Star Words: Episode VI, Part 4

[matril]

During the next few scenes we experience the truly repugnant nature of Jabba the Hutt and the nasty little empire he's built. Threepio and Artoo are confronted with a veritable den of droid torture, and somehow it's all the more horrifying that the punishment is enacted by other droids. Then we watch Jabba vent his displeasure with a dancing girl by dropping her into a pit where an unseen monster lurks. The execution also serves as entertainment for Jabba's motley court. Talk about a wretched hive of scum and villainy.

Which leads us to our next quote. In the midst of this gruesome spectacle, another bounty hunter enters, leading Chewbacca on a chain. When the negotiations for a bounty grow contentious, Boussh goes ahead and threatens Jabba with a thermal detonator. While everyone else cowers in fear, Jabba...laughs.

"This bounty hunter is my kind of scum."

Yup. That sums up Jabba's taste in company pretty well. It also makes us very concerned for Chewie's fate, unless we've already guessed who is hiding beneath Boussh's mask. Or perhaps if we notice Lando in a guard disguise toward the end of the scene. Jabba is a nasty brute, but maybe he's playing right into the heroes' hands? It's delightful to watch their plot unfold; I only wonder what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Next time, Sleeping Beauty is awoken by his princess...

Comments

[krpalmer]

I hadn't really thought before about "Jabba being the one being who isn't intimidated by Boussh producing a thermal detonator," especially given "bravery in the face of threats is generally supposed to make others think better of you," but there is the thought that "just walking in and assassinating the boss right there doesn't raise much of a chance of getting out alive yourself." So far as "watching the plot unfold your first time around," I'd mentioned a few weeks ago how Threepio is our viewpoint character; with that thought in mind I am sort of tempted to suppose it could have just been overwhelming and intimidating, "bad going to worse."