Loi'e

Loi'e was a near-human cabaret performer and spy for the Alliance to Restore the Republic during the Imperial Era. Motivated to fight the Galactic Empire following the destruction of her village on B-bel by Imperial forces, during which her infant son was taken from her, Loi'e used her unique skills as an acrobat as the headliner of "Loi'e's Follies," a cabaret on B-bel frequented by Imperial soldiers. Alongside allies such as her daughter Hétis, Jon, and other employees at the venue, Loi'e secretly acted as a spy for the Rebel Alliance, using her show as a front for covert operations, including placing tracking devices on her stormtrooper audiences.
During one fateful performance, Loi'e noticed a man wearing the same Imperial Security Bureau uniform as the officer who kidnapped her son nearly twenty years before. Wanting answers, she compromised her show and her mission from the Alliance to confront the man, leading to a battle between her allies and the Imperials when she realized that the man was, in fact, her long-lost son, though he denied it. Before escaping the doomed cabaret, under siege by the Imperial army, Loi'e gave him part of her jewelry, which was secretly armed with a tracking device, so they could eventually find their way back to each other.
==Biography==
===At the end of the world===
An inhabitant of the planet B-bel, Loi'e was living in a small, rural village alongside her infant son when, at some point between 19 BBY and 16 BBY,According to "The Spy Dancer," the Galactic Empire's invasion of B-bel to twenty years before the events of the episode, during which Loi'e serves the Alliance to Restore the Republic. Star Wars: Timelines dates the formation of the Empire to 19 BBY and the reformation of the Rebel Alliance to 4 ABY. Therefore, it can be calculated that the invasion of B-bel took place between 19 BBY and 16 BBY, and the events of The Spy Dancer took place twenty years later, between 1 ABY and 4 ABY. forces of the Galactic Empire invaded her world. Under the command of an officer of the Imperial Security Bureau, a contingent of the Imperial Army brought fiery destruction to the planet. During the invasion, Loi'e took her son, as well as several other children, including her daughter Hétis, to a tented building to keep them safe. Despite her attempt to hide, the ISB officer, who wore a distinctive cape and walked with a cane, located Loi'e. Accompanied by a towering KX-series security droid, the officer cruelly pulled Loi'e's son from her arms. As numerous AT-ST walkers razed the village, Loi'e was forced to watch the man steal her son, unable to retrieve him as the droid stood before her. By the end of the Empire's conquest, Loi'e's village was destroyed, her people were massacred, and B-bel came under Imperial occupation. Under Imperial control, the people of B-bel were under the constant watch of heavy military surveillance, and scandocs were enforced on the population.
With her village in ruins, Loi'e migrated to a city located in a crater, where, by the time of the Galactic Civil War, she had established herself as a successful performer, and eventually became the headliner of "Loi'e's Follies," a large cabaret located at one of the city's highest points. Underneath her persona as a dancer, Loi'e also came to join a local resistance led by Jon, who served as her contact outside the cabaret. Inside the glass-domed theater, Loi'e and her fellow employees, including a now-grown Hétis, operated the cabaret as a front for spy operations for Jon, who believed their efforts on B-bel could prove helpful to the Alliance to Restore the Republic, a larger militia engaged in a revolution against the Empire across the galaxy.Star Wars: Timelines Loi'e's Follies was very popular with Imperial personnel in their off-hours, giving Loi'e and her companions prime chances to spy on the occupying soldiers. In one failed operation, Jon gave Loi'e several trackers to place on her clientele discreetly, but the devices were defective.
