From the Movies
A bellicose humanoid species with some superficial properties both aquatic and arachnid, the Aqualish of Ando can be found the galaxy over. They have hair-lined faces with large, glassy eyes and mouths dominated with inwardly-pointing tusks.
During the final days of the Galactic Republic, Andoan Senator Po Nudo seceded from the Republic, bringing his people and worlds into the Confederacy of Independent Systems.
From the Expanded Universe
Ando is a marshy planet with very little solid land. The Aqualish developed two predominant races: the Quara who have clawed, five-fingered hands, and the Aquala who have fins for hands. The timely arrival of a Republic spacecraft interrupted a racially-fueled war, and prompted the xenophobic Aqualish to band together in attacking these offworld interlopers.
Some legends say it was the Corellians who first came to Ando, while other tales say it was the Duros. Either way, they were defeated, and the Aqualish took the gift of advanced technology, and brought their belligerence and war-like nature to space. The Aqualish ravaged Ando's sister planet, and were eventually stopped by the Republic.
The Republic set an arrangement in place wherein Republic teachers would help assimilate the Aqualish into galactic society, and stripped all Aqualish hyperdrive-equipped starships of weaponry. When the Empire took over Ando, they turned it into a police state designed to quell the various Aqualish uprisings.
The Aqualish hated the Empire, but showed no interest in the Rebel Alliance. The few Aqualish that bothered leaving Ando have found purpose in the fringe of the galaxy, as smugglers and bounty hunters.
Behind the Scenes
The first Aqualish seen on screen was Ponda Baba, the brutish thug that accosts Luke in the Mos Eisley Cantina. The rushed and often incomplete production of
A New Hope resulted in a visible continuity error in that Ponda Baba had two different types of hands during the cantina sequence -- hairy clawed hands and smooth, fin-like hands. This resulted in the development of two distinct Aqualish species in spin-off lore. The Aqualish gained a species name in the late 1980s through roleplaying game sourcebooks, and the name was used by the production crews of Episodes I and II to identify newly crafted Aqualish masks. These new masks were much more detailed than the late-70s original, and featured more spider-like characteristics, including pincer-like tusks and a second set of glassy eyes.
