Depa Billaba

Depa Billaba was born on the planet Chalacta many years prior to the Clone Wars. She had a sister, Sar Labooda. As a child, she was held as a captive by space pirates who killed her parents. However, she managed to send out an encrypted signal for help that was uncovered by Mace Windu, a member of the Jedi Order. Decrypting the message and rescuing Billaba, Windu brought her into the Order and eventually trained under the Jedi Master in the ways of the Force.

During her training under Windu, she studied as Consular Jedi but was also allowed to study the Form VII variant known as Vaapad. She also accompanied her master to numerous locations, including Dallenor where he taught her usage of munitions such as smoke bombs. She eventually became a Jedi Knight, renowned for her skills with a lightsaber and favored Form III when teaching other Jedi. Sometime after her training with Windu, Billaba ventured by to Chalacta to explore her heritage, improving her perspective on Jedi philosophy. She would also tutor various initiates in meditation techniques, including Xaran Raal whom she grew close to.

By 40 BBY, Billaba had ascended to the Jedi High Council, the governing body of the Jedi Order. Billaba was among the Jedi Masters present when the Council presented Qui-Gon Jinn retiring Master Poli Dipatian's seat, believing they would benefit from Jinn's different perspective. She also joked when Jinn asked for time to consider, believing all prospective members should lest they didn't know what they're getting into.

In 33 BBY, After witnessing Xaran's knighting, she sent him on a mission to investigate piracy in the Slice, particularly the Riftwalkers, but was later grieved to learn of his murder. Determined to solve the case and understand the planet's situation, Billaba took on Xaran's former anti-piracy assignment, going undercover as the thief "Hotwire" and befriending the Riftwalker courier Kylah Lohmata. Billaba uncovered the Riftwalkers' leader, Zilastra, who was involved in Xaran's death, the assassination of other pirates, and a plot to target the Jedi Council. Captured by Zilastra, Billaba learned the pirate's hatred of the Jedi stemmed from Sifo-Dyas' past recruitment violations. With Kylah's help, Billaba and her allies foiled Zilastra's plot, leading to the pirate's incarceration. Afterward, Kylah became a cadet on the Assurance commanded by Pell Baylo.

After several children were kidnapped by the warlord Guattako on Oosalon, Windu was sent to find and rescue the missing children. Eventually, Windu was able to defeat all of Guattako's army. When he dueled with Guattako, Guattako used his staff to knock Windu out. When Guattako was about to kill Windu, a child shot and killed Guattako. Shortly after, Billaba, Plo Koon, and Qui-Gon Jinn arrived to help.

During the Invasion of Naboo, she was present in the Council chambers of the Jedi Temple when Jinn told the story of how he encountered Darth Maul on Tatooine, and how Jinn believed that Maul was a Sith Lord; Maul had been attempting to capture Queen Padmé Amidala of Naboo. The Jedi Master also revealed he had found Anakin Skywalker, a young slave he had freed on the desert planet, and that he believed the boy was the Chosen One destined to destroy the Sith and bring balance to the Force. The Council was skeptical of both claims but nonetheless agreed to test the boy and investigate Darth Maul. Despite being impressed with Skywalker's abilities, the Council initially rejected Jinn's request that the boy be admitted into the Jedi Order, on the basis that Skywalker was too old to begin Jedi training. They instead ordered that Jinn and his apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi, travel to Naboo to protect Queen Amidala, who was returning to her planet to fight back against the Trade Federation invasion.

The Federation's invasion and occupation ended during a battle to retake the planet. Maul mortally wounded Jinn in lightsaber combat, before Kenobi gravely wounded the Sith Lord; Maul went into exile and would not be heard from again for many years. Jinn's dying wish was that Kenobi train Skywalker as a Jedi, a wish that the Council agreed to. Billaba and other members of the Jedi Council traveled to Naboo and attended Jinn's funeral, before taking part in a ceremony marking a newfound peace between the humans and Gungans of Naboo; the Federation, as a common enemy, brought the once-feuding peoples together.

