Myo

This article is about the Abyssin. You may be looking for the language.

"Myo, I took from you a pawnable thing of value to reimburse what you owed me in losses. It was not mine to take, but I was owed."
"It was not yours to take."
"I just… Did I not just say–yes, Myo, yes. It was not mine to take. In my defense, I collected on a debt."
"I might have had the money! You don't know!"
"Did you have the money?"
"Maybe."

―Muftak and Myo^[4]

Myo was a fight-loving Abyssin from Byss. An expert in survival techniques, Myo was a tough Abyssin with regenerative abilities. Myo was present in Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina on Tatooine on the day that Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker were forced into a bar brawl with Ponda Baba and Cornelius Evazan. He was employed with the Galactic Outdoor Survival School.

Biography[]

Bereft of a horn[]

"Smallness, forgive me if I am mistaken, but… I seem to have the vaguest recollection that Myo, who owes us both a not-insignificant sum, won said horn last night from Lirin Car'n himself and, in celebration, drank himself to the point of irritability and then left the table and the horn behind wh… when it was in fact… I… who then took the instrument in question, the Muftak clicks. With the intent of converting it into funds later today, in reparation of Myo’s aforementioned debt."

―Muftak^[4]

Myo Muftak Lirin Djas — Myo (left) often drank at the cantina at a table with Djas Puhr (right), Lirin Car'n (second from right), Muftak (center), and Kabe (not pictured).

Myo was an Abyssin male^[2] from Byss^[1] who worked for the Galactic Outdoor Survival School.^[3] During the reign of the Galactic Empire, he spent time in the Mos Eisley spaceport on the desert planet Tatooine where he frequented the table of the Sakiyan bounty hunter Djas Puhr^[4] in an alcove close to the bar^[3] at Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina along with the thieves Muftak and Kabe and the Bith Lirin Car'n. Myo confused Muftak's name for his species, the Talz, and began to refer to the thief as "the Muftak," a name that stuck. One night^[4] in 0 BBY,^[5] Myo, Car'n and Muftak gambled over a game of sabacc at the table. Myo racked up a large debt to Muftak and Kabe during the game, but after winning a kloo horn from a drunken Car'n, the Abyssin celebrated by drinking himself to the point of irritability and then left without the horn. Intending to recoup his debt from Myo, Muftak took the horn, but after he fell asleep, Kabe took it from the Talz and then pawned it to the Scrapper for rent money for her and Muftak.^[4]

The following morning, Myo had discovered his loss of the horn, causing him to scream, growl, and seek something to kill. He then used what he swore was his last credits to hire Puhr to find the thief, although with the understanding that if the Abyssin found and killed the target first the deal was moot. Car'n, who sought to recover the horn himself, learned that Myo had lost it and so also hired Puhr to seek out the instrument, with the pair agreeing that they would let Myo deal with the thieves while Car'n got the horn. Meanwhile, Muftak awoke initially unable to remember much of the previous night but sure that Myo owed him money, although the Talz was unsure how he would ask such a violent individual to pay him. He then remembered the horn before discovering that Kabe had sold it, at which point the Talz warned the Chadra-Fan that Myo would eat her for such a theft.^[4]

Screaming at the Scrapper[]

"Yell and scream all you like, pal, but business is business. Someone came in and sold me the horn. I put the horn in the window. Someone came in and bought the horn. Kloo horns are good for business, everybody knows that."
"But it was mine."
"No. It was mine."

―The Scrapper and Myo^[4]

Myo then tracked down the Scrapper but discovered that the kloo horn had already been pawned. After screaming at the pawnbroker, who was unconcerned by the threats, the Abyssian paid him twenty credits to learn that Puhr had bought the instrument, although he refused to believe that the Sakiyan had paid three hundred credits for it as the Scrapper claimed. He then paid another twenty to learn who had sold the horn to the Scrapper, and worked out that it had been Kabe based on the description given. He then mentally added forty credits to what he would demand from Kabe, although this act of mathmatics took him some time, which made him even madder.^[4]

Kabe- SW Card Trader — Myo confronted Kabe (pictured) over the stolen kloo horn.

