The Monstrefact: Life on Star Wars' Utapau
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Starting at just $699, it's time to upgrade to a stress-free, mess-proof sofa. Visit WashableSofas.com today and save. That's WashableSofas.com. Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply. Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is The Monster Fact, a short-form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time.

Over the weekend, I, like a lot of you, went to see 2005's Star Wars Episode III, Revenge of the Sith, on the big screen, taking in the culmination of the Clone War, the fall of the Republic, and the death of the Jedi Order. It's a dark tale, for many younger viewers, perhaps the first tragic story arc they ever saw, and one that still ruminates on the state of our own world.

Since the film is perhaps fresh on many listeners' minds, I thought today might be a good day to turn our attention to the fauna of the planet Utapau, where Obi-Wan Kenobi finally hunts down General Grievous. Far from just another desert or forest world, Utapau is delightfully weird and fittingly morose for the darkest Star Wars film entry.

As described in Star Wars Galactic Maps, written by Emily Fortune, it's a dry, windswept world, quote, pockmarked with giant sinkholes into which the oceans drain and its underground cities built from millions of animal bones. Matthew Stover, in his novelization of the film, describes these sinkholes as being the size of inverted mountains, the interior walls riddled with industry and urbanization.

The planet is home to two sentient species, the diminutive Yutai, serving as the planet's labor cast, and the tall, gaunt, carnivorous Pauwens. According to Star Wars Alien Archive, written by Natalie Klub and Katrina Pallant, the long-lived Pauwens originally lived on the planet's surface till a climate cataclysm forced them underground to live with the Yutai.

but given their sensitive vision, the Powans were more than happy to abandon the surface world for the pits. Likewise, their sensitive hearing required them to wear special dampeners, perhaps due to the loud echoes of life in the sinkhole cities of Utapau. The Powans and the Yutai domesticated at least two different native reptile species to serve as their steeds: the winged dactylians that we might compare to some of Earth's larger pterosaurs, and the scampering varactyls.

Both are adept at navigating the sinkholes of Utapau, the dactylions by flight and the use of the pit's thermal updrafts, and the varactyls via their wide gait and five-toed feet. Obi-Wan famously makes use of a varactyl in his pursuit of General Grievous.

We're also told that huge Nos monsters live in the planet's sinkhole-bound surface lakes and rivers. Here on Earth, we also have sinkhole ecosystems. As Laura Bicker describes in a 2024 article for BBC, China's giant sinkholes are a tourist hit, but ancient forests inside are at risk. Quote, "...these cavities in the Earth trap time, preserving unique, delicate ecosystems for centuries."

These environments, generally caused by the dissolution of soluble bedrock like limestone by groundwater or even underground rivers, have been found to contain unique organisms, especially plants, and sometimes serve as naturally protected habitats for endangered flora and fauna.

So while we may often think of sinkholes as natural pitfalls of destruction, sometimes harboring the bones of animals that fell inside them, they can also serve as refuges. So it's perhaps fitting that the sinkholes of Utapau came to serve as a last redoubt for much of the planet's life.

It's also interesting, though perhaps unintended, that the planet's decimated surface and life-sustaining sinkholes resembles the state of life on the Republic-slash-Imperial-Capital world of Coruscant, where in place of biological life, one single vast city covers the surface of the planet, and deep vertical ventilation shafts dive down to starports and an entire undercity far beneath.

During the days of the Galactic Empire, these depths even harbored some of the remaining embers of the Rebellion. Tune in for additional episodes of The Monster Fact, The Artifact, or Animalia Stupendium each week. As always, you can email us at contact at stufftoblowyourmind.com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app. Apple Podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Ta.

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