Skorr

This article is about the bounty hunter. You may be looking for Tol Skorr, Dark Acolyte to Dooku.

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"Well, the bounty hunter we ran into on Ord Mantell changed my mind."

―Han Solo^[3]

Skorr was a cybernetically enhanced Humanoid bounty hunter active during the waning days of the Old Republic and the early reign of the Galactic Empire. A member of the Bounty Hunters' Guild during the Separatist Crisis, after 19 BBY Skorr worked almost exclusively on Ord Mantell. He had a particular loathing for an agent named Kestrel, who had encroached on his territory, though on several occasions he narrowly missed out on capturing her.

Several months after the Battle of Yavin, Skorr and his diminutive associate, Gribbet, kidnapped Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa in the hopes of luring Han Solo to their safehouse in the Ord Mantell outback so that they could cash in on Solo's hefty bounty with Jabba Desilijic Tiure. Solo was able to rescue his companions, however, and in the ensuing dogfight, Skorr was captured by Imperial forces and sentenced to the Spice Mines of Kessel for inadvertently distracting the Imperials and allowing Solo to flee. Skorr escaped and swore to enact his revenge on Solo; some time later, he teamed up with several other bounty hunters and kidnapped Solo on the planet Hoth. The bounty hunters were due to hand Solo over to Boba Fett, who would present him to Jabba, but when Skorr learned that Fett was working with the hated Empire, he decided he would rather see the Corellian dead than in Imperial hands. Skorr confronted Solo and his companions as they attempted to escape their cells, though Solo was able to wrestle him to the ground; in the ensuing struggle, Skorr accidentally turned the weapon on himself, and died.

Biography[]

Bounty hunter[]

"My name's Skorr. I'm with the Bounty Hunters Guild. Your father sent me."
"Why'd my father send you?"
"He said he couldn't make it."
"What happened to your head?"
"My beautician pulled a fast one. What happened to yours? ... Your father wanted me to tell you that the bounty you were working on has been called off."
"This hunt isn't over ... And if you don't plot a course for Balmorra right now, I'm going to make your head a whole lot uglier!"

―Bounty hunters Skorr and Bossk^[2]

A pointy-eared, yellow-skinned, Humanoid male, Skorr had become a notorious bounty hunter by the time of the Separatist Crisis. At some point in his life, he had an accident that scarred the left side of his face so badly that he had to wear a cybernetic face plate.^[4] He was a prominent member of the Bounty Hunters' Guild, working directly for the Guild's leader, Cradossk, and alongside Cradossk's son, Bossk. Just before the outbreak of the Clone Wars, Cradossk sent Skorr to retrieve Bossk from a prison on Kuat. Bossk had been imprisoned during a hunt for droid designer Hurlo Holowan, and Skorr was tasked with freeing the Trandoshan and relaying the message that the bounty on Holowan and several others whom Bossk had been hunting had been called off. Skorr was able to free his fellow bounty hunter, but Bossk insisted that they continue the hunt, hoping to enact his revenge on bounty hunter Jango Fett, who had twice inflicted severe stun blasts to the back of Bossk's head, ultimately resulting in Bossk getting imprisoned in the first place.^[2]

Skorr and Bossk set a course for the planet Balmorra, where they planned to capture Groodo the Hutt. They made it to Rigorra's fortress, where Groodo was residing, but were incapacitated by a toxic plant. Jango Fett and another bounty hunter named Aurra Sing had also been caught in the trap; the four bounty hunters were sent to a subterranean arena, filled with traps and other hazards, to face off for Groodo and Rigorra's amusement. They were told that the plant that had poisoned them would kill them if they did not take the antidote in time—vials of which were located in the arena—and that there would not be enough for each hunter, requiring them to have to fight for it. Fett and Sing captured the antidotes, though both Skorr and Bossk were immune to the poison's effect. Upon escaping from Rigorra's clutches, however, the two bounty hunters were, in the end, captured by Fett, who returned them to Cradossk in his ship, Slave I.^[2]

Hunting Kestrel[]

"She crawls my territory and steals from me, no less. She deserves a lesson."

