Saga - PT Out of the Mists (Captain Tarpals Pentathlon -- 2020 Summer Fanfic Olympics)

This is the Prime Time Event, the 500+ word action/adventure portion of the thread. A couple of notes:

When the Gungans speak among themselves, they use what anthro-linguists call “High Gungan,” which I’ve translated straight to basic English for everyone’s reading comfort. There are a number of words in italics – they have no direct counterpart in English, so I’ve just spelled them phonetically and left them in place. Several of them are linked to either articles or pictures, if you want a visual.

Information on the various animal species comes from The Wildlife of Star Wars, by Terryl Whitlatch (art) and Bob Carrau (writing). This is a gorgeously illustrated “field guide” that would be permanently displayed on my coffee table (if I owned such a thing). I notice that a number of these animals appear in Star Wars: the Clone Wars on several other planets. I can’t tell if it’s parallel evolution or if the Gungans have been exporting some of the local wildlife.

Choosing the Path​

Sier Rass Hespa, captain of the Third Mounted Patrol out of Otoh Gunga, gazed around the circle of faces surrounding her. “The people of Tanoh Bintanni have requested our help with a hunting pair of nar-gletch who have moved into the area.” The nar-gletch were the alpha predators of the swamps – large, lion-like creatures with thick claws, dagger-sharp teeth and powerful jaws.

“Our assignment is to scout the area and establish how best to capture the creatures,” Hespa continued. “The villagers will begin growing containment spheres for us. Once we’ve determined our strategy, we’ll proceed from there. Capture is the preferred outcome – we will only kill them if absolutely necessary.”

The Patrol riders nodded in understanding. As dangerous as the predators might be, they had as much right to survive as the Gungans and their herd animals. If the nar-gletch could be resettled, that would preserve the balance of nature as the Gungans understood it.

~*~*~*~​

Three days later, Junior Lieutenant Roos Tarpals crouched beside one of the village hunters as the latter carefully pressed the earth beside the nar-gletch’s tracks. “See how the ground gives easily? These are recent – earlier today, by the look of it,” the hunter, Oltro, explained.

Tarpals nodded. He’d completed a training rotation with a woodland patrol a year ago, but more training never hurt. He found most animals, wild or domesticated, fascinating. He’d done one rotation with the Flying Wings, the aiwha riders based in Otoh Dinistallis, and another rotation with the heavy artillery unit that used the fambaas and falumpasets to carry shield generators and transport large ammunition.

“So how close are we?” Gellin, one of the more experienced riders, sat astride her kaadu a stone’s throw away.

The hunter tilted his head in the Gungan equivalent of a shrug. “Depends. The nar-gletch is cunning. Sometimes they move in straight lines, sometimes they double back, sometimes they use the terrain to confuse the issue. And I’m trying to decide if we’re seeing one set of tracks out here, or two.”

“Because a juvenile would have a hunting partner,” Tarpals said. “While an adult would not.”

“Exactly. From the size of the tracks, the nar-gletch are near maturity, which means they would separate. Knowing if we’re dealing with one or two would give us a better idea of what hunting tactics the nar-gletch would use.” The hunter straightened and scented the air. “Smell that?”

The wind shifted, and both Tarpals and the kaadu suddenly caught a new scent. “Zalaaca.” The kaadu began to side-step nervously; zalaaca and kaadu were natural enemies. “That’s going to complicate things.”

The hunter led the way toward Gellin and the other riding beasts. “It’s funny that I haven’t seen any zalaaca prints in the woods,” he remarked. “If there’s a pride in the area, they should be leaving some sign.”

Tarpals picked up his electropole and followed. “Would they just be passing through?”

“Possible, I suppose,” Oltro said – and halted. His head swiveled from side to side, and he sniffed the air. The wind had shifted again –

“Gellin!

A huge grey shape shot from between the trees and slammed into the kaadu’s thigh, bearing both mount and rider to the ground. The kaadu squealed; Gellin was partially pinned but scrabbled on the ground for anything to use as a weapon. Tarpals’ kaadu bolted. Beyond Gellin, the hunter’s dromedary-like falumpaset bellowed and wheeled away.

Oltro’s left hand pinched the bottom of a carrying pouch to produce a buuma, a small blue ball of plasma. His right plucked an atlatl from his belt. He slapped the buuma in place and turned his left side to the nar-gletch, preparing to throw.

The tip of Tarpals’ electropole glowed red. He advanced on the nar-gletch. “Ho!” he shouted, trying to distract the carnivore from both the kaadu and Gellin. “Stay still, Lieutenant!”

“Stop thrashing!” Oltro called. “Not too close,” he warned Tarpals in a lower voice. “Not sure whether she’ll go for you or the kaadu.”

