- "Sometimes Madam Rhoden thinks the sun orbits around her just because her husband owns the planet."
- ―Aurorient Express Captain
Madam Rhoden, also Herr Rhoden, was the wife of Clode Rhoden, the ruler of Yorn Skot. Dissatisfied with her husband, she began an affair with her personal trainer Buck, a member of an the eco-terrorist group Green Forge. With Buck's assistance, Madam Rhoden smuggled a core bomb on board the Aurorient Express cruise liner as part of a plot to kill her husband. However, Clode Rhoden was aware of her scheme, and had the bomb stolen from her quarters. Due to the combination of a plot by pressure pirates, an apparent failure in navigation, and the discovery that a core bomb was somewhere aboard, the Aurorient Express was evacuated.
Madam Rhoden was intercepted on the way to her life pod by Saul Moegantz, a creditor of her husband, who made her a proposal. She joined him in his own life pod to discuss it, narrowly escaping her husband's revenge; Clode Rhoden had planted the core bomb in the life pod his wife was supposed to use. Surviving this attempt on her life, Madam Rhoden joined forces with Moegantz to ruin her husband completely. In a confrontation with Clode aboard one of the evacuation vessels, she declared that she would divorce him and take a sizable part of his assets, while Moegantz would take over Clode's Yorn Skot mining station to settle the debt he was owed.
Biography[]
The dangerous affair[]
- "Right now we should be more concerned about getting through to your husband. If he's not on that mining platform when our package arrives…everything we've planned for will be for nothing."
"He'll be there. He practically lives on that station." - ―Buck and Madam Rhoden
Madam Rhoden's husband, Clode Rhoden, was the leader of the planet Yorn Skot. Yorn Skot was a tibanna gas-producing planet outside the jurisdiction of the Galactic Republic. In addition to tibanna gas mining on the mining station, the planet also supported a luxury cruise industry. Clode's mining activities were controversial, and part of the agenda of the eco-terrorist group Green Forge was to force him to close down the mining operation.[2]
In order to advance their cause, Buck, a member of Green Forge, found employment as Madam Rhoden's personal trainer, and seduced her. Rhoden was the latest of a series of businessmen's wives that Buck had seduced to aid in the assassination of their husbands. Under Buck's influence, Madam Rhoden agreed to help him with his plot to kill Clode Rhoden. Together, the two of them smuggled a core bomb aboard the Aurorient Express cruise liner, planning to use it to destroy the Yorn Skot Mining Station with Clode aboard. Madam Rhoden would then collect the lucrative insurance policy on the station and share her wealth with Buck.[2]
A Jedi complication[]
- "I'm not panicking. I just don't want to change our plans because of some uninvited religious zealots."
- ―Madam Rhoden to Buck
Qui-Gon Jinn suggests that Madam Rhoden leave.
The core bomb was stored in a suitcase in Madam Rhoden's quarters on the Tiffany Deck. Paranoid about discovery, she told the captain of the vessel that nobody was to be allowed in her room. When someone came in to bring her room service, she was irate and went to confront the captain personally. However, she was interrupted mid-argument by Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi.[1]
The Aurorient Express was sinking into the depths of the gas giant and not responding to outside hails. The two Jedi had broken into the cruise liner through the dining hall window to investigate.[1] The captain of the vessel gave a false excuse for the liner's plight: he was well aware of the course change,[2] although he was not aware of the swarm of Fastlatch-class defense droids crawling over the outside of the vessel, which were now eating through the hull of the ship.[1]
Madam Rhoden turned on the Jedi intruders and demanded to know what they were doing there, since her husband had forbidden Jedi from traveling on the vessel. Qui-Gon Jinn emphatically suggested that she go enjoy a drink by the ship's pool, and she decided to do so. Before she left, she told the captain to contact her once he heard from her husband. On the way to the pool, she was passed by the two Jedi running through the corridors. Shaking off the compulsion she was under, she tasked Buck with discovering what the two Jedi were up to.[1]
Buck followed the Jedi to one of the hull breaches, where the Jedi and some other crew members were having a confrontation with Podlong Foahl, a Givin crew member. Foahl had pledged his loyalty to a group of pressure pirates and had smuggled the Fastlatch security droids aboard in Lot 44C. While Foahl was arguing with the Jedi, Buck spotted a core bomb detonator in his hand, and shouted "Core bomb!" Hearing Buck's exclamation, Chief Purser Waverton shot Foahl, who fell out of the hull breach into the depths of Yorn Skot.[1]
The Jedi questioned Buck about what he had seen, and Buck maintained he had seen a core bomb detonator. Further questioning by Obi-Wan Kenobi uncovered his affiliation to Green Forge. Madam Rhoden was present, as was wealthy passenger Saul Moegantz, whose shipment of survapierre in Lot 44C had been secretly replaced by the security droids. When the Jedi wondered why a group of pirates would want to blow up the vessel, Moegantz suggested insurance fraud as a possible motive, and asked Madam Rhoden to comment. She told him that she left business matters to her husband. Moegantz then mentioned to Madam Rhoden that he was going to take over the Yorn Skot Mining Station as collateral for a debt, and propositioned her. She scornfully turned him down.[2]
Theft, discovery, and escape[]
Madam Rhoden orders Buck to attack.
