Nu, Jocasta

• Appeared in:
  
  I
  II
  III
  IV
  V
  VI
  CW

• Species:
  Human

• Gender:
  Female

• Size:
  1.67 meters

• Weapon:
  Lightsaber

• Affiliation:
  Jedi Order; formerly served on the Jedi Council

• 

Jocasta Nu was a wispy, elderly human woman with a strong will. She was a Jedi Master, and served in the Jedi Temple's Library Archives on Coruscant during the final decades of the Old Republic. She was developed as a character for Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones (2002, Lucasfilm Ltd.), where she was played by actor Alethea McGrath. Jocasta Nu has a pronounced scar running along the right side of her face.

Before Episode II

Despite her frail appearance, Jocasta Nu was known as a firebrand among the Jedi. She has a history of being strict with Jedi students who thought they could pass off the bulk of their research to the librarian. In her younger days, she trained the Miralukan male Jerec to Jedi Knighthood, instilling in him an insatiable desire for knowledge that drove many of her own actions. She had discovered Jerec while working as an archaeologist for the ExplorCorps many years before the Battle of Naboo. This was established in the Wizards of the Coast online supplemental article, The Dark Forces Saga, written by Abel G. Peña and Jason Fry and was published on wizards.com in 2005. Also established as a former student of Jocasta Nu is Olee Starstone, a character in the novel Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, written by James Luceno and published by Del Rey in 2005.

Jocasta's determination and strength as a Jedi Knight carried over into her work in the Archives, where even the most experienced Jedi Master had to bow to her demands. She eventually earned the rank of Jedi Master, and sat on the Jedi Council for a 10-year term before returning to the Archives. Her title is Archives Director, as established in Attack of the Clones: The Visual Dictionary, written by David West Reynolds and published by DK Books in 2002 . That same source described the peculiar patterns of her robes as a traditional Ansata design that symbolizes knowledge and learning.

Although Jocasta was created for Episode II, she actually first appeared in The Only Witness, book 17 of the Jedi Apprentice series written by Jude Watson, and published in February of 2002 by Scholastic Inc. In this tale, set over 20 years before Episode II when Obi-Wan Kenobi was a 17-year old Padawan, Jocasta serves in her role as Temple archivist, and briefs Jedi before they depart on field missions.

In Episode II: Attack of the Clones

Jocasta Nu's pride in the Archives and their contents sometimes blinded her to the fact that the Archives were not truly complete and could be altered from within. Thus, when Obi-Wan Kenobi searched for the planet Kamino, Jocasta Nu was of very little help. Kamino didn't show up in the records -- and according to Nu, if it didn't exist in the Archives, then it simply didn't exist. She was forced to face her pride head-on in the wake of the Battle of Geonosis, when Kamino's existence was verified by both Obi-Wan and Master Yoda. She began her own investigation into the matter, and was surprised to find a trail of evidence that exposed Count Dooku's altering of archived data on Kamino.

After Episode II

When the Jedi militarized during the events of the Clone Wars, Jocasta Nu continued her role, but the preservation of Jedi knowledge -- and secrets -- became of utmost importance, especially when it became known that the Jedi Archives were subject to tampering. In The Clone Wars animated series, Jocasta Nu appears in the Season Two (2009) premiere episode, "Holocron Heist," written by Paul Dini and directed by Justin Ridge. Jedi Archive security is an important duty within the Temple, as Ahsoka Tano discovers in this episode. Here, Jocasta Nu is voiced by actor Flo DiRe.

At the end of the Clone Wars, Madame Nu was among the many Jedi killed by Anakin Skywalker after he pledged his allegiance to Darth Sidious and became Darth Vader. In Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith: The Video Game (LucasArts, 2005), she refused to give Vader access to the emergency beacon hidden within the Jedi Temple, so Vader stabbed her in the chest with his lightsaber. It was later reported by the propaganda machines of the emergent Empire that Jocasta Nu had been killed for hoarding information that was harmful to the Empire and its citizens, as revealed in Star Wars Insider #87, in an article written by Daniel Wallace ("Order 66: Destroy All Jedi"), published IDG Entertainment in 2006.

According to The Force Unleashed Campaign Guide, by Sterling Hershey, Peter Schweighofer, Owen K.C. Stephens and Rodney Thompson and published by Wizards of the Coast in 2008, Jocasta Nu was survived by her Padawan at the time of Order 66, Jin-Lo Rayce. Rayce had spent long nights in the Archives as a boy, poring over ancient Jedi knowledge. Before Jocasta Nu went to face Darth Vader, she gave her Padawan a datapad filled with maps of the Coruscant underworld and instructed him to flee. Rayce would later found the secret Jedi society, the Agents of Ossus.