Ben Quadinaros

Ben Quadinaros was an inexperienced Toong podracer pilot who raced on the amateur circuits before entering the Boonta Eve Classic podrace on the planet Tatooine in 32 BBY. He rented a BT310 quadra-Podracer for the competition, and prior to the race, he conversed with fellow racer Teemto Pagalies in the hangar of the Mos Espa Grand Arena. On the day of the race, Quadinaros waved to the cheering crowd as his name was announced by the race's commentator, Fodesinbeed Annodue; however, when the Hutt crime lord Jabba Desilijic Tiure signaled for the competition to begin, Quadinaros' vehicle stalled on the starting grid.

The racer hammered his fists against his vehicle as a group of DUM-series pit droids attended to it, although to no avail. As the rest of the racers neared the end of their first lap, Quadinaros' engines finally ignited just as the vehicle's energy binders deactivated. The four engines thus flew free of the vehicle and exploded, leaving Quadinaros sat on the floor of the arena as other pilots raced past. The human Anakin Skywalker then ultimately won the race.

Despite his embarrassing loss, Quadinaros persisted in podracing and in 29 BBY he qualified to take part in the Varl Tournament, an underground event being run by a splinter faction of the Pyke Syndicate on the Moons of Varl. The day before the first round of the tournament, Quadinaros entertained some of his opponents in the barracks the racers were all staying in, claiming to be friendly with the Dug podracer Sebulba, when the racer "Malone," who was in fact a disguised Skywalker, insulted Sebulba, Quadinaros flipped a table at Skywalker and charged at him. Skywalker stood his ground and brought up Quadinaros' loss on Boonta Eve, after which the Toong left.

The next day, Quadinaros surprised Skywalker with his grace in the first round, avoiding elimination. The Toong and the other remaining racers though were all unsettled when they saw that those who were eliminated were taken into custody by battle droids. In the second round of racing the following day, Quadinaros jostled with the Squib racer Scorr for first place until Skywalker came between them and raced ahead to cross the finish line first, although the Toong claimed second place. After more eliminated racers were taken away, Quadinaros and the other finalists were taken up for a feast in the Pyke Stronghold on the moon Black Rock.

During the feast, Skywalker created a distraction so that he could slip away to search for the missing Senate Intelligence Officer Yarg'l, learning that the eliminated racers were being fed to members of the Kayfoundo Kapa species being bred by Baron Grott, leader of the Pykes. Grott and the Hutt Neyfig then confronted Skywalker, who struck a deal with Grott to race under his real name in exchange for Yarg'l's release. The final round began the next day, and on the starting grid, Quadinaros expressed his displeasure at Skywalker having concealed his identity.

Once the race began, Quadinaros and the others learned that Neyfig, angry at Grott's deal, had sent battle droids onto the track to attack the racers. Skywalker contacted the other racers and convinced them to stick together to survive, leading them through two sets of droids thanks to the sacrifice of the droid racer VX-2411. Upon reaching Varl's third moon, Skywalker realized that Neyfig had released Kayfoundo Kapa at the finish line ahead of them, and split off from Quadinaros and the others to draw the creatures away, allowing Quadinaros and their other two remaining racers to escape the circuit and steal a salvage tow on Black Rock that they used to get off the moon safely. Quadinaros then continued racing and was eventually billed as Sebulba's arch-nemesis on the poster The Sport's Greatest Rivalry during the Clone Wars.

