Rabé Tonsort, also known simply as Rabé, and born as Rabene Tonsort, was a female human who served as one of Queen Amidala's handmaidens during the last years of the Galactic Republic. During the Invasion of Naboo, she accompanied the Queen to Tatooine and then Coruscant, along with her colleagues Sabé and Eirtaé.
Rabene Tonsort, a human female, was born on the planet Naboo in the Western Provinces. She eventually attended a prestigious school and studied a variety of arts, including sculpture, acting, impression, However, despite being a talented artist, she eventually began a forgery ring at her school, selling to unwary offworlders. When the operation was discovered, multiple students were suspected to be involved. Forced to choose a subject at school before she was kicked out, she chose music as she had not found anything unwary to do with it. When hard evidence confirmed Tonsort's involvement, she was forced to drop out of school, with the school attempting to save face and not expel a gifted student.
In the aftermath of the incident, Tonsort did not have many options. However, in 32 BBY, Captain Quarsh Panaka of the Royal Naboo Security Forces approached her and offered her a position as a handmaiden for recently-elected Queen Padmé Amidala. Panaka believed that her criminal background and many other talents could allow her to teach the new queen how to "cheat" and be deceitful, although Tonsort believed after meeting Amidala that Panaka had underestimated her. Tonsort agreed, swearing her loyalty and life to Amidala. When the roster of handmaidens was filled, she suggested that all the handmaidens should change their names to match Amidala's as a sign of loyalty and for the purposes of subterfuge, taking the name Rabé and becoming Amidala's wardrobe mistress.
Later that year year, the Trade Federation invaded Naboo and successfully captured its capital Theed. As the Federation's vessels landed throughout the city, Amidala and the handmaiden Sabé switched places, with the queen donning a handmaiden's garb while Sabé dressed in the royal regalia to act as a decoy. To finish the ploy, Rabé applied Sabé's makeup while Saché attended to the decoy's hair in the queen's dressing room in the Theed Royal Palace. Once finished, Rabé pulled away the cloth around Sabé's neck that had protected the royal clothing from spilt makeup.
Acting as queen, Sabé ordered that they would await the Federation forces on one of the palace's balconies. Rabé then left the dressing room to inform Amidala's head of the Royal Naboo Security Forces, Captain Quarsh Panaka, to join them on the balcony with whatever security he deemed present. Battle droids then arrived on the balcony and Rabé and the other handmaidens were taken prisoner along with the queen.
After the disguised Sabé was brought before the Federation's Viceroy Nute Gunray, Rabé and Amidala were part of a group of prisoners that were sent to be processed in Camp Four. While being escorted to the camp through the streets of Theed by a squad of B1-series battle droids, the group was rescued by Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi, a pair of Jedi ambassadors who had been sent by the Galactic Republic to negotiate with the federation.
The freed prisoners and the liberators then made their way to the hangar of the Theed Royal Palace, where the Jedi attempted to persuade the battle droids on guard to let them leave peacefully. When the droids tried to arrest them, Kenobi and Jinn attacked the guards, allowing Rabé and the other handmaidens to hurry aboard the Naboo Royal Starship. Once the Jedi and a group of pilots they had freed were also onboard, the starship took off and managed to slip through the Federation blockade above the planet, although it sustained damage to its hyperdrive in the process.
Rabé often stood by fellow handmaiden Sabé while she was disguised as queen.
Once the starship was safely away from the blockade, Rabé and fellow handmaiden Eirtaé stood by the decoy Sabé in the ship's throne room as the supposed queen congratulated the astromech droid R2-D2 for repairing their deflector shield generator during the escape. With the aim of eventually reaching the Republic capital Coruscant, the royal starship was forced to stop first on the desert world of Tatooine to locate a new hyperdrive. Upon landing, Jinn, R2-D2, the still disguised Amidala and the Gungan Jar Jar Binks left the ship to travel to the nearby spaceport of Mos Espa while Rabé and the others remained behind.
Rabé accompanied Amidala to Coruscant.
While those aboard the ship waited for the return of the group in Mos Espa, they received a transmission from Governor Sio Bibble back on Naboo. Sabé viewed the transmission—which begged the queen to return and give into the Federation's demands—in the throne room with Rabé and Eirtaé at her side, after which Kenobi warned them the plea was a trap and told them not the reply. After several days, the group returned with the hyperdrive the ship needed and the young slave boy Anakin Skywalker, who Jinn was bringing with him to train as a Jedi. The ship then left Tatooine and successfully reached Coruscant, docking on a landing platform where Valorum and Senator Sheev Palpatine awaited them.
Anakin Skywalker spoke with Rabé on Coruscant.
Rabé and the other handmaidens then accompanied Sabé as she disembarked the ship and greeted Valorum, after which they boarded a EasyRide passenger airspeeder with Palpatine and departed. Skywalker later visited the queen's quarters to see Amidala, who he knew only as Padmé the handmaiden, and was greeted by Rabé at the door. As Amidala was preparing to address the Galactic Senate in her royal regalia, Rabé informed Skywalker that Padmé was not present, but was interrupted by Amidala who wanted to know who was visiting. After learning that it was Skywalker, who did not recognize her under her makeup, Amidala informed him that Padmé was on an errand, but wished him luck in his Jedi training.
Rabé and Eirtaé then joined Amidala and Captain Quarsh Panaka in Palpatine's pod at the Senate Building as the queen addressed the Senate concerning the invasion of Naboo. After the address, Amidala called for a Vote of No Confidence in Valorum, and Rabé was later present in Amidala's quarters when Panaka rushed in with the senator to inform Amidala that Palpatine had been nominated as a candidate for Supreme Chancellor. Amidala congratulated him and then declared she would be returning to Naboo, leaving the room with the two handmaidens and Panaka.
