10 Background Star Wars Characters With Ridiculously Convoluted Backstories

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Every character you've ever seen on screen, even for a split-second, has a name and a backstory.
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[@Gurbo8]

With the amount of screentime she got, you might as well put Phasma in the line-up of background characters

[@absalomdraconis]

Gerben Bakker : Huh? I thought random overpolished First Order storm trooper #38 _was_ a background character? Did I miss a memo again?

[@Cuban20]

Jared Maddox Way too over polished.

[@alphatrion100]

She had lines. These were in one shot sometimes

[@owenbevt3]

I was about to comment that if any one of these was in the new movies the 'fans' would have seen then not getting there own onscreen character ark in the 2 hours as a reason to hate them. But you just proved my point far better.

[@leeloodallas6949]

Just like Boba Fett.

[@chemtrooper]

Mos Eisly bar owner was a wounded medically discharged veteran drop ship pilot during the clone wars. He received his career ending wounds while trying to save a special forces squad he was buds with who were ambushed by battle droids. He was the only survivor recovered from the ambush and he maintained total prejudice against all droids for the rest of his life because of the loss of his comrades. There, I just wrote a better synopsis for a Star Wars story than Disney could ever do.

[@marlbartony1621]

His parents were killed by droids that’s why he hates them and Dosent allow them in the cantina

[@brianartillery]

Droids are banned from the Cantina, as the electromagnetic interference their motivators generate can be picked up and is intensely irritating to some races of aliens, like Gotal and H'Nemthians. That's why Chalmun's Cantina has a Fabritech EPT-212 Droid detector near the entrance.

[@Scorecatron]

It would probably be faster to do a list on characters without a backstory.

[@omarjimenez8895]

What about the guy who fired the Death Star laser

[@theresnothinghereatall]

@Daniel Nolan Tarkin didn't fire the fucking laser, he just ordered it to be fired.

[@Sam-pr9rr]

Minos fucking laser lol

[@TheHalfLeft]

Minos he ordered himself to do it? Duh

[@helpfulapple3125]

He immediately broke down after firing it and went into a deep depression. I think he left the Empire.

[@poppster69]

@@helpfulapple3125 he died when the Death Star exploded

[@SaturnCanuck]

BTW, Lobot never had a name in the original release of "The Empire Strikes Back". In the credits he is known as Lando's Aide. When Kenner released the action figure, they named him Lobot, and the name is now cannon.

[@Threepster]

David I wondered if anyone remembered that. Just his toy name. I still call him “Lando’s Aide.” R5-D4 as well. Luke calls him an “R2 unit,” which is what he and Owen needed. Meh, maybe young Luke would have messed it up, but I doubt his uncle would have.

[@illmitchjax]

I just found out that even the guy who you hear over the radio in Hoth saying "Imperial troops have entered the base, Imperial troops have entered the b-" got a bloody back story!...

[@thepaultato3243]

Bossk has a really awesome backstory even though only he was in the movies for 30 seconds, as well as being in the tv show clone wars for a couple of appearances. My favorite bounty hunter for sure though.

[@murderface1628]

Red Ripple he's also got a segway

[@bwilesuk]

I would have liked to seen the Rancor guard here, sad story!

[@gamerman360]

Ben Wiles www.chrisgugliotti.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/BFF.jpg

[@jces7070]

Two myths about George, though. Yes, he had a great imagination, and I will always thank him for that. But, he did NOT have the entire Star Wars stories all planned out and he also had many artists creating characters for him as well.

[@AN0Nyt]

They should make a Zuckuss Solo movie

[@benzeller3635]

Lobot is the most underrated character in all of Star Wars. Change my mind.