- "You might as well have just shown them our bomb as a visual example of what to look for!"
"Will you relax? Once they find the other bomb, they'll stop looking for our bomb." - ―Madam Rhoden and Buck
Back in their quarters, Madam Rhoden scolded Buck for revealing too much. Buck reassured her that the Jedi would find the other bomb, and they'd be safe. Meanwhile, the Jedi used the ship's vapor samplers to search the ship for traces of accellerite and magnopium ferrocongregate to find the core bomb. The highest readings came from Madam Rhoden's quarters.[2]
Because of the unaccounted for core bomb and the ship's continued loss of altitude, an evacuation was ordered. Madam Rhoden and Buck were still packing her extensive wardrobe when the Jedi and ship security arrived to search her room. Panicked, Rhoden ordered Buck to attack, but he was easily stunned by a blow from Obi-Wan Kenobi. The two Jedi found the suitcase where Buck's core bomb had been stored, but the core bomb itself was missing.[2]
The ship's security staff escorted Madam Rhoden to her life pod. While boarding, she encountered Saul Moegantz, and accused him of trying to destroy the ship. He denied the accusation, and pointed out that she was missing the most lucrative solution to both their problems. Rhoden agreed to hear him out, and boarded Moegantz's life pod, accompanied by Buck.[2]
Unbeknownst to her, her husband Clode was the one who had arranged to have the core bomb stolen from her room. He had ordered the captain of the Aurorient Express to plant it aboard her life pod, and had programmed the life pod to collide with the Yorn Skot Mining Station. Aware of his wife's affair, he planned to both kill her and take the insurance money from the station's destruction to pay off his debt to Moegantz. However, the captain was unwilling to be complicit in the deaths of thousands aboard the station and detonated the bomb aboard the life pod prematurely.[2]
Denouement[]
- "First, I'm going to take your mining station to cover what you owe me."
"Then I'm going to take everything else."
"And then I'm going to give it all back to her for being so doggone lovely" - ―Saul Moegantz and Madam Rhoden, to Clode Rhoden
Madam Rhoden, Saul Moegantz, and Buck.
Clode Rhoden was annoyed that the mining station had not been destroyed, but pleased with his wife's apparent death. He and the Jedi joined the rest of the Aurorient Express's passengers on evacuation ships. Clode was unimpressed by the attempt of the Jedi to bring him to account for his plot to destroy the Yorn Skot Mining Station, saying that he would write his own pardon and go back to his cornflakes. However, he was shocked when his wife appeared with Saul Moegantz in tow. Madam Rhoden and Moegantz unveiled their plan: Moegantz would seize the Yorn Skot Mining Station to cover Clode's debts, while Madam Rhoden would divorce Clode and take the rest of his assets.[2]
Panicked, Clode Rhoden demanded to know what would happen to the Aurorient Express, as the ship was still his. At that point, the group of pressure pirates who had been plotting to steal Aurorient Express arrived and began to board it. As the Rhodens and the other passengers and crew of the Aurorient Express watched from the evacuation ships and argued furiously, the second core bomb aboard Aurorient Express exploded, destroying both it and the pirate vessel.[2]
Personality and traits[]
- "Where's my chaughaine sweater? I can't evacuate without my chaughaine sweater!"
- ―Madam Rhoden
Madam Rhoden was an individual who sought wealth and luxury above all else. Her marriage with Clode Rhoden was loveless, and she was happy to plot his death when a younger, more handsome suitor showed up. She was not particularly concerned about the thousands of deaths that would have taken place if her plot to destroy the Yorn Skot Mining Station had succeeded.[2]
Madam Rhoden was particularly attached to her possessions, such as her chaughaine sweater. Her personal quarters were luxuriantly decked out according to her taste. She also treated everything owned by her husband as her own personal possession, including the Aurorient Express and the Yorn Skot Mining Station. She had little real attachment to her lover Buck, casting him aside when the opportunity arose to attach herself to the more affluent Saul Moegantz. Even though she personally disliked Moegantz, she was happy to take his money.[2]
Behind the scenes[]
Madam Rhoden was created by Mike Kennedy for the 2002 Dark Horse comic Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan: The Aurorient Express.
Appearances[]
- Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan: The Aurorient Express 1 (First appearance)
- Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan: The Aurorient Express 2