Noa Briqualon
Physical description
Species	Human[1]
Gender	Male[1]
Hair color	Brown shot through with gray[1]
Eye color	Brown[1]
Skin color	Light[1]
Chronological and political information
Era(s)	Rise of the Empire era[2] Rebellion era[1]

[Source]

Noa Briqualon was a mid-level scout who was stranded early in his career after crashing his ship on the forest moon of Endor, where he learned to adapt to his primitive surroundings. Briqualon was an explorer, who traveled with his friend, Salak Weet.

Biography

Crash landing

Noa Briqualon was a Human male^[1] who lived during the final decades of the Galactic Republic.^[2] During his youth, he spent years as a mid-level scout,^[3] and he additionally worked as a trader at some point.^[4] Shortly before 26 BBY,^[2] Briqualon teamed up with his friend Salak Weet and set out to chart the Moddell sector.^[3] On their maiden voyage, the two explorers reached the sector's Monsua Nebula and broadcasted a responder signal,^[2] but their star cruiser shortly thereafter crashed onto the moon Endor. It was just one^[1] of many ships that had been claimed by the moon throughout the millennia^[5] due to interference caused by nearby stellar debris and gravity shadows.^[4] With a damaged crystal oscillator, the star cruiser was inoperable, and the two explorers hid their vessel^[3] beneath a layer of the forested moon's foliage^[1] before enacting repairs. Eventually, Weet left^[3] on a hunt for a replacement oscillator, but Briqualon remained with the ship.^[1]

Briqualon never saw his friend alive again, as Weet was captured by a band of Sanyassan Marauders^[3] who were themselves stranded on the moon. When Weet told them of his star cruiser's ability to travel through space,^[6] he was killed by the Marauders' King Terak, who desired the "power of the stars." Briqualon eventually realized that Weet would never return, but he refused to admit it to himself.^[1] He carved a hut from a hollowed-out tree and turned it into a home,^[3] yet he frequently traveled to the site of the crashed star cruiser to continue his repairs. At some point, Briqualon befriended a furry Teek known only as "Teek," who came to live with him in the hut^[1] as his sole companion.^[3] Meanwhile, Weet's father organized a massive search-and-rescue effort for the two lost explorers, but he was forced to file for bankruptcy and abandon the project in 22 ABY after four fruitless years.^[2]

New friends, new threats

Briqualon and Teek spent decades living in their home,^[3] and the scout eventually lost track of how long he had been stranded on Endor. One day^[1] in the latter half of 3 ABY,^[7] he returned home from the star cruiser and discovered visitors in his hut: Teek had brought home the young Human girl Cindel Towani and her Ewok friend, Wicket Wystri Warrick. Briqualon reacted angrily and kicked the new arrivals out; with no place to go, they parked themselves on a log outside the hut. A grumbling Briqualon cooked dinner for himself and Teek and instructed his companion to not give any food to Towani and Warrick, but when Teek used his lightning-fast speed to rush outside and hand the children some dinner rolls, Briqualon observed through a window and held his tongue when Teek returned. Towani and Warrick soon built a fire, and Briqualon brought them inside, asserting that the fire was unsafe. Both children went to sleep on the floor, but when Towani woke up screaming from a nightmare, Briqualon gave up his own bed.^[1]

Briqualon left for his star cruiser in the morning, instructing Warrick to leave before he returned. The scout nevertheless put together two child-sized sleeping mats while he was out. Upon his return home, he found Towani and Warrick gone, and he maintained his gruff and unwelcoming facade by telling Teek that he was relieved. However, the children soon returned with flowers, and Briqualon helped them use the flowers to bake a pie. After dinner, he tucked them into their new beds and let them stay another night. Come morning, he told them to make themselves useful by cleaning the hut; instead, the curious children followed him to the star cruiser. Briqualon was alerted to their presence when an alarm sounded inside the ship, and he helped an upside-down Warrick out of a snare trap before reluctantly bringing both children aboard the cruiser.^[1]

With all of his barriers broken down, the scout told his companions his story and finally admitted to himself what Weet was not coming back. Towani revealed that her family had recently been murdered, and Briqualon invited her and Warrick to permanently stay with him. Back at the hut, the scout entertained his new companions with a song played on a flute. Towani happily danced along, but she soon grew dejected over her family, and Briqualon comforted her by telling her to focus on her fondest memories of them. The next morning, Briqualon awoke when Warrick tossed a bowl of water onto him and announced that Towani was missing. The scout dressed himself and went searching for her; some distance from the hut, he and Warrick observed Towani being carried away on the stallion of the Human woman Charal, an associate of King Terak's. Briqualon immediately returned to his hut to retrieve a blaster pistol, a grappling hook, and some explosives. Along with Warrick and Teek, he set out after Towani.^[1]