In 28 BBY, Master Billaba was the Jedi representative on the Republic's survey to the planet Bromlarch alongside Senators Mina Bonteri, Rush Clovis, and Amidala. They traveled with the planet's representative Caelor Gaans to analyze the damage to the aqueducts after a devastating groundquake. Billaba joined their ship for an orbital review. When a relief mission was finally sent, Billaba was part of the auditing team. The Jedi made sure to speak to Amidala, who she had met in the aftermath of the Invasion of Naboo four years earlier. Shortly afterward, Billaba flew a Delta-7 starfighter as an escort for a supply run, with the callsign Hazard Three. She flew interference for the convoy and Amidala's starship against the attacking pirates before they were able to escape.

Six years later, the Secessionist Movement plunged the Galactic Republic into a political crisis, with thousands of star systems seceding from the Republic and joining the Confederacy of Independent Systems; the conflict was designed by Darth Sidious, the Dark Lord of the Sith publicly known as Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, as part of a plot to destroy the Jedi Order and take over the galaxy. Billaba was present on the Jedi Council when the body ordered Kenobi to investigate the plot to assassinate now-Senator Amidala, an outspoken opponent of the Military Creation Act that would have allowed the Republic to raise an army to combat the Separatists; Skywalker was further ordered to travel with Amidala to Naboo so she could be protected from harm. These events led Kenobi to discover a clone army built for the Republic in secret on Kamino and the Galactic Senate to grant Chancellor Palpatine emergency executive power. The Chancellor enlisted the clones as the Grand Army of the Republic, and they were put to use in the First Battle of Geonosis, which sparked the Clone Wars between the Republic and the Separatists—just as Sidious had intended.

Her sister, Labooda, was killed during the battle. Billaba did not take part in the opening battle of the war, but did not escape the fighting. By the time of several weeks into the war, she had seen action, which she spoke about with Sabé, Amidala's former handmaiden who was disguised as her, at a meeting between the Jedi Order and members of the Senate at the Jedi Temple. Billaba was accompanied by Barriss Offee, who had participated in the battle and seen firsthand how it was affecting the Jedi, especially the younger ones. Sabé shared her own experience with witnessing the horrors of war and Offee expressed that she wished she could do more. To this, Billaba advised her to be open to possibilities in the future.

Billaba and Jedi youngling Caleb Dume were present during Padawan Ahsoka Tano's training test in the Jedi Temple's dojo. After the test ended, Billaba and Dume spoke with each other while exiting the dojo.

At some point during the Clone Wars, Billaba participated in the , fighting alongside Windu and a detachment of clone troopers against Separatist droid forces led by General Kazameer.

At some point during the Clone Wars, Billaba embarked on a mission to the planet of Malathon IX. Windu accompanied her as far as the planet's village starport, before seemingly leaving her to her mission. For the next five days Billaba conducted her mission on the planet. At the same time, an assassin named Ochi of Bestoon had been tracking her since her arrival, intent on claiming the Separatist bounty on her head. On the fifth day, Ochi finally prepared to make his move to kill her. He watched as Billaba conversed with four clone troopers before breaking off and heading close to the tree that Ochi lay hidden in. As Ochi finally sprung his ambush, he was unexpectedly interrupted and disarmed by Windu, who had been tracking Ochi the whole time he had been tracking her.

Billaba was present on the Council whilst watching a live holographic recording of the devastating Separatist attack on Mahranee, the homeworld of the Mahran species. Following the attack, Windu convinced Billaba and the rest of the council on a secret mission to assassinate Count Dooku. At the suggestion of Kenobi, the Council recruited Quinlan Vos, who was experienced in undercover work, and Dooku's former apprentice Asajj Ventress for this sensitive operation. Ventress agreed to assist Vos with the mission but insisted that the Jedi could only overcome Dooku by training in the ways of the dark side.

