Was Jabba’s Rancor over the hill? Max explores why Jabba’s monster wasn’t as nimble as Muchi in The Bad Batch
In last week’s episode of The Bad Batch, we saw a juvenile Rancor in action and I have to say; he moves around much more nimbly than the one in Jabba’s dungeon from Return of the Jedi. He bounces around like a Pokémon and fights like a mini-Megazoid!
We don’t see any of that with the Rancor that tried to eat Luke. And while yes; 1980’s tech could not animate monsters to move very quickly but if you approach Star Wars from an in-universe point of view, it becomes a challenge to explain why there is such a difference. Rancor’s can live many centuries and Jabba’s may be at the end of its life. While Muchi is very young and probably has a lot more youthful energy.
He is also quite strong too, proving more than a match for even Wrecker’s strength. Also, Jabba’s Rancor was in a very enclosed space so it’s possible that it couldn’t move like Muchi because it had no room. Rancor’s are classified as semi-sentient in the Star Wars galaxy which means they have near-being intelligence like that of a chimpanzee or dolphin on Earth.
All in all, The Bad Batch has re-iterated just how lethal and powerful Rancor’s are and we must give a lot of credit to the Nightsisters (if this Legends fact is canon) in taming them.
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Author
Max Nocerino is a regular Staff Writer for The Future of the Force. He is a passionate Star Wars fan and loves the literature of the galaxy far, far away. Follow him on Twitter where he shares his love of the Force frequently!
