Friday, December 6, 2013

Invid's Guide to the Star Wars Universe: Alien Species (#97)

(I've done a little bit that hopefully will mean it won't be another month or so before the next of these. I really like doing these articles, and they're probably my favorite kind to do anymore, but it's been hard ever since my sister joined Tumblr.)

961. Senali. The Senali and the Rutanians are closely related species; the Senali live on the moon of Rutan, their mutual original homeworld.

The Yuuzhan Vong incited war between them using disguised agents to make it easier to conquer them. This actually highlights a thing about the Yuuzhan Vong that was a particular failing of theirs: They were really darned good at infiltration, and this was one of their most interesting features, but after some early uses of these abilities, they almost forgot they could do it or something.

Rating: 2/5. I'm pretty sure there's a pity point there.

962. Sentient mynocks. Sapient mynocks were a race of mynocks (those things that chewed on the Millennium Falcon inside the asteroid) that developed sapience, apparently due to the unique Force properties of their home system, and then developed unusually powerful dark side Force powers, which they used to conquer their home region.

Fortunately for the rest of the galaxy, they were incapable of becoming a plague on the rest of the galaxy because they could only breed in their home system, and a disaster of some kind wiped them out. Incidentally, "sentient" mynock is a placeholder name, and we don't necessarily know what they called themselves.

Rating: 4/5. Because little pest things turning into terrifying conquerors of worlds is great.

963. Sephi. Sephi are basically more or less humans with pointed ears. A Lucasfilm staff member has gone on record as saying that "most" pointed-eared individuals are probably either Sephi or closely related, which is a thing that has many problems with that I'm not going to touch.

Unsurprisingly, there is a mention that one can distinguish female Sephi by their breasts (as I've noted in the past, Wookieepedia is, basically, a pervert); notably, this particular instance describes female Sephi as having "more prominent" breasts than male Sephi, which is the only time I've seen this variation on the description.

Rating: 1/5. Sorry, no. I like pointed ears on human-looking beings, but there's not really anything of note about these guys.

964. Sernpidalians. Sernpidalians resemble albino humans. There's probably not a lot of them left, because the Yuuzhan Vong dropped a moon on their planet.

Rating: 2/5. Okay, interesting thing about their planet: The capital city's mayor was a certified grade A batman dude, such that there were actually people wondering if he was Boba Fett. If he'd been an actual Sernpidalian, it'd have raised their score another point. (If you're wondering what he did, when he learned what the Yuuzhan Vong creature that was pulling the moon down was, he yanked out a thermal detonator and got ready to jump on it. Somebody there pointed out that it was too late to stop the moon from crashing into the planet, and he responded that he wanted to make sure the so'n'so didn't escape and jumped on it anyway.)

965. Serps. Serps are, predictably, reptile people. The women are distinguished by, you guessed it, their breasts. (And coloration.)

Oddly enough, the Serps once had their name misspelled as "sepr" in official material. I think I'd have preferred that spelling.

Anyway, apparently they'd once been advanced, then outlawed advanced technology because of what it did to the environment/bad things from a war/whatever, and adopted primitive technology and a distinctly medieval outlook, including jousting as a regular hobby and a single king for the whole planet.

The king of a certain era allied with the Empire, started refurbishing the old technology, and instituted a law that all jousts be to the death or something. Then he was stopped.

Rating: 2/5. If we're talking medieval reptile people, the Anointed People are vastly preferable. In fact, the only reason the Serps get even the 2/5 is because "Sepr" is a more interesting name, even though it's not their name at all.

966. Sessehshellah. The Sessehshellah, also known as the Sesseh', apparently are basically giant river otters. The Empire plundered their planet of much of their fossil fuels, which is described with the remarkably awkward phrasing "stole most of the planet's hydrocarbons."

Unless the Empire stripped the planet of most of its life as well (which isn't stated), that's quite unlikely, because hydrocarbons are essential building blocks of life as we know it.

Rating: 2/5. Because I was inadvertently made to think of silicon-based otter people, and that was worth a chuckle.

967. Seuvhat(s). One was seen on a planet, apparently driving something.

Rating: N/A.

968. Seylott. They kind of make me think of walrus people, although they don't have tusks.

Apparently, their culture is a decayed remnant of a greater culture that had developed in isolation from the Old Republic. They follow a religion that involves an idol that is some sort of powerful Force relic that, if damaged, would apparently release an enormous burst of energy that could devastate a planet. A terrorist stole this idol and was going to use it to bomb Coruscant, but was stopped by Jango Fett and a Jedi.

That's... kind of amazing.

Rating: 3/5.

969. Shadda-Bi-Boran. The Shadda-Bi-Boran lived on a planet with a unique atmosphere and orbiting a special snowflake star. When that star died, the race quickly went extinct because every world refugees were moved to was inadequate and they refused to accept being put into stasis.

We know about them because Padmé Amidala was part of a youth corp when she was younger who worked with the refugees.

Rating: 2/5. Sad.

970. Shadowmen. The Shadowmen (no relation) exist on a perpetually dark planet and are adapted to it. They fought with Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker once.

Rating: 2/5. If there were an image of them in a different art style that I liked better, they might have a higher rating; as it is, they look kinda silly. (Also, it's hilarious that they have a known appearance when the story they were in took place in pitch darkness.)

-Signing off.

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