This month, Lucasfilm gave us our first look at Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett and fans are already discussing a brand new ship named Bonnec. Could Bonnec become canon in the Book of Boba Fett? Let’s review what we’ve learned so far about Boba and Fennec and discuss.
What is Bonnec?
Well first of all, when we talk about the ship Bonnec, we’re not about ships that fly through space. We’re talking about a romantic relationship or “ship” that may or may not become canon. Specifically, it is the new portmanteau given to the idea of a romantic relationship between Boba Fett and Fennec Shand.
This potential ship was talked about a bit when the two were shown together in the Mandalorian season 2. Now that the pair have their own series together, buzz over Bonnec has started again. Could The Book of Boba Fett make Bonnec canon?
Let’s break this down!
Fennec Shand and Boba in The Mandalorian
Fennec first appeared in season 1 of the Mandalorian as a top-class assassin. She killed for criminals, including the Hutts before they were arrested or killed themselves.
Ming-na Wen’s Fennec Shand is ruthless and efficient, but little else is known of her. She is shot in the stomach by Toro and seemingly left for dead.
However, season 2 of the Mandalorian shows that Fennec Shand is alive and well. She has been saved by none other than the bounty hunter Boba Fett.
Fennec and Boba bear Din Djarin no ill will and are prepared to help him keep Grogu safe and retrieve Boba Fett’s armor.
Fennec and Boba are shown working together as a team. They are clearly comfortable with each other. As Ming-Na Wen has pointed out, Fennec can give Boba orders, and he will do them without question.
We see that Fennec and Boba in the Mandalorian both possess a sense of honor and fairness despite being in careers that can foster unfair and cruel behavior.
Most importantly for Bonnec, they both show that they trust and rely on each other. Boba may run the show in claiming the throne, but he doesn’t treat Fennec as his lackey.
We don’t fully understand the motivations behind Boba Fett saving Fennec Shand. He may have done so to gain an ally. Or, as many fans speculate, he may have met Fennec in the past.
Has Fennec helped Boba before? Were they always friends? While we’ve seen Boba work with others in the Clones Wars, the relationships don’t seem to have the sense of mutual respect and teamwork that Boba X Fennec has.
Fennec Shand in the Bad Batch
The Bad Batch shows us a much younger Fennec. In addition to showing us that she barely ages and has a great skin routine, we see a 20 something Fennec that will other work than killing.
Nala Se hires Fennec Shand to protect Omega, the unaltered clone of Jango Fett. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, Omega is the sister to Boba Fett (Alpha).
As of right now, Boba Fett is about 14 to 15 in the first season of the Bad Batch. If Omega has met Boba, it has not been stated, but it’s unlikely she has.
However, both Omega and Boba are destined to meet, it’s just a question of when. But Fennec Shand is in a unique position of having met them both. What will that mean for Boba Fett and Fennec’s relationship?
We see that Fennec Shand has lived a tough life at an early age like Boba. She believes one has to bend the rules at times. Fennec has no issue killing innocent people to achieve her goal.
But it’s difficult to say she will still believe that now that she is in her 40s. Both Boba and Fennec are different people than they were decades prior.
Boba Fett and Bonnec
Boba Fett is a character long known to Star Wars fans. In canon, he is efficient and brutal, but he is never sadistic. Unlike Fennec Shand, he truly does care about not getting civilians hurt.
In comics, he has repeatedly shown that he will take on any bounty and kill or capture them in keeping with the Bounty Hunter’s code.
But as shown in a recent issue of Star Wars 2020 and War of the Bounty Hunters, he returned a blaster to Princess Leia, showing that he does not consider her an enemy.
As I’ve written in a previous blog post, Boba Fett possesses a strong sense of justice. He has gone through life with a sense that justice was denied him when his father was killed.
But his sense of pain and injustice has not let him become a monster.
Furthermore, we still have not learned of his life outside the sarlacc’s mouth. In the Mandalorian, Boba Fett seems to have changed into a wiser man, and more magnanimous than we’ve previously seen.
He has chosen Fennec above any others to be his ally, and that is a story we’ve yet to see explored, but it is certainly a worthwhile setup to Bonnec being a possibility in the Book of Boba Fett.
Could Boba X Fennec aka Bonnec happen in the Book of Boba Fett?
Could Bonnec happen? As with many ships, it is difficult to say since the series hasn’t started yet. For now, the only thing we know about their relationship is that Boba Fett has saved Fennec’s life, and she is helping him in return.
Ming-Na Wen said in a recent interview that
“I guess the only way I can answer your question [Does Fennec love Boba] is that obviously Fennec loves Boba Fett because he saved her, but at the same time probably doesn’t appreciate him because he saved her, and now she owes him this huge debt.”
So at the least, whatever relationship Boba and Fennec have, be it friendship or otherwise, it will be complicated for Fennec. But that complication simply adds to the drama and makes for an interesting conflict between them.
In Star Wars, good romance stories have an element of conflict to them, something for the characters to work through together, or eventually fall apart. This is true for Anidala, Hanleia, and of course Reylo.
So their story will already have some character conflict, which should make this an intriguing story, no matter how it goes.
But that conflict, between two people who work so well together that they don’t even need words, but whose sense of independence puts them at odds, is a fine recipe for a romantic drama. After all, The Book of Boba Fett will certainly have external conflict, but the story will need an internal conflict as well.
There are certainly several things that point to a possible romance between Boba Fett and Fennec Shand. For one, Star Wars stories are more than just pew pew and laser swords. The Mandalorian teased a masked Din Djarin fighting people, but gave us a tender father son relationship with Grogu.
The Book of Boba Fett is likely to continue that tradition of action and heart. The relationship between Boba Fett and Fennec Shand will likely be pivotal to the story.
Of course, you already have a minority on Twitter who don’t want a relationship between Boba and Fennec before it even begins. And that’s fair. But so far most folks on Twitter seem positive or open to Bonnec as a potential ship. The Book of Boba Fett will certainly have a story that explores these two hardened, but older and wiser people’s relationship to each other.
As for myself, I’m open to whatever the story has planned for us and can’t wait to see how it evolves. I think it would be nice to see a romance between two older characters in the Star Wars universe rather than the young 20/30 somethings, but I’m just as happy to see them be BFFS.
Let me know what you think on Twitter!
