For the next installment of Pets of the Old Republic, let’s continue the theme of featuring flying pets, but this time the pet is really is a bird whose flight is powered by actual wings. The Ebon-Wing Flutterplume is one of several Flutterplume pets available in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Flutterplumes are famous for their vibrant and colorful feathers which are regarded as good luck charms, but I’ve chosen to depict a sub-species of the Flutterplume with rather a more raven-like plumage.
Flutterplumes first appeared in the Star Wars novel Young Jedi Knights: Return to Ord Mantell by Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta in 1998, but their first visual depiction was in Star Wars: The Old Republic, and they have featured across the games history. Flutterplumes originated on Old Mantell where they thrive thanks to the bloody, ongoing civil war and they have spread across the galaxy to other worlds including several we can visit such as Alderaan, Corellia, and even Rakata Prime. Four of the five Flutterplume pets players can acquire in SWTOR originated from the Cartel Market, but unlike other Cartel pets, I’ve featured in this project, Flutterplume pets tend to be more affordably priced on the game’s auction house. Sadly, the most colorful version, the Gilded Flutterplume, was included with the purchase of Cartel Coins, but since Cartel Coins are now sold directly by SWTOR or through Steam, the Gilded Flutterplume is no longer available to players. The Stormcloud Flutterplume does share an identical model with its gilded counterpart.
Paradise, Stormcloud, Ebon-Wing and Hinterland Flutterplume pets search for buried treasure on the beaches of Copero.
The other three varieties, the Ebon-Wing, Hinterland and Paradise Flutterplumes seem to derive from different species. The Stormcloud has a slightly larger head, and a longer, more vulture-like beak which makes sense given that Flutterplumes are mostly known as scavengers. The Ebon-Winged Flutterplume. as well as its Hinterland and Paradise cousins have heads and beaks that evoke Earth-born parrots. It’s because of that similarity that I’ve chosen this particular Flutterplume.
Birds have long associations with stories of sailors and ships at sea, arguably going all the way back to humanity’s very first stories of the flood in the Bible and other foundational myths including the Epic of Gilgamesh. In more recent times, there seems to be some truth to the association of sailors and pirates with parrots, which are hearty pets that required minimal feeding (compared to other animals) and when returning to their home ports, the sailors could sell the colorful, tropical birds to landlubbers who’d never seen such colorful creatures.
Jim Hawkins, Long John Silver and his parrot Captain Flint from the illustrated edition of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island by N. C. Wyeth.
In 1883 Parrots became inextricably linked with tales of pirates on the high seas thanks in large part to Robert Louis Stevenson’s book Treasure Island; a few decades later in 1950 Walt Disney adapted the book for the cinema, and Robert Newton’s depiction of Long John Silver is so iconic that it continues to influence nearly every depiction of pirates in popular culture like the movies Pirates Of the Caribbean and The Goonies to TVs show like Black Sails and Our Flag Means Death to even the pirates we see in Star Wars lore including Hondo Ohnaka from The Clone Wars and Rebels, and the whole of Skeleton Crew.
Coratanni’s Flutterplume Pearl is the only raid operation boss described as a “little birdy.”
The two most prominent Flutterplumes in SWTOR are also related to pirates. Pearl, the beloved pet of Coratanni, leader of the Ravagers pirate crew is a raid boss in her own right. Curious players can also encounter Polly the Flutterplume on Dantooine during the Pirate Incursion event. I won’t spoil what happens when you get too close to her, but when you show up on her small island without a cracker, her reaction is quite explosive.
Captain Harlock is brooding, stylish and taciturn; Tori-san is annoying, gangly and loudly opinionated. They’re perfect friends.
Finally, I should confess that the reason I specifically chose to depict the Ebon-Wing Flutterplume is because of its similarity to “Tori-san” or “Mr. Bird” the fine feathered companion of Captain Harlock, my favorite space pirate of all time. Like many of the creatures we encounter in Star Wars, Tori-san draws inspiration from several types of birds including parrots, cranes and parrots. Harlock was created by Leiji Matsumoto in 1977 and has featured in many manga and anime series well into the twenty-first century. Harlock is a beloved and iconic character and has influenced many writers and artists over the years. Jo Duffy who wrote Star Wars stories for Marvel Comics in the 1980s included a direct reference to Harlock in her own tales of a galaxy far, far away.
For my part, the black and white, French language dub of Space Pirate Captain Harlock which was shown on TV in Quebec, Canada was my very first exposure to anime and the show’s entire aesthetic holds a fond place in my heart to this day.