View Full Version : Naboo - Rise and Fall of an Ancient Society?

03-13-2008, 08:44 PM
Keep in mind I haven't researched what "canon" information may be out there to the past of Naboo, all of this stems from thinking of the organic technology the Gungans possess.


Organic shield generators, organic EMP bombs of varying sizes, organic electro-staffs, etc. These are all complex technologies held by one of the least brilliant species seen in the Star Wars universe, but why are they the only ones? Why is there an astonishing lack of organic technology throughought the Star Wars, especially on the complexity level that the Gungans hold? The Gungans are by no means the brightest of the bunch, their intellect seems to stay around present-day human intelligence, but lessened due to their primitive life-style. It could be that there were more intelligent Gungan beings not seen that could be responsible for this technology, but if there were so then wouldn't this technology have been sought out and become mainstream once the Gungans were recognized?

My theory is that the Gungans aren't the creators of the technology.

We know that they have a "Sacred Place" on-land that they go to for refuge, which consist of stone heads of astonishing size, yet they are underwater dwellers. Why would they have made a sacred area on dry-land and in the open, when they would be much safer underwater? It obviously seems to suggest a species lived there long before they did, possibly long enough ago that the ground level has risen considerably and buried the rest of the titan-sized statues. This ancient species may have been the original dominant species of Naboo, as well as the creators of the organic technology.

If they were surface dwellers though, why create organic technology for existing underwater? It would seem from the statues that they flourished on the surface, so it's quite possible that they retreated to the waters due to a predicted ecological disaster. Knowing that their mechanized technology would be much too suspectible to degradation over the centuries - perhaps millenia - that would have to pass while the world repaired itself, they focused solely on organic technology. If their ecological devastation was due to climate change, and thus their world flooding, they realized their best refuge would either be to leave their home, or go underwater where the least amount of changes would occur.

They would have required vehicles and technology that could survive at the deep depths as well as require methods to repel these vast amounts of mammoth foe. Thus, their organic shields, submarines and electro-staffs. Admittedly, the EMP bombs don't make much sense against living creatures, but considering that their organic technology seems to be based on heightened levels of energy that is already present in lifeforms, it would make sense for their power sources to be organic as well. The EMP bombs could be nearly-depleted and unstable, pre-mature, or abnormal power source devices.

Could it have been enough for living underwater though? Prequel-era Nabooans seem to be just as delicate as modern-day humans, their survival underwater for countless lifetimes would be severely difficult even with the organic technology. The origin of the Gungans could be explained that genetic engineering was used in order to allow them to better explore and capture food sources of underwater life, as well as conduct any repairs on the organic structures on damage that may have been sustained from the giant creatures such as the Opee species. However, due to the purpose of the underwater refuge being so that they would be able to stay on their home planet they would have likely been very sentimental about living on the surface again as well. The Gungans may be the ascendants of volunteers that were willing to have the genetic engineering done, and breeded within their own "kind" in order to preserve the species need for the refuge to survive.

It could be supported that the entire planet was flooded at one point due to the abundance of massive-sized creatures that can live underwater without air, such as the Opee species, unlike present day water-giants such as whales that require surfacing for oxygen. These creatures had room to grow on a literal and mammoth scale, until having to retreat to the depths as the ecology fixed itself over the centuries or millenia, slowly dying off as their food sources as well as their room to sustain numbers dwindled. The Faamba may be the ascendant species of one of these creatures, perhaps as they were cut-off from their natural breeding grounds as the waters receded, and forced to evolve in the swampy areas.

Once the planet normalized once again, the Nabooan society could finally return to the surface with a generation that would not be familiar with a dry nature, thus would explain the prequel-era Nabooans' love for nature. They obviously had much of their mechanical technology still with them, likely it stayed in storage throughout the years, and degraded some. Learning from stories passed from generation to generation that their ancestors' way of life may have been the cause of the disaster due to preferring technology over nature, they embraced a more simple society, and encouraged self-growth instead of artificial growth such as fame, wealth, etc.

When it came time to leave the underwater refuge, the aquatic Nabooans didn't want to go back to the surface, they preferred the water as they had only been raised to know of the water, with only hearing the occasional story of the surface-era. So, the Nabooans left the refuge to them, as well as the organic technology, possibly due to it evolving (like all life does) to be accustomed, and dependent on the depth in order to grow. Occasionally the two societies may have met on the surface where ruins of the ancient society still exist, which became what the Gungans referred to as a "Sacred Place."

As each species' civilization grew, the two species also grew apart, especially with Gungans evolving to be less, and less intellectual. An unfortunate side effect of the long-term attempt to exist with engineered genetics, eventually the Gungans may lose the ability to breed, and thus not exist anymore. As of the prequel-era, they were likely in an equilibrium with their organic technology, in that they didn't change anything after the Nabooans had left (settings, programming, etc), thus the technology gave them what they needed, in return the Gungans took care of the "plants" (for lack of a better term).