The nar-gletch snarled, warning Tarpals and Oltro away. As the panicked kaadu struggled, the nar-gletch snapped at it; Tarpals lunged forward and touched the electropole tip to the animal’s neck, discharging half the weapon’s energy. The nar-gletch roared and staggered sideways; Oltro’s buuma struck it on the side of the face, and the animal collapsed, stunned.

Tarpals turned to the kaadu and caught its reins. “Easy, easy… it’s all right, it’s all right…” he murmured in soothing tones. At last the kaadu stumbled to its feet. It stood shivering. Gellin lay still, eyes half closed, still breathing. “Lieutenant, are you – ?”

Gellin coughed. “I’ve been better. And worse,” she added. “My signal horn –”

All riders carried a small signal horn on their saddles when separated from the patrol. Tarpals convinced the kaadu to crouch, then pulled the horn free and blew the notes for “rider down, injured, assistance required” as Oltro continuously scanned the woods, the loaded atlatl still in hand.

Gellin raised her head to peer at the nar-gletch. Now that the action was over, Tarpals could see by the smooth coat and grey coloration that this one was indeed female.

“I’m not sure if that was most idiotic move I’ve seen, or the bravest,” Gellin muttered and dropped her head back to the ground. “But thank you.”

Tarpals’ reply was cut short as Oltro whistled sharply. A second form moved into view through the brush – bulky and dark, a nar-gletch male. Tarpals lowered the electropole again. Patrol members were on the way. He only needed to hold this one off for a few minutes.

The nar-gletch roared and leaped into the clearing. It nuzzled its sibling’s shoulder, then turned its yellow glare at Tarpals. Gellin’s kaadu squealed and backed away.

Oltro was moving at the edge of Tarpals’ vision, but the younger Gungan kept his gaze on the nar-gletch as it stalked around its sibling’s body. There was still a charge on his weapon….

Another animal screamed in the nearby brush. The nar-gletch crouched to leap – and a silver-blue body sprang from the bushes, claws and beak-like mouth raking the nar-gletch’s face and neck. The larger beast roared, broke free and pounded away, the female zalaaca in pursuit. Oltro jumped aside as they nearly ran him down. The zalaaca’s screams drifted back to the Gungans.

Tarpals crouched beside Gellin, listening and scenting the air. “Was that really a zalaaca that drove the nar-gletch away?” Gellin asked weakly.

“Yes. She saved both of us, I think.” Tarpals shook his head. “But I don’t understand why there was only one – there should have been at least one or two more attacking the nar-gletch. Zalaaca almost never hunt alone.”

Gellin settled back onto the ground. “You’ve got their entire life cycle memorized, don’t you? Animal training is a respected career path.”

Tarpals knew he was due for a promotion to senior lieutenant, which meant choosing a specialized career path. But the sight of three riders appearing through the trees interrupted his thoughts.

Captain Hespa urged her kaadu into a crouch and swung down from the saddle. All three mounts were nervously sniffing the air.

“Report, Lieutenant Tarpals,” Hespa ordered as the patrol’s medic knelt beside Gellin. Tarpals described the stop along the path, the hunter’s comments, and the attack. Hespa eyed him thoughtfully. “You seem to attract animals, Lieutenant, between this incident and the one last year with the veermok in the Sacred Place.”

“Yes, Captain.”

“We’ll take Gellin back to the village. We’ll need to round up the kaadu and falumpaset on the way. Call in more of the patrol.”

“Yes, Captain.” Tarpals blew the notes for “assistance needed” again.

An animal’s squall echoed through the forest. Oltro hand clench around the atlatl. “That’s another zalaaca! Sounds like a colt. That might explain why the female attacked the nar-gletch. She was protecting her offspring.”

Three more patrol members rode into view. Hespa nodded in approval. “We’ll get a stretcher set up for Gellin. In the meantime, see if you can call in the kaadu. They can’t have gone too far.” Kaadu tended to stay with their herds if they were outside their regular territory, and the patrol herd’s territory was four days’ ride away in Otoh Gunga.

Oltro and Tarpals began circling the activity in the clearing, as the medic supervised the construction of a simple stretcher to the strung between two kaadu. Oltro’s falumpaset wasn’t hard to track – the large animal had left a wide trail of trampled brush and broken branches.

Gellin’s kaadu came cautiously forward at Tarpals’ whistle and sniffed first at him, then at the air. He examined her for injuries, then borrowed some of the medic’s salves and leaf-bandages. The kaadu would recover and be ready for duty again in a few days.

His own kaadu reappeared shortly thereafter, uninjured. The creature had been badly frightened, and Tarpals couldn’t blame him.

