 What's up guys, this is Theron and tonight we're taking another dive into the Parawatch Wiki. Tonight's thread was started by user Sergeant Bones on November 6, 2012. It's called I-Man. Let's begin. The original trilogy of Star Wars films has spawned one of the most dedicated and passionate fanbases of all time. And what sets this particular pack of nerds apart from the others is the borderline obsessive documenting and cataloging of every extra or background character who appears on screen. Every character, regardless of screen time or plot relevance, has earned themselves a name, a fictional backstory, and sometimes that the design is visually intriguing enough, an action figure. But there's one character you won't find on a wookiepedia page, priced exorbitantly high in a collector's guide or lurking in the background. And if you do, God help you. I-Man. It's a name unfamiliar to even the most knowledgeable of Star Wars fans, but mention it to the small collective who are aware of I-Man's non-existence and watches their faces light up with a unique mixture of passion, weariness, and fear. Each account is as personal as the next, but every one of them is laced with a bitter sense of self-doubt, delivered with the cadence of a wisen storyteller telling a story for the thousandth time. I-Man is the name given to a background character who supposedly appeared in the original theatrical cut of the 1983 film Return of the Jedi. His design is consistent, a large muscle-bound cyclops covered in hair and a burlap sack. Compared to other extras in the Jabba's Palace sequence, I-Man is uncharacteristically simple. He's not a puppet or an elaborate animatronic, nor does he sport the colorful and imaginative design motifs of other palace denizens. By all means, I-Man is out of place, and rightfully so. Because I-Man does not exist. Every I-Man account starts out the same. A young boy between the ages of 5 to 9 watches Return of the Jedi in theaters after months of anticipation. They enjoy the film, but become particularly vested in the various aliens and creatures inhabiting Jabba's Palace, specifically the Cyclops. The roles that I-Man supposedly fills in the film vary between accounts, but only add to the intrigue of this mythology. Some claim he only stood in the background alongside other extras, with brief focus shots like the ones given to the other extras. Others remember a scene where I-Man accosts protocol droid C-3PO, who is acting as Jabba the Hutt's translator. I-Man proceeds to brutally dismember C-3PO as Jabba and the palace denizens cheer on. Some catching pieces of the droids' plating that fly through the air as the Cyclops continues his assault. The alien takes time to chew on the droids' wires before unceremoniously ripping C-3PO's head off with his mouth and swallowing. This lasts for an extended period of time, with no musical score, and is never referenced again. The film proceeds as normal, with C-3PO apparently being reconstructed by the next scene as if nothing happened. In the weeks that follow, witnesses become fixated on the creature, with I-Man receiving the same fearful curiosity children often exhibit towards movie monsters, but that would soon change. Attempts to bring up the scary Cyclops in Jabba's Palace appears, even ones that were present at the same showing, result in confusion, accounts detailing the C-3PO scene or laughed off at the playground, and I-Man witnesses learn not to talk about their secret obsession. Witnesses draw pictures of I-Man, incorporate the creature into their play sessions, and open every pack of tops trading cards hoping to get a glimpse of their one-eyed muse in the same way that they add the other background characters. As time goes on, I-Man creeps into their subconscious, usually in the back of their minds and always in their dreams. No one ever forgets the dreams. The progression of an I-Man dream varies between accounts, but certain attributes remain consistent. They take place in a dark and seemingly infinite location, like a forest or a basement. There's a nauseating sense of fear and dread. Other children are present. Simple actions like walking or running become near impossible, limbs feeling like they're tied to cinder blocks. I-Man is always present, hiding behind trees doors are in the background. The children explore the dream world, with I-Man never far behind. When a child draws verbal attention to the stalking cyclops, the creature will lunge out and devour the child before returning to the shadows. This happens for what feels like hours upon waking, it's like they never fell asleep. These dreams occur repeatedly for months, every single night. During the day, I-Man becomes an omnipresent background character in their life, hiding in the dark corners of a room or under the bed. But they remind themselves that he isn't real, that I-Man is just a guy in a costume or a puppet, and then they fall asleep. For most I-Man accounts, that's where the story ends. After hundreds of vivid lifelike nightmares, I-Man suddenly disappears. They don't think about I-Man for decades, before stumbling on a forum post about identifying the cyclops from Star Wars. It all comes flooding back. One forum post built upon another, from website to website, witnesses began connecting with each other and forming tightly-nipped private communities and chat rooms to discuss this phenomenon. If you know where to look, you'll find them. If you post about I-Man, they'll find you. No consensus has ever been reached through these discussions, nor any evidence of I-Man's existence found. All that remains are the harrowing stories told by an aging user base on a private IRC server, and that's all there will ever be. When