Nute Gunray

In the final years of the Clone Wars, the ruthless Neimoidian Nute Gunray became viceroy of the powerful Trade Federation. He conspired with the mysterious Darth Sidious, escalating a trade dispute with the planet Naboo into a blockade and invasion. Sidious promised he would work behind the scenes in the Galactic Senate to make the invasion legal – it was up to the Neimoidians to capture Naboo’s Queen Amidala and get her to sign a treaty legalizing the occupation.

The invasion met little resistance, and Gunray traveled to Naboo’s capital, Theed, to compel Amidala to sign the treaty. But the queen refused – and then escaped with the aid of a pair of Jedi Knights.

Sidious sent his apprentice, Darth Maul, to pursue the queen’s ship and assist in the war effort on Naboo. When Amidala returned to the planet to rally the native Gungans for war, the Sith Lord ordered Maul and Gunray to wipe out the resistance. Gunray complied, though he was increasingly nervous that events had spiraled out of his control.

Soon, matters were worse. A Jedi Knight killed Maul, Gunray’s droid army shut down when a mere child destroyed the Droid Control Ship in orbit above Naboo, and Amidala and her troops captured the viceroy in the royal palace.

Gunray was taken away to face Republic justice. After repeated trials, he was able to resume his role at the top of the Trade Federation. But he burned to avenge his humiliation by Padmé Amidala, and to see the Republic brought down.

Gunray hired assassins to kill Amidala, and backed Count Dooku during the Separatist Crisis, pledging his armies to Dooku’s cause. But Dooku reneged on his promise that Amidala would die – the former queen escaped execution on Geonosis when a Jedi rescue party and clone troops intervened.

Gunray and the other Trade Federation grandees retreated to the safety of their orbiting battleships as war engulfed Geonosis. During the Clone Wars, the Trade Federation maintained official neutrality – but all in the Republic knew the organization was in league with the Separatists.

On Rodia, Gunray sprang a trap for Padmé, manipulating Senator Onaconda Farr into imprisoning her in exchange for desperately need food and supplies. As battle droids led Padmé away, Gunray exulted that his revenge was finally at hand.

The viceroy arrived on Rodia and told Farr there’d been a slight change of plans – Rodia would get the food it needed after Padmé’s execution. But Gunray was disturbed to learn a Jedi was loose on the planet.

Gunray ordered his droidekas to blast Padmé, but the Jedi (actually a cloaked Jar Jar Binks) attacked his troops with the help of a massive beast called a kwazel maw. Gunray’s revenge wasn’t quite going as planned.

To his horror, Gunray found himself captured instead. A Republic warship arrived to take him to Coruscant to answer for his latest crime.

On the way to Coruscant, Gunray tried and failed to bribe Commander Gree to free him. His spirits sunk still lower when a team of Senate commandos led by Captain Argyus arrived to safeguard him.

The Jedi Luminara Unduli and Ahsoka Tano interrogated Gunray, who struggled to resist Luminara’s Force-aided powers of persuasion and Ahsoka’s threat to gut him with her lightsaber. Things looked bleak for Gunray -- but then the Republic warship came under attack.

As the assassin Asajj Ventress dueled the Jedi, Argyus revealed himself as a traitor to the Republic – he’d been paid handsomely by Dooku to prevent Gunray from winding up in a Republic prison. Only Gree stood between Gunray and freedom.

As Gree and Argyus fought, Gunray saw his chance. He picked up a rifle and brained the clone commander with it, knocking him unconscious, then fled with Argyus and Ventress.

The Republic eventually overwhelmed the Separatists and began to push their forces back into the Outer Rim. Gunray and his comrades on the Separatist Council found themselves fugitives, shuttled by General Grievous from one planet to the next ahead of Republic troops.

When the war ended, Gunray and the other leading Separatists were hiding on Mustafar. Sidious contacted them, assuring them that his new apprentice would soon arrive to take care of them. But Sidious’s promises of peace had been a lie. When Anakin Skywalker arrived, he butchered Gunray and the others.