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for the informal planet classification see: Tatooine planet

In George Lucas's Star Wars saga, Tatooine is the home planet of the Skywalker family and the setting for much of the action in the saga's films (as well as several of the novels and other pieces of written fiction). The planet is either seen or mentioned in all six movies.

Tatooine is a desert planet in a binary star system (the two suns are named Tatoo I & Tatoo II), inhabited by poor locals who mostly farm moisture for a living. The planet has been the site of repeated and failed attempts at colonization. During the prequel-era, it was ruled for a long period by the Hutts, being beyond the reach of the Galactic Republic. After the fall of the Republic, the Galactic Empire established a token presence on Tatooine, but the crime lord Jabba the Hutt still retained control of the planet.

After the fall of Jabba the Hutt, Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa-Solo made attempts to forge friendships with the various settlements to unite under a centralized government with ties friendly and beneficial to the Alliance and New Republic.

Tatooine has several sizable settlements, the largest of which is the spaceport Mos Eisley, widely known for its rough-and-tumble nature and vast criminal underworld. Other settlements include Bestine (the nominal capital of the planet, where the Empire's government is located), Anchorhead, Tosche Station, Mos Entha, Wayfar (near Jabba's Palace), and Mos Espa, home of a sector-famous podracing track.

Due to not being a member of the Republic, Republic Credits were rarely used by merchants on the planet, who prefered to use Peggats, Truguts or Wupiupi.

Notable geological features include the Dune Sea, an enormous desert, and the Jundland Wastes, a rocky region. Despite the planet's extreme aridity, some forms of life do thrive on Tatooine, including the rodent-like Womp rat, elephant-like bantha, and the enormous, fearsome krayt dragon.

Tatooine is also home to two apparently native sentient bipedal species: Jawas, pygmy-like mechanical scavengers, and Tusken Raiders, also known as Sand People, who are mysterious, reclusive, and extremely hostile to outsiders. Both races wear fully-concealing robes that keep their true forms hidden from outsiders (It's stated in the Expanded Universe that Jawas are rodent-like, and it is vaguely hinted that the Jawas and Sand People share a common ancestor).

Tatooine was once a member world of the pre-Republic Infinite Empire. It once had large oceans and a world-spanning jungle. This biosphere was destroyed by an orbital bombardment by the Rakata that "glassed" the planet (that is, fused the silica in the soil into glass, which then broke up over time into sand) and boiled its oceans away. Tatooine is also one of the planets visited in the award-winning XBox game "Knights of the Old Republic".

Intelligent life forms

• Humans — Settlers
• Hutts — Slug-like crime lords
• Jawas — Scavengers
• Tusken Raiders (Sand People) — Violent nomadic tribes
• Other settlers such as Watto

Flora

• A form of Mushrooms
• Trees; but they are extremely rare. Most were planted by an exiled Ithorian.

Fauna

• Banthas
• Dewbacks
• Eopies
• Krayt dragons
• Rontos
• Sarlacci
• Womp rats
• Wraids
• Worrts

Some critics have seen Lucas's use of a desert planet with aborigines reminscent of the Bedouin as excessively derivative of Frank Herbert's Arrakis in the Dune series of novels.

Locations

Anchorhead

Anchorhead is a fictional settlement located a few miles east of the Lars family home, south of the bustling spaceport of Mos Eisley, and primarily consists of moisture farmers.

Bestine

Bestine, the "capital" of Tatooine, is situated far west of Mos Eisley near the south-western Dune Sea. It was also one of the earliest settlements on the planet but never thrived economically, sharing the same problems as many other settlements on the dry world. The Galactic Empire eventually established its base of operations here and placed its regional governor in the city's Main Hall. It is featured prominantly in the MMORPG Star Wars Galaxies (SWG).

Dune Sea

The Dune Sea is a huge sandy desert, near the cities of Anchorhead, Mos Eisley and Tosche Station. It is inhabited solely by Tusken Raiders, Jawas, wraids, dewbacks and the occasional Krayt dragon. Moisture farmers often have many moisture vaporators located in the Dune Sea to collect the scarce water vapor from the air.

It was to this area that Obi-wan Kenobi came after the destruction of the Jedi Temple and the corruption of Anakin Skywalker. At his home near the Dune Sea, Kenobi communed with the spirit of Qui-Gon Jinn, while keeping watch over young Luke Skywalker, who lived in the nearby town of Anchorhead.