At some point, General Billaba and her troops faced General Grievous, a Kaleesh cyborg who was the Supreme Commander of the Droid Army, on Haruun Kal. That day, the Jedi Master's battalion suffered ninety percent casualties. Billaba herself was badly injured, to the point that she fell in a coma. After six months of constant care at the Jedi temple's infirmary, she came out of her coma, seeming to have made a full physical recovery. The senior members of the Jedi High Council feared that her mental and emotional state might still be too damaged. Consequently, Billaba underwent a full fitness assessment. When it appeared that she had indeed fully recovered, Billaba was allowed to resume her position in the High Council.

Following her reinstatement, Billaba took an interest in Caleb Dume, the same boy she had met before. His questioning nature caught her attention. She was impressed by Dume's questioning about how the Jedi Knights chose their Padawans when she and Windu were in the Jedi Archives. Billaba then instructed Dume, Sammo Quid, and Tai Uzuma in Form III defensive poses.

Billaba was present during a group training session in which Kenobi, now a Jedi Master and a member of the Jedi Council, told a group of younglings, including Dume, about a beacon in the Jedi Temple's central security station that could call all Jedi back to Coruscant in times of great crisis. Dume asked the Jedi Master if it could be used to warn Jedi away from Coruscant, a thought that Kenobi had never entertained, and that caused concern and commotion amongst the assembled younglings. Billaba attempted to stop Dume from his line of questioning, but Kenobi encouraged him and speculated that the beacon could indeed be used to warn Jedi away in times of unexpected peril. Billaba saw Dume, as she had in the past, as having a mind for strategy, and at the end of the session, Billaba was once again impressed by him.

Despite her recovery and her reinstatement to the High Council, some of the clone troopers started spreading the word that General Billaba was "damaged goods." This rumor reached Caleb Dume who decided to directly ask the Jedi Master. The two were discussing whether she was "damaged goods" despite her recovery, but their discussion was interrupted when they sensed something and saw thermal detonators outside her quarters.

Billaba then took Dume and fled her quarters when the bombs went off. Billaba wanted to hide and wait for information but went after Dume when he attempted to take on the bomber, CIS Captain Rackham Sear. Billaba saved Dume and prevented Sear from setting off his bombs. When Sear refused her offer to surrender, they fought until he jumped off the roof and threw bombs at her and Dume. She survived and decided to take Dume as her Padawan.

She trained him in the ways of the Force, as well as in lightsaber combat. Billaba valued Dume's strategic mind and encouraged him to put it to good use. At some point, Billaba brought Dume to one of the thousands of Jedi Temples in the galaxy in order to undergo a rite of passage in which he would need to face and overcome his greatest fears. Three weeks after the Jedi temple bombing, Billaba took Dume to get a Kyber crystal and construct his lightsaber.

By the end of the war, Billaba and Dume went to Kardoa to take command of a battalion led by survivors from her last battalion, Commander Grey, Captain Styles, Sergeant Soot, and Corporal Big-Mouth. Their mission was to verify if there was a Separatist presence. Leading her battalion through some canyons, they were attacked by Coburn Sear and his droids, whom Billaba managed to force a retreat, although Dume was injured.

Billaba and her battalion were then sent to Mygeeto to clear the southern mesas of battle droids. Billaba, Styles, Dume, and Stance were outnumbered but were able to clear the mesas. They became surrounded during another attack, and Billaba called Grey for an extraction. She and the others fought the droids as they came, but there were too many. They were then saved when Skull Leader Fenn Rau and Skull Squadron bought them more time and were evacuated, but Billaba never got to meet or thank Fenn Rau in person to thank him for saving their lives.

Billaba returned to the base camp. However, the camp came under attack by battle droids led by Colonel Sear and General Grievous. Billaba fought Grievous, cutting off two of his hands. However, Grievous was able to wound her. Despite that, she continued fighting until Dume, Styles, and Grey came to aid her. Grievous and his forces retreated. Billaba was placed in a bacta tank to heal from her wounds sustained in the fight.

