Jabba Desilijic Tiure/Legends

"If I told you half the things I've heard about this Jabba the Hutt, you'd probably short-circuit."

- C-3PO

Jabba Desilijic Tiure, or simply Jabba the Hutt, was a Hutt crime lord who ran a large criminal empire in the Outer Rim Territories from his palace on Tatooine.

A gangster in the making
Born on Nal Hutta, Jabba was the child of Zorba. He took formal control of the Desilijic kajidic when he killed the offspring of the former leader, Jiliac, as the old Hutt was dying following a grueling fight to the death with Durga the Hutt.

At the young age of 80, the up-and-coming gangster established his criminal empire in the out-of-the-way Tatoo system on its lone desert world, Tatooine. There, in 516 BBY, he moved operations into an old B'omarr Monastery and safely nestled himself in the planet's comfortable obscurity.

Rise of the Empire


Jabba started small, finding early work as a high-risk gun runner with his lifelong friend Ephant Mon. During Senator Palpatine's rise to supreme office, Jabba was one of several gangsters who made his bid for power. His competitors included Sise Fromm, the then-kingpin of organized crime in the galaxy, and Prince Xizor, fledgling heir to the Black Sun criminal empire. Though neither Xizor nor Jabba were by any means young, both had just been handed the reigns of power established by their respective criminal families. While Fromm played war games, Xizor and Jabba sensed the winds of change and spent their resources garnering favor with those who seemed to be shifting into power.

Jabba had a fierce rivalry with Gardulla the Hutt. When that rivalry got out of hand, he hired Jango Fett to finish her off for good. He was quite pleased when he heard that Gardulla was eaten by her pet krayt dragon. He was surprised that Fett never came to receive his bounty for Gardulla's death; he later found out that Fett was killed in the Geonosis Arena.

Jabba later went so far as to launch his own campaign against the Jedi Order during the purge. In this way, Xizor and Jabba built powerful criminal empires parallel with and in symbiosis to Palpatine's New Order. In the wake of the Clone Wars, circa 15 BBY, the galaxy's seats of power were still realigning. The Fromm family had begun to invest heavily in a covert project to build a powerful weapons satellite dubbed The Trigon 1. Using its orbital laser and an army of clones created though Imperial granted Spaarti cloning cylinders, Fromm was still making ambitious power grabs in his home system of Annoo. However, when both the Trigon and his palace were destroyed and his plans foiled, Jabba made a political move that established him as the "The Number One Gangster in the Galaxy." The quick-witted Hutt struck while the iron was hot and placed a bounty on the heads of the entire Fromm organization, aiming to crush them while they were still reeling from their losses. Through a series of bad turns with the bounty hunter Boba Fett, the elderly Annoo-dat gangster was captured and executed along with his son and chief officer of security.

Years later, Jabba took his ship and headed for the headquarters of Gaar Suppoon, an old acquaintance of his. Jabba informed Gaar that there was a bomb in his palace, but when the Empire sent Kosh Kurp to investigate, no bomb was discovered. After a heated dealing, with Jabba out-witting Gaar on every trade, Gaar tried to kill the Hutt. Jabba let loose a fatally poisonous Tromonid on Gaar which bit him almost immediately. Threatening to blow everyone up with a bomb he had, Jabba persuaded Gaar to give him everything they traded for a cure to the fatal bite. When Gaar was reminded about the bomb, he played along and asked Jabba to explode it. Then Jabba said Gaar's real name, Sono Bomoor. Kurp found out Gaar was the one who killed his family after hearing Gaar's real name. When Gaar shot at him, the shot bounced back and Gaar's head exploded. Kurp realized he was the bomb and that Jabba had concocted the whole thing.



While leaving the planet, Scuppa, the captain of Jabba's ship, spotted a Nuffin Freighter; they thought it might have a wealth of riches for the taking. When Jabba, Bib Fortuna, and two Weequays came onto the ship, apparently the Gamorrean guard didn't and stayed to guard the ship instead. When the group got in, they were ambushed and taken to Princess Nampi. She put the guards and Bib into the larder, while Jabba and Scuppa went head-to-head with Nampi. Jabba was eventually sent to the larder after refusing to give up his riches in the ship. Scuppa realized that he was now in charge, since Jabba was captive. Scuppa agreed to marry her for the sake of his life, not knowing that Nampi's species ate the male on the wedding night. When Jabba was called into her chambers, he realized that Nampi had eaten Scuppa. Jabba had a remote that would let out xenoboric acid in Scuppa's skull if Scuppa were to betray him. With little regret, he pushed it, and in a matter of seconds, Nampi exploded. He unlocked the guards and Bib, and told Bib to get as much of Nampi's hold as he could, and that he should "wear his boots."

