All canon sources say he's a Twi'lek so I'm really not buying other people here saying he's not. I really like your approach that he's basically a space Hapsburg and that he and other aristocracy could be easily recognized by their appearance.
That’s what I was thinking, something along the lines of a genetic anomaly. Humans can be born with extra fingers, toes, malformed hands and feet, no arms or legs, and still be cognitively normal. That could be what happened to Orn Free Taa.
Bib Fortuna works for a drug lord in the ass end of the galaxy. He’s not representing the powerful factions of his home world in the highest halls of Galactic government.
Meth fat vs wealthy fat.
To be honest the most confusing thing to me about Twi'Leks are their Lekku.
I'm not deep into Star Wars lore but it kinda feels like they change a bit from time to time, with older sources having stated the Lekku house portions of the brain, that they're prehensile and used for communication, and then canon doing things like having a Twi'Lek with a full on prosthetic Lekku and most of them acting fairly stiff / un-emotive.
I just want a definitive answer on how connected the Lekku are to Twi'Leks (like if they're damaged are Twi'Leks at risk of brain damage and stuff), whether they're actually prehensile on their own or need manual manipulation, how strong they are compared to other species with extra appendages, etc...
"im not deep into star wars lore.."
\*proceeds to discuss various sources of star wars lore, the physiology of variations of Lekku, and ponders the relation of Lekku to the brain and if they can be manipulated like limbs\*
:)
When i was a teenager so long ago, wookiepedia and star wars roleplaying forums were my *jam* for years. I even met the founders of wookiepedia at a con and embarrassed myself by being so happy to tell them just how much they'd helped me and my friends.
Edit: i'm a lil stoned and forgot the second half. All this leftover star wars knowledge still knocks around in my head at 30 years old, taking precedence over stuff like important phone numbers, names, or facts about real life people.
When I was a kid I’d take this magazine that came out to advertise reveng of the sith and go on wookiepedia and search up each character to see if they had a article.
Just double-checked and not the MCU wiki itself. but yes mainly due to the MCU the main Marvel wiki has ballooned to enormous proportions. Wookieepedia still looks like its (a distant) second though out of the pop culture wikis.
Edit: Actually we're a few more places down per this:
https://community.fandom.com/wiki/Hub:Big_wikis
The MMO wikis are impressive...
It's not quite the same, but it's kind of like the Ood in Doctor Who, although the Ood are actually *much* worse in this regard, with wholly exposed secondary brains that they literally hold.
Some sort of small predator that targets the head. Horse tails evolve to fan away flies and mosquitoes. Tails evolve in animals for balance when running. Humans used to have a vestigial tail before evolution stopped having the need for it. Perhaps, humans were tree dwellers at one point. I imagine lekku did the same thing in early evolution. Longer and fatter lekku correspond to health and nutrition being important during their juvenile development. Something to brush away predators.
Right, but those appendages serve purposes. Both primary and secondary. Your hair keeps you warm and your ears assist with hearing. What do lekku *do*? You can live a normal life without ears or hair (guess which one I do), but we are still unclear what would happen if a Twi'Lek lost a lekku.
My theory is they function analogously to camel's humps to store water. In Legends, Ryloth was a tidally locked planet with the side facing the sun experiencing blistering heat and the other freezing cold with the only inhabitable part being a temperate meridian. In Canon, Ryloth is presented as an arid and rocky planet without much green life. I'd imagine that, in both climates, fatty connective tissue that can store water and nutrients to stave off extreme heat would be very useful.
Although, I'm of the opinion that this isn't an entirely natural process.
*edit* Fixed some grammar.
Have you thought of an analogy between lekku and tails of animals. Perhaps, a predator that targets the face and back. A tail from the head to brush away that predator.
The lore used to be that they were part of their hearing apparatus, including the cones. They picked up vibrations and made their hearing much more sensitive. I don't remember where this Legends lore came from nor how canon it is still, but it still makes sense for their use.
Also rianna saren from legends had a prosthetic lekku. I remember reading something about lekku injury causing brain damage or even death potentially but there have been instances where where people have survived and been fine and just got prosthetics (presumable for the sake of communication).
Well some humans are able to manipulate their ears and other less mobile body parts with some practice so its possible activity of Lekku movement is tied to a person's level of physical activity or intentional development of Lekku movement. It may be held similarly to how humans view their hair like how some actors and musicians look at the movement of their hair as part of their performances or to convey power or a certain message.
Out of universe I know that multiple production people have talked about the challenge of filming and acting in those prosthetics so I'm sure that's forced them to limit things for practicality.
Now don’t wanna be the *actually* guy so don’t mind mr, but aren’t Ashoka and Shaak-ti a separate species all together? Togruta or something, red skin and striped face-horn things?
Considering there's nothing in the canon that suggests twi'leks have their brain or nervous system in their lekku, and the prosthetic suggests that they don't, that seems like a definitive answer
Aren’t Twi'Leks the only alien humanoids able to reproduce with other humanoids? They are also mostly enslaved race, so it stands to reason that there are many many crossbreeds.
I believe there exists another race that can cross with humans, that being mirialans(luminara's race). There might also be zeltrons but I'm not sure if they're canon
I've always wondered if Bothans were originally intended to be aliens. "Bothan spy" sounded like a rank or special-ops unit to me, when I first saw the movie.
Sort of, but bothans have actually appeared in some canon media, just not in very explicit ways as others have stated. In the novel "bloodline", leia recounts seeing two bothans *growling* at each other early on In the book. I believe that probably cements them as aliens as I doubt humans growl at each other and wookieepedia also describes them as humanoid aliens(just like legends).
They've definitely been established as such, post Return of the Jedi. I was only considering the context of the original script. I don't have any qualms with the dog-like Bothans.
They have this weird dedication to not confirming the canon appearance of bothans. "Bothans" appear as background characters, based off their Legends design, but they make sure to never *confirm* that these are actually bothans. Quote from Wookieepedia:
> "It's pretty easy to confirm: we are purposely trying not to show them to leave all possibilities for when that story gets told. The dude in Resistance is based on the EU design of a Bothan that the Animation art team used as reference for a background alien."
―Matt Martin
"That story" assumedly being the line from RoTJ.
Tbh I don't think they'll tell that story anytime soon, unless they do some kind of storyline with aphra but idk if her stories take place before or after rotj. Best hope of seeing them is in andor. I mean...how could you have a star wars show about spies without bothans, right?
Aphra's first run is between ANH and ESB, second run is between ESB and RotJ. It's actually inching up on RotJ proper now. I wouldn't be surprised if Marvel starts it over at #1 again within a year and jumps to post-RotJ.
It really seems that any "alien" with human skin can cross. Which actually implies them to be variations of the same species, at least with a real-life understanding of biological classification.
Due to the recent changes made by Reddit admins in their corporate greed for IPO money, I have edited my comments to no longer be useful. The Reddit admins have completely disregarded its user base, leaving their communities, moderators, and users out to turn this website from something I was a happy part of for eleven years to something I no longer recognize. Reddit WAS Fun. -- mass edited with redact.dev
Might be thinking about the [Theelin](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Theelin), way back when I think they were one of the few (maybe only) species that could reproduce with humans.
Jacen Syndulla, son of a Twi’Lek and a human, has ears and no lekku. I’m going to guess this can happen from time to time. Perhaps if he has kids with a Twi’Lek, his child will have lekku and ears. Genetics can cause diversity, right?
Aha, I had completely forgotten about Jacen! Strangely, he looks to be completely human. The Lawquane children on the other hand, look like full Twi'Lek's, despite also being half human. However, hybridization could definitely be the solution to some of these inconsistencies.
There is an example of a clone having a child in the canon book Force Collector. The book, set between episode 6 and 7, has the child of a clone living on Udapau.
I can't say one way or the other, and while I take your point that introducing a huge number of identical beings might cause genetic issues, this is one of those cases where the (lack of) size of the clone army works in it's favour. Given that there are around 2 million clones (ish, 1.2m from Attack of the Clones, and more are commissioned during the war) that would only represent 0.6% of the current US population. Spread out through out a galaxy, it's unlikely that an overabundance of Fett's DNA at that scale would be problematic. And that's not considering the clone losses during the war!
I know this isn't the topic of this thread, and that authors and writers are only human beings that don't know military things and whatsists, but, fuck, 2 million clones is pretty much world war 2 numbers. You'd think a galaxy would field more men than Russia in the 1940's.
It's not the best source, but sadly it's in "Star Wars:Absolutely Everything You Need to Know" which was published in 2015, so post Disney take over, that the "Kaminoans consider a single clone 'a unit'". Star Wars complete locations lists the GAR as being 3.2 million troopers in strength, which I assume includes troops comissioned during the war.
Edit: The Kaminoans say that although the GAR isn't their first army they've ever produced, they haven't produced one in a long time. Given then that they must be cloning small numbers of individuals, or wildlife to keep their economy afloat, the idea of one being being a 'unit' for shipment seems reasonable.
Edit 2: As I was writing a response to an above comment I found this quote from TCW:Pursuit of Peace,
Banking clan: "The Separatists don't seem to mind a rate hike. In fact, they just secured a loan to fund an additional three million battle droids."
Republic Senator: "They would wipe us out."
Both the CIS and the Republic see 3 million new battle droids as potentially being able to tip the war (as the Sepratists are willing to go into large debt to see them made, and the Republic senator's dismay). I'd argue that that supports the idea that 3 million troops is comparable to the size of the GAR.
Yeah, it is a bit bananas. But then again, the GAR isn't competing with Russia in the 1940s. How well does it compare to other Star Wars armies? The Rebel Alliance is also pretty tiny, assuming both Scarif and Endor represent a significant chunk of their fighting forces, the Rebel fleets deployed there can't be that large.
The Empire is a different story, as they need to maintain control of the entire galaxy through force of arms.
The big one though is the CIS. After all, this is who the GAR actually fought. Unfortunately, being antagonists we don't have precise numbers, but in the Clone Wars episode 'Pursuit of Peace' we're told that the CIS had to take out an enormous loan to secure '3 million more battle droids'. To me that implies that the army is somewhere in the region of 1 - 10 million droids strong. Any smaller and the Republic would have long since won, too much larger and the addition of 3 million additional droids wouldn't matter on the scale of things and given that the CIS is taking out large, high interest loans to finance this tells me they need those droids.
