The Origin of Species: How to Design a Star Wars Alien

Or how to design your own 'Glup Shitto'

Repairs the Millenium Falcon whilst having no arms Refuses to elaborate

I think ending on Klaud being actually good alien design is a wonderful stroke of genius.

Millions of children didn't think of Yoda as alien. They just thought he is a really old man.

This might be the best video talking about Star Wars outside of a strict plot discussion I have ever seen.

6:29 "Emperor, a second Y-Wing has hit the Senate building!"

I think why the aliens in the ST stand out so much is because they stand completely alone. I feel like in every film after A New Hope, you'll still see Rodians, Bith, Ithorians, and all the rest running around the galaxy. When the original two trilogies introduced an alien, it instantly became part of the universe existed in perpituity. The ST however, for some reason, decided to feature basically no OT or PT aliens. Like, what happened to all the Twi Leks and Rodians in the galaxy? they're two species you see all over the place in the OT, PT and EU, but like, they seem to all vanish in the ST. I think it makes the ST aliens feel like they're trying to replace the classic designs, and it draws a probably unfair amount of scrutiny to them. For less work they coulda just had half the aliens be old designs and it probably woulda looked better.

I love that Chewie's initial concept came back again in Garazeb Orrelios. And then that bounty hunter armour led to a whole historically important society.

I think a large part of the forgiveness for the "human but with X" trend in the prequels, is that it has an extensive tradition in live-action sci-fi media, to the point tvtropes calls these types of creatures "rubber forehead aliens", and the reason they are so ubiqutous, is precisely what you describe: the actor can still give a performance, and the audience can easily read it. There's also the fact, that to make two "humans with horns" designs that are clearly distinct species, rather than just different individuals of the same species, demands it's own kind of creativity.

Fantastic video. Nice to see someone in good faith criticize something without needless complaining. Also loved the history lessons in here.

Gotta say, the Duros, Rodians, the Kel Dor, and the Skakoans have always stood out to me design wise; I love them so much.

23:08 "...they're amphibious...which likely comes from 2 places..." That made me chuckle.

Not the live slug reaction 😂

How did a concept that I though sounded kinda boring make me sit in my chair for the whole time desperately needing to go take a piss but still staying seated throughout the whole runtime. Now that I've commented I need to go take that piss.

Great video. Cool to see how the design philosophy for the movies changed over time and how the thought process of "make a star wars alien" screwed the sequels. It's kinda the opposite of how I feel about the aliens in the last Men in Black movie where they made all the new aliens look like they weren't even from the same franchise

I watch an embarrassing amount of YouTube videos. This is the best one I’ve seen in a hot minute. Thank you good sir!

Great content, would love to see a similar episode for droids

5:52 I just know this piece of information is gonna live in my head rent free for the rest of my life

Excellent research and presentation! I would note, related to the discussion on Lucas' intentions with Jabba, that the 1976 novelization describes him as a blob-y alien and the 1977 Marvel Comics adaptation of the film reuses the film's Nimbanel design for him, so that indicates that Lucas probably did already want Jabba to be an alien during the production of the first film. Also, love the CRC dating reference in the news screen at the very end! What a nice obscure reference, and dated accurately too!

Very entertaining and informative. I have been a Star Wars fan for 16 years and I can still hear new things and examine the films from new perspectives. Thanks for this video, I hope it will do well.