“Right,” Hespa said. “Good work. Let’s get everyone back to the village.” The female nar-gletch’s legs, tail and jaws were bound; she would remain that way until the Gungans could place her in a transport sphere. Soon the sphere would be loaded onto a cart and moved out of the area, to be released a three-day journey away from the village. She appeared to be almost old enough to hunt on her own and would survive even if her sibling weren’t capture in time to be removed along with her.

~*~*~*~​

The zalaaca colt had been calling all afternoon. Oltro, Tarpals and two more of the village hunters had returned to the forest (all with fully charged weapons) and traced the sounds to what appeared to be a burrow in the side of the hill above the site of the nar-gletch attack. The only response to the colt’s calls had been the nar-gletch’s roars; it appeared to have been digging at the burrow’s mouth.

“The colt is probably helpless,” Oltro said. “My guess is that the mother didn’t survive the fight, and the nar-gletch considers this an easy meal.”

Tarpals nodded. “It might also be the trap we need to capture him,” he remarked thoughtfully. “Let me talk to the captain.”

~*~*~*~​

In late afternoon, the Third Mounted Patrol, supplemented by several of the village’s hunters, slipped into the woods, riding slowly in single file to avoid making noise as much as possible. The line broke then into groups of twos and threes, which fanned out into the brush around the zalaaca burrow. Tarpals approached the burrow on foot, electropole in hand.

The nar-gletch had dug an opening almost large enough to enter the burrow itself. The calf was still crying out.

Tarpals eased forward to a position directly behind the nar-gletch but several ‘pole lengths away. He waited. A few minutes later Hespa’s kaadu stepped out of the brush – the signal to begin the capture. Tarpals rose, lifted his head, and uttered a zalaaca’s scream. The nar-gletch whirled on him.

Facing the female had been daunting enough; the male was larger and sported the heavier shoulders and fleshy spikes the female lacked . But the patrol riders trotted into position behind and beside him, some mounted, others on foot. The nar-gletch swung its head from one side to the other. It now faced a wall of fully charged electropoles.

Tarpals advanced one step at a time, the tip of his weapon glowing faintly red. The nar-gletch focused on him, crouched, snarled.

Oltro suddenly gave a zalaaca scream of his own. The nar-gletch jerked back in surprise – and Tarpals charged forward to touch the electropole to the beast’s neck, discharging the weapon. As the nar-gletch staggered, a second rider, then a third sprinted in to deliver a pair of shocks, stunning their quarry. A moment later, the nar-gletch lay stretched on the ground.

“Secure it!” Hespa ordered. Oltro and two more of the village’s hunters approached and began to rope the nar-gletch’s legs, jaws and tail. Oltro grinned at Tarpals. “Well done!” Tarpals planted the butt of his electropole on the ground and leaned on it, feeling the post-excitement weariness setting in.

The zalaaca colt inside the burrow squalled again. “Captain, I don’t think the mother survived her encounter with the nar-gletch yesterday,” Tarpals told Hespa. “Otherwise, she would be here protecting it. It’s been calling all night.”

Hespa sat in silence. “Someone will have to lure it out, then,” she said finally. “Would another pride adopt it if we release it nearby?”

Oltro tilted his head. “I don’t know. I’m not sure it’s ever been tried. I think it’s unlikely, though. There would need to be at least one nursing female in the pride, and I don’t know if she would accept a strange colt from another pride.”

“I’d prefer not to just leave it to starve,” Hespa remarked.

“Captain? With your permission, I’d like to see if I can get it to come out,” Tarpals said suddenly. “If it’s hungry enough, food might be an enticement.”

Hespa studied him for a moment, then jerked her head up in assent. “Very well. If you think you can do it safely, you may try.”

~*~*~*~​

Two days later, the nar-gletch pair were safely on their way, and Junior Lieutenant Roos Tarpals stood outside Hespa’s temporary command shelter.

“Enter, Lieutenant!” Hespa and her second-in-command turned to face him as he stepped inside. “Presumably you’re here to report on your, mm, project. How is the colt doing?”

“He’s finally eating,” Tarpals replied. “Apparently, falumpaset milk is an acceptable substitute for his mother’s. But from the looks of his mouth, he’ll be ready to try eating meat soon.” Tarpals paused. “Captain, I would like to try raising and training him as a battle mount. It’s been done a few times in our history –”

“I’m familiar with the story-song of the Predator’s Ride, yes.” Hespa eyed Tarpals critically. “You know that it’s seldom successful, I presume.”

“Yes, Captain. But his mother did save my life –”

“—Unintentionally.”

“True. But the only other option is to kill him, since no other zalaaca pride will take him in, and he can’t survive on his own.”

Hespa smiled slightly. “Not to mention the prestige of accomplishing something few have done successfully.” She nodded. “Very well. You will remain here in the village until the Fifth Mounted Patrol comes through two eight-days from now. You’ve trained with them before, and their captain spoke well of you. I think more advanced training in woodland animals will be quite useful.”