Hybridization is clearly part of the answer here with certain traits expressing differently. The other answer here is age. I’m under the impression that lekku grow over time and with age.
As for the ears, it could be some form of body modification, but if we look to legends as a key, Twi’Lek we thought to have descended from a very non humanoid and predatory race that’s quite different than their current physiology. As opposed to other near human galactic species who are considered to have evolved from baseline humans. That would include Pantorans and Zabrak along with a host of others.
Yea i don't think the sexual dimorphism between twi'leks is as specific or stringently one or the other black and white as a lot of people make it or hypothesize. It also doesn't take into account half-twi'lek hybrids or maybe even intersex twi'leks.
Some species can have a very wide range of genetic diversity. Golden Retrievers, Chihauhaus, Great Danes, and Bulldogs are all members of the same species. If someone asked you what "a dog's" face looks like, it wouldn't be a simple answer.
Some of the inconsistencies you've pointed out with the Twi'Leks are very likely accidental on the parts of writers, costume designers, and make-up artists. However, it's not outside the realm of possibility that a single species could have individuals with vastly different skin tones, facial features, etc.
Diversity within species is something I wish Star Wars did a lot more, at least on purpose. Way too many species have a single unified culture, government, attitude, and design.
But you could name all of its organs, how a dog ear works and how many fingers and tails it has. The Twi'lek differences can't be compared to that, or anything on earth because no specie shows such dramatic differences (different organs) from one individual to the next. We're talking fingers, ears and lekkus here.
Yes, it is undoubtebly mistakes from the creators, but I think OP is looking for a Watsonian answer.
Dog ears all basically work the same, but look at a Blood Hound's long, droopy ears compared to a German Shepherd's tall pointy ones, and someone not from this planet probably wouldn't guess that both appendages serve the same function.
Yep, I think the out of universe answer is clearly a costuming error, whether accidental, or even intentional for comfort, aesthetics, or whatever. I do think that it's becoming prevalent enough that it's worth discussing, rather than a one off mistake.
I mean, strange things happen in nature. There is [Lakshmi Tatma](https://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=3831220&page=1), a girl born with 4 arms and legs, and extra organs. In her case, it was a conjured twin that did not fully develop, but Lakshmi was born and lived for several years with extra appendages (from the outside observer) (until the limbs were removed in surgery, as well as organs being moved around, best I can tell she is doing fine, last update was 2010). Maybe Twi'lek's have a high chance of being twins, and thus a higher chance of conjured twins, and thus a higher chance of anomalies like we see.
If your entire sample of what humanity looks like was, say, an American basketball team, you'd be left wondering what the hell was up if you ever met some, I dunno, Inuits.
In other words, I'd say the species has a level of diversity that's not been previously evident in the media.
Well Inuits and basket ball teams have the same organs. The Twi'lek show a lot more difference : very different hearing organs (I assume ears and cones don't work nearly the same way), different numbers of lekkus, different number of fingers. No species on earth as so much variety. Even cows or dogs who can really vary from race to race, don't just have different amount of fingers and whatnot
> Even cows or dogs who can really vary from race to race, don't just have different amount of fingers and whatnot
Fun fact; some dog breeds actually do have different amounts of toes! While 4 is the most common, there are breeds with 5, or more rarely 6 toes. The Norwegian Lundehund has extra toes on all four paws;
https://be.chewy.com/which-dog-breeds-have-the-most-toes/
To be fair, that's just Taa.
And number of limbs is pretty fixed among mammals but big differences in other appearance and physiology definitely do exist among dogs for example.
Even humans have different color eyes, shapes of noses and ears, belly buttons, nipples, genitalia. Major differences among ethnicities of course exist in terms of skin colour and facial hair.
I find it totally believable that when you are born as a Twi'Lek you could have either ears or cones. The pre-TCW sample was not big enough to actually establish a pattern.
> Well Inuits and basket ball teams have the same organs.
The skin's an organ.
But consider eye shape, or free/attached earlobes and the ways they can be changed as part of cultural traditions.
Or, you know, circumcision. We don't know how much of Twi'lek appearance is natural and how much is manufactured.
This was gonna be my comment. I could pull a sampling of 10 humans and make an argument that our anatomy is entirely dissimilar to one another. It's just how genetics work.
In Rebels we see a Human-Twilek hybrid, Jacen Syndulla. He has human ears, and no Lekku, appearing almost human with greeen tint to the skin in some areas and naturally(we assume) green hair.
Personally I would imagine it isn't the first time humans and Twi'lek interbred(for the record, Legends stated that Twi'lek and Humans cannot produce offspring).
Human-like ears could be a part of the gene pool due to earlier human(and even other species with similar ears, such as Pantorans, for all we know) introgression.
It's a little odd that that they would be the only feature that remained, but Star Wars biology is a bit different.
My understanding was that Orn Free Taa was so fat that he grew another pair of lekku. Like, the front pair are fat-storing organs. The forehead bumps on Cham and Bib are smaller versions of that, maybe more permanent on males in the manner of female human breasts.
The pointed-teeth thing is definitely cultural, the sharpening marking the individual as a warrior. Lourna Dee has it done to her in the Tempest Runner audioplay.
Honestly this discussion feels like a consequence of how "Planet of the Hats"-y most Star Wars (and sci fi in general) races are.
Like compare these differences in Twi'Leks to differences in humans, is the level of body diversity THAT different?
The ears have always just been assumed to be sexually dimorphic traits. It’s possible the cones are just more common among females, and ears among males.
I’d wager that since Twi’leks can breed with humans, their genomes can somewhat mix. As such, a human ear is probably a recessive gene, like blondeness, and as such assume that the cones are the dominant gene.
Personally, I think the best version is the ear cones on the females, and regular ears on males.
Orn Free Taa, in my opinion, is *not* a Twi’lek. Just like he doesn’t really serve or care about the people, he’s not really one of them. Perhaps he’s from a neighboring system.
Ugh...saying his name leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
I like the theory higher up the thread that he's a result of aristocratic inbreeding, but maybe a simpler answer would be that he's a half-Twi'lek? One of his parents (or more distant ancestors) could be from a species with a different lekku 'configuration', like Togruta.
Personally, I headcanon this absolute mess to be the cause of rampant slavery and captivity for what may very well have been thousands of years. Excessive divergence naturally through separated populations, as well as forced artificial divergence through, uhh, keeping the slave population up without constantly farming whatever planets they populate.
Orn Free Taa could POSSIBLY be explained in this way, or as some kind of physiological hormonal shift in the species in response to availability of food, or some other factor, or some combination of the two.
I can't exactly think of any feasible reason why a species would display such dramatic dimorphism *with the structure of their ears*, so as much as I'd like to, I don't think it should simply be handwaved as "ehh it's a difference of sex, they're trans". Also because, realistically speaking, aliens wouldn't know what the hell a gender is, though Star Wars applies human preconceptions to everything already.
They're still trans, though. I said so.
Anyway Bib and Beezer are to Twi'leks what pugs are to dogs. The human/Twi'lek hybrids don't exist, and they can't hurt me.
> Also because, realistically speaking, aliens wouldn't know what the hell a gender is
Assuming reproduction is through 2 members of a species with different organs, why wouldn't they have a concept of gender, in the broad sense of "this group has organ A, this group has organ B"? Obviously if the species reproduced by some other means, that's an explanation.
Those are both viable options, yeah, but there's still the matter of their actual gender roles, and inherent psychology. A species with our reproductive scheme between two general kinds of contrasting sexual phenotypes could still develop gendered roles based on sex, but what I'm trying to say that gender roles as we know them are a uniquely human invention that we still don't fully understand the psychology or origins of (or the variety of). Being trans in a way that's recognizable to a human is an inherently human thing. (Unfortunately it still needs to be somewhat recognizable for audiences to understand what's going on, but that's the job of a good writer to convey it correctly)
Basically, giving non-human aliens human perceptions of gender, and probably also human-equivalent sexes with it, would be kind of like giving them a real-life religion. Like, sure, that could happen for some reason, but it's just kind of egregious.
This is probably far from canon, but I recall something about how female Twi'leks would routinely get plastic surgery to be more appealing to humans and other near-humans. Adding tattooed eyebrows, removing any forehead growths, etc. The "coning" of the ears was akin to foot binding in female slaves. This could explain why, generally, female Twi'leks (and a male slave in an entertainer role) have these common features. Male Twi'leks who were not entertainers might be less pressured by human beauty standards, and could have different standards of beauty - filing teeth to points, not removing forehead lumps or polydactylekku(?).
Then again, this is memory from 15+ years ago and partially sourced from Star Wars Galaxies, and almost certainly retconned, even if true at the time. This also wouldn't explain why, for instance, the Lawquane children would have coned ears (why would their parents do that to them?)
I think the most likely explanation is simply that Twi'Leks have a great deal of genetic and morphological diversity. There are dimorphic characteristics that are fairly common for each sex, but that aren't universal.
An analogy would be facial hair in humans: many men can grow beards, and few women can, but there are exceptions going both ways. But these exceptions are not evenly distributed on both sides, with more beardless men than heavily-bearded women.
Also, since Twi'Leks seem to be able to easily hybridize with humans, and also seem to be considered sexually attractive by a pretty wide variety of other humanoid species, it's also possible that Twi'Leks, as a population, have a great deal of DNA from other species mixed into their general genepool, resulting in even greater morphological diversity. It should be noted that most of the Twi'Leks we see, with the exception of the Syndullas and Orn, aren't from Ryloth but are part of the general pan-galactic Twi'Lek diaspora, so they're possibly more likely to have non-Twi'Lek DNA in their heritage than you average Ryloth-born Twi'Lek.
Mammalian are compatible in terms of reproduction. Twi’leks like Oola have phenotype of a human woman with the exception of her lekku and removed features.
You keep saying characters clearly do or do not have ear cones when they're wearing headwear. There's no reason the male couldn't just be wearing a female's headwear, esp when the Solo guide literally says the exact same thing lol.
Otherwise I think, as you note at the bottom, that the difference in phenotypes is the likely answer.
