Warning! Spoilers ahead for Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #3
Rebels animated series, as well as Marvel's latest Star Wars comics series: Star Wars: Bounty Hunters. In the latest issue, Bossk crosses paths and brawls with the cyborg hunter Beilert Valance. As they fight, readers learn the purpose and reasons for why Bossk hunts bounties all over the galaxy: his religion. Read on to learn more.
Fans' first introduction to Bossk in the Star Wars universe begins with his recruitment by the Empire alongside other bounty hunters in the search for Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon in Empire Strikes Back. Bossk was hired alongside other hunters such as Dengar, IG-88, and the legendary Boba Fett. Star Wars: Bounty Hunters takes place just after the events of Empire, featuring a multitude of hunters going after the same high profile and largely lucrative bounty that is the elusive being Nakano Lash. For several hunters like Bossk, Fett, and Valance, the hunt for Lash is a personal one, with a bad history and desire for revenge fueling the hunt alongside the standard wishes to get paid. The hunt is so personal, in fact, that Boba Fett detours from his delivery of Solo to Jabba the Hutt to go after Lash, free of charge.
Valance is uncovering a trail that will lead him to Lash when Bossk catches up, seeking to eliminate his competition and gain the coordinates to Lash in Valance's possession. As they fight, fans get a flashback to when Bossk and Valance were a part of Lash's crew, before she betrayed them and instilled the bad blood seen in the present. Even back then, Valance and Bossk didn't like each other. After Valance threatens Bossk, the Trandoshan reveals his motives for hunting and killing across the stars.
He warns Valance to be careful, that all live and die as the Scorekeeper wills, and he himself is favored over his enemies by the Great Goddess. For Bossk, hunting is his religion. For every kill he makes, he earns spiritual "points" in his favor by the deity known as the Scorekeeper. The belief in the Scorekeeper is held by the majority of the Trandoshan species, with Bossk being one of the races' greatest warriors. It also explains why Trandoshans and Wookies are such rival races. In their religion, Wookies are considered some of the most high value scores when killed. As earlier books revealed, Bossk was less interested in finding Solo for Vader in Empire Strikes Back, and more concerned with killing Chewbacca for his own motives of worship to the Great Goddess.
The idea of the Trandoshans' religion of the Scorekeeper was a concept that was created before Disney's purchase of the Star Wars franchise, so for a time is was unclear for fans whether or not Bossk's beliefs were still part of the new official continuity. To discover that it does still exist and get referenced in places like Star Wars: Bounty Hunters is really cool, as it confirms that the intriguing and somewhat disturbing dynamic of Bossk's characterization is still intact, which should make long-time Bossk fans in the Star Wars fandom pretty happy.