The Dune Sea was also home to the Great Pit of Carkoon, location of the great Sarlacc creature.

Great Pit of Carkoon

The Great Pit of Carkoon is located within the Dune Sea. The large depression in the sand is the home for the rapacious, if slow-eating, creature called the Sarlacc.

Jabba's Palace

Jabba's Palace, made of stone and metal, is located in the desert known as the Dune Sea and was home to the gangster Jabba the Hutt. It is introduced as the main setting of the beginning of Return of the Jedi when Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, Lando Calrissian, R2D2, and C3PO rescue Han Solo from Jabba. Jabba's palace also figures as the main setting in a compilation of intertwined short stories Tales from Jabba's Palace edited by Kevin J. Anderson.

Jundland Wastes

The Jundland Wastes occupy most of Tatooine's temperate area, a rocky region known for its numerous cliffs and a multitude of hidden dangers.

Most of Tatooine’s indigenous creatures can be found in the Jundland Wastes including, Banthas, Dewbacks, and the fearsome Krayt Dragons. The nomadic Sandpeople, also called Tusken Raiders, live in the region as well as the scavengers known as Jawas.

Obi-Wan Kenobi lived in a small dwelling on the edge of the Jundland Wastes after he took the infant Luke Skywalker to live on a moisture farm with relatives to hide the boy from Darth Vader.

Mos Eisley

Mos Eisley is a spaceport town. In Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Obi-Wan Kenobi described Mos Eisley as a "wretched hive of scum and villainy." It is also the home of the Mos Eisley Cantina and Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes.

Mos Eisley Cantina

The Mos Eisley Cantina, officially named The Emerald Cafe, is a bar located in the “pirate city” of Mos Eisley. It is the haunt of freight pilots and other dangerous characters of varying races and contains booths, a bar counter, and some free-standing tables, and sometimes a band of musicians named Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes.

Mos Espa

Mos Espa is a city known for its distinct "desert-proof" domed buildings. It is home to a podracing track and was the home of Anakin and Shmi Skywalker in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. There was a large slave quarter within the rugged city.

Tosche Station

The Tosche Station, or Tosche Power Station, is a general store found in the city of Anchorhead. It sells a variety of goods such as power converters, and, according to the novel and radio dramatization, is also the primary hangout for local youths. It's run by a young man named Fixer, and his girlfriend Cammy.

Script reference from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope:

LUKE: But I was going into Tosche Station to pick up some power converters...

OWEN: You can waste time with your friends when your chores are done. Now come on, get to it!

Tatooine's Namesake

• The planet is not actually named in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope; according to Lucas he intended to name it Utapau but finally he named it retrospectively after the movie's desert location, Tataouine (French spelling) in Tunisia. Utapau however was given to a different planet, in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The Tunisian region Tatooine was also featured in The X-Files: Fight the Future film. In what is one of the more interesting editorial accidents in Star Wars’ history, because Tatooine was unnamed in the first movie, the editors accidentally referred to a "different" planet as Dantooine; a planet occupied by the Empire on Princess Leia's word that there was a Rebel Alliance base there. This is the same name and it is only by accident that this one name, albeit with two slightly different pronunciations found its way into the movies.
• Since this desert planet was given the name Tatooine and its suns were Tatoo I and II, it can be said that "tatoo" in perhaps the language Huttese means "sun" and "-ine" means "world". Tatooine is "sunworld". There are other planets that also have this suffix such as Dantooine and Klatooine.

References

• Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays, softcover, 1997. George Lucas, Leigh Brackett, Lawrence Kasdan, Laurent Bouzereau, ISBN 0-345-40981-7
• Star Wars: Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina, 1st paperback printing, 1995. Kevin J. Anderson (editor of anthology). ISBN 0-553-56468-4
• Star Wars: Tales from Jabba's Palace, 1st edition, 1995. Kevin J. Anderson (editor), ISBN 0-553-56815-9
• Star Wars, Darksaber, 1st paperback printing, 1995. Kevin J. Anderson, ISBN 0-553-57611-9
• The Essential guide to Planets and Moons (Star Wars), 1st edition, by Daniel Wallace, Scott Kolins. 1998. ISBN 0-345-42068-3

• Star Wars planets