7 Immense Kaiju In The 'Star Wars' Galaxy
Image Source: StarWars.com
The term kaiju is a flexible one, with nuances and several related terms, and literally translates to “strange beasts.” However, in the genres of film, television, and beyond, it more broadly means “giant creature,” ranging from natural forms of life simply made gigantic to more strange creations. Star Wars has drawn inspiration from many areas of Japanese culture, with giant creatures of immense size towering over heroes, sometimes symbolic, sometimes on the attack, though usually with misunderstanding and the need to learn at the core of the event.
Today, let's run through seven of these huge creatures from across Star Wars media, appearing in films, TV shows and more.
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7. Hibernating Leviathans Of Tolis
Image Source: Wikipedia
The image above used to represent these large creatures is not one drawn from its source material, as the Leviathans of Tolis do not have a formal name nor a canon visual depiction yet. First appearing, and only appearing so far, in Tears of the Nameless as part of The High Republic, these immense entities were perhaps millennia old, and had entered a period of long hibernation by the time Reath Silas, Cohmac Vitus, and others rediscovered them on the lost world of Tolis. Home to the remains of the ancient Tolemite civilization, these Leviathans were apparently responsible for helping the native society develop a faith based in the Force. However, little else could be gleaned from their alien minds.
With four black eyes, huge quadrupedal bodies, and spined backs that appeared like mountains as they slumbered beneath their homeworld’s waves, they were not uncaring creatures. Roused to try and help the Jedi and their allies against an attack by the Nameless, one’s immense size and bellowing voice was enough to compel a retreat from the maddened creatures. While this particular Leviathan had been fed upon by the Nameless, its vast size and complex being likely meant it survived this brush with the Force-hungry, far smaller creature, and was subsequently cured when the blight was wiped from the galaxy in the following weeks and months.
6. Jakoosk
Image Source: StarWars.com
Readers will quickly identify that Star Wars titanic monsters appear to favor the sea and water as their environment of origin, or in the case of the Jakoosk, mimics the presentation of such sea life. A vast creature with a bodyplan like a real-world manta ray, except with a toothed maw, clutching crustacean claws, a ridged tail, and a heavily armored backside, its fearsome appearance wasn’t a total deterrent to other lifeforms bothering it.
Accidentally encountered by the Colossus Aces while trying to train, it was subsequently shot down and killed for its meat for the benefit of the space station’s starving populace, as its weakened underside left it vulnerable to well-placed shots. As the creature was identified as edible prior to this, it appears the creature is not only native to the icy moon it was initially encountered on. But what those other worlds are, we have yet to learn.
5. Kaijura
Image Source: Wookieepedia
Speaking of Star Wars kaiju, the planet WG4587 first seen in Star Wars: Jedi Knights from Marvel appears to be home to a populous and large number of a species of giant creatures, the Kaijura. Of immense size and liable to move in vast packs through the immense foliage of their native world, the Kaijura are an odd blend of loping quadrupedal alien bodies combined with hard beaks and large clawed hands on big arms that move before their body. Their heads are the size of large shuttles and even corvette-sized starships can struggle to escape their grasp.
Exactly this plight befell Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Bail Organa when the Jedi’s ship was destroyed, and Bail’s own Corellian corvette was unable to escape. Only through the use of the Force and ejected escape pods as targeted battering objects did the shaken ship lift off, and return its various passengers to the wider galaxy. A Kaijura removed from its homeworld and dumped into an unsuitable environment was later seen and killed by the Jedi in the same comic series, showing that for all of their massive size, people can always transport such massive creatures off of planets we first see them on.
4. Sando Aqua Monster
Image Source: StarWars.com
Just barely glimpsed, though prominently depicted in Episode I, the Sando Aqua Monster is an immense creature with a surprisingly humanoid body plan made up of four limbs, a giant mouth with gills and eyes, and found lurking in the deepest depths of Naboo’s oceans. The species was also incredibly long-lived, and rarely gave birth. These creatures were thus incredibly protective of their offspring, to the point of leaving the water to seek them out, or even attacking large populated areas in search of them should they be removed from the water. However, the species might now be on an extinction clock as a result of the actions of Darth Vader.
