<span>his ears are rammed forward, stiff</span>
Dead to mean directly such as....."it's dead ahead. you won't miss it!" or "I looked him dead in the eye"
I think you can use your own experiences to better understand characters, events, and ideas.
The background or the setting tells u more about ur characters then they tell you or each other about them selfs say there is a hutt and a dude has ragtag clothes he is either poor or that's how he wants to live setting tells you every