Ree-Yees

Ree-Yees, a Gran male, was an exiled thief originating from the planet Kinyen. He found employment as a minor henchman within the criminal empire run by Jabba Desilijic Tiure, the Hutt crime lord. As a member of the Hutt's entourage, he was assigned the less-than-glamorous task of caring for the crime lord's pet, Buboicullaar, a frog-dog. On one occasion, Ree-Yees lost track of Buboicullaar while on board Jabba's sail barge, the Khetanna. Enraged, the Hutt summoned Ree-Yees to the top deck of the sail barge, which was hovering over a junkyard on the planet Tatooine, with a pair of guards escorting him.

The crime lord declared that the Gran was not even worthy of being fed to his krayt dragon and threatened to throw Ree-Yees overboard into the junkyard below. However, the dog watcher begged for his life, promising to find Buboicullaar and clean the entire sail barge. Jabba agreed to grant Ree-Yees the time it would take for the Khetanna to return to Jabba's Palace in the Dune Sea to fulfill both promises. The Gran began cleaning the barge, calling out for the frog-dog and searching under wires. He even left out a plate of Buboicullaar's favorite food—steaming fecal worms—as bait. Buboicullaar consumed the worms while Ree-Yees' back was turned, moving elsewhere on the ship before the Gran noticed him.

After cleaning the barge's engine room and sick bay, Ree-Yees encountered Jabba in the larder and was instructed to clean the donation room, the prison for those who refused to donate, and finally the pit where the krayt dragon was kept. Ree-Yees entered the pit with a bone, using it to distract the chained dragon while he dashed over to the sewage grate in the room to search for Buboicullaar. Under the grate, he found the frog-dog's dog-tag amidst the sewage and assumed the pet had been eaten. He dove into the sewage himself to avoid being devoured by the krayt dragon.

Ree-Yees then emerged from the waste disposal chute on the underside of the barge and realized that the barge had reached the palace, meaning his time was up. He climbed up the side of the Khetanna to the top deck and offered to throw himself overboard to save Jabba the trouble. However, the Hutt simply summoned Buboicullaar by calling out the frog-dog's name. Laughing at tricking the Gran into cleaning the barge, the Hutt told Ree-Yees to wash himself and take better care of Buboicullaar in the future.

In 3 ABY, the smuggler Han Solo was encased in carbonite and delivered to Boba Fett, the bounty hunter, who intended to deliver the smuggler to Jabba and claim the bounty the Hutt had placed on him. However, the Crimson Dawn crime syndicate intercepted Fett and stole Solo. As a result, Jabba placed a bounty on Fett's head instead. Upon learning this, Fett traveled to Jabba's Palace to confront the Hutt. Ree-Yees and Tessek, Jabba's accountant, passed Fett as the bounty hunter approached the palace, where he was greeted by Bib Fortuna, the Hutt's majordomo. While Fortuna explained that Jabba was unavailable, having left the palace to attend the Crimson Dawn's auction for Solo, Ree-Yees and Tessek circled back into the palace.

The pair then joined a group who emerged behind Fortuna with weapons drawn as the majordomo suggested Fett leave. The bounty hunter refused, reminding the crowd of his reputation and warning that if they died fighting him, they would be dying only for Fortuna's sake. Silently, the Gran lowered his weapon along with the rest of the crowd and allowed Fett to enter the palace with Fortuna to see the invitation.

Later in 3 ABY, Fett successfully delivered Solo to Jabba, after which the Hutt hung the frozen smuggler on the wall of his throne room. After Tessek was poisoned and fell ill, his temporary replacement Silvan Kaan fomented a rivalry between Ree-Yees and Charn Roondha, an Ithorian who collected "taxes" and protection money for Jabba across the Outer Rim. Kaan used the translator droid Eightyem to inform Roondha that Ree-Yees aspired to take his position within Jabba's organisation. The Ithorian attacked the Gran in Jabba's throne room with a headbutt. After punching Roomndha, Ree-Yees pulled out a knife, but was still bested by the Ithorian, who held his opponent up by the throat.

As Roondha had Ree-Yees at his mercy, Jabba demanded that the fight stop, having been counselled by Kaan that allowing one employee to kill another in his throne room might cause the Hutt to be perceived as weak. Roondha grudgingly spared the Gran and threw him to the floor, but then demanded to know why the Hutt had stopped him. Jabba then revealed that Rhoonda's collection amounts had fallen off, based on numbers provided by Kaan. Rhoonda disagreed with the assessment and was manipulated into attempting to assassinate Jabba after Kaan later told the Ithorian that the Hutt was considering giving the action the tax collector saw on the planet Mandalore to Ree-Yees. Rhoonda failed, and he, Kaan, and Eightyem were all executed by the Hutt soon after.

