Star Wars Legends’ Most Horrifying Villains Are Far Too Brutal For Canon

Star Wars Legends’ most brutal race, the Yuuzhan Vong, would never fit into canon. In 1999, new Star Wars publisher Del Rey launched the boldest literary project since Timothy Zahn’s “Heir to the Empire” effectively relaunched the Expanded Universe. The New Jedi Order series – which spanned 19 books in total – told the story of an alien invasion of the Star Wars galaxy, over 20 years after the events of Return of the Jedi.

The Yuuzhan Vong originated from another galaxy, and over the course of these books they brought the New Republic and the Jedi Order to their knees. The scale of the story was unprecedented for Star Wars books, with the events of the Yuuzhan Vong War seeing iconic planets conquered and hundreds of billions of casualties. Some readers did not appreciate the sheer darkness of the Yuuzhan Vong and their cruelty, and this still rings true for the new canon, as the Yuuzhan Vong are far too brutal for Star Wars canon timeline.

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The Yuuzhan Vong Came From Another Galaxy

The Yuuzhan Vong hailed from a different galaxy, one ravaged by two rival self-replicating droid species. The Yuuzhan Vong had used ther unique biotechnology against these races, fighting off both droid factions, but they became culturally opposed to all technology. Infighting led the Yuuzhan Vong to destroy what was home, leaving them no option but to depart their own galaxy in search of a new one to colonize. This was very clear as they made their way to the known galaxy; they conquered and terraformed worlds rich in resources, growing new organic vehicles and weapons.

Why The Yuuzhan Vong Were Outside The Force

During their infighting war, the Yuuzhan Vong developed an incredibly violent culture, completely based around pain, death, and self-mutilation to honor their pantheon of many gods. They destroyed their home planet, Yuuzhan’tar, which caused the Force itself to cut the entire species off from it. The Yuuzhan Vong exist outside the Force, and were therefore immune to direct Force powers. This made it especially difficult for Jedi such as Luke Skywalker and his family to fight these formidable warrior; the Jedi inability to detect or use the Force against their opponents led to countless deaths. Worse still, some Yuuzhan Vong were resistant to lightsabers.

The Yuuzhan Vong Were Star Wars’ Most Brutal Villains

Because of their religion and culture being completely centered on pain, death, and hatred of technology, the Yuuzhan Vong were the deadliest faction in Star Wars history. The conquering Yuuzhan Vong sought out anyone who used technology and killed them, destroying any tech they found as well. They completely relied on biotechnology for everything from ships to armor and hand-to-hand weaponry, which made for some incredibly twisted and deadly creations. They even had vast hordes of bioengineered war creatures that could spit fire and level entire cities, all connected via psychic war-planning sentient brains, ensuring a cohesion in the death and destruction they brought.

The Yuuzhan Vong’s most horrific tool was an organic device called the “Embrace of Pain.” This looked something like a bed, holding the Yuuzhan Vong prisoners upside down with tightly-gripping tentacles that chemically interfaced with their bodies. These grips connected to a prisoner’s nerves to maintain a constant level of pain, while using spikes, thorns, poisons, and even electrical shocks, so the prisoner could never rest.

Some Yuuzhan Vong considered the Embrace of Pain to be sacred, choosing to subject themselves to it as an act of worship to their deities. The Embrace of Pain was notorious among prisoners, terrible enough to turn experienced Jedi to the dark side. It was most famously used on Jacen Solo, the son of Han and Leia in Star Wars Legends, and set him on the path to becoming a Sith Lord.

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The Yuuzhan Vong Almost Appeared In The Clone Wars

Disney canceled Star Wars: The Clone Wars shortly after acquiring Lucasfilm in 2012, although some of the canceled episodes were eventually released as Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 7. Many stories are still unmade, though, and one was going to feature a Yuuzhan Vong scout ship arriving in the Star Wars galaxy during the Clone Wars. This arc would apparently have felt like an episode of The X-Files, riffing on alien abduction stories in popular culture. If this had actually been made, the Star Wars canon would be so incredibly different, with the Yuuzhan Vong part of canon.

Star Wars Canon’s Yuuzhan Vong Easter Eggs Explained

Disney branded the old Expanded Universe non-canon (or “Legends”), meaning the Yuuzhan Vong do not exist in canon. For all that’s the case, though, there have been a few references to them in Star Wars canon. One example of Yuuzhan Vong biotech – the vonduun crab armor they wear – has been canonized in Star Wars: The High Republic‘s Jedi Master Qort, though with a different backstory. The most surprising reference is a banner at the Star Wars theme park, Galaxy’s Edge, which is technically canon – and features the Yuuzhan Vong’s symbol, a bug-like crest.

The role of the Yuuzhan Vong in canon appears to generally be occupied by a race known as the Grysk. They live in the Unknown Regions, and have attempted to launch invasions of Republic and Imperial space. The Grysk have only appeared in Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn novels, though, and nowhere else beyond that – meaning they most certainly don’t have the influence of the Yuuzhan Vong. Even though there are references to the Yuuzhan Vong here and there, they are still decidedly non-canon – and maybe that’s best for the inhabitants of the Star Wars galaxy.