After the clone wars came to an end and the new Galactic Empire was formed by Palpatine,
the Clone Troopers of the Empire were quickly deployed to every former Republic world, in
order to maintain peace, order and security after the war…
At least according to Palpatine…
Instead of viewing the heightened military presence as a way to bring order to the galaxy,
many planets were furious and felt like a iron fist was being brought down on them…
Surprisingly however, Pandora didn’t view the empire this way, and instead welcomed
it with open arms, in stark contrast to many other worlds.
So why did they do this?
Well, the sinister fate of Senator Riyo Chuchi probably has something to do with it.
So before we break it down, make sure you’re subscribed for more awesome Star Wars lore
content.
During the Batch Batch’s adventures across the Galaxy, they found themselves stuck on
the moon Pantora after requiring some repairs and refuelling for their ship.
After leaving their ship with a very dodgy repairman at the landing port, Clone Force
99 eventually make their way into the centre of town, where they see something they really
just don’t expect.
Marching down the street, is a large group of Clone Troopers, brothers of Clone Force
99, in a show of force to the Pantorran citizens.
Instead of being booed or heckled by the Pantoran citizens, the clone Troopers are Cheered and
celebrated as heroes of Pantora, and heroes of the Galaxy for bravely putting their lives
on the line to win the war against the traitorous separatists.
So why was the Empire Welcomed here when so many other planets rebelled against them?
Well unlike those planets, a large chunk of the Pantoran population fully supported the
Empire.
Part of this stemmed from the Separatist blockade of Pantora by Lott Dodd, who tried get them
to join the separatists, which was never forgotten by the Pantoran people.
Massive violent riots and conflict was caused during this time, making it a very dark time
in the history of Pantora.
Because of this, many of the citizens of the moon naturally gravitated towards the Empire,
because they were formerly the Republic, who defeated the cruel separatists, and promised
to bring order and security to the Galaxy, so that separatists would never rise again.
As a result, the Empire had enough support on Pantora to not face a complete uprising…
Now the moon wasn’t completely in support of the Empire, with some groups beginning
to form in order to resist the Empire’s rule…
These groups had very little support for the initial years of the Empire, until some time
later when Pantora was completely cut off from the rest of the Galaxy by the Empire,
and were left in a very dire situation, having both their supply lines and food cut off,
as well as having their influence in Galactic politics fade.
Struggling to come to grips with their new situation, the Pantoran Assembly, the legislative
body of the System, split into three main factions.
The first group was called “The Appeasers”, and they believed that the only way to rebuild
their galactic influence and ensure safety and security for Pantora, they must do everything
in their power to integrate with the Empire and submit to a huge military presence on
their moon…
They believed that without the direct approval from Palpatine and other high ranking imperials,
their moon had no chance of economic success, and would soon be destroyed by the might of
the Empire.
The appeasers were the largest faction on Pantorra, resulting in increasing imperial
influence, wherever they could implement it.
Obviously, this stance caused a lot of controversy with the other parts of the local population
who didn’t share their beliefs, leading another faction to form…
This new faction was called the Republicans, and they believed that the very existence
of the Empire stood against the core principles of Pantoran culture.
The empire’s dwindling democracy, ever expanding military and harsh restrictions on it’s
citizens deeply offended this faction, and they fought with all of their might against
the Appeaser faction to stop the Empire’s grip from strangling pantora.
Unfortunately for them, they weren’t the biggest faction in the Pantoran assembly,
and weren’t supported as widely, meaning they could get as many anti-imperial laws
as they would like, passed.
Finally, a third faction was formed, and these guys were considered the most disgusting and
disgraceful group to ever form on Pantora.
This group was called the Expansionists, and they argued that in order to ensure the survival
of Pantora, they must begin signing treaties and forging alliances with the nearby slaving
worlds, as well as getting the moon into the spice trade with the world around them.
Yes, these guys literally wanted to turn Pantora into a slave world, and become a death stick
and spice hub…
Either way, this group was the smallest of the three factions and were deeply opposed
by the other two major factions, as well as being viewed as abhorrent by most Pantorans.
