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If there was a bounty on Chewie, as we learned in ROTJ, why did Fett leave him behind in Imperial custody? Why not freeze him in carbonite too? Or just chain him up on Slave-1?

My best guess is that Vader wanted to keep Chewie in Imperial custody, after all he was the one calling the shots in cloud city.

Rhoades wrote:My best guess is that Vader wanted to keep Chewie in Imperial custody, after all he was the one calling the shots in cloud city.

Indeed, he says something along the lines of "Take the Princess and the Wookiee to my ship" in the carbon-freezing chamber. I seriously doubt Boba Fett was going to argue the point with him, especially since he had the bigger prize, Han Solo.

Galvatron wrote:If there was a bounty on Chewie, as we learned in ROTJ, why did Fett leave him behind in Imperial custody? Why not freeze him in carbonite too? Or just chain him up on Slave-1?

Fett was the one who tracked them and informed Vader they were heading to Cloud City, correct? If so, he could reasonably have asked for Solo after Vader was done with him as part of his fee. Why not ask for Chewie too? A combination factors, I would think.

1. A Wookiee is strong and hard to reliably contain onboard your ship. Especially one with good technical knowledge.

2. He would probably not be worth as much as Han, and you don't really want to push Vader. Just ask for Han as your fee (or part of it), don't tweak Vader's buttons, and still get the bigger reward.

Vader probably would have wanted Chewie as a symbol to both the Rebels and the Wookies. Chewie was a prominant Wookie in the Clone Wars and with him incarcirated would show the Wookies that resistance was useless.

Fett was obviously double dipping. Vader contracted him (along with the other bounty hunters) to 'find that ship' and it's passengers, while keeping them alive.

Fett did that, and presumably got the fee for it. Now, being a buisnessman; he see's another opertunity to get more money with either Han, Chewie or both from Jabba.

I'm guessing he pitched the idea to Vader who agreed to let him have one. Whether Fett got to choose, is anyone's guess. Pretty much he's looking for a double payday, two for one, but since he's already got one fee, he's not pressing his luck for the second.

Perhaps he was supposed to get Chewie as well but Vader 'altered the deal' and Fett, for all his 'He's no good to me dead' bravado wasn't about to open his mouth to complain.

The only reason Fett even got Solo in my opinion was so that Vader could test the carbon freezing chamber on Luke and that alone. If Vader didn't require a guinea pig, Fett would have had nothing.

I doubt that the bounty placed on Chewbacca's head was as large as Han's. Boba got the main prize, and didn't want to argue with Vader about second helpings.

Darth Fanboy wrote:The only reason Fett even got Solo in my opinion was so that Vader could test the carbon freezing chamber on Luke and that alone. If Vader didn't require a guinea pig, Fett would have had nothing.

The dialogue pretty heavily implies that Fett had already worked out a deal with Vader about Han prior to that, hence...

Fett: "What if he dies? He's worth a lot to me."
Vader: "The Empire will compensate you if he dies. Put him in."

Fett couldn't handle me. Too much badassitude.

Galvatron wrote:

Darth Fanboy wrote:The only reason Fett even got Solo in my opinion was so that Vader could test the carbon freezing chamber on Luke and that alone. If Vader didn't require a guinea pig, Fett would have had nothing.

The dialogue pretty heavily implies that Fett had already worked out a deal with Vader about Han prior to that, hence...

Fett: "What if he dies? He's worth a lot to me."
Vader: "The Empire will compensate you if he dies. Put him in."

As others have mentioned we already see how much Darth Vader cares about pre arranged deals. Han was at first the bait and then became the guinea pig, with Vader agreeing to let Fett have Luke since after Luke was lured to Bespin Vader could have cared less with what happened to Solo.

The original question about Chewie being left in Imperial custody? My guess would probably be interrogation purposes, and with a guy like Chewbacca that would have a strong chance of resisting interrogation torture methods and such it wouldn't be easy. I would surmise that Vader or an Imperial commander would have threatened the captive Chewie in some way. Heck if both of them were in custody Leia could be used as leverage on Chewie. Life debt to Han plus his instructions to take care of the princess and all.

It'a also possible Jabba didn't put out a bounty on Chewbacca until AFTER Han was captured as a way of putting the screws to the Wookie

Consider: Han is captured, and Chewie is now on the run for bounty hunters, making the recovery of Han that much harder, and really tearing into his whole sense of wookie honor, what with the lifedebt and all.

"Never kill your enemy when the hurt will be more effective."

We also know from Shadows of the Empire that Fett had to put in a few places before he got Han back to Jabba (several, if you followed the Marvel Comics Star Wars series). It's possible that Fett knew about this ahead of time (the man had to have a social life), and realised trying to hold Chewie through all that would be difficult at best, suicide most likely.

It's also possible between the finders fee for the Falcon (and possibly a bounty on each of the occupants), the 30,000 or so credits Jabba was offering for him was cump change, and he'd figure he'd do that later on when he got bored.

There's also the possibility he knew Chewbacca would come after Han, and he'd rather deal with him in Jabba's palace where he had the advantage.

Lots of possibles.


Then again, more then like Vader said: "Oh shut up about the wookie. I spilled some Hot Chocolate on the Emperor's favourite throw rug, and I need him as a replacement"

Don't want Wookie fur and smell all over the inside of Slave-one!

I think Vader wanted Chewie alive and possibly in Imperial custody for some reason. After all when Chewie went berserk, Fett raised his blaster at him and Vader slapped it back down.

That scene had always intrigued me.

A good job done for Darth Vader is probably worth more, in terms of potential future business, than Chewie's bounty anyway.