Who Is The Head Of The Pyke Syndicate? (& Why Did He Massacre Boba Fett’s Family?)

The finale of The Book of Boba Fett allowed us to see another revelation that we thought had been resolved in previous episodes. It showed us a meeting between the leader of the Pykes stationed on Tatooine and Cad Bane, as the head of the syndicate told the bounty hunter that he had Boba Fett’s Tusken Raider family massacred. So, who is the head of the Pyke Syndicate, and why did he have Boba Fett’s Tusken tribe killed?
This Pyke boss stationed on Tatooine was never identified, but we do know that he is a male Pyke speaking on behalf of the superiors of the Pyke Syndicate’s top leaders on Oba Diah. The unnamed Pyke boss had Boba Fett’s Tusken family killed because he didn’t want to pay protection money.
It is worthy to note that the Pyke boss completely fooled Boba Fett, who thought that he had already avenged the death of his Tusken tribe before he took over as the new daimyo of Mos Espa. As such, the war against the Pykes became a lot more personal when Boba Fett found out that the Pykes had his Tusken family massacred before the present-day events of the series.
Who Is The Head Of The Pyke Syndicate?
Early on in The Book of Boba Fett, it was revealed that the Pyke Syndicate was the enemies that Boba Fett was up against, as the show took a quick turn when the Hutt Twins abandoned their claim on Mos Espa because they found out that the Pykes had a claim on it as well. And Boba Fett himself had a good history with the Pykes back when he was still with his Tusken Raider tribe.
During his time with the Tusken Raiders and after he escaped from the Sarlacc, Boba Fett’s tribe came under attack from a repulsor train that was traversing the sands of Tatooine. Fett and his Tuskens attacked the train and found out that the Pykes were using it to smuggle spice all over the planet. He took the opportunity to tell the Pykes that they needed to pay protection money to the Tuskens if they wanted to pass through the Dune Sea safely.
When Boba Fett went to Mos Eisley to speak with the leader of the Pykes on Tatooine personally regarding the protection money issue, that was the first time we saw the boss of the Pykes stationed on the planet. He made a return in the finale episode when he was speaking with the mayor of Mos Espa and the heads of the other gotras in Mos Espa. So, who is this Pyke boss?
Unfortunately, The Book of Boba Fett and the showrunners over at Lucasfilm never gave a name to this Pyke boss. He remains to be unidentified, as we would like to call him the unnamed Pyke Boss.
But, despite the fact that he remains unnamed, that doesn’t mean that he didn’t play a crucial role in the entire narrative of the series. Episode 7 revealed that he had a bigger role that contributed to the entire flow of the plot and to the war between Boba Fett’s gotra and the Pykes on Tatooine.
What Is His Goal?
The unnamed Pyke boss on Tatooine has no personal goals himself because he is simply the representative that the Pyke Syndicate chose to head their operation on Tatooine. He made this clear when he told Boba Fett that he conferred with his superiors on the Pyke Syndicate regarding the matter related to the protection money that the Tuskens were demanding.
Of course, the Pyke Syndicate as a whole had a huge goal for the planet. The Book of Boba Fett revealed that the mayor of Mos Espa had promised Jabba the Hutt’s territories over to the Pyke Syndicate, who were looking to use their spice trade operation to take over the city and quite possibly the entire planet as well.
The fact that the Pykes were looking to take over the planet eventually was made clear when they ventured out to Freetown (formerly Mos Pelgo) to spread their spice trade there. When marshal Cobb Vanth chased them out of his town, Cad Bane himself went over to Freetown to tell the marshal that Tatooine now belonged to the Pykes.
It is the very fact that the Pykes were looking to take over the entire planet as their territory that got them into odds with Boba Fett. After all, it was revealed that it was the Pykes who sent the Night Wind Assassins back in episode 1 to kill Boba Fett. And this was the straw that forced Fett to take drastic measures against them and declare an all-out war against the Pykes.
Why Did He Massacre Boba Fett’s Family?
At first, the reason why Boba Fett wanted to wage war against the unnamed Pyke boss on Tatooine is related to the fact that he had hired assassins after him and that the Pykes were looking to oust the former bounty hunter out of his position as the daimyo of Mos Espa’s territories. However, the finale episode showed something deeper and personal between Fett and the Pyke boss.
Episode 7 showed us the Pyke boss revealing to Cad Bane that the Tusken Raiders were not going to join Boba Fett’s army because he had them massacred a long time ago. However, he never revealed that he was the one who had the Tuskens killed because he found a way to put the blame on the Nikto biker gang called the Kintan Striders. So, why did the unnamed Pyke boss kill Fett’s Tusken family?
It all boils down to the matter regarding the protection money. Going back to what we said, Boba Fett demanded that the Pykes pay the Tusken Raiders protection money if they wanted to smuggle their spice through the Dune Sea. That’s because the Dune Sea is the ancestral domain of the Tuskens and has been their home long before humans and the other races of the Star Wars galaxy started living on Tatooine.
The Pyke boss on Tatooine didn’t want to pay protection money to the Tuskens. Of course, he had not forgotten what the Tuskens did to his train when Boba Fett and his family attacked it. As such, he had the Tusken Raider tribe killed so that he could avoid paying protection money while exacting his revenge on what they did to the Pykes’ repulsor train.
Why Did He Blame Biker Gang For The Massacre?
As mentioned, the unnamed Pyke boss found a way to put the blame of the death of Boba Fett’s Tusken family on the Nikto biker gang called the Kintan Striders. He told his men to use the symbol that the Kintan Striders were using so that Boba Fett would think that they were the ones who killed his family.
The reason why the Pyke boss put the blame on them goes back to the issue regarding the protection fee again. It’s all about the money for the Pyke Syndicate because they didn’t want to pay any protection fee at all.
Back when Boba Fett demanded a toll for passing through the Dune Sea, the Pyke boss told him that his superiors over at the Pyke Syndicate didn’t want to pay double the money because they were already paying the Nikto bikers protection money. He also told Fett that he was willing to pay either the Niktos or the Tuskens as long as he was only paying one party.
In that regard, he blamed the biker gang so that he would no longer have to pay two parties. Boba Fett, out of anger, recovered his Firespray gunship over at Jabba’s palace and used it to decimate the entire Kintan Strider Gang to exact his revenge. As the Pyke boss said, Boba Fett thought that the matter had been resolved when he killed the Nikto gang.
By blaming the biker gang for the death of the Tusken Raiders, the Pyke boss hit two birds with one stone and resolved the matter regarding the protection fee that the two parties were asking him to pay. He eliminated not only the Tuskens but also the Niktos, all while washing his hands clean when Boba Fett thought that he had already avenged his family. It was a smart and calculated move on his part.