Mawhonic

Mawhonic was a Gran male from the planet Hok who found fame as a podracer pilot, with his three eyes granting him an advantage over other racers. Flying a GPE-3130 Podracer, he participated in the Boonta Eve Classic race on the desert planet Tatooine in 32 BBY. The Gran was considered a capable challenger to Sebulba, a competing pilot who was the favorite to win. Prior to the race, Mawhonic bowed to the crowds in the Mos Espa Grand Arena and once it began his pole position on the front row of the starting grid gave him a great start.
He was able to trail just behind Sebulba at the head of the pack until the racers reached the Mushroom Mesa during the first lap. Here, Mawhonic took his focus off the track and instead shook his fist angrily at Sebulba when the other racer rammed him with his vehicle. This gave Sebulba the opportunity he needed to force the Gran's vehicle into a cliff face where one of its engines exploded against the wall, knocking Mawhonic out of the race.
==Biography==
===Pole position podracer===
A middle-class Gran from the planet Hok, Mawhonic was a typical podracer from the Outer Rim Territories. He bought and sold spare parts to Hutts, but refused the currency of the Galactic Republic and lived outside its laws. In 32 BBY,Star Wars: Galactic Atlas dates the events of to 32 BBY. he participated in the Boonta Eve Classic race on the desert planet Tatooine. He was represented by a green flag with yellow in the bottom right and top two corners and a black stylized cross above the bottom left.Star Wars: The Complete Visual Dictionary, New Edition Having found fame as a podracer, he was viewed by knowledgeable podracing fans as a capable challenger to Sebulba, the racer who was favored to win the race.
Using a green GPE-3130 Podracer, he was positioned in nearside pole position on the front row of the starting grid in the Mos Espa Grand Arena and stood by his vehicle while two Gran mechanics worked on it before the race. A human then carried Mawhonic's banner in a procession of the different competitor's flags passed across the starting line. When the race's announcer, Fodesinbeed Annodue, called out Mawhonic's name, the Gran bowed before the audiences in the grand stands to a swell of cheering. Once the event's host, crime lord Jabba Desilijic Tiure, ordered the race to begin, Mawhonic and the other racers boarded their vehicles and started their engines as their crews left the race track.
===First crash of the race===
Once Jabba sounded the starting gong, the racers left the starting line, with Mawhonic's placement on the grid giving the Gran a great start and enabling him to initially place himself just behind the lead racer Sebulba,Star Wars: Geektionary: The Galaxy from A - Z who had been positioned beside Mawhonic on the grid and was favored to win the race. Starting the circuit, racers past through the Waldo Grade before entering the Mushroom Mesa,Star Wars: Complete Locations where Sebubla rammed his vehicle into the side of Mawhonic's pod, causing the Gran to curse at the other racer in Huttese while shaking his fist.
Sebulba called out in response and then rammed Mawhonic again, forcing the Gran's vehicle into a cliff face. The podracer rebounded off the wall, but Sebulba closed in an drove Mawhonic into the wall a final time as the Gran tried to avoid him, causing the GPE-3130's left engine to crash into the wall and explode. Mawhonic's repulsorpod remained attached to remains of the destroyed engine as it spun out of control while the second engine detached and continued on alone, dropping to the desert floor and breaking up as it tumbled along through the sand.
Having wasted no time in eliminating his Gran rival during the first lap, Sebulba laughed at Mawhonic's crash, but ultimately crashed out of the race himself before the racer Anakin Skywalker claimed first place. Overall, the Gran was the second racer to be knocked out of the race during the Boonta Eve, surpassing only the amateur pilot Ben Quadinaros, who never left the starting grid. Mawhonic was later mentioned in an artist's journal, which was restored, expanded, and displayed at the Graf ArchiveStar Wars: Alien Archive at some point after 34 ABY.
==Personality and traits==
Mawhonic was one of Tatooine's best podracer pilots and dreamed of winning the Boonta Eve Classic, but his dreams were dashed when he focused on his competitors rather then the course itself in the Mushroom Mesa, which required total concentration from pilots as the shadows and harsh light could effect their depth perception. Failing to take the necessary care when facing someone like Sebubla, the Gran flew his vehicle too close to a cliff face and gave his competitor the opportunity he needed to knock the Gran out of the race. Mawhonic had pink skin and three large, black eyes, with his tri-ocular vision proving useful for split-second timing during races. He was also granted an advantage by the fact that he could see more of the light spectrum than most of his opponents. The Gran male stood 1.22 meters (four foot) tall.
==Equipment==
While participating in the Boonta Eve Classic, Mawhonic wore a set of metallic gray armor, with an his two stomachs proudly encased in a textured armor plate. The outfit also included wrist guards, shoulder guards, leg guards, and a purple and gray jumpsuit covered in netting beneath the armor.
