Continuing our series to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace, Fantha Tracks now turns the spotlight on the planet Naboo and its people. In last month’s first part we focused on the humans who live in Theed City. Now in part two of The People of Naboo we take a look at the Gungans and the native species who also live on the planet.
Please note that in this article both canon and Legends names were used. Some background characters might never be named again in canon since it had already taken decades to name some of them. Chances are also small that any of the names that are still Legends would be named differently in canon.
The Gungan High Council
Sometime before the movie started, Rugor Nass became the Boss for the Gungan people. Ruling from Otoh Gunga, the Boss was Head of State, Head of Government and civilian Commander-in-Chief of the Gungan society. Nass was very protective of his people, to the point of having a disdain for the Naboo people and having no contact with them whatsoever. Boss Nass was originally designed to be the same kind of Gungan as Jar Jar or Tarpals, but that design shifted into the appearance he has now, that of an Ankura Gungan. He was realized as a CGI model that was voiced by Brian Blessed. To create the lip shaking sound Ben Burtt put some hot water in a bottle and shook it.
To support his rule, Boss Nass had a team of advisors called Reps, the Gungan High Council. Members at the time of the invasion included Rep Been, who was the historian of the Council and keeper of the old records and Rep Teers, a female Otolla Gungan responsible for Otoh Gunga’s hydrostatic fields of Locap that powered the city. She also was a guardian of the ancient records of the Gungan culture. Rep Slarm, who was known as the best bubble wort engineer in Otoh Gunga, and the last one is a recently made retcon: Rep Lyonie, who originally appeared in The Clone Wars. This was done in The Expanded Episode I Visual Dictionary. In the preview pages of this sourcebook, Lyonie’s character was actually called Quiglee. As none of the Reps had a speaking part in the movie, they were all realized as CGI characters with the only difference between them being that two appear to have a different skin color from the other two.
The Gungan Grand Army
The other most prominent Gungan we see in the movie is Captain Roos Tarpals. Before the movie he was forced to banish Jar Jar much to his regret, as he saw Binks as his friend. Tarpals came from a family that served the Gungan Grand Army, but he was the first to get the rank of Captain, becoming one of the important leaders of the army during the invasion. Tarpals was voiced by Welsh actor Steven Speirs.
Besides Roos Tarpals, another important general in the Gungan army is Tobler Ceel. A lot of confusion surrounds this character, with sources in direct conflict on whether he is or isn’t in the movie. Scripts and novelization place him as the Gungan who says the line “Activate the shields!”, yet the movie clearly shows the CGI model of Tarpals, the only one with the distinct barbells around his mouth, saying it. That Tarpals says this line was confirmed by Leland Chee back in 2007 on the old Message Boards of the official site. The recent canon source of Star Wars: On the Front Lines also mentions it was Ceel saying the line. What is for sure was that Ceel was a close friend of Boss Nass and one of the strategic minds behind the battle plan.
Oma Prumba was not seen in the movie, but was mentioned as a female Militiagung who told her tale of fighting during the Naboo ground battle in Star Wars: On the Front Lines. Another Gungan soldier was Toba, but he was not seen in the movie and instead was one of the main playable characters in Wizards of the Coast’s Invasion of Theed Adventure Game that expanded and replayed events from the movie from the point of view of a new cast. Another Wizards of the Coast Gungan that was a veteran of the battle of Naboo was Broof Yurdel. Unfortunately there are still quite a few Gungans left to be identified by name in the movie, with the Gungan Sentry that spots Captain Panaka returning with reinforcements being the most prominent one.
Others
Like Toba and Yurdel, Koh Pah Wupps was a Wizards of the Coast creation that did not appeared in the movie, but this male technician was important in the RPG adventure Secrets of Naboo that took place during the invasion.
Augara ‘Augie’ Jowil first received her full name in an entry for the old Hyperspace section What’s the Story. In his entry Nawaraven104/Chad Finke linked a till-then unnamed female Gungan seen in the Sacred Place with the bandleader mentioned in the track title ‘Augie’s Great Municipal Band and End Credits’ of the original soundtrack to the movie.
