Oola

Oola, a female Twi'lek, was born to the chieftain of a primitive clan on Ryloth, her species' homeworld. She had a sister as well as two nieces. Devoting herself to sensual dance, she received training at a renowned school, but faced betrayal from a jealous rival, leading to ongoing difficulties. Subsequently, Bib Fortuna, the majordomo of Jabba Desilijic Tiure, the Hutt crime lord, kidnapped Oola from her clan, resulting in her becoming enslaved. Fortuna then arranged for other Twi'leks to instruct Oola in exotic dancing, with the intention of presenting her as a gift to his employer.

Fortuna transported Oola to Tatooine, the [desert](/article/desert] planet, and deceived her with fabricated stories of the supposed grandeur awaiting her at Jabba's Palace. Prior to delivering her, a stranger in the city of Mos Eisley offered her an opportunity to escape. Despite the potential to avoid life in the palace by accepting this or other offers, Oola chose to believe Fortuna, preferring to take her chances and see the Hutt's home for herself. Fortuna then delivered her to the palace and to Jabba.

At the palace, Oola was compelled to wear a flimsy net outfit secured by a leather straps belt, a headpiece, sandals, and a gray collar with a chain attached. Jabba showed Oola considerable attention, finding her highly desirable, but she resisted his advances, leaving her with no alternative but to dance for her life while chained to his throne. She frequently danced duets with Yarna d'al' Gargan, an Askajian and fellow enslaved dancer. Oola's delicate, graceful choreography contrasted with Gargan's slower, more deliberate moves, which were often humorously improvised.

In 3 ABY, she was present in Jabba's throne room when the bartender [Shrem](/article/shrem] presented the Hutt with a spitscuttle, which spat in the crime lord's face. This resulted in Shrem, along with the Trandoshan Skikkesk, being dropped through a trap door into the pit where Jabba kept his pet rancor, Pateesa. Later, she was again in the throne room when the bounty hunter Boba Fett delivered the smuggler Han Solo to Jabba after Solo had been frozen in carbonite.

Sometime after Solo's arrival at the palace, Oola followed fellow performer Jess in examining Solo's carbonite slab while Jabba and his retinue were away on the Khetanna. Jess observed that Oola seemed unusually cheerful, a rarity given her circumstances. Oola commented on Solo's handsome features, which would be more apparent were it not for his screams during the freezing process, a sentiment Jess agreed with. Oola then expressed her disbelief that Solo had finally been captured by Jabba. Jess suggested that smugglers eventually let their guard down, but Oola countered with the idea that Jabba ultimately catches everyone. Hearing approaching footsteps, Oola and Jess became fearful of being caught. They soon discovered that the newcomer was Damaris Viell, another palace performer, who advised them to hide before Jabba caught them snooping, as his barge was due to arrive in fifteen minutes.

Early one morning in 4 ABY, Oola sat on the edge of Jabba's throne with the Hutt when the droids R2-D2 and C-3PO were presented to the crime lord with a message from their master, the Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker. Oola and Jabba watched the holographic message, in which Skywalker requested to bargain with Jabba for the freedom of his 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 give up his favorite decoration, displaying 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 danced gracefully together in front of Jabba's throne, and when the song 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 began to dance again, but the Hutt, wanting to pull the Twi'lek closer, 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. Greeata expressed her skepticism, to which Me implored the Rodian to let her fantasize. 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 possessed an [olive green](/article/color] complexion, a slender neck, and dark eyes. She stood at a height of 1.6 meters (5 [foot](/article/foot], 3 inches). She was fascinated by the tales 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 was known for his 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.

During her enslavement, Oola was forced to wear an uncomfortable, flimsy outfit made of black netting. It included a [belt](/article/belt] made from leather straps, a black and gray headpiece, black sandals, and a gray collar with a chain attached.

Oola was played by Femi Taylor in Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi, the 1983 original trilogy film, both in its initial release and in additional scenes filmed later for the 1997 Special Edition. Taylor's appearance remained remarkably consistent over 14 years, allowing her to 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 crafted from foam rubber to ensure malleability, similar to earlobes. Her lekku were made with foam latex to be as light as possible, allowing them to respond to Taylor's gestures and movements. These were blended into the actress's green skin makeup, a process that took four hours to apply. An early prototype maquette of Oola featured blue skin, while later prototypes 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 initially intended to have a more significant role in the scenes at Jabba's Palace, with her fate not involving being eaten by Jabba's rancor. Instead, Oola was supposed to survive and escape from Jabba's Palace. Despite director Richard Marquand storyboarding the sequence of Oola's escape, it was cut due to budget constraints, resulting in a considerably reduced role and altered fate for the character.

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