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"One doesn't ally with worms against a krayt dragon."
―Deathstick and a smuggler[4]

The term "krayt dragon" referred to a number of large, carnivorous reptilian species that hailed from Tatooine, a desert planet in the galaxy's Outer Rim Territories. Krayt dragons, despite their fierceness, were hunted for the precious pearls found in their bodies.

Biology and appearance[]

"Krayt dragons" was an umbrella term for a number of giant carnivorous reptiles, including the venom-spitting, sixteen-limbed race,[2] the smaller and more common canyon krayt, and the larger greater krayt.[1] Tatooine myths also claimed that at least one krayt dragon, known simply as Krayt, had large wings.[5] Due to their large size and ferocity, they were the apex predators of Tatooine.[6] Their bodies produced krayt venom, which helped the dragons as an acid in pre-digestion of their food.[7] If a krayt dragon felt threatened it could project the venom from its mouth, dissolving any organic tissue that the venom came into contact with.[8]

Behavior[]

Krayt Dragon spit-MS2

A krayt dragon with the ability to spray acidic venom from their mouths.

Hungry krayt dragons posed a serious threat to the diminutive Jawas,[9] and their cry was enough to ward off the fierce sand nomads known as the Tusken Raiders.[10] One massive krayt dragons subspecies[2] were known to burrow within abandoned sarlacc pits after eating the sarlacc that resided there. Those krayts were also known to burrow beneath the sand close to the surface, disrupting nearby objects that it passed. Some Tusken Raiders studied the digestion cycle of krayt dragons for generations, and fed banthas to them, to protect their settlements and make the dragons sleep longer.[8]

History[]

"Of course. I've been to Tatooine, actually, and bagged a krayt dragon there. Its pearls paid for the upgrades on the Jewel."
Nakari Kelen[11]
Krayt bones-Battlefront

The skeleton of a greater krayt dragon

Krayt dragons were commonly known for their pearls, bodily concentrations that were considered to be highly valuable.[11] The Tusken Raiders also believed that dragon bones possessed powerful magic.[12]

At the time of the Invasion of Naboo, a canyon krayt dragon had taken up residence in the Laguna Caves on Tatooine, in which rescue teams for the Boonta Eve Classic did not dare to go.[9]

Sometime after the Great Jedi Purge, a legend arose on Tatooine concerning the Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, who local Tusken Raiders believed had slain the flying krayt dragon Krayt.[5] In his exile on Tatooine, Kenobi came to greatly understand the sounds and sights of the planetary ecosystem. As such,[13] when Luke Skywalker was surrounded by three Tusken Raiders[14] in 0 BBY,[15] Kenobi knew how to copy the cry of a krayt dragon to scare off[13] the trio, who recognized Kenobi as a shaman their tribe chief A'Yark warned them of.[16]

Prior to the death of Jabba Desilijic Tiure in 4 ABY,[17] the Hutt owned a young dragon on his LO-KD57 sail barge, the Khetanna. The Gran Ree-Yees distracted the dragon with a bone while he looked for Jabba's frog-dog, Buboicullaar.[18]

Around 9 ABY,[19] a greater krayt dragon repeatedly attacked the village of Mos Pelgo, as well as a group of Tusken Raiders. In order to handle the animal, Cobb Vanth made a deal with Mandalorian Din Djarin, wherein Djarin would aid Vanth in killing the krayt in exchange for the lawman's set of Mandalorian armor. The pair later sought help from the aforementioned Tusken Raiders, which attempted to feed it with a bantha to make it sleep longer, but the animal devoured a Tusken instead. Being out of ideas how to handle the dragon, the group joined forces with villagers from Mos Pelgo, and together they formulated a plan to kill the dragon, which involved coaxing the krayt dragon from its den toward a set of buried explosives, which were meant to destroy it from the underside. The plan ultimately failed and Djarin was forced to improvise an alternative, making use of explosives that were strapped to a bantha, allowing himself and the bantha to be swallowed whole by the dragon. Using his jetpack to escape from the dragon's mouth Djarin activated the explosives, finally killing the dragon. It had a gigantic pearl which was found by the Tuskens as they savaged its body.[8]

Around 34 ABY, the toy maker Zabaka manufactured small toy replicas of krayt dragon skeletons for children on the planet Batuu's Black Spire Outpost.[20]

Behind the scenes[]

Krayttusken

The original krayt dragon concept by Ralph McQuarrie for Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope.

Although a krayt dragon's skeleton appeared in the 1977 movie Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope,[10] living specimens made their first appearance in Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, which was released in 2001 in Star Wars Legends. Krayts made their first appearance in Disney Interactive's canon mobile strategy game Star Wars: Commander, which was released on August 21, 2014 for iOS devices. In celebration of the game's second anniversary, players were awarded five krayt dragon gift units, along with five Droideka Oppressors and five Droideka Sentinels.[6] The krayt dragon made its first live-action appearance in The Mandalorian season 2 premiere, "Chapter 9: The Marshal."

Appearances[]

Non-canon appearances[]

Sources[]

Notes and references[]

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