He was then on his way to sell off Nampi's ship to Cabroll Nuum. After an argument with Nuum about the murder of Vu Chusker, Nuum sent Jabba to a spare room. In the middle of the night, his son Rusk Nuum wanted to kill his father, and Jabba proudly obliged. They successfully suffocated Nuum in his sleep. Jabba stated he and Rusk could become good dealers and partners. Rusk objected and sent Jabba to the deep holds. Jabba ran into Norba Nuum, who wanted Rusk dead. Jabba did so and crushed Rusk in Rusk's office with his own two hands. Then Norba ratted on him and sent him back to the deep hold. When Norba came to see the Hutt, Jabba laughed when she wanted Vu Chusker dead. He told her to listen up and got very close to the bars which separated them both. He pulled her into his mouth with his tongue and swallowed her whole. He then grabbed the keys and escaped. On his way out, he ran into Vu Chusker. Without warning, he crushed Chusker into the ground and hovered away to his ship on his repulsor sled, stating he should have just killed Chusker in the first place.

When he returned to his palace, his assistant Bib Fortuna recruited six of Jabba's more dissatisfied minions, including Nivek, to kill Jabba's guards and make him tell all of his secrets for him, even under torture. Unfortunately, shortly after they started putting the plan into action, Gru'um and Miramba unleashed a pack of freckers, spoiling the plan. Bib and the would-be assassins managed to kill all the freckers. Later, Jabba thanked Bib for being loyal to him, being a hero, and risking his life for Jabba. Fortuna couldn't kill Jabba after this. In any event, Nivek and the other co-conspirators died in the struggle with the freckers, taking Bib's failed plan with them to the grave.

Underworld overlord
"Jabba, you are a wonderful Human being."

- Han Solo

By the dawn of the Rebellion, Jabba had become the most powerful crime lord in the Outer Rim, perhaps even the galaxy, largely due to his near monopoly of the glitterstim spice business. By this time, the Desilijic kajidic had become the largest and most powerful among all the Hutt dynasties, trumping even their sworn enemies, the Besadii Hutts, whose business Jabba used every opportunity to attempt to destroy.



Even at the height of his reign, the crime lord dealt with recurring issues. Chronic illness caused him constant discomfort. Even his closest lieutenants had begun plotting his demise. The Hutt put his trust in no one other than his Nimbanese accountant Mosep Binneed and Ephant Mon, whom he made Chief of Security at his palace. It was at this time that the Hutt suffered a major financial loss when Han Solo, his best smuggler, dropped an entire cargo of valuable glitterstim while on a dangerous mission near Kessel. The smuggler was forced to dump the spice when he was boarded by an Imperial starship. Jabba demanded that Han pay him the value of the cargo. When the smuggler failed to reimburse his longtime employer, the Hutt put a bounty on Han's head. Greedo the Younger attempted to collect the bounty, but was killed by Solo.

Following the death of Greedo, Jabba confronted Han in the Millennium Falcon's hangar bay, where he agreed to let Han go in exchange for a premium of 15 percent, with a warning that if Han delayed payment again, he would have a price on his head so high that Han would not be able to go near a civilized star system. Though Binneed would pursue the acquisition of Han's debt personally at least two more times, he was ultimately forced to place a bounty on Solo which was eventually collected by Boba Fett (whom Binneed had personally hired).

After the Battle of Yavin, it was speculated that Jabba was the underworld kingpin who supplied the Imperial Dark Trooper project and provided the Empire with smuggling ships for that end. His thugs hunted Kyle Katarn since General Rom Mohc had put a bounty on his head. Katarn, however, managed to complete his mission on Nar Shaddaa by vanquishing all the thugs that hunted him, but Jabba's ship captured the Moldy Crow as they left the moon. Katarn and Jan Ors were imprisoned in the Star Jewel and fed to kell dragons, but Katarn was able to escape Jabba's clutches. However, this setback wasn’t a major for the operations of the crime overlord.

