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"It's like he's out to make the whole galaxy suffer—every living thing in it. He wants to break them, ruin them, and when they can't suffer any more, he wants them dead."
Mira's description of Hanharr. — (audio) Listen (file info)[2]

Hanharr was a male Wookiee who worked as a bounty hunter, operating primarily out of Nar Shaddaa, during and in the years after the Jedi Civil War. A ruthless hunter and brutal sociopath who was rumored to have murdered his own tribe in cold blood, he was regarded as one of the most deadly of his profession.

Biography[]

"You do not have the strength to kill, little girl."
―Hanharr to Mira on Nar Shaddaa[2]

Hanharr was raised on the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk, living in the canopies with other Wookiees, but never truly feeling at home among them. Instead, he began to take an interest in the Shadowlands, the ground level of Kashyyyk, at an early age, sensing fascination at its perils and constant darkness. To live in the Shadowlands was considered dishonorable by the Wookiees, but the call proved too strong for Hanharr to resist, and he began to spend more and more time there, moving freely and killing at will. In time, his tribe refused to accept him back, for they sensed too much of a killer within him.

Hanharr kotor II

Hanharr, ready to fight

When the humans of Czerka Corporation arrived on Kashyyyk, they didn't immediately seem to pose a threat to the Wookiee tribe. Yet when they had been accepted by Hanharr's tribe and infested it deep enough, they struck against the villagers. Hanharr watched it all from afar, seeing that the humans of Czerka were physically weak but still predators, and knowing that his tribe was about to become enslaved forever, hunted as prey and demeaned. And so, to save them from this cruel fate, Hanharr took it upon himself to slaughter his entire village, starting with the youngest. With ryyk blade and bowcaster, Hanharr worked his way from the weakest to the strongest of his people, ambushing them in their sleep. When others were awakened by the attacks, he killed them too—but for everyone that died, he grabbed them by the throat and stared into their eyes, showing them the full darkness of the Shadowlands and that their weakness was the reason they had to die. When the Czerka slavers discovered that their herd had been destroyed, they took Hanharr and shackled him, taking him into slavery and intending him to haul cargo on board starships. However, on the ship, there was nowhere for the humans to run when Hanharr set about killing all of them. Over the course of weeks, Hanharr stalked the slavers across the ship, letting them hide and starve slowly, waiting till the last possible moment before killing them, stuffing their bodies into storage compartments as a surprise for the other slavers to find. After all the slavers were killed, the ship—apparently on autopilot—eventually reached its destination: Nar Shaddaa.

Nar Shaddaa was not the worst possible place for a Wookiee hunter to be stranded on. There, Hanharr could again climb to great heights, hunt for prey, and admire the newfound depths of the Shadowlands. Hanharr, having learned Czerka's lesson, decided to take that lesson back to humans, in retribution for his dead people in a twisted version of the Wookiee life debt. He became a slaver, selling entire families at a time, intending to bring about the misery and death of every single human in the galaxy.

There was a bitter history between Hanharr and the human female bounty hunter Mira. Previously, Hanharr had been employed to hunt Mira, and had trapped her in a series of vents, where he planned to ambush her. However, she escaped from him when his own explosives (set to kill her) exploded as he ran after her. He painfully experienced that Mira had broadcast a signal to temporarily blind the mines' sensor receptors. He was almost killed but, taken by pity, Mira saved his life. It is unknown whether Mira knew she would then be owed a life debt, and it is certain that she wasn't keen on the idea, but Hanharr disliked it even more so. To be shown mercy by prey such as Mira was the worst insult imaginable to the Wookiee, and worse yet, he now owed his life to a human. To Hanharr, Mira had done to him just what Czerka had done to his people—she had broken him with slavery.

Hanharrthrottlesmira

Hanharr throttles Mira

He detested the idea of a life debt, because he thought that it made him weak and a slave, yet he held on to this tradition because it was the last thing to connect him to his dead people. He served his life debt to Mira, but believed that by killing her he could free himself; thus he would often swing between wanting to kill her and stalking her from the shadows. At one time, he grabbed her by the throat and promised to derive pleasure from killing her sometime in the future, when the time was right. Mira often told Hanharr that she didn't want his life debt but Hanharr's insanity meant that he could see no way out other than to kill Mira.

Hanharr was hired by Vogga the Hutt to meet Goto and kill him. "Goto" always appeared as a hologram, and so no one knew that it was actually the spherical droid projecting it. Vogga warned him to finish the job or not come back to him at all. Working with one of Goto's men, Visquis, they planned to capture Meetra Surik and bring her to Goto for Hanharr to kill. However, Mira came in her place.

