The Reason Jabba The Hutt Knew Leia's Rescue Plan
Regardless of whether or not Return of the Jedi is your “favorite” Star Wars movie, no one can say that it was not great. So much happened in the movie. We found out that Luke and Leia are brother and sister. We met the Emperor. Vader fell, and so did the Empire. Good won and the Force was brought back into balance. It closed out the original trilogy, but following the release of the prequel trilogy, it also served as the conclusion to George Lucas' six-film story.
Despite the saga's popularity, fans have poured hours and hours into breaking each film down, sometimes scene by scene to look for hidden meanings, plot holes and Easter Eggs. There was one particular small plot hole in Return of the Jedi that came to mind. Just how did Jabba the Hutt know about Princess Leia's plan to rescue Han Solo?
During the first half of the film, our heroes all ended up coming together again to save Han Solo from Jabba's Palace, where he hung as an ornament following his being frozen in carbonite at the end of the previous film. The first rescue attempt came from Leia. She disguised herself as a bounty hunter and tricked Jabba into believing she was there to deliver Chewbacca, the latter obviously in on the plan. A scene took place were Jabba tried to offer the hunter less reward money for the Wookiee, after which the hunter removed a device from inside his cloak. C-3PO translated for the crime lord and stated the hunter said he should get more because "he's holding a thermal detonator." Jabba laughed and agreed to the deal, admiring the hunter's boldness. This allowed the hunter to stay in the palace for a time, giving Leia the opportunity to rescue Han. Unfortunately, just as the two embraced and shared a loving moment, a curtain pulled back revealing Jabba and his entourage, seemingly from out of nowhere. Jabba clearly knew what was going on the whole time, but how? The film did not really provide any further explanation on this. Next thing we knew, Leia was chained up in her golden bikini.
Well the answer, it turned out, was in the canon junior novelization of the film, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi: Beware the Power of the Dark Side! According to the novel, it was Boba Fett who told Jabba that this new bounty hunter was a fraud. After collecting the bounty for Solo, Fett had hung around to do some work for Jabba, and was present for the events of the final chapter.
Now, Luke and Leia's overall plans required some real specific circumstances to unfold and a hell of a lot of luck, but this novel suggested that Leia's decision to play the part of a bounty hunter was a bit silly, as Fett would have surely seen right through the disguise immediately. In Star Wars: Forces of Destiny, a bounty hunter named Boushh tried to attack Leia on Ord Mantell. Fortunately, she was able to disarm him. Maz Kanata then suggested that Leia take his armor in order to infiltrate Jabba's palace. Following his escape, Boushh attempted to blackmail the Black Sun crime syndicate, but failed, paying for it with his life. Leia would now be impersonating a dead bounty hunter.
Since the events of Forces of Destiny took place before Return of the Jedi, a bounty hunter as prolific as Boba Fett would surely have known about one of his competitor's death by the time Leia turned up. He could then inform Jabba that it was not the real Boushh under the helmet. Jabba initially believed the impersonator to be a smuggler in stolen armor at first, so the revelation of it being Leia under the helmet was an unexpected, but pleasant, surprise. The Hutt's laugh and compliment now seemed more patronizing as he savored being just a few steps ahead of our heroes.
Even with the book clearing up this plot hole from the movie, the entire plan was still completely unbelievable from the start. It would have made more sense for them to come up with a plan involving all of them at once instead of each person executing their part individually. Jabba was expecting Luke to do something to save Han, thanks to his hologram message delivered by R2-D2 (who just happens to be hiding Luke's lightsaber within his body, ready to fire out at the opportune moment). So the arrival of a completely random bounty hunter, who was able to capture and keep the mighty Chewbacca at bay, was already going to raise some red flags, even if Fett had not said anything.
Thankfully, this convoluted plan led to some great scenes within the movie, especially as a showcase for Luke's newly made green lightsaber. The fact that the plot hole is resolved in the novelization for the film goes to show that you should always read the book as well.
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Until next time!
Source: Screen Rant