Biography

Inexperienced entrant

Ben Quadinaros was a Toong male^[2] from the planet Tund^[1] in the Tund system^[3] who became a famous podracer on his homeworld.^[4] After racing on amateur circuits^[5] that prepared races to be safe and had few accidents, he joined the professional circuits^[4] by participating in the Boonta Eve Classic on the planet Tatooine,^[3] in the Grand Arena of the city Mos Espa.^[6] Despite being the least experienced racer taking part in the event,^[7] Quadinaros was rumored to be the one to watch.^[8] The Toong rented^[5] a BT310 quadra-Podracer^[9] from the manufacturer Balta-Trabaat in Mos Espa specially for the race.^[4]

Prior to the race, Quadinaros presented himself alongside the other racers at the venue's hangar, where his vehicle was stored.^[4] While in the hanger, he walked past the Dug racer Sebulba as the latter received a massage from the Twi'lek^[3] enslaved twins Ann and Tann Gella.^[10] After the pod of the human racer, Anakin Skywalker, was brought into the hangar, the Toong,^[3] who was nervous before the race, chatted^[4] with the Veknoid podracer Teemto Pagalies near the entrance to the building.^[3] Prior to the race, the Nuknog podracer Ark Roose attempted to sabotage Skywalker's vehicle but instead crippled Quadinaros' podracer.^[11]

As the setup for the race began, Quadinaros' podracer was pulled from the hangar to the starting line by a dewback. The racer stood amongst his competitors' vehicles and smiled and waved to the crowd as the race's Troig commentator, Fodesinbeed Annodue, listed him first while announcing the participants. Once the participants had been introduced, each of their flags were carried in procession across the starting grid, including Quadinaros' flag,^[3] which consisted of five separate thin, triangular flags: the top two red; the bottom two orange; and the central flag yellow.^[12]

Engine trouble

On Annodue's command, Quadinaros and the other racers started their engines as the race track was cleared of non-participants. When the event's host, crime lord Jabba Desilijic Tiure, sounded the start of the race,^[3] Quadinaros' power couplings failed,^[1] which resulted in his engine malfunctioning^[13] and failing to ignite,^[2] causing the vehicle to stall.^[6] As other racers left the starting grid, Skywalker also encountered engine troubles, and as Annodue commented on the two racers stuck on the starting grid,^[3] four of the Toong's DUM-series pit droids^[10] raced out to aid him as he hammered his fists into the display screen of his podracer's cockpit^[3] and tried in vain to restart the engines.^[4]

As the rest of the racers passed through the Canyon Dune Turn, Quadinaros' pit droids left his pod and returned to the side of the race track.^[3] Despite their intervention, the BT310 suffered total breakdown and the power couplings deactivated^[10] before more pit droids, aiming to avoid collisions, could arrive and move the vehicle away from the starting grid.^[6]

Losing his composure,^[4] the Toong cursed and continued to hammer on the podracer's display screen^[3] causing^[4] the vehicle's energy binders to switch off,^[3] meaning that when the vehicle's engine did suddenly ignite,^[2] all four of his engines detached from the vehicle's cockpit and flew off individually, exploding as they crashed into arena walls or the ground. Even as his pod slowly lowered to the ground, Quadinaros continued to curse and pound his fists into it until other racers reached the end of their first lap and rushed past him, prompting the Toong to duck and cover his head with his arms,^[3] although he was in fact perfectly safe and soon abandoned the race.^[4] Ultimately, Skywalker won the race and left Tatooine to join the Jedi Order.^[3]

Varl qualifiers

Despite his embarrassing^[13] loss at the Boonta Eve Classic, Quadinaros persevered with the sport^[7] and took part in the underground Varl Tournament on the Varl Circuit^[14] in 29 BBY.^[15] The circuit ran through the Hutt pilgrimage tunnels that connected the moons of the planet Varl in the Varl system and was being run by a splinter faction of the criminal Pyke Syndicate led by Baron^[14] Grott.^[16] After a series of elimination races, the finalists would be invited to a celebration feast at the Pyke Stronghold on the main moon, Black Rock.^[14]

After registering and being approved by the Hutt Neyfig, Quadinaros first took part in a series of contentious qualification races on the circuit, making it onto the roster but with the slowest lap time on the leaderboard of those who had qualified. Footage of Quadinaros' performance in the races was displayed along with that of other racers on holoprojectors set up throughout the makeshift city being used by the Pykes on Black Rock. Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi, the master of now Jedi Padawan Skywalker, recognised Quadinaros in the footage once he and Skywalker arrived on Black Rock as part of an undercover mission to locate the missing Senate Intelligence Officer^[14] Yarg'l.^[17]

