Luminara Unduli

Let's go, girls! *Shania Twain riff* A green-skinned Mirialan, Luminara Unduli served the Jedi Order during the final years of the Galactic Republic, fighting in Clone Wars battles such as Geonosis and Kashyyyk. The packaging identifies this figure as being from Attack of the Clones, so the bio really shouldn't be talking about the Clone Wars, because they hadn't started yet. "Begun, the Clone Wars have not," to (almost) quote Yoda. Granted, there's not a lot of material for them to draw from, since all she was was a fancy design who showed up in the Geonosis arena, but say that: "A green-skinned Mirialan, Luminara Unduli served the Jedi Order during the final years of the Galactic Republic, and was one of the Jedi Masters sent to rescue Obi-Wan Kenobi from execution on the red rock planet Geonosis." Hire us to write your copy, toy companies! Luminara Unduli was designed by concept artist Dermot Power, but she wasn't always a Jedi - in fact, her art was another iteration in the same concept pool that eventually brought us Asajj Ventress! Once you learn that, it's easy to see: pale skin, dark clothes, tattoos... in a very different world, where Episode II's potential female Sith lord was never dropped in favor of Dooku, this could have been the main villain of that movie! Instead of the traditional Jedi monk robes, Luminara dresses like a nun, a parallel furthered by the fact she seems to be wearing a wimple. According to the AotC Visual Dictionary, that covers "extrasensory organs sensitive to dryness," but that's never come up anywhere else. The real reason she has it? One of the intermediate steps between Asajj and Luminara would have seen the character be a Twi'lek (or at least something with similar lekku on her head) and she would have used a hood to cover them. You can still make out the Asajj connections in her costume, thanks to the tightly fitted shirt and ornate loincloth sash. The skirt and outer robe are softgoods, while the headdress and big billowy sleeves are sculpted. According to current canon, Mirialans' tattoos are a traditional way of marking some particular personal achievement or specific task. Luminara's are a series of black diamonds on her chin, though the toy doesn't have as many as the real makeup did. After all, what kind of weird person would ever take the time to count them here? Because her clothes are so dark, the pale yellow-green skin of her hands and face stands out strongly. The chin tattoos are crisp, even if there aren't enough of them, and there's no major over- or under-fill on the ornate loincloth and bracers. Apparently one of Luminara's skills is extreme flexibility? Some people use the Force to see the future, or to see the past, or to see the perfect weakness in anyone or anything, and I guess some people use the Force to make themselves double-jointed. Her first figure, in 2002, was extremely pre-posed, as was the style at the time. It allowed her dress to have a sculpted texture, and to flare out around her as though she were in the middle of a fight. This one gets the usual Black Series articulation: ankles, shins, knees, thighs, hips, waist, wrists, elbows, shouders, pec hinges, and neck. You can remove her outer robe if you want, but it doesn't really change anything - her range of motion is the same without it as with it. Her only accessory is her green lightsaber, with its removable blade. Since she wasn't one of the important Jedis in the movie, she didn't get a specialized lightsaber design, just whatever one was handy in the prop department (same reason General Grievous is using both Anakin and Obi-Wan's lightsabers at the end of Episode III); the various visual guides handwave this by saying it belongs to a the same "design family" as others, comparing its "finned radiator casing and a ribbed gripping surface" to the one used by Plo Koon. As for other accessories she might have included, why not go back to that original 2002 toy? The trend at the time was to include effects pieces that fit onto the blade, representing deflected blaster bolts, which was a cool idea then and better than anything they're trying these days. Luminara Unduli is one of those Star Wars characters who's not a character, just a design. She's one of a pair of warrior nuns who pop up on Geonosis and then are left for the Expanded Universe to deal with. Clone Wars (both versions) and Rebels did great work with her, we just wish she'd gotten a figure before Hasbro felt they had the right to jack prices for no reason. -- 05/30/26 Who's your favorite meaningless Jedi? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.