Oola

A Twi'lek female Oola who was born to the chieftain of a primitive clan on her species' homeworld of Ryloth. She devoted herself to sensual dancing, and was trained at a celebrated school, but was betrayed by a jealous rival, after which she continued to encounter setbacks. The Twi'lek Bib Fortuna, majordomo of the Hutt crime lord Jabba Desilijic Tiure then kidnapped Oola from the clan leading her to become enslaved. He then had other Twi'leks train Oola in the art of exotic dancing so that he could present her to his employer as a present.

Fortuna transported Oola to the desert planet Tatooine and lied to her about the supposed glories awaiting her at Jabba's Palace. Before he delivered her there, a stranger in the city of Mos Eisley offered her a chance to escape. Although accepting that or other offers would have been opportunities to avoid life in the palace, Oola believed Fortuna; she preferred to take her chances and wished to see the Hutt's home for herself. Fortuna then delivered her to the palace and to Jabba.

At the palace, Oola was forced to wear an uncomfortable, flimsy outfit made of black netting. It included a belt made from leather straps, a black and gray headpiece, black sandals, and a gray collar with a chain attached. Jabba paid considerable attention to Oola as he found her highly desirable, but she refused to give into him and denied his advances, leaving her with no other choice but to dance for her life while chained to his throne. She would regularly dance duets with the Askajian Yarna d'al' Gargan, another enslaved dancer. Oola's dainty, graceful choreography contrasted with Gargan's slower, more deliberate moves, which were often humorously improvised.

In 3 ABY, she was among those in Jabba's throne room when the bartender Shrem presented the Hutt with a spitscuttle, which spat in the crime lord's face, leading to Shrem being dropped alongside the Trandoshan Skikkesk through a trap door into the pit below the room where Jabba kept his pet rancor, Pateesa. She was later present in the throne room again when the bounty hunter Boba Fett delivered the smuggler Han Solo to Jabba after Solo had been frozen in carbonite.

At some point after Solo's arrival in the palace, Oola followed fellow palace performer Jess in examining Solo's carbonite slab while Jabba and his retinue were away on the Khetanna. Jess noticed that Oola was notably in high spirits at the time, something that had become more of a rarity due to the nature of her circumstances. Oola noted the handsome features on Solo's face would be evident if not for his screams at the time of his freezing, with Jess agreeing. Oola then noted her incredulity at the thought that Solo had been caught by Jabba at last. Jess offered the idea that smugglers simply let their guard down eventually, but Oola countered with her own idea that Jabba simply caught everyone in the end. Upon hearing footsteps approaching, Oola and Jess became frightened, fearing for what would happen if they were caught. They soon saw that the new arrival was Damaris Viell, another palace performer who then advised them to hunker down before Jabba caught them sniffing around, as his barge was due to arrive in fifteen minutes.

Early one morning in 4 ABY, Oola was perched on the edge of Jabba's throne with the Hutt when the droids R2-D2 and C-3PO were brought before the crime lord with a message from their master, the Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker. Oola and Jabba watched the holographic message, in which Skywalker asked to bargain with Jabba for the freedom of the Jedi's friend Solo and gifted the Hutt the two droids as a sign of good will. When the message ended, Jabba merely laughed and declared he would not be giving up his favorite decoration, as he displayed the frozen smuggler on the wall of the throne room.

Shortly before Princess Leia Organa and the Wookiee Chewbacca arrived as part of the plan to rescue Solo, the Max Rebo Band performed for Jabba and his court. Oola and Gargan gracefully danced together to the song in front of Jabba's throne, and when it ended the Hutt demanded Oola repeat her performance. Misinterpreting this as an order directed at them, the band began playing an improvised version of the song "Jedi Rocks." Oola and Gargan once again began to dance, but wanting to bring the Twi'lek closer, the Hutt brutally yanked the chain attached to Oola's collar.

Oola openly resisted the Hutt's advances, and for this public humiliation, Jabba dropped the dancer through the trap door into the pit below the throne room. The sudden interruption to the music elicited shock from other performers including the singers Sy Snootles, Joh Yowza, Rystáll Sant, Lyn Me, and Greeata Jendowanian. Oola rolled upon hitting the floor of the pit and then threw her chain behind her and stared up through a grating at the throne room where court members excitedly began to cheer and gathered to watch her fate. The Twi'lek's attention was then drawn to a large door into the pit that began to open, revealing Pateesa behind it. As Gargan watched helplessly while laughing, Oola screamed in fear before being eaten alive by the beast. Many of those who had cheered on Oola's demise, including Jabba himself, would perish themselves just the next day during Skywalker, Organa and Chewbacca's rescue of Solo.

Despite her death at the hands of the rancor Oola's legacy still lived on through the memories of her fellow dancers. When Luke killed the rancor Lyn Me believed he had done so did to avenge Oola, however, Greeata said that wasn't true and Me responded to let her have her fantasy. When Leia Organa was captured during her attempt to rescue Solo, Jabba forced her to replace Oola as his favorite slave dancer. While Jess was helping dress Organa in a dancing-girl costume, she told her about Oola and her gruesome demise. Jabba's decision to enslave Organa turned out to be his downfall when the princess strangled him to death with the chain that he enslaved her with. As Organa was later briefed by the Rebellion chronicler Dora Mar about the rescue mission, Organa told her about Oola and Jess because she wanted them to be remembered.

Oola had an olive green complexion, a delicate neck, and black eyes. The Twi'lek stood 1.6 meters (5 foot, 3 inches) tall. She was enthralled by the stories of grandeur that Fortuna told her about Jabba's Palace and turned down opportunities to escape so that she could see it. The Twi'lek danced with dainty and graceful choreography and was younger and slimmer then her regular dance partner Gargan. Jabba had a vile temper and would drastically punish those who did not please him, but even with this knowledge, Oola's revulsion toward the Hutt overcame her fear and she refused to give in to Jabba's advances. Despite her agility, she was unable to escape from the rancor.

While enslaved, Oola was forced to wear an uncomfortable, flimsy outfit made of black netting. It included a belt made from leather straps, a black and gray headpiece, black sandals, and a gray collar with a chain attached.

Oola was portrayed by Femi Taylor in the 1983 original trilogy film, , in both the original release and in additional scenes filmed later for the 1997 Special Edition. Since Taylor's appearance was almost unchanged after 14 years, she could film a close-up of Oola's terror at the rancor, extending the scene by a few seconds.

Oola's cone-shaped hearing organs were made from foam rubber so that they would be malleable in a way similar to earlobes. Her lekku were made with foam latex in order to be as light as possible so that they respond to Taylor's gestures or movements. They were blended into the actress's green skin makeup, which took four hours to apply. An early prototype maquette of Oola had blue skin, while later prototype maquettes depicted her with red skin and white hair.

According to Femi Taylor in a TheForce.net interview, during the early development of Return of the Jedi, Oola was meant to have a major part in the scenes at Jabba's Palace because her fate was not to be eaten by Jabba's rancor. Instead, Oola was to survive and escape from Jabba's Palace. Although director Richard Marquand storyboarded the sequence of Oola's escape, it was cut because of budget constraints, so the character's role was considerably reduced, as well as her fate.

In an interview with the Aggressive Negotiations podcast, Star Wars: The Clone Wars writer Henry Gilroy stated that the events of the Battle of Ryloth in that series likely involved many Twi'leks being sold into slavery by the Confederacy of Independent Systems, going on to suggest that Oola may have been brought to Jabba's Palace as a result.

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