As part of the mission, Skywalker entered the Varl Tournament disguised as the Geranite racer "Malone" and any nervousness he felt was dispelled once he learned that Quadinaros had managed to qualify. Based on the Toong's competence in their previous encounter, Skywalker was not overly concerned about his own chances of beating Quadinaros but only just managed to match the Toong's time after purposefully not using his full Jedi abilities and being unprepared for the zero-gravity sections of the circuit.^[14]

Bar room bullying

The qualified racers were housed in a racer barracks below the Pyke Stronghold during the tournament and when Skywalker was brought there, Quadinaros was busy entertaining some of the lower-ranking racers in the mess hall. Quadinaros told an entirely made-up story in which the Toong declined an invitation from Sebulba to jointly headline a race together somewhere in the Portmoak sector. Mention of the controversial Dug provoked anger from some of those listening, but defensive praise from others.^[14]

Skywalker considered sidling up beside the Toong just to see what the skittish racer would do, but instead called out to insult Sebulba. In response, Quadinaros flipped a table at the disguised Skywalker and charged at him while flailing his spindly arms in wild circles, angrily claiming that "Malone" was not in the same league as Sebulba. Skywalker was surprised at the Toong's reaction and thought that maybe the other racer was playing up to the lie he had told about being friendly with Sebulba. Now a head and a half taller than Quadinaros, the human stood his ground and mocked the Toong for having flamed out on the starting line of the Boonta Eve race. Retorting that the flame-out had been a long time ago, Quadinaros quickly turned away and stormed out while furiously blinking his eyes, making Skywalker wonder if he had made the Toong cry. The racers^[14] Dim and Barba^[16] then confronted Skywalker and threatened that they might make sure that he flamed out instead, with others present suggesting he might not even survive the night.^[14]

Round one

The next day, the fifteen qualified racers all took part in the first round of the tournament, where the bottom five would be eliminated. Quadinaros's four-engined podracer was placed directly next to Skywalker's on the first row of the starting grid with Dim, Barba, and the Squib racer^[14] Scorr^[18] on the Toong's other side. A sense of tension and anxiety roiled over the racers just before the event began, although through the Force Skywalker could feel that none of them were concerned about him. Neyfig then gave the signal for the race to start and Quadinaros and the others raced toward the first tunnel, where two of the competitors crashed.^[14]

Quadinaros bided his time at the rear of the pack for much of the race, waiting for the number of competitors to thin out. After Barba caused a Gran racer to crash in the stretch of tunnel after the second zero-gravity area on the circuit, the Toong made his move and charged out through the flames of the crash, left, right, around, over, and then under other racers to move from eleventh position to eighth. Skywalker was surprised to see Quadinaros pull off such a move with what looked like practiced ease, and also did not expect the grace with which the Toong did it, which left the human breathless but pleased at Quadinaros' improvement.^[14]

On the third moon, the pack swung wide and Quadinaros ended up on the outer edge of the line of racers with Skywalker beside him. The Jedi could sense the Toong's determination through the Force and was also able to sense that Quadinaros planned to drop back behind him and then slipstream to the left to get ahead. Knowing that he would do the same thing in the Toong's position, Skywalker did not interfere and flared his brakes so that Quadinaros ended up ahead of him instead of behind as they entered the third and final tunnel. Quadinaros moved further up the pack as they approached the final zero-gravity area and finished ahead of Skywalker, who came in tenth place.^[14]

Post-race discussions

The two racers who were eliminated from the race in the first round were removed and taken into custody by battle droids at the finish line, causing a spike of fear among the remaining racers, who had not realized this was the consequence of elimination. Those who had not been eliminated then headed into the barracks to eat in the mess hall and rest, although the group discussed what had happened to the eliminated racers and bristled at their treatment.^[14]

