Ponda Baba

Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope.

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"Negola dewaghi wool dugger?"
"He doesn't like you."

―Ponda Baba and Dr. Evazan, to Luke Skywalker —

Listen (file info)^[3]

Ponda Baba, also known by the alias "Sawkee"^[8] was a male Aqualish pirate who served as a loyal partner to Doctor Cornelius Evazan. He fulfilled the Aqualish stereotype of being an ill-tempered thug and his weapons of choice were the BlasTech SE-14C blaster pistol and a modified DL-21 blaster pistol.

Biography[]

"He's a small-time thug who usually works out of the Tatooine system. Looks like he lost an arm in an altercation in Mos Eisley."

―Lieutenant Tarc, to a spacer^[6]

Cuttingedge — Cornelius Evazan with Ponda Baba

Ponda Baba became Cornelius Evazan's partner after rescuing him from the bounty hunter Jodo Kast on Corellia. For a time, he considered betraying Evazan and collecting the sizable bounty being offered. He decided against betraying the Doctor, and they began smuggling spice for Jabba Desilijic Tiure.

One fateful day on Tatooine, Luke Skywalker entered Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina and sat down at the bar. After Baba, who was apparently drunk, growled a few words at Luke, Dr. Evazan informed Skywalker that his partner, Ponda Baba, did not like him. Despite Luke's efforts to avoid a confrontation, Ponda attacked him. The scuffle was ended when Obi-Wan Kenobi severed Baba's right arm with his lightsaber.

Evazan tried to use his medical knowledge to replace Baba's arm, but the surgery was a failure, almost resulting in Baba's death. The two parted ways, with Baba swearing to impart vengeance on his former partner.

After a partial reconciliation, they reunited and set up a base in a castle on Ando. Evazan had created a mind-transferring machine, which Baba hoped would give him a new body. Evazan lured an Andoan senator to the castle, then trapped him in his machine. When Baba was in place, Evazan started the machine. Their bodies switched, Ponda Baba had the senator's body, but the senator, now in Baba's body, escaped the machine and chased them to the rooftop. He tried to kill the doctor and Baba with a thermal detonator, but, they jumped off the roof just before the detonator exploded, which killed the senator. Ponda Baba and Evazan swore vengeance on each other, as previously before.^[9]

PondaBabaSWG — Ponda Baba during his confrontation on Rori following the Battle of Yavin.

In 1 ABY,^[10] Ponda Baba lived for some time on Naboo's moon of Rori. While there, he was seeking to replace the arm he lost on Tatooine. The Aqualish planned to break into some of the largest cybernetic labs on Rori and Naboo and attempted to recruit local criminals to supply muscle. Baba initially wanted to hire some Garyn Raiders but the amount of money he offered was ridiculous to them. The Aqualish recruited some thug of the Gundark gang and committed a number of break-ins at cybernetic labs on Rori, finally finding a replacement cybernetic arm. However, Ponda Baba was quickly identified by the Royal Naboo Security Forces since he used his real name in an attempt to log onto one of the data terminals of the Cybernetics Lab in Narmle. A spacer working for RSF Lieutenant Tarc tracked the Aqualish to his camp on the outskirts of Narmle. Ponda Baba was injured during the confrontation but he managed to escape. Lieutenant Tarc then released Ponda Baba's name and a holographic image to all security forces in the Naboo system but the criminal had already left the system.^[11]

Ponda Baba was later wanted by the Corellian Security Force for attacking various locations on Corellia's neighboring planet Talus, with the help of his Aqualish gang the Followers of Baba. However, the CorSec could not take him in themselves, so they hired a spacer instead, who was successful in capturing Ponda Baba and dispersing the rest of his gang.^[7]

At one point, in the planet of Bothawui, the Bothan police officer Kras'ka Lo'lar shot Baba twice with a stun bolt knocking him out.

Behind the scenes[]

Ponda Baba first appeared in the novelization of A New Hope ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster and published in 1976, half a year before the film. Baba was unnamed and described as multi-eyed alien. He was accompanied by a short human and a rodent-like alien—early incarnations of Cornelius Evazan and Kabe. In this version, Obi-Wan Kenobi sliced Evazan's hand and cut Kabe and Baba in half. In the Revised Fourth Draft of the film—identifying Baba and Evazan as Creature and Human—the scene was about the same. In the final film Kabe didn't accompany Baba, and Obi-Wan dealt less drastically with the outlaws.

Ponda Baba had only the designation "Walrus Man", the name of his original Kenner action figure, until the 1981 Star Wars radio drama which called him "Sawkee." That name was overlooked in 1989, when he was given his proper name in Galaxy Guide 1: A New Hope. Sawkee was later referred to as an alias in Evazan's Databank entry on StarWars.com.

A walrus supplied his vocalizations, although Tim Veekhoven and Mark Newbold, the authors of the Star Wars Blog entry "Drawing from the Present: Familiar Creatures in a Galaxy Far, Far Away," could not confirm whether the walrus was Petula.^[12]

In a blooper, his arm has fin-like hands when still attached, but is furry and clawed in the close-up shots of the severed arm on the floor. This may have inspired the writers at West End Games to invent the finned and clawed subspecies of Aqualish in Galaxy Guide 4: Alien Races. Also, the severing of Ponda Baba's arm was one of the few lightsaber wounds that did not cauterize on contact; a pool of blood can be seen on the ground.

A parody of Ponda Baba's confrontation in Chalmun's Cantina is shown in Robot Chicken: Star Wars. In this appearance, Baba is not a hardened criminal, but a harmless architectural draftsman visiting the bar with his wild friend Evazan. As he sits by Luke Skywalker, the scene plays out just as it does in the movie, only Ponda is complimenting Luke on his hair even though it looks like he is pushing on him. Evazan takes advantage of Luke's inability to understand Baba, and makes Luke think they are dangerous, as per the original movie. As Baba tries to explain the misunderstanding to Luke, Obi-Wan Kenobi cuts his arm off. In the end, his Gran employer fires him as he lost his arm and can't draw out designs. Later, however, he receives 5,000 credits in damages in a lawsuit for the loss of his hand.

In LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, Ponda Baba is drinking in Cantina with Evazan, when Luke accidentally knocks down Baba's drinking glass. Angered, Baba pushes Luke to the ground and draws his blaster. Before he can shoot, Obi-Wan Kenobi cuts off both of Baba's arms (instead of just one). Baba dies shortly after in the video game (rather than survive as he does in the Expanded Universe), causing Evazan to quickly drink his glass empty, and flee from the scene.