| “ | I never risk my own skin if I don't have to. | „ |
| ~ Nute Gunray |
Nute Gunray is the Viceroy of the Trade Federation and the supporting antagonist in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, being the secondary main antagonist of Phantom Menace, the quaternary antagonist of Attack of the Clones, the quinary antagonist of Revenge of the Sith and a supporting antagonist of the Clone Wars.
Gunray was the Viceroy of the Trade Federation and later became a high-ranking officer of the Confederacy of Independent Systems as the head of the Separatist Council. He was one of Darth Sidious' first, and most important, pawns in his plan to attain ultimate power. Following the deaths of both Count Dooku and later General Grievous, Gunray became the de facto leader of the CIS. However, he was ultimately killed by Darth Vader along with the other members of the Separatist Council on Mustafar at the end of Revenge of the Sith.
He was portrayed by Silas Carson (who also portrayed Ki-Adi-Mundi in the prequel trilogy and also voiced The Ood in Doctor Who) in the prequel trilogy, and was voiced by Tom Kenny in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
History
Early Political Career
Nute Gunray had joined the Trade Federation at some point in his life and began early on as a junior trade officer but, quickly saw the opportunity for a promotion.The Pulsar Supertanker corporation was being reviewed for expultion and Gunray was the final deciding factor on what would happen. Gunray had ended up supporting the expulsion of the company citing "malicious disregard for profit" and "charitable donations lacking discernible reward". Pulsar's expulsion had resulted in its CEO position in the Trade Federation Directorate to be void but Gunray quickly filled that position. In 44 BBY, Gunray became the Trade Federation's senator in the Galactic Senate and implored the senate to intervene when the Stark Commercial Combine began attacking federation transport carrying bacta.
In response, Gunray had demanded that the Trade Federation be allowed to increase its droid army to combat the attacks on their transports though, he had secretly met with Senator Ranulph Tarkin to bring a more decisive end to the combine. Gunray had been pressured into giving the name of the planet where representatives of the Republic and Iaco Stark was being held at. The negotiations were held on Troiken which were aggressive and ended with a gunfight when he ordered his battle droids to shoot without a specific enemy. Jedi Master Tyvokka was killed and Gunray fled with the help of the other Jedi but, his transport was destroyed and the Stark Hyperspace War broke out and he was eventually taken back to Coruscant.
During the war, Gunray was promoted to the rank of Viceroy and became the head of the Trade Federation but was still restrained by the Trade Federation Directorate. He was eventually contacted by the mysterious Sith Lord Darth Sidious who had promised him that he could make him the sole leader of the Trade Federation and grant him control over a larger and more powerful droid army in exchange for Gunray's services. Gunray had eventually sent the droids to a summit on Eriadu, the droids open fired and killed all members of the directorate except Nute himself and Lott Dod, the most recent senator of the Trade Federation to the senate. To fill the void, Gunray filled the vacant positions with his associates such as Rune Haako, Daultary Dofine, and Hath Monchar, effectively making the Trade Federation and Neimodian monopoly.
Between 39-36 BBY, Gunray had sent a large portion of the Trade Federation Droid Army to the plane of Alaris Prime to colonize it despite the Wookies getting the colonization rights first. This sparked a colonial war on the planer and ended with the Trade Federation being forcibly expelled from the planet. After the war, Gunray had run into legal trouble but was still able to maintain his current position. Shortly before blockading Naboo, Hath Monchar had gone missing and fearing that he'd spill the secrets of Gunray and Sidious' plot, the two tracked him down and eventually had him killed at the hands of the dark lord's apprentice, Darth Maul.