―Skorr speaks to Bossk about Kestrel^[5]

By the beginning of the Galactic Civil War in 2 BBY, Skorr worked almost exclusively on the planet Ord Mantell, alongside other such hunters as Cypher Bos, Beilert Valance, and Giles Durane.^[6] He also worked alongside a small Rybet named Gribbet, who acted as his assistant, performing tasks of reconnaissance and espionage.^[4] Skorr had something of a grudge against an agent called Kestrel, who had stolen something from him and strayed onto what he considered his turf. Teaming up with Bossk—whom Skorr paid for his assistance—Skorr tracked Kestrel into a network of sewers on Ord Mantell, though Kestrel fled and they were forced to follow her through the dank tunnels. They almost caught up with Kestrel and fired multiple blaster shots at her, but Kestrel dove into a pool of sewage and hid from the two hunters. Bossk, not content with how the hunt was progressing, decided to leave Ord Mantell; with few other options, Skorr decided to call off the hunt.^[5]

Zuckuss Rookies — Skorr, with Zuckuss, 4-LOM, and Furlag

While in a local cantina, Skorr and Gribbet overheard a group of four aspiring Rebels talking of their attempts to join up with the Rebellion, and contacted Mar Barezz, an Imperial Security Bureau operative who was working in the system, telling him to travel to the surface. Skorr tracked the suspects to an Ord Mantell spaceport, and enlisted the help of several other bounty hunters—Furlag, 4-LOM, and Zuckuss—offering to split the bounty with them. He intended to capture the Rebels and hand them over to Barezz, making a hefty profit. When they arrived at the docking bay, Skorr realized that Kestrel was among the Rebel recruits; desperate for revenge, he attempted to capture her while the other hunters opened fire on the Rebels' ship. However, their efforts ended in failure, as the Rebels escaped with minimal damage to their ship, leaving Skorr furious. Furlag and the other hunters were also unhappy with him, and left Ord Mantell. The Imperials soon arrived on the scene, though Skorr had one last trick left up his sleeve.^[5]

Skorr located the man who had provided the Rebels with the ship, and, hoping to salvage something from the botched hunt, took him to Barezz and his men.^[5] Skorr watched as Barezz conducted the interrogation personally; the old Human was initially unhelpful, but eventually caved and provided them with the Rebels' coordinates. Skorr was dismissed and told that he would be compensated if the coordinates yielded success.^[7]

Hunting Solo[]

"…Ord Mantell promises to be a most profitable hunting ground after all!"

―Skorr, to Gribbet, after witnessing Han Solo's arrival on Ord Mantell^[4]

After the Battle of Yavin, a fleet of Imperial warships began to orbit Ord Mantell, which greatly affected Skorr's work. After successfully capturing many low-paying, low-profile bounties, he and Gribbet considered moving on to find pickings on another planet. As they prepared to leave, however, the two discovered something that persuaded them to remain on Ord Mantell: Han Solo, a man who had had a massive bounty on his head by Jabba Desilijic Tiure, and his Rebel companions, Leia Organa, Chewbacca, and Luke Skywalker, had landed in his damaged ship, the Millennium Falcon, on Ord Mantell. Skorr preached caution, however; Solo was talented with a blaster and had a knack for escaping, while his Wookiee friend, Chewbacca, was extremely strong physically. Knowing that direct confrontation would likely result in his own death, Skorr formulated a plan with Gribbet to kidnap Organa and Skywalker—who he believed were far more vulnerable targets—and use them to get to Solo.^[4]

Skorr gun — Skorr prepares to shoot Han Solo.

Gribbet and Skorr followed the group of Rebels for a time, waiting for an opportunity to strike at Skywalker and Organa if they separated from Solo and Chewbacca. They were presented with no such opportunity, though, and the group returned to their ship without dividing. Skorr tasked Gribbet to spy on them during the night while he himself prepared to pounce. Eventually, Gribbet reported that Organa had left the ship; Skorr intercepted her and wrestled her to the ground. Organa fought back, though, and it eventually took a nerve pinch to incapacitate her. Skywalker soon arrived and attacked Skorr with his lightsaber, but Gribbet arrived in the nick of time to shoot him in the back with a stun pistol. Skorr took Skywalker's lightsaber and fitted it with a homing beacon; Gribbet drove past the Millennium Falcon in a landspeeder and dumped the lightsaber at Solo's feet, so that he would know his friends had been captured. They also provided Solo with a datapad, which included a prerecorded message of Skorr's telling Solo to travel to the bounty hunter's safehouse in Ord Mantell's outback, without Chewbacca, whom Skorr saw as a major threat.^[4]

While awaiting Solo's arrival, Skorr took his two prisoners and bound them together, leaving them on the end of a thin metal beam hanging over the large canyon situated next to Skorr's safehouse. Gribbet reported that the Millennium Falcon was still in the docking bay, with its engines warming; Skorr and Gribbet assumed that it was being manned by Chewbacca, ready to lift off. Solo eventually arrived in a T-16 skyhopper, pleading with Skorr to recall the hostages and negotiate. Knowing Solo was stalling so that Chewbacca would have time to arrive in the Falcon, Skorr refused, and Solo climbed out of his skyhopper, ready to swap positions with Skywalker and Organa. However, Skorr was left confused when Gribbet reported that the Falcon was still in the docking bay; he was unsure why Chewbacca would leave the engines running if he did not plan to assist Solo.^[4]

Apprehension[]

"I suffered in the spice mines of Kessel because of you, Han Solo…and I won't rest until you pay for it."

