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Fennec Shand is one of the more recently introduced Star Wars characters that has been given the limelight in the universe. Her skills with a rifle have made her infamous in the galaxy, and her partnership with Boba Fett is becoming an iconic one to follow.
Since she’s a new character, you may be wondering about her backstory and what else she’s done over the years and through the wars. We’re going to look through all of that in this bio and see how she became the infamous master assassin that everyone is wary of.
Bottom Line Up Front: Fennec Shand is a human female bounty hunter who rose to fame during the Galactic Civil War. She worked for all the well-known crime syndicates and grew a reputation for being an excellent assassin.
She went into hiding as the war ended as all her clients were imprisoned. This led to a bounty being placed on her head. Din Djarin came to claim the bounty along with another bounty hunter named Toro Calican.
Toro shot her in the stomach and left her to die on Tatooine. Boba Fett saved her, and the two of them started working as a team to claim the remnants of Jaba the Hutt’s crime ring on Mos Espa.
Description/Overview
Not much is known about Fennec Shand’s early life or where she came from. Her story starts after the conclusion of the Clone Wars. She started bounty hunting and doing mercenary work around that time.
Even though she was inexperienced in the profession, her skills as a fighter and marksman quickly gave her a reputation. That reputation kept building over all the years of the Galactic Civil War.
One of Fennec Shand’s first highly notable jobs was to bring Omega back to Kamino. Omega was an unaltered female clone. All the other clones were males trained for war, making Omega an incredibly high-profile person.
The person who hired Fennec to do the job was Nala Se. She had Omega’s best interests at heart and wanted to protect her from Lama Su, the prime minister of Kamino.
However, Omega had left Kamino with the Bad Batch, a group of altered clones who didn’t follow Order 66 due to their clone inhibitor chips not functioning properly because of their mutations.
She escaped with them from Kamino by choice and didn’t want to go back. This led Fennec Shand’s job for Nala Se to be met with resistance even though Nala Se was trying to help Omega.
On Fennec’s original attempt to capture Omega, she gained the clone girl’s trust and shared many wise words with her. However, her deceitful attempt was thwarted by Clone Force 99 as they fought her off and forced her to retreat.
Fennec Shand later found out that Cad Bane had been hired by another Kaminoan to capture Omega as well. She would be competing with him on the job, bringing her toe-to-toe with one of the best bounty hunters in the galaxy while she was still early in her career.
Cad Bane captured Omega and was preparing to hand her over on a planet called Bora Vio. Fennec traveled there to claim Omega for herself. She killed the Kaminoan that was going to pay Cad Bane and took the payment for herself.
When Bane arrived, Fennec taunted him and expressed how she needed to take Omega. The two fought, and Omega was rescued by the Bad Batch amid all the commotion.
In the following years, Fennec Shand earned the title of being a master assassin, and she began working with the top crime syndicates in the galaxy. Whenever a high-profile target needed to be assassinated, Fennec Shand was hired to do the job.
She even worked with the Hutt Clan on many occasions, and they have always been known as the top crime lords in the galaxy that only hire the best bounty hunters.
Because of the reputation Fennec gained for herself; she became a wanted criminal by the end of the Galactic Civil War. The New Republic had arrested Fennec’s former employers, and many of them ratted her out for doing their jobs. So, a bounty was placed on her head.
She spent the time after the war running away and hiding from people trying to collect her bounty. She was successful for a time until Din Djarin came to Tatooine to claim the bounty on her. Din Djarin was a Mandalorian bounty hunter who had a reputation for being excellent at his job.
When Din Djarin started hunting her down, he was joined by another bounty hunter named Toro Calican. The two agreed to work together as Fennec Shand had positioned herself in a good position in the desert. She lay between rocks with her sniper rifle, ready to shoot anyone who crossed the dunes to get to her.
Din and Toro managed to get near her while using flash charges and speeder bikes. They fought her in close-quarters for a while, and the two bounty hunters were eventually able to subdue her.
One of their speeder bikes had been destroyed in the battle, so Din had to travel back to where they came from to get a Dewback that they’d all fit on. While he was doing this, Toro Calican shot Fennec Shand in the stomach and left her dying to claim the bounty on Din Djarin for himself.
Boba Fett saw the flash charges from across the dunes as the battle was commencing. He traveled to find the source of them, and he found a dying Fennec Shand.
He took her to a mod-parlor and paid someone to apply droid parts to her wounded stomach. Fennec survived because of this, and she woke up to Boba Fett standing above her. She promised to help him find his ship and his beskar armor to make up for saving her.
The pair reclaimed Slave I from Jabba’s Palace, but they couldn’t find Boba’s armor on Tatooine. Fennec suggested that they track Din Djarin, who was another Mandalorian with beskar armor. They tracked him to the planet Tython. Din and his companion, Grogu, were there as they were trying to get Grogu to reach out to Jedi through a seeing stone.