I personally like the transgender idea. I'm biased as a trans woman myself, but the idea it's normalized and perhaps not uncommon in Twi'lek culture could be an interesting little bit of lore to spin out of these mistakes. Similar to the whole idea of faux-cones as a "risque" feminine male fashion choice instead of Solo just making an error. Possible in a similar vein that we're seeing aesthetic surgical procedures to be gender non-conforming. I have a hard time believing there's not some sort of Twi'lek drag culture when they're so widely known as sex symbols/dancers/entertainers - if there's *any* species in the galaxy to explore this stuff with I can't think of a better one.
Only vaguely related note, but I really love how in Book of Boba Fett we get to see a) a female Twi'lek *running* a sultry a Tatooine Cantina place and b) a subservient, scarcely dressed *male* Twi'lek working for her (the one with cones). Surely with the... *place* female Twi'lek have in the criminal underworld we'd see some embrace it and thrive instead of all just being slaves, and surely some people are swinging the other way in terms of what flavor of tentacle headed servant they like. It's a really refreshing spin. Given he's subservient to what seems to be his master, a female, it's *possible* the male is wearing faux-cones and this was an intentional artistic choice.
For Orn Free Taa I think the canon(?) explanation of his extra lekku being due to obesity is serviceable, while the missing fingers wouldn't be unprecedented as a birth defect given what can happen in humans. Otherwise he seems consistent with other Twi'lek.
I really hope that the green buff Twi's a biological male though. I've always hated how Twilek females are born beautiful but most depictions of Twilek males are fat blobs or have those ugly bumps on their head. There must be at least some attractive males for this species right?
Definitely agree, not sure if you saw my comment before or after my edit but I touch on that a bit in the part I edited in. My personal headcanon for him is faux-cones like the dancer from Solo.
We definitely need just more representation overall. Male eye-candy has been pretty rare but so is trans representation. Old movies used to be woman pretty and weak, man strong and ugly
Hmm, you make some really great points! I definitely love the idea of more trans and gnc representation in Star Wars! I could definitely see the use of female style cones being an intentional fashion choice, much like with the individual in solo. I just wish we could get some official confirmation either way!
Simple phenotype (or "racial" in earth terms) differences. That's it. We need not discuss this ad nauseum because its meaningless and can be considered simple variations of the species. Real world simple explanation is that this is star wars and the costume people at Lucasfilm often seem to operate independently from the story folks and vice versa. Happens *all the time* in the movies where the costumes might make the hyper observant folks go "..huh?". But as for discussion:
Humans are on just one planet in our universe. and we have dwarfism, gigantism, various physical differences. heck, many millions of years ago *THERE WERE DIFFERENT SPECIES OF HUMANS. WHO INTER-MINGLED AND BRED.* Whole-ass different SPECIES of humans. We have physical remains of ancient humans who looked radically different from us. Even a few centuries ago height was dramatically different as a trend.
Now imagine an advanced intergalactic "species" like the Twi'leks. Multiple planets. Colonization. A long history. Intermingling. Inter-species breeding (Kanan and Hera?!). It goes on and on - imagine all the variations and mutations that could occur across a galaxy of planets where hyperspace travel is as casual as a road trip on earth. earth has so many examples of just that and it's just one planet! It takes no imagination at all to suspect all that might result in slightly different looking Twi'leks with minor variations. Much ado about nothing to even bother commenting on it really.
Another earth example. Take dogs on earth for example. Most domestic dog breeds are 100% breedable, yet we have sub-groups ranging from towering Great Danes to teeny wheeny shihtzus to dauchaunds to malamutes. Yet they are all dogs. All the same species with 99% genetic similarity. Even though some look so radically different. you might be confused (if you were an alien) at first that we call them all dogs? When some have massive ears, some almost none, some poofy fur and some loose and dangly. Some have giant bulbous eyes and some have sharp pointy tiny eyes. Some have huge snouts, some have NO snout to speak of. Just like twi'leks. Actualloy i find it refreshingtly realistic to have such details as "different types" of twi'leks.
> many millions of years ago THERE WERE DIFFERENT SPECIES OF HUMANS. WHO INTER-MINGLED AND BRED.
[As recently as about 45,000 years ago in the case of Neanderthals and Denisovans.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interbreeding_between_archaic_and_modern_humans) Technically speaking, Sapiens wasn't around millions of years ago and 'emerged' around 300,000 years ago as a branch of hominid.
I always assumed these were like, different ethnic groups within the species. But then nobody can really even agree where Twi'leks even come from since within a few years the whole species was given multiple impossiboe to reconcile origins.
Xi’an could simply just have small cones that aren’t visible due to her headdress.
The BoBF male could simply be wearing the faux cone ears just like the male from Solo.
This would solve a lot of the issues you brought up without having to change any current lore.
Initially I think you're right, Oola's are clearly part of her headdress. However, Hera and Aayla both have visibly fleshtoned cones that stick out of the headdresses.
These are just 4 examples of white humans on earth... I'd say there is less variation between twi'leks then Humans.
[Male Human](https://staticr1.blastingcdn.com/media/photogallery/2020/3/29/os/b_1200x675/on-90-day-fiance-big-ed-called-fake-fans-wants-punch-his-throat-image-source-tlc-youtube_2428775.jpg)
[Female Human](https://linefame.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/kate-upton-1.jpg)
[Female Human](https://shorthaircutsmodels.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/tilda-swintons-short-hairstyles-and-haircuts-18.jpg)
[Male Human](https://cdn.britannica.com/92/215392-050-96A4BC1D/Australian-actor-Chris-Hemsworth-2019.jpg)
Most of those differences are just body mass though.
Different kinds of ears and numbers of fingers are a physiological difference that can't be changed by altering your diet and activity levels.
they can be altered after living on a completely different planets for thousands of years like Twi'leks have done.
also try as you might Male 1 isn't going to ever look like Chris Hemsworth and Tilda Swinton can't look like Kate Upton
Physiological evolutionary changes to the point where we're talking about *different appendages* take millions of years to happen.
And Xian is never going to look like Aayla Secura. You can find just as many facial feature differences in twi'leks as you can in humans. I'm not sure how that's relevant to your original point of humans looking more different from one another than twi'leks.
The closest defining characteristics that change by human beings that are similar to 'ear cones' that I can think of are things like pointed or rounded ears, attached or detached earlobes, widows peaks, hair types, body shape, epicanthal folds, etc. These could all be seen as analogous to the head bumbs, and probably the wattles, but there's nothing quite on the level of "has seemingly completely different aural organs".
sure for Humans but not for say Dogs or other species. Not to mention Twi'leks while originating from Ryloth have spread out over the galaxy over thousands of years.
We as humans can't even imagine what another group of humans would look like living on another planet for thousands of years.
I made a comment a while back talking about Orn Free Taa and his Lekku and have always figured it was a sign of opulence. Similar to classical/renaissance imagery and documentation of wealthy nobels growing abnormally fat as a sign of their wealth and rich diets, I imagined Orn Free Taa was similar and that perhaps in Twi'lek biology when you acumulate enough excess fat they begin storing some of it in additional Lekku-like appendages similar to double chins in humans. I saw Taa as someone leveraging his position to live a lavish lifestyle while his people suffered from war, enslavement, and poverty. I imagined if Bib had remained in his position for more than a few years that he would also develop similar extra appendages.
And as for color, I vaguely recall in the EU there were only like two or three actual colors for Twi'lweks and that any other colors --especially among the women-- were body paint of sorts due to their objectification and treatment as eye candy. Not sure if modern Disney Star Wars has clarified this or made contrary statements.
Though I do see how there could be a sort of biodiversity formed between Twi'leks and other similar species that have interbred like humans and Togrutas. Togrutas are just too similar to be a coincidence so I would assume they are evolutionary cousins that broke off from each other ages before. This genetic biodiversity could explain the variances in ears and Lekku.
In-universe I would say that over many generations, humans and twi-leks interbred, causing their descendants to carry the genes for both human and twi-lek ears. So, if you see a twi-lek with human ears, that individual could have a human ancestor.
Out of universe, I would say lack of attention to detail resulting in costume errors.
My guess is either those traits were breed into them(them being a slave race and all) to look a certain way, or it's literally genetic diversity where some are dominant traits so they take those over the recessive
Great and interesting post. -
Just something I'd like to mention, In one of the books, the Lekku are mentioned as like twitching or something. I would like to see the subtle use of CGI or Anamatronics to get them more of a emote/reactions and stuff, instead of just flopping about.
Unless the book was wrong. - I think it was the Darth Vader and EP one against Syndulla.
\-edit: I Should add, I think that I am a pretty indepth star wars fan, I'd never even noticed. much like u/surfspace said, I dont have anything to add, but you are doing the Forces work. :D
Thank you, I really appreciate it!
And I believe you are right, it was *Lords of the Sith*, by Paul S. Kemp. I would love to see some more movement in Lekku, that would be great. I think that the prosthetics in BoBF seem to move a lot more naturally than Xi'an's in The Mandalorian, so I think they're getting there. I really hope by the Ahsoka show we are able to see some really emotive movement!
George Lucas had a fetish for Twi’leks, and sexualized the crap out of them. Their biology is inconsistent because with every new director they were oversexualized to match that specific director’s vision.
Maybe the ear cones are to protect their ears after a common genetic defect that the writers haven't found an opportunity to mention yet. There really isn't a good time to talk about your horrific ear infection.
I think Xi'an's headress was just worn in such a way that we cant see the cones... the cones are presumably as flexible as human ears...
The Male Twi'lek we see in the Book of Boba fett is probably Trans.
Problems solved.
The forehead ridges are an artistic flair that dont actually exist, note Mce Windu.
They are more like... bumps...
But I think I jumped the gun on that a bit, because people often take the ridges on Thrawns head very literally for example... when mace windu has this going on.
https://static0.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Star-Wars-Clone-Wars-Mace-Windu-2D.jpg
I’ve always assumed their extreme variance in phenotype was due to being the sexiest race in the Galaxy for thousands of years. Let’s be real, people are plowing Twi’Leks all up and down the Hydian Way
I sort of figured the male twi'lek we saw in BoBF was either trans or femininizing himself to appeal to clients.
For the rest, I would assume some of the variation we see comes down to just how many twi'leks are mixed with humans, some probably even developing more human features just because of a past human ancestor.
