With summer just around the corner, the perfect pet to kick off the proud month of June is the Shimmering Ginx. There are several other Ginxes available and countless other pets in Star Wars: The Old Republic, but none of them are quite so colorful as this Ginx!
The Shimmering Ginx can be won by players participating in SWTOR’s yearly summer Nar Shaddaa Nightlife Event. The event is coming up in less than one month, so anyone who hopes adopt this flamboyant little frog and several other eye-catching pets do not have long to wait.
Ginxes are frog-like creatures found on the planet Makes as well as in swamps on other worlds around the galaxy including Yavin and Zakuul. Ginxes are generally docile, but fully grown they are quite large and occasionally surly so I don’t advise getting too close. In addition to the Shimmering Ginx, three other Ginx pets are available, including the legendary Venomous Ginx which was rewarded from SWTOR’s infamous and not often missed Galactic Command gearing system of the Fallen Empire era. Players looking for a more sturdy Ginx with which to adventure can also purchase a Ginx Handler’s License from the GTN or Cartel Market which allows players to fight alongside an adult froggy companion of their own.
The Ginx creature companion, a Mesa Ginx, the Shimmering Ginx, a Praire Ginx and a Venomous Ginz always root for the Frogdogs.
Wait. Are there even prairies on Makeb?
Frog-like aliens are extremely common, appearing in both animal and alien form across Star Wars lore. I can only assume that in a galaxy far, far away frogs also taste like chicken given how such diverse characters as Jabba the Hutt, Jar Jar Binx and Grogu all consider them delicious. Return of the Jedi features not one but two frog-like creatures. The most prominent is the Worrt, an alien which is the source of one of several burp jokes in Episode VI. The Worrt’s basic physiognomy is very similar to that of the Ginx, and I imagine they are somewhat related, but perhaps only in the way that a crusty, horny toad is related to a glistening river frog.
This Worrt looks worried.
The second alien is well-known to anyone who participates in PVP in SWTOR: the Frogdog. With their jagged teeth and bulbous eyestalks, Frogdogs are about as creepy as they come. Frogdogs are generally regarded as mere animals, but they are actually fully sentient, a fact that allows them to take advantage of situations in which they might be ignored and dismissed as mere pets.
Score one for the Frogdogs!
Jabba the Hutt apparently used one as a spy in his palace, and it seems likely they have a long association with the Hutts given that Frogdogs are the mascots of one of the most popular Huttball pick-up teams of the Old Republic Era.
Frog Lady is nice. Baby Yoda is a jerk.
There are other intelligent, frog-like creatures in Star Wars, but I’ll spotlight two of the most familiar and recent. Turgle, is an amphibious native of the planet Koboh with long, lankly limbs and slick green and yellow skin. He debuted in 2023 as a companion to Kal Cestis in Respawn’s Jedi: Survivor video game. But I also want to mention the infamous character known only as “Frog Lady”. Frog Lady appeared in the second season of The Mandalorian and played a guest role in two episodes late in the season. At first she and her plight are largely the butt of a series of jokes at her expense, but in her next episode her character is treated with actual empathy and compassion. I attribute that change in tone to Bryce Dallas Howard who directed that episode; she has demonstrated in her work on the show to be willing to focus on the humanity of the characters in the stories she tells. That is as important in Star Wars as in real life.
Representation Matters
When deciding the order of pets to cover in this series, I knew the Shimmering Ginx would be featured in June, Pride Month, the celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer culture. The rainbow is a symbol of their community and the Ginx’s color scheme is equally colorful.
As a CISHET dude, I am not the best person to discuss these issues, but I want to add my voice in support of my friends and family and others of one of the most vulnerable minorities who are being targeted for simply wanting to live their lives as who they are born to be. It has been shown time and time again, that when people can embrace who they are by coming out and/or transitioning and find community with others who support them, they have better, happier and healthier lives.
When it comes to LGBTQ representation, SWTOR has not always had the best track record. At launch, any queer content was, at best, relegated to subtext, despite the fact that Bioware was already known for having gay romances in Mass Effect and the original Knights of the Old Republic. I don’t know if EA or Lucasfilm chickened out, but SWTOR was justly criticized for leaving behind its queer fans.
Over the years, SWTOR has begun to right that ship. Gay romances and flirts were introduced with the game’s first expansion, Rise of the Hutt Cartel. As part of the next, Shadow of Revan, the game introduced Lana Beniko and Theron Shan, who have become the SWTOR‘s major romantic leads, easily eclipsing the original companions in attention and screen time. Both Lana and Theron can be romanced by characters of either gender, and it’s amazing to see how fans have responded to and become attached to those characters. Moreover, many of the game’s original companions have returned to the story with the option to be romanced by same-gender characters, an overdue, but welcome change.
With the current expansion, SWTOR’s efforts at inclusion have continued with trans-friendly customizations for player characters and most recently with a literal rainbow of options for several of the game’s PC alien races.
I never had a problem relating the characters I created in SWTOR, but I’m very happy to see new players have options I never would’ve imagined back in 2011. I’ve being gaming in one form or another for decades, and I’ve seen in myself, my friends, my fellow party members, my guild-mates and members of the online community, the desire to create characters that reflect parts of themselves, characters that amplify parts of themselves others don’t get to see, and characters that lets themselves to be who they aspire to be. I’m very glad to see SWTOR move in a direction that inspires people to play more of these characters in this game that I love.
I don’t know how far the good people at Broadsword can move SWTOR’s old game engine in that direction, but I believe they intend to keep pushing. I hope they succeed. I want SWTOR and its community to be a welcoming place for anyone with good intentions to play and have fun and escape from the trouble of the real world, if only for a little while, into another galaxy where they can be heroes too.
I had fried frog legs once in a restaurant near the Mobile Bay (they were supposedly a delicacy there, at least according to the menu). They did indeed taste pretty much just like chicken, but with a slight hint of the way you might imagine swamp water to taste.