Arihnda Pryce

"They fight so hard to gain so little."

- Governor Pryce's muse about the desperate rebellion Arihnda Pryce or also known as Governor Pryce is the tertiary antagonist of the Season Three of Star Wars Rebels. She's an official of the Galactic Empire and served as the Imperial Governor of Lothal fourteen years after the empire's formation. As Governor of Lothal, she would be absent from the planet numerous times and instead had Maketh Tua take over while she was gone.

PERSONALITY
Arihnda Pryce is an ambitious human woman who looked down upon her Lothalian roots. While she was from Lothal, she had no interest of remaining on Lothal. She sold out her homeworld to the Emperor and allowed the Empire to make Lothal their local headquarters in the Lothal Sector. She placed her own ambitions and career aspirations over the interests of her people; this stood in contrast to her deputy ruler, Maketh Tua, who genuinely cared for the people. She rarely visited Lothal and only returned to her homeworld because the planet had become a haven for rebels about two years.

Her position as a planetary governor gives her an inflated ego that she derides imperial officers such as Kallus and Konstantine, adhering instead to Thrawn, holding him in high regard that she never questions his orders, which is interesting as most Imperials hold alien species in low regard.

Fighting the Rebels
After repeated successes by the rebels against the Empire, Pryce was summoned by Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin who asked just how she intended to solve this persistent problem. Pryce responded that she needed "someone who saw a bigger picture", who turned out to be none other than the feared Grand Admiral Thrawn. She later joined Agent Kallus, they traveled to Reklam Station to investigate rebel theft of several Y-Wing Starfighters. Pryce contacted Thrawn, who upon learning the full strength of the rebel force ordered the group to break off their attack and let the rebels escape. Pryce explained to a confused Konstantine that Thrawn had bigger plans than the destruction of a handful of rebels.

Skystrike Academy
Later, Following that incident, Pryce and Kallus then traveled to Skystrike Academy. There they met with Commandant Argin Relik and told him that several of his cadets were planning to defect to the Rebellion. When Relik protested that his cadets were thoroughly well-trained and loyal, Pryce warned him to cooperate with their investigation and told Kallus that she had something to teach him.

Under Pryce's direction, Kallus proceeded to ground the cadets and question them. His investigation yielded no results but Pryce was still unsatisfied and decided that it was time to take a more direct approach. When Relik reiterated his unhappiness with the investigation, Pryce then suggested that they could reach a mutual agreement by getting the cadets into space though a mock simulated exercise. Pryce planned to use this exercise to lure the dissident cadets out of hiding. As expected, the undercover rebel agent Sabine Wren and the cadets Wedge Antilles, Derek Klivian and Rake Gahree made an attempt to escape.

Pryce activated a button which disabled the TIE Fighters' solar collectors; leaving them floating in space. Under her orders, Captain Vult Skerris destroyed Rake's fighter as a warning to the "traitors." Skerris and his TIE Interceptors inflicted damage on the rebel cruiser and drove them away.

After capturing the rebellious cadets, Pryce confronted the three youths. She was about to torture Wedge with an electronic torture device when Sabine identified herself as the rebel agent. While Kallus took the other prisoners to a holding cell, Pryce proceeded to question Sabine. When Sabine refused to talk, Pryce brought up a glyph of her file and "welcomed" the former cadet back to the Imperial Academy. Before she could place Sabine in the torture device, the rebel agent broke free of her Stormtrooper captors and fought with Pryce. Following a struggle, Pryce was accidentally knocked out by the stinger from the torture device.

Mission to Agamar
While traveling aboard an Imperial Star Destroyer, Governor Pryce was praised by Agent Kallus for her plan to lure the Lothal rebels into a trap at a fuel depot. However, Pryce responded that her plan was only a success if they could catch the rebels. Admiral Konstantine then reported that they had received an encrypted distress signal from the planet Agamar. While thinking that it was strange for the rebels to encounter trouble, Pryce nonetheless ordered the nearest Imperial outpost to send troops to Agamar immediately; resulting in a skirmish in which the Lothal rebels and the Separatist garrison under Kalani joined forces to escape the Imperials.

Lothal Saboteurs
The former Governor Ryder Azadi's rebel cell undertook a campaign of sabotaging military vehicles produced by the Imperial Armory Complex. This led to a high rate of accidents among Imperial Military personnel. In response Imperial High Command dispatched Grand Admiral Thrawn to investigate the Lothal Imperial factory. Governor Pryce along with Agent Kallus and Lieutenant Yogar Lyste were present when Thrawn gave a speech berating the workers for their poor craftsmanship. Pryce smirked after a test demonstration with a sabotaged 614-AvA speeder bike claimed the life of factory worker and undercover rebel operative Morad Sumar.

She and her subordinates then complied with Thrawn's orders to lock down the factory and detain the factory workers for questioning. Despite their best efforts, the undercover rebels Ezra Bridger, Kanan Jarrus, and their astromech droidChopper escaped the lockdown and infiltrated the factory's Section A2, which held Thrawn's top secret new weapon. Later, Pryce discussed her fears about the rebels infiltrating Section A2 and stealing its secrets. Thrawn responded that he had ordered for anyone entering the area without his personal code to be terminated on sight. When the Admiral chided Pryce for hiring locals, she responded that she had to fulfill certain Imperial quotas.

Pryce responded that Thrawn had a new starfighter initiative. After Kallus questioned the effectiveness of a single fighter in improving Imperial fortunes, Thrawn responded that victory and defeat were determined by he smallest details. Pryce was present when Thrawn ordered another factory worker to demonstrate an AT-DP walker. Pryce and Kallus later visited Thrawn's Office to discuss the recent rebel incursion. When Thrawn voiced his suspicions that the Empire had a traitor among their ranks, an alarmed Pryce advocated interrogating all Imperial personnel on Lothal. However, Thrawn counseled Pryce that emotion would not work and announced that he would uncover the traitor and co-opt them.

Finding Fulcrum
When Thrawn researches the Rebellion spy called Fulcrum, who is in fact Agent Kallus, Lieutenant Yogar Lyste is manipulated by Kallus saying that Pryce is Fulcrum. When Kanan Jarrus a surviving jedi and Rex a former captain clone trooper arrived on Thrawn's ship disguised as a stormtrooper, Pryce immediately ordered to surrender and remove their helmet. Kanan attempted mental control but Pryce immediately ordered a stormtrooper to shoot Kanan before entering a fight with Rex. Though able to stand up to Rex, the veteran clone took over, but Pryce used a blaster as a weapon to carry him away until Lyste pulled him back with a stun gun.

Hunt for Mon Mothma
Later, Arihnda Pryce and Admiral Konstantine attended a meeting with Grand Admiral Thrawn to discuss plans to capture the former Imperial Senator Mon Mothma, who was being ferried by members of the Spectres rebel cell through the Archeon Nebula. Both Pryce and Konstantine expressed disbelief that Phoenix Leader Hera Syndulla would risk traveling through the dangerous Archeon pass. Seeking to silence Mon Mothma, Pryce volunteered for the mission. Thrawn then dispatched her and Admiral Konstantine to position two Star Destroyers outside the Archeon Nebula. Thrawn then dispatched the elite TIE fighter pilot Commander Vult Skerris in a prototype TIE Defender to flush the rebels out of the Nebula.

Hera's ship Ghost managed to exit the Archeon pass only to be intercepted by Pryce and Konstantine's two Star Destroyers. When Governor Pryce demanded Mothma's surrender, the rogue Senator issued a list of demands which she promptly rejected. Pryce then ordered Konstantine to use their Star Destroyer's tractor beam projector to draw the Ghost into its hangar bay. Shortly later, the rebel pilots Gold Leader Jon Vander and Ezra Bridger managed to exit the nebula with their two remaining Y-wing fighters after escaping Skerris' TIE Defender. Defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory for Governor Pryce when the rebel pilots at Hera's command fired their proton torpedoes into the Archeon Nebula. This created a firestorm which damaged both Star Destroyers. The Ghost and its Y-wing escorts then fled to Dantooine where Mothma delivered a stirring speech on HoloNet urging rebellion against the Empire.

Battle of Atollon
Governor Pryce and Admiral Konstantine attended an urgent meeting with Grand Admiral Thrawn and Grand Moff Tarkin to discuss new information that the Phoenix Squadron and General Jan Dodonna's Massassi group were planning to attack the TIE Defender factories on Lothal. During the meeting, Pryce opined that a coordinate rebel attack was unprecedented. This meeting was a ruse by Thrawn to lure the rebel spy Agent Kallus out of hiding and discover the location of the hidden Chopper Base. Governor Pryce later accompanied Thrawn and the captive Kallus aboard the Star Destroyer Chimaera during the Battle of Atollon.

Thrawn blockaded the Atollon system and managed to trap the two rebel forces. The Empire inflicted heavy casualties on the rebels, destroying numerous starships and starfighters. However, Admiral Konstantine's interdictor cruiser was destroyed when he disobeyed Thrawn's orders and tried to intercept Commander Jun Sato's command ship Phoenix Home. This allowed the rebels Ezra Bridger and Chopper to flee into hyperspace aboard the Nightbrother and seek help.

After the rebel ships retreated back to Chopper Base, Governor Pryce watched as the Imperial fleet bombarded the base. However, Chopper Base was protected by a deflector shield generator. While Thrawn led the ground assault, Governor Pryce commanded the Imperial fleet. When Ezra returned with Mandalorian reinforcements led by Sabine Wren and Fenn Rau, Pryce recognized Sabine's forces and ordered the TIE fighters and capital ships to intercept them. A Mandalorian strike team then attacked the second interdictor cruiser.

In response, Governor Pryce dispatched several Jumptroopers to protect the interdictor cruiser. However, the rebels managed to blow up the ship's gravity well projectors, destroying the interdictor. When the captive Kallus taunted her about displeasing Thrawn, Pryce ordered her stormtroopers to fling him out the airlock. However, Kallus managed to escape aboard an escape pod and flee into hyperspace with the retreating rebels. Pryce was visibly displeased with the rebels' escape.

Trivia

 * Originally, Arihnda Pryce was supposed to make her debut in The Siege of Lothal and die instead of Maketh Tua, but this earlier version was cut from the final film.
 * Pryce bears a striking resemblance to Soviet Colonel Irina Spalko from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.