Beldorion the Hutt Sketch Card by Spencer Brinkerhoff

Artist Spencer Brinkerhoff periodically does a sort of contest in his thread at the Rebelscum forums where he will post a message containing the word “GO!” and the first person to post a character name afterward will get a free sketch card of that character. He says it’s a way to practice his drawing skills, but it’s also a great way to drum up some interest — I’m sure he’s gotten a fair amount of business out of it, including a commission of Jabba the Hutt from me a while back.

Anyway, this time I decided to go with something a little more obscure: Beldorion the Hutt (even Spencer admitted he had to look up the name). Beldorion has basically only appeared in one place — the novel “Planet of Twilight” by Barbara Hambly. He’s the first and only Hutt Jedi, but he (spoiler) later turned to the dark side and was killed by Leia in a duel after she herself became a Jedi.

Now, I have not read the book, so what I know about the character comes from things I’ve read online. In fact I don’t really have a lot of interest in books set in the Star Wars universe. My interest in Star Wars is largely focused on the movies themselves (and the merchandise, of course), so the so-called “Expanded Universe” doesn’t have a lot of appeal. (That’s one reason why I’m not too upset that Disney has recently said that all of the Expanded Universe stuff is no longer considered canon and won’t necessarily have any effect on the new movies they’re making.)

Still, I was kind of drawn to this character, since the idea of a Hutt Jedi seems both ludicrous and strangely cool to me. I don’t really like the idea that all Hutts are evil gangsters — surely there must be some good individuals in any race. It’s also interesting to think about what a Hutt might look like if he were muscular rather than fat like Jabba, although Spencer went with a more Jabba-like version.