Ryloth Senator
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“Compromise is a virtue to be cultivated, not a weakness to be despised.”
Bepona Aphelra of Ryloth. Bepona Aphelra was a senator from Ryloth who had served in the governing body for seventeen years. He had lost in two prior chancery elections as the representative of the Rimward faction. Largely criticized as slothful and indolent, Aphelra withdrew his nomination three days before the election of 704 BBY. The freedom fighter Cham Syndulla led a resistance movement to fight the Separatists, while Ryloth’s corrupt Senator, Orn Free Taa, remained on Coruscant. When the Republic battered down the Separatist blockade, the Jedi Mace Windu brokered a truce between the mutually suspicious Syndulla and Taa. Arali Olan (Aralio'lan) was a tyrian female Twi'lek politician who served from 27 ABY to 40 ABY as galactic senator of the Ryloth System, and from 29 ABY represented the whole Gaulus Sector in the Galactic Alliance Senate, also a xenopsychologist of note. Complementary to her chief duties of representing her home system's and home sector's best interests she took effort to emphasize the. Senator Free Taa, a strong Loyalist, kept Ryloth under the Republic's protection by supporting most of the Supreme Chancellor Palpatine's decrees, including the Military Creation Act. Clone Wars Edit During the Clone Wars, Ryloth was claimed by the Confederacy of Independent Systems and used to house a large droid reclamation facility.
Synopsis:
The battle for the Twi’lek homeworld of Ryloth rages as the Republic attempts to drive off the occupying droid army led by Separatist Leader, Wat Tambor. With his forces stretched thin, Mace Windu must convince Twi’lek freedom fighter, General Cham Syndulla, to help him save the capital city.
Analysis:
Cham Syndulla has every reason not to trust the Jedi, so-called peacekeepers, who have brought destruction and suffering to his planet with their costly war against the Separatists. Or perhaps, it’s the Separatists who have brought havoc to Ryloth, from a certain point of view.
No matter who’s to blame, his people have been caught in the crossfire and made to suffer. They’ve been used as living shields and left starving, their villages targeted and bombed in the night.
He doesn’t trust the Republic to act as their saviors. “Another armed occupation is not a free Ryloth,” he says ominously. “How long before I am fighting you, Master Jedi?”
More Ryloth Senator Images
But ultimately he has little recourse; he must choose a side and he chooses the lesser of two evils.
He and Senator Orn Free Taa, old political rivals, come to an understanding, a compromise that at least in words promises a future Ryloth free of clones and droid troops. And the Jedi and the Republic get the boots on the ground that they need to win this battle.
Intel:
- Cham Syndulla was originally envisioned as a devious character, working with the Separatists and lying to keep his people under occupation for his own personal benefit. Ultimately he was recast as the freedom fighter we now know.
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Ryloth Senator
Next up: Come back next Thursday when Cad Bane infiltrates the Jedi Temple in “Holocron Heist.”
Ryloth Star Wars: Exodus Visual Encyclopedia Fandom
Associate Editor Kristin Baver is a writer and all-around sci-fi nerd who always has just one more question in an inexhaustible list of curiosities. Sometimes she blurts out “It’s a trap!” even when it’s not. Want to talk more about The Clone Wars? Hop on Twitter and tell @KristinBaver what you thought about today’s episode.
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