weird things about the sarlacc and boba fett’s time therein, according to the expanded universe
i was talking about this in a mandalorian groupchat and felt it deserved to be shared on tumblr, so without further ado, here’s a bunch of fucked up shit that happens in the sarlacc according to star wars legends:
first weird thing about the sarlacc in the great pit of carkoon: it’s…. questionably sentient? basically, sarlaccs absorb bits and pieces of their victims until they achieve a kind of weird melded consciousness. and, perhaps due to the fact that it had absorbed jedi in the past, the carkoon sarlacc was like, prolific in this regard, to the point where it had a fairly well developed personality and identity that it basically ripped from its first victim, a young boy named susejo.
as “susejo,” the sarlacc would not only physically digest its victims alive, but psychologically torture them. this was discovered by an anthropologist who studied the video captured by boba’s helmet while he was in the sarlacc, which showed him reacting to stimulus that wasn’t there. it caused said anthropologist to speculate that the sarlacc not only fed on its victims physical bodies but also their fear and pain.
in fact, in “a barve like that,” a story written by moran under a pseudonym, we get entire conversations between boba and “susejo,” in which this man gets LITERALLY GASLIGHTED BY THE FUCKING SARLACC
susejo/the sarlacc basically tries to convince boba that none of this is really happening and that it’s all in his head.
it is entirely unsuccessful in this regard
that said, it also tortures boba by making him live through the dying memories of its other victims, so. that’s fun.
after pilfering through his mind for awhile, susejo/the sarlacc tells boba: “It’s been a long time since I had one like you, all bright and sharp around the edges. You are nearly a work of art, Fett; there is a clarity to you that is quite wonderful. A purity to your intent.”
(i read this description of boba fett more than a decade ago and it has lived rent-free in my head ever since.)
(also the sarlacc does this while hanging boba from a wall in a mockery of what he had done with han in jabba’s palace, which isn’t super relevant but is just cool thematically)
but not to worry! boba eventually escapes in very spectacular fashion
y’see, boba’s jetpack has an emergency panel that can activate the jetpack when switched. problem is, he can’t reach it with his hands bc the sarlacc has his arms pinned to the wall.
but one day, boba reaches his breaking point. susejo/the sarlacc is gearing up for another round of psychologically torturing its victims via memory share and boba just fucking snaps.
“You’re an ingrate, you pathetic excuse for a sentient being. You got taken down here as a child and everything that you know and everything that you are you owe to the people you let get eaten” - - and the Sarlacc’s tentacles spasmed around Fett, digging into him, hauling him back into the wall behind him–“and your feelings are hurt because I’ve told you so? You could have helped that Jedi, she’d have come back for you. Instead you spent the next four thousand years playing at philosophy, abusing the people who taught you to be what you are, never even dreaming that you had options, and why?” he screamed at Susejo, building up to it, blasting him with the rage and hatred he had spent a lifetime growing, the Sarlacc’s straining tentacles shaking against his body. “Because you’re stupid, a miserable mean wretch of an excuse for a sentient being without the imagination or the courage–” The tentacles slashed around him, a sound like a thousand whips cracking, drowning out Fett’s voice.
you may have noticed that, throughout the course of this excerpt, the sarlacc presses boba progressively harder against the wall–which just so happens to provide the pressure necessary to switch that emergency panel i mentioned earlier.
trapped between boba and the wall of the sarlacc, the jetpack explodes, badly wounding the sarlacc and throwing boba to the ground, arms free.
“Standing in the fire, burning alive, Boba Fett fired a concussion grenade into the ceiling thirty centimeters above his head, and threw himself down to the surface of the tunnel, into the flaming mixture of acid and fuel-The explosion tore apart the world. The concussion slammed Fett down into the flames, and his left arm, trapped beneath him at the wrong angle, snapped as he was smashed down atop it. A pain so great it was like a white light surrounded Boba Fett, and he knew that he was dying, that he had failed, like all the others before him, that he had traded a slow death by acid for a fast death by fire–Sand rained down upon him. A long time later, Boba Fett became aware that he was still alive.”
upon regaining consciousness, boba throws even more grenades, blasting a hole in the sarlacc until he’s able to claw his way out.
basically, it’s a good thing that boba fett does not regularly open up about all the rage and hatred inside of him on either a verbal or psychic level bc it’s apparently enough to overpower a fucking sarlacc.
even decades after escaping, boba remains haunted by not just his own memories of the sarlacc, but the memories of its other victims and their lives, forever mingled inextricably with his own. bc shitty traumatic memories are definitely something boba fett needed more of.
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