I was somewhat surprised when my entry for Nar Hida was chosen for publication. I'd been happy with what I'd written, but I'd strayed from the standard databank format by including dialogue in my submission, which I thought might get me disqualified. Fortunately, the fine folks at starwars.com came up with a good alternative. But we'll get to that a little later on.

Here's a paragraph-by-paragaph look at this entry:

Never one to shy away from a challenge, Nar Hida brought his wife and daughter to Coruscant to open a boutique specializing in Luptoomian fashion. Within a year, poor sales forced him to close the store, and bad business deals with the shady Baath Brothers left him destitute. To make matters worse, the Hidas found themselves trying to return home in the midst of the Separatist crisis.

The Baath brothers (here spelled with the second word capitalized) were also referenced in my submissions for Magaloof and Acros-Krik . . . I guess they're a lucky charm of sorts.

Spending the last of his savings, Nar secured passage for himself and his family aboard the Jendirian Valley, the sole starfreighter he could find not already filled to capacity with refugees. Unfortunately, the freighter was only traveling halfway to Luptoom, threatening to leave the Hidas stranded and creditless at the end of its journey.

There's no story behind the name of the Hidas' homeworld, Luptoom. It's just a goofy-sounded name I dreamed up while writing. I'd like to think that Luptoom is located somewhere near Almak, if for no other reason than it might then be the home of Luptoomian Leffingites.

As the freighter made its way through hyperspace, Nar grew increasingly desperate. Although he had never done anything criminal in his life, he resolved to get his family back to their home on Luptoom by any means.

Magaloof was a wannabe criminal, Acros-Krik was a well-established criminal, and now Nar Hida is on the verge of becoming a criminal. I don't think there's anything in particular about my life that has led to crime becoming a theme in these three entries, but who knows?

Nar hesitated for only a moment when presented with an opportunity to rob a sleeping Bith passenger. Just as he was about to act, however, an intense-looking young man grabbed him by the arm and pulled him aside. The man warned Hida that the sleeping Bith had a blaster pistol hidden in his jacket and would have certainly killed the would-be thief. The nervous Nar was full of disbelief, but the young man's companion, a beautiful woman with warm brown eyes, told Nar to trust the warning, as the man had the ability to see things before they happened.

The intense-looking young man who can see things before they happen and the beautiful woman with brown eyes are, obviously, Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala. I don't often include main characters from the movies in my submissions for fear of their appearances coming across as forced, but I knew when I began writing the Nar Hida entry that I wanted to include these two in some way.

My original idea was to have Nar try to rob Padme and end up wounded (or worse) by an angry Anakin, but I decided that having Anakin show a glimpse of his dark side was almost a cliche, having been done in a number of books, comics, Clone Wars episodes, etc. I ended up changing the situation so that Anakin is actually helping Nar (as does Padme in the next paragraph), which seemed more interesting somehow.

As I noted earlier, I'd actually written out the dialogue for these characters in my original submission. The dialogue ended up being paraphrased by the starwars.com staff, most likely to match the style of the other databank entries. For those who are curious, here's what I'd written:

"He has a blaster hidden in his jacket," the man said, gesturing to the Bith. "He would have killed you."

"You can't know that," Nar replied in disbelief.

"He knows," said the man's companion, a woman with warm brown eyes. "He can see things before they happen."

I'm very glad I decided to structure this entry around an encounter with Anakin and Padme. It's nice to think that I was able to chronicle a moment in the lives of Luke and Leia's parents!

The woman gave Nar a handful of Republic dataries and instructed him to contact the Refugee Relief Movement upon arrival at Naboo. Nar did as instructed, and the volunteers in the movement helped the Hida family return to Luptoom.

The Refugee Relief Movement seemed like a natural element to include in this entry, and I ended up doing more with it in the final paragraph.

Once Nar was able to turn his fortunes around, he made it a point to contribute regularly to the Refugee Relief Movement as it continued to work during the Clone Wars. Inspired by the generosity of the anonymous young couple he encountered on the Jendirian Valley, he was determined to help those in dire situations mirroring the ones once suffered by his family.

I felt it was important to establish that Nar went on to help others in difficult situations. I like how this shows that Anakin and Padme's altruism on the freighter encouraged someone else to do good in the galaxy, which is something of an underlying theme in the movies, as well as a nice thought to end Nar's story on.