Lit Finally, Aliens in the Empire Part 3? Handley and Peña are on a Roll!

woah... Sliven was in Hetts tribe? when I read that in the blog, I totally wished for a rematch between adult Tahiri and A'sharad "Krayt" Hett... she needs a homecoming story. Back to Tatooine as adult experienced Jedi. meeting her former tribe and closing the circle. not staying there though, just a visit.

The Grave Tusken explanation was brilliant and I was waiting for that a long long time. But given Banthas and Jawas being exported for various uses... it was kinda coming that even Tusken go to space somehow.

Brilliant job on the vision in Kenobis hut though with comparing Vader's mask to a Tusken one. The paralells to unmasking A'sharad and masking Vader are simply epic.

can't comment enough... need to go back to work!

 

No prob --- the Force Wars are Je'daii wars, not Jedi wars.

 

We now so need a shoot of a Zeltron in a Grand Admiral Uniform

 

This was beautiful. Loved the many callbacks to Dark Forces Saga.

 

Should the zeltron be male or female?

 

Either could work, as cafarel come in both genders.

 

Halagad_Ventor Great article, as usual! However, I wonder why exactly those Tuskens of the Rrhr clan, which we first saw in Episode II thanks to your retcon, regarded Shmi Skywalker Lars a a witch and the mate of demonic deity. Also, is you mentioning Shumari in Hoar's story an attempte at retconning Perfect Evil into canon?

 

I love that both entries are, esentially, MoTK walkthroughs.

 

The "Perfect Evil" reference is more than just a mention of Shumari (which was already included in the Atlas). That story also includes a Tusken that attacks Vader to avenge Vader's massacre of his clan on Tatooine.

 

True. Which is why I want to know to what extent that stroy is being reintegrated into canon. What about Tao, for example?

 

Not to mention, if Hoar is both one of the Grave Tuskens from Dark Forces II, and the Tusken from Perfect Evil, how does that even work, timeline-wise? There are some huge timeline problems there.

 

Hoar founded the Grave Tuskens but he left them to go chasing his obsession, so he wouldn't have been in Jedi Knight.

 

I'm curious: did the Tuskens consider Shmi a witch when they captured her or is that intended to be a label they assigned to her retroactively, after Anakin massacred the tribe? I'd assume the latter, as that makes the most sense, but I think the article text allows both interpretations.

 

I'm curious how they would have had any information to form a myth about her fathering the demon spirit guy with a monster/Force stand-in. Is it mystical serendipity, did Hett retroactively give them some explanation once he arrived, or what?

 

I first read this on my phone, and not having played Masters of Teris Kasi or Mysteries of the Sith, I was not initially
that impressed with this one. Going through it a second time, with Wookieepedia open beside me, I am actually blown away!!

I love the way that you have drawn together so many Tusken Raider threads, and if people will indulge me, I'll list some of the cool things:

• providing movitation/precedent for Sliven to adopt Tahiri
• does this provide the first confirmation that the Grave Tuskens were T-Raiders? If so, the first confirmed glimpse of Tuskens unmasked?
• I had not remembered the Hett/Kenobi fight in Legacy, so cool to see that brought in.
• Awesome to see Hoar made the Tusken from Perfect Evil (Given that we don't see many Tuskens offworld, I am perfectly happy to see the galaxy made smaller in this instance.)
• Great Jawenko reference!
• Portug - is this now a home for the Portuguese man-o'-war referenced in Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of the ThonBoka?
• Final battle between Hoar and Lyn - This is new right? Or is it meant to reflect a gameplay dynamic in MOTK that allows Hoar to fight Lyn?

Thok

• "even stupider younger brother Gorc": sure, up until Project Chubar grabbed him!
• Great to see the Murder in Slushtime-transliterators get another reference.
• Nice to see the Prophetess get referenced again.
• "information about a Panathan mineral baron" - and we get Yun pulled into this series!
• Again, presumably the Lyn v Thok fight reflects the gameplay!
• Nice tie-in to see Mara as Arica mentioned.
• - gravik-nez from Droids? Oh boy!

I have to ask, has there been a change in editor at SW.com? It seemed like there had been a move away from articles such as there, which was a great shame. They are now publishing them at a great rate - long may it last!

 

[quote="Eyrezer, post: 50946537, member: 707755"does this provide the first confirmation that the Grave Tuskens were T-Raiders? If so, the first confirmed glimpse of Tuskens unmasked?[/quote]
I does seem so, which is why I already added a little something to the Tusken Wookieepedia article:
"The Grave Tuskens, a group of warriors that had pledged allegiance to a Dark Jedi named Maw, flaunted their bare faces, which provided a few elements about their species' traits. The Tusken Raiders had grayish skintones, dark eyes and a short, feline muzzle." (By the way, that article is in dire need of sourcing.)

 

Very appropriate that Mara was involved in Arden's downfall, as she was a secret character in MoTK.

 

I haven't played any of these so I don't have a lot to say on this one. Looks spiffy, though.

The Tusken section went a bit overboard in linking every known Tusken story together--Tatooine is small enough already--although we do have a lot of adopted Jedi and implausibly-offworld Tuskens so maybe it doesn't hurt to streamline it. Will take another whack at it when I have more time.

And Portug? I never thought I'd say this but that's one ultra-obscure fanon joke I could have done without. (I think I feel about this the way Jello feels about the Star Tours thing. )

However....

ALL MY CONCERNS ARE RENDERED IRRELEVANT.

 

I remember it required a lot of work to unlock her.