Skywalker told the others he wanted to go for a walk and left the mess hall, ending up in the hangar where the podracers were kept, including the droid racer VX-2411. The human spoke to the droid, who had begun to doubt Skywalker's cover as Malone when it witnessed him allowing Quadinaros to survive when the Toong had passed Skywalker unchallenged before entering the third tunnel during the race. The droid considered this apparent error inconsistent with the rest of "Malone's" behavior, but the human untruthfully protested that it had simply been a mistake and that he had not purposefully allowed Quadinaros to do anything.^[14]

Round two

The following day, the ten remaining racers returned to the grid for the second elimination round, in which five more racers would be eliminated. Quadinaros had earned a place in the front row and revved his engines as the starting light turned yellow, before racing over the line as the light turned green. With Scorr in first place and Dim in second, Quadinaros got jumpy and began trying to edge around VX-2411 to take third place, but the droid slid left and right rapidly in order to prevent the Toong overtaking. Once the group exited the first zero-gravity section of the circuit, Skywalker had moved up into third with Quadinaros and Scorr ahead of him juking it out for first place. Skywalker tried to swing round the pair to overtake them, but both saw him coming and swung to the right to block him. They also saw Skywalker's next move, swinging left and using their slipstreams to overtake, and prevented it.^[14]

Deciding to power through Quadinaros and Scorr instead of around them, Skywalker fell back and lined up his vehicle directly between the Toong and the Squib before using the Force to lift one of his engines vertically on top of the other. The thinner vehicle width allowed Skywalker to then fit between the two racers ahead, nodding to each in turn, before dropping the engines back into place and reactivating it. As Skywalker's two engines righted themselves, they knocked Quadinaros and Scorr's vehicles aside and allowed the human to take first place. Skywalker then raced well ahead of the others to cross the finish line with Quadinaros taking second place behind him. VX-2411, Barba, and Scorr also avoided elimination, while Dim had been shot and killed by Barba during the race. The other four racers were eliminated and removed by droids.^[14]

An awkward ride

Apart from VX-2411, the finalists entered a turbolift that would take them up to the Pyke Stronghold for their feast. They traveled up in silence until Skywalker asked Barba about the rivalry she had had with Dim. Scorr criticised her for killing the other racer, and Quadinaros rocked nervously from foot to foot as he questioned if she would shoot the rest of them in the next race. Barba growled into the Toong's face that she might, but Skywalker then pointed out that she would not be able to without her blaster, which he had stolen and discarded without her noticing.^[14]

Although he claimed she must have dropped it, Barba blamed Skywalker for the loss of the weapon, but ultimately decided it did not matter as they were all going to die anyway, having doomed themselves as soon as they qualified for a race the Pykes would never let them leave. This caused a wave of dread to spread through Quadinaros and Scorr that Skywalker felt through the Force.^[14]

A grim feast

The group then arrived at Baron Grott's audience chamber in the stronghold, where Grott awaited them in silence. Once Neyfig arrived they followed him to the table where Grott was seated and took their own seats. Quadinaros, Scorr, and Barba were then presented with a dish of authentic cuisine from their homeworlds, which each of them silently picked at and ate. Hoping to cause a distraction so that he could sneak away to find Yarg'l, Skywalker then used the Force to shatter a cauldron of bog rats that Neyfig was eating before manipulating the Hutt's tail to knock over the table and also popping off Scorr's helmet to create further chaos. With the various battle droids in the room opening fire as they were caught up in the confusion, Skywalker then left Quadinaros and the others and successfully snuck out of the audience chamber.^[14]

Skywalker discovered that Grott had been feeding the eliminated racers to members of the^[14] Kayfoundo Kapa^[16] species that the baron had been breeding, but managed to rescue the only surviving prisoner, Yarg'l. Before Skywalker could leave the stronghold, he was confronted by Grott and Neyfig, but struck a deal with Grott for Yarg'l to go free in exchange for Skywalker completing the last race under his real identity, drawing a lot more attention to the Varl Tournament that would lead to many more racers signing up and ultimately being consumed by the Kayfoundo Kapa.^[14]