[@brianartillery]

You could also have had Devin Felth, the stormtrooper who picks up the 'droid oil seal, and says: "Look sir, 'droids!". Or Labria, the guy in the Cantina with the horns. He's actually a Devaronian war criminal, called Kardue S'ai Malloc, who, unusually, has bounties on his head from both the Imperials and Rebels. The cantina barman, Wuher, who co owns the cantina with a Wookie, called Chalmun. Wuher is reknowned for inventing incredible cocktails - and after Han Solo killed Greedo, the Rodian, Wuher found a use for Greedo's remains... Figrin D'an, the cantina band leader - his band, 'The Modal Nodes' are known to be one of the best in the galaxy, so why are they playing in such a dive? A contractual obligation to Jabba The Hutt, of course. Figrin D'an is a hopeless, hopeless gambler, losing even all the band's gear to Jabba in a fixed card game. To repay the debt, they have to play in the cantina. For ever.

[@mant6809]

tales from the mos eisley cantina... what a fine novel! one of my favorite

[@ghoulinthegraveyard399]

Man6809 you are so true!! In my opinion the mouse needs to caught in a ......mousetrap for changing canon.

[@rhunter42dragon]

Ghoul in the Graveyard Amen to that! I'll never forgive them for screwing over the Expanded Universe, especially since I have been less than thrilled with Disney's own contributions to the series. Fuck Disney! Fuck Disney HARD!

[@ghoulinthegraveyard399]

Thumbs up rhunter42dragon!

[@brianartillery]

George Lucas wanted every character seen on screen to have a backstory, so that it would, however unlikely, be possible to make a movie about anybody at all, if so desired.

[@Clarkaraoke]

7:26 I seen yo' girl in the park That girl is a zuckuss When the beam went fwap-fwap-fwap You man was duckin'

[@Punisher9419]

You know the money in KZbin has dried up when everyone is moving towards adverts in their own videos. Not a bad thing I don't blame them but to me it looks like Patreon is the future.

[@frankunodostres473]

i hope patreon is the future. i am getting annoyed by all these youtubers whining about demonetization

[@bomouth142]

Well, when KZbin is at the mercy of the Government's stupid DMCA rules if they don't police themselves properly because the archaic DMCA rules punish the platform rather than the content creators for what is posted, KZbin is going to do some stupid things to play it safe, especially when the Advertisers will pull all their money if the platform runs afoul of the DMCA regulations. KZbin should be one of the champions of getting those rules updated, but as far as I know they aren't doing anything. Also, I'd be wary of Patreon, as in December they tried taking a sizable cut from all of the pledges made through them (7.5% + $.35 per pledge, which would only be insignificant for larger pledges) and only backed down when a lot of their members threatened to quit.

[@anon7039]

until google, facebook or paypal buys that up too

[@SpamMeGooglification]

Soon, we can not even mention "Star Wars" because they'll ban it because it features evil guns in the movie.

[@bomouth142]

either you are replying to the wrong comment, or you forgot that Google DID buy KZbin, 12 years ago.

[@melek_the_weird]

7:47 for anyone curious about the group of bounty hunters, here are their names from left to right. Dengar, IG-88, Boba Fett, Bossk, 4-Lom, & Zuckuss. All of these characters actually have interesting stories, especially Dengar

[@futuramayeah]

I'm a starwars nerd, but was IG88 supposed to be Boba Fett's droid? he's standing right next to him, and before when I was younger and ordered for the mail away for 4-lom, and got the tan guy with the bug eyes, I thought Zuckuss was His droid.

[@melek_the_weird]

I play the x-wing miniatures game which has the pictures of them on the cards & both 4-lom & zuckuss are buggos.

[@brianartillery]

futuramayeah - Kenner toys got Zuckuss and 4-LOM's names mixed up. Zuckuss is a Gand 'Findsman', and 4-LOM (For Love Of Money), is a protocol droid who reprogrammed itself with criminal intent. IG-88 was one of five experimental war 'droids who, when activated, destroyed everything in sight that wasn't an IG series robot. The remains of IG-76 can be seen in the Cloud City furnace room, in The Empire Strikes Back, when Chewbacca rescues C-3PO (in bits) from the bad tempered Ugnaughts. Boba Fett and IG-88 are deadly rivals. Dengar has a long standing grudge against Han Solo, for injuries acquired whilst Swoop racing. Dengar wears stolen Snowtrooper armour.