―Skorr^[1]

The Rebels took advantage of this momentary confusion, and a small cargo flyer piloted by Chewbacca arrived at the safehouse. The cargo flyer had been flying at the bottom of the canyon, so Gribbet's sensors had been unable to detect it. With little other option, Skorr decided that he would have to take Solo to Jabba the Hutt dead, and began to fire at the Corellian on the metal beam. Solo was able to dodge the shots, however, and he, Organa, and Skywalker each dove off the beam. Chewbacca used the cargo flyer's tractor beam to gather up his friends, and the Rebels escaped Skorr's grasp.^[4]

Skorr apprehended — Skorr is sentenced to the Spice Mines of Kessel.

Skorr was not overly perturbed, though: Solo would be escaping in the Falcon, and Skorr's tracking signal was still in place. The hunters pursued Solo for a time in Skorr's starship until the Millennium Falcon set down on one of Ord Mantell's moons in the hopes of evading the bounty hunters. Skorr and Gribbet hovered around the moon, waiting for Solo to assume he had lost them and make a move. Eventually, the homing beacon showed that the ship was on the move, and Skorr sped after it as it approached one of the orbiting Imperial Star Destroyers. Skorr had been played by Solo, however; Skywalker had discovered the tracking signal and they had relocated it to one of the Falcon's escape pods, which they sent toward the Star Destroyers. Before Skorr could act on this revelation, the Imperials used their tractor beams to capture him, and he and Gribbet were taken aboard. Despite Skorr's insistence that he was a licensed bounty hunter, they believed he had purposely distracted them—and allowed the Millennium Falcon to escape—and Skorr was sentenced to prison in the Spice Mines of Kessel.^[4]

Skorr spent many months on Kessel, suffering greatly. As a result, he was left with a deep lust for revenge on Solo, and spent his entire time in prison plotting how he would pay the Corellian back. Skorr also harbored an immense hatred of the Empire because of his stay in the mines on Kessel, and cared as much—if not more—about enacting his revenge on the Empire than he did Solo.^[1]

Revenge[]

Skorr angry — Skorr is kept from attacking Han Solo by his fellow bounty hunters.

"I agreed to bring him alive…anything else is a bonus!"

―Skorr, to Dengar^[1]

Skorr eventually escaped, though, and teamed up with several other bounty hunters—including Bossk and Dengar—to capture Solo on behalf of Boba Fett. Skorr was more interested in revenge, but he agreed to allow Solo his life until they brought him to Fett on Ord Mantell. Solo had been captured by a pirate named Raskar on the planet Hoth, but the bounty hunters were able to commandeer the pirate's ship and themselves capture Solo, Skywalker, and Chewbacca. Upon seeing Solo, Skorr made a wild attempt to attack him with his fists; he had agreed to take Solo to Fett alive, but nothing more. The other bounty hunters did not wish to jeopardize their chances of cashing in on Solo's bounty and stopped Skorr, eventually ordering Solo and his companions to be relocated, away from Skorr; the cyborg took Skywalker's lightsaber, hanging it on his belt. Dengar was able to calm Skorr down, telling him that Solo would suffer far greater at the hands of Jabba the Hutt than Skorr did on Kessel.^[1]

When they exited hyperspace and arrived at Ord Mantell, however, they realized that Darth Vader's flagship, the Executor, was in orbit, indicating that the Empire had business on the planet. Skorr was worried that the Empire might snatch Solo from their hands or imprison the bounty hunters, though Dengar was confident in their chances of evading the Imperials. Skorr had Raskar and his men ejected in escape pods, before the bounty hunters put the ship down on Ord Mantell's outback. They received a comlink transmission from Fett ordering them to take Solo and Skywalker to meet with him and Darth Vader; Skorr was furious that Fett would work with the Empire that he loathed, and decided that he would rather have Solo dead than in the hands of the Empire.^[1]

Showdown[]

Skorr vs Solo — Skorr and Solo struggle in the deserts of Ord Mantell.

"Impossible! W-what…!?"