The final round

The next day, the five remaining racers lined up on the grid for the final race, although with Skywalker no longer in disguise and left frowning as he contemplated his situation. Displeased that the famed racer had been hiding among their ranks the entire time, Quadinaros yelled at Skywalker over the sound of his idling engines and threatened him, after which Scorr and Barba angrily revved their engines in support. The Toong was positioned in the center of the starting grid with Skywalker to his left and Barba to his right, and he raced forward with the others when the light turned green. However, angry at the deal that Grott had struck with Skywalker, Neyfig had deployed battle droids to the track. In the first tunnel, the droids opened fire on the racers and their bolts ricocheted off the hood of Quadinaros' vehicle and into the other racers, causing confusion and fear among them all.^[14]

Quadinaros and the others dodged and weaved through the oncoming fire as Skywalker contacted them over a hotwired comm channel, explaining that Neyfig was trying to destroy the entire tournament. When the human told them all to line up behind him when they crossed the upcoming zero-gravity area, Quadinaros practically screamed in response and questioned why they should trust him enough to let him take first place. Skywalker then revealed that he was a Jedi, stunning the others into silence. The four other racers then fell into line behind Skywalker as he had requested and while they moved through the zero-gravity area, he altered the wavelength of his vehicle's energy binders to form a pseudo-shield that deflected the blaster bolts and protected the five racers.^[14]

Escaping Black Rock

In the second tunnel, more droids ricocheted shots off the sides of the tunnel to try and hit the racers behind Skywalker. After one damaged Skywalker's vehicle, VX-2411 moved up in front of the human and then purposefully crashed itself into the battle droids, sacrificing itself to clear a path for the four other racers. On the surface of Varl's third moon, Barba suggested that once they reached the finish line ,they make a break for the spaceport of the city on Black Rock to try and escape. Skywalker then sensed Neyfig releasing the Kayfoundo Kapa at the finish line and eased off his throttle, which Quadinaros questioned from third place. The Jedi then explained that Kayfoundo Kapa were filling the tunnel ahead of them. When the Toong asked what they should do, Skywalker ordered Quadinaros, Scorr, and Barba to avoid entering the tunnel and turn to circle the surface of the moon before looping back. This would give him time to enter the tunnel alone and draw away all the creatures by overheating his engine, allowing the three other racers to reach the spaceport.^[14]

Quadinaros thanked Skywalker for the risk the human was taking, admitting that the Jedi was alright despite the fact that he had won the Boonta Eve race due to his Jedi powers. Skywalker revealed that he had not known about his power back when they had first competed against one another, then the group split ways as planned. Skywalker sensed the pilots' fear as they entered the tunnel behind him after completing their loop, and then successfully used his vehicle to draw away most of the Kayfoundo Kapa as planned, bailing from the vehicle in the zero-gravity portion of the last tunnel. Left floating, he watched the other racers drive past to safety but was too distracted by the remaining Kayfoundo Kapa to reach out and try and grab one of their ships. The trio made it to the spaceport, where the Pykes and their droids were battling more Kayfoundo Kapa, and stole a salvage tow which they used to escape the surface of Black Rock and race away to safety, each scattering to their own corner of the galaxy. Having been rescued by Kenobi, Skywalker witnessed the other racers' escape and was glad to see them live to race another day.^[14]

Later career

After escaping from the Varl system,^[14] Quadinaros continued to race and was eventually billed as Sebulba's greatest rival.^[7] The Toong would go on to win the Boonta Eve Classic at some point before podracing became less popular on Tatooine.^[20] During the Republic Era, a sporting poster titled The Sport's Greatest Rivalry was produced under the name Codenka Mafurias, which, according to artist Janyor of the^[19] planet^[21] Bith, was presumably the alias of an art workshop bankrolled by Marlo the Hutt. The poster depicted Quadinaros as an underdog with Sebulba as his arch-rival, showing the Toong racing in a BT310 quadra-Podracer across a rocky landscape.^[19]