Built by Galactic Power Engineering, Mawhonic's GPE-3130 Podracer was an awkward-looking and relatively unpopular model built for speed and little else. It was affordable and a terror on open, high-speed tracks with long straightaways and broad, gentle curves, but it twin ThrustMaster 9000 aerospike rocket engines used extremely volatile fuel that detonated at the slightest provocation, and between the power control curve of the engines and the vehicle's overall speed, it was extremely difficult to control, especially in sharp turns and tight spaces. The cockpit was also extremely uncomfortable with an unintuitive control layout that made important details like altitude and airspeed hard for the pilot to see.Endless Vigil
==Behind the scenes==
===Filming===
Mawhonic first appeared in the 1999 prequel trilogy film, Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace. He was portrayed by Mark Coulier and was the only alien podracer in the film to be portrayed by an actor in costume, with the others added as puppets or digital effects,Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know, Updated and Expanded although a low-resolution computer-generated model of Mawhonic was also created to be shown in the cockpit when the vehicle is seen racing. Mawhonic's podracer was also one of the only full-scale vehicles created for filming the starting grid sequence so that Coulier could sit in the reclining seat on top.Star Wars Chronicles The starting grid scenes were filmed in Chott el Gharsa, Tunisia, between August 5-6, 1997.The Star Wars Archives: Episodes I–III, 1999–2005
In the film's deleted scenes, additional footage of Mawhonic shows him waving to the crowd from his repulsorpod as all of the racers start their engines. He can then be seen revving his engines shortly before the race begins.Star Wars: The Complete Saga Mawhonic's mask was created by special effects artist Nick Dudman and his crew, who built the mask based on the Gran mask created for the character Ree-Yees who appeared in the 1983 film Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi. Dudman's team used techniques used to create the original mask, but also updated it with state-of-the-art radio-controlled animatronics to allow the character to be as expressive as possible for close ups. Multiple Gran masks were made for the film, with several others being used for the members of Mawhonic's pit crew. One of the fabrics used in Mawhonic's costume was developed by a textile student who used latex and pebbles that she had hand-picked from the English seashore. As the character's scenes were filmed in the Tunisian desert during the hottest period of summer, the pebbles would pop out of the costume at increasingly dangerous speeds as the fabric heated up under the sun.Dressing a Galaxy: The Costumes of Star Wars
Mawhonic of Hok was introduced to the film's script as early as the revised rough draft, but early conceptual art of the character depicted him as a new multi-eyed species, with Terryl Whitlatch creating a piece on August 23, 1996, and Jay Shuster creating pieces on September 12 and 19, 1996.Star Wars: Episode I Insider's Guide This design for the character was used in both the story boards and animatics of the film before being replaced with the Gran design. "Podrace Lap One - Animatics Split Screen" featurette Later art depicted Mawhonic as a thin Gran.Star Wars: Episode I Insider's Guide Mawhonic's final design was far more corpulent, along with how Gran were portrayed in general throughout the Prequel trilogy. The 2016 reference book Star Wars: Complete Locations erroneously uses the flag of Ben Quadinaros for Mawhonic, while assigning the Gran's flag to the racer Ratts Tyerell.
===LEGO Shows===
Mawhonic features in the non-canon LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures episode "Race on Tatooine," which aired on July 18, 2016. In the episode, he is depicted as taking part in the 29th Annual Bricklayers' Classic podrace on Tatooine. During the second lap of the race, the bounty hunter Dengar comes up behind Mawhonic's pod in the stolen IPG-X1131 LongTail of Teemto Pagalies and then leaps out onto the back of the Gran's repulsor pod. From there, Dengar leaps to the engine of another pod and then continues to leap between vehicles in pursuit of the Freemakers, a family also competing in the race. During the pursuit, Dengar leaps on and off Mawhonic's pod again, surprising the Gran, before reaching his target; however, the Freemakers are ultimately able to win the race.
Mawhonic also appears in "Exit from Endor," the first episode of LEGO Star Wars: Droid Tales, which aired on July 6, 2015.. The episode is a non-canon retelling of the events of The Phantom Menace and depicts Mawhonic as surviving into the second lap of the Boonta Eve Classic just behind Sebulba. Skywalker then catches up to the Gran, who rams his engines into podracer; however, Skywalker then swings his engines back and sends Mawhonic spiralling into the sky where the Gran gives a Wilhelm scream before the podracer explodes. Parts of the vehicle then land in the sand around a sun-bathing Obi-Wan Kenobi.
===Skywalker Saga===
In the 2022 non-canon video game LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, Mawhonic participates in the Boonta Eve Classic as in the film, but crashes before even reaching the Mushroom Mesa. He can then be found by players in the streets of Mos Espa and will give them the mission "Pod Parts Procurement." He complains that Sebulba always manages to destroy his podracer when they compete and asks the player to retrieve some of the super tough bone found on the planet Utapau for him to build a new vehicle with. In Pau City on Utapau the players then collects three bone fragments that have fallen from the city's ossic architecture.
The fragments are more brittle than most bone found on the planet, but Mawhonic thanks the player for them when they return to him and tells them to look out for his new bone pod in the next Boonta Eve Classic. While trying to think of names for the new vehicle he suggests "Skele-torque" and "Rib-osine," although he rejects the first as terrible.
Once the quest is completed, Mawhonic is unlocked for purchase as a playable character. The character's in-game description lists Mawhonic as dynamic, but without the capabilities to beat Sebubla and describes his podracer as having an uncovered pod for greater visibility. In the game, Mawhonic ends many sentences with "see" when speaking.
==Appearances==
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*Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Graphic Novel Adaptation
*Star Wars: The Prequel Trilogy – A Graphic Novel
*Star Wars Journeys: The Phantom Menace
*Star Wars Journeys: Beginnings
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===Non-canon appearances===
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*LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
==Sources==
==Notes and references==
Category:Gran
Category:Individuals with he/him pronouns
Category:Males
Category:Podracer pilots