scary things with Twi'leks

Ah, the good old days. I recall when Jedi Counselling said different sentient species could not have offspring together, and Twi'leks and humans were brought up as an example. I was so happy! Some decent science in SW...much better than Trek with its Trois and Rozhenkos etc. And Karen Traviss, to her credit, said the same thing about humans and Twi'leks.

Then the Great Nothing came... [read: The Clone Wars cartoon]

And yes, the big strong hands of continuity could not hold on to the stupid bat.

Now, human/Twi'lek hybridization is canonical.

Yes, a Clone and a Twi'lek have walking, talking children, despite him being a war deserter...leaving serious chronological problems unless this episode is much, much later in the War than most (which seem to be in the 1st year)...which makes you wonder if Twi'lek hybrids just age faster even than Clones do...

and Insider established that FEMALE hybrids have humanesque rather than conical ears...

oddly, Kidd Karreen http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Kidd_Kareen has female's conical ears despite supposedly being a boy. Did Ahsoka get a crush on a cross-dresser...

And what about Dia Passik? http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Dia_Passik Is she Halfelven?

And maybe hybridization with something or other accounts for this guy!http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Z%27ozpheratu Not to mention his mutant grammar: *He was well know for transform into skeletons, phantoms and Kowakian monkey-lizards celebrating that party in an "usual" way* What does that sentence even mean?

So, outside the Clone Wars Rugrats, what other female characters must be human/Twi'lek hybrids according to "Leland's Law of Genetics"?

possibly:
Berri http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Berri_%28Twi%27lek%29
Cesi Eiriss aka "Doc" http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Cesi_Eirriss
JillJoo Jab http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/JillJoo_Jab
Koyi Komad http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Koyi_Komad
Memcha-Badawzi http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Memcha-Badawzi
Ree Shala http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ree_Shala
Dia Passik? http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Dia_Passik [questionable...can cone-ears flex into an upwards position?]
Seely http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Seely
Nolaa Tarkona? http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Nolaa_Tarkona [hard to tell...the two pics of her both seem to have a humanesque earlobe showing though]

 

Old news.

And incorrect. The online episode guide and the guide book both refer the twi'leks as the clone's adopted children.

 

Yes, they are not the children of the wayward clonetrooper... but look at the Character Guide closely. They're human/Twi'lek hybrids, both kids. It was just some other human as the father, that's all.

 

Devil's advocate: How about procreation between Humans and Twileks NOT Possible under most circumstances but very rare occassions such as genetic manipulation included. Thus who knows what DNA pieces of others geneticists included into clone DNA aside Jango's for minor tweaking. especially considering that TFU II shows examples of this with others

 

I can accept a lot of things in StarWars, but hybrids from different evolutionary lines (development on different planets) isn't among them.

Oh how I wish for an author, who uses one of his characters as a mouth-piece to tell the entire universe, that whoever claims such nonsense doesn't know what he is talking about or pulling his audiences leg.

 

Wait... let me get this right...

First they clarify that people were wrong to conclude it was a hybrid by going with the very simple explanation about how the clone was simply the stepfather (and that's precisely all I thought the episode was about until I came here and saw people going crazy over hybrids).

But, then, in the very same breath... they say "he's their stepdad, but, yeah, they're still hybrids"? WTK is the point of that? If they're hybrids, then they're hybrids, he's the dad, simple; if they're not, great, he's the stepdad, simple... but to hash the two explanations together? Talk about overcomplicating what was otherwise a very self-explanatory episode.

 

Don't you see: the problem they were trying to solve was never the hybrid-issue, but the problem of a clone-soldier being on his own long enough to be father for children as old as shown in the episode.

 

I can see it now...

soon a new rpg needs new rules for powergamers who claim...

my mother was a Twilek hottie, my father a Falleen prince, my grandmothers were Hapan and Dathomirian, my grandfathers were Human and Chiss, my sister is a Zeltron and my son looks like a Wookiee...



though I could buy their explanation IF there were the slightest bit of consistency in how Twileks are drawn ear/cone-wise. though there is not. males and females with both features exist.

aside from that, how long until Twileks are retconned into a human offshoot that got altered by Sith alchemy, Rakatan geneticists or inbreeding?

 

So Hapans and humans produce Twilel hotties, while Chiss and Dathomiri concieve royal Falleens, if you are female you are a Zeltron (since your sister is too) or if you are male you might be a Wookiee yourself, since your son locks like one?

What if the cones aren't part of the body, but some kind of ornament or symbol of status like ear-rings or a protective feature (maybe a considerable margin of Twileks suffers from over-sensitive ears)?

Shhh, ... don't give people ideas.

 

No, there wasn't any real story point to the children being hybrids. They could've just as easily just been full Twi'leks.
Welcome to the Wonderful World of CWAS.

 

Maybe they're not hybrids and the Twi'lek just told her gullible human boyfriend that they were in order to hide the fact that she was cheating on him with another Twi'lek.

Or this is a Sci-fi setting and artificial insemination is possible and can allow unnatural crossbreeding.

 

All Twi'leks in SWG had humanlike ears. Also, males, aside from certain NPC models, lacked the 'butt head' thing that Bib had going on, and this was before we even saw any other Twi'lek males in theaters. A lot of the Twi'lek male images I've seen out of the clone wars cartoons have also lacked butt heads.

My best guess is that a lot of humanoid/near human races were engineered from the same stock by Celestials in the days before the Rakata/Sith/whoever else edged them out of the Galactic picture and maintain very close genetic similarities. Humanlike ears could simply be genetic variation reintroduced into Twi'lek blood after their first contact, so a Twi'lek who wasn't directly descended from humans could have human ears, or males could lack butt heads.

