Boba of Tatooine
In "The Tribes of Tatooine" (The Book of Boba Fett 1.2), Boba Fett leads a party of Tusken Raiders in a daring attack on a train traveling through the desert. The sequence overtly recalls a famous scene from the classic film Lawrence of Arabia, in which British officer T.E. Lawrence leads a party of Arab guerillas in a bold attack on a train in the desert.
This is only the most explicit clue that the flashback storyline in The Book of Boba Fett is meant to evoke Lawrence of Arabia, a major influence on Star Wars. Both stories revolve around a loner (Boba Fett, T.E. Lawrence) who lacks close relationships with his own people but forms a partnership with desert-dwelling nomads (the Tusken Raiders, the Arabs). In both cases, the desert natives are fearsome fighters when it comes to older modes of warfare, but find themselves outmatched by technologically advanced enemies (as represented by the trains in the desert). Boba and Lawrence help their new allies harness technology that evens the playing field against their more advanced foes.
In both Lawrence of Arabia and The Book of Boba Fett, the hero's acceptance into his new tribe after a rite of passage is marked by a dramatic change of costume. In Lawrence of Arabia, Lawrence wins a place among the Arabs after braving the pitiless Nefud Desert and receives flowing white robes from his friend Sharif Ali. In The Book of Boba Fett, Boba wins a place among the Tusken Raiders after going out into the desert and finding a branch to craft into his Tusken staff; he then receives flowing black robes from his new friends. Boba's Tusken costume bears more than a passing resemblance to a color-inverted version of Lawrence's Arab costume, with flowing robes of one color broken only by a different-colored belt across his waist.
Lawrence and Boba are both haunted by the absence of their fathers. A pained Lawrence admits to Sharif Ali that he did not inherit the name of the man who fathered him out of wedlock. Boba's vision during his initiation revolves around his father, Jango Fett, who died when he was young. (As a clone of Jango, Boba – like Lawrence – was "fathered" apart from marriage.) For both men, acceptance into a new tribe promises to fill the void left by their absent fathers. In both stories, though, these desert alliances are tragically short-lived, leaving the loners alone again.
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Characters: Boba Fett
Shows: The Book of Boba Fett
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Influences: Lawrence of Arabia
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