Fennec and Boba threatened Din and requested him to give Boba’s iconic armor back. While this was happening, a group of Imperials approached the planet to claim Grogu. Fennec Shand and Boba Fett helped Din Djarin fight them off. However, Grogu was captured by a group of Dark Troopers.
Fennec Shand and Boba Fett helped Din Djarin recapture Grogu, who was taken by Luke Skywalker to be trained as a Jedi after the whole ordeal. After this, Fennec and Boba traveled back to Tatooine with the plans of taking over Jabba the Hutt’s empire and having Boba Fett serve as the new daimyo of Mos Espa.
The two were met with a lot of resistance from the other crime lords in the city, so they spent time gaining respect from the citizens and displaying how Boba would lead with honor integrity instead of inducing fear as Jabba did.
The mayor of Mos Espa was secretly working with the Pyke Syndicate on an illegal spice trade deal. The Pykes were going to run their operation on Tatooine, and Boba Fett protested this. Over the next while, Boba and Fennec gathered troops to defend Mos Espa when the bulk of the Pyke forces arrived. One of their allies included was Din Djarin.
A final battle ensued in the city between the Pykes and Boba Fett and his allies. While it initially seemed as if the Pykes were going to be victorious, Boba Fett rode a rancor that was gifted to him by the Hutts, and it changed the tides of the battle.
During the battle, Fennec Shand traveled to where the head of the Pyke operation and the mayor of Mos Espa were hiding, and she assassinated them along with everyone around them. After this, she and Boba were ready to take on anything else that may have interfered with their rule over Mos Espa.
Key Moments
- Fennec Shand starts her bounty-hunting career near the end of the Clone Wars.
- She is hired by Nala Se to capture the escaped clone girl, Omega.
- She fails to capture Omega and fights Cad Bane in the process. Cad Bane is an infamous bounty hunter, giving Fennec Shand a valuable experience of battling him.
- She continues to work as a bounty hunter during the Galactic Civil War and eventually earns the title of being a master assassin.
- The war ends, and a bounty is placed on her head. She hides on Tatooine.
- Din Djarin is sent to collect the bounty on her. He captures her with the help of Toro Calican.
- Toro Calican shoots her and leaves her for dead.
- Boba Fett rescues her and gets her healed at a mod shop.
- Fennec Shand and Boba reclaim Slave I and get Boba’s armor from Din Djarin.
- After helping Din Djarin recapture Grogu, they travel back to Tatooine and kill Bib Fortuna in Jabba’s Palace.
- Boba Fett proclaims himself as the new daimyo of Mos Espa with Fennec Shand at his side.
- They defend Mos Espa from the Pyke Syndicate and stop them from running a spice trade on Tatooine.
Fennec Shand Themes
Galactic Civil War
While we only see scenes of Fennec Shand working during the Galactic Civil War in The Bad Batch, we can assume that she did some great things. The Star Wars universe is massive, so the fact that she had a strong reputation makes her an incredible character.
Although she never appeared in the original movies, she would have been working in the same league as bounty hunters like Cad Bane, Boba Fett, Embo, and Bossk.
Since she’s a fresh character in the Star Wars universe, there’s a high possibility that we’re going to see her again. Some of the new Star Wars TV shows, such as Kenobi and Andor, are set during the time of the Galactic Civil War, so we may see more of Fennec Shand’s exploits in these.
Relationship with Boba Fett
Fennec Shand’s relationship with Boba Fett is one of the prime driving forces of her character. While we get her background of being a lone assassin in a large galaxy, it’s her partnership with Boba that grows her story.
The two of them bond over their past of working for criminal clients that didn’t care much for them. They both used to value money over integrity, taking any job they could no matter how dangerous it was.
Boba Fett saved Fennec Shand from certain death. Her loyalty to him is highly justified. However, they’d make a great partnership even if Boba never saved her due to their shared past experiences.
Fennec plays a vital role in Boba’s position as the daimyo of Mos Espa. She does most of the talking when it comes to negotiations. She also advises Boba on matters that he seeks advice on.
They both gave up their lives as bounty hunters to rule over Mos Espa, and they’re both constantly growing in their integrity. Whereas in the past, the easiest route to success would just be to kill people that oppose them in any way.
The two of them guard each other with their lives and share a powerful bond because of this. It helps that they’re both some of the greatest fighters around. Fennec is the ultimate marksman, and Boba is an all-out warrior. His training with the Tusken Raiders also helped his fighting abilities significantly.
Special Abilities
Fennec Shand’s prime abilities are her skills with blasters and rifles. She’s an excellent marksman, and she’s able to shoot targets easily from far distances. Her primary weapon of choice is her sniper rifle.