Blockade of Naboo
Nute Gunray on Naboo
In 32 BBY, Nute Gunray had ordered that the Trade Federation blockade the planet of Naboo and block off all trade routes to the planet with the official reason being discontent with taxation rates on trade routes in the Outer Rim. Supreme Chancellor Valorum had sent to ambassadors to the Saa'ak/Profiteer to negotiate but in reality, it was Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jin and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi instead. Knowing this, Gunray had quickly contacted Sidious and Dofine expressed concern with the plans but was firghtened by the Sith lord when he angirly told him to stay in line. After Gunray had followed Sidious' orders and invaded Naboo, he was skeptical but, the dark lord had assured him that he would "make it legal" and then told him to kill the Jedi onboard. Gunray followed through with the command and he had the Jedi's ship destroyed and released poisonous gas into the chamber where they were staying at.
A small detatchment of battle droids was then sent in to make sure that they Jedi were dead but, Kenobi and Qui-Gon survived and engaged the droids in a fight before quickly making it to the birdge which was sealed off. Destroyer Droids were sent in and the two Jedi Knights fled and snuck onboard a Multi-Troop Transport that was heading to the surface of Naboo. The invasion was well-organized as the entire planet was conquered within a day and Gunray made it down to the capitol of Theed with protection from their troops as the queen, Padme Amidala, was captured. Nute Gunray had proudly declared victory as he and Rune walked into the palace in celebration of their new victory.
Following the invasion, Governor Sio Bibble had expressed his outrage at the viceroy and demanded that he explain the occupation of the planet to the Galactic Senate, to which Gunray replied how he would have Queen Amidala sign a treaty to legitimize the occupation but, she wouldn't cooperate and Gunray had said how the suffering of her people would eventually pressure her into signing the treaty and she was sent off to a detention camp until the Jedi who escaped from Gunray before showed up and saved her. The queen along with her escorts and personal, all joined up with the Jedi and they escaped off-world while Gunray took up shop in the palace and established himself as the de-facto ruler of Naboo and would pressure Padme into signing his treaty. While Queen Amidala was off-world on Tatooine, Gunray had stationed himself up in the palace and taunted the captured governor Bibble who constantly protested against him which annoyed Gunray and he had told him how the governor would die sooner than the rest of the people of Naboo.
Meanwhile, Padme is escorted back to Coruscant where she tries to convince the Galactic Senate to take action and save Naboo from the Trade Federation and end their control and blockade over the planet. The senate was unable to take action however so, Padme had done a vote of no confidence and called for the expulsion of Chancellor Valorum which lead to the rise of Palpatine as the new chancellor. Despite the expulsion of Valorum, the senate was still unable to do anything against the Trade Federation so, Padme joined up with the Jedi, the Gungans, and the Naboo resistance to take matters into her own hands and overthrow Gunray herself. He quickly got word of an uprising as he detected a large army of Gungans assembling and he deployed OOM-9 and a large majority of his army to crush them. Gunray had remained in the throne room even after Naboo soldiers began fighting his troops in the streets of Theed and remained there with Rune Hakko while Darth Maul was dispached to deal with Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon Jin. The battle eventually made its way into the palace where Padme had him held at gunpoint until his droids showed up and captured her. His rule came to an end however, when a young Anakin Skywalker destroyed the droid command ship thus, shutting down his droid army and he was arrested for his crimes.
Controversy
In 22 BBY, Nute Gunray was freed from prison and was back into buisness where he still retained his position as the Viceroy of the Trade Federation. That same year before the Clone Wars, Gunray was rumored to have been in an affair with Lora Besh the latter who released an unauthorized biography called Gunray on the Top. The book reigned as the top-ten best seller for the next couple of months and only increased in popularity due to the subject's involvement in the war.
The Clone Wars
Joining the Confederacy
After four trials in the Republic Supreme Court, Nute Gunray had still made it out alive and retained his control over the Trade Federation. Even after the deaths of his associates on Naboo during the battle there, Gunray had not revealed the involvement of Darth Sidious. partly out of fear, but also he didn't believe that Sidious had abandoned him completely and continued to aid Sidious in his plans. On his fourth trial, Gunray was approached by the Sith Lord Count Dooku a nd he revealed the existance of Sidious to the former Jedi who then promised to bring the matter to the members of the Jedi Council.