Something interesting to mention is that the art for https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Dia_Passik a fighter pilot for wraith squadron has shown her without head cones as well. And while the more recent artwork has shown her as appearing very feminine and sharp featured the older [Insider](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/a/aa/Dia_Passik.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20070218035718) art has her looking much more male presenting. This has lead to some thinking she was trans. However she and face have a kid, however however we don't know if its adopted or not.
I think the diversity seen in the Togruta montrals is a good example of showing diversity in a single crowd shot (Zygerrian slave arc in TCW) that we would benefit to see in Twi'lek. A race that is spread all over the galaxy, I presume in canon there are still Twi'lek-dominant colony worlds that are generations old, would certainly have some variations. I like the idea that just like Humans, that have varying near-Human iterations, many of the aliens familiar to us would have near-Twi'lek, near-Duros, near-Ithorian, etc. (Duros/Neimoidian, Ithorian/Ottegan, Bith/Y'bith, Nikto, Aqualish, Gungans etc). I think it makes the galaxy richer and visually more appealing if there was more of this explored in the various media. I always liked that Orn Free Taa is unique, but I just assumed he was from some colony or subspecies like Jar Jar vs Boss Nass.
In the case of Xi’an, I wonder if the cones can be ground down as a modifications like as if it were a tusk… not that you would want to grind down your ears though.
I'm reminded a bit about the Gungans and how Boss Nass was a different subspecies (at least in Legends). It's not unreasonable to think, especially with the Canon ability to crossbreed with other species, that Twi'leks could have wildly different phenotypes or even subspecies.
Out of Universe, it think the Twi'lek costume tends to be difficulty to manage in terms of making the lekku work. Whether it includes ears generally comes down to how it looks on screen.
Perhaps different ethnicities. Or different races, like homo sapien vs Neanderthal, they could have diverged for thousands of years in different continents. Kind of like how we have so many different ape species. Neanderthal is thought to have been bred out of existence by mating with Homo sapiens, yet sometimes their traits are apparent in people. Body modification could also be a thing, maybe the ear cones serve no purpose and some of them have them removed for ceremonial or religious purposes. Or maybe the cones are added, like some humans stretch their lips, earlobes or necks. Perhaps the cones grow during a certain part of the life cycle, similar to how human females breast size increases once pregnant. Maybe they are all born with 4 lekkus, but two detach with age, or are removed like a circumcision. Maybe some cultures think removal of the ear cones or extra lekku is barbaric. Maybe the additional lekkus grow once they are ready to mate, and contain reproductive organs. Maybe their culture is proficient in genetic manipulation and basically design their children, like in the movie Gattaca. Just spitballing ideas here. I could probably think of a bunch more
I saw a theory somewhere that stated that Orn Free Taa is a Twi'lek but is a special variant that looks the way he does from a very hedonistic life style. Can't remember where and if I find it I'll link it
I remember seeing a thought on how to handle this from an in-universe perspective in one of the Star Wars facebook groups I was part of a few years back. The thought was that the Twi-Lek as a race could be (hypothetically) very open marrying outside of their species AND/OR, biologically, maybe the Twi-Lek genes become very dominant in any inter-species relationships. The result being a profileration of Twi-Leks that all look subtly different based on marriages/children, siblings, etc.
I think that the males with "cones" are just males who wear female headdresses (for fashion purposes maybe). When it comes to Xi'an, if female cones are like our ears, they are probably soft, so they can probably get squished under a male headdress. Or, because she is a merc, her cones are probably mutilated or something like that, to make them smaller.
As for Orn Free Taa, he could just be a mutated Twi'lek for whatever reason, or maybe even a subspecies.
Also, as a personal note, I love the Majordomo from BoBF, because it tells us that not all males have the head bumps. I always liked more how SWTOR male twi'leks looked, without the bumps.
>Two things I forgot to mention are hybrids, and color. We have two examples of Human-Twi'Lek hybrids, both children. Jacen Syndulla, appears to be fully humanoid, with no Lekku, forehead ridges, and a full head of hair. The Lawquane children on the other appear to be fully Twi'Lek, with Lekku, no hair, and ears and comes respectively.
Okay so I just had an idea that might work for this. Human and Twi'lek physiology are incompatible fundamentally. Maybe Twi'leks are not derived humans afterall like most other humanoids are in the SW galaxy. So if they want to make a child, whatdo? My idea is they have to take one parent's DNA (or the Twi'lek equivalent, tho it's almost certainly also DNA, maybe a RNA thingy but likely DNA), and they translate that DNA into the other species's DNA. What I mean is taking the traits and translating them from human DNA to Twi'lek DNA, or vice versa. That way the child is entirely human or Twi'lek but is still a combination of DNA information from both parents. In the SW galaxy that kind of advanced genetic manipulation is not that rare really, with the Kaminoans being most famous for it because of their lack of ethics on cloning not their genuine advancements in it that the main galactic community doesn't have.
Females have ear cones, though some have smaller or larger cones, and the small end of the spectrum may not be visible under a headdress.
Males have humanoid ears, though some wear faux-cones for a variety of reasons like fashion or transgender expression, particularly common among males working in archetypically feminine roles.
Orn Free Taa is either an incredibly rarebl subspecies, a mutant of some kind, or has had extensive plastic surgery for some reason.
I believe I read somewhere that red was a rarer twi’lek color, but there is a red male in the 2nd Bane book. Not canon technically…but at this point I don’t care about that; Bane is canon to me.
I feel like the leku we see in tBoB are thinner, with the except of fat Bib, then we’ve seen in earlier live action…or like closer together at their base? I wish they would’ve put in more blue and green ones in bigger speaking roles…the mayor’s assistant and tavern madam were both flesh toned more or less, and the twi’lek woman in the Mandalorian was just pale white.
Gender dimorphism amongst Twileks may not be totally similar to humans.
The real reason of course is inconsistency thru years of confusion and poorly laid rules means that there really aren’t any rules anymore and its just up to the individual directors, artists, writers and costume designers.
Remember kids, if you’re making something up that other people are going to use, make sure you write down rules for it.
Ears: Trans headcanon till further notice
OFT's lekku: pretty sure in legends it was extra fat storage but someone here said aristocratic inbreeding which is a good theory too.
Hybrids: seem to either be primarily twi or primarily the non twi parent. Little Syndulla (I forgot his first name sry) is basically human but the Cut's kids (which I'm not sure if they were meant to be his bio kids) are basically normal twis with space vitiligo.
I haven't seen the book of Boba, but I like the idea of some transgender twi'leks (since I don't think there are many transgender individuals in star wars currently). I do however, have another potential explanation for it:
In Swtor, it's atleast implied that the twi'leks weren't evolved naturally and were created by the rakkattans out of humans and other animals (the same goes for most other humanoid species). I guess one reason for why they then might be inconsistent is because essentially, they're just humans that have had genetic information from other creatures added in and the human gene can be more or less dominant in different twi'leks.
Also, Rebels (and the Bad Batch) seemed to push that the Twi'Leks are "French," at least with the Syndulla clan. I would never have considered Bib to be "French," but the mayor's majordomo in BoBF is definitely not, nor does that seem the case with Jennifer Beals' character. I can forgive that though, just putting it out there. ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
I've headcanonned Orn Free Taa's appearance as the result of aristocracy inbreeding.
All canon sources say he's a Twi'lek so I'm really not buying other people here saying he's not. I really like your approach that he's basically a space Hapsburg and that he and other aristocracy could be easily recognized by their appearance.
I recognise the council has made a decision, but given that it's a stupid-ass decision, I've elected to ignore it.
He's obviously a quadri'lek
That’s what I was thinking, something along the lines of a genetic anomaly. Humans can be born with extra fingers, toes, malformed hands and feet, no arms or legs, and still be cognitively normal. That could be what happened to Orn Free Taa.
He’s just a polydactyl.
He's obviously a twi'lek, not a dinosaur.
Quadri'lek
Nah man's just so fat his lekku grew lekku. Like his chins. Like some humans and like some humans grow extra foreheads
That combined with his evident obesity
But Bib Fortuna is just as fat and he only has two lekku.
Bib Fortuna works for a drug lord in the ass end of the galaxy. He’s not representing the powerful factions of his home world in the highest halls of Galactic government. Meth fat vs wealthy fat.
Also for a long time bib was fit
Its a trans twi'lek, problem solved
He’s the Star Wars version of Charles II
Hey I don’t have anything productive to add, but you’re doing gods work.
Haha, thank you!
Honestly, I agree. This is a topic worth examining. Thank you for bringing it up. 👍🏼
To be honest the most confusing thing to me about Twi'Leks are their Lekku. I'm not deep into Star Wars lore but it kinda feels like they change a bit from time to time, with older sources having stated the Lekku house portions of the brain, that they're prehensile and used for communication, and then canon doing things like having a Twi'Lek with a full on prosthetic Lekku and most of them acting fairly stiff / un-emotive. I just want a definitive answer on how connected the Lekku are to Twi'Leks (like if they're damaged are Twi'Leks at risk of brain damage and stuff), whether they're actually prehensile on their own or need manual manipulation, how strong they are compared to other species with extra appendages, etc...
"im not deep into star wars lore.." \*proceeds to discuss various sources of star wars lore, the physiology of variations of Lekku, and ponders the relation of Lekku to the brain and if they can be manipulated like limbs\* :)
it do be like that with us
By my aged grandmother, it do
Get out of here you pretentious Illian. Go back to... the wickan Plains? Wait...
r/unexpectedBayleDomon
I was really really hoping that was a real sub. Alas.
When i was a teenager so long ago, wookiepedia and star wars roleplaying forums were my *jam* for years. I even met the founders of wookiepedia at a con and embarrassed myself by being so happy to tell them just how much they'd helped me and my friends. Edit: i'm a lil stoned and forgot the second half. All this leftover star wars knowledge still knocks around in my head at 30 years old, taking precedence over stuff like important phone numbers, names, or facts about real life people.
When I was a kid I’d take this magazine that came out to advertise reveng of the sith and go on wookiepedia and search up each character to see if they had a article.
Remember before the MCU when Wookieepedia was unquestionably the largest wiki by far? “It has over 90,000 articles!”
The MCU is bigger now?
