Kabe/Legends

Kabe, a female Chadra-Fan, was a regular visitor of the Mos Eisley cantina. She loved juri juice.

Biography

Kabe was the adopted daughter of Muftak, a Talz. Muftak found her on the streets of Mos Eisley, apparently abandoned by slavers who thought she was too small to sell. Muftak took her in and taught her the ways of the street. Kabe lived with him in in a section of abandoned tunnels beneath Docking Bay 83.^[3]

Whenever Muftak and Kabe went to the Mos Eisley cantina, Kabe would drink too much juri juice, and Muftak would have to carry her home. Despite his rough look, Muftak was a good guardian and cared about Kabe, although he was obsessed with finding out what species he was. Kabe worried that when he did, he would leave her and travel to his home planet.

Kabe was an associate of Greedo, and knew information that many others did not. She helped Greedo find Temo Dionisio when the Rebel sympathizer went missing.^[4]

Kabe and Muftak made their living through thievery. Kabe was a petty thief and would often pick the pockets of other bar patrons. The pair sometimes robbed, or attempted to rob, Imperial establishments. Desiring for more, Kabe would occasionally pester Muftak about robbing Jabba Desilijic Tiure's town house in Mos Eisley. Muftak and Kabe eventually did. Aided by Jabba's droid K-8LR after they removed his restraining bolt, they managed to steal many treasures from the Hutt. In the mansion, they came across a Rebel operative being tortured by a nerve disruptor. Kabe freed him and he gave them a datachip and told them to give it to a Mon Calamari to earn 30,000 credits. As they made their way down the hallway they were discovered by two Gamorrean guards. A large blaster fight erupted as they made their way to the main audience chamber. There a fire broke out. Muftak told Kabe to run, saying he would be right behind her. When Kabe got outside, she realized he had no intention of saving his life as well. Kabe dropped her sack of treasure and ran back in to help Muftak get away. They managed to escape, but found that to their great dismay the sack was gone. However, they still had the datachip. They delivered it, and were given 15,000 credits by the Mon Calamari. They also received several letters of transit signed by Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin, enabling them to travel anywhere. With these, Muftak was finally able to travel to his home planet of Alzoc III and brought Kabe to her home planet, Chad.

Behind the scenes

Kabe was portrayed by Rusty Goffe in A New Hope.

Kabe first appeared in the novelization of A New Hope ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster and published on November 12, 1976, half a year before the film was released. Kabe was unnamed and described as a rodent-like alien. In the cantina scene, she accompanied a short human and a many-eyed alien—early incarnations of Cornelius Evazan and Ponda Baba—when they insulted and attacked Luke Skywalker. In this version, Obi-Wan Kenobi sliced Evazan's hand and cut Kabe and Baba in half. The scene was much the same in the revised fourth draft of the film's script. In the final film, though, Kabe didn't accompany Baba, and Obi-Wan dealt less drastically with the outlaws. However, upon closer examination of the sequence, Evazan can be seen talking to Kabe before the scuffle, indicating that the idea of them being allies may have lasted up to shooting.

In one of the better-known "goofs" in A New Hope, as Kabe is seen drinking her juri juice from the side, the camera clearly shows that the character's mask has transparent eyes; you can see directly through one eye and out the other, making the bar behind her eyes visible.

There is also another, lesser-known "goof" involving this character. As Wuher directs the stormtroopers to where Obi-Wan and Luke are seated, Kabe can be seen drinking through the chin of the mask, not the mouth.

In "The Hovel on Terk Street", Kabe is referred to as a male.