After being approached by Dooku, Gunray quickly joined the newly formed Confederacy of Independent Systems and sought to secede from the Galactic Republic. Gunray then made a deal with Dooku, the Separatist leader and head of state; to have Padme Amidala killed for her actions against him on Naboo and in exchange, Gunray will sign Dooku's treaty and join the Confederacy. To fufill the deal, Dooku hired Mandalorian bounty hunter Jango Fett to kill Senator Amidala along with his companion,Zam Wesell. Much to the viceroy's dismay, the senator lived and Wesell was killed by the mandalorian to hide his tracks with a saberdart.
Meeting on Geonosis
With the galaxy on the eve of war, Nute Gunray traveled to the Outer Rim Territories where he and Rune landed on the planet of Geonosis where other prominent corporate leaders and pro-secessionists gathered to meet with Count Dooku in support of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Gunray made it to the planet and while conversing with Dooku, Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi had also traveled to Geonosis during his investigation after acquiring the saberdart that Jango Fett left behind. Gunray eventually met in a meeting room with Dooku where other individuals such as Shu Mai of the Commerce Guild, Wat Tambor of the Techno Union, and San Hill of the InterGalactic Banking Clan all plegded their support to Dooku and Gunray eventually caved in and also signed the treaty effectively defecting from the Republic and joining the cause of the Separatists. To make matters better for the viceroy, he was pleased after he found out that Padme Amidala and her secret husband, Anakin Skywalker, were both captured while on Geonosis trying to save Obi-Wan who was also captured as well and all three of them were sentenced to death in the execution areana where Gunray had oversaw with Jango, Dooku, Rune, and the Geonosian Archduke, Poggle the Lesser.
Battle of Geonosis
During the execution of Padme, Anakin, and Obi-Wan, Nute Gunray had overseen the event and was outraged when all three of them broke free and managed to beat back all three of the creatures that were supposed to kill them. Dooku then calmed down the viceroy by sending out Droidekas but was then interrupted when Jedi Knight Mace Windu showed up supported by a large group of 200 Jedi all of whom were hiding in the arena. The Jedi eventually went down into the center of the arena and engaged legions of battle droids sent out to kill them. During the course of the battle, Gunray and Haako remained on the top overseeing the whole battle and watched as the Jedi were cut down one by one until only a handful remained and were eventually saved by the newly emerged Grand Army of the Republic.
Gunray and the other Separatist leaders eventually retreated and fell back to their base in the Geonosian mountains where they oversaw the battle. He was take by surprise at the mere size of the Clone Army and wanted all available droids to be sent into battle but Dooku said that there were simply too many. Gunray immediately knew that the Clone Wars had began and the viceroy began supplying the Confederacy and its military with the droid armies of the Trade Federation. Despite being a buisnessman and not a commander, Gunray stayed with the Separatists knowing that he'd die if he abandoned them and so, he remained as one of their leaders and became the head of the Separatist Council, the main governing body of the Confederacy.
Leading the Confederacy
Mission to Rhodia
Shortly after the outbreak of the Clone Wars, Nute Gunray began to exploit planets and other worlds for his own personal gain whether it be manipulating them into joining the Separatists who profitting off of the war-effort by extending the conflict to the rest of the galaxy and acquiring the natural resources of other worlds in a fashion similiar to that of Tachno Union Foreman Wat Tambor. The planet of Rhodia began to suffer numerous atatcks by pirates against supply ships and transports and desperate for help, Senator Onaconda Farr had contacted Nute Gunray and vowed that he and his planet would join the CIS in exchange for food and medical supplies to his starving world. Word of the report came out and Padme was sent to the planet to prevent it from falling to the Separatists and trying to keep Rhodia in the Republic but upon arrival, she was captured and imprisoned by battle droids and Gunray had soon arrived with Padme captured and ready to be delivered as a prize to him.
Gallery
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