Billaba, alongside her apprentice Dume, Grey, and Styles fought against the Separatist forces of General Kleeve on Kaller. Billaba and her forces were able to rout Kleeve's forces and forced his retreat. Billaba then spoke with Gamut Key, assuring him that his village would no longer be forced into giving them supplies and labor. Billaba and her troops billeted outside of Key's village.

That night, Billaba took Dume out for a training session, lamenting that she had been neglecting him. After working with Form III until after sunset, Billaba presented her Padawan with a holocron, telling him to use it to explore and satisfy his inquisitiveness. They returned to the camp and relaxed at a fire with Grey, Styles, and the men. They discussed the role of questions in regard to orders and to the Jedi Order, at which Billaba gave Dume a holocron. He was to use it to "study the role of questions" and "peaceful dissent" in the Order.

In the aftermath of the pivotal Battle of Coruscant, General Grievous and the Separatists launched a massive offensive across several star systems, including on Kaller. Billaba and her men became pinned down by Armored Assault Tanks outside of the snowy woodlands as Dume left to contact reinforcements. Billaba and her men were saved by Clone Force 99. As their leader, Clone Sergeant Hunter recommended they launch a counter-attack, Billaba agreed and gathered her men to move out, allowing Dume to proceed on ahead with Hunter and his squad.

It was moments later after this that, at the culmination of his plan, Sidious executed Order 66, a command to all clone troopers, including Grey, triggering their behavioral modification biochips to kill the Jedi as traitors. As Billaba's men formed up, they began to surround her and fire on her. Billaba became overwhelmed, and as her Padawan realized what was happening and turned back to help her, she instead told Dume to run. Billaba bravely stood her ground as Dume looked on in horror, and as she lost her lightsaber when one of the troopers shot it out of her hands, she was quickly killed. Dume fled into the woods, unaware that most of Clone Force 99 were just as confused as to what was transpiring as he was. Billaba's men then began their pursuit of Dume.

Because of Billaba's sacrifice, Dume was able to escape the clone troopers. Sidious declared himself Emperor and transformed the Republic into the Galactic Empire, with Jedi branded as enemies of the state. After watching a message from Master Kenobi—a message broadcast over the Jedi beacon, warning Jedi to stay away from Coruscant just as Dume had predicted. Grey later captured Dume. Dume pleaded to Grey and the other clones to remember their service to Billaba, though they did not budge. However, after Dume broke free, Grey began to question why he and the clones blindly obeyed Order 66, which ultimately led to him sacrificing himself and saving Dume.

Dume went into hiding and changed his name to Kanan Jarrus. He kept his identity as a Jedi secret so as to avoid execution, and he gave up the Jedi path for many years. Jarrus eventually joined Hera Syndulla, a Twi'lek resistance fighter, and formed a rebel cell that operated on and around the Outer Rim planet of Lothal. He remained haunted by Billaba's final words, knowing that he ran away while she gave her life.

Shortly after the Battle of Fortress Vader, Darth Vader entered a portal constructed by Darth Momin to resurrect his wife Padmé Amidala. While walking through visions, he encountered Billaba along with many Jedi with their lightsabers ready to battle him. However, Vader killed all the illusions, slashing Billaba's throat as the words "Let the past die" resounded in his mind.

During their rebellion on Lothal, Jarrus took on his own Padawan, Ezra Bridger, who helped him reconnect with the Jedi path. Some of Jarrus' own teachings were recollections of what Billaba had taught him, such as when Jarrus brought his student to a hidden Jedi Temple on Lothal in order to face and overcome his fears. Jarrus himself also had to face his own fear of being an inadequate teacher, due to his training under Master Billaba having been incomplete by the time the Clone Wars ended.

