Mulrooney, he didn't know what Jabba would look like (he wasn't designed until '81 during pre-production of Jedi). Jabba may well have been a human being at that point in Lucas' mind.
And Boba Fett didn't exist until 2 years later, created for the Star Wars Holiday Special. His mean, unforgiving nature surely wouldn't have allowed him to stand back while Solo trod on his bosses tail.
So, as great as it was to finally see it, given the changing nature of :
1- Jabba
2- Boba Fett
isn't that extra scene rendered redundant in the wake of the following two films?
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http://blogs.starwars.com/galantesdiary/32 |
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quin1974
Those gnawing little thingies...
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date Posted: Oct 14, 2005 4:32 AM
It is certainly so that ANH would be best served without this scene. It was a serendipitous coincidence that GL couldn't get the visual effects up to a level of his liking. Redundant, though, is the wrong word. Obsolete is more like it and unnececessary.
BTW nobody is Boba Fett's boss 
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janlomona
Smugglers Rants
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date Posted: Oct 14, 2005 4:35 AM
BTW nobody is Boba Fett's boss
No arguments here! Good point, and perhaps redundant is an unfair way of wording it but the changes that occured in ESB and ROJ did seem to make the scene obsolete like you say.
Still got a hell of a kick out of seeing it though (way better on the DVD version)
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quin1974
Those gnawing little thingies...
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date Posted: Oct 14, 2005 6:28 AM
"I think Jabba respected Han in a way, so he let Han get away with stepping on his tail."
true, but you have to agree that having boba there was a little bit overdoing it. Jabba had at that point probably issued the bounty for Han, so it is quite odd that the ever greedy and not so sympathetic Boba would just stand by and let a juicy piece of bounty slip through his fingers like that.
the events in ESB and ROTJ strengthen this argument, because if Boba had seized Han on Tatooine he wouldn't have had to travel all the way to Bespin and he wouldn't have ended in the Sarlacc Pit. Life is unfair like that 
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Sol Kassar
Ramblings from the Detention Center (Startled)
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date Posted: Oct 14, 2005 7:15 AM
Again I touch on Han's over-confidence as I did in my previous blog. This was used against him by Jabba in that scene in the manner of Jabba making it seem that Han was in total control of the situation when he really wasn't. Han/Chewie against Jabba and about 4-5 of his cronies? Not a chance. This was just Jabba's way of getting Han to lower his guard by allowing him to get away with his usual swagger. There are many instances of Han's over-confidence and it started here. Boba - sure he has a mean, unforgiving nature but I'm sure he respected Jabba's wishes by not making any sudden, threatening moves. Remember when Vader ordered "no disintegrations"?
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Capt. Eno Razzi
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date Posted: Oct 14, 2005 7:48 AM
Jabba probably didn't want Boba to blast him just yet because if Solo dies, He dosen't get his money. And Han brought in alot. Before this 1 insident
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SWidiotRM
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date Posted: Oct 14, 2005 8:20 AM
maybe he didnt want to kill han w/o a good form of entertainment. also maybe he doesnt owe him as much yet. boba probably didnat kill him because jabba told him not o. duh!
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vadervuddy2
laugh it up fuzzball
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date Posted: Oct 14, 2005 12:54 PM
How come he calls him a wonderful human being?
to answer your question, in the original star wars, it wasnt always the fat slug, at first to step in for the real jabba, it was a fat guy in a furry coat.
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jediknight2210
Where did you dig up that old fossil?
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date Posted: Oct 14, 2005 2:19 PM
How come he calls him a wonderful human being? Its sarcasm.
You could say that, back when George shot the scene back in '76 with the late Declan Mulrooney, he didn't know what Jabba would look like (he wasn't designed until '81 during pre-production of Jedi). Jabba may well have been a human being at that point in Lucas' mind.
Lucas knew he wanted an alien creature, so he used MR Mulrooney as the body, he knew in the future he would re-visit it.
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jediknight2210
Where did you dig up that old fossil?
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date Posted: Oct 14, 2005 2:21 PM
I think the scene is very important, it adds even more to why HAn has a ton fo bounty hunters after him. Also read the Han Solo trilogy for more info on Hutt life. It also has more on Jabba and Han's nearly friendship.