Black Sun


After the Battle of Hoth, Darth Vader sent an agent named Jix to spy on Jabba and to keep an eye out for Luke Skywalker and make sure nothing happened to him. While on Tatooine, he ran into Big Gizz and his swoop gang. They brought him before Jabba, since he was "looking for a job." When Jabba received word that Skywalker was more valuable to him dead, Jix was confused. He thought Vader wanted him alive, so with that in mind, when the gang ambushed Skywalker, Jix stopped Gizz from fatally shooting Skywalker by knocking him out with a rock. Skywalker took out the rest of the gang, while Spiker, another swooper, rode off with Jix. Jabba was furious and curious about the situation. He thought that was a great amount of luck for one man. He then explained that a change of plans has happened: Lord Vader wanted Skywalker dead (unknown to the Hutt that it was really Xizor who was attacking Skywalker). He had his suspicions about Jix, knowing the other bikers were too stupid to betray him. While in the meantime, Boba Fett was trying to get Solo to him after a few delays. When one of Jabba's aids found Jix messing with the security codes for a transmission, Jix killed him and took the key to the security code and transmitted to Vader. Right before Fett arrived, Jabba was wondering why one of his aids was murdered. Right after he accused Jix, Fett arrived. He offered five thousand credits to those who brought him Solo (so that he wouldn't have to pay Fett the outrageous price). Fett did manage to get through and collect the bounty that Jabba was hesitant to pay full price for.

Beauty and the beast


The delivery of Solo to Jabba's Palace greatly pleased the Hutt, but the Rebel Alliance tried their best to get Han back. First, Luke Skywalker sent his two droids R2-D2 and C-3PO there with a message and a gift. The droids were unaware that they were the gift. C-3PO was made Jabba's new interpreter, and R2 had become Jabba's waiter on his sail barge, serving drinks. After the two droids, Princess Leia, disguised as the bounty hunter Boushh, infiltrated the palace by taking Chewbacca as her "prisoner." Chewbacca was incarcerated in the dungeons while Leia remained in the palace.

Later that night, Leia thawed Han Solo out of the block of carbonite he was put in, but they were caught by Jabba, and Han was put in prison with Chewbacca. Leia was made Jabba's new slave girl, since the previous one, a Twi'lek dancer named Oola, was eaten by Jabba's rancor when she refused to embrace the disgusting crime lord, not wanting to be caressed and molested again. Leia was likewise defiled by the lecherous Jabba. As last of the group, Luke Skywalker arrived at the palace of the Hutt. He demanded the return of Solo and the Wookiee. Jabba did not agree and dropped Luke down a trap door. Along with the Gamorrean guard Jubnuk, Luke fell into the lair of Jabba's rancor. The rancor quickly killed Jubnuk, and then came after Luke. But Luke ran between the beast's legs to the other side of the monster's lair and killed the ferocious beast by destroying a panel that dropped a door down. The sharp points at the bottom of the door pierced the beast's neck and killed it. The rancor's caretaker, Malakili, was struck by depression when the beast died.



An enraged Jabba led Solo and Chewbacca, along with Luke Skywalker, out of the prison to the Pit of Carkoon to be fed to the fearsome sarlacc. Jabba and his entourage went aboard Khetanna, his private sail barge, and the prisoners were carried on a smaller skiff, with another skiff accompanying. Just before Luke was to be thrown to the sarlacc, R2-D2, who was working on the sail barge at that time, launched Luke's lightsaber from a hidden compartment in his dome. Luke immediately launched an attack against the skiff guards, and a state of panic broke out onboard Khetanna. Amid the chaos, Leia shorted the lighting system, distracting Jabba. Taking advantage of her opportunity, Leia wrapped her slave chain under Jabba's fleshy chin, and began strangling the Hutt. Jabba tried to fight the feisty princess off, but it was to no avail. Unable to save himself, and with his minions too preoccupied to help, Jabba Desilijic Tiure breathed his last breath. Shortly afterward, Leia destroyed Khetanna with a blast from its deck-mounted laser cannon. The fireball engulfed the entire barge, and presumably incinerated Jabba's body.

The death of Jabba cancelled the debts of many individuals, and as such, Luke was held with considerable favor for removing that dangerous complication in their lives. In response, Zorba placed a bounty on Leia, which the Desilijic kajidic later extended to Han, Chewie, and Luke. The bounty was not formally rescinded until Leia's election as Chief of State, as the Hutts did not wish to further antagonize the New Republic.

Many years after Jabba's death, many Hutts wished that he still lived, for if he had, the Hutts theorized that they would have avoided the Darksaber project and their disastrous deal with the Yuuzhan Vong.