[@Zer0Jaque]

You should have read “A Certain Point of View” that book is full of background characters backstory, Like the stormtrooper that obi-Wan brainwashed on ep IV.

[@andresespinosa8483]

It’s so dope how he knew abt ig 88 before most of the star wars community

[@pingechelon9389]

The Jar Jar Binks teenage years is the backstory we're waiting for.

[@williamgallop9425]

In MAD-magazine was a comix where Luke asks bartender about toilet, then enters and is confused about different types of urinals(?).

[@sheevpalpatine7379]

Where’s the ice cream guy ?

[@Hessed3712]

Sheev Palpatine Icecream guy?

[@sheevpalpatine7379]

Hessed3712 the glorious Willrow Hood

[@rachele3334]

That was the whole reason I watched this video! So disappointing...

[@wj9855]

Willrow Hood

[@epicnipple8746]

That’s the first character that crossed my mind. Random pot-bellied Indian guy running through one scene for two seconds gets his own name and back story. I bet the ice-cream maker has it’s own back story too.

[@thespicemelange.1]

Well, there's 8 minutes and 19 Seconds Of My Life I'll never get back, thank you very much...

[@VicedRhino]

Ok, I haven't seen the whole video yet, but you won me over with the Alter Bridge shirt.

[@ralphgoodman4670]

Lobot is the one who told R2-D2 about the hyperdrive being de-activated, as well as the new door-lock codes. This is one of the most overlooked parts of the movie: "R2, forget about the hyperdrive, it's FIXED!" (R2 shakes his dome "No") C3PO "What do you mean the city computer told you? You shouldn't be listening to strange computers!" So R2 knew how to fix the hyperdrive, because Lobot TOLD him. However the name "Lobot" was a later addition, in the original credits it was just "Lando's Aide"

[@HighHeelKnight]

I'm not sure how well I can trust WhatCulture anymore. How can I believe the information that the company offers, if they don't seem to know the difference between entering and exiting a building? LOL

[@TheChorizo017]

i just wanna say that I love the videos you guys produce. They're one of the few I look forward to watching every day. Anyways keep up the great work.

[@Gibbypastrami]

1000000% that ice cream dude is in this list, make that 1000000000000000000% now to see if im right edit: im extremely disappointed

[@rowlov.d.gr8157]

Ice cream dude?

[@zachschmitt3654]

That force sensitive droid thing is a prime example of why it was good the expanded universe was forgotten 😂

[@bananabandit5376]

Most of the expanded universe should have stayed like the Old Republic

[@Daniel_Huffman]

Actually, it wasn't canon even within the old Expanded Universe.

[@bananabandit5376]

Daniel Huffman really? Because I loved the old republic era :(

[@Daniel_Huffman]

I was referring to the story of R5-D4 being force-sensitive. In reality, he was sabotaged by Artoo.

[@bananabandit5376]

Daniel Huffman oh phew

[@irvingramirez2335]

Lobot's canon story is sad

[@Drawkcabi]

and surprisingly, imo, the least ridiculous of the lot covered here.

[@peacefuljeffrey]

Irving Ramirez It’s also stupid. What, as a youth, he behaved so badly that they attached that shit to his head, but NO ONE ELSE had the same thing done? He was totally unique?!

[@savagepanda8458]

What is it?

[@markabele8794]

I really like the stories behind these characters. Thanks for sharing.

[@casperpedersen223]

Gotta say guys, I love most of what you do, but the aftershow clips where you ask for people to sub and such are super annoying.

