The Aqualish species were made famous by Ponda
Baba in the Cantina scene of A New Hope.
Since then they’ve become a prevalent alien
throughout Star Wars, so today I’ll be talking
about their biology, society, and history.
Like I always do, I’ll be using Legends
material to fill in some of the gaps, but
I’ll try to keep it to things I think are
likely still true in canon.
The Aqualish people were sentient humanoids
easily identified by their tusks and large
black eyes.
There was variation throughout their species
in their skin color and number of eyes.
Most seemed to have a natural brown or black
color to their skin, but green skinned Aqualish
with more human looking eyes have also been
seen.
They had either two or four eyes.
They also had different types of hands.
For example, Ponda Baba had five fingers,
and members of the senate could be seen with
three fingers.
Their blood was red and did not cauterize,
but that’s obviously a retcon to explain
why Ponda Baba’s severed arm bled after
being cut off by a lightsaber.
Originally from the water-covered planet Ando,
they were members of the Galactic Republic.
During the Clone Wars they seceded and joined
the Confederacy of Independent Systems.
In Star Wars Legends, the different races
of Aqualish were called Aquala, Ualaq, and
Quara.
The three subspecies looked down on each other,
and the Aquala specifically hated the Quara,
blaming them for their race’s reputation
as ill-tempered thugs.
However, the culture of all three revolved
around aggression.
Force sensitivity in the species was rare,
but not unheard of.
Aqualish could be seen as members of both
the Jedi and Sith Orders throughout Legends
history.
Beyond that we don’t know much else about
them, at least that I would still consider
likely canon, so I’m going to go into their
Legends history to flesh this out a little
more.
The Aquala, the Quara, and the Ualaq were
constantly at war with each other as they
evolved.
The Aqualish Civil War broke out fifteen thousand
years before the Battle of Yavin, but ended
in a treaty after a Corellian or Duros ship
landed on their planet.
The three then united as one and killed the
offworlders.
They reverse engineered the secrets to interstellar
travel and brought conflict to the area around
Ando, until the Republic defeated them.
Shortly before the Clone Wars the Republic
straight up demilitarized them because they
couldn’t stop their cycle of violence, and
that brings us up to the quote unquote present
day of the films.
Behind the scenes, Ponda Baba’s hands in
A New Hope sparked the need for multiple subspecies
of Aqualish.
His hands are fin-like when attached to his
body, and then hairy and clawed once cut off.
The almost identical character of Teak Sidbam
was also created to try to reconcile why Ponda
looked different shot to shot.
That’s about all we know about the Aqualish
species as of right now, so that’s it for
today!
Are there any other species you’d like to
see me cover like this?
Let me know in the comments, and check out
this playlist to see the species I’ve already
done.
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As always, thanks for watching, and may the
Force be with you!
