Howdy folks! Part 4 of the Dark Forces Saga rpg series and Mission 5 of the Kyle Katarn's Tale minis series written by myself and Jason Fry are now up at the Wizards of the Coast website.

Living in SoCal, I'm a big fan of fusion and multiculturalism. Of my closest friends, one is Irish, three are Korean, two are Persian, and one is Mexican/Puerto Rican. A few years back, I lived in Italy for about six months and traveled all over Europe. I speak Spanish fluently and Italian conversantly. I love culture and I love language.

This fact often influences my writing. So besides packing a Star Wars project with a multitude of references to various works by other authors, I try to find a way to sneak in a foreign word or two. However, I was recently called out on it for the first time in the bio written for the Dark Jedi Boc the Crude' in the latest Dark Forces Saga installment. A Star Wars fan that goes by the name of JoinTheSchwarz lays it down:

"Boca Seca? That's worse than Lagartoz, Mr. Peña, and you know it. "

Feech.

That's Ewokese for "Poodoo."***

The problem with catering to a multilingual audience is that some folks are bound to see through your inspiration in foreign tongues.

What JTS is referring to is the translations to the aforementioned proper nouns. For Boc, I gave him the extended Twi'lek name Bocas'eca, which literally translates from the Spanish as "Dry Mouth." I ask you, is there a greater evil?

This loony tradition of tongue-stealing can technically be traced back to Return of the Jedi, in which Wicket the Ewok while in Leia's company cries "¡Ai chiguagua!" (or "Eee-chee-wawa!" in Ewokese) upon getting shot at by Scout Troopers. This translates loosely to, "Oh crapola," or something thereabouts. But it doesn't stop there. Among other Earth-language co-opters is Lando's fast-talking copilot Nien Nunb who cuts loose a string of Swahili gibberish during the attack on the Death Star II...which I have on good authority translates to "1,000 elephants are standing on my foot!"

This precedent was notably continued by jokesters at West End Games, the company that published the first version of the Star Wars roleplaying game. One of the examples that I've been unable to forget even after all these years is a Wookiee character in the Rebel Alliance Sourcebook by Paul Murphy named "Busurra" ... which is phonetic dead-ringer in Spanish for "Garbage." Yeesh.

Another appears in Timothy O'Brien's (a highly intelligent and largely unsung Star Wars author) "Cracken's Rebel Operatives" supplement in Adventure Journal #7. There appears a used droid salesman by the name Vo Lantes, which translates from Spanish as "airborne ones"...or steering wheels. New Jedi Order and Dark Nest scribe Troy Denning named the astronaut-suit-wearing aliens from the A New Hope "cantina" (Spanish, of course, for "bar" or "pub") scene "Duros" in Galaxy Guide 4, which translates to "The Hard Ones." More recently, in the Republic comic series, the fallen Jedi Quinlan Vos assassinates one Senator "Viento," or Senator "Wind" (just keep your distance if he's gassy).

For my own part, the most blatant imports into my Star Wars work have been Boca'seca in part 4 of the Dark Forces series, and the religiously zealous Grand Admiral Peccatti Syn in Who's Who: Imperial Grand Admirals, written with New Essential Chronology author Dan Wallace for Insider #66. His first name "Peccatti" is Italian for "sins," so I suppose this Imperial is doubly sinful. No wonder Admiral Ackbar blows his arse away.

Finally, there are the "Lagartoz" War Dragons JoinTheSchwarz mentioned from The History of the Mandalorians in Insider #80, which is a modification of the word lagartijas, meaning "lizards"...or "push-ups."

Writing for the U.K. published Star Wars Fact Files was a fun experience, since I got to use English words (as in England English) that I normally wouldn't get to, like "lightsabre" for lightsaber, the term "leftenant," the equivalent of the American English "lieutenant" -- which actually has a precedent in the Star Wars Marvel comics -- and finally "rubbish," which, again, means...garbage.

Indeed, the tongue gods must be crazy. ~ Abel G. Peña

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*** The Huttese word Poodoo actually has two meanings. First there's Poodoo, shouted in anger by Sebulba after losing the Podrace to Anakin in The Phantom Menace. This has been confirmed by various Lucasfilm sources to mean just what it sounds like.

But then there's Poodoo's original meaning. In Return of the Jedi, just after Leia thaws Han out of carbonite, Jabba the Hutt supplies: "You might have been a good smuggler Solo, but now you're just Bantha poodoo! Ho-ho-ho!" Here, when Jabba utters "Bantha Poodoo," it is translated into English as "fodder," which is food for livestock.

Thus, either Banthas are really dumb, or Hutts are just f***ing sick.

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