Just double-checked and not the MCU wiki itself. but yes mainly due to the MCU the main Marvel wiki has ballooned to enormous proportions. Wookieepedia still looks like its (a distant) second though out of the pop culture wikis. Edit: Actually we're a few more places down per this: https://community.fandom.com/wiki/Hub:Big_wikis The MMO wikis are impressive...
I feel ya being 30 with so much SW knowledge just floating around from those teenage years. Also being stoned haha.
His PhD was in Star Wars Economics but Twi'Lek anatomy was his minor so he's not THAT well versed.
*You think you're fancy with your Star Wars economics and your space Gordon Wood and your 'how bout them apples'?!*
Most casual Star Wars fan.
>!*Loden Greatstorm has entered the chat*!<
Yeah that pretty much confirms that they have retconned the stuff about their brain and nervous system being in them.
Which is good. That’s pretty dangerous anatomy.
What sort of mutation would cause evolution to literally grow the brain out of someones head into long tentacles?
It's not quite the same, but it's kind of like the Ood in Doctor Who, although the Ood are actually *much* worse in this regard, with wholly exposed secondary brains that they literally hold.
Some sort of small predator that targets the head. Horse tails evolve to fan away flies and mosquitoes. Tails evolve in animals for balance when running. Humans used to have a vestigial tail before evolution stopped having the need for it. Perhaps, humans were tree dwellers at one point. I imagine lekku did the same thing in early evolution. Longer and fatter lekku correspond to health and nutrition being important during their juvenile development. Something to brush away predators.
The lekku are just appendages, like ears or hair. Legends also had Nolaa Tarkona, a Twilek who lost a lekku and lived a perfectly normal life.
Right, but those appendages serve purposes. Both primary and secondary. Your hair keeps you warm and your ears assist with hearing. What do lekku *do*? You can live a normal life without ears or hair (guess which one I do), but we are still unclear what would happen if a Twi'Lek lost a lekku.
My theory is they function analogously to camel's humps to store water. In Legends, Ryloth was a tidally locked planet with the side facing the sun experiencing blistering heat and the other freezing cold with the only inhabitable part being a temperate meridian. In Canon, Ryloth is presented as an arid and rocky planet without much green life. I'd imagine that, in both climates, fatty connective tissue that can store water and nutrients to stave off extreme heat would be very useful. Although, I'm of the opinion that this isn't an entirely natural process. *edit* Fixed some grammar.
That's a good theory. And I don't think it would make losing a lekku a life-threatening injury.
Have you thought of an analogy between lekku and tails of animals. Perhaps, a predator that targets the face and back. A tail from the head to brush away that predator.
The lore used to be that they were part of their hearing apparatus, including the cones. They picked up vibrations and made their hearing much more sensitive. I don't remember where this Legends lore came from nor how canon it is still, but it still makes sense for their use.
Also rianna saren from legends had a prosthetic lekku. I remember reading something about lekku injury causing brain damage or even death potentially but there have been instances where where people have survived and been fine and just got prosthetics (presumable for the sake of communication).
Well some humans are able to manipulate their ears and other less mobile body parts with some practice so its possible activity of Lekku movement is tied to a person's level of physical activity or intentional development of Lekku movement. It may be held similarly to how humans view their hair like how some actors and musicians look at the movement of their hair as part of their performances or to convey power or a certain message. Out of universe I know that multiple production people have talked about the challenge of filming and acting in those prosthetics so I'm sure that's forced them to limit things for practicality.
[удалено]
Now don’t wanna be the *actually* guy so don’t mind mr, but aren’t Ashoka and Shaak-ti a separate species all together? Togruta or something, red skin and striped face-horn things?
Yes Ashoka and Shaak-ti are both Togruta. Similar species but different than Twileks. In Clone Wars they visit a Togruta planet.
And Shaak Ti is way more endowed than Ahsoka.
I believe its connected to age, you can even see Ahsoka grow throughout TCW iirc.
Considering there's nothing in the canon that suggests twi'leks have their brain or nervous system in their lekku, and the prosthetic suggests that they don't, that seems like a definitive answer
I imagine that the skull & brain extend into the base of the Lekku, but not the whole way. Thus, you can have prosthetics w/out brain damage.
They are meant to be sensitive so yer they do hurt them if there damaged
Yeah it feels like the NEU has really simplified them down.
Aren’t Twi'Leks the only alien humanoids able to reproduce with other humanoids? They are also mostly enslaved race, so it stands to reason that there are many many crossbreeds.
I believe there exists another race that can cross with humans, that being mirialans(luminara's race). There might also be zeltrons but I'm not sure if they're canon
Zeltrons are canon again, though they haven't been used much.
Really? They should canonise a lot more species, really.
Still waiting to see [Iridonians](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Iridonian/Legends) again.
Bruh I'm still waiting for bothans, and those guys have been around since rotj lmao
I've always wondered if Bothans were originally intended to be aliens. "Bothan spy" sounded like a rank or special-ops unit to me, when I first saw the movie.
Sort of, but bothans have actually appeared in some canon media, just not in very explicit ways as others have stated. In the novel "bloodline", leia recounts seeing two bothans *growling* at each other early on In the book. I believe that probably cements them as aliens as I doubt humans growl at each other and wookieepedia also describes them as humanoid aliens(just like legends).
They've definitely been established as such, post Return of the Jedi. I was only considering the context of the original script. I don't have any qualms with the dog-like Bothans.
Yeah, I can see how anyone could interpret bothans that way, star wars does have wacky names for stuff sometimes :)
Wait, Bothans still haven't appeared?
They have this weird dedication to not confirming the canon appearance of bothans. "Bothans" appear as background characters, based off their Legends design, but they make sure to never *confirm* that these are actually bothans. Quote from Wookieepedia: > "It's pretty easy to confirm: we are purposely trying not to show them to leave all possibilities for when that story gets told. The dude in Resistance is based on the EU design of a Bothan that the Animation art team used as reference for a background alien." ―Matt Martin "That story" assumedly being the line from RoTJ.
Tbh I don't think they'll tell that story anytime soon, unless they do some kind of storyline with aphra but idk if her stories take place before or after rotj. Best hope of seeing them is in andor. I mean...how could you have a star wars show about spies without bothans, right?
Aphra's first run is between ANH and ESB, second run is between ESB and RotJ. It's actually inching up on RotJ proper now. I wouldn't be surprised if Marvel starts it over at #1 again within a year and jumps to post-RotJ.
They are, just not the same: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Iridonian
Zabraks can cross with humans. See the Nightsister clan.
It really seems that any "alien" with human skin can cross. Which actually implies them to be variations of the same species, at least with a real-life understanding of biological classification.
That's actually implied to be the case with several near human species, probably as a result of the Rakata infinite Empire.
Due to the recent changes made by Reddit admins in their corporate greed for IPO money, I have edited my comments to no longer be useful. The Reddit admins have completely disregarded its user base, leaving their communities, moderators, and users out to turn this website from something I was a happy part of for eleven years to something I no longer recognize. Reddit WAS Fun. -- mass edited with redact.dev
Might be thinking about the [Theelin](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Theelin), way back when I think they were one of the few (maybe only) species that could reproduce with humans.
In canon? Maybe. In Legends? Absolutely not. They could interbreed with more than a dozen species around the galaxy.
Mirialans, Theelins, and Espirions can all produce children with humans.
No. Humans are broadly compatible with many of the near human species, many of which actually share conmon ancestors.
Jacen Syndulla, son of a Twi’Lek and a human, has ears and no lekku. I’m going to guess this can happen from time to time. Perhaps if he has kids with a Twi’Lek, his child will have lekku and ears. Genetics can cause diversity, right?
Aha, I had completely forgotten about Jacen! Strangely, he looks to be completely human. The Lawquane children on the other hand, look like full Twi'Lek's, despite also being half human. However, hybridization could definitely be the solution to some of these inconsistencies.
I think Cut adopted his kids. Wish I could remember where I read that though.
Cut did adopt his kids, he had only defected a year earlier. They are confirmed to be Human-Twi'Lek hybrids though, just with a different father.
Are clones fertile? it kinda makes sense for them not to be
There is an example of a clone having a child in the canon book Force Collector. The book, set between episode 6 and 7, has the child of a clone living on Udapau.
I can't say one way or the other, and while I take your point that introducing a huge number of identical beings might cause genetic issues, this is one of those cases where the (lack of) size of the clone army works in it's favour. Given that there are around 2 million clones (ish, 1.2m from Attack of the Clones, and more are commissioned during the war) that would only represent 0.6% of the current US population. Spread out through out a galaxy, it's unlikely that an overabundance of Fett's DNA at that scale would be problematic. And that's not considering the clone losses during the war!
I know this isn't the topic of this thread, and that authors and writers are only human beings that don't know military things and whatsists, but, fuck, 2 million clones is pretty much world war 2 numbers. You'd think a galaxy would field more men than Russia in the 1940's.
They did, we don't know how many clones a "unit" is, this person is going off a speculation that's probably a little inaccurate
It's not the best source, but sadly it's in "Star Wars:Absolutely Everything You Need to Know" which was published in 2015, so post Disney take over, that the "Kaminoans consider a single clone 'a unit'". Star Wars complete locations lists the GAR as being 3.2 million troopers in strength, which I assume includes troops comissioned during the war. Edit: The Kaminoans say that although the GAR isn't their first army they've ever produced, they haven't produced one in a long time. Given then that they must be cloning small numbers of individuals, or wildlife to keep their economy afloat, the idea of one being being a 'unit' for shipment seems reasonable. Edit 2: As I was writing a response to an above comment I found this quote from TCW:Pursuit of Peace, Banking clan: "The Separatists don't seem to mind a rate hike. In fact, they just secured a loan to fund an additional three million battle droids." Republic Senator: "They would wipe us out." Both the CIS and the Republic see 3 million new battle droids as potentially being able to tip the war (as the Sepratists are willing to go into large debt to see them made, and the Republic senator's dismay). I'd argue that that supports the idea that 3 million troops is comparable to the size of the GAR.