“Thank you, Captain.”

“I expect, if you succeed, that you and your new mount will carry our city’s banner next year in the Annual Games Procession.”

“I’ll do my best, Captain.”

“See that you do. I will be keeping track of your progress.” Hespa tilted her head. “It appears that the aiwha unit commander in Otoh Dinistallis will be disappointed. He was impressed enough to offer you a position with the Flying Wings. But I see your path is much closer to the ground.”

“It is, Captain.”

“Then I deem it time to issue your promotion to Senior Lieutenant. You’ve displayed both the courage and initiative expected of the position. I wish you well with this most unusual endeavor, Roos Tarpals. Dismissed.”

 

And in case anyone wonders how the experiment turned out:

Riding the Zalaaca (Single-Sentence Shot Put)​

Having run itself to exhaustion, its rider still astride, the fearsome predator allowed Tarpals to turn its head and guide it toward home.

 

Gripping adventure in the Prime Time event Wonderful details of the 'roundup' And glad the experiment worked, as we read in the Shot Put.

 

Wonderful adventure! So in-depth and detailed. Made it super easy to follow. Loved the link to the art.

 

Great job!

I appreciate how the Gungans don't automatically try to kill the nar-gletch simply for trying to live and survive. That respect makes it obvious that their culture and lifestyle is interwoven with nature more than most of the "industrialized" beings in SW.

I enjoyed seeing young Tarpals learning the ropes and finding his path. This background ties in nicely with your "Intimacy" entry and the strong bond he shares with his kaadu. He respects the animals and shows them honor by trying to help the zalaaca colt after its mother was killed. I bet that's going to be quite a pair once they get going together! And the Single Sentence entry says a lot in a tiny bit of space about how Tarpals continues to respect the zalaaca during the training, not resorting to punishment to force it to obey, but just calmly sticking with it. Though I'm sure that was a wild ride that Tarpals needed a sticky seat for, heh.

I have to admit that part of me loves the mental image of Tarpals riding into battle on an aiwha with the Flying Wings, though.

Excellent entries! Looking forward to more!

 

I actually wrote the Single-Sentence Shot Put back when I wasn't sure which events I wanted to write, and I knew I could complete that one. It was still a challenge to cram that much information into a sentence.

Thank you. I'm glad the length didn't deter you. And since the animals in question weren't well-known in the movies or novels, I thought the art links might help.

Thank you for commenting, Thumper09. I'm glad you enjoyed the story.

My parents and I traveled to Taos, New Mexico several years ago, and I had the opportunity to go horse-back riding with a local Native American guide. It was two of us, and a dog. The dog was there to alert us to any wildlife in the area -- which included everything from small rodents up to elk and cougars. Partway through the ride, the dog zoomed off into the brush and began whining and barking. The guide afterwards said he thought it had been an elk, but admitted it could have any of several other large animals. Neither of us carried weapons of any kind. A bit scary, but all part of the experience of wilderness, and I'm glad I did it. This was the feel I wanted for the Gungans -- not superior to, but part of, the natural world.

Tarpals' acquisition of the zalaaca colt was a bit out of the ordinary. In The Wildlife of Star Wars, there's a two page spread about the Zalaaca (the humans apparently just spelled it phonetically), and in the past the Gungan who wanted a zalaaca had to go out and actively capture it. I thought this was out of character for Tarpals, but raising an orphaned colt was not.

Somewhere in my unfinished story file I have a piece in which Padmé, Ric Olié, Panaka, and a handful of other humans have been invited to watch the collection of Goff feathers. (The large feathers on the back of various Gungans' saddles in TPM come from the Goff, a very large and very rare bird.) Tarpals is part of the Gungan escort, and everyone is riding aiwha. That was meant to be its own action/adventure story, but I only got partway through it.

~*~*~*~​

One more event to go, and that will be up this weekend!

 

For our final event, the 400 Word Cross Country. I actually wrote this first, but saved it for last because it's meant to be light-hearted and funny, and I thought it was a good way to close. Probably OOC for both characters. (Or maybe that's just what they want us to think.... )

Midnight Raid​

Tarpals slid into the dark alcove behind a statue and craned his neck around the alcove’s edge to scan the corridor. Nothing moved. No sounds. He looked back and jerked his head to signal “all clear” to his companion. The dark-skinned human eased down the corridor and into the next alcove along their route. Human and Gungan froze, listening. Then the human caught Tarpals’ eye and slipped out of the alcove, continuing forward.

~*~*~*~​

The night security officer on duty touched a comm panel. “Your Highness? Sorry to disturb you, but you might want to come up here.”

~*~*~*~​

At the corner of the hallway, both human and Gungan paused. Tarpals peered around the corner; it was a short dash into the huge stairwell room, then straight across to the other side. Drawing back, he gestured to his companion, who paused in the doorway, nodded once, and sprinted out into the room. Tarpals followed at a trot.