His slaves
Jabba had numerous slaves at all different points of his carrier. Slaves of this type included Twi'leks, Humans, Rodians, and other unlucky female creatures that blessed his eyes. It's likely most, if not all, his past slaves were horribly killed or eaten to please the Hutt. His most famous slaves were the dancer Oola and Princess Leia Organa. During the Boonta Eve Classic, he had with him a slave named Diva Shalique. She was either sold or killed by the Hutt in the years after the race. Another slave in his grasp was the daughter of Jedi Master Ki-Adi-Mundi, along with her close friend. They were held hostage by the Hutt until they managed to escape.

Behind the scenes




The original Jabba wasn't a Hutt creature at all, but based on a background character in the Cantina. This version appeared in the Marvel brand comics in the late 70’s. He was known as Jabba the "Hut".

Jabba the Hutt looks suspiciously close to Arabic jabhat al ħūţ = "the forehead of the fish", which is a suitable name for the star β Piscis Australis when considered in terms of the old pictorial constellations.

If you flip an image of the original Jabba from Return of the Jedi, The face of Jabba looks very awkward and different than its mirror image counterpart. .

In the classic Star Wars spoof Spaceballs, Jabba (and Pizza Hut) are spoofed in the form of "Pizza the Hutt" who appears very briefly at the beginning of the movie.

A newer Star Wars spoof, Thumb Wars, introduced Gabba the Butt. He was a giant thumb with a face who was in the spoof very breifly as well.

Jabba's film appearances are often accompanied by Jabba's Theme

A New Hope


During the shooting of A New Hope, George Lucas filmed a scene in which Jabba confronted Han Solo in Docking Bay 94 following the death of Greedo. The scene was filmed using the actor Declan Mulholland playing a stocky human in a shaggy coat. Mullholland was intended to be only a temporary stand-in that would be replaced by a stop-motion creature in post-production, but this process was unsuccessful due to the limitations in visual effects at the time. The scene was left on the cutting room floor for the 1977 theatrical release of the film.

Despite being deleted from the film, the scene appeared in three early Expanded Universe adaptations: Marvel Star Wars 2: Six Against the Galaxy, the film novelization, and the radio drama. These three sources were produced using the original film script, which used the spelling "Jabba the Hut," and went to press prior to the decision to cut the scene. The radio drama replaced Jabba with a character named "Heater" and the comic adaptation presented Jabba as a species later identified as the Nimbanel. Jabba's appearance as a Nimbanel inspired the identification of the Nimbanese species as servants of the Hutts, and retconned an Nimbanel seen in the Mos Eisley Cantina scene into Mosep Binneed, Jabba's accountant.



For the Special Edition release of A New Hope, Lucas challenged his special effects team to resurrect the deleted scene with a CGI Jabba. The original scene had been staged for two ordinary-sized humanoid characters, and Harrison Ford had walked around the other actor without allowance for the bulk and large tail that the later version of Jabba would have. Lucas and his effects team dealt with this by manipulating the image so that Solo appears to walk over Jabba's tail and Jabba yelps in pained surprise. Further, Jabba was made significantly leaner than the version shown in Return of the Jedi. In addition, as Solo walks towards his ship, he utters that Jabba is a "wonderful human being." Lucas considered attempting to replace the line, but the cost of bringing in Ford for ADR work prompted him to leave it in. Fans read the line as typical Solo wit, since Jabba is neither wonderful nor a human being.

Further improvements in CGI techniques led to yet another version of the scene for the 2004 re-release, improving Jabba's appearance.

In "Sleight of Hand: The Tale of Mara Jade", a story included in the anthology Tales From Jabba's Palace, an unnamed employee of Jabba described as a "fat, scar-headed man" appears. He tells Mara Jade that Jabba used to send him to meet with people outside the palace in his stead, and that some people used to think he was Jabba. His physical description agrees with either the cut scene from A New Hope or the narration in the novel. Declan Mulholland also inspired the appearance of Opun Mcgrrrr, a character in the short story "Spare Parts," though that character was an enemy of Jabba's.

Return of the Jedi


For his appearance in Return of the Jedi, Jabba was realized using advanced puppetry. Based on the creature design of Phil Tippett, the animatronic puppet was designed by Stuart Freeborn and sculpted by John Coppinger, who also helped build the puppet alongside Bob Bromley, Mike Osborn, Bob Keen, Richard Padbury, Jez Harris, and David Barclay.