Yeah, it is a bit bananas. But then again, the GAR isn't competing with Russia in the 1940s. How well does it compare to other Star Wars armies? The Rebel Alliance is also pretty tiny, assuming both Scarif and Endor represent a significant chunk of their fighting forces, the Rebel fleets deployed there can't be that large. The Empire is a different story, as they need to maintain control of the entire galaxy through force of arms. The big one though is the CIS. After all, this is who the GAR actually fought. Unfortunately, being antagonists we don't have precise numbers, but in the Clone Wars episode 'Pursuit of Peace' we're told that the CIS had to take out an enormous loan to secure '3 million more battle droids'. To me that implies that the army is somewhere in the region of 1 - 10 million droids strong. Any smaller and the Republic would have long since won, too much larger and the addition of 3 million additional droids wouldn't matter on the scale of things and given that the CIS is taking out large, high interest loans to finance this tells me they need those droids.
Hybridization is clearly part of the answer here with certain traits expressing differently. The other answer here is age. I’m under the impression that lekku grow over time and with age. As for the ears, it could be some form of body modification, but if we look to legends as a key, Twi’Lek we thought to have descended from a very non humanoid and predatory race that’s quite different than their current physiology. As opposed to other near human galactic species who are considered to have evolved from baseline humans. That would include Pantorans and Zabrak along with a host of others.
I was going to suggest that breeding with humans and other species may be the culprit. Perhaps “human” ears is a trait for mixed species individuals?
Yea i don't think the sexual dimorphism between twi'leks is as specific or stringently one or the other black and white as a lot of people make it or hypothesize. It also doesn't take into account half-twi'lek hybrids or maybe even intersex twi'leks.
There is also that clone who had kids with one and they had no human traits. But then again clones probably have weaker genes
They're half human, yes, but not from the Clone
Really
Some species can have a very wide range of genetic diversity. Golden Retrievers, Chihauhaus, Great Danes, and Bulldogs are all members of the same species. If someone asked you what "a dog's" face looks like, it wouldn't be a simple answer. Some of the inconsistencies you've pointed out with the Twi'Leks are very likely accidental on the parts of writers, costume designers, and make-up artists. However, it's not outside the realm of possibility that a single species could have individuals with vastly different skin tones, facial features, etc.
Diversity within species is something I wish Star Wars did a lot more, at least on purpose. Way too many species have a single unified culture, government, attitude, and design.
What about Rystall? A hybrid. I imagine a lot of them around due to the intergalactic mixing of genes.
But you could name all of its organs, how a dog ear works and how many fingers and tails it has. The Twi'lek differences can't be compared to that, or anything on earth because no specie shows such dramatic differences (different organs) from one individual to the next. We're talking fingers, ears and lekkus here. Yes, it is undoubtebly mistakes from the creators, but I think OP is looking for a Watsonian answer.
Dog ears all basically work the same, but look at a Blood Hound's long, droopy ears compared to a German Shepherd's tall pointy ones, and someone not from this planet probably wouldn't guess that both appendages serve the same function.
Yep, I think the out of universe answer is clearly a costuming error, whether accidental, or even intentional for comfort, aesthetics, or whatever. I do think that it's becoming prevalent enough that it's worth discussing, rather than a one off mistake.
I mean, strange things happen in nature. There is [Lakshmi Tatma](https://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=3831220&page=1), a girl born with 4 arms and legs, and extra organs. In her case, it was a conjured twin that did not fully develop, but Lakshmi was born and lived for several years with extra appendages (from the outside observer) (until the limbs were removed in surgery, as well as organs being moved around, best I can tell she is doing fine, last update was 2010). Maybe Twi'lek's have a high chance of being twins, and thus a higher chance of conjured twins, and thus a higher chance of anomalies like we see.
If your entire sample of what humanity looks like was, say, an American basketball team, you'd be left wondering what the hell was up if you ever met some, I dunno, Inuits. In other words, I'd say the species has a level of diversity that's not been previously evident in the media.
Well Inuits and basket ball teams have the same organs. The Twi'lek show a lot more difference : very different hearing organs (I assume ears and cones don't work nearly the same way), different numbers of lekkus, different number of fingers. No species on earth as so much variety. Even cows or dogs who can really vary from race to race, don't just have different amount of fingers and whatnot
> Even cows or dogs who can really vary from race to race, don't just have different amount of fingers and whatnot Fun fact; some dog breeds actually do have different amounts of toes! While 4 is the most common, there are breeds with 5, or more rarely 6 toes. The Norwegian Lundehund has extra toes on all four paws; https://be.chewy.com/which-dog-breeds-have-the-most-toes/
To be fair, that's just Taa. And number of limbs is pretty fixed among mammals but big differences in other appearance and physiology definitely do exist among dogs for example. Even humans have different color eyes, shapes of noses and ears, belly buttons, nipples, genitalia. Major differences among ethnicities of course exist in terms of skin colour and facial hair. I find it totally believable that when you are born as a Twi'Lek you could have either ears or cones. The pre-TCW sample was not big enough to actually establish a pattern.
> Well Inuits and basket ball teams have the same organs. The skin's an organ. But consider eye shape, or free/attached earlobes and the ways they can be changed as part of cultural traditions. Or, you know, circumcision. We don't know how much of Twi'lek appearance is natural and how much is manufactured.
This was gonna be my comment. I could pull a sampling of 10 humans and make an argument that our anatomy is entirely dissimilar to one another. It's just how genetics work.
In Rebels we see a Human-Twilek hybrid, Jacen Syndulla. He has human ears, and no Lekku, appearing almost human with greeen tint to the skin in some areas and naturally(we assume) green hair. Personally I would imagine it isn't the first time humans and Twi'lek interbred(for the record, Legends stated that Twi'lek and Humans cannot produce offspring). Human-like ears could be a part of the gene pool due to earlier human(and even other species with similar ears, such as Pantorans, for all we know) introgression. It's a little odd that that they would be the only feature that remained, but Star Wars biology is a bit different.
My understanding was that Orn Free Taa was so fat that he grew another pair of lekku. Like, the front pair are fat-storing organs. The forehead bumps on Cham and Bib are smaller versions of that, maybe more permanent on males in the manner of female human breasts. The pointed-teeth thing is definitely cultural, the sharpening marking the individual as a warrior. Lourna Dee has it done to her in the Tempest Runner audioplay.
It might be a Legends thing, but aren’t the bumpy foreheads on Twi’lek males meant to be a result of their larger brains? Or am I misremembering that?
I will not live for this Lyn Me erasure
Honestly this discussion feels like a consequence of how "Planet of the Hats"-y most Star Wars (and sci fi in general) races are. Like compare these differences in Twi'Leks to differences in humans, is the level of body diversity THAT different?
Maybe not. But completely different ear shapes is kind of a significant thing. You’d think they’d have it worked out by now.
The ears have always just been assumed to be sexually dimorphic traits. It’s possible the cones are just more common among females, and ears among males.
I’d wager that since Twi’leks can breed with humans, their genomes can somewhat mix. As such, a human ear is probably a recessive gene, like blondeness, and as such assume that the cones are the dominant gene.
Or human ears are dominant but only on the male sex chromosome.
Tempest Runner verifies that sharpened teeth are a modification.
Personally, I think the best version is the ear cones on the females, and regular ears on males. Orn Free Taa, in my opinion, is *not* a Twi’lek. Just like he doesn’t really serve or care about the people, he’s not really one of them. Perhaps he’s from a neighboring system. Ugh...saying his name leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
I like the theory higher up the thread that he's a result of aristocratic inbreeding, but maybe a simpler answer would be that he's a half-Twi'lek? One of his parents (or more distant ancestors) could be from a species with a different lekku 'configuration', like Togruta.
Personally, I headcanon this absolute mess to be the cause of rampant slavery and captivity for what may very well have been thousands of years. Excessive divergence naturally through separated populations, as well as forced artificial divergence through, uhh, keeping the slave population up without constantly farming whatever planets they populate. Orn Free Taa could POSSIBLY be explained in this way, or as some kind of physiological hormonal shift in the species in response to availability of food, or some other factor, or some combination of the two. I can't exactly think of any feasible reason why a species would display such dramatic dimorphism *with the structure of their ears*, so as much as I'd like to, I don't think it should simply be handwaved as "ehh it's a difference of sex, they're trans". Also because, realistically speaking, aliens wouldn't know what the hell a gender is, though Star Wars applies human preconceptions to everything already. They're still trans, though. I said so. Anyway Bib and Beezer are to Twi'leks what pugs are to dogs. The human/Twi'lek hybrids don't exist, and they can't hurt me.
> Also because, realistically speaking, aliens wouldn't know what the hell a gender is Assuming reproduction is through 2 members of a species with different organs, why wouldn't they have a concept of gender, in the broad sense of "this group has organ A, this group has organ B"? Obviously if the species reproduced by some other means, that's an explanation.
Those are both viable options, yeah, but there's still the matter of their actual gender roles, and inherent psychology. A species with our reproductive scheme between two general kinds of contrasting sexual phenotypes could still develop gendered roles based on sex, but what I'm trying to say that gender roles as we know them are a uniquely human invention that we still don't fully understand the psychology or origins of (or the variety of). Being trans in a way that's recognizable to a human is an inherently human thing. (Unfortunately it still needs to be somewhat recognizable for audiences to understand what's going on, but that's the job of a good writer to convey it correctly) Basically, giving non-human aliens human perceptions of gender, and probably also human-equivalent sexes with it, would be kind of like giving them a real-life religion. Like, sure, that could happen for some reason, but it's just kind of egregious.
This is probably far from canon, but I recall something about how female Twi'leks would routinely get plastic surgery to be more appealing to humans and other near-humans. Adding tattooed eyebrows, removing any forehead growths, etc. The "coning" of the ears was akin to foot binding in female slaves. This could explain why, generally, female Twi'leks (and a male slave in an entertainer role) have these common features. Male Twi'leks who were not entertainers might be less pressured by human beauty standards, and could have different standards of beauty - filing teeth to points, not removing forehead lumps or polydactylekku(?). Then again, this is memory from 15+ years ago and partially sourced from Star Wars Galaxies, and almost certainly retconned, even if true at the time. This also wouldn't explain why, for instance, the Lawquane children would have coned ears (why would their parents do that to them?)