~*~*~*~​

“The new security system won’t officially come online until next week,” the officer explained to Padmé. “I was just practicing with the controls and found… this.”

Padmé and her handmaids stared at the screen. “Is that… Captain Panaka?” Saché asked.

“Yes, ma’am. And –”

~*~*~*~​

Midway across the room, Tarpals heard footsteps behind him. He took three running steps, dropped to the floor and slid headfirst through the doorway. Panaka eased it closed behind him.

~*~*~*~​

“Is this a drill?” asked Padmé.

The officer shook her head. “None scheduled, Your Highness.”

~*~*~*~​

Footsteps signaled someone approaching the door. Human and Gungan sprinted down the hall, into the second doorway. Panaka’s keys suddenly flew across the floor, fetching up against the opposite wall.

“We need those,” he mouthed, turning back.

Tarpals’ arm stopped him; the Gungan’s head jerked forward and his long tongue shot out, snagged the keys, and retracted. As the stairwell doorknob turned, Panaka pulled his companion into the doorway and snapped off the lights.

~*~*~*~​

“Well, that’s… handy,” Rabé remarked.

“In a manner of speaking,” Padmé said. She turned to the officer. “Where are they?” The officer switched on another camera. Padmé and her handmaids burst out laughing. They watched Panaka open a refrigeration unit and pull out vegetables, sliced meats, and spreads. He passed Tarpals a loaf of bread; the Gungan reached for a cutting knife.

“All that to sneak into the kitchen? Definitely save that recording,” Padmé ordered.

 

And that's the completed pentathlon -- thank you for reading (and commenting)! There are plenty of other writers participating, so be sure to visit their threads as well: Fanfic Summer Olympics Index

 

Fun, lighthearted finish all right! I was asking myself what are they up to, until ... Congratulations on a fantab fanfic Olympics Pentathlon.

 

Wonderful finish! Congrats.

 

As soon as I read this line....

....I suspected that Tarpals' and Panaka's "mission" was a kitchen raid.

And I was right.

 

Great job! Hey, never underestimate the seriousness of and danger inherent in a midnight snack run, especially if it's... "unauthorized." It's a tried-and-true proving ground for similar raids outside of the home turf.

Even though this is a light-hearted piece, it does show a good working partnership and friendship between Tarpals and Panaka. They would make a formidable pair in other situations as well. Of the two of them, I'm curious whose idea it was to raid the kitchen, LOL. And I bet Amidala had some good fun with that recording later on too.

Excellent work on all of your entries, and congratulations on finishing your Pentathlon! I enjoyed reading all of them!

I forgot to put this in my previous post, but I saw your mention earlier that you watched B5. Nice to see another fan. They did a great job making the aliens unique with their own mannerisms, cultures, and histories, instead of just another human actor in latex. I loved that show.
P.S. Ivanova is always right.

 

Indeed you were, Cowgirl Jedi 1701. I've wanted to write this piece for ages, and while it's a little shorter here than I'd planned, it obviously worked.

Yep, some excellent blackmail material there.

Years ago, I wrote a Tarpals/Panaka team-up in a story called "Something of Value," which actually made it into the old Archive. They do work well together.

Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed the story, and appreciate you taking the time to comment.

Ivanova is also (depending on circumstances), 1) the Right Hand of Vengeance, and 2) God (with apologies).

I still love B5 -- it was fun, thought-provoking, had great characters, great lines, and amazing plotting to pull all those threads together in a cohesive four- or five-year series. Nice to know you are a fellow fan. I think I need to watch it all again now....

 

I frequently gravitate toward lesser-known characters in franchises (Alastor Moody is my go-to character for Harry Potter, for example). In many ways they're more interesting because there's more left to the imagination.

This piece came out of a larger story I wanted to tell at one time. The "Intimacy" drabble above was an abbreviated part of that as well. Tarpals had retired and realized that not only was he getting old, but the world had changed so much that he couldn't relate to it anymore. So he goes to Coruscant to say farewell to Jar Jar and Padme, and gets involved in his last adventure -- tracking a pair of narglatch through the lower levels of the planet's city after they've escaped from captivity. There was an amusing scene in which Jar Jar insists on going with Tarpals (and Panaka, who's along on the trip), and Tarpals sends him to fill water canteens, then shoots the lock on the bathroom door to keep Jar Jar safe. I considered expanding my penthalon to a decathlon to include that story, but I don't have the time or energy to write it at the moment. Maybe someday.

That was the idea, although I suppose the bone piece could have a more sinister meaning. I'm not sure if Tarpals ever gets a sense of the path Anakin eventually takes....

