hey there! i think a few different writers took a crack at writing the origins of boba and han’s rivalry, but i personally favor the account given in the last one standing, one of, if not the earliest attempts to flesh out boba’s personality and backstory. a lot of it has been retconned since then (mostly for the better imo) BUT i do find its implications about the boba vs han rivalry delightful :D
basically, in the last one standing, boba’s rivalry with han is less one of pure enmity and more of a love/hate-type deal on boba’s side. let’s start at the beginning. boba and han are both young men, maybe early-to-mid-20s, and happen to be in the same drug kingpin’s den for different reasons. boba is there bc he was hired to kill said kingpin. note that this version of boba has issues with drugs—basically he associates them with abusive, predatory behavior For Mysterious Reasons related to some asshole named lenovar who he murdered when he was younger. that’s all we’re really told on the matter in this story, though later EU writers did their best to expand on this subplot in their own works (note the cws in the tags for that post). anyway, boba is there to kill this guy and han, meanwhile, is there as entertainment—he and a bunch of other poor bastards are being forced to fight in a free-for-all to entertain the kingpin’s guests.
boba happens to have some time to kill before things get murder-y, so he stops to watch han and the other fighters face off. at this point, he’s never met han before and has no idea who he is, but his eye is drawn to him all the same. at the same time, han notices a mandalorian battle helmet staring at him from the crowd and stares right back. the two make eye contact and—
well. there’s no getting around it. it’s kinda homoerotic. as in, “han maintains eye contact while slowly taking off his shirt and we get a description of boba’s pulse quickening despite himself as he watches this lone fighter simultaneously brave and scared and shirtless preparing for the fight.” boba proceeds to watch han not only hold his own against the multiple larger fighters, but also ultimately win the match. boba is so impressed that even years later, he describes it as “one of the bravest things [he] ever saw.” long story short, boba and han’s first not-really encounter ends with boba feeling nothing but warm-fuzzies for the guy... so why does he end up trying to kill him for the next several decades?
well, at some point after this, boba finds out han is a drug smuggler. you know how i mentioned earlier that boba in this story has capital-i Issues with drugs? yeah, that means boba takes this little revelation personally. basically, han goes from being someone boba admires to someone he absolutely loathes, pretty much overnight.
cue boba hunting han on multiple occasions and sometimes even delivering him to the client, only for him to continuously escape death at the last second. naturally, this only fuels boba’s grudge against him and the hunt goes on and on...
until one day, years after the end of the original trilogy, after boba has escaped the sarlacc, he’s on one final hunt for solo and then, at last, there comes the moment of truth. the hunt ends with han and boba standing less than a meter apart, blasters trained on each other. neither of them can fire a shot without risking the other one returning fire—and at this distance, boba’s armor wouldn’t save him. but, if he really wants it... boba can open fire. it’s likely he would die, too, but han would be dead. it’s what he’d come all this way to do.
and han? han is fucking furious.
like, i’m sorry, i have to include the exchange here, it’s just so fucking good:
Han did not dare take his eye away from the rifle’s sight, aiming at the base of Fett’s throat. “You killed those people back there. The woman.”
Han could have sworn he saw a shiver run up the bounty hunter’s frame. “I’m sorry about that. They—she—was not the target.”
Han almost pulled the trigger on him. He could hear the rage in his own voice. “You’re going to die and I’m going to die and maybe we both of us deserve it. That woman didn’t do any—”
“She’s the one who called me!”
Han took a step forward and screamed, “I don’t care!” He found to his amazement that he was standing with the barrel of his rifle jammed up against Fett’s armor, that the barrel of Fett’s rifle was digging into his own breastbone. “I don’t care what made you like you are, you think you get to decide who lives and dies, I don’t care, come on, pull the trigger and we’ll die together!” he stared into the black visor. “Last decision you’ll ever get to make.”
the drama! the emotion! the imagery of two narrative foils, guns literally at each other’s throats, locked in a final, visceral confrontation! how can you not love it? :D
and after everything he’s put han through, after everything he’s put himself through, standing there with a blaster digging into his throat, you know what boba does?
he finally, decades too late, comes to his senses.
he’s like, “wtf are we doing here, man? don’t you have a family now? why are you still smuggling things, making enemies? why am i even still hunting you? i don’t even want you to die. wtf is wrong with us?!”
and han is like “goddamnit i fucking hate you”
what follows next is an absolutely ridiculous scene in which boba and han argue EXTENSIVELY about who has to put their blaster down first. the problem is, of course, that neither of them trusts the other enough to do so, and thus it’s a lot of,
“put down your blaster and i promise i won’t shoot”
“no, you’re definitely lying. how about YOU put down your blaster and I won’t shoot”
“look, how about we BOTH put down our blasters and then just run like hell”
“no way, you’d run me down”
“fuck’s sake, I’M NOT GOING TO KILL YOU”
AND THE STORY JUST. ENDS. WITHOUT ANY INDICATION THAT THEY EVER CAME UP WITH A SOLUTION. i’m willing to bet they both just stood there, in the middle of nowhere, blasters pressing into each others’ throats, until they collapsed from exhaustion. like, i bet leia happened upon the scene like half-a-day later to find these two idiots both collapsed in a heap on the ground. just. sighs heavily while dragging han back to the falcon. calls a space-uber for boba while she’s at it.
of course, there are other versions of the origin of their rivalry, but like. this is obviously the superior one, just for the sheer drama and ridiculousness of it.
