Ming-Na Wen’s Fennec Shand is one of the coolest new Star Wars characters to debut in the last few years. The master assassin began her career during the age of the Galactic Empire, with The Bad Batch showing her building a reputation as a ruthless and skilled bounty hunter.
The fall of the Empire didn’t slow her down one bit, though, and by the time The Mandalorian arrived, she was still a feared adversary, even to a warrior as skilled as Din Djarin. We saw her tangle with him in Season 1 episode “The Gunslinger”, in which she demonstrated her sharpshooting skills, as well as giving audiences a crash course in the morality needed to succeed in Star Wars‘ cutthroat underworld.
Shand currently has a starring role in The Book of Boba Fett as his second-in-command and bodyguard, proving her worth on multiple occasions.
However, the most recent episode showed it hasn’t been smooth sailing for her. In “The Gunslinger” we saw her take a blaster bolt to the chest, and by the time of The Mandalorian‘s second season, she was sporting robotic enhancements. Now, courtesy of The Book of Boba Fett episode “The Gathering Storm”, we know how she got them.
Fett overheard her confrontation, discovering her close to death in the Tatooine sands. Apparently recognizing her, he realized she could be a valuable ally, and carried her to a cybernetic chop shop. Here, she underwent a drastic cybernetic procedure on Boba’s dime.
The operation appears to have completely replaced her digestive system with robot parts, as well as strengthening her abdomen with hydraulics, which means she retains flexibility. Subsequent action scenes prove that going under the knife hasn’t affected her deadliness, while the way she quickly accepted her new body indicates that it’s not exactly unexpected for bounty hunters to end up part cyborg. We’ve also seen her eating regular food, so it doesn’t seem to be a huge inconvenience.
Her only real weakness could be the surgeon’s vanity. He left her chest cavity open to show off his work, which may allow an opponent to inflict some serious damage. In addition, they’re on a desert planet, and as all Star Wars fans know, sand is coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere.
I suspect Shand has a big role to play in the remaining episodes of The Book of Boba Fett, and the wider Star Wars universe, provided she makes it out alive. That being said, perhaps she’ll be a little more cunning from now on, unless she wants to lose other major internal organs.
