Gungan

"Gungans no dyin' witout a fight. Wesa warriors."

- Jar Jar Binks

Gungans were an amphibious sentient species and the native inhabitants of the planet Naboo. The various different Gungan races could live on both water and land, but often made their home in underwater cities such as Otoh Gunga. Physically, Gungans were tall humanoids with a flexible structure, strong leg muscles, strong bills, muscular tongues, and many other traits designed for living in the waters of Naboo. Gungans were also know to rarely leave Naboo.

The Gungans had a tense and uneasy relationship with the predominantly human Naboo people until the Trade Federation invasion. As a result of the invasion, the Gungans joined forces with the Naboo to expel the Trade Federation from their homeworld. Following the invasion, Jar Jar Binks would become the Junior Representative of the Gungan people in the Galactic Senate, serving alongside Senator Padmé Amidala of the Naboo.

Biology and appearance
The Gungans were a sentient amphibious species. They were tall humanoids with a flexible structure and strong leg muscles which allowed them to live in the waters of Naboo.

Born as tadpoles, Gungan infants developed limbs within months of being hatched. Equipped with hardy lungs, they were capable of holding their breath for extended periods of time. Their skeletal structure was extremely flexible, as it was made of cartilaginous material rather than hard bone. The long Gungan face had a tough yet flexible bill for burrowing and rooting out food. Some Gungans, such as Roos Tarpals, had whiskers on their bills. These whiskers were signs of maturity among Gungans. They had long muscular tongues with which they could scoop mollusks and lesser amphibians from the Naboo swamps.

There were two Gungan races: the lanky Otolla, who sported prominent bills and eyes set on short stalks, and the heavier Ankura, whose eyes were hooded. The Gungan earlobes, called haillu, were most prominent in the Otolla. These earlobes displayed their emotions.

History
The Gungan species originated on the Mid Rim world of Naboo, which they shared with a human civilization known as the Naboo. Relations between the two species were tense until the Trade Federation invasion of Naboo. One Gungan exile named Jar Jar Binks befriended the Naboo Queen Padmé Amidala and convinced her to seek the help of the Gungans. Amidala succeeded in winning over the Gungan ruler Boss Nass and the two peoples formed an alliance to drive out the Trade Federation. During the Battle of Naboo, the Gungan Grand Army confronted the Federation's droid army outside Theed, which enabled Amidala's forces to seize back the capital and capture the Trade Federation's Viceroy Nute Gunray.

During the Separatist Crisis, Jar Jar Binks served as the Junior Representative of the Gungan people in the Galactic Senate. He played an important role in supporting legislation which led to the creation of a Grand Army of the Republic. The Gungans remained loyal to the Galactic Republic during the Clone Wars. Gungan forces took part in the Battle of Mon Cala and assisted Prince Lee-Char's Mon Calamari forces and Republic allies against Separatist forces and their Quarren allies.

As the Clone Wars escalated, growing tensions between the Gungans and the Naboo were fueled by rumors that the Gungans were planning to aid a Separatist invasion of Naboo. Under the influence of his pro-Separatist adviser Rish Loo, the reigning Boss Lyonie ordered the Gungan Grand Army to march on Theed in a coordinated strike with a Separatist Droid Army led by General Grievous. However, Binks, with the help of Senator Amidala and Anakin Skywalker, succeeded in exposing Rish Loo's conspiracy. Binks then impersonated Lyonie and ordered the Grand Army to abort their assault on Theed. Gungan forces led by Roos Tarpals also played a role in capturing Grievous but were forced to release him after Count Dooku threatened to kill Skywalker.

Following the Battle of Endor, the Gungans confirmed the presence of typhoon-strength storms all over Naboo. These storms were created by several climate disruption array satellites deployed by the Imperial-class Star Destroyer Torment as part of Operation: Cinder, a secret Imperial plan to scour Naboo and several worlds. Before the Imperials could render Naboo uninhabitable, a New Republic fleet arrived and destroyed the Imperial forces; saving the planet.

While traveling on an automated sidewalk in the New Republic senatorial complex on Hosnian Prime, Senator Leia Organa spotted a Gungan having an animated conversation via his comlink.

Society and culture
The Gungan government comprised city-based clans and city governments that answered to a High Council, which dealt with disputes between cities. Highly stratified, the society placed a high value on overall peace, shunned violence, and condemned even minor crimes such as vandalism with corporal punishments or exile. Each city maintained an army to defend its honor and bolster its pride in its own territories and dominions.

Though sometimes dismissed as primitive, the Gungans had advanced technology, including bubble projectors, bongo submarines and weaponry. The Gungans preferred using technology that was related in some way to the ecology of their world. For example, they used energy plasma that was mined from their planet's crust to power their cities and their weapons. The Gungans also domesticated animals for use in transport and combat, such as the kaadu, the falumpaset and the fambaa.

Unlike their human neighbors, the Gungans were a proud warrior race, and maintained a large Gungan Grand Army, which acted as the standing Gungan defense force. It participated in the Battle of Naboo during the Trade Federation's occupation of the planet. During the Clone Wars, the Grand Army saw action against Separatist forces on both Mon Cala and later Naboo itself.

By the time of the Naboo invasions, the inhabitants of Otoh Gunga were reputed to produce a dessert that took at least four hominids to consume. This dessert was said to be capable of delivering one into a sugar coma.

The rate of Force-sensitives in the Gungan society was low, and no native traditions ever emerged. Few Gungans ever joined the Jedi Order, and none ever became Sith. Culturally, the Gungans were in tune with the Living Force and had a working understanding of it.

Gungans in the galaxy
Gungans rarely left Naboo, preferring to remain on their homeworld and help its ecosystems thrive. The only Gungans seen abroad tended to be exiles, cast out from their society on Naboo by the strict, unforgiving laws that governed their people.

One notable Gungan was Jar Jar Binks, a former outcast who brought his people and the Naboo together and later became a Junior Representative in the Galactic Senate. Later, Binks was ostracized by many adult Gungans and Naboo due to his role in aiding the rise of the Empire. Binks later found work as a professional clown entertaining displaced refugee children. Other noteworthy Gungans included the warrior Roos Tarpals, Otoh Gunga's ruler Boss Nass and his successor Lyonie, the shaak herder Peppi Bow, and the minister Rish Loo.

Behind the scenes
The Gungans first appeared in the 1999 film Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace, the first installment of the Star Wars prequel trilogy.

Originally, the Gungans were meant to be wiped out along with Otoh Gunga prior to the Battle of Naboo, and therefore, they didn't participate in the battle, as seen in early storyboards of the film. As genocide was judged to be too dark for the film, thus, the story was adjusted.

The name "Gungan" came, according to director George Lucas in an interview, from his son Jett's name for tractors and trucks. They were partially modelled after hadrosaurs, duck-billed dinosaurs from the late Cretaceous period.

Name origin
The word "Gungan" can refer to any member of an Australian genus of frogs, Uperoleia.

Non-canon appearances

 * William Shakespeare's The Phantom of Menace: Star Wars Part the First
 * William Shakespeare's The Clone Army Attacketh: Star Wars Part the Second
 * Disney Infinity 3.0