Loi'e was a cabaret performer and spy working for the Alliance to Restore the Republic during the Imperial Era; she was also near-human. The destruction of her village on B-bel by the Galactic Empire, and the kidnapping of her infant son, fueled her desire to fight the Empire. Loi'e, a skilled acrobat, used her talents as the star of "Loi'e's Follies," a B-bel cabaret popular with Imperial soldiers. Secretly, Loi'e and her allies, including her daughter Hétis, Jon, and other cabaret employees, spied for the Rebel Alliance, using the show as a cover for clandestine operations, such as attaching trackers to stormtroopers in the audience.
During one performance, Loi'e spotted a man in an Imperial Security Bureau uniform identical to that worn by the officer who abducted her son almost two decades prior. Desperate for answers, she risked her show and Alliance mission to confront him. This confrontation led to a battle between her allies and the Imperials when she discovered the man was actually her son, though he denied it. Before escaping the cabaret, which was under Imperial siege, Loi'e gave him a piece of her jewelry secretly equipped with a tracking device, hoping they would reunite eventually.
Loi'e, a resident of B-bel, lived in a small village with her infant son. Sometime between 19 BBY and 16 BBY, Imperial forces invaded. An officer from the Imperial Security Bureau led a contingent of the Imperial Army in a destructive campaign. During this invasion, Loi'e hid her son and other children, including her daughter Hétis, in a tented structure for safety. The ISB officer, distinguished by a cape and cane, found Loi'e despite her efforts. Accompanied by a large KX-series security droid, the officer cruelly seized Loi'e's son. As AT-ST walkers destroyed the village, Loi'e was forced to watch the officer steal her son, unable to intervene due to the droid's presence. The Empire's conquest resulted in the village's destruction, the massacre of its people, and Imperial occupation of B-bel. The people of B-bel were under constant military surveillance and subject to enforced scandocs.
After her village was destroyed, Loi'e relocated to a city within a crater. By the time of the Galactic Civil War, she had become a successful entertainer and the star of "Loi'e's Follies," a prominent cabaret located at the city's highest point. Beneath her dancer persona, Loi'e joined a local resistance led by Jon, her contact outside the cabaret. Inside the theater, Loi'e and her colleagues, including a grown-up Hétis, used the cabaret as a front for spy operations for Jon. He believed their efforts on B-bel could aid the Alliance to Restore the Republic, which was engaged in a galaxy-wide revolution against the Empire. Loi'e's Follies was popular among off-duty Imperial personnel, giving Loi'e and her associates opportunities to spy on the occupying soldiers. In one unsuccessful operation, Jon provided Loi'e with trackers to discreetly attach to her clientele, but the devices were faulty.
For several years, Loi'e, Jon, Hétis, and their comrades gathered intelligence for the Rebellion. However, between 1 ABY and 4 ABY, Loi'e grew weary of her double life, haunted by her son's abduction and desiring to move on. While Jon planned their escape from B-bel, Hétis longed to contribute more to the fight against the Empire and grew tired of waitressing for the invaders at Loi'e's Follies. As Hétis's guardian, Loi'e urged her to control her urge to fight. Eventually, with their days on B-bel numbered until Jon's escape plan became viable, Loi'e received a package from him containing new trackers to place on her next audience. For that night's performance, Loi'e instructed Hétis to seat the unsuspecting Imperials in the front row. As stormtroopers filled the theater, Hétis informed Loi'e in her dressing room, a golden sphere above the stage, that she had fulfilled her request, and Loi'e questioned whether she had aroused suspicion.
Hétis scoffed and asked if she could assist in their mission, but Loi'e, anticipating her request, refused. Loi'e warned her not to interfere with the show, but Hétis dismissed it as pointless and questioned why she continued to serve the invaders. She argued that she was no longer a child and could do more against the Empire, but Loi'e calmly dismissed her while applying her makeup. Just then, Loi'e's comlink rang with a call from Jon. He informed Loi'e that his engineers were nearing completion of an escape craft and asked if she had received the trackers. When he mentioned they were his last, Loi'e sarcastically questioned their reliability, unlike the previous batch. Jon chuckled and assured her of his expertise, stating their efforts would succeed. Despite Jon's confidence, Loi'e despondently asked what their work for the Rebellion had accomplished, and Jon replied that they would help turn the tide in the galaxy.