Thank you! When I wrote my Gungan novel, I included a list of all the research sources I had used, and the Wildlife guide was a large part of it. One of my reviewers told me that mine was the first fanfic they'd ever read that had a bibliography. It's a librarian thing, I guess.

Outside of the ideas offered in the Wildlife guide, one of the Star Wars Adventure novels years ago mentioned an annual tournament among the Gungans, kind of like the Olympics; it featured Tarpals competing in the events. (Wow, talk about ancient history!) My headcannon on Gungans goes back a long way, so some of this stuff is just made up to fit what I saw as Gungan culture at the time.

Maybe some day.

Thank you! This was another piece I've had lurking in my notes, and I'm glad to give it some sunlight.

You're welcome any time, Findswoman. I really appreciate you taking the time and effort to do such in-depth commentary. I'm not sure how many more Gungan-centric stories I'll be posting in the future, but I do have one idea left from the Pirate Challenge (about 2 years ago, now -- yeah, that's not at all embarrassing ) that I really want to finish. Maybe this pentathlon will give me some incentive.

Anyway, thank you to everyone who reviewed. I'm going to see if I can read and comment on at least some of the other stories in the Olympics index.

 

Great collection.
I like the glimpses in both the Gungans own culture we get as well as some looks into them living side by side with the Naboo.

 

I....I have no words. This is beautiful and I am so glad that - with a backlog of three years of no single fic read and the backlog of bookmarked stuff before that - I looked at the recommendations in the index thread and saw this. I was like: if something is really, really, exceptionally good, then it's going to be there. Love Gungans and their dialect and you have turned this into an art! So glad that 2020 sent us back another person that writes aliens.

I would love to see your Gungan traditions in the fanon thread. Their relationship with their beasts of burden which was touched on here interests me most, I think. And more stories. Definitely more Gungan stories.

Parting Gift for a Queen

This feels like one of those missing scenes that they had to cut from the movie - TPM in this case - because of time constraints. I can totally see Tarpals presenting a gift to Padmé like that. For a moment, I thought that he recognised her by moles, but then I read others' comments that it's scent. In that case...is the perfume doing anything in terms of being a repellent - whether real or something from Gungan tradition that they believe in for some reason?

Charity

As many scenes that exist or just *feel* like they exist in Star Wars, this one mirrors something that is to come much, much later - Rey on Takodana, seeing how lush the nature can be for the first time in her life. And of course that little Ani takes it a bit differently - as a child who was just taken away from his mother, he is all but confused. Lucky that there is Tarpals who understands and wants to help the boy learn to swim. And swimming is a metaphor for going through life, anyway.

Intimacy

That was heavy. But also a great take on many a folk lore. We have such a hero here in our folk tradition, by the name of Prince Marko, but the end his horse meets just because he is about to die is pretty graphic. This is more spiritual and it implies that the great warrior and his beloved beast of burden die together because of their bond - not because one of them will be killed. But I did raise an eyebrow that the weapons were not allowed. Perhaps for that exact reason, death having to be natural?

Friendship

Gungans are maligned out of the universe because of fanboys. Quarsh Panaka ended up making a face-heel turn in-universe and died before he could have ruined pretty much everything...so, what is better than these two hanging out? Something tells me that each one of them has a naughty streak and that there will be the kind of trouble that the uptight Naboo folk have not seen in a while...

Affection

While this is a playful vignette, I would love to see how Jar Jar's robes could literally work as a lifeboat or whatever.

This just begs to be written, OK...

The Eyes of Memory

Some heavy stuff. But hey, it's Star WARS, not Star PEACE.

Would definitely like to know more about this, as well as your OC.

This is beautiful. He remembers everybody who made a difference in his life and he has a keepsake. I am not sure what kind of stuff got him hiding here and, frankly, the fact that everybody else is gone and that he seems to be displaced somewhere where many Gungans were forced to flee too makes me sad. Hope that the acolyte understands Tarpals' pain.

Choosing the Path

Totally unrelated...I don't own a coffee table either. Then again, we don't have a classic living room set up with a couch/sofa and all due to old architecture and too many doors, so it makes sense. But anything Bob Carrau wrote would've been on my coffee table as well, as he invented a lot of the Endor flora and fauna, some species and essentially created a character that is yet to appear in Disney canon.

Nar-gletch look like one of his inventions, really.

On to the actual thing...

Uhhhhh! I love it that just like Ewoks they would not hunt for the sheer pleasure of it, but because it's necessary. Nice to see that a far more technologically advanced species is so strongly attached to nature. I have a soft spot for beastmasters, too. And Tarpals definitely IS one here.

This story is packed with action, good strategy (luring the enemies using the infant creature) and it's a great, great read. Clever thing with feeding the little one ffalumpaset milk, too.

This can be read in so many ways.

Riding the Zalaaca

You got a whole story resolution in a sentence.