[@MrJvog]

yeah I agree, which is why by now I pause or close the window before it plays so I don't have to listen to it. stupid habits you have to develop just so you can watch entertainment these days huh? Well at least I can adblock the most annoying things.

[@jentalksbooks]

This list is one of my favs. Super fun and cool. 👍👌

[@Herowebcomics]

The droid with the bad motivator blowing up on purpose was so dumb. Like that kid in Iron man 2 being Peter Parker. Why can't things just be things?

[@AgusSkywalker]

What they failed to say is that the story about Skippy is just a parody. It's meant to be a funny, ridiculous story and was always officially outside of the canon. In fact, of the whole "Tales" series of comics, more than half of the stories were non-canon, because it gave the authors the opportunity of writing every kind of story. In the same series debuted the story of Darth Maul getting robotic legs and having a last duel with Obi-Wan on Tatooine, that served as inspiration for the Clone Wars-Rebels story. That was also non-canon at the time (and technically always has been).

[@Herowebcomics]

Ok, that makes it better!

[@Rikard_Nilsson]

All the "tales" stories were non-canon.

[@AgusSkywalker]

Nope. All the stories from issues 21-24 were considered canon (unless stated otherwise in the story) and other stories before that were considered canon if endorsed by an official source.

[@AgusSkywalker]

In fact, if you consult the "Infinities" article on Wookieepedia, only 17 stories were specifically non-canon. The others could be considered canon while they didn't disagree with canonical sources.

[@domezett43]

for a drunk person like me at 4 am in the morning you are speaking really fast and the guy at the end is killing it yellling at me.thats really a bit much. but the content is actually pretty nice but i am drunk anyways so dont listen to me accept of the yelling part

[@tyrannapusandfriends6254]

No offence, Skippy was kinda dumb, part of Star wars lore was that droids can't use, sense or do anything with the source, but I still like the idea that he blew up on purpose.

[@deltahalo241]

If I recall in old Canon there was a group of Droids called the 'Iron Knights' who could use the force, due to a type of force sensetive crystal that had been placed inside their bodies.

[@caffeinatedcinema1096]

Sorry to hear you don't appreciate fine art. Skippy is easily the most integral part of Star Wars, and possibly even cinema in general. His character arc is more compelling than anything seen in the works of William Shakespeare.

[@bemasaberwyn55]

From a certain point of view reintroduced the idea he sabotaged himself

[@caffeinatedcinema1096]

bemasaberwyn55 well from MY point of view the Jedi are evil

[@hibari-kun710]

Skippyiscannon

[@kyloren7183]

I've been waiting for this for a long time

[@crayzmarc]

IG-88 was a boss you had to defeat in "Shadows of the Empire" video game. Why was that not mentioned in your video?

[@jaymeehudson404]

The silly SW background character names alone make me LMAO!

[@mrblue415]

Interesting to see that there is so much depth still behind split second characters.

[@joshdawson5201]

Yet Rey and Kylo still have none

[@theduskyspice4865]

in empire strikes back, there was an extra running with an ice cream maker, when bespin was attacked. he got lore saying it was an important technological device that he didn't want the empire to get. his name is Willrow Hood and he got an action figure.

[@Karemaker]

the "expanded universe" is what happens when fans with no experience in storytelling, writing, etc decide to pick up a pencil. All of these side stories are about as creative and engaging as I was when I was 12 and playing the dungeon master in a game of D&D.

[@benkenobi615]

"Jerriko drank his soup, and the man died".

[@johncrafton8319]

Why dig back through the EU when many of these characters (and more) have actual canonical back stories?

[@pipsmediaentertainmnet4314]

Sorry, I had to laugh when you said "George Lucas's immense imagination and attention to detail".

[@thejasonknightfiascoband5099]

I can't believe you didn't go over TK-421.

[@alyssinwilliams4570]

IG-88-A uploaded his 'conciousness' into Death Star II, not Death Star I

[@savagepanda8458]

Pretty sure that R2 sabotaged Skippy, rather than him being a force sensitive droid.

