Ponda Baba

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

- Ponda Baba and Dr. Evazan, to Luke Skywalker

Ponda Baba 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
One fateful day on Tatooine, Luke Skywalker entered the Mos Eisley cantina and sat down at the bar. After Baba, who was apparently drunk, growled a few words at Luke, Dr. Evazan informed Skywalker this 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 arm with his lightsaber.

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, where he was played by Tommy Ilsley. Baba was unnamed and described as multi-eyed alien. He was accompanied by a short human and a rodent-like alien&mdash;early incarnations of Cornelius Evazan and Kabe. In this version Obi-Wan Kenobi sliced Evan's hand and cut Kabe and Baba in half. In the Revised Fourth Draft of the film&mdash;addressing Baba and Evazan as Creature and Human&mdash;the scene was about the same. In the final film Kabe didn't accompany Baba, and Obi-Wan dealt less drastically with the outlaws.

In a well-known blooper, Ponda Baba's arm has fin-like hands while still attached, but is furry and clawed in the close-up shots of the severed arm on the floor. This probably inspired the writers at West End Games to postulate 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 seeen on the ground.

Baba was first known to fans as simply "Walrus Man", the name of his original Kenner action figure. Ponda Baba was known only by this designation until 1989, when he was referred to his proper name in Galaxy Guide 1: A New Hope. In addition, Ponda Baba's vocalizations were also supplied by a walrus, although Tim Veekoven 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 who supplied the voice work was Petulia.

An alternate version of Ponda Baba's confrontation in the Mos Eisley cantina is shown in Robot Chicken: Star Wars. In this version, Baba is not a hardened criminal, but a harmless architechtural draftsman visiting the bar with his wild friend Evazan. As he sits by Luke Skywalker, the scene plays out as a 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 undestand 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 on, however, he receives 5,000 credits in damages of a lawsuit for the loss of his hand.

In Family Guy's special episode Family Guy: Blue Harvest, the bar scene with Ponda and Evazan plays out as it does in the movie, until the part when Evazan says "I don't like you, either." Luke replies, "You don't even know me!" Evazan decides that this is fair and introduces himself as "Pig-Nose", and Ponda as his brother-in-law Scott, who is visiting from Hoth. We learn that Scott is a stand up comedian as well. "I don't know why they call it Hoth. I mean, why not just call it 'Coldth'." Pig-nose tells him to settle down, and Scott explains that he's up after the Cantina Band.

In LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, Ponda Baba is drinking in the 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.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope novel
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope