Maketh Tua

Hailing from Lothal, a backwater planet located in the galaxy's Outer Rim Territories, Maketh Tua attended the highly touted Imperial Academy in her youth, hoping to escape the limited existence of her homeworld in favor of a grander, more rewarding life. She proved to be a fast learner and became a level-five Academy student. After completing her studies and graduating, she promptly joined the Galactic Empire.

During the last two months of Governor Ryder Azadi's administration, Maketh Tua served as an in his administration. Following Azadi's dismissal and arrest on charges of treason, Tua continued to serve his successor Governor Arihnda Pryce, who ruled Lothal in the name of Emperor Sheev Palpatine. Under Pryce, Tua was appointed as the minister in charge of Lothal's industrial production. A year after Pryce was appointed Governor of Lothal, Tua greeted Governor Pryce when she returned to her homeworld.

After exchanging pleasantries, Pryce questioned Tua about the twenty percent decline in refinery output over the past four mines. Tua informed her that the mines were being exhausted. She also reported that they were having trouble recruiting miners since Commandant Cumberlayne Aresko had successfully recruited many young people into the Lothal Academy. Pryce ordered her to recruit foreign miners. Upon learning that the doonium vein at Pryce Mining had been exhausted, Pryce ordered Tua to shut down her family's former company immediately. At Pryce's request, Tua arranged a meeting with Senator Domus Renking.

A few months later, Tua met with Governor Pryce to discuss the bidding war between Lothal and Kintoni to host landing and maintenance facilities for the Imperial Navy. While Tua was content with the current Imperial Navy presence on Lothal, Pryce reiterated that she wanted their homeworld to be the center of Imperial power and industry in this part of the Outer Rim. Pryce then placed Tua in charge of Lothal while she traveled to Coruscant to attend to the bidding war between Lothal and Kintoni, which Lothal ultimately won due to Pryce's political savvy.

As a , Tua played a key role in the planet's affiliation with the Empire. One of her initial actions as minister was bringing new government-sponsored housing to Lothal. Those homes were reasonably affordable, and helped the growing population. Later, she attended the going-away party of Dhara Leonis, who had been accepted to the Academy for Young Imperials on Lothal, during which the two spoke.

During her time as minister, Maketh traveled to the planet Garel aboard the Star Commuter 2000 shuttle ST-45, accompanied by Amda Wabo, a representative of the nearby world of Ando, and two droids, R2-D2 and C-3PO. She had been tasked with picking up some T-7 ion disruptor rifles, which, following their involvement with the attack on Lasan, had been banned throughout the galaxy by the Imperial Senate.

Since Tua was not fluent in Aqualish, she had brought C-3PO along due to his vast knowledge of languages. When another passenger, Ezra Bridger, and his astromech started causing a disturbance and Kanan Jarrus complained to the shuttle's pilot, R-3X, the pilot sent all of the droid passengers, including C-3PO, to the back of the shuttle, as per Imperial regulations. Without her protocol droid to translate, Tua was incapable of communicating with her business partner. It was then that Sabine Wren, undercover as a "level five Imperial Academy student," convinced Tua to allow her to translate for Wabo. In typical rebel fashion, Sabine used Wabo's information in order to steal the weapons while misinforming Tua, tricking her into heading to Bay 17 instead of Bay 7.

Upon the arrival of Tua and her companions at Bay 17, Tua discovered that Sabine had mistranslated Wabo's words and that the disruptors were actually in Bay 7. As Tua, Wabo, and their stormtrooper escort made their way there, they were accosted by Chopper. Recognizing the orange astromech, Tua quickly realized she had been tricked and ordered all her men to Bay 7 as fast as they could. There they found the rebels loading the weapons onto their ship. A firefight ensued between the two factions, and the rebels escaped on the Ghost with the T-7s.

Soon after this, Tua contacted Agent Kallus. The rebels were eventually confirmed to be the same ones that Kallus had faced not long ago, on the planet Kessel.

Minister Tua was present at the Empire Day parade, where she stood in for Governor Pryce, who was called to Coruscant at the command of the Emperor. During the celebration, Tua stood on stage beside Commandant Aresko, who commented on Pryce's choosing him to organize what he believed to be a "spectacle," to which the minister took offense. Tua then turned to address the crowd and introduced the citizens to the new TIE Advanced v1 prototype, which was to be piloted by Baron Valen Rudor. As she was speaking, the TIE was destroyed by the Spectres, the explosion tossing the Tua and the other Imperials into the air as the stage collapsed. After being helped up by a stormtrooper, an infuriated Tua ordered that the party responsible be found and punished. Agent Kallus assured her they would deal with the rebels, but their priority was locating the Rodian Tseebo, who had stolen Imperial secrets. Unfortunately for the Empire, however, both the rebels and the Rodian managed to flee the planet.

Tua later broadcast over Lothal, labeling the rebels insurgents before her transmission was hijacked by Senator-in-exile Gall Trayvis, urging the Spectres to meet with him. In reality, Trayvis was secretly an Imperial agent tasked with luring out dissidents to be met with "accidents." Tua later met with Agent Kallus, asking for his assurances that the trap they were laying for the rebels at the Lothal City Capitol Building would work. She then tried to stress the Grand Inquisitor's desire to see the Jedi captured. Kallus stated that the Inquisitor was too focused on capturing the Jedi and stated that by targeting the rebels as a group, they would be able to get the Jedi for him.

When the rebels arrived to meet Trayvis, Kallus and his stormtroopers surrounded them. Tua entered the building soon after, noting that Zeb and Sabine were absent. The two rebels soon revealed themselves in the rafters, dropping smoke bombs, which created enough confusion to allow the rebels to flee with Trayvis. Tua hid underneath a desk during the commotion. When the smoke had settled, she started yelling at Kallus to pursue the rebels. But once again, the rebels eluded them after discovering Trayvis' true loyalties.

Following the latest failed attempt to stop the rebel cell, Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin arrived on Lothal to take charge. Tua greeted the governor in the hangar of the Imperial Headquarters, and nervously expressed her pleasure and surprise to have him on Lothal. Tarkin quickly admonished her for failing in her task to protect the Empire's industrial interests and allowing the rebels to flourish under her nose. Tua merely choked out an awkward cough of agreement with Tarkin's assessment of her. She was not alone in this humiliation, as Tarkin proceeded to mock Kallus and the Grand Inquisitor as well.

Some time later, she, Kallus and the Grand Inquisitor were summoned to Tarkin's office and stood at attention behind him as Commandant Aresko and Taskmaster Grint arrived. Tarkin questioned the two on their ineffective methods and consistent lack of results, going so far as to suggest their failures could inspire hope in the public and undermine the security of the entire Empire. Tarkin had the two men executed to serve as a warning to Tua and the others that failure would now have deadly consequences. Though Kallus was only somewhat unsettled at the execution, Tua was downright horrified by this execution as Aresko and Grint, though incompetent, were loyal and respectful members of the Empire, barely suppressing a scream of horror.

The most recent attack by the rebels above Mustafar caused Tarkin to mount an all-out search. Tua exhausted every resource to find information on the rebels and issued every conceivable order—doubling patrols, setting up checkpoints, and establishing curfews—but without success. After the arrival of Darth Vader, the Sith Lord used Tua as a pawn in his plan to incriminate the rebels.

As Tua explained herself to agent Kallus, Vader unexpectedly entered her office and chastised her for her lack of imagination. The frightened minister, trying not to anger the Dark Lord, countered his accusation by claiming that he and Tarkin were expecting miracles. Vader announced his plans to employ more brutal tactics, which shocked Tua, and she objected to participating, as she was a mere public official. Vader informed her that she had been summoned off-world to account for her failures to Tarkin in person, implying she would be executed. Kallus sardonically offered her assurances that he and Vader would manage in her absence.

Tua apparently discovered the Emperor's true intentions for Lothal, which made her realize that her beloved Empire was not the perfect and benevolent government she had believed it to be. Now both appalled by Vader and Tarkin's intentions and fearing for her life, she resolved to defect from the Empire. She sought the help of Old Jho, who put her in contact with the rebels. In exchange for safely transporting her off Lothal, she offered secret Imperial information, including a list of Rebel sympathizers on Lothal, and other nearby systems, with powerful allies in the senate. She also claimed to know the real reason for the Empire's interest in Lothal. Faced with skepticism and hostility from most of the crew, Ezra Bridger sensed her sincerity and convinced the others to help her.

Unfortunately for Tua, Vader had threatened her life knowing she would defect and contact the rebels in order to help escape the planet. As she attempted to covertly sneak out of Imperial headquarters, Kallus followed her as her escort. Kanan Jarrus disguised himself as a Stormtrooper Commander to get past security, but was caught by Kallus. Their cover blown, Tua fled to her escape shuttle with several of the rebels, which unbeknownst to her, had been rigged to explode. Tua was killed in the blast, and the Empire blamed the rebels for her death, using several cam droids to capture the event and use it against the "insurgents."

