Boba Fett marked the first appearance of bounty hunters in the including Bossk and IG-88, which will once again be seen later in the saga.
The Mandalorian, a series that revolves around a Mandalorian bounty hunter, rather than just another Star Wars movie or show about the Jedi. However, it seems like there are still a few details about the bounty hunters that don’t really make all that much sense.
All Like Criminals
The way Star Wars handles bounty hunters makes it seem like they all are criminals in their own right. This is pretty strange considering they act as their own faction and are never really hunted down by unless their bounties cross with the Jedi wishes. In The Clone Wars, bounty hunters walk freely around the galaxy, even in Coruscant which is covered in the government, and Jedi, which begs the question, is bounty hunting legal? They certainly act as if they are criminals, but it seems that they aren't (at least, from their job title).
Are Bounties Legal?
In the franchise, bounty hunting could mean anything from taking an item from someone to downright killing. In old western movies, bounty hunters usually would travel around trying to find people who had been running from the law. But in Star Wars it always feels like bounty hunters are the ones on the run, trying to catch the next target and quick buck. But in the time of the Republic, and even in the Galactic Empire, it seemed like bounty hunters were always active, so is anything legal if it was for a bounty?
What Happened To Cad Bane?
Cad Bane is easily one of the coolest bounty hunters in the galaxy and was a fan-favorite character throughout The Clone Wars. But due to the untimely cancellation of the series after season five, Cad Bane never gets a conclusion.
Cad Bane isn’t really mentioned much again, even though he was the greatest bounty hunter in the galaxy after the death of Jango Fett. Hopefully, fans will hear of him or even see him again in the new coming Boba Fett series.
Why Don’t They Have Bounties Themselves?
As mentioned, it really seems like all of the bounty hunters are actually criminals. They honor their own code and ultimately don't listen to anyone but themselves, not even their benefactor could really make them listen if the hunter doesn’t want to. So it's curious why many of the bounty hunters don't have their own bounties on their heads. Surely, big names like Cad Bane or Aurra Sing were sure to piss someone off at some point to earn some money on their heads, so why aren't they sought out by other bounty hungry hunters?
Krayt‘s Claw
The faction known as Krayt’s Claw was pretty odd, due to the fact that it was led by an angsty Boba Fett during the time of the Clone Wars. This takes place just after Jango Fett is killed by Mace Windu, leaving the young Fett super angry at the Jedi Master and Order overall. In all his angst and rage, he somehow manages to convince a small group of bounty hunters to travel with him and seek revenge. A number of different characters, including Asajj Ventress, end up ing this group at different points. However, at this time, Boba was extremely annoying. It feels pretty odd that a group of highly trained professionals would go around, listening to this little kid all the time instead of just taking his stuff and leaving him behind.
Loyal Only To Themselves
Bounty Hunters are truly only loyal to themselves, so it makes it pretty bizarre that so many people would hire them to complete tasks and bounties when their employer can't even really trust them. Part of the code is that the hunter does the job without really asking about it. They accept, get the details, do the job, get paid, and then forget it even happened. But if they are really only loyal to themselves, wouldn’t the employer get often worried that the hunter would leak information later on? A prime example of this is in The Mandalorian, when he rescues Grogu back from the Empire, even after accepting the payment.
Asajj Ventress
For a short while after her time as the Sith apprentice to Count Dooku, Asajj Ventress became a bounty hunter. While this in itself isn't a problem, it is how it was all handled that definitely raises some eyebrows. For starters, she wasn’t much liked by the other hunters in the Guild. They knew of her as Dooku’s assassin and were just as wary of her as they were of the Jedi.
Ventress was disliked by her peers and by employers which should have limited her access to a few jobs, especially after her short time with Krayt’s Claw, when they all treated her horribly. She and former Jedi Quinlin Vos became a tag team that worked together in the novel Dark Disciples.
Pirates Vs Assassins Vs Bounty Hunters
In Star Wars there seems to be a difference between pirates, assassins, and bounty hunters. While in the real world there are very obvious differences between the three, the way the franchise handles the three makes them seem as though they are one and the same. Bounty Hunters and pirates steal from others, assassins and bounty hunters kill others for money, and pirates and assassins all act sneaky as can be and turn on others at a moment’s notice. It doesn’t really make much sense at how they are differentiated in the galaxy. While Honda is a pirate, he definitely gives bounty hunter vibes, and the same for Cad Bane, who seems like he would blend in perfectly with the pirates of Hondo’s crew. So other than their titles, what is the real difference?
Intentionally Mysterious
The truth behind the bounty hunters was intentionally left mysterious to leave some room for the imagination to come into play and to make them seem way cooler overall. Darkness and mystery often are powerful tools in storytelling to make a character (or in this case, faction) seem way cooler and intriguing than they actually are. Star Wars has a habit sometimes of explaining that very mystery away and it almost always fails. A great example of this is the midichlorians in The Phantom Menace used to describe the force. It managed to take all the mysticism out of the force. Leaving the bounty hunters and their code mysterious seems actually like a good thing, and maybe something that Star Wars shouldn’t have to explain.
The Bounty Hunter Code
The bounty hunter code had gone through a number of iterations after the expanded universe became legacy Star Wars and a new canon was indoctrinated into the franchise. In fact, there was even an entire book about the code that was released with the Jedi and Sith Codes as well. This book told its readers the rules and regulations of being a bounty hunter and the code they lived by. Things like a bounty hunter must never kill another bounty hunter, which relates back to the issue if a bounty hunter could even have a bounty on their head and stealing another hunter’s bounty. Both of these rules were broken by bounty hunters in The Mandalorian so it is extremely unclear if at this point in the timeline this code of conduct is still in play or if the Guild of this post-empire era established a new code for themselves.
