Chewbacca

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Chewbacca
Star Wars character

Position	General of the Republic in the Clone Wars, First Mate of the Millennium Falcon
Homeworld	Kashyyyk
Species	Wookiee
Gender	Male
Height	7ft 4 3/4 In (2.28 meters)<ref>pg 30, the "Chewbacca" entry, infobox; Star wars: the essential guide to characters, Andy Mangels, 1st edition published November 1995, ISBN 0-345-39535-2</ref>
Affiliation	Galactic Republic, Rebel Alliance, New Republic
Portrayed by	Peter Mayhew

Chewbacca (or Chewie) (c. 200 BBY - c. 25 ABY), a fictional character of the Star Wars universe, is a 2.3 m (7.5 ft) tall Wookiee and co-pilot of Han Solo's ship, the Millennium Falcon. Chewbacca is the son of Attichitcuk, the husband of Mallatobuck, and the father of Lumpawarrump.

1 Biography
- 1.1 Republic Era
2 Appearances
- 2.1 The Films
- 2.2 The Expanded Universe
3 Death
- 3.1 Controversy
4 Trivia
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Biography

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Wise and sophisticated, he has a great deal of technological savvy. Chewbacca is known for his great strength and loyalty. While Chewie is perfectly able to understand the galactic-standard language Basic, he is unable to speak it due to his species' vocal structure. He communicates in his native language, Shyriiwook, while Solo always speaks to Chewie in Basic. His weakness for sugary sweets is known throughout the Republic. According to IMDb trivia, Chewbacca's voice "is a combination of several animals including bears, badgers, walrus and camels."[1] Chewbacca was played by actor Peter Mayhew in the Star Wars movies.

[edit] Republic Era

Before meeting Solo, Chewie was a major player in the Battle of Kashyyyk (as seen in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith), and he and Wookiee General Tarfful were responsible for Yoda's escape when then-Chancellor Palpatine ordered the Clone troopers to turn on the Jedi (see Order 66).

[edit] Appearances

[edit] The Films

Chewbacca plays a major role in Episodes III, IV, V, and VI of the Star Wars films. In Episode III, Chewbacca, along with Tarfful, fight in the Clone Wars when their planet is invaded. They also help to get Yoda to safety. Intriguingly, Chewbacca never mentions Yoda thereafter, though he is first to believe that Luke Skywalker has become a Jedi. In Episodes IV, V, and VI, Chewbacca accompanies Han Solo and The Rebel Alliance in helping to defeat the Galactic Empire.

[edit] The Expanded Universe

The 1978 television program The Star Wars Holiday Special introduces Chewbacca's family of Malla, Itchy, and Lumpy. They live together on Kashyyyk, the Wookiee homeworld, where Chewbacca visits them on Life Day with other major characters. His family also appears in some Star Wars books, most notably The Wookiee Storybook, The Black Fleet Crisis trilogy by Michael P. Kube-McDowell (wherein Lumpy undergoes his rite of passage and chooses the adult name Lumpawaroo (Waroo)), and Rebel Dawn by A. C. Crispin. The latter also introduces other family members, including a sister named Kallabow and cousins named Dryanta and Jowdrrl. In Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, Chewie appears briefly at the Mos Eisley spaceport as an NPC, assisting Jaden Korr in disabling the tractor beams holding both the Millennium Falcon and the Raven's Claw captive.

The 'Holiday Special' was filmed 'on-the-cheap', and consisted of a frame story in which Han and Chewie must prevent Darth Vader from spoiling 'Life Day', and get home to be with Chewie's family. However, because of the alleged low production values, a thin story and poorly-written dialogue, George Lucas publicly disowned the film shortly after release, making recorded 'bootleg' copies the only reliable source to find the Holiday Special.

In Star Wars Galaxies: Rage of the Wookiees, Chewie appears in several locations: In the opening tutorial, during a rescue from an Imperial Space Station, in Lady Valarian's Lucky Despot in Mos Eisley, the cantina in Nym's Stronghold and on his homeworld, Kashyyyk.