At some point between 3 ABY and 4 ABY, Ree-Yees was stood with various other courtiers in Jabba's throne room when Beilert Valance, a cyborg bounty hunter, fought his way into the room through several Gamorrean guards. Once Jabba declared that anyone who could bring him Valance alive would both rise in his esteem and be paid fifty thousand credits, Ree-Yees and several others moved forward to confront the cyborg. Valance quickly incapacitated the bounty hunter Dengar and two other challengers before head butting the Whiphid J'Quille, who fell backwards into the Gran. Valance then grabbed Ree-Yees by the throat with his non-cybernetic hand and began to choked the struggling courtier, dropping the Gran to the floor before confronting Jabba and then being subdued by Fett. In a subsequent death match in the Mos Espa Grand Arena, Valance was put up against Jabba's Megadroid, which he destroyed with the help of his allies.

In 4 ABY, Ree-Yees was among the courtiers present in the throne room of Jabba's Palace when C-3PO and R2-D2, the droids, were brought in by Fortuna and two Gamorrean guards. Standing between two of the alcoves by the throne room's entrance, the Gran turned to watch the droids as they moved before Jabba and delivered a holographic message from Luke Skywalker, the Jedi Knight. Skywalker requested an audience to bargain for Solo's life. Ree-Yees then laughed along with the rest of the court when Jabba declared that there would be no bargain, as the Hutt enjoyed displaying the frozen Solo as a trophy.

Ree-Yees later sat in the alcove nearest to the throne room door with Buboicullaar chained nearby to watch a performance of "Jedi Rocks" by the Max Rebo Band. The Gran moved along to the song until Oola, the dancer, refused advances from Jabba and was dropped into the pit below the throne room where Jabba kept his pet rancor, Pateesa. Ree-Yees rushed to the grating above the pit to watch the dancer's demise and cheered as the beast emerged. After the creature devoured Oola, blaster-fire from outside the throne room caused the Gran and others to turn in surprise and then crowd round the entrance to see what was causing the commotion.

Leia Organa, the Princess disguised as Boushh, the bounty hunter then entered with Chewbacca, the Wookiee and companion of Solo, as her prisoner. Ree-Yees moved back to allow the pair to make their way before the throne, where Organa bartered with the Hutt for the bounty on Chewbacca's head. The Gran ducked back when Organa revealed a live thermal detonator, but returned to his position as Jabba offered enough to satisfy Organa and conclude the exchange. Jabba, however, had seen through Organa's disguise, and set up a trap for her later that night.

The Hutt hid behind a curtain next to Solo's frozen form and lay in wait along with his favourite courtiers for Organa to try and come free him. Ree-Yees hid behind the same curtain, holding C-3PO, who had become Jabba's translator, in place covering the protocol droid's vocoder to keep him from shouting out a warning as Organa released Solo from the carbonite. Jabba then revealed himself and the Gran released C-3PO, laughing when the Hutt insulted Solo. Both Organa and Solo were then taken captive.

Jabba and his court, fueled by spotchka, later slept in the throne room, with Ree-Yees laying in the second alcove from the door. When Jabba was woken by the arrival of Skywalker, who had come to rescue his friends, Ree-Yees stood and slowly pushed forward with other courtiers to surround Skywalker as he tried to convince Jabba to hand over his prisoners. After Skywalker threatened Jabba with a blaster, the Jedi was dropped into the rancor pit, and Ree-Yees rushed to the grate again hoping to see another execution. He laughed and cheered as Jubnuk, a Gamorrean guard who had fallen in with Skywalker, squealed in terror and tried to escape the rancor before being devoured. However, the cheering stopped when Skywalker managed to kill Pateesa by crushing the rancor beneath the gate to the pit. Outraged, Jabba declared that Skywalker, Solo, and Chewbacca would be executed at the Great Pit of Carkoon.

Ree-Yees then accompanied Jabba as they traveled to the pit onboard the Khetanna, crowdin with a drink in hand to the windows of the sail barge's viewing deck to watch the execution once they reached the pit. Standing with Tessek, the Gran laughed when Skywalker gave Jabba one last chance to surrender or die, but after the Hutt ordered the Jedi pushed off the skiff carrying the prisoners and into the pit, Skywalker attacked his captors and began to free his comrades. On board the barge, Organa destroyed Jabba's control panel and caused all of the window panels in the barge to close, throwing the room Ree-Yees was in into darkness. The Gran rushed around in panic and confusion with the other courtiers while Organa used the chains binding her to Jabba to choke the Hutt to death.