Most of her targets were taken out from far when she was working as a mercenary for hire. However, she’s a strong fighter in close quarters combat as well. She’s even seen shooting targets while leaping in the air.
She’s also able to hold her own without blasters. Her display of hand-to-hand combat is impressive, and it’s gotten her out of many situations over her career. The combination of weapon skills and raw fighting skills is what makes her a force to be reckoned with.
Lastly, she has fantastic stealth skills. She managed to easily kill the head members of the Pyke Syndicate and the Mos Espa mayor on Tatooine without any of them seeing or knowing where she was coming from.
All these attributes are what gave her the reputation for being such a threatening assassin. She’s not the person you’d want to be hunting you down as you may not even see her before she kills you.
Key Quotes
- “A Mandalorian. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen one of your kind.” – Fennec expressing to Din Djarin how rare it is to see Mandalorians after most of them were wiped out.
- “You want to be a bounty hunter? Make the best deal for yourself and survive.” – Fennec giving Toro Calican some advice that she learned over her long career of bounty hunting.
- “And if you remember, I don’t miss.” – Din Djarin instantly recognizes Fennec Shand’s voice after assuming she was dead after their encounter on Tatooine.
- “It’s okay to break the rules sometimes.” – Another classic bounty hunter saying.
- “The galaxy is a dangerous place to be on your own.” – Fennec Shand giving Omega some advice that is both concerning and threatening.
- “You all accrued wealth and riches under Jabba the Hutt. You can again if you listen to Boba Fett.” – Fennec doing the talking while Boba Fett stands there looking menacing in front of the crime lords of Tatooine.
- “People like us don’t get to decide when we’re finished.” – Fennec Shand to Boba Fett about how bounty hunting and mercenary work never ends.
- “If you had spoken such insolence to Jabba, he would have fed you to his menagerie.” – Fennec threatening those who opposed Boba Fett, but also showing that he is more merciful than Jabba the Hutt.
FAQs
Question: How Did Fennec Shand Survive?
Answer: After being shot in the stomach by Toro Calican, Fennec Shand was left for dead. During the battle between her, Toro, and Din Djarin, the Mandalorian shot off flash charges to blind Fennec. Boba Fett saw these flashes from across the Tatooine dunes as the battle commenced.
Boba Fett traveled to find the source of them, and he found a dying Fennec Shand. He took her to a mod-artist who installed droid parts on her body in order to survive. Boba saved her, and she remained at his side afterward.
Question: Is Fennec Shand a Villain?
Answer: Fennec Shand was a bounty hunter, meaning she was neither good nor bad. She just did jobs that paid her money. Some clients had jobs that were for the betterment of people, while others served their own sly interests.
After the fall of the Galactic Empire, she stopped taking jobs and hid on Tatooine. She can’t be considered a villain at this point as she was just trying to survive.
By the time she teamed up with Boba Fett to claim Jabba the Hutt’s territory, she had taken on the role of a protagonist. However, I wouldn’t say that she’s a hero. Fennec and Boba are still crime lords.
Question: Why is Fennec Shand Loyal to Boba Fett?
Answer: He saved her from certain death on Tatooine. Originally, Boba asked her to help him reclaim his ship and find his armor as payback. She was free to go after that. However, she decided to stay with Boba Fett and join him in other things that he was planning to do.
She was a wanted assassin with a large bounty on her head at this point. So, staying with Boba was wise as they could look out for each other. At this point, Boba Fett also went through a lot of character growth, and he valued loyalty over money for bounties.
The two of them were no longer bounty hunters. Instead, they were starting to build a safe and secure empire on Tatooine.
Question: Will Fennec Shand Appear in More Star Wars Shows?
Answer: It’s highly likely that she will. She was introduced in the first season of The Mandalorian. She returned in the second season with the reveal that Boba Fett survived and saved her. After that, she appeared in a few scenes of The Bad Batch, which is an animated Star Wars TV show that follows a group of clone troopers with genetic mutations that never followed Order 66.
It’s likely that she’ll return in more seasons of all those shows as she’s become a key character in them. It hasn’t been stated if there will be a second season of The Book of Boba Fett yet. But she’ll undoubtedly be in that if it comes out, if not any others.
Conclusion
We have undoubtedly not seen the last of Fennec Shand. With all the Disney+ Star Wars shows being connected, she could easily appear in most of them. Her prime story lies with Boba Fett, though. The two of them work as a team to rule over Mos Espa, with Boba Fett as the daimyo.
She was initially loyal to Boba because he saved her, but she decided to stick with him as she didn’t want to go back to a life of bounty hunting and assassinations. While she does a bit of assassinating here and there for Boba, it’s mostly for a good cause at this point!
Fennec Shand is an excellent character, and she still has so much unexplored potential within the Star Wars universe. If you want to see all the scenes she’s been in, you need to watch The Bad Batch, The Mandalorian, and The Book of Boba Fett.
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