Eventually, Hanharr and Mira dueled in Visquis's secret base, and there Mira defeated him. Shortly after, Kreia healed his most serious wounds, saving his life, cursing him with another life debt that Hanharr had no choice but to accept. Hanharr claimed that Kreia honored him by showing him no mercy when she took him to Malachor V to challenge Mira when Surik arrived. On its surface, Mira and Hanharr dueled and Hanharr lost again. At Hanharr's desperate call for death, Mira finally granted his request and killed him, putting him out of his life-long misery.[3]

Personality and traits[]

He had simply been driven to the point of near-insanity by his anger and the pain of his past. He maintained a strong, if somewhat warped, sense of honor and duty. Despite believing that life-debts weakened him and that he could rid himself of them by killing the person to whom he owed the debt, he believed that he was bound by duty to serve them anyway. However, even with his rage, he was cautious and never underestimated foes who were truly strong or superior as he would constantly argue with Visquis, who on the other hand said Hanharr thought too much of the Jedi Surik's chances.

He maintained that love was each partner in the relationship being willing to lay down their life for the other. He believed that the weak must serve the strong. He probably also sincerely believed that he was 'saving' his tribe by slaughtering them, with his warped perspective of everything around him. He perceived that mercy was weakness, and truly despised anyone who showed him mercy.

Behind the scenes[]

Hanharrportrait

Hanharr's portrait.

Hanharr is a playable character in the computer and video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. Both he and Mira are encountered on the planet Nar Shaddaa, and one of them will join the Jedi Exile's party, as determined by the player's alignment. Dark side-aligned players are joined by Hanharr, though he appears in cutscenes and in gameplay as an antagonist if the player is light side-aligned.

According to Chris Avellone, Obsidian Entertainment wanted to give the player an option to turn Hanharr into a Dark Jedi character, but this idea was rejected by LucasArts due to George Lucas's ruling that there should be no more Wookiee Jedi introduced.[source?]

Hanharr is the only companion in the game that the player gains influence with through mostly negative reinforcement and insulting at the wookie.

Alternate ending[]

On Nar Shaddaa, two possible things can occur. If the Jedi Exile follows the way of the light side, then Mira is captured by Visquis, an overseer for the criminal gang called The Exchange, and he allows Hanharr to kill her. However, in a surprising turn of events, Mira defeats Hanharr, and escapes. After this, Hanharr is found by Kreia, the mentor of the Jedi Exile, and she takes him into her service. However, so as to maintain his servitude, she promises that she will show him no mercy or pity. Later, when the heroes traveled to Malachor V, Hanharr confronted Mira once again.

If the Exile follows the dark side, he will meet Hanharr on his way to meet up with Visquis. They make an agreement to try and kill the crime lord as well as Goto. However, Mira manages to render the Exile unconscious and fools both Visquis and Hanharr, as in the light-side story. Hanharr manages to kill her in a duel but Visquis leaves him to be killed by his kath hounds. He helps the Exile by opening the door to the base while leaving at the same time, possibly killing a few of Visquis's men in the process. However, Jedi Master Zez-Kai Ell appears and takes him down with the Force. Kreia finds him and forces him to serve the Exile. He did, and although he was stubborn, the Exile manages to break his will by creating a bond and breaking it after he finds out about his past, making Hanharr serve him without question. The Exile makes a pact with him in addition, promising to never show him mercy when the time comes that they no longer need each other, much like Kreia's promises. Like Bao-Dur, his fate is unknown, although there are some scraps of what seems like he was supposed to save the Exile from the crumbling Malachor V core by throwing him on the Ebon Hawk and dying with the planet. This was found to be too reminiscent to Chewbacca's death on Sernpidal, however, and was therefore cut.

Journeys with a Dark-Sided Exile[]

Hanharr tells a dark-sided Exile that he wishes to die and 'join his tribe', and that he wishes to walk in the Shadowlands no longer but instead on the tops of the trees of Kashyyyk, his homeworld. Hanharr also held a deep respect for a dark Exile for having the strength to kill members of 'his own clan', the Jedi, at Malachor V, despite the use of the Mass Shadow Generator to achieve victory being, in Hanharr's opinion, 'a coward's way of killing'. Hanharr also tells a dark Exile that he should have looked in the eyes of each victim at Malachor V before killing them, that being what he did when he slaughtered his own clan on Kashyyyk.

Appearances[]

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Sources[]

Notes and references[]

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