[deecee4]

Quote:

Originally Posted by En Sabah Nerd

I feel like the reason Boba Fett had so much merchandise planned even prior to the film's release was because of his original concepts wherein he played a drastically larger role of being the supreme trooper and Vader's right hand guy. Just going off of ESB he's a respectable character. Ignoring his looks which are the big reason for his popularity he has some presence in the film. During the hunter meeting Vader seems to specifically address Fett about no disintegrations, he is the only hunter who manages to track the Falcon (and somehow gets to Bespin ahead of them with the Imperials to set a trap), he frequently second-guesses or questions Vader's decisions and Vader doesn't just stare him into a corner, and then he successfully evades/scares Luke off before getting away with Han. So even without the cool armor he had some level of accomplishment. Of course then in RotJ Lucas decided that every single villain needed to go out like a punk.

Plus there's that cool moment when Vader stops Fett from firing at Chewie. Kind of implies he's a shoot first, ask questions later-type of guy. The no disintergrations comment infers that as well.