Her death left Jarrus with a bitter mistrust towards clone troopers, which Jarrus explained to Bridger after meeting Captain Rex and two other clone soldiers, telling him how she had been gunned down by the same men that had fought beside her for years.

The records of the Jedi Temple, which included information about Billaba, also remained after the fall of the Jedi Order, and after the Temple was renovated into the Imperial Palace. The Grand Inquisitor, a dark side adept tasked with hunting down and eliminating Jedi who had survived the Clone Wars, was aware of Billaba from the Temple records. During a confrontation with Jarrus, the Inquisitor correctly deduced that Jarrus had been trained by Billaba due to his preference for Form III.

Eventually, in 0 BBY, Jarrus was killed when he saved his friends from an explosion caused by Governor Arihnda Pryce's walker, being engulfed by the flames after the Spectres escaped to safety. Through his sacrifice, the Specters and the other Lothal rebels were able to continue to fight on, and soon afterward liberate Lothal from the Empire.

Depa Billaba was a human female with tan skin, and she wore jewels on her forehead and brow. She also bore the Chalactan marks of Illumination. She wore the simple, traditional garb of the Jedi Order, including a brown robe and a light tan tunic.

She was considered a wise and spiritual Jedi who possessed a glib sense of humor. Her tutelage under Windu and her knowledge of Chalactan philosophy granted her both emotional control and the ability to let go of attachments with the belief that emotions are both valuable and not to be suppressed but erred against letting them overtake one in preserving them. Jarrus recalled her as as being a stricter teacher than he wasbut was not overly serious.

During her time as a general, she believed that the Jedi Order made a crucial error in taking military titles in the Clone Wars, believing that was not a matter of leadership, but of role and rank. Billaba was especially aware of the irony that a noble, peace-loving order like the Jedi were the military leaders in a galaxy-wide conflict and contemplated the will of the Force as the galaxy further slid into turmoil and war.

One of her significant bonds were with her former master. When she was a Padawan, she developed a close bond with Mace Windu and her master regarded her highly, considering her ascension to the Council among the most proudest moments in his Jedi career. He often protected her from both emotional and physical dangers Caring deeply for him in return, Billaba wasn't above reminding her former master of her own independence, status, and confidence in her personal decisions in the wake of moments of grief and pain.

Billaba was also close to Xaran Raal, an initiate Billaba tutored. Windu once believed was a prospective candidate for serving as a Padawan under her and noted their closeness. Following his death shortly after becoming a Jedi Knight, she admitted she took his anti-piracy assignment in part of wanting to solve his murder. While she grieved and was sadden by his death, following bringing his killer to justice, the ordeal made her more open to the idea of having a Padawan.

Eventually, Billaba would take in Caleb Dume (later known as Kanan Jarrus) as her apprentice. As his master, she imparted what teachings she could onto Caleb Dume before she was killed during the fall of the Jedi Order. Jarrus survived the ensuing Jedi purge and eventually became a rebel leader, using the strategic mind that Billaba helped cultivate in order to fight against the Galactic Empire. He also remembered many of her teachings and passed them on to Ezra Bridger when he took the boy as his own Padawan. One such lesson was Billaba's belief that Jedi had to be willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of others (which she herself carried out with her death), a lesson Jarrus himself did not fully understand until he allowed himself to be captured by the Empire on Lothal so the other rebels could escape. Prior to her death, she sometimes gently teased him about his habit of asking many questions but at times of mortal danger, she was greatly protective of him.

Billaba bonded with Kylah Lohmata, a twelve year old orphan courier of the Riftwalkers gang whom she met while undercover as "Hotwire." Acting as her bodyguard, Billaba was disturbed of her lifestyle and particular of her relationship with Zilastra, a pirate leader who was Kylah's surrogate parent. Even undercover and withholding her status as a Jedi, she took Kylah truths of her life regarding Chalacta. While her revelation as a Jedi stained their bond for atime, Kylah helped saved Billaba once realizing Zilastra would use her to achieve vengeance on the Jedi Council, even at the expense of her life. After stopping Zilastra, with Windu's help, she arranged for Kylah to become a cadet on the Assurance for a stable lifestyle with peers her own age but promised to help her should things not work out.

