Memah Roothes Memah Roothes was a female Rutian Twi ' lek who owned and operated the Soft Heart Cantina on Coruscant , at some point prior to 6 BBY . When her establishment was burned to the ground under suspicious circumstances , she accepted an offer from the Galactic Empire to open and manage a similar operation on board the first Death Star , then under construction in the space around Despayre . She named this new location the Hard Heart in honor of her old diner . During the Battle of Yavin , Memah and several other acquaintances , including Celot Ratua Dil , with whom she had fallen in love , would escape the station just prior to its destruction . Biography . Born on Ryloth , Memah Roothes emigrated to Coruscant at some point before the fall of the Old Republic . Shortly thereafter she established a cantina , which she dubbed the Soft Heart , within the planet ' s underlevels , employing the Ragithian Human Rodo as a bouncer and security guard . Over the years , the two would become very good friends , though their relationship would never develop into an intimate one due to Rodo ' s beliefs . During the middle stages of the first Death Star ' s construction , she was approached by an agent of the Galactic Empire , who offered her a two - year contract to manage a cantina on the massive battle station . The pay and benefits seemed to be an excellent deal , and Memah was tempted to accept , however it was not until the Soft Heart and the entire neighborhood around it was destroyed in a fire under suspicious circumstances , that she took up the offer , as she and Rodo were now without employment options . Memah ' s only condition was that Rodo would be able to join her there and continue his employment , which the agent readily agreed to . The new cantina , which she named the " Hard Heart " in memory of her previous establishment , soon became a prominent after - duty stop among the many personnel , entertaining such patrons as stormtrooper Sergeant Nova Stihl ; TIE / LN starfighter pilot Villian Dance ; and the Zelosian con artist and smuggler , Celot Ratua Dil . Dil , as it turned out , was quite the charmer ; drawing her in with his startlingly green eyes , it wasn ' t long before the two began dating , despite the fact that Dil did not attempt to hide that he was actually a prisoner that had recently escaped from the prison planet of Despayre . As work on the Death Star progressed , Memah and others of her more frequent patrons became disillusioned with the Empire and its practices . When the world that supported the Death Star ' s construction , Despayre , was destroyed in a test of the station ' s superlaser , she began to realize just what kind of place she was inhabiting — and indeed helping to prosper . With the destruction of Alderaan , this grew into open hostility to Imperial practices . She , along with several of the cantina ' s patrons , decided to leave the Death Star and the Empire . Eventually , she ended up escaping the Death Star , along with Dance , Dil , Teela Kaarz and Dr . Kornell Divini , although Rodo was forced to stay behind to hold off a large group of stormtroopers and was killed in the fight . Upon leaving the station with the help of Atour Riten , the defectors were briefly engaged by Darth Vader in his TIE Advanced x1 before he was forced to abandon his pursuit of the runaways to engage Luke Skywalker and his X - wing wingmen . Following the Death Star ' s destruction , Roothes and the other defectors considered their options . Ratua asked her to settle down with him managing his family ' s lucrative real estate business and informed her that he was in fact very wealthy due to his share in it . While angry at him for not mentioning this to her earlier , Memah agreed to go with him to meet his family .