[@penelopegreene]

My daughter has long had a bad motivator, whereas my son gets along with none at all...

[@Brandonmtlhd]

This is not what background means in a movie. When you are hired as an extra, they call it "background," meaning you have no lines and are not featured on camera. Typically, your face isn't even shown. A more accurate description would have been "10 Minor Star Wars Characters..."

[@3.2Carrera]

I think the frog that burped needs a backstory too. And the poo-doo that JarJar stepped in :-)

[@jeffreycoogan09]

If they ever decide to reintroduce the Tonnika Sisters into the Star Wars universe they could have The Bella Twins play them on screen.

[@notomegayt4189]

5:14 Star A new hope Wars

[@darkashtar]

I'm just going to point out that the canonical name for the music in the mos eisley bar is called jizz. So we can thank George Lucas for that.

[@EvanPGS]

The story of Kardue'sai'Malloc is so much more interesting. A Jazz loving former general, who butchered a bunch of prisoners, and is only in the cantina in Mos Eisley to see Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes.

[@rickee2652]

Didn't Shada end up marrying Talon Karrde? I'll be honest: while I like the new films I think there was more heart and logic put into the legends material, the sheer volume and depth of which makes me still feel that *that* storyline is canon, while the new films are just Disney's offshoot. In fact I feel the last Jedi was too blatantly trying to subvert the ideas in the legends story, which says to me that Disney have realised that they have a problem on their hands as far as competing with legends goes.

[@rgmusicom]

I always thought Bespin headphones guy was Strickland from BTTF when I was little.

[@amyminty6818]

Just so everybody knows- You can't put Rey in this line up because she has no back story.

[@graduator14]

Funny how I read "convoluted backstories" even when the title cut off at "ridiculously". :D

[@ianmcdonough7575]

It is important for viewers to know that some of this is not canon, and therefore does not count in the current Disney era of Star Wars (the best one). So just keep that in mind.

[@Mael_Str0M]

Lobot actually was like Tseebo from Star Wars Rebels. He traded his personality for Imperial intelligence.

[@jamescrawford1534]

Any chance you can make sure the volume levels are even? The last bit wit Jules was 10 Times louder than the rest

[@SkillTreeGaming]

I mean, almost everything in Star Wars has some sort of ridiculous back story to it!

[@evan8561]

The ad at the beginning, said the game was simultaneously turn based and real time.

[@nerdsdrinkwhiskey6972]

No mention of Salacious Crumb? His backstory needs a well done fan film.

[@jackychang9148]

What about the "Ice Cream Guy" aka Willrow Hood? Literally on screen just as short as some of the Cantina characters but was given a big ass backstory!

[@hannaford111]

You forgot the part where Jabba awards Lobot "Cyborg of the Year"

[@JohnDoe-dh4fi]

at 3:10 there is a cut scene with the sisters leaving Han's table when Obi-wan & Luke coming to the table

[@Trilaan]

Star Wars: In Character is a great podcast, by the way. They cover all these characters and more.

[@ArcaneEther]

Bah, didn't even mention IG-88's fight with Dash Rendar.

[@nigen]

okay the robot bounty hunter backstory has some chronological issues...

[@HistoriisMysteria]

I don't remember Zuckuss having multiple personalities, he referred to himself in the third person because that was his culture. I probably missed a comic that gave that detail.

[@Safersephiroth777]

Man Star Wars has more stories than real life countries!

[@SkyFireDrone2022]

Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina, Tales of the Bounty Hunters, and Tales from Jabba’s Palace were all pretty good. Jericho was indeed creepy. I can’t believe you left out Dengar. I remember his action figure being the only one left on the shelves because no one wanted him and thought he was a stupid character. But his story in Tales of the Bounty Hunters was one of my favorite ones. When I was a kid, I had to mail in Proof of Purchase seals from six different figures to Kenner and got a Zuckuss figure. Except they didn’t call him Zuckuss, they called him 4-LOM. Probably a marketing error because later he was called Zuckuss and the black “droid” standing next to him in ESB was called 4-LOM.