During the Clone Wars, her personal nemesis was General Grievous; however, by the time of the Third Battle of Mygeeto she had been able to learn to live with regret and was fine that Grievous escaped at the end of the battle.

A member of the Jedi Council, Depa proved to be a formidable Jedi Master; as a duelist, she was notable from her peers for her preference of Form III in close quarters combat and was a rare master of the Vaapad variant of Form VII, taught to her by Mace Windu. As a student of Mace Windu, Billaba was an exceptional lightsaber combatant who often sought to pass on the skills she had learned. Her dueling skills enabled her to hold her own against General Grievous on separate occasions, though both times she was ultimately bested by the cyborg.

She was also proficient in utilizing the Force. Skilled in telekinesis, her control was specific enough to halt a small bomb from going off by preventing chemicals inside the bomb mixing with one another. Other Force abilities she could perform include blocking laser shots with the Force, see through the Force without the usage of her eyes, and possessed acute senses that could alert her to disturbances in the Force, such as the initial onslaught of Order 66.

Billaba studied as a Consular Jedi during her time in the Order and also possess a multitude of skills, including both armed and unarmed combat, starfighter piloting, thievery, slicing, and was considered a capable military strategist and leader. On occasion, she would utilize her skills during her undercover assignments and could pose a number of roles such as bodyguards, thief-for-hire, or a hired driver.

Depa Billaba was based on an early design of a Jedi Council member for Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace that had a spiritually inspired design. Billaba was portrayed by actress Dipika O'Neill Joti in the 1999 film.

The character appeared again in the 2002 film Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones, but Joti did not film any new footage. Instead, stock footage from The Phantom Menace was used for her appearance as a Jedi Council member in Attack of the Clones. The character was slated to appear in the "Crystal Crisis on Utapau" arc in the animated television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which was revealed in concept art released on StarWars.com as part of The Clone Wars Legacy. In this concept art, she was mislabeled as "Deepa Billaba." Ultimately the character did not appear in the episodes, which were released in story reel form on StarWars.com. Billaba holographically appeared in the 2015 novel Dark Disciple, which was based on unproduced episodes of The Clone Wars for the seventh and eight seasons of the series.

Despite effectively being a background character, with no lines in either The Phantom Menace or Attack of the Clones, Billaba was the focus of a number of now-non-canon Star Wars Legends stories. These stories included the 2004 novel Shatterpoint by Matthew Stover, which revealed she was the former Padawan of Mace Windu and chronicled her fall to the dark side of the Force. Some elements of her backstory, such as her culture, homeworld, and tutelage under Mace Windu, have since become part of the official canon. She was first depicted in the new stories of the official Star Wars canon in the 2014 novel A New Dawn by John Jackson Miller, in which it was revealed she was the master of Kanan Jarrus, one of the main characters of the animated television series Star Wars Rebels. She has since been mentioned in a number of the show's episodes.

There had been some confusion as to what Billaba's species was. According to the Databank, Billaba was a "Chalactan." But according to the Star Wars Character Encyclopedia: Updated and Expanded, her species was "Human." Pablo Hidalgo clarified in a tweet that "Chalactan is a culture and heritage. She is biologically human."

In the Star Wars: Kanan comic series, published in 2015, Billaba wields a green lightsaber, but in "Aftermath," her lightsaber has been changed to blue. The 2020 reference book Star Wars: The Lightsaber Collection also shows Billaba's blade being blue.

Order 66 is also portrayed differently in both the comic and the episode. In the comic, Billaba was ambushed at their encampment during nighttime, whereas in "Aftermath," Billaba was betrayed in the daylight promptly after a battle where she and her men were aided by the Bad Batch.