Hey? Rancors are sentient, can speak & make tools. So says Jedi vs. Sith: TEGthF

The only thing wrong with that rancor is that it was raised in a circus horrificus , forced to fight other huge monster aliens in gladatorial matches, beaten & starved in Jabba's celler thingy. No mutation, no brains.

[image=http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/e/eb/Chrysalis.jpg]
This is a mutated Darkside powered rancor.

 

FWIW, I'm pretty sure we've had sentience for Rancors ever since CoPL. It was even a plot point, as I recall.

 

I think it's neat that they are. And it's not they're hiding high tech stuff in their caves, either. They're sentient... but not too smart.

 

It's from the ROTJ novel, like he said.

 

It's also been said that that particular rancor was smaller than usual...perhaps that's the mutation?

TC

 

This pretty much confirms rancors are not the brightest bulbs on the control panel. The next page does mention Snowmass was native to Dathomir, complicating Charles' distinction between the (semi?) sentient Dathomirian rancors and the devolved brutes on other planets. I suppose under enough stress even a mostly sentient creature could make this mistake if he didn't really understand space travel, but if that's the case you'd think after being with the circus long enough he'd recognize the Falcon and understand the difference between boarding and, you know, getting eaten.

 

idk, but they also confused "sentient" (being self-aware) with "sapient" (being able to reason). Or they didn't want Luke to be a murderer when he could've used the Force to "talk" the rancor into an alliance.

 

Yeah, all rancors are certainly "sentient," which is basically the ability to feel pain or pleasure. But they may or may not be "sapient," which is the ability to make informed judgments, according to this section of the Essential Guide to the Force.

And there have definitely been stranger things than a Rancor Jedi. (Waru anyone???)

 

*mind-rubs self*

Ahh, that feels better.

 

I don't have any technicalities to add to this conversation, so I'll just say that rancors being sentient seems very Star Wars to me. Like ewoks.

How are you defining sentience? Wikipedia says:

Under most of those definitions, chimps count as sentient (even possibly under the personhood definition). And rancors may as well. The problem may be that we don't have enough evidence (ie, stories about rancors that are sentient) to be able to say whether we think they are or not.

 

I always figured it has to do with abstract reasoning, and the ability to communicate such concepts. Or am I all wet?

 

That's a terrible arguement because you could use it anywhere.

...there's been stranger things than bringing back Darth Vader (Waru anyone?!?)


...there's been stranger things than the revalation that the dark side doesn't exist (Waru anyone?!!)

...there's stranger things than Luke having been a Mon Calamari in a human mask all along (Waru anyone!!!)

 

Hmm... anywhere?

Then what, pray tell, would be the answer to something stranger than Waru?

 

No, you're absolutely right. But And simple fact is that Tosh, and the other rancors of the Singing Mountain Clan in Courtship of Princess Leia and Cracken's Threat Dossier, can both talk (although not Basic) and write, and have some sort of sense of right and wrong (they refuse to be ridden by Nightsisters, which may indicate a sort of sensitivity to the Force as well).

They rely on their human allies/riders for things like their body armour and melee weapons. But they're very definitely sentient.

- The Imperial Ewok

 

Yeah, rancors are definitely sapient. And Dathomir's a weird planet in general. Wolverton began the weird by having a lost tribe of Jedi that force the men to mate with them Oh, and Yoda's a huge flirt All of that in addition to sapient rancors. And it gets weirder with every author who ventures there.

 

Personally I like to just think either (i) the Dathomiri rancors are more evolved than the rest, or (ii) the rest are more primitive than the Dathomiri ones and so the equivalent of savage/tribal/hillbilly rancors. With how Dathomir is swamped in the dark side and such, I'm content to think being around Force nexuses can mess with a species's evolution.

We know the dark side can be used to twist creatures into Sithspawned mutants, but even if this isn't a dark side induced mutation I don't necessarily see a reason why ordinary Force exposure couldn't prompt similar mutation, but of a more positive kind. Regardless of the cause though, I prefer to think it's mostly unique to the Dathomiri race, rather than every other rancor we've ever seen being the exceptions.

 

Sentient Sith Rancors wielding double bladed black lightsabers and wearing cortosis Mandalorian armor.....Alright im in.

When does this book come out? Because it is going to some Epic stuff.

 

This was precisely my point... after Waru, I certainly wouldn't be surprised to see a Rancor Jedi at all. Nor should I be. Although the books today are under a different publisher.

But I would rather the "sentient" or "sapient" rancors to be, as it seems they are, based in only one area of the galaxy; otherwise, Luke should have been able to communicate with the rancor in RotJ to stop it from attacking him, instead of killing it.

 

Not necessarily - Obi-Wan probably wouldn't have been able to convince Darth Maul to stop fighting him. (not exactly alike, but a fair point, yeah?)

 

Well, Maul was a Sith with an intent on destroying the Jedi, while the rancor was just hungry, but yeah, I see your point.