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Jabba the Hutt:

Your mind powers will not work on me, boy.

Why was Jabba immune to Luke's powers of the Force in Return of the Jedi?

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4 Answers 4

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The Jedi mind trick only works on the weak minded. Jabba was not easily influenced. Watto was also immune. "Mind tricks will not work on me. Only money."

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    In addition, all Hutts are immune to force mind tricks: starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Hutt
    – Tony Meyer
    Commented Jun 5, 2011 at 4:13
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    It seems that certain species in the Star Wars universe are completely immune to Force persuasion.
    – Mark Rogers
    Commented Jun 5, 2011 at 6:09
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    I think Jabba's species immunity played a bigger role than his having a strong mind. I mean, only a weak minded fool lets a scantily clad woman, with bad hair, kill him.
    – Ryan
    Commented Jun 5, 2011 at 9:35
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    In SW:CCG Jabba has force level 4, which means he is Force Sensitive.
    – mbx
    Commented Jun 5, 2011 at 14:50
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    @Ryan: How does Leia have bad hair?
    – bitmask
    Commented Mar 16, 2012 at 20:04
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It's entirely possible that to influence someone's mind, you have to have a pattern to do it with - you have to know, generally, how you want to manipulate their thoughts.

Jabba, as a Hutt, has a significantly different brain structure than humans (and human-like creatures). Luke is inexperienced at manipulating thoughts.

Essentially, to manipulate thoughts, a Jedi forms the thought that they want the other to have, and 'pushes' it into their mind. Experienced Jedi can do this easily, and can do it without obvious sign if they want. It's easier if the subject thinks along the same lines, or you have their attention. Qui-gon waves his fingers - drawing attention to himself - and speaks. Obi-wan, in the first movie, does the same, as a demonstration of the power of the Force to Luke.

Later, Obi-wan does the same to stormtroopers in the Death Star, without being obvious. He can do this because he's highly trained and experienced, and the thought is simple: "I heard something over there."

Against species with very different thought processes and/or brain structures (and chemistry?) the difficulty is increased significantly.

Bib Fortuna had a sycophantic personality - he was easy to manipulate because he liked to please others. Jabba was a crime lord, firm in his resolve and with a mind that was notoriously hard to change. He was in his seat of power, surrounded by things that reinforced his status and self-assuredness. He'd just demonstrated that beings lived or died by HIS will.

Then some meager little farm boy with delusions of granduer comes in, and tries to impose HIS will upon Jabba. Luke never stood a chance. Situation, physiology, and plot were all against him.

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  • Some Specie are immune to force mind tricks, as stated above. (@Tony Meyer) I think that the "brain structures" argument, dose not take into account that a Twi'lek or Mon Calamri (not even a mammal) are not human but can still be controlled. The resin would need to be more fundamental, but the point about ones weak personality it well taken all the same.
    – Vaughn
    Commented Jul 28, 2011 at 4:18
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    @Vaughn: I'm not familiar with a Mon Cal ever being controlled by Force suggestion like this, and Twi'lek thought processes are shown to consistently be similar to humans - the species 'think alike'.
    – Jeff
    Commented Jul 28, 2011 at 14:40
  • If one was to rely on the 'Think alike' path. Then some Huts should have been able to be controlled (But the whole species is immune, as is 'Watto' and his species) @OrigamiRobot the whole quote is 'What you think you're some kinda Jedi, waving your hand around like that? I'm a Toydarian. Mind tricks don'ta work on me-only money.' imsdb.com/scripts/Star-Wars-The-Phantom-Menace.html the same is said about Hutts as a species they are immune other wise they would be like a greedy human (Some are spoken of as weak willed in various books).
    – Vaughn
    Commented Jul 28, 2011 at 15:33
  • By weak willed I mean that they are not that smart, and can be presaged and manipulated with out must effort. So the root of why some can be controlled and others can't must be deeper then ways of thinking and shear will.
    – Vaughn
    Commented Jul 28, 2011 at 15:41
  • Intelligence has little or nothing to do with a strong or a weak will. Bib Fortuna was Jabba's prime lackey -- do you seriously think he'd have survived more than a week if he were actually an idiot?
    – Shadur-don't-feed-the-AI
    Commented Oct 8, 2011 at 15:16
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It's been stated in a number of sources, including 3 different RPG's, plus several other expanded universe sources, that some species in the SW universe are categorically immune to force effects upon the mind.

Even a weak willed Hutt is immune to the mental powers of the force. Jabba was a Hutt, this is why he's immune to Luke's efforts.

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  • Categorically immune eh? That's pretty immune!
    – Daft
    Commented Dec 18, 2014 at 14:52
  • Well, theoretically, one can use move object to beat a Hutt... but no matter how good, in all three RPG's, you can't use the force to influence the Hutt's mind. Hutts and Toydarians both have this ability in the FFG system.
    – aramis
    Commented Dec 21, 2014 at 7:42
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Certain species are naturally immune to jedi mind tricks. The species performing the trick can also be a factor. Since different species would have different types of brain wave patterns, it's logical to assume that certain species would be much harder to impossible for humans to effect. It's Possible that another Toydarian Jedi COULD have better success at influencing another Toydarian.

Or, it could be that said species are simply immune from such influences overall, or simply that Watto, Jabba and a few others were immune on an individual level and not because of some species wide protection, though Watto DID say "I'm a Toydarian, mind tricks don't work on me, only money". This seems to more strongly indicate that his particular species was immune rather than just Watto himself.

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    There's no added value in coming in a year and a half late and repeating answers already given by others.
    – Avner Shahar-Kashtan
    Commented Nov 19, 2013 at 11:42
  • Sure there is, because it can help to reinfornce what others have already said, thus increasing understanding.
    – JediWitness
    Commented Nov 19, 2013 at 22:52
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    If you want to reinforce what others have said, you need only click the upvote arrow.
    – ghoppe
    Commented Jun 5, 2014 at 18:57
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    I'm downvoting because you're shouting COULD and DID at us. Italics exist.
    – Daft
    Commented Dec 18, 2014 at 14:54

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