Following her assassination, the Empire used footage of the attack recorded on the spy droid to incriminate the rebels as her killers, turning the citizens of Lothal against them. Soon after, journalist Alton Kastle covered the falsified story of her demise on the HoloNet News.

The rebels fled Lothal aboard an Imperial shuttle, which was secretly fitted with a transceiver, leading Lord Vader and two Imperial-class Star Destroyers to the location of the Phoenix Cell.

Tua's warning to the rebels about the Emperor's true intentions for Lothal would be later repeated by the Loth-wolves. Ultimately her warning became real after Ezra Bridger found a portal to a place between time and space.

Maketh Tua could be described as a product of Imperial propaganda, and believed the Empire and her own intentions were in the people's best interests. Having studied abroad on worlds more cosmopolitan than her native Lothal, Tua considered herself above the people of a "barely civilized Outer Rim world." She enjoyed the refined conversation of fellow intellectuals, and resented having to deal with unsavory types like Commandant Cumberlayne Aresko in the course of her duties as an Imperial public servant. Minister Tua was a loyal servant of the Empire and a graduate of the Imperial Academy. She followed the will of Emperor Palpatine, which brought her into contact with Agent Kallus and made her a recurring enemy of the Spectres.

She served the Empire out of a belief in its ideas and a desire to spread law and order rather than her own personal ambitions, which set her apart from the Empire's servants such as Agent Kallus, Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin, and the Grand Inquisitor. Unlike her Imperial colleagues, Tua was not known to use her position as Minister to vent sadistic or even sycophantic urges, but was nonetheless an ineffectual leader. Despite her expertise at managing Lothal's industrial infrastructure, Tua was not politically savvy and did not regard the governor of Kintoni's bid to expand Imperial Naval facilities as a threat to Lothal's position in the Empire. Pryce belittled Tua's foibles and despised her tendency to drift back to thinking like a native despite her offworld schooling.

Unlike other Imperial officials, Maketh Tua appeared to care for the common people and used her position to introduce government-sponsored housing. Tua threw a celebration on Empire Day to rally support for the Empire's goals on Lothal and reassure the citizens of their importance to the Empire. While she often appeared cold and authoritative, she was also friendly, as shown during an encounter with Sabine Wren, a rebel posing as a "level five Imperial Academy student." However, she would bend laws and participate in underhanded actions if it served the Empire's interests. For example, she was willing to mass-produce T-7 ion disruptor rifles on the orders of the Empire, despite knowing that they had been outlawed by the Imperial Senate. In addition, Tua was self-absorbed and had a short temper.

Maketh Tua rarely displayed any sign of weakness, even in the intimidating presence of the Inquisitor. Her confident bravado was only diminished by Grand Moff Tarkin, who publicly lambasted her failings and threatened her career in the Empire's service. Tua was also visibly horrified and shaken by the summary execution of Aresko and Grint at the hands of the Grand Inquisitor. If Tarkin's measures that day weren't bad enough, Darth Vader's presence on Lothal—inside her own office—frightened Tua more than ever.

Tua revealed her true colors when her superiors shattered her belief in the Empire's supposed good intentions. Witnessing the execution of Aresko and Grint and later being ordered by Vader to employ brutal tactics against her own people caused her to morally object to the Emperor's true plans for Lothal, which all resulted in her choice to aid the rebels. However, much of her motivation was out of fear of Vader's wrath, which she made clear by telling the rebels that she felt her life was in danger.

Maketh Tua wore a close-fitting conical helmet over a blue tunic and set of trousers.

Maketh Tua was created for the 2014 animated series Star Wars Rebels, in which she was voiced by Kath Soucie. Tua first appeared in the episode "Droids in Distress," the third episode of season one. Extras appearing in the episodes "Spark of Rebellion," "Call to Action," "The Future of the Force," and "Legacy" have recolored and reused versions of her character model. The "Call to Action" extra was identified as Angmi Lihosh in the mobile game Star Wars Rebels: Recon Missions.

In the story outline for "Fighter Flight," Maketh Tua was to be the principal Imperial involved in the plot, but was replaced by Supply Master Yogar Lyste in the first draft script.

In an early outline for Star Wars Rebels: The Siege of Lothal, it was instead Governor Pryce who was to have died in the shuttle explosion, and Minister Tua would have been promoted to governor.

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