WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett "Chapter 7: In the Name of Honor," streaming now on Disney+.
With almost 45 years of lore behind it, the world-building of the Star Wars universe has become baked-in in many cases. Previously established facts and data are woven together well enough to take a great deal of the galaxy for granted, which was a key part of George Lucas’s original vision. Science fiction had a tendency to get bogged down in explaining the particulars of the universe instead of telling a story within it. Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope left a great deal of its setting as a given, which helped sell audiences on its lived-in qualities and allow the excitement of the narrative to take hold.
The Book of Boba Fett uses that principle to expand on Lucas’s world, particularly with Easter eggs. R5-D4’s appearance in Season 1, Episode 5, “Return of the Mandalorian” is a good example, connecting it and The Mandalorian to A New Hope’s reality with an otherwise incidental background character. But the strongest yet involves the show’s Wookiee, Black Krrsantan, who finds himself the subject of a very old Star Wars rivalry.
The Trandoshans are a reptilian species who first appeared all the way back in Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back. From the beginning, they were established as bounty hunters, with Bossk joining the likes of Dengar and IG-88 in a brief, tantalizing role call in front of Darth Vader. The novelization of the movie described his affinity for hunting Wookiees, which explained his participation in the search for the Millennium Falcon. That soon expanded to include a general enmity between the two species, and more or less became canon in Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 3, Episode 22, “Wookiee Hunt,” in which Chewbacca joins Ahsoka Tano and a group of younglings being stalked by Trandoshan hunters.
The species have been a quiet but integral part of Mos Espa’s power structure in The Book of Boba Fett from the beginning. They control the civic center, and their leader Dokk pays tribute to Fett in Season 1, Episode 1, “Stranger in a Strange Land.” They’re also among the civic leaders whom Fett asks for neutrality as the Pykes move in, and they participate in the betrayal of Fett and the ensuing assassination attempt.
Their rivalry with the Wookiees hasn’t been forgotten either. Dokk’s tribute in “Stranger” is a fur pelt of a suspiciously familiar cut. Black Krrsantan runs afoul of them later in the Sanctuary in Season 1, Episode 4, “The Gathering Storm” and indeed kills a number of them despite Garsa Fwip’s efforts to avoid bloodshed. Fett’s subsequent decision to hire him may or may not have played a role in the Trandoshan’s betrayal, but it clearly didn’t help their disposition regardless.
And Krrsantan is clearly their target during the climactic showdown in Season 1, Episode 7, “In the Name of Honor.” They rush him in a mob at the beginning of the battle, and though he fights ferociously, the ambush appears to overwhelm him. Even without the previous incident in the Sanctuary, it’s clear his foes take great glee in their task. Presumably, they intend to use his pelt as tribute to the Pykes after Fett’s defeat.
Sadly for them, the rivalry isn’t one-sided. Having already demonstrated the Wookiees’ vaunted ability to pulls arms out of sockets in “The Gathering Storm,” Krrsantan ultimately throws off the huge pile of Trandoshans on top of him to come to Boba Fett’s aid. The fate of his foes is left offscreen, which is probably for the best considering Krrsantan’s vicious temper and great strength. But it also taps into a much larger in-world cultural cache, slowly crafted over decades of content both in canon and out. It gives the sequence an added intensity, as well as confirming once again how hard The Book of Boba Fett works to bring its galaxy far, far away to life.
All episodes of The Book of Boba Fett are currently streaming on Disney+.