Leo Leonis Leo Leonis was an agricultural scientist in the employ of the Galactic Empire . He was married to Tepha Leonis and his daughter Dhara attended the Imperial Academy on Lothal . His son Zare entered Lothal ' s AppSci institute to prepare for attendance to the Imperial Academy . During the last days of the Galactic Republic , Leo and his wife Tepha developed genetically modified crops to help feed the people of Chrona and ran into problems with the Trade Federation , a powerful galactic corporation . Due to these experiences , Leo developed a strong dislike for the Trade Federation and compared the new Galactic Empire favorably to the former Republic . Under Imperial rule , Leo and Tepha worked as agricultural scientists for the Imperial Ministry of Agriculture . They also had two children : a daughter named Dhara and a son named Zare . Their travels took them through many different planets before they settled down on Lothal , a backwater Outer Rim world . Throughout his adult life , Leo had a reputation for being a staunch Imperial supporter despite the Empire ' s growing heavy - handed policies on the planet Lothal . He was devastated by the alleged disappearance of his daughter Dhara . In reality , she had been kidnapped by the Grand Inquisitor for a secret Imperial project called Project Harvester . Leo took pride in having both his children attend the Imperial Academy on Lothal . For a long time , Leo clung tightly to the belief that the Empire was doing its best to find Dhara . While Leo was initially unwilling to confront the truth , he later reluctantly accompanied his wife into hiding after Zare was arrested and tried for treason against the Empire . After Merei Spanjaf and the Spectres rescued Zare and Dhara , Leo and Tepha embraced their two children on the planet Garel . Biography . Chrona crop engineering . Leo Leonis grew up during the last decades of the Galactic Republic prior to the Clone Wars and its subsequent transformation in the Galactic Empire . Together with his wife Tepha , the two worked for the Trade Federation to create genetically superior crops to help feed the people of Chrona . The new crops were not ready for mass production , so the Federation disallow their use in order to protect their profit margins . A case was filed in the Republic courts to allowed the Federation to withhold release until production was ready . Leo and Tepha both presented testimony to the Republic judiciary and the court ruled in the Trade Federation ' s favor . One year after their development the crops were released to the people of Chrona . Years later , the Galactic Empire rewrote the narrative of the Trade Federation ' s work on Chrona . Their story was that the Federation had created a famine on the planet to make the population sick and thus needing of the Federation ' s medical supplies . No such famine or consequent sickness ever occurred . The Federation only wished to delay production to ensure a hefty profit margin , and the delay did not cause any food shortages . Moving to Lothal . During the time of the Galactic Empire , Leo and Tepha found work as agricultural scientists with the Ministry of Agriculture . Their work led them to move between several worlds throughout the Galaxy including Hosk Station , Moorja , and Viamarr . Leo and Tepha eventually raised a family with two children : a daughter named Dhara and a son named Zare , who were one year apart . To raise their children , Leo and his wife obtained a nanny droid called Auntie Nags . By the time their children were in their early teenage years , Leo and Tepha had settled down on Lothal , a hitherto backwater Outer Rim world that had become the target of Imperial - sponsored development projects . Within his family , Leo was known as a staunch supporter of the Galactic Empire . Since his daughter Dhara had turned fifteen , she was eligible to enroll at the Academy for Young Imperials in Lothal ' s Capital City . Leo ' s son Zare , who was still fourteen , had to wait another year and enrolled at the Junior Academy of Applied Sciences where he became part of the school ' s grav - ball team , the AppSci SaberCats . Following Dhara ' s acceptance to study at the Imperial Academy , he and his wife hosted a farewell dinner to celebrate Dhara ' s acceptance . This dinner was attended by several prominent local Imperial officials including Assistant Vice Minister Sarkos , Lieutenant Piers Roddance , and Governor Arihnda Pryce . During the occasion , Leo gave a brief speech extolling the Empire and castigating the former Trade Federation . His speaking abilities were praised by Governor Pryce who commented that Leo should have been a politician . Later , his son Zare befriended a local Human boy named Beck Ollet and another recent Corld Worlds migrant named Merei Spanjaf , a skilled hacker . Both Ollet and Spanjaf were members of Zare ' s grav - ball team . Ollet ' s family had previously owned a fruit orchard in the Westhills which had been expropriated by the Imperial Agricultural Collective for some unspecified development project . Later , Ollet , Zare , and Spanjaf learnt that the Imperial authorities had reclassified Ollet ' s former orchard as a mining excavation area . This development greatly distressed Zare and his friends . When Zare related this incident to his parents , Leo argued that Ollet ' s farm was a small price to pay for the benefits that mining would bring to the Lothalian economy . He even offered to invite Beck over to lecture him about the benefits that the Empire would bring to Lothal . Meanwhile , his more moderate wife Tepha believing that their colleagues at the Agricultural Ministry had mistakenly reclassified the orchard for mining extraction . This incident initiated the growing differences between the staunchly patriotic Leo and his increasingly disillusioned son Zare . Defending the Empire . As their first year on Lothal dragged on , Leo remained a staunch apologist for the Empire ' s policies towards Lothal . During the fall season , Leo expressed delight that his daughter Dhara was progressing in her Academy training and had been accepted into an Officer training program . While he hope that his daughter who have the opportunity to lead men into battle , Tepha expressed unease about their children being sent to fight in wars . While Leo was aware of his son Zare ' s growing disillusionment with the Empire , he thought that the boy was naive and needed proper guidance . Following a failed attempt by insurgents to sabotage Imperial mining machinery in the Westhills , Leo denounced the growing insurgency as a disease and likened it to the selfishness that left the Old Republic weak during the prelude to the Clone Wars . When Zare contended that the insurgents had some grievances and that they were not trying to kill people but to express their frustration , Leo retorted that this was not the way for " civilized " people to protest . Zare then pointed out that the farmers were upset about their farms being turned into mines . In response , Leo pointed out that Beck ' s parents had voluntarily sold their land . Tepha then tried to moderate discussion by conceding that the Empire made mistakes but that sabotage and civil disobedience would lead to violence and anarchy . When Zare argued that protests were a way to tell the Empire that a policy was bad , Leo retorted that protests were exploited by evil people . He then pleaded with his son to put his faith in the Empire to get things right in the long run . Following Zare ' s fifteenth birthday , Leo instructed his son to get his datapad and apply for the Imperial Academy . Zare dutifully complied with his father ' s wishes and submitted the application with the help of his sister Dhara , who was visiting her family for the winter break . Despite his pro - Imperial leanings , Zare was not prejudiced against Alien s ; a position which set him apart from other Imperial loyalists like his son Zare ' s athletic director Janus Fhurek . After Fhurek demanded that Zare remove two Alien players , the Aqualish Hench Sina and the Rodian Frid Kelio , from his school ' s grav - ball team , Leo dismissed Fhurek as a small - minded thug who represented the worst of the Outer Rim . In response , Tepha urged her husband not to blame the entire Outer Rim for the actions of one man . Leo and Tepha also advised their son not to " get on the wrong side " of the coach . However , Zare decided to stand up for his Alien friends and kept them on the AppSci SabreCats ; prompting Fhurek to unilaterally move them to a different school . During the spring season , Leo and Tepha were watching a HoloNet news report by the holo - caster Alton Kastle describing a recent disturbance in the Westhills . According to Kastle , insurgents had attached surveyors and destroyed mining equipment ; forcing Imperial stormtrooper s to open fire on them . Accepting Kastle ' s account , Leo lauded the Imperial authorities ' efforts to restore law and order and hoped that the " insurgents " received a few " good whacks with a rifle butt . " In reality , the Imperial authorities had opened fired on a crowd of peaceful protesters protesting the expropriation of their lands . Zare , who was an eyewitness , knew the truth but decided that it was impossible to reason with his father . Losing a Daughter . Later , Dhara disappeared while taking part in a military training exercise in Lothal ' s Easthills . After more than a week of receiving no contact from his daughter , Leo and Tepha were visited by the Academy ' s Commandant Cumberlayne Aresko , who informed them of their daughter ' s disappearance . Commandant Aresko reported that Dhara had ran way from the Academy , citing that there had been no signs of a struggle in her quarters and that she had left with her backpack . This news greatly distraught Leo and Tepha , who knew that Dhara was a loyal supporter of the Empire and a star cadet . The Imperial authorities issued an alert for Dhara but to no avail . No trace of her was ever found on Lothal . While Leo remained fervently loyal to the Empire , his wife Tepha and son Leo became skeptical of the Empire ' s supposed " benevolence . " For the next few weeks , Leo and Tepha spent much of their time contacting their friends at every Imperial ministry in Lothal and pleading for help to find their daughter . While sympathetic to Leo and his wife ' s plight , these officials were unable to help . Over time , Leo came to believe that the Empire was telling the truth about his daughter ' s disappearance and expressed anger that he had not recognized Dhara ' s alleged distress . He also told his family that some Imperial minister somewhere was about to message them that Dhara had made contact and would soon be coming home . Meanwhile , Zare and Tepha came to question the official Imperial account of Dhara ' s disappearance . Desperate , Zare concocted a plan to infiltrate the Academy for Young Imperials to discover the whereabouts of his sister . Tepha reluctantly consented to her son ' s plan but made an agreement that they would never tell his father Leo , who was a passionate Imperial loyalist . To maintain the facade that Zare was a loyal Imperial citizen , Tepha arranged another farewell dinner and invited several Imperial dignitaries including Governor Pryce , Lieutenant Roddance , and Commandant Aresko . Seeing his son ' s acceptance as a mark of honor , Leo stood somber but proud during the party . Zare at the Academy . Following Zare ' s two - week orientation at the Academy , Leo and Tepha corresponded with their son via a datapad . During the conversation , Leo asked his son about his well - being and progress at the Academy . Zare responded that he was in good spirits and hoped to see his parents on Visiting Day . When Zare mentioned his sister ' s name during the conversation , Leo briefly blinked with rage but forced himself to nod . Leo was still frustrated and bitter that the authorities had failed to find his daughter . After Zare apologized , Leo reassured his son that he had noting to apologize about and urged Zare to focus on his studies while the authorities did their best to find Dhara . While Tepha , Zare , and their son ' s girlfriend knew that the Empire was covering up the truth behind Dhara ' s disappearance , they did not confide this matter with Leo ; knowing his pro - Imperial sympathies . When Merei visited the Leonis household for a social call , Merei and Tepha took care to avoid explicitly mentioning Merei ' s efforts to hack the Lothal Imperial network to ascertain Dhara ' s whereabouts . Later , Zare and his girlfriend Merei Spanjaf learnt that the official Imperial account of Dhara ' s disappearance was a fabrication . In reality , Dhara had been kidnapped by the Grand Inquisitor for a secret project called Project Harvester , which identified Force - sensitive individuals to train as Inquisitors . Project Harvester was run from a secret installation on Arkanis that was connected to the Imperial Academy there . Merei and Zare shared this information with Tepha , who took care to conceal it from Leo since his pro - Imperial leanings had blinded him to accepting anything that question the official Imperial narrative . During Zare ' s visit home in the winter break , Leo nattered on about the state of lawlessness on Lothal while watching one of Alton Kastle ' s morning news reports . At breakfast , he commented that the recent attacks on the Imperial Academy and on Empire Day were not isolated incidents but were part of a pattern that threatened commerce , authority , and the social order . Leo also reiterated that he had received an assurance from Governor Pryce that the Empire was doing everything in its power to locate Dhara . While his wife and son disagreed with the Empire , they took care not to argue with Leo . Later that evening , Leo openly welcomed a news report that Governor Pryce was implementing a planetwide crackdown on dissent and sedition on Lothal . This operation would involve all military personnel and Leo hope that this would give his son an opportunity to prove his mettle and to make his family proud . Leo ' s wishes were granted when his son and the other Cadets were co - opted into Imperial military patrols . After Zare exposed a fellow Cadet Nazhros Oleg for attempting to pervert the course of justice by shielding his uncles from arrest , Zare was immediately transferred to the Arkanis Academy as a " reward " for his loyalty to the Empire . Believing that their son ' s mid - year transfer was a good sign , Leo and Tepha managed to farewell his son prior to his departure to Arkanis . However , Merei quickly discovered that the Imperial authorities had transferred Zare to Arkanis because the Grand Inquisitor believed that he was linked to a Lothal rebel cell . Merei brought the news to Tepha during a visit to the Leonis household but the two women did not disclose the matter to Leo . After arriving at the Arkanis Academy , Zare managed to find a comm booth in the nearby town of Scaparus Port and make a long - range comm transmission to his family on Lothal . Zare ' s call reached his parents ' comm terminal at midnight Lothal time . Tepha was about to tell Zare the truth behind his