Beggar's Canyon/Legends

Beggar's Canyon was a massive canyon on the desert planet of Tatooine, formed by a junction of three rivers millennia ago when the planet had water and vegetation. It was home to the ferocious canyon krayt dragon, as well as the somewhat less dangerous womp rat.

The canyon was used as a part of the Boonta Eve Classic podrace circa 32 BBY. In the race, Anakin Skywalker was driven onto an access ramp by Sebulba, sending his podracer several hundred feet in the air. Anakin recovered and jumped ahead of Sebulba's racer. Anakin became the first person to do such a feat in podracing history.

Beggar's Canyon also served as a place for bored youths, who lived in and around the town of Anchorhead, to show off their piloting skills to each other by racing inside its treacherous walls using Incom T-16 Skyhopper. They would also hone their targeting skills and earn some credits by attempting to blast womp rats as they raced at breakneck speeds.

Beggar's Canyon is also known for the Stone Needle, an unusual rock formation that rises 18.2 meters from the canyon floor. Occasionally the Stone Needle figured into these races, since passing through or "threading" it could help a pilot shave off at least 5 seconds from his or her time. However, it was an incredibly risky thing to do and many pilots decided that their life was more important than a race. There were only two pilots known to thread it. The first was Biggs Darklighter, who almost destroyed the Stone Needle on a number of occasions. The second was Luke Skywalker, who lost his stabilizer while passing though the Needle, much to the consternation of one of his peers, Deak. Both Darklighter and Skywalker would later use their piloting skills to aid the Rebel Alliance in its war against the Galactic Empire.

Behind the scenes
In Rebel Assault, Beggar's Canyon was the location of a training center for new Rebel pilots known as Anchorhead Base. It was completely destroyed when it was attacked by a flight of TIE fighters in 0 BBY.

Players could navigate Beggar's Canyon in three different stages of Rebel Assault.:


 * The first involved piloting a skyhopper and avoiding the walls of the treacherous canyon. At one point they were given a decision to take follow the leaders of the training flight through an "easy" stretch, or to go by themselves down a more difficult stretch of the canyon.  Going through the difficult stretch resulted in more points being awarded to the player.


 * In the next stage, from a top-down perspective, the player would navigate the skyhopper through the canyon, shooting down target drones as he/she progressed.


 * The last stage involving Beggar's Canyon occurred a few chapters later. It was nearly identical to the first, except for the fact that the player's objective was to chase down and destroy the TIE fighters that had destroyed Anchorhead Base while piloting an X-wing.

The concept of the training center appears only in Rebel Assault and this information is considered apocryphal due to Rebel Assault's canon status. This idea was probably derived from Luke and Biggs's use of the canyon during their teenage years.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
 * Star Wars: Episode I Racer (N64)
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
 * Marvel Star Wars 17: Crucible
 * Star Wars: The National Public Radio Dramatization
 * ''Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
 * Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader
 * Star Wars: Rebel Assault
 * Shadows of the Empire
 * Adventure in Beggar's Canyon