Midnight Raid

What a great finale this is! Padmé being really confused about what is going on and the Handmaidens playing the straight man all along, while the BFFs just think that stealing food is much better than, you know, going in for a meal. After all, the queen's fridge has got to have all the best deli and those spreads might be of exceptional quality, too!

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH.

I hated it when that happened so, so much. They went a bit far, really. Giving Jar Jar a life where he cared about children (and a family!) is a whole different thing. He can do stunts, too - but does not necessarily have to be considered a complete disgrace for that.

Also, I think that people often do what the internet tells them to do. Pineapple pizza haters would be a good example. Like, some of us love it and eat it...you likely hate it and didn't even try it. You are told to watch the Prequels, but you are warned about Jar Jar and it's nonsense. I was away from the fandom from my teens to age 31 and I didn't watch the films when everybody else did. Jar Jar made TPM fun, it would have otherwise been a pretty heavy film. And then my mother (who is registered on here, has not posted for a long time but might be the oldest board member, turning 80 in May) watched it and said that Jar Jar is essentially Goofy in space.

 

Thank you. Several of these ideas were actually planned for fics back in the early 2000s, and they were never completed. I'm happy to get them published in some form at last, and that people seem to enjoy them.

You're most kind, Ewok Poet. I'm happy to see you back on the boards -- I remember seeing some of your writing.

The aliens of Star Wars are one of the great draws for me, and despite all the griping people have done about the Gungans since TPM was released, they've always been one of my favorites. Native American culture has been an interest of mine for many years, and the two topics just fit together so well.

I just (finally) posted my fanon essay in that thread, and can now get back to writing stories. I expect there will be more stories featuring Gungans, although I'm exploring other non-Human races as well. My goal over on The Mythologist thread is to feature legends and tall tales and myths from non-Human cultures, to explore not only story-telling but other cultures as well.

The liquid will chemically alter Padme's scent so that aliens with a sharp sense of smell won't recognize her. It's a trick used in hunting certain animals, but I think Gungans who want to pass themselves off as someone else (for whatever reason) have also utilized it.

An excellent point, and one I hadn't really considered when I was writing this. Tarpals sees himself as someone who doesn't related well to children, but he does understand the literal 9and probably philosophical) need to be a strong swimmer.

I followed your link to the article and will go back to read it when I have a few minutes and can do it justice. Weapons are (usually) not allowed in the Sacred Places because those entering are expected to be on the same level as all other creatures in nature. The gods will determine who lives or dies; while visitors may use anything naturally found in the Sacred Place to defend themselves or escape from predators, all other animals have the same right.

I am painfully aware of the laments of "fanboys," and frankly don't have a lot of sympathy.

Panaka's attitude later in the saga surprised me; while I'm sure he prefers an orderly society, I can't believe he thinks it should come at the price of everyone's freedom. Strange... Anyway, as you can see in "Midnight Raid," Panaka and Tarpals aren't above bending a few rules and getting into a bit of trouble together -- especially when they think no one is watching.

I have a friend who really dislikes Jar Jar, but even he laughed at this one. I will be forever grateful to Thumper09, who commented that watching any Senate scenes in the PT will always elicit the memories of "floaties!"

Frint is the acolyte to the local Shrine Keeper, who oversees the Sacred Place and serves as a spiritual leader. It's likely that she too has a spiritual bent, and strong connection to nature and the gods. Tarpals has taken up residence in the Sacred Place as a form of hospice -- he's quite old at this point, and wants to spend what time he has left communing with nature. This was written as a direct challenge to the episode "Shadow Warrior" in The Clone Wars series, which depicts Tarpals' canonical death (and which I strongly disliked). Hence its inclusion as an AU.

According to official sources, Gungans used to capture a zalaaca colt and raise it to serve as a riding animal. I can't picture Tarpals deliberately taking a young animal away from its mother, but I can see him raising an orphan.

It's true, isn't it? You always want to watch out for the quiet ones.

What bothers me about this ongoing campaign to prove Jar Jar is a worthless character is that we saw evidence in the films that he's quite capable of learning and developing self control. Also, he may have made the motion to give Palpatine the emergency powers, but the entire Senate voted on it, so he's hardly the only one responsible for what happens afterwards.

So it seems. I've read comments and reviews panning a movie or book or television show, and then when I watched or read it for myself, found that I actually liked some or most of it. Perhaps I'm just a contrarian....

I'd say your mother' opinion on this is quite accurate. That's a good way to look at it. Plus Jar Jar settles down in the last two prequels, so he kind of grows into his responsibilities.

Thank you for the long, thoughtful comments. I greatly appreciate them.

 

So, I finally went to check out 'Career Exploration (with Gungans)' but then, when I realised you'd previously written a canon of works about Captain Tarpals, I thought, "OMG, I wanna read that first!!"