After much fighting and debate over what to do next between these three factions, they
eventually decided to build up a small navy, completely filled with volunteers.
This move angered the appeaser factions slightly, because they wanted the Imperial Navy to be
the only ones defending Pantora, but even they quickly came to realize that they can’t
rely on an external force for their protection.
Many members of the Republican faction also went rogue, and began to hire mercenaries
to make unofficial deals with nearby planets, in order to bring new resources and technologies
to Pantorra, without the empire’s knowledge.
During this period, Senator Riyo Chuchi’s treaty still stood, protecting the Talz from
Pantoran interference.
Most of the assembly members wanted to respect the treat, but those in the expansionist faction
instead wanted to re-educate the Talz, in hopes of integrating the two societies together
and sharing their vast resources.
Now unfortunately, this is where things get much, much darker.
By the time of the Republic’s collapse, we know that Riyo Chuchi was ousted from her
position as Senator for Pantora, and replaced by Chi Eekway Papanoida, who was played by
Geoge Lucas’ daughter.
She’s also the daughter of George Lucas’ character from Revenge of the Sith in Universe,
Chairman Papanoida.
So because we now know that Riyo Chuchi was no
longer the Senator for Pantora after the Republic fell, this could mean a few things.
The first is that she simply stepped down from her position, because she wanted to focus
more on local affairs and making change on Pantora itself, rather than on the Galactic
scale.
This is very possible, given her personality and would make a lot of sense given what we
know about her.
She may have also just hit a term limit which Pantora imposes on its own senators, opting
to choose a new one after they serve a certain amount of time.
The far more dark and haunting possibility however is that Riyo Chuchi spoke up against
Palpatine and the Empire, just like Mon Mothma eventually did in Rebels, and suffered some
severe consequences because of it.
If anyone is going to be an early dissident against Palpatine, it would definitely be
someone like Riyo Chuchi, so this wouldn’t surprise me at all.
I doubt Chuchi was executed by Palpatine for her actions, especially not this early on
in the Emipre, where Palpatine still needs to give confidence to the galaxy that he is
the leader who can bring order, peace a security to them after the Clone Wars.
On top of this, Riyo Chuchi is too much of a beloved character for them to kill off screen,
so we’ll probably return to Pantora sometime in the later Episodes of the Bad Batch where
she may appear.
More likely however is that she was forced to go into exile after Denouncing Palpatine,
and his increasing power in the dwindling days of the Clone Wars.
We know that Riyo Chuchi was already replaced by the time of Revenge of the Sith, because
we can See the new Senator, Chi Eekway attending a meeting with other senators… so this could
tell us that Palpatine pulled the strings to have her removed, before he even became
Emperor.
If this is the case, Palpatine ultimately made a terrible mistake in doing this, because
Riyo Chuchi’s replacement, Chi Eekway actually joined Padme, Mon Mothma and Bail Organa in
the deleted scenes of Revenge of the Sith, where the first seeds of the Rebellion were
planted.
Chi Eekway also signed the Petition of 2000, along with 1999 other senators, denouncing
Palpatine and demanding that he hand back the emergency powers he had acquired during
the war.
The petition was heavily against the re introduction of Regional Governors and Moffs, as it would
take away far too much power from the senate, and instead place that power in the hands
of Palpatine himself, who in all honesty, would be the only one appointing them.
This information about Riyo Chuchi and Chi Eekway is actually brand new, coming form
the new Star Wars: The Clone Wars encyclopedia, which just a released a few weeks ago, and
was written at the same time the Bad Batch was being written, meaning this information
was firmly in their minds.
We may even get an episode dedicated to showing Riyo Chuchi in the bad batch, as she’s a
character that so many of have been waiting to see what happens next to.
But either way, lets just hope she wasn’t sent the Spire like luminara for speaking
up.
I’d also love to see what happens to George Lucas’ character during this time, as we
still many questions left to answer.
Thanks so much for wathcing, really hope you enjoyed the video.
Cheers guys, hope to see you in the next one.