The Battle for Endor

The trio followed Charal's trail to Terak's Keep,^[1] the Sanyassan Marauders' castle stronghold located in Endor's Dragon's Pelt savanna.^[8] Rather than swim through the black waters of the moat, Briqualon fired his grappling hook toward the top of a curtain wall. He was the last to climb the rope, and his ascent was sped up when Warrick tied the other end of the rope around the ankle of a Sanyassan guard and pushed him into the moat. Sneaking through the castle, the three came to Terak's throne room, which was filled with dining Marauders. After Teek darted in to retrieve some robes, Briqualon donned the apparel and placed Warrick on his shoulders. Teek hung close behind the scout's legs, and the disguised trio shuffled past the unassuming Marauders. Their next stop was the dungeon, where two guards sat engrossed in a card game. Briqualon tasked Teek with retrieving the keys from one guard, and the stealthy Teek also succeeded in slipping a card up the guard's sleeve. When the other Marauder spotted it, an argument ensued that ended with both men shot in the chest.^[1]

Briqualon used the keys to free and imprisoned Towani and a group of her Ewok friends, all of whom had been captured when the Marauders had raided their village and killed Towani's family. Warrick and his father Deej grabbed the downed guards' blasters as the group attempted to escape, but a corridor encounter with a guard forced them back into the dungeon. As Wicket and Deej Warrick covered him, Briqualon planted an explosive and blew a hole in the dungeon wall. He then tossed his grappling hook at a monolith that stood outside the castle, and as the Ewoks swung to safety, Towani directed Briqualon's attention to the skeleton of Weet, which hung on the dungeon wall. When she revealed that Weet had been killed for the "power thing," Briqualon spotted the crystal oscillator from the Towani's starcruiser—which had been taken in the village raid—and snatched it up. After everyone had escaped, Briqualon led them in a rush back to his ship. Guided by Charal, who had taken the form of a raven, the Marauders followed closely behind.^[1]

At the site of his star cruiser, Briqualon put Wicket in charge of holding off the Marauders by using various traps that the scout had long ago set. He then brought Towani and four other Ewoks aboard to help him install the oscillator—the final part that the cruiser needed to fly. After several failed attempts, Briqualon got the ship powered up, while Teek and the Ewoks did battle against the Marauders with Briqualon's traps and their own crude weapons. With power restored, the scout manned one of the star cruiser's quad turrets and began to fire at his enemies. Overwhelmed by the defense, all of the Marauders fled save Terak, who grabbed Towani after she rushed outside to aid a beleaguered Wicket.^[1]

Terak then sent Wicket and Deej into the cruiser to demand a trade: the power in exchange for Towani's safety. Briqualon brought the oscillator out to Terak with an alternative suggestion—if Terak let Towani go, Briqualon would fight him for the oscillator. The King obliged, and the scout attacked his sword-wielding foe with his walking stick. Terak quickly gained the upper hand and knocked Briqualon to the ground; Teek intervened by jumping onto Terak's head, but the King shook him loose and continued to attack a defenseless Briqualon. Wicket desperately used a sling to fire a stone at Terak, which struck Charal's Talisman of the Raven, hanging on a cord around the King's neck. The broken ring unleashed its energy onto Terak, burning him to death where he stood.^[1]

In the battle's aftermath, Briqualon offered to bring Towani with him when he left Endor in his now–functional star cruiser.^[9] She agreed, and as they prepared to lift off, Teek and the Ewoks gathered outside of the ship. Briqualon said emotional goodbyes to both Wicket and Teek, and after Towani said her own goodbye to Wicket, the star cruiser blasted off and departed Endor.^[1] The two of them traveled the stars for some time, and Briqualon eventually retired in the galaxy's Mid Rim. Meanwhile, Towani moved to the galactic capital world of Coruscant and started a new life as a journalist.^[3]