===Hearts grown hard===
For years, Loi'e, Jon, Hétis, and their other allies gathered intel for the Rebellion. Between the years 1 ABY and 4 ABY, however, Loi'e had grown tired of her double life as a spy, haunted by the abduction of her son and wanting to move on with her life. While Jon began planning their escape from B-bel from his hideout, Hétis yearned to do more in the fight against the Empire and had grown tired of waitressing at Loi'e's Follies for the invaders. As Hétis's guardian, Loi'e instructed her to temper her urge to fight. Eventually, with their days on B-bel numbered until Jon's escape plan was feasible, Loi'e was sent a package from him, containing a new set of trackers for her to place on her next audience. For the night's performance, Loi'e ordered Hétis to give the clueless Imperials that entered front-row seats. As the crowds of stormtroopers gathered in the theater, Hétis went to Loi'e's dressing room in a golden sphere looming above the rounded stage to inform her that she fulfilled her request, and Loi'e asked Hétis if she was sure not to raise suspicion.
Hétis scoffed at Loi'e's question and began to ask if she could help in their mission, but Loi'e, knowing what she would ask, cut her off and denied her. Loi'e warned her not to interfere with the show, but Hétis dismissed the show as pointless and asked why she was still intent on serving the invaders. She protested that she was no longer a child and could do more against the Empire, but Loi'e calmly dismissed her while she prepared to apply her makeup. Just then, Loi'e's comlink sounded with a call from Jon. Jon informed Loi'e that his team of engineers was close to completing an escape craft, and asked if she had received his package of trackers. When he told her that the trackers were the last he had, Loi'e mockingly asked if they would work, unlike the previous batch. Chuckling, Jon assured her that he knew his way around machines and their efforts would not falter. Despite Jon's faith, Loi'e despondently asked what their work for the Rebellion had accomplished, and Jon replied that they would help change tides in the galaxy.
As she finished her makeup, Loi'e told Jon that she was not a stargazer and wanted to move on with her life. Jon replied that they would all be free soon and that all she had to do was hang on a little more. Realizing that it was showtime, Loi'e quickly ended their conversation by sardonically telling him to fix his machines for a start, then put down her comlink and walked down a flight of stairs to the offstage area below her dressing room, where Hétis, two stagehands, and Mee'ma, the theater's musician, waited for her. They gathered around the entryway to the stage below, intoning the mantra "To the ones we've lost" in unison, then took their places for the show to begin. Mee'ma went to their instrument stand below, and one of the stagehands raised the large curtain around the central stage area. Loi'e dropped out of the offstage structure and released the billowing fabrics of her outfit, giving her the appearance of floating in the air. The Imperial crowds seated below gasped in awe, and Loi'e gently landed on the stage before leaping back into the air.
As she slowly floated back to the ground again, Loi'e used her sumptuous and dazzling outfit to take Jon's tracking devices out discreetly. She landed among the many tables of Imperials and began twirling around the captivated soldiers, nimbly placing the trackers behind shoulders and inside helmets without detection. When she lept onto a high wire of sheer fabric, however, she noticed an Imperial officer in one of the balcony seats, accompanied by a KX-series droid. Recognizing the man's clothes as the same the ISB officer who took her son wore, Loi'e gasped in horror and faltered, misstepping and falling to the ground. When Hétis noticed Loi'e's error, she used one of the ribbons offstage to catch her, and the stagehands lowered them to the ground safely. Not aware of Loi'e's mistake, the crowds applauded the stunt, and the stagehands quickly closed the curtain. Hétis asked if she was okay, but Loi'e curtly ordered her to take everyone and leave the venue via an escape tunnel hidden in the stage floor.
===Maybe this time===
Despite Hétis's confusion, she and the stagehands left to join Jon, while Loi'e and Mee'ma stayed. Loi'e returned to her dressing room, where she contacted Jon and told him to send someone to pick up Hétis and the others at the tunnel exit. Jon asked why she was not leaving with them if something was wrong, and she replied that she had one last thing to do, then opened her wardrobe and 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 behind, she went to the stage to begin her solo encore. The curtain raised, and Mee'ma provided music as Loi'e danced with frenetic energy, her long fabrics swirling rapidly, masking her path to the balcony above. There, she unsheathed a saber from her vambrace but refrained from killing the Imperial officer when she realized he was a young man, not the older one who had abducted her son. Shaken, Loi'e asked who the man was, but he identified her as a rebel.