And I'm real glad I did, because these were bombad!

I'm deeply impressed with how much you're able to achieve with so few words. 'Parting Gift for a Queen' juggles the concept of seeing Tarpals from a more personal perspective whilst reinforcing his military rank and tactical expertise, and simultaneously commenting on the newfound trust between the Gungans and the Naboo. The four parts of 'Life Changes' show so many different sides to his character, all in complete, self-contained stories, yet also manages to make them gel together cohesively (and rather delightfully, too). And I just couldn't stop smiling throughout 'Midnight Raid', culminating in a full-blown laugh out loud when I got to the punchline!

When you cut loose with the word count in 'Choosing the Path' and were able to revel in the details of the Gungan ecosystem, you still kept things tight and engaging, which I really appreciated. As much as I adore looking at (in movies and shows) or exploring (in games) that specific world, and occasionally falling down a Wookieepedia tooke-hole reading about the sheer amount of incredible work that went into creating Otoh Gunga and its surrounding environment, there's always a balance to be struck in fiction. You never allow the detail to override the story, but instead add just enough to explain and help sell the immersion, making the subsequent fast-paced action flow a lot better than it has any right to, what with all of its interconnected interspecies dynamics in play. What I'm trying to say is, you paint a perfect picture!

And as much as I support the episode "Shadow Warrior" from The Clone Wars, and will defend it against those who grumble about Grievous being bested by Gungans, there's a big part of me that prefers the alternate fate for Tarpals you presented in 'The Eyes of Memory'. That piece had a beautiful melancholic tone throughout, which really resonated with me. I love the distance it gains on the prequel trilogy as well, enabling such an insightful retrospective on its events.

Not only that, but your re-imagined fate for Jar Jar (as a refugee worker) might end up being closer to actual canon than you initially thought, given the potential of last year's most surprising cameo! I'll take anything that overwrites Chuck Wendig's ham-fisted meta-commentary, at any rate (no offence to the author, but... no, just... no). Good grief, I really, really, really, really wish, hope and pray that's where they're going!!

Oh, and one final note...?

On the contrary, I reckon you should be given a freakin' medal. Not least because all that hard work clearly pays off in your stories!

Thank you for posting these, even if you did three years before I joined. They've been a real pleasure to read today. I've said this to you before, but it's personally very affirming to see, after feeling like I was for so long, that I'm actually not alone in wanting to champion the Gungans.

I'll be getting back around to 'Career Exploration (with Gungans)' as soon as possible!

 

Bless you for reading these. They were a bunch of story ideas I had years ago, and this Olympic event was a good way to finally get them written. They were surprisingly well received. I remember when TPM first came out that there was a very loud backlash against Gungans in general and Jar Jar Binks in particular. Most of that seems to have died off, thank goodness, and people are now talking about “prequel nostalgia.”

I have a particular fondness for TPM because 1) Gungans are awesome, 2) it was the first Star Wars movie on the screen in almost 20 years when it was released, and 3) it was the year my mother was diagnosed with cancer, and going to see this movie was therapeutic for me. Plus there was a lot of amazing wildlife designed for this film, and it had the best lightsaber duel to date. (Maybe ever!)

One of my college degrees is in newspaper journalism, and a lot of that relies on concise writing – saying as much as you can with as few words as possible. Plus, as someone who had to slog through some of Herman Melville’s novels back in the day, there is such a thing as too much detail and too much information.

When James Cameron’s Avatar first opened in theaters, I got to see it in 3D, and all I wanted was for everyone in the movie to stop shooting at each other for a few days so I could wander around and explore the world’s ecosystems. Forget your war, everyone just shut up and go away so I can enjoy the wilderness! The worldbuilding in Star Wars is one of my favorite features. I'd love to visit any number of planets in the GFFA. (Some years ago, a group of writers talked about doing "travelogues" of various SW planets. The only one that got written was about Mandalore, but I have notes on my SW-dedicated flash drive for something similar for Naboo. It may someday actually get written.)

I’ve never understood the seemingly endless belief that the Gungans are a bunch of primitives. They have built underwater cities, engineered submarines, fielded energy shields of varying sizes, and maintained a complex society. The energy weapons and shields were obviously enough to deal with something like Grievous.

Yes, I saw some of that speculation. Here’s hoping! I didn’t care for Chuck Wendig’s bit about Jar Jar, either (but he did give us Cobb Vanth, so I guess the books weren’t a total loss…). Wendig is just one of those authors where I like his blog posts a lot more than his novels. Everyone’s mileage will vary, of course.

Three years is a fairly short time on these boards. There is plenty of good stuff that’s been here far longer than my stories. As long as you enjoyed them (and they aged well), that’s what counts to most of us writers. Thank you for commenting!