In 19 BBY,^[22] Skywalker, by then a Jedi Knight, had a copy of The Sport's Greatest Rivalry hung on the wall of his personal quarters in the Jedi Temple on the planet Coruscant.^[23] Later in the Clone Wars, an altered version of the poster that only showed Quadinaros and his vehicle hung in Galactic Republic clone trooper barracks in Fort Anaxes on the world of Anaxes.^[24] Around 10 BBY,^[25] the podracer Volo Bolus looked at a plush toy of Sebulba in Sornah's Garage on^[26] the planet^[7] Malastare and recalled a conversation with their recently deceased friend Pyya Bocc in which Bocc told Bolus that they could be Sebulba while they played together and he would play a different racer. Bolo pointed out that no one wanted to play as Quadinaros, but Bocc retorted that someone had to come in second, causing the pair to laugh.^[26] In 2 BBY,^[27] Jedi Padawan Ezra Bridger also had the altered version of the poster on the wall of his cabin on the VCX-100 light freighter Ghost.^[28] Shortly after the Hosnian Cataclysm^[19] in 34 ABY,^[29] Jaynor published A History of Persuasive Art in the Galaxy, a book that included mention of Quadinaros in relation to The Sport's Greatest Rivalry.^[19]

In addition, Quadinaros was mentioned in an artist's journal, which was restored, expanded, and displayed at the Graf Archive^[8] at some point no earlier than 34 ABY.^[30] A mention of Quadinaros was included on a poster for the Boonta Eve Classic in the Tatooine section of the book Galactic Explorer's Guide, authored by the pirate Hondo Ohnaka and his protocol droid DK-RA-43 at some point after the Battle of Crait^[31] the same year.^[29] At some point after 35 ABY, Quadinaros was mentioned as one of the notable entrants to the Boonta Eve Classic in a book detailing objects from throughout galactic history.^[32]

Personality and traits

Ben Quadinaros was more comfortable on the amateur podracing circuits^[5] and was quite terrified of the Boonta Eve Classic,^[2] panicking shortly before the race about the fact that he would be competing in such an impressive and dangerous competition. The fact that he was using a vehicle he had rented at the last moment only increased this anxiety.^[4] However, he hoped the race would end a streak of bad luck.^[1]

During the Varl Tournament, Quadinaros pretended to be friendly with Sebulba and violently came to his defense when Skywalker insulted him, although the Toong left after his past failure at Boonta Eve was brought up. He was angry with Skywalker when his true identity was revealed, but followed his plan upon learning that the human was a Jedi and admitted that the other racer was alright before having to split up with Skywalker, although he also brought up that his Jedi abilities had aided him in winning the Boonta Eve.^[14]

Despite Toongs being extremely timid by nature, he overcame his shyness to become a podracer and participate in the sport,^[8] although Skywalker still considered him to be twitchy and jumpy.^[14] The racer was short by Toong standards^[7] at 1.63 meters in height,^[2] but was the tallest entrant in the Boonta Eve Classic.^[7] He was innovative,^[10] pudgy, and comic-faced,^[2] with yellow skin and orange eyes. He had three antennas on top of his head and spoke in a language other than Galactic Basic Standard.^[3]

Skills and abilities

At the time of the Boonta Eve Classic, Quadinaros was a largely inexperienced rookie podracer,^[2] having only raced on relatively safe amateur tracks that were the antithesis of the chaotic and dangerous professional circuit.^[4] By the time of the Varl Tournament though, Quadinaros flew with a grace that took Skywalker's breath away and made it look like the Toong was performing with a practiced ease.^[14] He later came to be billed as rival to the famous podracer Sebulba.^[7]