―Skorr, moments before his death^[1]

Unknown to Bossk and Dengar, Skorr sneaked into the holding pen where Solo, Chewbacca, and Skywalker were being kept and began to beat the Corellian smuggler, with the intention of killing him. Chewbacca's howls alerted Dengar and Bossk, though, and the two hauled Skorr away from the Rebels. The entire act had had a double purpose, though; Skorr was purposely careless with Skywalker's lightsaber in the hopes that the Jedi would use it to escape, allowing Skorr a clear shot at Solo. While the bounty hunters awaited Fett's arrival, their captives cut through the cells and escaped. As Fett arrived in Slave I, he saw the Rebels fleeing into the desert, and remonstrated with his fellow bounty hunters for their apparent ineptitude. Skorr knew that it was another of Solo's ruses, and while Fett and the others rushed off into the desert, he made for where the Millennium Falcon had been left.^[1]

Solo, Skywalker, and Chewbacca arrived within minutes, thoroughly surprised to see Skorr waiting for them. Skorr held them at gunpoint, knowing that his best revenge against both Solo and the Empire would be to kill all three Rebels there and then—retribution he did not care about. Solo pleaded with the bounty hunter to at least make it a fair fight and allow him a blaster, though Skorr refused. Just as he was about to pull the trigger, Skorr's arm moved and he fired wildly high; Skywalker had used the Force to stop him from shooting straight. Meanwhile, Solo tackled the bounty hunter heavily, sending the two of them over a small cliff. Although injured by the fall, Skorr attempted to grab his blaster; so desperate to shoot Solo, he accidentally turned the weapon upon himself. Skorr died on Ord Mantell and Solo escaped,^[1] though his encounter with Skorr would make him seriously rethink his allegiance to the Alliance, and the Corellian began to contemplate living a less high-profile life. Ultimately, Solo would be captured by the Empire and turned over to Jabba the Hutt.^[3] Solo's encounter was well known among the other Rebels in Echo Base,^[8] and it was reported on the Galaxywide NewsNets.^[9] Almost twenty years later, Solo would recount the tale of his encounter with Skorr to his eldest son, Jacen Solo.^[10]

Personality and traits[]

BountyHunter OrdMantell — Skorr, the bounty hunter of Ord Mantell

"I hate the Empire even more than I hate you! Before letting Boba Fett turn you over to Darth Vader, I'd rather kill you."

―Skorr, to Han Solo^[1]

Skorr was driven by revenge and old grudges, and the Humanoid never let go of grudges. He tried to kill Kestrel because she had encroached on his territory and stolen items from him, and was relentless in his hunts for her.^[5] Skorr built up an incredible amount of hatred for Han Solo while imprisoned on Kessel, and cared more for revenge than he did for success, credits, or his associates. He also hated the Empire with a passion, and was willing to risk his life to get back at it.^[1]

Throughout his career, Skorr showed a tendency to work alongside other hunters while searching for quarry, rarely ever participating on hunts alone. During the Separatist Crisis, he worked with Bossk to track down Holowan,^[2] later working with Bossk again while hunting Kestrel. He enlisted the aid of fellow hunters Zuckuss, 4-LOM, and Furlag while searching for Rebels on Ord Mantell,^[5] while he made great use of Gribbet during his career, having the Rybet perform a multitude of tasks.^[4] In his final hunt, Skorr worked alongside over six other bounty hunters, including Bossk and Dengar.^[1]

Behind the scenes[]

"In a strip where the Emperor and Darth Vader were the main villains, we couldn't have them doing much—we had to preserve their mystery. I thought a bounty hunter like Skorr would be a good character to turn into a villain."

―Archie Goodwin^[11]

Han Solo's reference to "the bounty hunter we ran into on Ord Mantell" in The Empire Strikes Back spawned many stories that attempted to document the incident. Han Solo had a brief, two-panel encounter with a fan-eared bounty hunter in issue 37 of the Marvel Comic in 1980. The first full story was a comic strip written by Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson in 1981, named The Bounty Hunter of Ord Mantell, which gave the previously unnamed character the identity of Skorr. However, numerous other sources have also tried to document the story, and so the hunters Cypher Bos, Alfreda Goot, Boba Fett, and Czethros have also been said to be that bounty hunter. The official StarWars.com Databank establishes that Skorr, whose story was told first, is the bounty hunter to whom Han Solo is referring.^[12]

Archie Goodwin originally created Skorr for use as a recurring villain in his Star Wars daily comic strip. He felt that overexposing Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader in the series would cause them to lose their mystique, so Skorr was created to serve as an antagonist to the strip's main characters instead.^[11]

Skorr has featured in several works set chronologically before his initial appearance, such as Rookies: Rendezvous and Star Wars Adventures 6: The Warlords of Balmorra. It has been postulated by Leland Chee that pointy-eared Humanoids like Skorr might be related to the Sephi.^[13]

In 2018, a character resembling Skorr appeared with Jaxxon in the Star Wars Forces of Destiny episodes "Bounty Hunted" and "Triplecross."