 

Thanks!

It's ambiguous at best. I think being Sephi is inherently interpretable as being partially (i.e. "part") human.

I can share some interesting background info, though. Way back when, Rich used to laugh -- hard -- at his interpretation of Hissa being some human who must've filed down his teeth. Even though Hissa has pointy ears, I tried to preserve that private joke -- in homage to how long this piece was in a limbo and how much things had changed over the last ten years (we originally wrote this for Polyhedron as well).

Secondly, in working out Hissa's background, at one point I'd designated his mother a Sephi and his father a Devaronian. I thought that was too complicated an idea to get across in the short biography, however, as it would've necessitated a commentary on the whole human/Sephi/DevaronianWTF thing that, in turn, would've bumped the word count up considerably. Ain't nobody got time for that.

For the record, the intention would've been for the Devaronian to be Hissa's adoptive father. The vestige of this influence persists in the surviving line, "Incredibly, Hissa purposely filed down his teeth into points, knowing this horrifying visage tended to intimidate others." This, thus, married Rich's "joke" to a realistic cause. (Though, frankly, I'm not sure how much I still like the Devaronian stepdad idea, anyway -- in this instance, at any rate.)

You're very welcome.

That was Rich, referring to his old work on Star Wars Gamer #1, I believe.

It all goes back to Zaarin/Lyn's kidnapping of Palpatine. I figured she had to have help.

If you liked that, wait till you learn about the Jawenko's migration to Tatooine from Mustafar. It's HOT.

I understand you were once quite an artist yourself ... and a cunning warrior.

As GAJ points out, the name Magic Dragon for Takel's Star Destroyer was a gag I came up with in the original roleplaying incarnation of the Grand Admirals piece for Star Wars Gamer, reflecting his spice use. Since that was a detail from the "equipment" section of the rpg stats, it was cut when Dan and I later got it published in Star Wars Insider. It was one of the parts we both lamented losing.

Thank you. That one was a bit out there, but I felt it was right for Teshik.

I played that game like a man obsessed over a three-day period back in 1997. That was one of the only times I had access to a Playstation I, and I knew I had a small window to get every bit of possible EU information out of that game.

Simpler times.

Neither was I, frankly. But there were several secret characters you could access, including Mara Jade, Jodo Kast, and a stormtrooper. Or wait ... was the stormtrooper a secret character? Anyway, he was in it, and I figured he would fit in well with Arden Lyn's kidnapping of Palpatine, and especially if the character was Force-sensitive. Being Declann's son suggests that possibility, but it's not set in stone. Stormtrooper 17786 is most likely Force-sensitive, as he was one of Lyn's "pupils," but I leave that ultimately open to interpretation (and the creation of the highest possible dramatic tension) for anyone who tells that abduction story.

Shang Tsung all the way. Slap down your quarter, Gen Y.

Take care,
Abel

 

For the time being, we have him as "Human-Sephi hybrid" on Wookieepedia, since he was referred to as "part-Human, par-alien" in the 2d edition of A Guide to the Star Wars Universe. In this instance, the information found in that largely outdated guide has not been changed, it has been completed. What do you think 'bout it?

 

That sounds right to me.

 

As it should a fine lady.

(sorry.. couldn't resist... )

 

For clarity, the "phantasmagoric" Rozzum are the medley of medieval-art-like monsters Luke encounters in his waking dream in "Blind Fury" (i.e. the pig lovin' on Luke, et al).

I'd love to do more with him, always have. Lotsa meat there.

Thank you. I think.

It's a bit of a LucasArts lovefest, but many of the dominoes were lined up long ago. For instance, Thok's biography addresses the Star Wars Sourcebook's suggestion -- which had become wildly implausible coincidence over the years -- that the term "rancor" was originally a Gamorrean term by bringing the Rakata into the equation. IIRC, the Gamorrean mythological explanation of the rancor as a "spider-crab monster" was also a shoutout to an erroneous description of the creature from Star Wars Galaxies.

The simple correlation helps give that old bit of continuity greater credibility. Hard to imagine it once seemed so utterly absurd.

Yeah. Just a reminder not to take this stuff too seriously. (Of course, comedy is a serious business.)

That's bothered me since 2001. Though establishing Blackhole as Director of Imperial Intelligence wasn't my doing, I somehow felt responsible since it appeared in my rookie outing in The Emperor's Pawns. I believe I've said so on these boards somewhere, but I personally see Blackhole as a kind of shadow Director of Imperial Intelligence representing Palpatine's "Dark Empire" plans ... but this caption was a way to at least do a quick and dirty fix: Palpatine installed Blackhole during the transition between the Isards. (And, I assume, secretly stuck around, seeing himself as the true director. Hence his collusion in setting up the Church of the Dark Side -- a.k.a. the fake Prophets -- who preached the ultimate resurrection of Palpatine per Polyhedron 103).

The thought of Threepio trying to karate chop Thok in that Return of the Jedi scene just kept making me laugh. Here's hoping you never watch it the same way again.

Thank you so much, Hav. I guess that marathon of gameplay fifteen years ago paid off.

After many hours of continuous play, Hoar ended up my favorite fighter in Masters of Teras Kasi, and kicking Vader's a** (the game's boss) sweetness itself. Thematically, then, the transition into Perfect Evil seemed, well ... perfect, and a way to explain a really contrived non sequitur in what was otherwise a compelling story with mesmerizing art. I just needed Hoar to learn a bit of Basic from Hett, which only made sense.

Take care,
Abel