Equipment

Ben Quadinaros wore a gray bodysuit while participating in the Boonta Eve Classic^[3] and used a hastily put-together^[7] BT310 quadra-Podracer^[9] that he had rented specially for the race.^[5] The BT310 was difficult to control for any rider, but especially hard to master for amateurs like Quadinaros. His vehicle had seen better days, but was faster than any of the other podracers in the Boonta Eve Classic bar that of Anakin Skywalker. The rental had been hastily prepared before being rented to the Toong and so did not match the specifications given for it. It was decorated with scarlet and brown flames on a gray and silver background.^[4] Quadinaros also owned an Otoga-222 maintenance droid at the time of the race.^[33]

Behind the scenes

Film production

Ben Quadinaros was created for the 1999 prequel trilogy film, Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace.^[3] In the revised rough draft of the film's script, Quadinaros was not included among a list of the pilots participating in the podrace, with a Slide Paramita of Tund mentioned instead.^[35] Paramita was not used in the film,^[3] but he was developed into a separate character for the 1999 Star Wars Legends video game Star Wars: Episode I Racer.^[36] According to Hal Hickel, one of the visual effects artists who worked on The Phantom Menace, animation director Rob Coleman asked director George Lucas for more information on who Quadinaros was when it came to working on the podracing sequence, as there was little on the character in the script. Lucas described the racer as wealthy but lacking common sense and described Quadinaros' pod as complicated and never having worked correctly.^[34]

Conceptual art for Quadinaros in The Phantom Menace was created by designers Terryl Whitlatch and Iain McCaig, with Whitlatch producing three pieces in 1996 showing the anatomy and range of movement for the character and McCaig producing two different costume concepts on May 21, 1997.^[35] A Model Build/Shoot Gantt chart for the film dated February 27, 1998, listed a pair of puppet arms for "Ben Quad" as being needed for use between May 10 and May 24 of that year.^[37] In one of The Phantom Menace's deleted scenes, Quadinaros is shown referring to a datapad and checking his podracer cockpit's display screen as other racers start their engines. He then throws the datapad toward his engines and hammers his fists on the screen.^[38]

Naming and mystery

In Whitlatch's pieces, the character was labeled "Ben Cuvidoros," and in McCaig's, the labels named him "Ben Quadidaros."^[35] Quadinaros' final name was likely derived from the "quadra-Pod" racing engines of his vehicle.^[40] His name was misspelled as "Quadiaros" in the Databank entry for the Tund system on StarWars.com.^[41] In the 2016 reference book Star Wars: Complete Locations, Quadinaros' flag is erroneously listed as belonging to the racer Mawhonic, while Quadinaros is incorrectly shown to be using the flag^[6] that belongs to the racer Clegg Holdfast.^[12]

When questioned in 2010 about including Quadinaros in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television show, supervising director Dave Filoni stated that the podracer was not a practical character to work with as Toong anatomy meant that Quadinaros would not be able to reach vehicle controls—or indeed his own mouth—with his short arms, and they would have to change starship designs to accommodate the size of the character's head. Filoni also pointed out that they would need to explain what had happened to Quadinaros after the Boonta Eve Classic, although he admitted that he could imagine them taking the time out of an episode to do that.^[42]

During a featurette for the fourth season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Filoni asked lead designer Kilian Plunkett if he believed that Quadinaros should appear in the show, but Plunkett responded that there was no room for the character as they should leave some mystery to the racer. They then joked that perhaps the Boonta Eve Classic was the only race he ever lost and that they could make a documentary-style series on the character.^[39] During Celebration Japan 2025, actor Sam Witwer and producer Athena Portillo joked with interviewer Anthony Carboni about Lucasfilm Animation making a Ben Quadinaros show titled Ben Quadinaros: Power Racer or Quadinaros: A Star Wars Story.^[43] On December 5, 2024, the official Star Wars Instagram account used Quadinaros to represent a mood with the song title "Not Ready for the Prime Time."^[44]