 

The problem is that the Character Guide states they are hybrids... and Chee went on record stating that human/Twi'lek hybrids are canon.
The entire non-issue smacks of an Executive Decision. The concept of "T-canon" means less and less when Lucas is directly involved.

 

Fixed.

 

Technically it is not an issue of canon (unless some source said outright that humans and twi'leks can't reproduce), and technically we have seen human/alien halfbreeds before.

It is a shame though. It is odd how common inter-species mixing is, even in relatively hard sci-fi, in spite of the fact that ignores what species means in the first place. And Star Wars isn't hard sci-fi at all. It is almost fantasy at times, and we all know how much fantasy loves half humans. So it is remarkable we managed to avoid this pitfall for so long....

*shrug* Personally, i am going to pretend these kids are part of a genetic engineering project to create beings compatible with both humans and twileks (like how the exiled Jedi modified the Sith species to allow for interbreeding).

 

So, Insider established that? I see. I do wonder what the point is, seeing as Cut is still their step dad. They couldn't have just left it as is? Odd.

If only I cared, though. In a galaxy with a mystical Force in everything that gives its users special power (and yes, makes Star Wars part fantasy) human/alien hybrids really does not bother me.

 

Koyi Komad can be whatever species she wants.

 

That's pretty much my view, too... it just seems so... weird that it even came up.

As I mentioned in my previous post, when I watched the episode the idea of them being halfbreeds never even crossed my mind: I automatically read it that the clone was just being the nice stepfather looking after the Twi'lek widow's kids. Nothing wrong about that. 'twas a nice story.

All I can assume is that one of the big wigs behind the Inside probably made the same misreading of the episode as many ordinary viewers, thinking the idea was for them to be the clone's own offspring, so in came "Er, does that make them hybrids then? Guess so. *writes article about hybrids*"

Other than that, yeah, what baffles me more than the hybrids (which, like you, I'm not massively bothered by, even if I'd prefer species remained more unique) is simply the fact that the idea of them being hybrids even came up in the first place for somebody to need to write about.

Like you say, 'tis odd.

 

It is an issue of canon. We have two older sources (a Jedi Counselling and a Republic Commando novel) specifically saying humans and Twi'leks CANNOT. Then two newer canon sources say they CAN (Ask Lobot and CWCG).

My take on the CWCG establishing them as hybrids was meant that we were to IGNORE earlier denials of Cut being their father. After all, the cartoon tie-in information does change sometimes. There was a time when the "enhanced" episodes told us Asajj was Rattataki, not Dathomiri! But maybe I read to much into it this time?

FTeik, I personally think it is a shame the Canon line is that the ear-cones are biological. I much prefer your idea they are ornamentation...an idea I long wished to see made canon. Another retcon that would have worked would be if they were seasonal growths related to age or sexual cycles. I think the current canon explanation is rather...odd.

Regards hybridization, I admired WOTC SWRPG for not getting into the "half-and-half" thing ad nauseum as most franchise RPGs do! I am frightened this precendent will create a flood! I am thankful that if WOTC had to loose its license, it did so BEFORE this development. A page of rules for creating hybrid characters would be chilling.

It is possible Twi'leks are a near-human species...due to considerable genetic manipulation maybe? Heck, in SW, with the Force involved, extreme mutations and rapid, bizarre evolution CAN occur! Admittedly, their lekku, which are said to contain parts of their brains and associated nerves, are a significant different. Otherwise, though, they are one of the most human looking aliens. If their lineage was totally separate the similarities would be truly remarkable.

 

CWCG explicitly refers to him as their "stepfather".

 

You know, thinking of the "ears" as against "ear cones" question, I've just realised what I now want somebody to make canon:

[image=http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080124030008/starwars/images/f/fc/Arkoh_Adasca.jpg] [image=http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100402070846/starwars/images/8/8e/Jarael_Paparazzil.JPG]

It's happened before with Arkanians... so my vote goes to: Twi'lek Offshoots! Now somebody write that story!

An actual explanation for why Twi'leks both can and can't reproduce with Humans would then be resolved easily as BOTH indeed being the case.

 

^ Isn't that what I just said?

Speaking of which...since the Arkanian offshoots were made with human dna, I wonder if Ark-offshoots and humans could reproduce.

Yeah-I also doubt that making the Twilek children hybrids was supposed to override the earlier establishment of Cut as their stepfather, since both were established in the exact same source.

What I guess is that this was done to throw a bone to both groups: the people who pointed out the impossibility of hybrids (especially considering chronology), and the rather large number of people who insisted that they were human hybrids, pointing out things like the skin color, ears and small head tails of the children. (all silly from my point of view, but they were certainly steadfast in this belief. Even when the episode guide call Cut a "stepfather", they continued to beleive that not only were the kids hybrids, but they were Cut's)

 

I failed to notice the place in CWCG that called Cut the stepfather but am VERY glad to know it is in there. I kept thinking that to have kids that old, one of them had to be at LEAST 2 years old, conceived three years ago, when Cut would be the biological equivalent of 14 and still training on Kamino....Didn't make sense!

BTW the mommy Twi'lek in this pic seems to have hybrid ears...and whether standard for baby Twi'leks or just those of mixed heritage, her baby has short lekku:
http://www.theforce.net/swtc/Pix/comics/totj/twileks1.jpg

P.S. Is anyone else annoyed at authors incorrectly using "lekku" as singular instead of lek...the same way nobody but Zahn himself ever uses the correct singular "ysalamir"