When the cameras were rolling, Jabba required four operators. Barclay controlled his right arm, jaw and voice (which was later replaced by Larry Ward's dubbing), Toby Philpott controlled his left arm, head movements and tongue, Mike Edmonds controlled his tail and Coppinger remotely controlled his eyes. With three operators inside the puppet, filming was a difficult, warm and arduous process.

Ed Asner voiced the role in the Return of the Jedi radio drama.

The Phantom Menace
Jabba made a minor appearance in The Phantom Menace using a better CGI model than the one seen in the A New Hope Special Edition. In the film's credits, Jabba the Hutt is credited as playing "himself". That was his last film appearance.

[[Media:jabba.ogg|Hear Jabba Desilijic Tiure]]

The Empire Strikes Back
Han Solo, C-3PO, R2-D2 and Chewbacca arrived at Tatooine ready to give their credits to Jabba. They were ambushed by Gand guards and brought before the Hutt. Jabba refused to accept Solo's money and ordered his execution.



Solo and Chewbacca were pitted against nexu beasts, but managed to escape with the help of Artoo. Their escape also unleashed the nexu, which wreaked havoc in the throne room. After the chaos was over, the wounded Jabba stated that rancor monsters were more controllable and ordered that his men find one. At that point, Darth Vader arrived and demanded to see Jabba's captives. The Hutt was forced to admit they had escaped. Vader took C-3PO with him as he left, meaning Jabba now had another expense to add to his growing list.



Return of the Jedi
Leia Organa, disguised as Boushh, infiltrated the palace with Chewbacca as her captive. However, when Jabba became angry at Leia's demands, he lashed out at his translator droid, C-3PO, resulting in the droid losing his head. Jabba ordered Boushh to be killed. During the resulting scuffle, Leia's thermal detonator was activated, causing those assembled in the throne room to flee in panic. Jabba was unable to move himself under his own bulk, and with his aide having deserted him, Jabba and C-3PO were caught in the explosion that destroyed his palace.

Mass Media


Ever since Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi hit theaters, Jabba was on every shelf and in almost every form. He hs appeared on fast food cups, arcade games, pillows, blankets, sheets, and socks. Jabba made a large impact impact as a Kenner action figure. The set of Jabba along with his Hookah pipe, Salacious Crumb and his throne was a major hit and stands as one of the most popular Star Wars action figures.

In 1997, Kenner came out with the Jabba that appeared in the special edition box set. He was poorly possible, but had a good slithering action and came with a great figure of Han Solo.

With the premier of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 1999, Kenner produced two more Jabba figures; Jabba the Hutt with the “Two Headed Announcer” which had a spitting feature. Unfortunately, the toy was unpopular among toy collectors who stated that the spitting feature ruined the figure completely. The second figure, the “Jabba Glob” had a feature which allowed you to make him eat his little creatures. As a result, it out-did the previous Episode 1 Jabba figure.

In 2003, Hasbro came out with the “Ultra universe” Jabba. To date, collectors say it’s the best Jabba figure they’ve seen.

Currently, Sideshow Collectibles is in the process of designing a highly detailed Jabba figure (1 ft, 6 inch.) which can be matched up with the older Star Wars 12 inch figure lines. This new figure will be released around 2007.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Republic: Prelude to Rebellion
 * Podracing Tales
 * Star Wars: Bounty Hunter
 * Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
 * Star Wars Republic: Outlander
 * Star Wars: Racer Revenge
 * Star Wars: Battlefront (Xbox Live content)
 * Star Wars: Battlefront II
 * Star Wars: Galaxies
 * Boba Fett: Hunted
 * Boba Fett: A New Threat
 * Star Wars: Droids
 * The Paradise Snare
 * The Hutt Gambit
 * Rebel Dawn
 * Underworld: The Yavin Vassilika
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
 * Empire at War: Forces of Corruption
 * The Jabba Tape
 * Tales from Jabba's Palace
 * Jabba the Hutt: The Art of the Deal
 * Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina
 * "A Hunter's Fate: Greedo's Tale"
 * Tales of the Bounty Hunters
 * Star Wars Infinities: The Empire Strikes Back
 * Shadows of the Empire novel
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
 * Star Wars Infinities: Return of the Jedi
 * LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
 * Zorba the Hutt's Revenge
 * Union
 * Return of the Ewok