[@toddnolastname4485]

Originally, the name Zuckuss was supposed to belong to a human bounty hunter. But, other than Fett, there was only one human bounty hunter, and he was Dengar. I'm not sure if it was Kenner made a mistake, or someone said 4-lom sounds more like a droid name than Zuckuss, and they switched them around.

[@Born2Breed-Live269]

The lack of Willrow Hood on this list invalidates it all together.

[@janhedani1759]

In like how the end of the empire was caused a by a droid blowing a fuse.

[@scottgrohs5940]

...for want of a fuse. Right?

[@PhileasLiebmann]

I thought Skippys backstory was redconed to R2 manipulating his motivator circuits beforehand because Lucas was against making an Astromech droid force sensitive as it would contradict what Yoda said about the force.

[@YangusCool]

in canon r5-d4 blew himself up on purpose as well but because r2 told him that the fate of the galaxy depends on if r2 is sold or not and r5 believed so he blew himself up, but wasnt actually destroyed. after the stormtroopers killed all the jawas he escaped and went to some farm

[@therocketboost]

Go to 01:14 to skip the advert

[@antusFireNova]

Hammer Head was an NPC in the Lego game

[@commandermime38]

I believe Skippy's backstory you mentioned there was a Star Wars Infinity. Not canon even under the EU.

[@Olkv3D]

R5-D4's bad Motivator, to me, appeared to be the work of R2-D2. ~ It was as if the R5 Unit was attacked by the R2 to ensure that it would not be separated from C3-PO.

[@sodalitia]

Aaaaaaaa, now I get it! Thats where the actual story, beside good-evil battle cliche, was gone. It's been hiding in the back all this time!

[@suave.o5041]

You should do a video like this with star trek characters

[@buckhunter513]

What culture’s logo is a fruit juul pod cap

[@CaptiveReefSystems]

Hell yeah! You all remember that one thing that did that thing that one time?

[@MTMiPower]

I need more, make more, I need to know more.

[@Rockhound6165]

All of the bounty hunters have back stories. You can read them in Tales of the Bounty Hunters. It's a pretty good read.

[@RedEyesTops]

So Lando's slave dude got that thing attached to his head when he was a kid....before his head was fully grown? How does that work?

[@GuadalupePicasso]

A force sensitive droid? Proof that at least some of the EU needed to be rendered non-canon.

[@bricefulcher3781]

you forgot about the doctor and his side kick who obi wan cut his arm off in episode 4 where the are both the most wanted men in the galaxy

[@brisingerfaelorn]

Ah so being sponsored by crappy p2w mobile games now. Smoooooth

[@mjstory1976]

I bet all of them will get there own spin off movie

[@paralentor]

7:50 The Dengar action figure was actually one of the shorter ones and Bosk was taller.

[@FnRenner]

Rebel helmets always seemed like they were designed to work best when fleeing

[@owenoulton9312]

R5-D4 is a name made up by Kenner toys to differentiate him from R2-D2, however in the movie he is identified as an R2-unit.

[@Lumibear.]

And what’s the in-universe explanation for why you can see in one eye and out the other at 6:38?

[@RedheadMetalC]

7:48 second last on right looks like painted black 3Cpo body

[@felixluthke6562]

That's because 4-LOM is a former protocol-droid. So it is literally the same body painted black.

[@U.C.1180]

Star Wars Tales were never canon, EU or current canon. It was just a playground for authors to make stories that have no impact on stories at the time.

[@aarontarleton244]

2:17 I lost it at this part already. Jabba's Demolition Derby

[@dillingerescapeartis]

I have a hard time taking a guy in an Alter Bridge shirt seriously.