Behind the scenes

The character of Noa was created by George Lucas for the 1985 television movie Ewoks: The Battle for Endor. Lucas conceived of the movie's plot after watching the film Heidi with his daughter and deciding that Cindel Towani—who had appeared in 1984's Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure—should become an orphan and end up living in the woods with a grumpy old hermit. Lucas explained his vision to Jim and Ken Wheat, who took over directing duties for the movie.^[10] Noa was played by Wilford Brimley,^[1] a veteran actor of several films who later went on to appear in television commercials for products such as Quaker Oats oatmeal.^[11] Brimley frequently clashed with the Wheat brothers and eventually refused to work with them; as such, all of his scenes were shot by Joe Johnston, the second unit director.^[12]

A rumor persisted that Noa swears under his breath while trying to power up his star cruiser during the film's climax. However, it was debunked in the eighty-ninth issue of the Star Wars Insider magazine, which cited the subtitles of 2004's Ewoks: The Battle for Endor DVD release as proving that the line is in fact "Aw, come on."^[13] An article published on StarWars.com suggested that the language spoken by Noa and the other characters in the movie is not in fact Basic, but rather a different language translated into English for the viewers' benefit. The speculation was based on the fact that Wicket W. Warrick is able to speak and understand Basic in the movie but is unable to do so in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, which takes place a short time later.^[14]

Noa also appears in The Ring, the Witch, and the Crystal: An Ewok Adventure, a truncated children's book adaptation of The Battle for Endor that was written by Cathy East Dubowski and published in 1986.^[15] A soundtrack covering both Caravan of Courage and The Battle for Endor, by composer Peter Bernstein, included two tracks about Noa: "Noa & Terak" and "Noa's Ark."^[16] Further information on Noa has been provided over the years in various reference books^[4][17] and in the StarWars.com Databank.^[3] His last name, Briqualon, first appeared in a published source in the ninth issue of Star Wars Gamer magazine, released in 2002.^[4] It was mentioned in his Databank entry as early as 2004.^[3]

A light-hearted article by Bonnie Burton that first appeared on StarWars.com in 2007 and that was later published in Star Wars Insider 100 in 2008 listed both Briqualon and Teek as unlikely candidates for the Hasbro company's Star Wars Unleashed toy line. The article included a sketch of the two in "unleashed" poses drawn by Pablo Hidalgo.^[18][19] Briqualon was ranked at #95 on the American entertainment website IGN's 2010 list of the top 100 Star Wars characters. The cited reasons for his inclusion were that he was played by "legendary actor and oatmeal pitchman" Wilford Brimley; that he introduced spectacles to the Galaxy Far, Far Away; that he protected an orphaned little girl; and that he attacked a sword-wielding King Terak with a mere walking stick.^[20]

Appearances

•  Missing Starship Search Abandoned—HoloNet News Vol. 531 49 (Mentioned only)
• Ewoks: The Battle for Endor (First appearance)
• Ewoks: The Battle for Endor book-and-record
• The Ring, the Witch, and the Crystal: An Ewok Adventure

Sources

• A Guide to the Star Wars Universe, Second Edition
• The Essential Guide to Characters
• Star Wars Encyclopedia
• A Guide to the Star Wars Universe, Third Edition
•  "Endor and the Moddell Sector"—Star Wars Gamer 9
• "Return to Endor"—Star Wars Insider 62 (Picture only)
• The Official Star Wars Fact File 123 (TOW3-4, Cindel Towani)
• "Ask the Master"—Star Wars Insider 89
• "Top 10 Most Unlikely Unleashed Figures"—Star Wars Insider 100
• The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
•  Briqualon, Noa in the Databank (content now obsolete; backup link on Archive.org)
•  Terak in the Databank (content now obsolete; backup link on Archive.org)
•  Towani, Cindel in the Databank (content now obsolete; backup link on Archive.org)
•  Warrick, Wicket W. in the Databank (content now obsolete; backup link on Archive.org)
•  Yavid, General in the Databank (content now obsolete; backup link on Archive.org)

Notes and references

Wookieepedia has 14 images related to Noa Briqualon.

External links

•  Checklist: 10 Unlikely Unleashed Figures - Noa Briqualon vs. Teek on StarWars.com (content now obsolete; backup link on Archive.org)
•  Ewok Adventures on StarWars.com (content now obsolete; backup link on Archive.org)
•  Ewok Adventures DVDs Coming Soon on StarWars.com (content now obsolete; backup link on Archive.org)
•  A Closer Look at the Ewoks & Droids DVDs on StarWars.com (content now obsolete; backup link on Archive.org)
•  Briqualon, Noa in The Completely Unofficial Star Wars Encyclopedia (backup link on Archive.org)