Myo then located Kabe in the tunnels she inhabited and shook the Chadra-Fan by the neck while uttering guttural renderings of snarls and roars. He screamed at her and demanded she explain the theft, eventually realising that the squeaking thief could not respond while his fist was around her windpipe. He dropped her to the floor, where Kabe denied that she had stolen the horn and instead blamed Muftak. Remembering the Talz's smell from the night before, the Abyssian pounded the wall above Kabe's head with his massive fists, showering the cowering Chadra-Fan in dust. Myo then declared he would kill Muftak, before very slowly coming to the realisation that he had actually owed the Talz money. Sliding down the wall opposite Kabe, he bemoaned that the Talz still should not have robbed him before getting up and leaving in order to find Puhr and stop him from hunting down either of the thieves.^[4]

Convergence on the cantina[]

"We are all just money to one another, that is all. Today or tomorrow, one day, one of us will be a payday to the other and we will pounce. I took your stupid thingy, Lirin Car’n, yes. And I knew you were drunk and I knew you would want it back and I knew I could get money I didn’t have for it. Just as the Muftak knew the same and took it from me. And we would both do it again."

―Myo^[4]

Myo and Kabe headed together to the cantina, where they joined Puhrand Car'n at their usual table. Muftak then joined them and admitted to Myo that he should not have taken the horn despite the debt. Myo angrily agreed and pointed out that he might have had the money to pay the Talz, although when Muftak question the Abyssian on if he actually had possessed the money to pay, Myo lied by responding that he might have. Car'n then pointed out that Myo had taken advantage of his drunkness to win the horn in the first place, which Myo laughed about, although none of the others joined him. They then all bemoaned their collective bad luck, with Muftak especially worried about a shipment of medication he had been unable to deliver to the criminals Doctor Cornelius Evazan and Ponda Baba, a discreet arrangement that he was shocked to learn that Myo and the others were already aware of.^[4]

Car'n then revealed that Evazan and Baba were going to back the bounty hunter Greedo, to whom Car'n was indebted, in an attempt to claim the bounty on the smuggler Han Solo. As Kabe then left to get a drink, the group looked up and watched the local moisture farmer Luke Skywalker arrive at the cantina with the hermit Obi-Wan Kenobi and the droids R2-D2 and C-3PO. Muftak then began apologizing to Car'n for not looking out for his friend in regards to the horn, with Myo interrupting the apology until Puhr stopped him. When Puhr then interrupted the Talz to claim he was an animal, Muftak called the Sakiyan a pedant, but Myo surprised everyone by correcting Muftak and calling Puhr a know-it-all instead. The Abyssian then continued, claiming that rather then being friends, all of those at the table were just potential sources of money to each other and admitting that while he knew what the horn had meant to Car'n he had still taken it and would take it again.^[4]

Betting on friendship[]

"Now that, is a funny joke."

―Myo reacts to Puhr revealing the kloo horn^[4]

Puhr disagreed with Myo's assessement and made a wager that Solo would survive the day because he had friends and Greedo had none. If he won he would pay Car'n's debt to Myo, Myo's debt to Muftak, and Muftak and Kabe's debt to the bartender Ackmena, too who they still owed rent. If he lost, the Sakiyan predicted that Greedo would kill Solo and inflict great pain on Car'n, Evazan or Myo would kill Muftak, Myo would then also work out Kabe's role in the pawning of the horn and kill her as well, and he would be left looking for a new cohort to spend time with. Myo and the others realised his assessement was correct, after which Muftak apologized again to Car'n and also to Myo and then left to tell Evazan he did not have the shipment he owed him.^[4]

Before Muftak had a chance to speak to the doctor, Evazan and Baba started a fight with Skywalker and Kenobi at the bar, resulting in Kenobi maiming the criminals with his lightsaber. Surprised at this turn of events, Muftak returned to the table where Puhr got up so that Muftak would take the corner seat, keeping him and Kabe pinned between Car'n and the still angry Myo.^[4] As they discussed the current events, the group listened to Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes, a band playing in the cantina.^[3] When Car'n, who was a member of the band, complained that he should be playing with them, Myo mistakenly thought that Car'n instead wanted to join the fighting and became excited. Car'n corrected him and then complained that he hated being a musician before being interrupted by the sound of Solo shooting Greedo dead in one of the cantina's booths.^[4] Myo from the table to see the source of the noise before turning back.^[6] With Puhr having won his bet, Muftak pointed out that he now owed all of them money, to which the Sakiyan smiled and pulled out the kloo horn from beneath the table, which even Myo admitted was a funny joke. The friends then played sabacc again together that night, with Muftak pleased that friends did sometimes take care of each other, even in Mos Eisley.^[4]