Organa then escaped to the barge's top deck, where she and Skywalker fired a turret down into the Khetanna and then escaped. The shot caused the Khetanna to explode from the inside, and Ree-Yees perished in the fiery blast. In 34 ABY, the memory banks of the smelter droid 8D-J8 contained an internal data record that showed Ree-Yees drinking on the Khetanna with the Yarkora Saelt-Marae and one of them questioning why the was droid onboard rather than with the Jawas in Jabba's entourage. At that time, an action figure of Ree-Yees was displayed on a toy version of Khetanna on one of the shelves of the Toydarian Toymaker, a toy shop in Black Spire Outpost on the planet Batuu. An illustration of Ree-Yees with a caption describing him as miserable looking was included in an artist's journal, which was restored, expanded, and displayed at the Graf Archive at some point no earlier than 34 ABY.

Despite his presence amongst the criminal element of Tatooine, Ree-Yees, an alcoholic outcast, was often the target of jokes. He harbored a dislike for Jabba, although not as strong as his hatred for Buboicullaar, who, being fully sentient, reciprocated the feeling. Ree-Yees found pleasure in watching Oola's demise and hoped to witness Skywalker's death at the hands of the rancor. However, he experienced a range of emotions during the event.

Initially, the Gran felt a cold, sadistic joy at the fate of Jubnuk, followed by excitement as it appeared the Jedi would suffer the same end. Ultimately, the death of the rancor was unthinkable to Ree-Yees, and he reacted with incredulity and disappointment. Frustrated by this turn of events, he traveled to the Great Pit of Carkoon, hoping for a resolution, but was ultimately disappointed once again. Ree-Yees had pink skin and black eyes.

Ree-Yees wore a brown tunic and pants, complemented by a brown belt and light brown boots. He carried a black blaster rifle and a blaster pistol, and he used a knife during his fight with Roonhda. While cleaning the Khetanna, the Gran wore yellow gloves, but the fingers tore through.

The character of Ree-Yees was conceived for the original trilogy film Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi, released on May 25, 1983. Nilo Rodis-Jamero created concept art for the character, and Chris Walas crafted a maquette of Ree-Yees, measuring 9 cm by 14 cm by 20 cm. The final costume consisted of a slip-on mask and gloves, worn by a mime performer on set for background shots, and a separate cable-controlled dummy mask capable of lip and eye articulation for close-ups. The articulated mask, measuring 58 cm by 76 cm by 41 cm, was created by adding elements to a foam Mon Calamari mask.

In the film, Paul Springer portrayed all of the full body shots of Ree-Yees at the palace and most on the sail barge, although Richard Bonehill wore the full costume for a few of the background sail barge shots and Mike Quinn, a puppeteer, controlled the articulated mask for close ups. Due to the heaviness of the puppet, Quinn used a pole that connected the head to a hip harness, allowing him to use his left hand to turn the head and his right to control the articulation cables. It was first role that Quinn, who had not auditioned, portrayed in the film with the palace throne room scenes filmed between January 25 and February 8, 1982 on Stage 8 at Elstree Studios and the sail barge interior shots filmed on Stage 9 between February 9 and February 11.

Originally, the design that was ultimately used for Ree-Yees was intended for Admiral Ackbar in Return of the Jedi; however, after reviewing the sculpted models, George Lucas, the director, opted for the fish-like design that made it into the final version of the film. The second version of the script featured a scene where C-3PO tried to interpret a dispute between Ree-Yees and Ephant Mon aboard the Khetanna, which escalated into a physical altercation, causing C-3PO to run away. During the filming process, Mon's character was replaced by Saelt-Marae, and even though the scene was filmed, it was ultimately removed from the movie before its release. However, a still image from the deleted scene appeared in the photo section of the Star Wars Legends novelization of the film, penned by James Kahn and made available on May 12, 1983, prior to the film's debut, thus marking the character's initial appearance and the first published use of his name.

The name of the character was conceived during the production phase, and it's a distorted take on "three-eyes," created as an inside joke by the creature design team at Industrial Light & Magic. Within the current Star Wars canon, its initial use was in the 2015 reference book titled Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know.

Ree-Yees makes an appearance at a holiday celebration at Jabba's Palace in Jeffrey Brown's non-canonical children's book from 2021, A Vader Family Sithmas. In the non-canon book 2023 LEGO Star Wars Galaxy Mission—authored by Julia March with model designs by Rod Gillies—Ree-Yees is presented as a customer at Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina on Tatooine, where he is shown enjoying a drink with a stormtrooper as the rebel operative Kori Zaran passes through while attempting to reach the rebel Echo Base located on the planet Hoth.

In "The Light Side," a non-canon comic strip featured in Star Wars Insider 225 magazine on April 30, 2024, written by Jamie Cosley, Ree-Yees is shown competing against Argus Panox, who also has multiple eyes, in a Galactic Blink Off that is observed by the Pirate Queen Maz Kanata.