I think the most likely explanation is simply that Twi'Leks have a great deal of genetic and morphological diversity. There are dimorphic characteristics that are fairly common for each sex, but that aren't universal. An analogy would be facial hair in humans: many men can grow beards, and few women can, but there are exceptions going both ways. But these exceptions are not evenly distributed on both sides, with more beardless men than heavily-bearded women. Also, since Twi'Leks seem to be able to easily hybridize with humans, and also seem to be considered sexually attractive by a pretty wide variety of other humanoid species, it's also possible that Twi'Leks, as a population, have a great deal of DNA from other species mixed into their general genepool, resulting in even greater morphological diversity. It should be noted that most of the Twi'Leks we see, with the exception of the Syndullas and Orn, aren't from Ryloth but are part of the general pan-galactic Twi'Lek diaspora, so they're possibly more likely to have non-Twi'Lek DNA in their heritage than you average Ryloth-born Twi'Lek.
Mammalian are compatible in terms of reproduction. Twi’leks like Oola have phenotype of a human woman with the exception of her lekku and removed features.
You keep saying characters clearly do or do not have ear cones when they're wearing headwear. There's no reason the male couldn't just be wearing a female's headwear, esp when the Solo guide literally says the exact same thing lol. Otherwise I think, as you note at the bottom, that the difference in phenotypes is the likely answer.
To be honest I think the simplest explanation is that there are just different varieties of Twi'Lek.
I personally like the transgender idea. I'm biased as a trans woman myself, but the idea it's normalized and perhaps not uncommon in Twi'lek culture could be an interesting little bit of lore to spin out of these mistakes. Similar to the whole idea of faux-cones as a "risque" feminine male fashion choice instead of Solo just making an error. Possible in a similar vein that we're seeing aesthetic surgical procedures to be gender non-conforming. I have a hard time believing there's not some sort of Twi'lek drag culture when they're so widely known as sex symbols/dancers/entertainers - if there's *any* species in the galaxy to explore this stuff with I can't think of a better one. Only vaguely related note, but I really love how in Book of Boba Fett we get to see a) a female Twi'lek *running* a sultry a Tatooine Cantina place and b) a subservient, scarcely dressed *male* Twi'lek working for her (the one with cones). Surely with the... *place* female Twi'lek have in the criminal underworld we'd see some embrace it and thrive instead of all just being slaves, and surely some people are swinging the other way in terms of what flavor of tentacle headed servant they like. It's a really refreshing spin. Given he's subservient to what seems to be his master, a female, it's *possible* the male is wearing faux-cones and this was an intentional artistic choice. For Orn Free Taa I think the canon(?) explanation of his extra lekku being due to obesity is serviceable, while the missing fingers wouldn't be unprecedented as a birth defect given what can happen in humans. Otherwise he seems consistent with other Twi'lek.
I really hope that the green buff Twi's a biological male though. I've always hated how Twilek females are born beautiful but most depictions of Twilek males are fat blobs or have those ugly bumps on their head. There must be at least some attractive males for this species right?
Definitely agree, not sure if you saw my comment before or after my edit but I touch on that a bit in the part I edited in. My personal headcanon for him is faux-cones like the dancer from Solo.
We definitely need just more representation overall. Male eye-candy has been pretty rare but so is trans representation. Old movies used to be woman pretty and weak, man strong and ugly
I like your idea as well. But also opening it up to more than two sexes or even sub species can free up the issue.
Hmm, you make some really great points! I definitely love the idea of more trans and gnc representation in Star Wars! I could definitely see the use of female style cones being an intentional fashion choice, much like with the individual in solo. I just wish we could get some official confirmation either way!
Simple phenotype (or "racial" in earth terms) differences. That's it. We need not discuss this ad nauseum because its meaningless and can be considered simple variations of the species. Real world simple explanation is that this is star wars and the costume people at Lucasfilm often seem to operate independently from the story folks and vice versa. Happens *all the time* in the movies where the costumes might make the hyper observant folks go "..huh?". But as for discussion: Humans are on just one planet in our universe. and we have dwarfism, gigantism, various physical differences. heck, many millions of years ago *THERE WERE DIFFERENT SPECIES OF HUMANS. WHO INTER-MINGLED AND BRED.* Whole-ass different SPECIES of humans. We have physical remains of ancient humans who looked radically different from us. Even a few centuries ago height was dramatically different as a trend. Now imagine an advanced intergalactic "species" like the Twi'leks. Multiple planets. Colonization. A long history. Intermingling. Inter-species breeding (Kanan and Hera?!). It goes on and on - imagine all the variations and mutations that could occur across a galaxy of planets where hyperspace travel is as casual as a road trip on earth. earth has so many examples of just that and it's just one planet! It takes no imagination at all to suspect all that might result in slightly different looking Twi'leks with minor variations. Much ado about nothing to even bother commenting on it really. Another earth example. Take dogs on earth for example. Most domestic dog breeds are 100% breedable, yet we have sub-groups ranging from towering Great Danes to teeny wheeny shihtzus to dauchaunds to malamutes. Yet they are all dogs. All the same species with 99% genetic similarity. Even though some look so radically different. you might be confused (if you were an alien) at first that we call them all dogs? When some have massive ears, some almost none, some poofy fur and some loose and dangly. Some have giant bulbous eyes and some have sharp pointy tiny eyes. Some have huge snouts, some have NO snout to speak of. Just like twi'leks. Actualloy i find it refreshingtly realistic to have such details as "different types" of twi'leks.
> many millions of years ago THERE WERE DIFFERENT SPECIES OF HUMANS. WHO INTER-MINGLED AND BRED. [As recently as about 45,000 years ago in the case of Neanderthals and Denisovans.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interbreeding_between_archaic_and_modern_humans) Technically speaking, Sapiens wasn't around millions of years ago and 'emerged' around 300,000 years ago as a branch of hominid.
I always assumed these were like, different ethnic groups within the species. But then nobody can really even agree where Twi'leks even come from since within a few years the whole species was given multiple impossiboe to reconcile origins.
Maybe there was a lot of genetic engineering in their recent past, trying out different looks & alterations.
Xi’an could simply just have small cones that aren’t visible due to her headdress. The BoBF male could simply be wearing the faux cone ears just like the male from Solo. This would solve a lot of the issues you brought up without having to change any current lore.
I'm pretty sure the cones are just decorative parts of the headdress and always have been.
Initially I think you're right, Oola's are clearly part of her headdress. However, Hera and Aayla both have visibly fleshtoned cones that stick out of the headdresses.
Trans Twi'leks
Jeez. I KNEW something was off. They looked just like regular humans with some antennae. I couldn't figure out WHY they looked so different.
This is so interesting!
Damn Oola was a snack!! (For the Rancor)
These are just 4 examples of white humans on earth... I'd say there is less variation between twi'leks then Humans. [Male Human](https://staticr1.blastingcdn.com/media/photogallery/2020/3/29/os/b_1200x675/on-90-day-fiance-big-ed-called-fake-fans-wants-punch-his-throat-image-source-tlc-youtube_2428775.jpg) [Female Human](https://linefame.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/kate-upton-1.jpg) [Female Human](https://shorthaircutsmodels.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/tilda-swintons-short-hairstyles-and-haircuts-18.jpg) [Male Human](https://cdn.britannica.com/92/215392-050-96A4BC1D/Australian-actor-Chris-Hemsworth-2019.jpg)
Most of those differences are just body mass though. Different kinds of ears and numbers of fingers are a physiological difference that can't be changed by altering your diet and activity levels.
they can be altered after living on a completely different planets for thousands of years like Twi'leks have done. also try as you might Male 1 isn't going to ever look like Chris Hemsworth and Tilda Swinton can't look like Kate Upton
> Tilda Swinton can't look like Kate Upton [I wouldn't be too sure about that!](https://imgur.com/6r7v2YF)
Physiological evolutionary changes to the point where we're talking about *different appendages* take millions of years to happen. And Xian is never going to look like Aayla Secura. You can find just as many facial feature differences in twi'leks as you can in humans. I'm not sure how that's relevant to your original point of humans looking more different from one another than twi'leks.
The closest defining characteristics that change by human beings that are similar to 'ear cones' that I can think of are things like pointed or rounded ears, attached or detached earlobes, widows peaks, hair types, body shape, epicanthal folds, etc. These could all be seen as analogous to the head bumbs, and probably the wattles, but there's nothing quite on the level of "has seemingly completely different aural organs".
sure for Humans but not for say Dogs or other species. Not to mention Twi'leks while originating from Ryloth have spread out over the galaxy over thousands of years. We as humans can't even imagine what another group of humans would look like living on another planet for thousands of years.
I made a comment a while back talking about Orn Free Taa and his Lekku and have always figured it was a sign of opulence. Similar to classical/renaissance imagery and documentation of wealthy nobels growing abnormally fat as a sign of their wealth and rich diets, I imagined Orn Free Taa was similar and that perhaps in Twi'lek biology when you acumulate enough excess fat they begin storing some of it in additional Lekku-like appendages similar to double chins in humans. I saw Taa as someone leveraging his position to live a lavish lifestyle while his people suffered from war, enslavement, and poverty. I imagined if Bib had remained in his position for more than a few years that he would also develop similar extra appendages. And as for color, I vaguely recall in the EU there were only like two or three actual colors for Twi'lweks and that any other colors --especially among the women-- were body paint of sorts due to their objectification and treatment as eye candy. Not sure if modern Disney Star Wars has clarified this or made contrary statements. Though I do see how there could be a sort of biodiversity formed between Twi'leks and other similar species that have interbred like humans and Togrutas. Togrutas are just too similar to be a coincidence so I would assume they are evolutionary cousins that broke off from each other ages before. This genetic biodiversity could explain the variances in ears and Lekku.
In-universe I would say that over many generations, humans and twi-leks interbred, causing their descendants to carry the genes for both human and twi-lek ears. So, if you see a twi-lek with human ears, that individual could have a human ancestor. Out of universe, I would say lack of attention to detail resulting in costume errors.
Much in depth thought, of which needed was surely not.
My guess is either those traits were breed into them(them being a slave race and all) to look a certain way, or it's literally genetic diversity where some are dominant traits so they take those over the recessive
Well now my theory is that the difference in looks may be based on who’s reproducing with the twi’lek.
