Tookas, also known as tooka cats, bear a striking resemblance to the Cheshire Cat from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Throughout their appearances in Star Wars media, the tookas share the same large, flat face, and an oversized mouth that can curve into a smile. While the resemblance at first seems to be mainly aesthetic, this conversion of cats from Earth into a Wonderland-style creature enriches the Star Wars universe in both aesthetic and symbolic ways.
In Lewis Carroll's novel, he describes the Cheshire Cat as follows: "The Cat only grinned when it saw Alice. It looked good-natured, she thought: still, it had very long claws, and a great many teeth, so she felt that it ought to be treated with respect." The cat's magic shows when it leaves, with its final disappearance being the most iconic. Carroll writes, "this time, it vanished quite slowly, beginning with the end of the tail, and ending with the grin, which remained some time after the rest of it was gone." The Cheshire Cat shows up twice in the novel. In both appearances, the cat mainly asks Alice about her experiences in Wonderland and opinions about its citizens. In short, the Cheshire Cat just wants the tea and revels in the chaos.
John Tenniel's illustrations for the novel transformed these descriptions into the template for all future depictions of the Cheshire Cat. Although his version of the cat looks very similar to a normal cat, the differences are clear in the Cheshire Cat's face. Tenniel emphasized the cat's grin, making it stretch across the cat's oversized head and showing off the its "great many teeth." Other versions of the Cheshire Cat, such as Disney's Alice's in Wonderland, are more colorful.
The tookas of Star Wars have a similar color palette to the Disney version of the Cheshire Cat, but they seem to resemble Tenniel's illustrations more. The main deviation is the tookas' eyes, which are consistent throughout all of the subspecies. Loth-cats, a subspecies of tooka most commonly found in Star Wars Rebels, have a color palette more similar to normal cats, but they still have the same features as the rest of the tooka species. Thus, while there is some variation, the tookas have a consistent resemblance to the Cheshire Cat.
In their first on-screen appearance in Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 5, Episode 19, "To Catch a Jedi," the tookas serve a symbolic purpose similar to the Cheshire Cat. After being framed for murder, Ahsoka Tano is on the run from the Republic Senate and the Jedi Council. During this time, Ahsoka briefly partners with bounty hunter Asajj Ventress to navigate the lower levels of Coruscant. Two tookas appear, playfully fighting in the foreground right before Ahsoka and Ventress part ways. As Ventress prepares to leave, Ahsoka states, "I have to admit, I never saw us doing anything together, ever." Ventress responds, "These are strange times." The appearance of the tookas immediately prior to this scene works with this conversation to highlight the chaotic mess the Republic and the Jedi have become.
Later in the episode, another tooka appears after Ventress leaves Ahsoka. Ventress assumes that Ahsoka is following her, but it turns out to just be a tooka, who startles and runs away. Right afterwards, Ventress is attacked by a hooded figure, who is later revealed to be Barriss Offee in the next episode, "The Wrong Jedi." Again, the tooka is used as a prelude to a revelation of a world gone mad. Ahsoka has descended into this new, mad world, and, like in Wonderland, nothing is as it seems.
Loth-cats appear throughout Star Wars Rebels, but the most significant Loth-cat appears in Season 2, Episode 11, "Legacy." In a vision, Ezra Bridger hears the voices of his parents. The vision cycles through locations, and at one point, Ezra finds himself on an Imperial base. A white Loth-cat appears, and when Ezra reaches out to pet it, he gets flashes of his parents imprisoned by the Empire. Ezra incorrectly assumes that the Loth-cat means that his parents are on Lothal.
Once there, Ezra realizes that the white Loth-cat is not just a vision when he meets it in person. The white Loth-cat leads Ezra to Ryder Azadi, the former governor of Lothal, who informs Ezra that his parents died while helping other prisoners escape from the Empire. While this news is not the happy reunion Ezra hoped for, he is comforted by a vision he has of his parents telling him that they are proud of his actions and his role in the Rebellion. Thus, in this case, the Loth-cat still represents the idea that nothing is as it seems, but this particular Loth-cat leads Ezra to the truth rather than representing a world in chaos.
Therefore, despite the tookas and Loth-cats of Star Wars not having the magical abilities of the Cheshire Cat, they still sometimes signify that there is more to the story. Even when this isn't the case, tookas ground the viewer in the familiar while still marking the Star Wars universe as alien in comparison to Earth.
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