Monday, January 16, 2012

Invid's Guide to the Star Wars Universe: Alien Species #28

271. Enzeen. There's a planet named D'vouran which eats people. The Enzeen wear amulets that contained force field generators which prevented D'vouran from eating them, and also protected them from blasters; this is because they have formed a symbiotic relationship with D'vouran, wherein they draw in tourists and discourage them from leaving in exchange for feeding on D'vouran through disturbingly long tongues. (It's possible they went extinct when D'vouran went berserk after one of their amulets fell into its core; the parties visiting the planet who had learned it ate people thought that D'vouran had imploded, but it had just traveled through hyperspace to some other location, where someone "discovered" it as a "new" planet.)

Rating: 4/5. They're fleas living on a planet that eats people. That's pretty entertaining.

272. Eodons. Eodons are talking elephants that live on Endor. Apparently, they frequently had their tusks stolen without being killed, and in an episode of the Ewoks cartoon, one came and asked the Ewoks for its tusks back.

Rating: 3/5, mainly because that's a somewhat grim piece of comedy with real-world context, but it's still funny.

273. Epicanthix. Uh... They're "near-humans" who can be told apart by being played by Asian actors, or something.

Rating: 0/5. No no no. Bad. BAAAD. (Incidentally, the actual actor who played one doesn't actually have any obvious ethnic features, but "epicanthic fold" is the feature on an Asian person's face that gives the "slant eyed" look which is so often seen as the most identifying ethnic trait of the region, so I can't let it stand.)

274. Equani. The Equani went extinct gradually after their homeworld was depopulated by a solar event caused by a Galactic Republic superweapon test during the Clone Wars. They were furry, had empathic abilities, and were tall bipeds. One served as a psychologist/therapist in a Republic medical facility during the Clone Wars, and was a double agent for (apparently) both the Confederacy and the criminal organization Black Sun.

Rating: 3/5. I'm pretty sure they were implied pacifists, more or less, but the fact that one was a spy was interesting. The fact that they died out slowly after the extinction of most of them also gets a pity point for them.

275. Equat. Known to be epic poets. Poets of epics, presumably, and not the other meaning of epic.

Rating: 2/5. Wouldn't it be weird to only know epic poetry and other art forms as created by other species?

276. Er'Kits. Er'Kits... are mostly background characters from all over the place. (An Er'Kit senator was arrested for involvement in a slaving ring, and an Er'Kit was a podracer.)

Rating: 3/5. There's nothing exciting about them, but we know they're not a one-note society by virtue of having seen members of the species in very different walks of life.

277. Er'stacians. For some reason, these ugly blotchy purple guys get an entire subcategory to themselves. Apparently, they vary a lot in appearance depending on clan, although they're all still ugly and purple. There's a lot of information on them comparitively.

Rating: 3/5. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt; they aren't really a standout or anything, but they seem to have a lot of information and internal variation, so they get one more point than my automatic inclination. Just don't ask me to look at their page too long.

278. Ereesi. The Ereesi were at one time slavers who harassed the Argazdans. It'd be unkind to call it poetic justice.

Rating: 2/5, if only for the weird detail that slavers were bothering former slavers who had a special reputation as former slavers.

279. Ergesh. The Ergesh are described as "one of the few sapient species that evolved from plant based organisms on their homeworld." Parse that sentence carefully and tell me what you think of it.

Anyway, they're essentially shambling mounds of vinelike slimy tentacles, and can live to 200 and weigh over half a ton. And they wear belt things with pouches to carry their possessions.

This is awesome.

Rating: 5/5. The Ergesh are great.

280. Ermi. The Ermi apparently are extinct. According to a play written by a Hutt playwright (heck yes), Xim the Despot, who lived over 25,000 years before the era of the movies, wiped them all out and justified himself by saying they were slavers.

Their planet may possibly still be inhabited, however.

Rating: 3/5. This kind of confluence of cultural details amuses me greatly. A Hutt playwright? References to Xim the Despot? A play that exists in the Star Wars galaxy?

Kind of funny that there are two sparse articles related to slavers in this lot...

-Signing off.

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