Bossk/Legends

"Res Luk Ra'auf."

- Bossk to Admiral Piett onboard the Executor.

Bossk (meaning "Devours His Prey" in Dosh) was a Trandoshan bounty hunter and the pilot of the Hound's Tooth.

The Beginning
Unfeeling cruelty and often-uncalculating rages defined the bounty-hunting career of Bossk, born the son of Cradossk, leader of the Bounty Hunters Guild, on Trandosha. His very first act was to eat his unhatched siblings, something that made his father beam with pride. Being a Trandoshan Bossk began his career by Wookiee hunting, typically considered suicidal if attempted by any other species. During this time, Bossk made a name for himself and began accepting bounties on non-Wookiees as well, becoming one of the Galaxy's most feared bounty hunters.

Bossk onced teamed up with Skorr in a hunt for an agent known as Kestrel. They caught up with her on Ord Mantell, but failed to capture their prey.

Earlier in his career, Bossk had a run-in with Chewbacca and Han Solo that left him vengeful and angrier than even most other Trandoshans. The hunter and his partners had uncovered a Wookiee safe planet and caught the Wookiees, being led by Chewbacca, just as they were settling in. Just before Bossk could capture the entire group, which would have been a bounteous gift for the scorekeeper indeed, Han Solo returned and destroyed Bossk's ship by landing on it in the Millennium Falcon. The Trandoshan hunter was stranded and left to his own helpless rage. It is rumored that none of his partners survived his anger. After his first ship was destroyed, Bossk purchased the Hound's Tooth and continued his hunting but always kept a special place in his cold heart for his grudge against Chewbacca and Solo.

Under the Cartel and Consortium
Bossk then accepted a job by the Hutt Cartel to eliminate Tyber Zann after he deactivated the droideka Mark IIs on Hypori, but Zann later hired him away from the Cartel. He then assisted Tyber defending himself from the Hutt Cartel's landing forces. Bossk later assisted the Zann Consortium in several missions around the Galaxy, up until Tyber came to Carida to meet Imperial Grand Admiral Thrawn. Bossk then stole an expensive artifact from the Consortium and sold it to the Galactic Empire.

Taking Control of the Guild
As the rightful heir of the Bounty Hunters Guild, Bossk had been plotting his father's demise for some time. The Guild was everything to the brutal hunter, and he refused to watch his father's senile claws destroy what was rightfully his. After enacting a brutally efficient plot to overthrow Cradossk and set himself up as leader, Bossk went on a bounty with Boba Fett, IG-88, Zuckuss, and D'harhan where he narrowly avoided an assassination attempt by Zuckuss (who was working with Cradossk) by bribing the other hunter to his side. Bossk returned, to the surprise of his father, and violently slaughtered his father as the Guild complex erupted into a massive firefight. After this, however, the Guild had been split in half. Bossk was the leader of the Guild Reform Committee, which consisted mostly of younger hunters, and was fixed on destroying the True Guild, who he saw as old, lazy hunters.

Working With Fett... Again


Against his better judgment, Bossk again worked with Boba Fett to track down the rogue stormtrooper Trhin Voss'on't. After nearly dying, Bossk managed to help Fett capture the defect Imperial only to double-cross the other hunter. Bossk reasoned that Voss'on't's bounty could help give the Committee the upper hand in the Bounty Hunter Wars, and would do it much better if he collected all of it. After disabling Slave I's internal defense systems, Bossk captured Fett on his own ship. Luckily for him, Fett had foreseen this complication and had already hired Zuckuss to back him up after gaining the bounty. Bossk was subdued, and then Zuckuss was also double-crossed. Boba Fett in the only escape pod blasted the two hunters out of Slave I. Angrily, Bossk threw a bomb into Fett's ship just before he was launched, which gave the pod enough time to escape.

Even though Han Solo and Chewbacca again slipped through his claws due to help from Luke Skywalker, Bossk was one of 6 hunters hired by Lord Vader to hunt down and capture Solo. The Trandoshan hunter took it as a point of honor and revenge to capture his wretched Wookiee enemy and his weak Human counterpart. He grudgingly teamed up with Tinian I'att and Chenlambec, believing they had inside information about Solo's whereabouts. In fact, it turned out to be a setup to rescue an entire prison full of Wookiees. Bossk barely survived, and his ship was taken by I'att and Chen to ferry the Wookiees back. At some point he managed to steal his ship back, though.