The KX droid grabbed Loi'e by her shoulders and threw her over the side of the balcony. She attempted to soften her fall using her fabrics, but she tumbled to the ground while the officer and his droid followed. The man aimed his blaster at Loi'e and exclaimed that the Empire should have shut the cabaret down long ago, and the stormtroopers, confused by the sudden turn of events, equipped their gear when they realized that Loi'e was a rebel. She unsheathed both sabers from her vambraces and entered a battle-ready stance, surrounded by stormtroopers. A glass fell off a table and shattered, and the Imperials began firing at Loi'e, who leaped into the air to avoid the blasterfire. Landing on the ground, she rushed a stormtrooper and used her agility to kick him in the head. While Mee'ma continued playing music and the droid wait staff attacked Imperial soldiers, Loi'e threw her sabers, attached to the ends of her fabric panels, and was able to knock stormtroopers unconscious in quick succession.
The ISB officer fired at Loi'e, who deflected his shots with her sabers and approached to confront her when Hétis, who returned to the cabaret to help Loi'e, set off jets of smoke on the theater floor. While Hétis used the ribbons descending from the ceiling to attack the troopers from above, Loi'e continued to fend off the officer. She managed to disarm him and hold her saber to his throat, ordering him to calm down but noticed Hétis preparing to fire a killing shot at him. Moments before the shot hit his head, Loi'e pushed him aside, saving his life. Seeing the KX droid still functioning, Loi'e wrapped the officer in her fabric, threw one of her sabers to a beam far above, and began ascending the performance orb. She brought the man to the glass roof of the building, where she told him that she needed answers. Suddenly, the KX droid pulled her fabric, which dragged behind her inside, bringing her to the ground. She caught herself before she could be pulled back into the cabaret, but was trapped as the officer approached, ready to kill her with his vibroblade cane.
When the officer swung down towards her, Loi'e managed to roll to the side, and the cane severed the fabric pulling her down. Freed, Loi'e got to her feet and deftly dodged swings from the officer, who had an eye patch obscuring his vision. Hétis, aided by Jon, who arrived to help his allies escape, destroyed the KX droid in the theater below. On the rooftop, Loi'e refused to fight the officer and explained the story of her son, stolen by a man wearing the same clothes he wore. She frantically informed him that he would be the same age as her son and, tears in her eyes, asked what the Empire had done to him. Angered by her presumption, the officer again attempted to attack, telling Loi'e that he was proud to be an Imperial, like his father before him. Loi'e demanded to know how he dared to call the man who stole him his father, then swiftly shattered his cane and pulled him into a hug. The man tried to push her away, but Loi'e told him that the Empire had already taken everything away from her with her son.
As the sun rose on the horizon, Loi'e saw numerous AT-AT walkers aiming at the cabaret building and a troop transport arriving to rescue the officer. Handing the man part of her fabric and jewelry, which contained a hologram of her son as an infant and was secretly armed with a tracking device, Loi'e fled as the newly arrived stormtroopers fired at her. After the transport left with the officer, the AT-AT walkers unleashed a barrage of laser fire at the cabaret, shattering the glass dome as Loi'e ran to a cliff nearby. Jon arrived in his completed starship to pick her up, and Hétis yelled at her to jump to its entrance ramp. Loi'e did as she was told, and Hétis, hoisted by a ribbon held by the stagehands and Jon's engineers, jumped from the ship to grab her in midair. Once pulled onto the ramp, Loi'e, Hétis, and their fellow rebels look back on 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. Expressing her hopefulness, Loi'e told her that the officer was her long-lost son, and that they now had a way to find each other in the future.
