The Real Reason Even the EMPIRE Feared the Hutts

The Empire could have crushed Jabba at any time. Vader proved that in the first five minutes of their relationship. But Palpatine sent his apprentice to negotiate, not to conquer. Most fans remember Jabba as the slug who got strangled on his own sail barge, but the full picture across the comics, films, and reference books tells a different story. The Hutts controlled hyperspace routes the Republic fought a war to access, ran a workforce of bounty hunters and spies that the Imperial military borrowed for its own operations, and maintained a criminal government on the same planet where the Empire kept stormtroopers. This video traces the Empire's dependency on the Hutts from the Clone Wars through Jabba's death, and shows why removing him cost more than tolerating him ever did. Sources Used in This Script: Canon Sources Star Wars (2015) Marvel comic Darth Vader (2015) Marvel comic War of the Bounty Hunters (2021) Marvel comic War of the Bounty Hunters: Jabba the Hutt (2021) Marvel comic Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) theatrical film Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Season 3, Episode 9: Hunt for Ziro Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Season 5, Episode 1: Eminence The Empire Strikes Back (1980) Return of the Jedi (1983) The Book of Boba Fett (2021-2022) Legends Sources The Essential Atlas (2009) The Hutt Gambit (1997) Rebel Dawn (1998) The Clone Wars novelization (2008)