Oola/Legends

Oola was a female Twi'lek dancer in Jabba the Hutt's court. She was the daughter of a clan chieftain on Ryloth and tricked into becoming a dancer by Bib Fortuna and Jerris Rudd as a gift to Jabba. She was also the half-sister of Nolaa Tarkona, the leader of the Diversity Alliance. She was eaten alive by the rancor in Jabba's palace, but by then she had already decided death was far better than another day as Jabba's slave.
==Biography==
===Before Jabba's Palace===
Oola was a Twi'lek female from the planet Ryloth. By 3 ABY,The Essential Atlas sets Return of the Jedi at the start of 4 ABY, and in "A Time to Mourn, a Time to Dance: Oola's Tale," Oola last saw her father four months prior; therefore, he achieved his position during or prior to 3 ABY. Oola's father was the renowned chief of his eight hundred–person clan, granting both himself and his family considerable power and influence. Despite this, he provided Oola with little or no formal education, as Twi'lek society held that educating women was a threat to male authority. She instead devoted herself to dancing, which won her dozens of admirers, including the visiting Twi'lek criminal Bib Fortuna. Clan custom gave Oola's father the right to sell her, but Fortuna had doubts that the chief would agree to this. Instead of paying her father, he abducted and enslaved Oola.
To increase their value, Fortuna purchased expensive dance education for Oola and another Twi'lek he had captured, Sienn'rha. They received four months of training with the court dancers on Ryloth. Though Oola could not escape her enslavement, she loved to dance and saw her clan's traditions as a preservation of dignity and faith that the court dancers lacked. Oola was protective of Sienn, who was younger and more vulnerable. The first Human that Oola ever met, Jerris Rudd, assisted Fortuna with transporting the enslaved dancers to Mos Eisley on Tatooine for delivery to Jabba's Palace. They were initially delayed by stormtroopers inspecting their vehicle, searching for the Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker.
When Rudd told the Twi'leks to hide from predators until he returned, Oola and Sienn were fearful. Skywalker, who was indeed on Tatooine, sensed their fear and located them. He recognized their enslavement and tried to convince both Twi'leks to leave with him. Fortuna and his people had lied to Oola about the conditions that awaited her; they had claimed that her new master would be handsome, that she would be surrounded by luxury at the Palace while her audience appreciated her dancing, and that the Rebel Alliance was worse than the Empire. Oola thus doubted Skywalker's claim that he could bring her to safety with the Rebel Alliance, and wanted to see what Palace life was like, naively thinking she would be able to leave at any time. However, she knew Sienn was vulnerable, and helped the girl escape with Skywalker by holding Fortuna back while Skywalker used his lightsaber to defeat Rudd. Oola allowed Fortuna to believe that she had merely wanted no rivals at Jabba's Palace, and he delivered her to Jabba the Hutt.
===At Jabba's Palace===
Oola quickly learned she had been lied to about everything. Rather than the customary dancing veils she had envisioned, she was forced to wear only a flimsy net costume loosely held together by narrow leather strips, and a headpiece that nearly deafened her. Jabba was immediately enamored with her and kept her chained her by the neck to his throne as his personal property. Over the course of two days and nights, she could not sleep and was forced to dance for the crime lord. She was only thrown scraps of food if she groveled to Jabba, along with food that the Hutt suspected was poisoned. She tested each of her chain's links, hoping to break them and escape, but found that none were weak enough. The few words of Huttese she knew meant "no," "please no," and "emphatically no," which she used to reject the Hutt's advances. As punishment, his Gamorrean guards beat her, but in a way that did not leave her with any disfiguring bruises. She wished they had so that she might become repulsive to the Hutt. She was determined to escape from her horrible existence, whether by getting free from the palace or by death. Unlike her fellow dancer, the Askajian Yarna d'al' Gargan, she did not believe it was worth enduring anything just to survive, as the Great Dance and bright, clean eternity awaited beyond Death.
When she witnessed Jabba execute a prisoner by feeding him to his rancor, she was terrified so much, that she forced herself onto Jabba and climb over him. Not long after, the protocol droid C-3PO and astromech droid R2-D2 arrived with a message for Jabba the Hutt from Skywalker, whom she recognized from their encounter mere days before. Oola was able to speak with C-3PO, who told her that Skywalker was indeed going to return to rescue them. Just as she expressed a renewed hope that she would have a second chance to escape with Skywalker, Jabba pulled her chain and half-strangled her.
===Death and legacy===
During the Max Rebo Band's performance of "Jedi Rocks," Oola danced for the last time. She felt a sense of rapture at finally perfecting her style of dancing and was determined to continue defying Jabba. Initially more angry than frightened, Oola refused when he pulled on her chain and grabbed her end to haul it back. He became furious and tugged harder, bringing her over the trapdoor in front of his throne. She was terrified but used her few words of Huttese to continue telling him no. Struggling to resist, Oola was pulled closer to Jabba.
His patience frayed, the Hutt pressed a button on his throne, opening up a section of the floor beneath Oola. Jabba had dropped her into the rancor pit to suffer the same fate as others who resisted him, and she was eaten alive by the rancor. Her legend, however, would live on in the form of impersonator Dame Needa, who put on a nightly Oola tribute show at the Gardulla Oola hotel and casino in Mos Eisley.
==Personality and traits==
Oola, like many female Twi'leks, was vain and naive, though those traits gave her optimism. Oola started envisioning what Jabba and his palace were like before she even met him. Only using what Bib Fortuna told her, she envisioned that Jabba would be handsome, suave, and impressed with her.
Oola was repulsed by her new master, and yet afraid for her own life if she refused his demands. This led her to try to dance far away from Jabba. However, her thoughts and emotions would make her careless. When she heard that Skywalker was coming, she performed her best dance. She hoped that he would be pleased by it when he arrived to free her.
Oola was naive, foolish, innocent, headstrong, self-delusional, proud, vain and optimistic. At Jabba's Palace, she was forced to develop a callous persona. Before Oola arrived in Jabba's palace her pride and jealousy flared up when Luke Skywalker was trying to rescue her. She selfishly believed that she would become wealthy if she continued to work at Jabba's palace.The Essential Reader's Companion
==Equipment==
During her time at the palace, Oola wore a flimsy net costume secured by leather straps, sandals and a headpiece.
==Behind the scenes==
Oola was portrayed by actress and dancer Femi Taylor in the 1983 original trilogy film, . Taylor portrayed Oola in both the original release and in additional scenes filmed later for the Special Edition. The producer of the Special Edition, Rick McCallum, had also produced an episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, in which Taylor's brother Benedict Taylor, starred in. After learning of the Special Edition, Taylor told McCallum that his sister was in the same shape as she was during the original shoot. Since she had not significantly changed in appearance during the intervening 14 years, she wore her original costume with a new head-piece, and was filmed in close-ups, showing terror as the rancor approached.
Oola's design was used for the generic Twi'lek dancer enemies in Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
==Appearances==
===Non-canon appearances===
*Choose Your Own Star Wars Adventure: Return of the Jedi
*Star Wars: Obi-Wan 
==Sources==
==Notes and references==
Category:Enslaved individuals
Category:Females
Category:Jabba's dancers
Category:Tatooinians
Category:Twi'leks