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swfan123456789
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date Posted: Oct 15, 2005 11:05 AM
(way better on the DVD version)
did they update jabba's graphics on this sceen i wasnt aware?
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Borma Feng
The Crack of Doom!
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date Posted: Oct 15, 2005 1:37 PM
Yep, the DVD version makes Jabba look a little more like his TPM incarnation - and the CG is improved anyway.
Character assassination aside, I think the whole look of Han stepping on Jabba's tail is wrong-o. The execution of the shot - crudelly moving Han over Jabba's tail digitally is really bad. Would it have been so hard for the two to circle each other, rather than have Jabba remain motionless while Han walked behind him? Surely Jabba could just slither round to keep Han in his line of sight?
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redhawk23
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date Posted: Oct 16, 2005 2:22 PM
Wait wasn't bobba fett in a new hope, in the scene with jaba?
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swfan123456789
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date Posted: Oct 16, 2005 4:00 PM
y did u discribe the sceen to me i kno its on there ive seen it i just didnt kno it was updated it still looks like crap to me.
i think the han walkin on his tail looks like hes walkin on steps.
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mubos
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date Posted: Oct 17, 2005 12:31 PM
i think the han walkin on his tail looks like hes walkin on steps.
I always asumed he was
How come he calls him a wonderful human being?
well, he isnt human so calling him a wonderful human being would mean he's an @$$
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SnajperPL
no blog here
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date Posted: Nov 25, 2005 10:03 PM
Hmmm... excellent fact vadervuddy! Indeed, Jabba was just a fat guy with a furry coat, and n the old Marvel comics, wasn't he a blue skinned walrusoid huminish thing?
Boba Fett, the character, is a cold, methodical, highly efficient and disciplined professional killer. It would have been out of character for Boba to jump in hot bloodedly attempting to avenge a slight against his employer's dignity. That would have been amateurish. Think about it. All the coldest, meanest, most dangerous killers in the movies are disciplined professionals, coldly dispassionate. They kill only when they have to, and when they have to, it is with utter ruthlessness and without emotion.
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SnajperPL
no blog here
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date Posted: Nov 25, 2005 10:14 PM
As for the scene with Jabba and Han stepping on his tail, I think what Lucas was trying to get across with that scene is first, to expand a little on the Jabba/Han subplot. Secondly, he wanted to get across the image of Han as a cocky, devil-may-care, smug individual, stepping on Jabba's tail was just the thing, knowing nobody'd touch him as long as the promise of money hung before Jabba's eyes. Finally, I think the idea was to inject a little humor, sort of like the scene were thebigger droid smashes the crap out of the smaller droid that was taunting him. He was trying to be funny.
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janlomona
Smugglers Rants
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date Posted: Nov 26, 2005 2:28 AM
All good points, but when Lucas shot the scene with Declan, the `feel' of the scene, with Solo playing opposite a human, was very relaxed and almost casual. There is a hint of implied threat there, but nothing like what you would imagine from the slug.
The point I'm making is that the character of Jabba changed so much from his 1976 inception to the 1983 reality in Jedi, that scene became redundant. Jabba was, in no way, a fun character. And he wouldn't have become the most powerful ganglord in the outer rim and had folks like Fett working for him if he allowed an impudent smuggler to step on his tail in front of his employees.
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janlomona
Smugglers Rants
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date Posted: Nov 26, 2005 2:31 AM
As much fun as the scene was, it didn't really need to be there. Lucas threw it in partly to see if ILM could mat in a decent looking creature effect, and they couldn't, so the scene was dropped.
And besides, if he could alter Solo's entire character arc by not having him shoot Greedo in cold blood (like he had for the previous 20 years) then why try to shoe-horn this Jabba scene in?
Simple - Because in 1996 as opposed to 1976 ILM could. It was a lost scene from the archives that Lucas knew, along with other digital additions, would swell the box office of the special edition. And it worked, so hats off for that.
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janlomona
Smugglers Rants
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date Posted: Nov 26, 2005 2:33 AM
As for Fetts appearance - see the previous point. He put him in there because he could. From a story point of view it sort of makes sense, as Jabba almost never leaves his Palace, so he could and would pay for some heavy duty protection. But again, having Fett appear in the Special Edition was another lure to bring new and returning viewers to the show.
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