He’s over two hundred years young and is an accomplished warrior, pilot, and mechanic. He’s able to rip your arms off and might just do that if you don’t let him win a board game. So who is this rebel hero who hangs out with a scoundrel? Let’s find out!
Chewbacca was born on the planet of Kashyyyk, as most wookiees are. He would grow up happily, and for the first one hundred and eighty years of his life, we’re all pretty great. He would meet his wife, Mallatobuck, and the two would have a son, Lumpawaroo. Things only really would go haywire when outsiders came into Chewie’s life.
He would being to experience this during the Clone Wars, where many planets were trying to leave the Galactic Republic. Kashyyyk belonged to this governing body and fought to keep the Separatists from fleeing. This brought war to Kashyyyk and Chewie was ready to fight for his people and the Republic. The Jedi would send their grand master, Yoda to lead the clone armies to assist the wookiees, Chewbacca played a pivotal role in fighting alongside the Jedi and clones.
When the Republic turned into the Galactic Empire, wookiees became a slave race. Chewie was separated from his family and would be tossed around to different Imperial settlements. He was mostly settled in to be a boogeyman for other prisoners, rowdy prisoners were sent to his squalid hellhole for him to deal with. This is where he would meet Han Solo, the man he would owe a life debt to. Together, the two were able to break free and escape, beginning a life of crime to survive.
The two would make names for themselves with their smuggler ship, the Millennium Falcon, that Han had won in a bet. Picking up a lot of work in the spice trade, Han and Chewie were able to take on missions others found too dangerous. This would lead to them gaining notoriety among the criminal underworld due to the missions being too hot, even for them, and often getting bounties on their heads for lost goods.
One such bounty was by Jabba the Hutt, one of the deadliest mob bosses in the galaxy, for having dropped a lot of product when an Imperial search meant they could have been caught. They were lucky to find work while visiting the Mos Eisley cantina, taking on a huge pay to take an old man, a young man, and two droids to the planet Alderaan. This didn’t go according to plan and Chewbacca found himself involved with the Rebel Alliance, working to take down the Galactic Empire.
Chewbacca would go on to aide in many major efforts to take down the Imperial forces along side his friends, who he considered family. He would occasionally get to visit Kashyyyk to see his wife and son from time to time but his duty to Han and the Rebellion meant he could only visit for a short time. The planet was also still heavily under Imperial rule to gather more slaves. When the Empire fell, Chewie and Han would help lead the fight to free Kashyyyk.
Finally freed, Chewie was persuaded by Han to relent on his life debt, allowing him time with his family once more. Years went by for Chewbacca to be happily with his family until he learned of the troubles his extended family. Chewie knew when he was needed and would take up his life debt once more to aide Han, which soon lead to them smuggling again to relive the old days.
In their adventures, they would have the Millennium Falcon stolen from them and spend a good amount of time seeking it out. When they did finally find it, they would find Finn and Rey, who were two young people seeking out the Resistance, the new organization fighting off the rise of the First Order, Imperial fanatics. Once again, brought back into an intergalactic civil war, Chewie and Han would team up with these young people.
Reuniting with Leia, the princess turned general and wife of Han, they would become the strike team to take down a deadly base that made their old missions seem tame by comparison. Sadly, while out fighting, Chewie would witness Han confronting his son Ben, who had fallen to the Dark Side of the Force, and then watch helplessly as Han was murdered by his own son. Enraged, Chewbacca would shoot at the man he once held as a baby, then help Finn and Rey escape the base as it was about to be destroyed.
While he was freed from his life debt and always knew that in the best case scenario, he would have outlived his friend, he had still hoped he had more time. Don’t we all? Taking on a new co-pilot in Rey, the two would go out to find Luke Skywalker, another friend of Chewie’s, who had gone missing for years. It would take Chewie and the droid R2-D2 to get Luke to begin training Rey to be a Jedi.
Chewie waited patiently while the two trained and was ready to leave to aide the Resistance once more when Rey needed to go. Being an excellent pilot, Chewie would play distraction with the First Order, now lead by Ben, knowing his hatred for his father and the Millennium Falcon could be used against him. He was even able to use the Falcon as an escape ship for the surviving Resistance members as he lost yet another friend with Luke being the last distraction against the First Order for them. Chewbacca took off with the rest of the Resistance in tow.
There you have it! Chewbacca, what a wookiee, one of the most iconic aliens in cinema with an unforgettable voice. He’s been on TV, films, video games, toys, just about everything one can be made into or onto. What may be his final adventure is coming soon, who knows what will happen next? See you next time!
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Dr. Bustos
drbustos@comicattack.net