And, saving the best for last is the Gungan everybody knows and who really needs no introduction: Jar Jar Binks. Because of his substantial role in the movie, Jar Jar Binks was the first character to be developed for the movie. George Lucas envisioned the Gungan as a “talking, feeling, walking, running, falling, fainting bundle of amphibious comic relief“. For more than a year-and-a-half, many designs were made and while the final body shapes with the gangly legs were considered from the beginning, the character evolved into the person we see today. A vital part, besides the new CGI technologies that were developed, was the casting of Ahmed Best. It was his personality who breathed life into the Gungan, transforming him into the friendly, funny and sometimes clumsy Gungan that at the very least we at Fantha Tracks will always love.
Naboo creatures
The last thing the planet needed was a wildlife of creatures roaming around. Almost all of these were designed by Terryl Whitlatch, who was hired as a concept artist for The Special Editions and The Phantom Menace. She has a background in zoology, which came into play with all of the designs she developed. Later she would, with text written by Bob Carrau, publish the most unique and beautifully illustrated sourcebook yet: The Wildlife of Star Wars: A Field Guide.
Domesticated by the Gungans and used in their army are the Fambaa, Falumpaset and Kaadu. The largest of these are the Fambaa that the Gungans used to carry the heavy shield generators into battle. The Fambaa is amphibian, born with gills. Later in life they lose the gills and develop scales as skin. Before being able to join the battle, the Fambaas were captured by the Trade Federation and placed into Camp Six. Whitlatch developed a hand-drawn walk cycle to demonstrate to ILM animators how the animal should move. The other beast of burden, the Falumpaset, was used to carry the battle wagons, as well as carry Boss Nass during the parade at the end of the movie. The Falumpaset were based on a rhinoceros without horns and with the stocky sturdy legs of a Clydesdale horse. Behaviorally she imaged the Falumpaset to be both as intelligent and as stubborn as an elephant. Kaadus were used as cavalry mounts due to their long legs that make them quick runners, as well as excellent swimmers.
The sourcebook Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know revealed that the Kaadu that Captain Tarpals rides into battle was named Swamptoe. The Kaadu was originally designed for Tatooine, but the story called for them to be used on Naboo. The Kaadu concept art was then modified into the Eopie for Tatooine, and given more aquatic features to fit in with the swamp life of Naboo.
Within the unique waterways boring through the planet’s core dwell various aquatic creatures. Out of these the most harmless are the various smaller scalefishes, who were all named after notes of a musical scale as expressed in solfège: Doo, Ray, Mee, Faa, See (rather than Sol), Laa and Tee. The first of the more dangerous creatures that the Jedi and Jar Jar encounter on their trip in the bongo is the Opee Sea Killer. With a body that is part crab, part fish, the other most distinguishing feature was the long tongue that the creature uses to grab its prey. This was added later to the creature, as the First Draft of the script called for the Opee to attack the bongo with paralyzing spit balls.
The second largest predator on Naboo is the Colo claw fish, which was also a favored dish that Dryden Voss served on his yacht in Solo: A Star Wars Story. The design started with an invertebrate look, like an earwig, but later designs refined that by adding crocodile-inspired influences and those of a moray eel. Because the creature had to be seen in the dark depth the luminescent fringe and the glowing spikes were added to complete the final design. The ‘always a bigger fish’ that rounds out the trio of attacking creatures is the Sando Aqua Monster. Being the largest predator on the planet, it is only logical that Gungan myths incorporate these creatures. Gungans believe in an underwater city called Ossorus, where their Guds reside. This beautiful underwater settlement is said to be guarded by giant Gungan warriors on their Kaadus and enchanted Sando Aqua Monsters.
The creatures that can be spotted in the stampede are: Ikopi, Mott, Nuna, Peko-Peko, and Pikobi. Everything but the running Jedi Master was digitally created for the movie. Even the grass and trees are digital, rather than Whippendell Woods which were used for other scenes taking place in the Naboo swamps.
And then there is the Pelikki. The birds being chased away by the submerging bongo in the Solleu River were originally identified as ducks in the now defunct StarWars.com Databank, probably done to fit with the movie’s dialogue about sitting ducks. However, reference book The Phantom Menace: The Expanded Visual Dictionary retconned the birds seen in the movie into pelikki, a species related to ducks but sufficiently different from them to receive a name of their own.
Sources: StarWars.com, Star Wars Character Encyclopedia, Ultimate Star Wars, Star Wars: The Complete Visual Dictionary, Star Wars: On the Front Lines, The Phantom Menace: The Expanded Visual Dictionary, The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, Invasion of Theed Adventure Game, Secrets of Naboo, The Wildlife of Star Wars: A Field Guide, Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know and of course the movie itself.