Rabé was present when Amidala revealed her true identity.
Rabé, Eirtaé, Sabé and the queen then greeted Jinn, Kenobi, Binks and Skywalker on the landing platform where the Royal Naboo Starship was parked and the group boarded together and departed for Naboo. During the journey, Rabé and Sabé stood by Amidala in the throne room as she came up with a plan of action with Panaka, Jinn and Binks. After landing on Naboo, Binks led the queen and her allies to the Gungan Sacred Place where she and her followers were brought before Boss Rugor Nass. Sabé, who was again disguised as queen, began asking for the aid of the Gungan people, but Amidala stepped forward from beside Rabé and revealed her true identity, begging the boss for aid in defeating the Federation and dropping to her knees. Rabé and the other humans present followed suit, after which Nass declared he would work with the queen to defeat the Trade Federation.
As the Gungan Grand Army prepared to distract the Federation's forces in a large battle, Rabé and the other handmaidens joined a group led by Amidala that used secret passages to infiltrate Theed. Rabé then remained with Panaka and a portion of his security forces to create another distraction in Theed's streets while Amidala infiltrated the Royal Palace with the Jedi, some guards and a group of pilots.
Darth Maul confronted Rabé and her colleagues in the palace hangar.
Rabé and Panaka's group then reunited with Amidala in the palace's hangar, where the pilots of Bravo Squadron had successfully launched their N-1 starfighters in order to combat the Federation's blockade above the planet. As the group approached the hangar exit, the doors opened to reveal the Sith apprentice Darth Maul, whom Kenobi and Jinn engaged while the rest of the group split off to take the long route to the throne room, where Gurnay would be located. Before they could get far, a trio of droidekas opened fire on them, forcing them into cover; however, the droids were swiftly destroyed by Skywalker, who had hidden in one of the remaining starfighters.
When droids again attacked the group in one of the palace's corridors, Rabé was forced to take cover behind a pillar while firing on them. Amidala and Panaka then split off with a small group of guards and used grappling hooks to assail the side of the palace in order to reach the throne room. Rabé and the others then managed to fight their way to the throne room and upon reaching it discovered that Amidala and the others had been captured by Gunray.
Sabé shouted to the viceroy and claimed to be the true queen, fooling him and causing him to send the majority of his troops after Sabé, Rabé and the others, who retreated. This allowed Amidala and Panaka to defeat the few battle droids left behind and capture Gunray. After Skywalker destroyed the droid control ship Vuutun Palaa above Naboo, the droid army fighting the Gungans were deactivated and so the Trade Federation was defeated across Naboo.
Some time after the end of the fighting, Rabé and the other handmaidens stood with Amidala and her allies as they watched Gunray escorted by Panaka and his security forces onto a Republic shuttle to be taken away to answer for his crimes. Palpatine, now Supreme Chancellor of the Senate, then disembarked the shuttle and congratulated Amidala.
Rabé attended the victory parade after the Battle of Naboo.
Rabé was present in the Funeral Temple for the Funeral of Qui-Gon Jinn, who had perished while fighting Darth Maul. Following the Jedi's cremation, the handmaiden participated in a huge parade through the streets of Theed to celebrate the victory against the Trade Federation. She stood on the steps of the palace with the queen, awaiting the arrival of a march of Gungans led by Nass. The queen the presented Nass with the Globe of Peace as recognition for the Gungan's part in defeating the Federation.
When Amidala's second term in office came to an end in 28 BBY, Rabé and the other handmaidens accompanied her to the lake house Varykino in Lake Country for the queen's customary two-week seclusion during the final campaign of the election to select a new ruler. On the day of the election itself, Rabé and the other handmaidens playfully ambushed Amidala as she rested in one of the lakes, with Saché catching her by surprise and submerging her in the water while the others laughed.
Rabé then followed Amidala as they swam to the lake's shore and left the water then returned to the lake house. There they viewed a holomessage from Palpatine, informing them that he would be arriving at the house shortly. After Amidala's term as queen ended, Rabé went on to study music at a prestigious academy in Theed. By 22 BBY, she had started to go by the name "Rabé Tonsort."
Rabé had brown hair, brown eyes, and tan skin. As a handmaiden, she developed considerable patience and was responsible for working on the Queen's elaborate hairstyles, which could take many hours to complete. During such lengthy sessions, Rabé provided the Queen with counsel.
In the face of impending capture by the Trade Federation, Rabé remained calm and professional, managing to apply Sabé's makeup with a steady hand. She and the other handmaidens were generally underestimated due to their age and uniform, but preferred being underestimated in this way as it gave them an advantage. It was well known amongst her friends that she dreamt of music.
Rabé tended to whistle idly when she was in thought. As the handmaidens began to learn and share skills, Rabé taught the group how to pick locks. She was also skilled with a grappling hook. When Padmé inquired as to where she had learned the skill, Rabé cited her criminal past, saying that she could not forge artwork without seeing it first. When present for a conversation but out of earshot, she still understood what transpired through lip-reading and Lorrdian-trained methods of reading body language.
Rabé wore billowing flame-colored hooded robes that matched those of the other handmaidens, helping to disguise their identities and conceal weapons used to defend the queen.
Rabé was portrayed by Brazilian actress Cristina da Silva in the 1999 film Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace, the first installment of the Star Wars prequel trilogy. The character, although unnamed in the movie itself, was identified as Rabé in the credits.
- Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know
- Star Wars: The Visual Encyclopedia
- Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know, Updated and Expanded
- Star Wars: Geektionary: The Galaxy from A - Z
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- Star Wars Helmet Collection 54
- Star Wars: The Complete Visual Dictionary, New Edition