Personality and traits[]

"I'm putting a bounty on my father's horn. I lost it to Myo. Myo doesn't have it. He believes that while he was in his cups, the thing was stolen from him. His solution to the problem is to scream and growl and look for something to kill. I find that business matters are better handled by businessmen."
"Indeed. In fact, Myo paid me what he swore was his last credit to hunt whoever it was that dared steal from him in the first place. Of course if he finds them first he'll kill them and thus moot the deal, but you understand."

―Lirin Car'n and Djas Puhr^[4]

Abyssin — Myo was a violent and stupid survival expert.

Myo was a tough survival expert^[2] and violence enthusiast who loved to fight and had a chip on his shoulder. Thinking was not his strong suit and he often became confused, although he was aware of his own stupidity an unimpressed by it. An expert at being mad at others, the Abyssin was a font of blackened, soured emotions when confronting Kabe, but upon realising he had been in debt to Muftak he did then decide to save him from Puhr despite still being angry at the Talz.^[4]

He was a terrible liar and believed that the group he often spent time with were nothing more than financial opporunities to each other, although he later apologized to both Muftak and Car'n for his part in the kloo horn caper.^[4] Myo had green skin, a single black eye, and white hair^[3] including muttonchops.^[4] He possessed self-regenerating abilities.^[3]

Equipment[]

Myo wore a brown tunic while at the cantina.^[6]

Behind the scenes[]

Costume[]

Myo first appeared in the original trilogy film Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope,^[6] which was released on May 25, 1977.^[7] According to fan website Aveleyman, Myo was portrayed by Phil Tippett,^[8] a make-up artist and stop motion animator for the film who was uncredited for the role.^[6] The character's shots were filmed during additional photography^[9] in post-production where supplemental footage was created for the cantina sequence^[10] on a sound stage in Dovington's Hollywood studio between January 24 and 25, 1977,^[11] The character's hands were originally created by makeup artist Rick Baker for the 1974 horror film It's Alive,^[12] with the same design but modified with fur used for the Gotal cantina patrons^[11] Feltipern Trevagg,^[1] Hennet Kayn,^[13] and Cobb Sonbepol.^[14]

The character's mask started out as a mass-produced Halloween mask created by Baker and based on the cyclopean centaur character from the 1973 film The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, for which Baker hoped to get a license. When the license to use the character was turned down, the mask was then heavily modified for use in Star Wars with Laine Liska adding a number of warts one-by-one^[9] and turning it into a slip-on mask with slight articulation in the eye^[15] that allowed it to open an close, but limited articulation elsewhere.^[16] The same mask was later used in the The Star Wars Holiday Special^[16] in 1978 for which it was modified with additional hair and used for the character Cyceyed.^[17]

Naming[]

ShortKingMyo — Myo was known as "Cyclops" during production.

During production, Myo was known as "The One-Eyed Cyclops"^[15] or just "Cyclops"^[18] with plans for his proper name to be Cyceyed in 1978; however, this name was never used for the character.^[15] In the current Star Wars canon, Myo was first identified in the mobile card game Star Wars: Force Collection,^[2] which initially launched in 2013. Although the launch of Force Collection predates^[19] the Star Wars canon reset of 2014,^[20] Lucasfilm Story Group member Leland Chee confirmed that the game was kept updated to fit with canon.^[21]

The name originated in the Star Wars Legends continuity,^[22] where in June, 1995^[23] an Abyssian character named Myo was introduced in Alliance Intelligence Reports, a supplement for Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game published by West End Games, but the book did not connect this character to the Abyssian seen in the film.^[22] In December, 1995,^[24] a card in the "Premiere Limited" set for the Star Wars Customizable Card Game produced by Decipher, Inc. then identified the film character as being Myo.^[25] The name Cyceyed was then applied to The Holiday Special character that re-used Myo's mask by The Star Wars Holiday Special Cantina: Who's Who, a StarWars.com article written by Tim Veekhoven and Kevin Beentjes and published on December 2, 2013.^[17]