==Personality and traits==
Loi'e was a near-human being with tan skin, black hair, and bicolor eyes, with a blue right eye and gold left. She had a tall, thin build, and her forehead bore two small horns. Before becoming a cabaret performer, Loi'e lived a peaceful life in her village on B-bel with her infant son. After her village was destroyed during the invasion of B-bel and her son was taken from her by the Galactic Empire, Loi'e was traumatized by the abduction, and her memories were haunted by her son's cries and the image of the gaunt Imperial officer who took him. Resolving to fight back against the Empire alongside others who survived the massacre, Loi'e dedicated herself to performance art as the headliner of Loi'e's Follies, secretly spying for Jon and his small rebel operation. As the years went by, however, Loi'e gradually became disillusioned with their efforts. She began seeing the rebel outfit as a perfunctory part of her path to leaving her old life behind, and her insistence on seeing her job as nothing more clashed with Jon's idealistic outlook and Hétis's yearning to up the ante against the invaders.
Despite not sharing Jon and Hétis's vigor for the Rebellion, Loi'e remained devoted to their cause as the means to an end. Nearly twenty years after the Empire's incursion, she was still tormented by the memories of the ISB officer and her lost son, and seeing a man resembling the officer in her audience was enough to set her off-balance and nearly fall during a performance. Quickly deciding that killing him would bring her peace, more than simply leaving B-bel, Loi'e made an attempt on his life but was again shaken upon realizing he was not the same man. During the ensuing battle in the cabaret building, Loi'e came to suspect the man was her long-lost son and willingly saved his life when Hétis attempted to kill him. Confronting the man, Loi'e demanded answers and, despite the man's refusal to accept her suspicion, believed that she had indeed found her son. The discovery of her son reinvigorated Loi'e, who found new hope that her life could change and gave the man her jewelry as a token of her love.
==Behind the scenes==
Loi'e was created as the lead character for "The Spy Dancer," a short featured in the second volume of Star Wars: Visions, which was released on Disney+ on May 4, 2023. "The Spy Dancer," created for Star Wars: Visions by French animation house Studio La Cachette, was directed by Julien Chheng and written by Chheng and Gabrielle D'Andrimont. In the short film, the character of Loi'e was voiced by Camille Cotton. In the short film, the character of Loi'e was voiced by Camille Cotton. Because of the freedom given to Chheng and Studio La Cachette, which he co-founded, by Lucasfilm for their project, he wanted to tell the intimate story of a "side character," using the dancers and performers seen in the background of scenes in the Star Wars franchise as inspiration. Chheng and his team used a simple animation style for "The Spy Dancer," wanting to make the staging and stakes clear but impactful. When designing how Loi'e would dance, Chheng and the animation team for "The Spy Dancer" designed a way for her to perform with her dress that was based on both martial arts and eccentric French fashion shows.
In addition to French fashion, Chheng wanted to bring France's rich cultural background into "The Spy Dancer." Inspired by the atmospheres of other Star Wars products such as Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Andor, Chheng wanted to blend the moody atmosphere of the latter two with vibrant and colorful visuals seen in French cabaret. From the start of production, Chheng wanted Loi'e's story to be of a hero who is torn between how to act in the face of the Empire. The character of Loi'e and the story of "The Spy Dancer" was also inspired by the cabarets that operated in the occupied Montmartre district of Paris during World War II and real-life cabaret entertainers such as Mata Hari and Josephine Baker, both of whom served as spies in wartime. Chheng was interested in making Loi'e a cabaret performer like Hari and Baker because he believed that the mix of romance and intrigue in the setting would crystallize into an emotional story.
Another of Chheng's inspirations, though indirect, was his family's history in Cambodia, during which his family suffered under the Khmer Rouge. Describing how the Khmer Rouge "would turn family members against each other and enroll sons into their ranks," Chheng felt that "The Spy Dancer" was able to reflect 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 earned positive feedback for "The Spy Dancer" from audiences in Argentina and Cambodia, which Chheng believed was due, in part, to the countries' history of cruel wars. Chheng also received positive comments from mothers worldwide who identified with the character of 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."
==Appearances==
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==Sources==
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==Notes and references==
Category:Alliance to Restore the Republic members
Category:Dancers
Category:Spies