The existence of two-types of Gungan races, but with the same intelligence levels, could be further indication of their genetic engineering origin. The type we saw with Boss Nass could have been from engineering with Frog or Toad-like DNA which may have been made as pilots and/or caretaking, due to their apparent ability to be slightly more intelligent than the other race of Gungans. The other race as we saw with Jar-Jar and Tarpals, may have been engineered from DNA from a Platypus-type of creature, hence the random physical features. Their roles would have been the most dependent on multiple skills, as well as depending on their own swimming ability for roles such as gathering, and repairs.

As for no other species using the organic technology after Gungans had become recognized, it's quite possible that with so many generations the actual information for creating it had been lost, and the Gungans probably would have never had the information themselves. Also, just as they considered the surface area with the statue ruins a "Sacred Place," they likely saw the organic technology as sacred as well, thus they would never part with nor let others study it.


If anything is contradictory, random and/or just doesn't fit with the flow of thoughts then I apologize, I don't often write things like this, and the entire inspiration originated from random explanations I could think of for things such as the organic technology.

03-13-2008, 08:54 PM
You must be a Prequel Hater for daring to question anything about the movies. Beware the fallout! :eek:

03-13-2008, 09:42 PM
Well, I don't like the prequels very much, but this isn't really about hating or liking. Granted, the reason why I started thinking about it was that I found it flawed to have such an ignorant species be the owners of a complex technology that logically should have caught on in the rest of the universe, but the resulting theory became rather neutral.

03-13-2008, 10:10 PM
I could see the Gungans evolving from early amphibians. Frog and Toad like speices. With basically the same level of intelligence.
Maybe their technology is based on electro-chemical composition much like a jellyfish, or even electric eels, organic as you say.
The orbs used as bombs could be eggs or more likely a mixture of different chemicals obtained from the many creatures in their world, then placed in the old egg casings of already birthed creatures.
They could harness their light sources from flourescent fish.
I think the Gungans are capable of inventing their own technology, they just don't sound like they are very smart.
They were obviously not on good relations with the Nabooians, so they didn't get it there.

03-14-2008, 12:56 PM
As I see it the Gungans retreated to the underwater city because they objected to becoming subjects of the Naboo people. Suggesting to me that the Naboo are relatively new to the world whereas the Gungans have been there since pre-historic times. They aren't aquatic they're amphibian. Swamp dwellers. Perhaps evolved from quadruped creatures over the millenia.
over the many years they've been in recluse they've learned to harness bio-tech. discovering that certain plants and minerals create certain energies. the bubbles they dwell in underwater are grown rather than manufactured. The energy balls they use as weapons seem to have some sort of electro magnetic power hence the fact they short out the battle droids.
They're opposed to human made tech probably because it doesn't biodegrade.
the sacred place is the ruins of an ancient civillisation. the fetures on the heads are non gungan but also non Naboo. Hinting that there was a race of humanoids there long before either Naboo settlers or Gungans evolved. with just the heads showing it would seem they were possibly much larger statues which are buried and sunken in the swamp. The Gungans may treat the heads as representation of gods.
Perhaps the Naboo and gungans both stem from the ancients and one offshoot developed human like qualities while the other escewed open land and developed those amphibian features as a result of living in the environment they chose to dwell in.
as for Boss Nass looking different, it's possible that he is a chosen individual and fed certain nutrients from birth to alter his development. or he's a throwback to an earlier stage of evolution. such Gungans being a rarity and therefore rather than being seen as abomination they're treated reverentially. each successive green skinned flat features gungan following on as 'Boss'. Organic monarchy almost. who is to say there aren't more Gungan settlements on the planet with their own Bosses?
The Gungans trade resources with the Naboo in that Symbiotic arrangement Qui-Gon mentions. Naboo tech such as the Nubian hyperdrive are possibly based on the same energy tech the Gungans use but in a refined form. Look at the huge generator in the Theed palace and it's obvious that it isn't energy used by many others in the galaxy.
I don't see any genetic engineering involved in the Gungan species. They're too stable and consistent. I'd expect to see some form of mutation or congenital defects in individuals but if you look at the battle with thousands of them they all have 'normal' Gungan appearance.
As far as the giant creatures go, well, they may be a hangover from pre-history. They have dinosaur like qualities. I fail to see how the Sando aqua monster could survive. it would quickly deplete the seas of colo claw fish and opee. it's just plain silly. the colo and opee are semi-plausible. While the Fambaa may be nearing extinction and few in numbers. It may only have survived due to the Gungans themselves. Crude as it may sound, Fambaa dung may be crucial to a certain kind of tech for them. Dung has been used in dwelling construction by primitive peoples on earth for millenia. why not the gungans too?

I guess there's no definitive answers. like everything SW related it's down to what works for us as individuals. it's a fantasy world and any given theory is as good as the next.