No element of the Star Wars universe is safe from the peering eyes of hardcore fans. The original trilogy dropped a lot of details on the audience without much context, but it provided everything fans needed to get the gist. The prequel trilogy unpacked a lot of the details, but the smaller figures still raised interesting questions. One weird minor example involves the tentacle monster that attacked Luke, Leia, Han, and Chewie in the Empire ship's trash compactor. That creature was called a dianoga, and it does slightly more than live in garbage.
The war between practical and digital effects is particularly important in the history of the Star Wars franchise. It's often at its best when its throwing puppets at its actors, but the gradual improvement of digital art and technology allows for more seamless integration. The Star Wars Special Editions and prequels put a bad taste in many fans' mouths. The old-fashioned wet puppets remain appealing in almost every scenario. The best monsters have a bit more weight to them.
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What is a Dianoga?
A dianoga is a large cephalopod creature that experienced an interesting shift between the current and previous Star Wars canon. The name actually arose from an early draft of A New Hope, which used the term "Dia Nogas" or "Dias" before they came up with the term Jedi. The writers repurposed it for a monster in a single scene. Dianoga come from a planet called Vodran, which stands as one of the least-loved worlds in the galaxy. Vodran is covered in dense jungles and brutal swamps. Its hot, humid climate keeps it habitable but endlessly unpleasant. The most notable inhabitants of Vodran were the Hutt Cartel, who ran many criminal operations from the planet's swampy surface. In time, the Hutts cleared out, leaving only the native species. The dianoga were one of those native species, but they also get around often.
Dianoga in the Canon and Legends continuities
In both the original continuity, now known as Legends, and the modern Disney era, the dianoga were sizable squid-like organisms from Vodran. The Legends iteration of the monster is non-sentient and exclusively carnivorous. They thrive in bodies of water, preferably those with large concentrations of filth. Many of them left their home planet by stowing away in their larval form on spacefaring vessels, eventually spreading themselves across the universe. Dianoga often live in trash, sewage, and even toilets on various planets. In the modern Star Wars continuity, the dianoga species is sentient, omnivorous, and a distinct language. New material maintains that the dianoga is an intelligent species of squid beings that can even sense the Force. While the canon never mentions a dianoga Jedi, it's technically possible. There's only one dianoga that really exists as a character in the Star Wars universe.
Who was the dianoga in A New Hope?
In Star Wars, later known as Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Han Solo, and Chewbacca infiltrate the Death Star to find and rescue Rebel hero Leia Organa. The mission was somewhat slapdash, relying heavily on improvisation as plans repeatedly fell apart. Skywalker and Solo donned suits of Stormtrooper armor to enter the restricted area. When their scheme falls apart, Solo, Skywalker, Chewbacca, and Organa leap into an unmarked ventilation shaft, leaving them in a sealed trash compactor. The tension quickly escalates as Skywalker notices a living thing in the ankle-deep water surrounding them. The dianoga that lives in the Death Star trash compactor attempts to attack Skywalker, but it quickly flees to avoid the compactor's wrath. The dianoga is not the main threat in the scene, but it is a distraction that briefly makes things worse. In 2017, Nigerian writer Nnedi Okorafor gave that creature a story.
From a Certain Point of View is the first of several anthologies of short stories from the Star Wars universe. The first collection included "The Baptist," which depicts the journey of Omi, the dianoga who lived in the Death Star trash compactor. Omi was kidnapped from her home and sealed in a glass tank aboard the Death Star. In time, she developed a relationship with the Force, which she could only call "It." Omi learned her environment, eventually making her home in the trash compactor. She understood its patterns and used her solitude to cultivate her relationship with the Force. When Omi encountered the heroes, she singled out Luke. She performed her people's traditional baptism ritual, dragging him briefly under the water as a sign of rebirth. The rest of her life was short, as Omi became one with the Force when her body perished in the Death Star explosion. It's even possible that she identified her Force-sensitive being, shared her tradition with him, and maybe even recognized him as the man who would one day kill her. It's this kind of experimental expansion that should keep fans interested in new Star Wars media. Okorafor gave the tentacle monster from the Death Star trash compactor a line like this:
Home will stay home, but you must go, she understood, more than heard. And she knew deep in her hearts that she would not die. No, she was in the right place. In the right moment.
The dianoga is not an important species in the Star Wars canon. They existed to pester the heroes for a moment in a single scene of the first film. 40 years later, a new creator added enough to the life of that single member of the species that the story became far more interesting. The dianoga and Omi in particular should stand as a monument to what might be possible in the Star Wars universe.
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