Voorpee

"This year, our Padawan [sic] will enjoy the opportunity to care for a class pet, this voorpak from Naboo. Students will make sure the voorpak's soft fur stays clean and feed the voorpak its diet of live insects."

- Jedi academy welcome back handout

Voorpee was a male voorpak, on loan from the Naboo Zoo to the Jedi academy on the planet Coruscant. The voorpak was introduced to the school as a means of teaching students responsibility in caring for a pet, as well as learning about the biology and habits of the species. Students at the academy were encouraged to care for Voorpee at the academy's care center, feeding him a preferred diet of live insects and keeping his soft fur clean. Voorpee quickly proved popular with most of the academy's students, but suffered at the hands of two school bullies who tortured the creature by taking him for unauthorized "walks" and stuffing it in a school locker.

Excitement and popularity
"Class Pet 'Voorpee' Delights and Teaches"

- Headline in The Padawan Observer, Vol. MXIII #1

Voorpee was a male voorpak, a small, fuzzy creature native to the Mid Rim planet Naboo like most voorpaks. Approximately 200 years before the Battle of Yavin, he was temporarily on loan to the Jedi academy on Coruscant, the Galactic Republic's capital planet, arriving with the other students at the beginning of the school year. Located within the Jedi Temple, the Jedi Order's headquarters, a number of Padawans trained here under Jedi Master Yoda and various other Jedi, including Mr. Garfield and Principal Mar. Gaiana, a female Human student in attendance at the academy, was excited about caring for Voorpee, as she once visited Naboo and saw a lot of voorpaks. Roan Novachez, a second year student who had something of a crush on Gaiana, was scared by the bugs, something that she found "cute." Voorpee soon became a favorite of students at the academy, written up in an article in the school's newspaper, The Padawan Observer. The article described the class pet program started by Gaiana, which offered the opportunity to study Voorpee's behavior and mannerisms, while also learning about the diets and natural habitats of voorpaks.

Cronah and Cyrus, two Zabrak bullies in the same class as Gaiana and Novachez, saw Voorpee merely as an opportunity for amusement. These two had often bullied other students at the academy and extended their bullying to this defenseless animal. In the first semester of the school year, following a field trip to Hoth, they poked at him with a pencil, causing him to hiss and puff out his fur, and threatened to hide him in someone's locker. In the second semester, they took him for a "walk," placing him on a leash and yanking him around, despite it being against class rules to take him out of the care center. By this time, Novachez had been struggling in his friendships and had joined Cronah and Cyrus to some degree in their bullying. Gaiana and Pasha, a Human male that had also been one of Novachez's friends, chastised them for having Voorpee out. Novachez, trying to act as if he wasn't bothered, said that they would go do something "fun" instead.

Soon afterward, The Padawan Observer, Vol. MXIII #8, reported that Voorpee had gone missing. Novachez was suspected, but per his own journal, he was not the culprit. He suggested that Gaiana might have done it, given how much she much liked Voorpee. Despite his anger and dismay, Novachez became disillusioned with the two bullies, whom he suspected didn't really care about his feelings. With Voorpee having been missing for around a week, he decided to try to rescue the voorpak. Using a Force power he sensed a disturbance in Cronah's locker and discovered that the two bullies had made good on their threat, stuffing Voorpee in the locker. Fortunately, he knew Cronah's combination and was able to rescue a hungry Voorpee, but Gaiana discovered him with the creature and blamed him for what had happened. Novachez, not wanting to argue with her, went to tell Master Yoda what had happened, taking the blame for the theft himself. Yoda made him write a letter of apology to the Naboo Zoo, though he felt that Yoda may have realized that there was someone else involved. Despite this, both Cronah and Cyrus suspected Novachez of reporting them. At the end of the semester, Yoda placed both Cronah and Cyrus on academic suspension for the next year's first semester because of the theft of Voorpee. Novachez thought that Yoda might have used the Force to figure out what happened.

Personality and traits
He did not actually answer to the name Voorpee, but was responsive to "cute noises." He was known to puff up and hiss when angry, but otherwise was largely passive and became somewhat worn down and weary following his abuse at the hands Cronah and Cyrus.

Behind the scenes
Voorpee first appeared in Jedi Academy: Return of the Padawan. He is the only pet seen to date in the Jedi Academy series and one of several pet voorpaks within the Star Wars franchise, others being Dotty, Sanani and Taezii. The character was inspired in part by author Jeffrey Brown's experience with class pets in school that ate insects and, like Roan Novachez, he has something of an insect phobia. Despite the bullying suffered by Voorpee, Brown confirmed that one or more school pets would be featured in the upcoming third book in the series.

Appearances

 * Jedi Academy: Return of the Padawan