midyear transfer to Arkanis when Leo joined the conversation . Despite the midnight call , Leo was delighted to see his son again and exchanged pleasantries about the weather on Arkanis , agricultural test beds , and various ministers ' failings for several minutes . While Leo was going back to bed , Tepha took the opportunity to tell her son to contact Merei . Breaking with the Empire . Later , Zare ' s girlfriend Merei Spanjaf learned that Zare Leonis had been arrested by the Imperial authorities on Arkanis and was scheduled to face trial before a military tribunal . Realizing that the Empire would arrest Leo and Tepha next , Merei and her mother Jessa traveled to the Leonis family apartment in a speeder . Leo initially responded to Merei ' s news with disbelief and anger . When Tepha , who had known the truth about Dhara and Zare , told Leo that they had to leave , he insisted that he was not going anywhere until he knew what this matter was about . When Merei told him that Dhara had been kidnapped by the Empire and that Zare had infiltrated the Academy to find her and to aid the Lothal insurgency , Leo claimed that she was delusional and reiterated his belief that the Empire was doing its best to find Dhara . When Tepha backed Merei , Leo expressed anger at his wife for not telling him ; prompting her to respond that she had with - held this information since he would react with anger and denial . When Merei presented the files on Dhara and Zare from her datapad , Leo dismissed them as fake documents and announced that he was going to contact the authorities to straighten things it out . Before Leo could carry this out , he was stun ned by Merei and knocked unconscious . Tepha then announced that they would be escaping with the Spanjafs and instructed Auntie Nags to help carry Leo into the waiting speeder . Leo began to stir while Tepha and the Spanjafs were driving along the highway to the Westhills . The Spanjafs had arranged to rendezvous with the Ithorian tavern keeper Old Jho ' s freighter at a prearranged location in the Westhills . On the way , they were trapped by several Imperial speeder bikes . Leo remained in the speeder while his wife , Auntie Nags , and the Spanjafs emerged from the vehicle to surrender . However , Jho promptly arrived in his freighter and blasted the Imperials . Leo then accompanied his wife , Nags , and the Spanjafs as they boarded the freighter and traveled to the nearby planet of Garel . After Merei , Jessa , and three members of the rebel cell known as the Spectres successfully rescued Dhara and Zare from the Arkanis Academy , Leo and his wife were present to greet their children on Garel . He embraced both his children particularly Dhara , who asked her parents to never let go . Personality and traits . Due to his unpleasant dealings with the Trade Federation when he was a young agricultural scientist on the planet Chrona , Leo had a dim view of the pre - Imperial era and praised the Empire for promoting development in the galaxy . His staunch loyalty to the Galactic Empire led him to rationalize or to minimize the Empire ' s excesses when confronted with the facts . While he was a faithful husband to Tepha and a good father to Dhara and Zare , Leo was also known to be deeply set in his views and to give long lectures in order to convert people to his point - of - view . On another occasion , his pro - Imperial leanings led him to fully accept a distorted report of an Imperial massacre of farmers in the Westhills . Despite his pro - Imperial leanings , Leo was critical of xenophobic Imperial supporters like Janus Fhurek , who disliked Alien s and attempted to get his son Zare to remove two Alien players from his grav - ball team . While Leo did not hesitate to castigate Fhurek for his prejudiced views , he inadvertently exposed his own Core Worlds prejudices against people from the poorer Outer Rim . Following his daughter Dhara ' s disappearance , Leo accepted the official Imperial account that she had run away and blamed himself for not spotting alleged signs of her distress . Despite this , Leo was ultimately loyal to his family and did not turn his son , daughter or wife when he learned they were participating in anti - Imperial activities . He also accompanied his family as they fled off - world and was present to greet his daughter following her rescue . Behind the scenes . Leo Leonis first appeared as a supporting character in Jason Fry ' s 2014 young - adult novel " " , the first of the " " series which is set in the world of " Star Wars Rebels " and told through the point - of - view of Zare Leonis , a young Imperial Cadet and Leo ' s son . The author has described Leo as playing the role of a " smug snob " who epitomized the tensions between the wealthier Core Worlds and the poorer Outer Rim worlds ; a theme explored in some Star Wars Legends literature . In Fry ' s view , Leo ' s remark that Janus Fhurek , a clear - cut xenophobe , would be fixing droids or cleaning streets in the Core Worlds reflected contemporary Core vs Outer Rim tensions . Notes and references .