They were the chosen ones

In this blog entry I'll add some more background information to my entries that have been chosen for the official Star Wars databank:

Swilla Corey

At first I was worried because I didn't know what to do. But since the Cantina is one of my favorite scenes, some things slowly tied together. Basically I used some things I really liked and that weren't used that often like Jerbas, the community of Motesta and Kitik Keed'kak. I used some animals (Jerbas & Anoobas) since I like the creatures a lot in 'SW'. I used to be interested in prehistoric life (beginning of '80) and I still am. I never intended to make Swilla a bad person. Someone can steal for many reasons. Robin Hood also stole from the rich people. That didn't stop him from being a hero. Initially I was wondering what alien I could use to help Swilla. One of the kindest aliens is Momaw Nadon, but he had been used many times, so I tried to stay away from him. When I read in 'The Wildlife of SW' that Pacithhip tend to herd Jerba's, I knew I had found my alien. In my original entry I also used the name of Ketwol's ship, 'The Herd Mother'.

Tzivvt
This is my second Cantina entry, so it must indeed be one of my favorite scenes. I had some troubles regarding the planet Jandoon and Tzizvvt's background. There were some conflicts about the Brizzit and their homeplanet. I had some thoughts about using Jandoon as some sort of haunted place, but ultimately I kept away from it. The story was influenced by Indiana Jones and by an old Marvel story where Han & Chewie travel to a mysterious planet called Seoul 5. It was obvious to use Solomahal, since he's a wise character (a CW veteran) and the two characters seemed to be together in the old Cantina footage. I used two planets from the Droid Cartoons because I really like those (I first also used Admiral Screed as being the owner of the stolen objects). My entry had a very open ending and I liked that. Their adventure was just about to begin! A short story or comic could even be written about that adventure.

In my original entry, I added more of Solomahal's experience: He (Solomahal red.) doubted that Tzizvvt originated from Jandoon, for he knew the rumours about the planet. After all, the Brizzit hailed from Illna, a place he visited during the Clone Wars. His conscience however told him to pursue the matter further.

The entry originally also had more side information about the location of the 'Eye of the Beyonder': Their first stops would be Polis Massa or Subterrel. After all, they needed a group of experienced diggers. Their next destination was Makem Te. Tzizvvt had learned the 'Eye' was buried on the Tract (an enormous graveyard) in the tomb of the legendary Swokes Swokes treasure hunter Frutos (*). 
Nicolas Frutos is an Argentinian soccer player who plays for my favorite team 'RSC Anderlecht' from Belgium.

Wam 'Blam' Lufba
Well, what do you know. Another character that appears on Tatooine has been chosen. I knew Wam from the documentary 'From Star Wars to Jedi'. I remembered 'The Illustrated SW' mentioning that some Yuzzum in Jabba's palace were leftovers from a smuggler. I thought many people would use this background because it was already officially established. Secondly I wanted a connection to his rifle in his story, because usually Yuzzum don't carry such weapons. I also wanted some characters from Jabba's palace that weren't used very often so I chose Pote Snitkin as a major player. I'm glad the 'Centrality' remained in the final entry, since it's one of those classic regions that I like.

In my original entry Wam's nickname was 'Blast'. I don't mind his new nickname 'Blam' at all. The name Wam hails from the British band 'Wham' (with George Michael) that had some great hits in the eighties. I guess I must have been listening to one of their songs and thought it was a great name for a Yuzzum. The name Lufba just sounded nice in my ears. I really wanted to classify his Blaster. I think too few weapons from the movies have an official name, so here you have another: the Czerka 84-U Hunting Rifle. I'm sorry I didn't explain where he got his weird shoes, but let's presume he found them somewhere in Jabba's Palace or in the freighter that took him to Tatooine. I didn't find the space (remember the character limit) to add this.

As usually, the guys from Lucas Online made some smart adaptations. I don't mind that, because I'm aware that my English is not perfect at all. Here are a few of the elements that were included in my original entry. I'm amazed that there weren't really many changes made:
* His nickname was originally 'Blast' instead of 'Blam'
* I didn't envision seeing Wam falling into the Rancor pit. He grabbed and fired the blaster standing on the roster of the pit. I didn't explicitly mention that he didn't fall into the pit, so with a certain point of view he might have ...

Also ... witness the mini figure of Wam that was part of the Jabba the Hutt Throne Room model scene.

Maxiron Agolerga
Well, what do you know! In the last round of WTS, another entry got chosen. I had more hopes for Slyther Bushforb so it came (once more) as a surprise when Maxiron Agolerga had been chosen, the holy man who performs the marriage between Anakin and Padmé. This is one important guy! This entry was originally written in February 2007 (!) so I really had to think about why some decisions were made.

I wanted to use an official but lesser known title for the holy man. I didn't want him to be a priest. So I checked the religious titles and settled with Pontiff, a title originally used in ancient Rome. For his name I was inspired by 'The Da Vinci Code', which I thought was a great book. The bishop from Opus Dei was called Manuel Aringarosa and I wanted to use a similar name for the Pontiff. How I got to Maxiron Agolerga is beyond my memory. Maybe I thought about Max Power (one of Homer Simpson's aliases), I honestly don't know.

The biggest problem about the story was the secretive nature of the marriage. When Anakin and Padmé married, this had to remain a secret that nobody should ever discover. Another thing that worried me was whether the Pontiff should recognise Amidala. At the end, I didn't explicitly state that he did because of several reasons. Queen Amidala always wore heavy make-up, his brotherhood is secluded and is not politically active so perhaps he did know that Amidala was the Senator of Naboo but would he also recognise her as the bride in her beautiful wedding gown standing right before him?

I also remember that I struggled a bit with the creation of his order. What would it be and how would Padmé and Anakin know about this order. I thought of our own situation on earth where a holy man can conclude a marriage but a official civil servant is needed (in Belgium at least) to conclude an official marriage. I remembered that Napoleon decided that a civil marriage should become more official than a marriage performed in church so I used a similar idea and added a longforgotten law.

To strengthen the idea of secrecy, I let Anakin and Padmé use aliases for the marriage. I remembered a story from 'Lord of the Rings' called 'The Tale of Beren and Lúthien' and transported this to the SW Galaxy. The name Set was inspired by the ancient Egypt pagan god and Veré was a typical Naboo name. What this legend is about remaind untold. Were they happy? Did a tragedy occur? We might never know.

Agolerga was happy to perform this marriage and didn't care if these two people used aliases. There had to be evidence about the marriage so I created the official scroll. Don't forget that Panaka discovered the marriage on demand by Palpatine, so there had to be evidence that this marriage took place. How Panaka found out will be another story ...

I am aware of the fact that 'Jedi vs Sith: The Essential Guide of the Force' mentions Maxiron (without his name) as being an old friend of the Naberrie family. Perhaps he became friends with them after the marriage of perhaps that was done in order to hide his true identity. The book was published long after I wrote the entry so I had no chance to change it.