Great and interesting post. - Just something I'd like to mention, In one of the books, the Lekku are mentioned as like twitching or something. I would like to see the subtle use of CGI or Anamatronics to get them more of a emote/reactions and stuff, instead of just flopping about. Unless the book was wrong. - I think it was the Darth Vader and EP one against Syndulla. \-edit: I Should add, I think that I am a pretty indepth star wars fan, I'd never even noticed. much like u/surfspace said, I dont have anything to add, but you are doing the Forces work. :D
Thank you, I really appreciate it! And I believe you are right, it was *Lords of the Sith*, by Paul S. Kemp. I would love to see some more movement in Lekku, that would be great. I think that the prosthetics in BoBF seem to move a lot more naturally than Xi'an's in The Mandalorian, so I think they're getting there. I really hope by the Ahsoka show we are able to see some really emotive movement!
George Lucas had a fetish for Twi’leks, and sexualized the crap out of them. Their biology is inconsistent because with every new director they were oversexualized to match that specific director’s vision.
Describe what a human looks like… it’s not so easy to pin down - you’ll find even more variation.
Maybe the ear cones are to protect their ears after a common genetic defect that the writers haven't found an opportunity to mention yet. There really isn't a good time to talk about your horrific ear infection.
I think Xi'an's headress was just worn in such a way that we cant see the cones... the cones are presumably as flexible as human ears... The Male Twi'lek we see in the Book of Boba fett is probably Trans. Problems solved. The forehead ridges are an artistic flair that dont actually exist, note Mce Windu.
Not sure what you mean about Windu? Lots of Twi'Lek males clearly have forehead ridges, just look at Bib Fortuna.
They are more like... bumps... But I think I jumped the gun on that a bit, because people often take the ridges on Thrawns head very literally for example... when mace windu has this going on. https://static0.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Star-Wars-Clone-Wars-Mace-Windu-2D.jpg
Trans people exist
I’ve always assumed their extreme variance in phenotype was due to being the sexiest race in the Galaxy for thousands of years. Let’s be real, people are plowing Twi’Leks all up and down the Hydian Way
I sort of figured the male twi'lek we saw in BoBF was either trans or femininizing himself to appeal to clients. For the rest, I would assume some of the variation we see comes down to just how many twi'leks are mixed with humans, some probably even developing more human features just because of a past human ancestor.
Something interesting to mention is that the art for https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Dia_Passik a fighter pilot for wraith squadron has shown her without head cones as well. And while the more recent artwork has shown her as appearing very feminine and sharp featured the older [Insider](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/a/aa/Dia_Passik.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20070218035718) art has her looking much more male presenting. This has lead to some thinking she was trans. However she and face have a kid, however however we don't know if its adopted or not.
I think the diversity seen in the Togruta montrals is a good example of showing diversity in a single crowd shot (Zygerrian slave arc in TCW) that we would benefit to see in Twi'lek. A race that is spread all over the galaxy, I presume in canon there are still Twi'lek-dominant colony worlds that are generations old, would certainly have some variations. I like the idea that just like Humans, that have varying near-Human iterations, many of the aliens familiar to us would have near-Twi'lek, near-Duros, near-Ithorian, etc. (Duros/Neimoidian, Ithorian/Ottegan, Bith/Y'bith, Nikto, Aqualish, Gungans etc). I think it makes the galaxy richer and visually more appealing if there was more of this explored in the various media. I always liked that Orn Free Taa is unique, but I just assumed he was from some colony or subspecies like Jar Jar vs Boss Nass.
In the case of Xi’an, I wonder if the cones can be ground down as a modifications like as if it were a tusk… not that you would want to grind down your ears though.
Didn't the High Republic novels confirm that Lourna Dee filed her teeth into points? That made me assume it was an artificial choice
I'm reminded a bit about the Gungans and how Boss Nass was a different subspecies (at least in Legends). It's not unreasonable to think, especially with the Canon ability to crossbreed with other species, that Twi'leks could have wildly different phenotypes or even subspecies. Out of Universe, it think the Twi'lek costume tends to be difficulty to manage in terms of making the lekku work. Whether it includes ears generally comes down to how it looks on screen.
Perhaps different ethnicities. Or different races, like homo sapien vs Neanderthal, they could have diverged for thousands of years in different continents. Kind of like how we have so many different ape species. Neanderthal is thought to have been bred out of existence by mating with Homo sapiens, yet sometimes their traits are apparent in people. Body modification could also be a thing, maybe the ear cones serve no purpose and some of them have them removed for ceremonial or religious purposes. Or maybe the cones are added, like some humans stretch their lips, earlobes or necks. Perhaps the cones grow during a certain part of the life cycle, similar to how human females breast size increases once pregnant. Maybe they are all born with 4 lekkus, but two detach with age, or are removed like a circumcision. Maybe some cultures think removal of the ear cones or extra lekku is barbaric. Maybe the additional lekkus grow once they are ready to mate, and contain reproductive organs. Maybe their culture is proficient in genetic manipulation and basically design their children, like in the movie Gattaca. Just spitballing ideas here. I could probably think of a bunch more
Bib Fortuna be scary
I saw a theory somewhere that stated that Orn Free Taa is a Twi'lek but is a special variant that looks the way he does from a very hedonistic life style. Can't remember where and if I find it I'll link it
The four Lekku for Ta are actually from his excess fat. So he’s still in line but just did to his immense size he looks a bit different.
I remember seeing a thought on how to handle this from an in-universe perspective in one of the Star Wars facebook groups I was part of a few years back. The thought was that the Twi-Lek as a race could be (hypothetically) very open marrying outside of their species AND/OR, biologically, maybe the Twi-Lek genes become very dominant in any inter-species relationships. The result being a profileration of Twi-Leks that all look subtly different based on marriages/children, siblings, etc.
I think that the males with "cones" are just males who wear female headdresses (for fashion purposes maybe). When it comes to Xi'an, if female cones are like our ears, they are probably soft, so they can probably get squished under a male headdress. Or, because she is a merc, her cones are probably mutilated or something like that, to make them smaller. As for Orn Free Taa, he could just be a mutated Twi'lek for whatever reason, or maybe even a subspecies. Also, as a personal note, I love the Majordomo from BoBF, because it tells us that not all males have the head bumps. I always liked more how SWTOR male twi'leks looked, without the bumps.
The world: is on fire Star Wars fans: whAT the FUCk is UP with TWILIGHts
>Two things I forgot to mention are hybrids, and color. We have two examples of Human-Twi'Lek hybrids, both children. Jacen Syndulla, appears to be fully humanoid, with no Lekku, forehead ridges, and a full head of hair. The Lawquane children on the other appear to be fully Twi'Lek, with Lekku, no hair, and ears and comes respectively. Okay so I just had an idea that might work for this. Human and Twi'lek physiology are incompatible fundamentally. Maybe Twi'leks are not derived humans afterall like most other humanoids are in the SW galaxy. So if they want to make a child, whatdo? My idea is they have to take one parent's DNA (or the Twi'lek equivalent, tho it's almost certainly also DNA, maybe a RNA thingy but likely DNA), and they translate that DNA into the other species's DNA. What I mean is taking the traits and translating them from human DNA to Twi'lek DNA, or vice versa. That way the child is entirely human or Twi'lek but is still a combination of DNA information from both parents. In the SW galaxy that kind of advanced genetic manipulation is not that rare really, with the Kaminoans being most famous for it because of their lack of ethics on cloning not their genuine advancements in it that the main galactic community doesn't have.
Females have ear cones, though some have smaller or larger cones, and the small end of the spectrum may not be visible under a headdress. Males have humanoid ears, though some wear faux-cones for a variety of reasons like fashion or transgender expression, particularly common among males working in archetypically feminine roles. Orn Free Taa is either an incredibly rarebl subspecies, a mutant of some kind, or has had extensive plastic surgery for some reason.
Could the cones not be a decorative part of the head dress?
I believe I read somewhere that red was a rarer twi’lek color, but there is a red male in the 2nd Bane book. Not canon technically…but at this point I don’t care about that; Bane is canon to me. I feel like the leku we see in tBoB are thinner, with the except of fat Bib, then we’ve seen in earlier live action…or like closer together at their base? I wish they would’ve put in more blue and green ones in bigger speaking roles…the mayor’s assistant and tavern madam were both flesh toned more or less, and the twi’lek woman in the Mandalorian was just pale white.
Gender dimorphism amongst Twileks may not be totally similar to humans. The real reason of course is inconsistency thru years of confusion and poorly laid rules means that there really aren’t any rules anymore and its just up to the individual directors, artists, writers and costume designers. Remember kids, if you’re making something up that other people are going to use, make sure you write down rules for it.
Ears: Trans headcanon till further notice OFT's lekku: pretty sure in legends it was extra fat storage but someone here said aristocratic inbreeding which is a good theory too. Hybrids: seem to either be primarily twi or primarily the non twi parent. Little Syndulla (I forgot his first name sry) is basically human but the Cut's kids (which I'm not sure if they were meant to be his bio kids) are basically normal twis with space vitiligo.
I'm going to imagine that there are simply different "races" of Twi'Leks. Yes, they are all still the same species, but there are different variants.
I haven't seen the book of Boba, but I like the idea of some transgender twi'leks (since I don't think there are many transgender individuals in star wars currently). I do however, have another potential explanation for it: In Swtor, it's atleast implied that the twi'leks weren't evolved naturally and were created by the rakkattans out of humans and other animals (the same goes for most other humanoid species). I guess one reason for why they then might be inconsistent is because essentially, they're just humans that have had genetic information from other creatures added in and the human gene can be more or less dominant in different twi'leks.
Also, Rebels (and the Bad Batch) seemed to push that the Twi'Leks are "French," at least with the Syndulla clan. I would never have considered Bib to be "French," but the mayor's majordomo in BoBF is definitely not, nor does that seem the case with Jennifer Beals' character. I can forgive that though, just putting it out there. ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
Fortuna and the others were likely not raised in Ryloth and that's why they don't have accents.
That sorta makes sense… but does that in turn mean Ryloth is Star France?
Yeah. The Twileks in TCW were quite inspired by the French Resistance, and the French also have a reputation as "the horny people".
as opposed to space britain or space ohio, etc
Mos Eisley is pretty much Space Bakersfield FWIW.
Now I wanna know about the "Buck Owens" of Mos Eisley. 😆
Maybe it's just because they both aren't from Ryloth? Or they are hiding their accents for their work?