Tag: Ember the Charhound

Star Wars Chat Pack: What creature would you adopt as a pet?

Welcome to Day 18 of my NaBloPoMo Challenge, in which I randomly pick a card from the Star Wars Chat Pack.

Today’s question is: You can choose to adopt one Star Wars creature to be your pet. Which do you pick and what would you name it?

Oh, fun! There’s lots of cute and/or cool creatures in Star Wars (not the monsters I just wrote about the other day) that would be, let’s say interesting, to have as a pet. Here’s a few I’d consider:

A Voorpak

This one is named Buggles, and he belongs to Torra Doza in the animated series Resistance. Omega from the Bad Batch also runs into one on Pantora. They’re pretty cute, but I can’t decide if they look more like cats or dogs, lol. They seem very high energy, too, like a small dog that yips a lot, which would veer me away.

A Charhound

This one is named Ember, and she’s the loyal companion to Jedi Knight Bell Zettifar in the High Republic. Clearly a dog-like creature, charhounds have extremely high internal temperatures, and can breath fire. So like any dog, charhounds are companiable and loyal (and also fierce when called for), but I’d be afraid it would burn my house down, lol. I love Ember, though, and the fact that a Jedi has a “pet” despite the Order discouraging attachments.

But as I’m a cat person, I think I’d have to go with a Tooka cat (or Loth-cats as they’re called on Lothal).

This one is Sabine’s lothcat, Murley. It almost looks like a voorpak, with those skinny legs. I still prefer our own Earth cats, but space-cats will do nicely, too. What would I name it? I’d probably get a pair and name them Luke and Leia, or Rey and Kylo.

There are other awesome creatures from Star Wars that I love, but because they’re wild animals, I wouldn’t consider them for pets. Lothwolves are my favorite Star Wars creature, but they’re wild in nature and I wouldn’t dream of taming them. I love the adorable porgs, but they’re not pet material in my opinion (even though they seem to make themselves comfortable aboard the Millenium Falcon). Crait’s crystal foxes, called vulptex, are beautiful, but I’m content to watch them from afar.

I’ve also excluded beasts of burden, like banthas, eopies, dewbacks, fathiers, etc. But they could probably count as pets, as they’re more domesticated than their wild cousins.

What would you choose as a pet? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!

High Republic Wednesday–Padawan Bell Zettifar

(There are some High Republic novel spoilers here, so beware).

Bell Zettifar is one of the many interesting Padawans in the High Republic universe, and one of the most prominent (at least in the novels), so I thought I’d profile him next.

Bell and Ember.

Bell trained with his master, Loden Greatstorm, at the Jedi Temple Outpost on the Outer Rim planet Elphrona, along with Masters Indeera Stokes and Porter Engle. Bell is a likable young man who has a great respect and love for his master, who pushes him to grow and learn about his Force abilities. Bell, like a lot of Jedi in the High Republic, sees the Force in a unique way–he sees it as fire or flames. Fittingly, Bell has become fast friends with a charhound from Elphrona he named Ember, who can breathe flames. The Jedi from Elphrona don’t chastise Bell for taking on a pet (an “attachment”), but others raise an eyebrow now and then (particularly Stellan Gios, who’s a stickler for rules; but everyone loves Ember anyway).

Bell and his master Loden Greatstorm.

In Light of the Jedi, Loden Greatstorm is presumed killed by the Nihil, but Bell has a difficult time letting him go. Many Jedi, including his new master, Indeera Stokes, advise him on his grief; they tell him it’s okay to grieve, but urge him to let go. But it’s hard for Bell to move on. Before he disappeared, Loden told Bell he was ready to become a Jedi Knight. After, however, Bell couldn’t bring himself to ascend to Jedi Knight without his beloved Master. In The Rising Storm, Bell discovers Loden was not killed by the Nihil but had been taken prisoner by Marchion Ro and tormented for his own nefarious purposes. He and Bell were briefly reunited, but Loden was indeed ultimately killed by an awful Nihil weapon, and Bell had to grieve all over again.

In The Fallen Star, which I’m almost done with, Bell plays a prominent part in trying to save Starlight Beacon, and has become good friends with another Padawan, Burryaga the Wookiee.

You can’t talk about Bell without Ember, who is his constant companion, the best girl, so here are a few renditions of the pair:

High Republic Adventures Annual 2021 variant cover by Jon Lam.
The only artist info I could find on this was “bel on Twitter.”

I just love the idea of a Jedi having an animal companion. Ember is more than a pet; she’s a comrade who’s saved Bell’s life on several occasions, she’s part of the Jedi family, and she’s a good friend.

For light and life! Thanks for reading.