LEGO appearances

Quadinaros is featured in the non-canon LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures episode "Race on Tatooine,"^[45] which aired on July 18, 2016.^[46] He was voiced by Dee Bradley Baker speaking an alien language. In the episode, Quadinaros helps the Hutt crime lord Graballa lure the Freemaker family into a trap on Tatooine after the criminal threatens to snap his antenna off. The podracer contacts the family to hire them as a replacement pit crew and claims that his usual crew have caught sand rot. The three Freemaker siblings accept and travel to Tatooine to work on a decoy podracer they believe belongs to the Toong. Quadinaros then introduces them to his "sponsor," revealing Graballa with several of the Hutt's henchmen. The Freemakers realize that Quadinaros has betrayed them, but Graballa explains that the Toong did not do so willingly and dismisses him.^[45]

Quadinaros then participates in the 29th Annual Bricklayers' Classic at the Mos Espa Grand Arena and manages to reach first place by the third lap; however, the Freemakers catch up with him, having escaped Graballa's clutches in the decoy podracer they had been working on. The family crashes into Quadinaros' podracer and causes his engines to separate from his cockpit, leaving him in the dust as they fly on to win the race.^[45]

Quadinaros also appears in LEGO Star Wars: Droid Tales, a non-canon series retelling the events of each of the original trilogy and prequel trilogy films. The first episode, "Exit from Endor,"^[47] aired on July 6, 2015.^[48] In it, Quadinaros is shown in the protocol droid C-3PO's retelling of The Phantom Menace; however, his podracer explodes on the starting grid before the Boonta Eve Classic even has begun.^[47] "Gambit on Geonosis," the final episode of the series, aired on November 2, 2015.^[49] It features a retelling of^[50] the 1983 film Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi,^[51] with Quadinaros appearing in the retelling as one of several allies that join the Jedi Luke Skywalker and his friends in fighting Jabba during the skirmish at the Great Pit of Carkoon on Tatooine. Aboard Jabba's sail barge, Quadinaros and the other allies form a pyramid acrobatic formation.^[50]

Padawan's Pride

Quadinaros appeared in the Audible-exclusive audio drama Padawan's Pride,^[14] which was written by Bryan Q. Miller and released as part of the Star Wars Adventures: Audible Originals series on September 19, 2024.^[53] The story was pitched from the start as a podracing tale and Miller re-watched the podracing scenes from The Phantom Menace and played Star Wars: Episode I Racer as part of his preparation. Having been told that Sebulba could not be used in the story, Miller chose Quadinaros as the next most interesting racer from those sources due to his role as the butt of a joke in which he fails in front of the entire galaxy.^[52]

The racer was his favorite inclusion of a side character from other media and Miller found him a particular fun character to flesh out, feeling that Quadinaros came away from the events of Episode I humiliated and that he was under-represented in other Star Wars media. Wanting to tell the story of what happened to Quadinaros after his humiliation, Miller felt that he brought justice for the Toong.^[52]

Appearances

• Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace (First appearance)
• Padawan's Pride
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars — "The Rise of Clovis" (Appears on poster)
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars — "The Bad Batch" (Appears on poster)
• Star Wars: Beyond Victory - A Mixed Reality Playset (Mentioned only)
• Choose Your Destiny: A Podracer Mission (Mentioned only)
• Star Wars Rebels: Steps Into Shadow (Appears on poster)
• Star Wars Rebels — "The Holocrons of Fate" (Appears on poster)

Non-canon appearances

• LEGO Star Wars: Droid Tales — "Exit from Endor" (In flashback(s))
• LEGO Star Wars: Droid Tales — "Gambit on Geonosis" (In flashback(s))
• LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures — "Race on Tatooine"
• LEGO Star Wars: All-Stars — "The Prisoner of Tatooine" (Mentioned only)
• LEGO Star Wars: All-Stars — "From Trenches to Wrenches: The Roger Story" (Mentioned only)

Sources

Notes and references