Boba Fett's Armor Explained: How Did He Get It And What Can It Do?
Notorious "Star Wars" bounty hunter Boba Fett is easy to recognize, thanks to his trademark Mandalorian armor. He first showed up in the animated segment of the infamous 1978 "Star Wars Holiday Special" (a sequence titled "The Story of the Faithful Wookiee"), long before anyone knew what a Mandalorian even was. The character took off in popularity thanks to his live-action appearances in "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi," but it wasn't until 2002 that Boba and his armor got an official backstory in the "Star Wars" movies.
"Attack of the Clones," the second film in George Lucas' "Star Wars" prequel trilogy, revealed that Boba is actually a clone of Jango Fett — himself an armor-clad Mandalorian bounty hunter and the genetic basis for the clones that make up the Grand Army of the Republic. As part of his deal with the Kaminoan scientists responsible for creating the Republic's army, Jango received a non-genetically altered clone to raise as his son, who he named Boba. After the Jedi Master Mace Windu killed Jango in combat during the First Battle of Geonosis, Boba grew up and became a successful bounty hunter in his own right, even wearing Jango's armor as a way of honoring his father. Of course, it helped that Mandalorian armor is incredibly useful when you're someone in Jango and Boba's dangerous line of work.
Mandalorian armor - What is it good for?
Mandalorian armor typically includes a helmet with a T-shaped visor and metal plates that cover the most vulnerable parts of a person's body, including their chest, shoulders, and forearms. However, what really makes the armor powerful is that it's made of Beskar, an incredibly strong alloy native to the planet Mandalore. Not only is Beskar durable enough to repel most blaster fire, but it can even withstand lightsaber strikes. In fact, things might have gone very differently for Windu during his showdown with Jango, had he not managed to land a precise blow with his lightsaber right through Jango's neck (perhaps the most vulnerable spot not protected by Mandalorian armor).
In the modern "Star Wars" continuity (which rendered the "Expanded Universe" stories about Boba non-canon and made them part of "Star Wars Legends"), Boba's armor is seemingly the reason he managed to survive falling into the Great Pit of Carkoon — the resting place of a deadly creature known as the Sarlacc — on Tatooine in "Return of the Jedi." The Sarlacc was seemingly unable to digest the Beskar in his gear, giving Boba the opening he needed to escape before it could finish him off. Boba's armor was later acquired by Jawa scavengers and sold to Cobb Vanth, the sheriff of the small Tatooine town Mos Pelgo, who then gave it to yet another Mandalorian armor-clad bounty hunter named Din Djarin, as seen in Season 2 of "The Mandalorian." This led Boba to pursue Din all the way to the Deep Core planet Tython to retrieve it. It's little wonder he did, given its deep personal meaning to him on top of its practical value.
But what about that dent?
There is one trait that distinguishes Boba Fett's Mandalorian armor from other sets, and it's a peculiar dent in the helmet, which wasn't there when Jango wore it. At 2017's Star Wars Celebration, Lucasfilm Animation head and "The Mandalorian" executive producer Dave Filoni revealed animatic footage from an unaired story arc on the animated "Clone Wars" series that would've explained where this mysterious dent came from. The clip revolved around an Old West-style showdown between Boba and Cad Bane, another extremely cool bounty hunter, that resulted in Cad landing a shot on Boba's helmet. Suffice to say, Boba was lucky his helmet was not only made of some of the strongest material in the galaxy but that he also had it on at the time.
Intriguingly, the first season of the animated "Clone Wars" spinoff series "The Bad Batch" features an appearance by Cad Bane with a previously-unseen metal plate on the left side of his head. It's speculated this is a nod to his duel with Boba (which left Cad terribly injured), although it's anyone guess whether "The Bad Batch" Season 2 or a future "Star Wars" project — like "The Book of Boba Fett" — will make that explanation canon.