it comes to I-Man, closure is not an option. But I was never satisfied with that. My story is different, and for the first time I will tell it. Where I branch off from the other witnesses is that I saw something tangible. My history with I-Man is, as far as I could tell, entirely unique to myself. I never saw Jedi in theaters. I saw it on Laserdisc in 1986, and I can assure you, there was no I-Man. Now for context, Star Wars was well on its way out in 1986. People had moved on, kids especially, and the thought of any new content seemed like a pipe dream. This, however, was great news for me, because that meant all of the toys were on deep discount. Every Saturday, I go to the toy store and pick two figures from the giant bin of unsold Star Wars toys. This worked out conveniently well for both me and my notoriously cheap parents. Regardless, I was happy. But one Saturday, as I sifted around the bin, like usual, examining the card backs and trying to decide whether I needed another stormtrooper, something caught my eye. It was a figure I had never seen before, and I was pretty certain I had seen them all. You probably guessed it by now. It was I-Man, staring at me in his 3.75 inch glory. Now as any avid Star Wars collector will tell you, an action figure of a random no-name background character is a pretty common occurrence, so seeing a character I wasn't particularly familiar with wasn't anything new. For every Luke Skywalker, there was a squid head or a walrus man. But this figure was different. He unnerved me. From the photo on the card back, he looked like he was from Java's Palace, and while I had a particular affinity for hot goons, I just couldn't bring myself to buy him. He was way too creepy, and quite frankly, I didn't need that in my toy box. I picked up another stormtrooper and headed out. As soon as I got out of the store, I began thinking about I-Man. In fact, he scared me so much that I debated never watching Return of the Jedi again, and feared that that one-eyed bastard would be staring at me from the corner of my screen. Nonetheless, my fears were alleviated when I went back the next Saturday and I-Man was nowhere to be seen. I breathed a sigh of relief, and didn't think about my one-week boogeyman for 20 years. That's right, no dreams, nothing. I simply forgot about him. Then I saw a post on a sci-fi forum that made my jaw drop. A user was asking about the Cyclops from Java's Palace, and the entirety of the thread had it out for this guy. Pages and pages of arguing that there was no Cyclops in Java's Palace, while OP insisted there was. It came flooding back to me. The store, the figure, the fear. I jumped in and vehemently defended OP, flashing my nerd cred by mentioning that the Cyclops was named I-Man, and Kenner made him into a toy during the final years of the line. Another user blatantly told me I was wrong, and obviously confusing prune face for this non-existent I-Man character. I told him they were wrong, but when multiple users began telling me the figure didn't exist, I decided to do my own research. I must have scoured every collecting fan site on the internet. I looked over the official Kenner checklist hundreds of times. No I-Man. I then assumed a figure from another toy line must have ended up in the Star Wars bin, and my faulty memory filled in the details, but no. There was no toy that resembled what I saw that day. A couple days later, I got a PM on the sci-fi forum, inviting me to a private chat room. I told my story, and the rest is history. That was six years ago. Since then, I've been fascinated with I-Man and the tightly knit community that has sprung up around him. There were only a couple hundred of us, but we had become pretty close. I-Man, being an exhausted topic, became less and less of a focus over time. It stands the indoctrination of a new member to our little clan. We got to know each other, talking about our lives, our families, hobbies, whatever. We were friends, and as cliched as it sounds, the I-Man community was like a second family. All of us were nerds, in one way or another, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that even I-Man himself was given an irony-tinged lining as time went on. The embodiment of childhood fear and uncertainty that hung over our heads like a one-eyed Damocles turned into a little more than a calling card. His presence immortalized on hashtag wears I-Man coffee mugs and t-shirts. I even received a custom I-Man action figure, who looked as terrifying as I remembered him. The next step for any community like this would logically be a meet-up. That's right, the I-Man fandom decided that we would get together at one of the larger Star Wars conventions. I was ecstatic. It was only a two-hour drive, and I would finally get the chance to meet the people I'd been talking to for the better half of a decade. I got to the convention and immediately began searching for the hall we had rented out. A large sign saying, two eyes only police was stationed out front. I entered, expecting the same light-hearted atmosphere and banter from the chat room to carry over, but I was dead wrong. Nothing could prepare me for how quiet the room was. Around 40 people, simply staring at each other. Some were aimlessly pacing, and others engaged in hush conversations from a corner. I found an organizer and asked what was happening. But he told me he felt like a punch to the gut from I-Man himself. A few people recognized each other. Forest. Basement. Convention Hall. Okay, holy shit guys, that's too creepy. That can't be real, right? What do you guys think of all this? Leave your answer in the comments below, subscribe and hit the bell, join the site 42patreon, and I'll see you next time.