I don't know why I chose that picture...it's just a very cool poster, I suppose.

Oh, right the blog.

Well, it seems to be the tradition nowdays to write a Behind the Scenes blog about your winning "What's the Story?" entry.

And here it is.

I'm elated and flattered to have my entry chosen in these late stages of the game (sadly, the feature is on death row, or so I hear) and to have been given the chance to write about such a (potentially) interesting character...well...it's just plain, unadulterated good.

I mean, I don't know about you guys, but Janus Greejatus and his buddy Sim Aloo have literally provoked the thought, in my mind, of "What's their story?" So I suppose doing Greejatus' story "justice" so to speak was both daunting and exciting.

The temptation to make a billion-and-one retcons was there alright. But I realised that trying to link him to everything that even thinks "The Empire is Victorious on All Fronts" would immediately bar me from "winning". So I decided to take a more simple and straightforward approach.

Lord Hydronium, author of the Nem Bees Databank entry, is responsible, in a way, for two elements of Greejatus' backstory. You see, I had lost a bet with him over the contents of a certain ongoing Star Wars comic series that I heartily dislike, and as a result, I had to write a Featured Article on Wookieepedia, on the topic of the infamous Grand Moff (Grand Moff) 4-8C.

In my reading of the Star Wars Missions books in which the droid Grand Moff appears, I came across something that I'd never heard of before: the Imperial Redesign Team. Basically, their story is that they...well...liquidate aliens. And apparently, they're very, very good at what they do. But this little element of canon has basically been ignored since it's introduction, a problem which I tried, or have, rectified.

Using the Imperial Redesign Team as a starting point, I decided that Greejatus would have to be a xenophobe, which tied in nicely to the "cruel" description on the WTS submission page. But why, or how would he grab Palpatine's attention? Well, during an IRC chat, Lord Hydronium mentioned that we don't know who the Senators of Chommell were between Palpatine and Amidala.

Well, that's something else I can fix, I thought. So, basically, I had Greejatus as Palpatine's successor. But...surely the Naboo like irritating aliens following the events of The Phantom Menace? Plus, it's a fairly large gap between the two senators...eight years, if memory serves. So, I decided to drum Greejatus, and give us a second interim Senator, Horace Vancil. Despite getting a full, what, three seconds of airtime in The Phantom Menace, Vancil hasn't had twenty-five Dark Horse spin-off comic arcs, which is a shocking fact in itself. Apparently he was a governmenty type, so he fit the bill perfectly. And I enjoy bringing obscure canon out of the "depths" so to speak.

Speaking of which, it struck me that most Senators in Star Wars are said to represent a certain planet...which seems to clash with a lot of things. Common sense being one of them. And for the Chommell Sector...always with the Naboo! I thought we needed a change there, and so I picked Chommell Minor for Greejatus' homeworld. Originally, I had considered having his father killed by an alien, sparking his hatred, but the character limit for entries played havoc with that.

Moving on from there, I made the fairly straightforward ties to Palpatine. Now, I've spoken out against it as an encyclopedia entry, but Erik Pflueger's Palpatine entry on Wookieepedia gave me what I thought was a good understanding of the character. As such, I didn't think he'd have any real friends, per se, but the "other fella" would think Palpy was his bestest best buddy. I like to think that Palpatine considered Greejatus as a bit of a loon, but a useful one at that.

Greejatus makes an appearance in James Luceno's stellar Labyrinth of Evil, but apparently he's just cameoing it up, much the same as what he did in Return of the Jedi, so I didn't have to spend much time dwelling on his actions there. I remembered that COMPNOR was a very humanocentric group, so I tied Greejatus to them as well, but it was really nothing more than a passing mention, as my focus was more on the Redesign Team.

The powers that be have renamed it the Imperial Department of Redesign...don't know why that is, particularly, but I'm not complaining. Now , the idea that Greejatus could get away with things under Palpatine's nose comes straight from Star Wars Missions. In it, Grand Moff 4-8C is able to develop his own top-secret project, but no one from the Imperial Grand Pooh-bah Cadre know about it. I thought this was an interesting concept, and so I decided to subtly make Greejatus the arbiter and benefactor of such a scheme (though I never directly mentioned the Grand Moff Grand Moff, obviously).

Which then followed, logically to the Death Star I, which, according to the Death Star Technical Companion, Greejatus...did...stuff...on. Apparently, both Darth Vader and Wulf Yularen were onboard to make sure Grand Moff Tarkin didn't get out of hand and decide that Coruscant would be un-remote enough to make an effective demonstration. So, as a rather cheap way of making Greejatus wind up on the Death Star II with Palpatine, I had him try and egg Tarkin on. Obviously it didn't work.

The fact that 4-8C's little project was blown wide open following the Battle of Yavin wouldn't have helped matters, methinks. Remembering that Palpatine entry, I thought that Palpatine wasn't the type to just kill people on a whim, and as Greejatus was still potentially useful, he decided to keep him on an exceptionally tight leash. Now, the powers that be decided to leave Greejatus' death slightly ambiguous...I was considerably meaner. I had him run down to his shuttle, only to see it being hijacked by a young man in a black jumpsuit. With no other means of escape, he just plain dies. But, in recent days, while reading the excellent Rise and Fall of Darth Vader, I found out that it was ST321, Vader's shuttle, that Luke uses to escape. Oh, well.

There were a few other tweaks, but they were mainly sharp improvements to my considerably blunt prose. One thing, though: the misspelling of "Grajeetus" is StarWars.com's not mine.

So, I'm sorry to have put you through that ordeal. Yes, I am a ham.

To anyone who is considering joining Hyperspace just to do the last...two, or maybe one "What's the Story?" entries, stop considering and just do it. It's a fantastic opportunity that you might not get again, and most of all, it's a lot of fun. Sure, it's disappointing when you don't win, but when you do, it all makes up for it.

And to anyone out there who has continually submitted with no luck, just keep trying, damnit! You'll get there. I did. That should say something.

So, again, thanks to Lord Hydronium, ErikPflueger, jSarek (for being kind enough to read some of my earlier entries), most of the Wookieepedia IRC regulars, those who lent support on the TFN Jedi Council Literature "What's the Story?" thread, and basically, Wookieepedia itself, without which I would never have considered tackling something like this.

Cheers, all.