Ever since Star Wars first debuted in May of 1977, one element fans of the series have been captivated by are the numerous amounts of alien and nonhuman characters. From the first steps inside the Mos Eisley Cantina, viewers were blasted with aliens of all shapes and sizes. This is a legacy which has continued throughout the Star Wars Expanded Universe of course, from menacing villains like Thrawn and the Yuuzhan Vong to heroes like Aayla Secura. There are just as many obscure alien characters as well, so today we’ll be looking at a few and their adventures in a galaxy far, far away….
Up first is a character from the 1985 Ewoks cartoon, Asha the Ewok! Asha was born the eldest daughter of Ewok leader, Chief Chirpa, in the Bright Tree Village on Endor. When she was very young, a wild Hanadak attacked Asha and her mother, leaving her out in the forest alone. She was presumed dead, but after many years passed, she was eventually discovered by Wicket W. Warrick. In her time of being alone in the forests of Endor, Asha had become a warrior named the Red Ghost, and would hunt Duloks (rivals to the Ewoks) who were hunting animals for sport. When Warrick, Teebo, and Paploo met Asha, she had stopped a gang of Duloks from capturing a Maramu. Asha would soon be reunited with her younger sister, Kneesaa, who pleaded her to come back to their village. Asha refused to leave though, wanting to stay to keep sabotaging the Duloks’ hunting games. The following day Asha put on an impressive performance when she walked right into the middle of a Dulok hunting gathering and released all their animals. Just when they thought they had the brave Ewok trapped, she put all her warrior instincts into play and took out all her foes. The Duloks swore to no longer hunt the animals for sport, and Asha returned to the Bright Tree Village where she and her father Chirpa met each other for the first time in years.
The next obscure alien is one who deals on the fringes of lawful society Gizman, AKA Big Gizz! Born as a Moggonite hybrid, Gizz would serve Jabba the Hutt, and was a skilled swoop bike rider. During the Clone Wars, Gizman got caught up in the conflict between the Republic and Separatists and aided the young Jedi Nuru Kungurama on a mission on Bilbringi. Later the two would take on a mission to Fondor, which would make Gizz a hero in Dex’s diner on Coruscant. Years later Gizman would be part of the Swoop Bike gang whose job was to capture Luke Skywalker on Tatooine. The mission failed though when the undercover Imperial agent Jix sabotaged the job, along with Luke receiving aid from Dash Rendar. Sometime after the death of Jabba, Gizman and one of his fellow Swoop riders, Spiker, would attempt to steal one of the deceased Hutt’s old ships. The plan left the two on a frantic adventure when Jabba’s nephew tried to get his hands on the vessel. The two lost that day, but did receive a new friend, a small creature named Onoh. Not long after, Gizman and Spiker would encounter a deadly Imperial Dark Trooper on Tatooine which nearly killed them. If it weren’t for the two’s quick wits, they may have very well not survived the encounter.
The last alien we’ll be looking at is Baji, the Ho’Din healer from Moltok. As a Ho’Din healer, Baji specialized in natural medicines, using herbs and plants to heal people. They were also very conscious about nature and sought to protect rare and endangered plant species. That is what had brought Baji to the moon Yavin IV in 5 ABY where he had a brief encounter with Luke Skywalker and the Jedi Prince Ken. Soon after, the Empire came and Lord Trioculus had the forests burnt in his search for the Lost City of the Jedi. During the attack, Baji was captured and brought before Trioculus, who sought medical help with for his blindness. Baji helped and found that it was the modified glove of Darth Vader causing his illness. Healing him with Kibo seeds, Baji warned that if he continued to burn the forests, that the Kibo plant would forever be destroyed. Trioculus called off the attack and retreated, and with the help of Luke and Ken, the fires were put out. Without Baji’s care for nature, Luke probably wouldn’t have established his Jedi academy there, and the new Jedi order would have had a very different beginning.
These characters have appeared throughout various EU stories and mediums. As said above, Asha’s fierce fighting can be found in the Ewoks cartoon, and Baji comes from the infamous “Glove of Vader” series. Gizman and his exploits on Tatooine can be found in the Shadows of the Empire comic adaptation, The Jabba Tape, issue #4 of Star Wars Tales, and the Secret Missions Clone Wars tie-ins. These aliens are only a few of the diverse array of non-human characters in the EU. That’s all for now gentle beings, may the Force be with you!
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