As she finished her makeup, Loi'e told Jon she was not a stargazer and wanted to move on. Jon replied that they would soon be free and needed to persevere a little longer. Realizing it was showtime, Loi'e ended the conversation by telling him to fix his machines, then descended to the offstage area below her dressing room, where Hétis, two stagehands, and Mee'ma, the theater's musician, awaited her. They gathered at the stage entrance, intoning "To the ones we've lost," then took their positions. Mee'ma went to their instrument stand, and a stagehand raised the curtain around the central stage. Loi'e dropped from the offstage structure, her outfit creating the illusion of floating. The Imperial audience gasped, and Loi'e landed gently before leaping into the air again.
As she floated back down, Loi'e discreetly retrieved Jon's trackers from her outfit. She landed among the Imperials, twirling around them and nimbly placing the trackers without detection. However, when she leaped onto a high wire, she spotted an Imperial officer with a KX-series droid in a balcony seat. Recognizing the officer's clothes as those worn by the ISB officer who took her son, Loi'e gasped and faltered, misstepping and falling. Hétis, noticing the error, caught her with a ribbon, and the stagehands lowered them safely. Unaware of Loi'e's mistake, the audience applauded, and the stagehands closed the curtain. Hétis asked if she was alright, but Loi'e ordered her to evacuate everyone through a hidden tunnel in the stage floor.
Despite Hétis's confusion, she and the stagehands left to join Jon, while Loi'e and Mee'ma remained. Loi'e returned to her dressing room, contacted Jon, and asked him to send someone to pick up Hétis and the others at the tunnel exit. Jon asked why she wasn't leaving, and she replied that she had one last thing to do, then equipped two weaponized vambraces. Jon warned her not to compromise their mission, but Loi'e responded that confronting the man was the only way to free herself. Leaving her comlink, she went to the stage for her solo encore. The curtain rose, and Mee'ma played as Loi'e danced with frenetic energy, her fabrics masking her path to the balcony. There, she unsheathed a saber but refrained from killing the officer, realizing he was young. Shaken, Loi'e asked who he was, but he identified her as a rebel.
The KX droid threw Loi'e over the balcony. She tried to soften her fall with her fabrics, but tumbled to the ground as the officer and droid followed. The officer aimed his blaster and exclaimed that the Empire should have shut down the cabaret, and the stormtroopers, realizing Loi'e was a rebel, prepared for battle. She unsheathed both sabers and entered a battle stance, surrounded by stormtroopers. A glass shattered, and the Imperials fired at Loi'e, who leaped to avoid the blaster fire. Landing, she kicked a stormtrooper in the head. While Mee'ma played and the droid wait staff attacked Imperial soldiers, Loi'e threw her sabers, attached to her fabrics, knocking stormtroopers unconscious.
The ISB officer fired at Loi'e, who deflected his shots and approached him when Hétis, who returned to help, released smoke on the floor. While Hétis attacked troopers from above with ribbons, Loi'e fought the officer. She disarmed him and held her saber to his throat, but noticed Hétis preparing to fire a fatal shot. Loi'e pushed him aside, saving his life. Seeing the KX droid still functioning, Loi'e wrapped the officer in her fabric, threw a saber to a beam above, and ascended the performance orb. She brought the man to the glass roof, demanding answers. Suddenly, the KX droid pulled her fabric, dragging her down. She caught herself before being pulled back in, but was trapped as the officer approached with his vibroblade cane.
When the officer swung, Loi'e rolled aside, and the cane severed the fabric pulling her down. Freed, Loi'e dodged his swings, noticing his eye patch. Hétis, with Jon's help, destroyed the KX droid below. On the rooftop, Loi'e refused to fight and explained her son's story, stolen by a man in the same clothes. She told him he would be the same age and asked what the Empire had done to him. Angered, the officer attacked, stating he was proud to be an Imperial, like his father. Loi'e demanded to know how he dared call the man who stole him his father, then shattered his cane and hugged him. The man tried to push her away, but Loi'e said the Empire had already taken everything with her son.