While investigating the death of Padmé Amidala, Vader was led into a trap by the vengeful Amidalans, who used technology to summon a Sando Aqua Monster to the Sith Lord. Possessing great strength and size, the giant creature was still killed, with sobering facts stated in the aftermath by forensics droid ZED-6-7, that Vader’s killing of just one of the creatures might have doomed the entire species to extinction. Of course, this process was estimated to take a century, and the droid could also be wrong, but these titans of Naboo might not have survived long past the Skywalker Saga in the Star Wars galaxy.
3. Mythosaur
Image Source: Wookieepedia
A huge quadrupedal creature with a highly distinctive skull, the Mythosaur is, fittingly, a creature of near-myth by the time of the Skywalker Saga. Wild creatures that once roamed the surface of Mandalore, new lore from The Mandalorian tells us that Mandalore the Great was the first to ride and tame these great beasts, seemingly followed by others of the culture in subsequent centuries. The home of that first tamed Mythosaur was also the site of the Holy Waters, later so key to Mandalorian culture, yet it appears that over time, the Mythosaur went extinct.
Other, hostile, giant creatures seemed to once roam Mandalore’s landscapes, and the world’s desolation as a result of constant conflict appears to have seen the elimination of the species…seems, anyway. During The Mandalorian Season 3, when bathing in the waters by accident to save Din Djarin from a tumble too deep into the underground pools, Bo-Katan sees that a Mythosaur is slumbering beneath the waves. What this creature’s survival means for the future, or how old it is, is unknown, but we’ll likely have to wait quite a while to find out.
2. Zillo Beast
Image Source: StarWars.com
The best-known Star Wars kaiju, the Zillo Beast was part of a series of episodes in Season 2 of The Clone Wars to allude to specific genres of film. The kaiju film was brought to full force with the Zillo Beast duology, where centuries after being thought extinct on the Dugs’ homeworld of Malastre, one Zillo Beast was shown to have survived. Awakened from dormancy when the Republic dropped an experimental bomb on the planet’s rocky surface, it was ultimately subdued but was then dragged to Coruscant, where it broke free and targeted Palpatine, aware that he was the cause of its suffering. However, in the process, it left a trail of destruction and death, resulting in its own at the hands of a lethal gas deployed to stop it.
Yet that was not the end. Fascinated by the creature’s abilities, Palpatine had the creature cloned, but how many clones exist, let alone how many were successful, is unknown. At least one of these clones was able to escape during transport to the planet Wayland, causing a starship to crash, though, as it was a juvenile only slowly maturing and growing, it was more easily brought down by the burgeoning Empire. Later held captive in Mount Tantiss, the likely same Zillo Beast was then unleashed by Omega as a distraction to allow her and her fellow test subjects to escape, before the creature wandered off into the wilderness of Wayland. Another Zillo Beast was known to exist elsewhere in the galaxy, Darth Vader retreated from the creature, while Kylo Ren later killed it decades later. The animal was immense, with huge orange-brown scales resistant to even lightsabers, and highly flexible, dexterous limbs forming part of powerful climbing abilities, it was not a creature to underestimate with an intelligent mind capable of great understanding.
1. Rokkna
Image Source: StarWars.com
The last entry on our list, but perhaps one of the largest, the Rokkna was a vast oceanic titan with multiple tendrils, a beaked face, and a mottled blend of various shades of blue and more for its coloration. Finding its home on the world of Castilon, its offspring were absolutely tiny, but deeply cared for. When one of these Rokkna babies was accidentally brought onboard the Colossus by a salvage operation, the Nikto Neeku instantly bonded with it, the small creature later being called Bibo and coming to also care for Neeku. However, its parent hunted for it and closed in on the Colossus, showing an immense intelligence when Neeku at last presented it with its child. Gently taking the small animal with it, the Rokkna then left, showing a degree of care not just for itself but those who had so recently wronged it that is interesting to consider.
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