With the smashing success of The Mandalorian, nerds everywhere have started to debate who is the best bounty hunter might be in a galaxy far, far away. While everyone will have their own personal opinion about the best Star Wars bounty hunter, criminal lawyers in San Diego know that from a legal perspective, things are a lot clearer. Here’s who is the most law abiding bounty hunter in the Star Wars universe between Greedo, Boba Fett, The Mandalorian and IG-11 -assuming these star systems abide by the same laws as California.
Greedo: A Simply Terrible Bounty Hunter
We start with Greedo not because he’s the best Star Wars bounty hunter (in fact, he’s pretty bad), but because he is the first bounty hunter featured in the series and is the worst at upholding the law. That’s because bounty hunter cannot use force unless necessary. Whether or not Han shot first, there’s no denying that Greedo pulled his weapon on Han when the two were simply having a conversation about Jabba putting out a warrant for his arrest. Bounty hunter or not, Greedo just committed assault, and as we pointed out in a prior article, because had a reasonable belief that his life was in danger, Han was completely justified to shoot Greedo in self defense.
Boba Fett: The Best Star Wars Bounty Hunter
Boba Fett differs drastically from Greedo in that he is not only stealthier, but also more law abiding. In fact, he’s the best Star Wars bounty hunter in the live action shows and movies. Whereas Greedo’s strategy was just to approach Han and aim his gun at him, Boba followed his target and then notified the Empire before securing his bounty. In fact, a bounty hunter is legally required to give law enforcement at least six hours that they are going to apprehend a fugitive before moving in and in Star Wars, the Empire is the residing government body.
Additionally, Boba’s insistence that Han be kept alive also means he is following the law to the letter unlike Greedo by not using deadly force unnecessarily. In fact, Boba even argues against freezing Han in carbonite despite Darth Vader’s insistence on it out of fear that his target could be harmed. While many people unfamiliar with the law like to argue that this would be false imprisonment, it would actually be a legal citizen’s arrest by a bounty hunter and if Han later attempted to bring up charges (assuming Boba survived the Sarlacc pit), criminal lawyers in San Diego agree they would be instantly dropped once Boba showed that he was acting with the Empire to obtain a legal bounty.
The only real arguments you could make about whether Boba is operating legally are to question whether or not he is securing a legitimate bounty in the first place and if he is operating out of his jurisdiction. But the fact is that in this era, the Empire is the governing law throughout the region and while he’s collecting a bounty for a crime lord, the crime lord is considered a legal governor by the Empire -meaning it is a legal bounty, not a criminal kidnapping.
As for the jurisdiction, that’s simply a matter of Boba’s licenses. In the US, a bounty hunter from one state cannot operate in a state they are not licensed to operate in. However, given that Boba is working directly with the head of the Empire on collecting this bounty in one Empire-owned territory for the government of another, it’s fairly safe to assume he’s operating under the law.
The Mandalorian: The Mostly Legal and Ethical Bounty Hunter
We actually don’t get to see Greedo or Boba Fett for all that long compared to the other characters of the Star Wars, but given that the Mandalorian is the star of his own TV show, we really get to know him better than the others. We also know he is operating in a much different era than Boba and in fact, that’s where he falls behind Boba Fett. Whereas Boba’s work was entirely legal because he was operating under the authority of the Empire, the Mandalorian’s contract with Imperial Forces was completely illegal as the Rebels successfully overthrew the Empire government and stormtroopers and generals are all war criminals.
In fact, despite all the killing the Mandalorian does, working with the Empire is one of his greatest faults. In fact, most of the killing the Mandalorian does is legal because it is in self defense or defense of others. Even when he storms the Imperial safe house, he only acts after ensuring that The Child (aka Baby Yoda) is put in mortal danger. At the same time, it’s not entirely excusable given that the only reason The Child is in this danger is because the Mandalorian handed him over as part of an illegal bounty.
Of course, you’d be hard pressed to find criminal lawyers in San Diego or anywhere else in the galaxy that would be able to completely defend the Mandalorian from charges stemming from the time he and IG-11 stormed the compound where The Child was originally being kept. There is no way he could claim to be acting in defense of others when he had no proof that The Child was in danger -nor did he even know, at the time that he was working to claim a bounty on a child. While IG-11 tells those in the compound that they were violating the new government’s laws by harboring someone with a bounty on their heads, this is highly unlikely to actually be the law given that, again, this bounty was issued by war criminals. By joining in on this assault, the Mandalorian is just as guilty of murder as IG-11.
IG-11: The Worst Bounty Hunter in Star Wars
While IG-11 proves to be one of the most dedicated nurse droids in the universe, he wasn’t nearly so honorable while operating as a bounty hunter. Aside from lying about the law giving him the right to murder everyone in a compound over an illegal bounty, IG-11 proves to be acting outside of the law given that he immediately tries to kill The Child when he discovers him, which is against the Bounty Hunter’s Code itself. The Bounty Hunter’s Code states that while it’s legal to kill a target who is attempting to escape (not the real law in California, thank goodness), it is illegal to kill someone already subdued and unable to resist as that makes someone an assassin rather than a bounty hunter.
In fact, IG-11 is the worst of the bounty hunters in Star Wars because while programmed to do nothing more than hunt bounties, he actually proves to be an assassin rather than a bounty hunter.
As you can see, no matter what your personal opinion, there’s no denying Boba is the best Star Wars bounty hunter if you’re looking at things from a law-abiding standpoint. If you have been accused of a crime in this galaxy or the next, criminal lawyers in San Diego like Peter M. Liss can help. Please call (760) 643-4050 or (858) 486-3024 to schedule a free initial consultation.
Image by FrancescoValla