As the sun rose, Loi'e saw AT-AT walkers aiming at the cabaret and a transport arriving to rescue the officer. Handing him part of her fabric and jewelry, containing a hologram of her son and a tracker, Loi'e fled as stormtroopers fired. After the transport left, the AT-AT walkers destroyed the cabaret, and Loi'e ran to a cliff. Jon arrived in his starship, and Hétis yelled for her to jump. Loi'e jumped, and Hétis, hoisted by a ribbon, grabbed her midair. Once on the ramp, Loi'e, Hétis, and their rebels looked back at the destroyed theater. In the cockpit, Jon remarked that Loi'e had given the Imperials a show to remember, and Hétis asked who the officer was. Loi'e, hopeful, said he was her son and that they now had a way to find each other.
Loi'e was a near-human with tan skin, black hair, and bicolor eyes: blue right and gold left. She was tall and thin, with small horns on her forehead. Before becoming a cabaret performer, Loi'e lived peacefully in her village on B-bel with her son. After her village was destroyed and her son was taken by the Empire, Loi'e was traumatized, haunted by her son's cries and the image of the officer who took him. Resolving to fight the Empire, Loi'e became the headliner of Loi'e's Follies, secretly spying for Jon. Over time, Loi'e became disillusioned, viewing the rebellion as a means to leave her old life behind, clashing with Jon's idealism and Hétis's desire to escalate the fight.
Despite her disillusionment, Loi'e remained devoted to the cause. Nearly twenty years after the invasion, she was still tormented by the officer and her lost son. Seeing a man resembling the officer nearly caused her to fall during a performance. Deciding that killing him would bring her peace, she attempted his life but was shaken upon realizing he was not the same man. During the battle, Loi'e suspected the man was her son and saved his life when Hétis tried to kill him. Confronting him, Loi'e demanded answers and, despite his denial, believed she had found her son. This discovery reinvigorated Loi'e, giving her new hope, and she gave the man her jewelry as a token of her love.
Loi'e was created as the main character of "The Spy Dancer," a short in the second volume of Star Wars: Visions, released on Disney+ on May 4, 2023. "The Spy Dancer," created by Studio La Cachette for Star Wars: Visions, was directed by Julien Chheng and written by Chheng and Gabrielle D'Andrimont. Camille Cotton voiced Loi'e. Because Lucasfilm gave Chheng and Studio La Cachette freedom, he wanted to tell an intimate story of a "side character," inspired by the dancers in the background of Star Wars scenes. Chheng and his team used a simple animation style, wanting to make the staging and stakes clear. When designing Loi'e's dance, Chheng and the team based it on martial arts and French fashion shows.
Chheng also wanted to incorporate French culture into "The Spy Dancer." Inspired by Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Andor, Chheng blended their moody atmosphere with vibrant cabaret visuals. From the start, Chheng wanted Loi'e's story to be about a hero torn between actions in the face of the Empire. The character and story were also inspired by cabarets in occupied Montmartre during World War II and spies like Mata Hari and Josephine Baker. Chheng was interested in making Loi'e a cabaret performer because he believed the mix of romance and intrigue would create an emotional story.
Another inspiration, though indirect, was Chheng's family's history in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge regime. Describing how the Khmer Rouge "would turn family members against each other and enroll sons into their ranks," Chheng felt that "The Spy Dancer" reflected stories about war from around the world, and liked that the short film gave him the opportunity to speak about invasions and war in subtext. Studio La Cachette received positive feedback for "The Spy Dancer" from audiences in Argentina and Cambodia, which Chheng attributed to their history of cruel wars. Chheng also received positive comments from mothers worldwide who identified with Loi'e. To Chheng, who found the reception and personal comments emotional, the mothers who saw themselves in Loi'e "felt they would also do anything to get their children back on the right track."