The Final Encounter With Fett


Quite some time later, after Boba Fett's "death", Bossk had another run-in with the hated hunter. He was forced to abandon the Hound's Tooth in a panic as a bomb calmly counted down the seconds remaining to detonation. Again, Bossk found himself in an escape pod because of Boba Fett and seethed silently to himself. Suddenly, a countdown began echoing in the escape pod. In frenzy, Bossk tried to find the bomb, and managed to discover just as the countdown reached zero... and nothing happened. It was then that the hunter realized that he had been scared off of his own ship, and he now knew that Fett hadn't in fact been killed by the Sarlacc and was now using the Hound's Tooth as his own ship. Bossk landed on the surface of Tatooine, where he was stranded without any source of money. Luckily for him, he had managed to steal an important piece of evidence from Slave I that led to another show down with Fett in the Mos Eisley Cantina. Bossk held his ground against the fearsome hunter, refusing to give the location of the evidence without money, even with Fett's blaster trained on his forehead. Boba Fett uttered the unthinkable words "You win" and transferred a large amount of credits into Bossk's account in exchange for the evidence. It is believed that Bossk used this money (not to mention the new respect he earned for defeating Boba Fett) to get back on his feet in the bounty-hunting world. It is unknown when or if he retrieved the Hound's Tooth or what he did with the newly gained credits.

Retirement
Years after the Battle of Endor, Bossk retired from professional hunting. He still killed people from time-to-time, just for the feeling of it. He later ran into Han Solo on a space station orbiting Ord Mantell during the Yuuzhan Vong War. When he heard of Chewbacca's death, Bossk rubbed it in Solo's face... and got a fist in his snout. After the small encounter, Bossk and Solo were put into arrest cells. Solo was allowed to leave shortly before the invasion of the space station, but Bossk had to stay. His ultimate fate remains uncertain, yet it is said that a small pod went jetting out of the confinement cell area into space before the implosion of the space station.

Behind the scenes

 * Actor Alan Harris portrayed the role of Bossk in The Empire Strikes Back.
 * The mask used for Bossk was a repainted prop used for one of the Saurin characters featured in Chalmun's Cantina in A New Hope
 * In 1982, Kenner released a 3 ¾ inch action figure of Bossk for its The Empire Strikes Back line. The figure was re-released in 1984 with a Return of the Jedi card. Foreign variants of the action figure contained a tri-logo design on the card. Although Bossk did appear in Jedi, the 1984 re-release figure has him dressed in his flight suit from Empire. Bossk can be seen in his flight suit on Jabba's sail barge. Bossk was released again under the 1995-1998 Powers of the Force series.
 * The leg bands strapped around each of Bossk’s leg are flare pistol cartridges similar to those worn by the German Air Force during WWII. These flares were also worn by Rebel pilots.
 * In the video game Star Wars: Galaxies, you can sometimes find Bossk inside the cantinas of Tatooine where you are able to do quests on his behalf in order to gain rare items.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Adventures 4: Jango Fett vs. the Razor Eaters
 * Star Wars Adventures 5: The Shape-Shifter Strikes
 * Star Wars Adventures 6: The Warlords of Balmorra
 * Rookies: Rendezvous
 * Underworld: The Yavin Vassilika
 * Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption
 * Star Wars Missions 11: Bounty Hunters vs. Battle Droids
 * Classic Star Wars
 * Star Wars: Galaxies
 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
 * Therefore I Am: The Tale of IG-88
 * The Prize Pelt: The Tale of Bossk
 * Of Possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4-LOM
 * Marvel Star Wars 50: The Crimson Forever
 * Hunting the Hunters
 * Shadows of the Empire comic
 * Marvel Star Wars 71: Return to Stenos
 * Marvel Star Wars 72: Fool's Bounty
 * The Bounty Hunters: Scoundrel's Wages
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
 * Marvel Star Wars 85: The Hero
 * The Mandalorian Armor
 * Slave Ship
 * Hard Merchandise
 * X-wing: Rogue Squadron
 * X-wing: The Krytos Trap
 * I, Jedi
 * Tall Tales
 * Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial
 * The Lost Lightsaber
 * LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy