Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Invid's Guide to the Star Wars Universe: Alien Species #36

351. Gands. The Gands of Gand are one of those Star Wars races that I really like... but they're also one of the most confusing, continuity snarl-ridden races at the same time.

Snarl #1: Gands come from a planet with an ammonia-gas based atmosphere. One character, the bounty hunter Zuckuss, was introduced as needing a personal air supply and respirator to survive in oxygen atmospheres. Another, Ooryl Qrygg, was revealed as not needing to respire at all, and was able to march right into clouds of poisonous gas unharmed.

Resolution came in the form of just explaining that some Gands are one way, and other Gands are another way.

Snarl #2: When Zuckuss was introduced, he was presented as speaking only in the third person; this was eventually established as a cultural trait found amongst most of the Gands, and related to their cultural humility. (Some Gands are judged to be famous enough to be allowed to use first person pronouns. Gands who haven't proven themselves don't even get names, and refer to themselves in the third person as "Gand.") In later material, however, Zuckuss spoke arrogantly like any other random bounty hunter jerk.

Resolution came in the form of simply describing poor Zuckuss as crazy. (Various continuity creep also ruined his partner bounty hunter, 4-LOM.)

Regardless of that, Gands are still very interesting. Among other things, Gands have a group called findsmen, who are identified with bounty hunters, but are actually mystics/a religious sect who meditate to find things. Zuckuss and Ooryl Qrygg, the Gands mentioned above, both happen to be findsmen. And while Ooryl's capabilities are uncertain, Zuckuss could indeed do many things that indicated he possessed mystic powers of some sort (his entry notes him as a Force sensitive). (According to Ooryl, sometimes on Gand a childless couple would employ a findsman to go into the mists of Gand to bring back a child. ...I'm not sure how that works.)

Gands are also, despite being smallish, very physically powerful and well armored, able to endure considerable harm and to punch through stormtrooper armor with their clawed fingers.

All in all, the Gands are awesome.

Rating: 5/5. 'Nuff said.

352. Ganks. Ganks, also known as Gank Killers (ha), are a large group of thugs usually found on Nar Shadaa, the moon of the Hutt homeworld Nal Hutta, who originated somewhere else, but apparently moved there en masse in order to work for the Hutts.

They all wear armor and all seem to have cybernetic implants which apparently lets them more or less instant message each other as a substitute of sorts for telepathy.

Rating: 3/5. They don't seem to have an actual character design; all the pictures of them show very different features. Presumably this is due to the armor.

They're still rather amusing, of course, if only because of the mental image of a bunch of aliens textspeaking to each other while they're chasing somebody to kill them.

353. Garbage rats. Um... It's possible that the garbage rats are actually members of some other species that just didn't get referred to by name.

They're comparatively large and intelligent rats.

Rating: 1/5. There's like ten species of intelligent rat things in Star Wars. These ones don't even have a real name.

354. Gargantelles. These giants resisted being conquered by the Hutts, killing and eating armies sent to try to enslave them and ambassadors sent to try to reason with them. So the Hutts sent their lawyers to a planet full of droids called the electric caliphs, where the lawyers convinced the caliphs they had no good reason to live, but that before they destroyed themselves in a world-consuming suicidal orgy, they should kill all the Gargantelles. There is nothing about that sentence that fails to be awesome.

Rating: 3/5. With that hilariously awesome story, an utterly boring race of cannibal giants becomes much more interesting.

355. Garhoons. The Garhoons apparently are basically vampires. Apparently, at some point there was a court case involving the Garhoons and a group they victimized, but after it, the group they victimized went back to them.

Rating: 2/5. Not really very interesting, Stockholm syndrome aside.

356. Garoos. The Garoos (singular is also Garoos, and the adjectival form is Garoosh)... have some odd descriptive details, such as "ear clusters" and "breathing through gillis flaps." They speak with a whistling accent.

Rating: 3/5. Despite the lack of extensive details, the details that are there are very interesting, and immediately create a sense of uniqueness.

357. Gas clouds. Apparently, some gas clouds could become sapient. ...That's all there is, folks.

Rating: 1/5. Need... more... information.

358. Gastrulans. These gastropods (slugs) have four arms.

Their existence was apparently significantly threatened by poor food regulation, as their atmosphere turned out to be hospitable to a monstrous creature birthed from bantha biscuits and preservatives. It is unknown how many were harmed, or if any survived.

Obviously, they appeared in a humorous story.

Rating: 3/5, because I like slugs.

359. Gathi. There was a Gathi ship designer once.

Rating: 1/5. Oh, one designed some ships. What an indicator of their natures!

360. Gaulians. The Gaulians are from Gaulus. Whether they have any connection to Gaul is unknown.

Rating: 1/5. This is not meant as an affront against Gaul.

-Signing off.

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