While The Mandalorian finale answered a lot of questions, it didn't reveal how Jabba the Hutt's weak-minded crony Bib Fortuna survived after Return of the Jedi long enough for Boba Fett to kill him. This Star Wars villain managed to overtake Jabba's palace, becoming a rotund, ineffectual hedonist sitting on Jabba's throne for the five years following the Battle of Endor. However, before his return in the Disney+ series, it was assumed in Bib died when Leia and Luke blew up Jabba's crew on the Hutt's pleasure barge.

To figure out how Bib survived, one may find the answer in the Legends continuity, where the treacherous Twi'lek is revealed to have survived the fall of Jabba's palace, finding himself picking up the mantle from his master. Only, Bib's fate is even more bizarre than what happened to him in The Mandalorian.

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Tales from Jabba's Palace

Jabba the Hutt Bib Fortuna Star Wars

The 1996 Star Wars Legends Canon novel Tales from Jabba's Palace is an anthology of short stories centered around Jabbah's palace, designed to expand the stories of the various colorful characters seen in the first act of Return of the Jedi. One short story, titled "Of the Day's Annoyances: Bib Fortuna's Tale," outlines how Bib Fortuna survived what should have been his doom. As it turns out, the moment things started going bad, Bib ran away. He took a skiff off the pleasure barge and sped off, never looking back. Knowing that there would be others who saught Jabba's fortunes, Fortuna fought his way to hoard all of Jabba's treasures for himself.

However, when Fortuna inherited Jabba's treasures, he also found himself taking command of a bunch of monks Jabba kept in the basement. The B'omarr Monks, who were Monks that ritualistically extract their brains and place them inside a droid, wandered up once Fortuna took over the palace. They then forcibly perform the same procedure on the villain, extracting his brain from his skull into a droid.

Fortuna is later seen up to no good in the X-Wing Rogue Squadron comics, luring Twi'lek Firith Olan to Tatooine. Olan intended on stealing Jabba's treasure, while also finding a vast array of ships, some of which were TIE Fighters. After the Rogue Squadron arrived, turning the battle against Olan, Fortuna exploited Olan at his most vulnerable, ordering the B'omarr Monks to place his brain inside Olan's body. From that point on, Bib had access to both Olan's and Jabba's resources and managed to rebuild the Hutt's empire anew.

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Bib Fortuna's Survival in Current Canon

Bib Fortuna from The Mandlorian

Bib Fortuna survived in Legends by running away, so it's fair to assume he survived in the current Star Wars canon in a similar way. Fortuna is a cowardly opportunist, leaving no doubt that the moment Jabba was killed by Leia, he ran for his life, taking a skiff off the barge and assuming command of his master's fragmented criminal enterprise.

It's uncertain if anyone even contested Fortuna's rule. With Luke razing Jabba's remains into the sand and the instability following the fall of the Empire, it's hard to believe that Fortuna slipped under the radar, but considering how it only took two people to eradicate all of Bib's guards, it's likely he didn't encounter too much danger.

It's clear that this version of Fortuna drew some elements from Legends canon, just without the scheming and plots inherent to the older iteration. When Fortuna's fortunes were challenged, he created a plot in Legends that put him in a far mightier position than ever before. When Fortuna was challenged at the end of Star Wars: The Mandalorian, Boba takes him out in seconds, opening up a lot of potential for The Book of Boba Fett.

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