[edit] Death

The 1999 novel Vector Prime by R.A. Salvatore (the first in the New Jedi Order series) is Chewbacca's final adventure, when Chewbacca sacrifices his own life to save that of Han's son Anakin from a collision between the planet Sernpidal and one of its moons. The collision is caused by a Yuuzhan Vong weapon placed on the planet that draws the moon to its fateful collision with Sernpidal. Afterward, the other core Star Wars characters are emotionally crushed by the loss, and Han Solo even seeks refuge for a time among alcohol and the stars. A temporary rift also opens between Han and his son Anakin, as he holds the boy responsible for Chewie's death.

Although in the original storyboard Chewbacca was killed by Boba Fett in Return of the Jedi. Chewie was to block a shot aimed for Luke on board a desert skiff. This scene was scratched shortly after it was written.

[edit] Controversy

At the time of its first publication, Vector Prime was extremely controversial among Star Wars fans in that its plot called for the death of Chewbacca, making the Wookiee the first major character from the original trilogy to be permanently killed off in the Expanded Universe novels. Opinion was sharply divided as to whether this death of a beloved character was a cheap ploy to boost sales and interest in the new series, or if it served the dramatic purpose of declaring that not even the core characters were necessarily "safe" anymore. The author Robert Anthony Salvatore was ordered by Lucasfilm to kill off Chewbacca.^{[citation needed]}

Chewbacca's death was later marked as Number One in Star Wars Insider's 20 Most Memorable Moments of the Expanded Universe.

Lumpawaroo and Lowbacca (Chewie's nephew, who trained with Han's twin children at Luke Skywalker's Jedi Academy) offered to assume Chewbacca's life debt to Han; Han eventually persuaded them otherwise.

[edit] Trivia

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In naming Chewbacca, George Lucas is said to have borrowed the Russian word собака (Sobaka), which means dog, to name this dog-like character. Indeed, the dog in question was Lucas' own dog Indiana, an Alaskan Malamute.
The fact that Chewbacca apparently does not receive a medal in the concluding ceremony in A New Hope bothered many fans. This was corrected outside regular Star Wars continuity, after a fashion in 1997, when Chewbacca won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the MTV Movie Awards. Chewbacca, played by Peter Mayhew, appeared on stage to a standing ovation and was given a medal from Carrie Fisher. It should be noted that in the novelization of A New Hope (ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster, credited to George Lucas), Leia did give Chewbacca a medal, but she had to strain to do so. Chewbacca is the third fictional character to win the MTV Lifetime Achievement Award. The other two are Jason Voorhees and Godzilla, in that order.
An actor appearing in a Wookiee costume threw out the ceremonial first pitch in a Red Sox - Blue Jays game on September 29, 2005.
Instrumental progressive rock band Liquid Tension Experiment recorded a track entitled "Chewbacca" in their second studio album, Liquid Tension Experiment 2.
Rock band DVDA featuring South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone has written a song titled Chewbacca. The song aired during the credits of an episode of South Park called "Starvin' Marvin in Space", The Chewbacca defense was also used in the episode "Chef Aid", and everyone in the class dresses as Chewbacca for Halloween in the episode "Pink Eye," except for Stan, who dresses as Raggedy Andy, and Cartman, who dresses as Adolf Hitler.
The band Supernova also made a song called Chewbacca that appeared on the Clerks Soundtrack, and also appeared in the movie itself.
Chewbacca, along with C-3PO and R2-D2, has also appeared in "Blind Ambition", an episode of Family Guy.
Chewbacca is unable to pronounce his own name. (Or, perhaps, the English-speaking characters in the Star Wars universe are unable to correctly pronounce Chewbacca's in Shyriiwook and are themselves pronouncing it incorrectly.)
In a Simpsons episode, Worst Episode Ever, Comic Book Guy has a collectors' rare video tape that contains an alternative ending in which Chewbacca is the father of Luke Skywalker.
At the MTV Movie Awards, Gnarls Barkley played and their drummer appeared as Chewie.
It is believed by some that Chewbacca's face is modeled on the face of a lion, or even that George Lucas had the Cowardly Lion, a character in Lyman Frank Baum's novel "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", at the back of his mind when he designed the character's looks.
True to Solo's description that a Wookiee can rip a mans arms out of their sockets, in Lego Star Wars II Chewbacca's melee attack is to jump on the enemy and rip boths arms off (in lines with the games main theme, they come off with a 'pofp').
He made a cameo appearance during the second season of Pee-wee's Playhouse.^{[citation needed]}
On the show Lost, Sawyer often calls Jin "Chewie," because Jin speaks Korean, and Sawyer can't understand him.