Sonny had a family once, a mate and a daughter to call his own; but that was before the empire arrived, and sold his entire tribe into slavery to pay debts to spice miners. These spice mines then became his family's new home, and their prison, where endless permutations of cruel labor tore away at any semblance of the hope and joy he used to feel. When his daughter was sapped of all strength, Sonny and his mate were beaten within an inch of their lives trying to defend her, and both his daughter and his mate ended up perishing in the aftermath.

His joy and future completely stripped from him, Sonny fell into a despondent hopelessness; but at this moment, he met the clever little creature that would sculpt his hopelessness into wrath. As Sonny looked upon the now empty manacles that once insured his familys enslavement, he unleashed his long dormant rage, and hammered them with his fists over and over and over again. And so the shackles that once symbolized his hopelessness were transformed into the jagged metal gauntlets that he now wears on his fists at all times, which then became the weapons of his vengeance.

So Sonny's sudden and shocking wrath - combined with Zoop Brano's cunning zeal and clever planning - became the tools that ended up starting a slave riot that would see both Zoop and Sonny overpowering their former masters, with Sonny achieving some bloody vengeance, while Zoop acquired their means of escape from the planet.

Sonny now sees Zoop as the one who protected him from despair, by giving him the motivation to face his demons, and earn his own redemption. This makes Zoop the only family he has left now, so he follows him with adamant loyalty, even when he has to protect him from the consequences of his own actions.