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"Let me ask you- is my work complete? And is there anyone else in the entire galaxy who can do it? Anyone who possesses the knowledge I hold from decades maintaining the Jedi Archives?"
―Jocasta Nu, to Gar[7]

Jocasta Nu, a Force-sensitive human female, was a Master of the Jedi Order who served as the Chief Librarian of the Jedi Archives during the last years of the Galactic Republic. In this role, Nu was the primary caretaker of the extensive Archives, helping her fellow Jedi find the information they needed while controlling access to several restricted vaults and artifacts.

Although she was the Chief Librarian of the Archives, Nu was not removed from other Jedi affairs and, at some point, was a member of the Jedi High Council. As Chief Librarian, she worked alongside other Jedi such as Masters Tera Sinube and Eno Cordova. During the Clone Wars, Nu became involved in a plot by bounty hunter Cad Bane to steal a Jedi holocron, though she and her fellow Jedi failed to stop him from escaping the Jedi Temple with the artifact. She later helped Padawan Ahsoka Tano find the thief who stole her lightsaber, aided the Jedi Council in their investigation of Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas' death, and continued to watch over the Archives.

At the war's end, most Jedi were wiped out during the initial stage Great Jedi Purge and the rise of the Galactic Empire. Nu was among the survivors of the purge, and with her assistant Gar, attempted to preserve what knowledge she had and prepared a covert school to train future Jedi. Nu decided to return to the former Jedi Temple on Coruscant, knowing that hidden in the Archives was a holocron containing a list of force-sensitive children. Nu managed to sneak into the Temple and retrieve the holocron. Determined to put a permanent end to the Jedi, the newly crowned Emperor, Darth Sidious, dispatched his agents, Darth Vader and the Grand Inquisitor, to hunt down the former Chief Librarian. Knowing she wouldn't be able to escape Coruscant, Nu attempted suicide but was foiled by Vader. Vader killed Nu afterward, though he later destroyed the holocron after Nu warned him of what Sidious would do with it. Years after the deaths of both Nu and Gar, the information she kept hidden was found by Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, who used it to try and rebuild the fallen Jedi Order.

Biography[]

Early life[]

Jedi-Dooku-Art

Jocasta Nu was on good terms with Jedi Master Dooku.

Jocasta Nu was born on Coruscant prior to the Clone Wars. She was found to be Force-sensitive and brought to the Jedi Temple for training.[8] She soon became part of the Jedi High Council and a librarian in the Jedi Archives.[6] She studied to become a Consular Jedi, and did become one shortly after.[9] As a Jedi, she focused her interests and life's work on the Temple's massive Jedi Archives and soon became their Chief Librarian, which did not prevent her from attaining the rank of Jedi Master and training several Padawans.[10]

She would hold this title for several decades by the time of the Imperial Era.[7] She had complete confidence in the accuracy and integrity of the records she maintained, suggesting that an item that did not appear in her library did not exist.[8] She would collect several things as an archivist, such as the Mask of Lord Momin.[11] In 68 BBY,[12] when Qui-Gon Jinn first became Dooku's Padawan, Nu was the newly appointed Chief Librarian, and the Coruscanti Jedi noticed that Dooku and Nu were normally very friendly.[13]

Before the Clone Wars[]

Nu attended the funeral of Jedi Master Katri, who was killed by a group of security guards on Raxus Secundus.[14]

Jocasta Nu was present on the Council when the outcome of the Mission to Nameel was unveiled to the Council. Cere Junda was provoked during the mission and attacked Trandoshans, believing that they, instead of the Dupei Monks were at fault. The Council decided to send both Junda and her master, Eno Cordova, to Ontotho to help in the excavation of an Ontothan temple.[15]

Prior to the Invasion of Naboo, Jinn and his Padawan learner, Obi-Wan Kenobi, read over tax bills from the Galactic Senate in the archives, as Jinn was concerned about them. Although she was friendly with Jinn, Nu refused to help them, much to the annoyance of Kenobi.[16]

Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn's encounter with the Sith Lord on Tatooine caused the Jedi to worry. Seeing the worries in the temple, Dooku asked Nu what had happened. Nu told him the story.[17]

The Separatist Crisis[]

"If an item does not appear in our records, it does not exist."
―Jocasta Nu, to Obi-Wan Kenobi[5]
JocastaHelpsObiWan

Jocasta Nu and Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Archives

During the Separatist Crisis in 22 BBY, Nu tended to Obi-Wan Kenobi when he came to the archives in search of the planet Kamino, based on information from his friend Dexter Jettster.[5] Jocasta found him staring at a bust of Dooku and provided him a brief history about him and that he left and a while later, he came back as a Sith Lord and that he had once trained his master, Qui-Gon Jinn. When Kenobi said that he doesn't understand why he left, Nu said that it was because he was frustrated with the Council and its ways. She told told him that she wasn't here to give him a history lesson and asked if he had a problem.[1]

Kenobi finally told her that he was in search of a bounty hunter who was the supposed mastermind behind a plot to assassinate the senator Padmé Amidala. Nu was not familiar with Kamino, and noted that since it was not in the Archives, it must not exist. When Kenobi suggested her records could be incomplete, Nu was offended and left him to his investigations. It finally took Yoda's young pupils to suggest the obvious: that the archives were tampered with to hide Kamino's existence.[5]

Clone Wars[]

Following the First Battle of Felucia in 21 BBY, Nu was assigned Anakin Skywalker's Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, to serve as the Jedi Archives new security officer after the young Togruta was assigned to Temple duty for disobeying orders. She took Tano on a tour of the archives, and showed her the entrance to the Holocron Vault, explaining that only members of the Jedi Council were allowed access due to the sensitive information contained inside and that she herself had not been inside it for years. When Master Ord Enisence bullied Tano while she was trying to help him, Nu was organizing books as she watched the scene unfold and looked suspicious of the Jedi. When the Jedi Temple was put on high alert due to Cad Bane's efforts to break into the Temple, Nu informed Master Enisence of this after noticing him in the archives working at a terminal seemingly unconcerned. However, she was then knocked out by Enisence, who was actually the Clawdite bounty hunter Cato Parasitti disguised, and also working as Bane's accomplice in the heist. Nu was then dragged away and relieved of her lightsaber by Parasitti, who shapeshifted to impersonate the Master Librarian. Tano subdued the bounty hunter after determining that she was an imposter. After Nu recovered, she and Tano took Parasitti away and brought in more security, but were unable to prevent Bane from escaping with a holocron.[6]

SinubeNuTano-LL

Jocasta Nu introduced Tera Sinube and Ahsoka Tano

Following that incident, Nu assisted Tano when she came to the library to examine criminal records to locate the thief who stole her lightsaber. Nu suggested that Tano admit to Skywalker that she had lost her lightsaber, but the Padawan refused due to how often her master told her to never lose her weapon. Nu admitted that finding thieves was not her area of expertise, and recommended that Tano seek the help of Jedi Master Tera Sinube, an expert on the Coruscant Underworld, to find the thief. She led Tano to the elderly Cosian, who was sleeping at a table in the archives. They woke the sleeping Master, and Nu left the two to begin their search.[18]

After Master Plo Koon discovered the wreckage of a vessel on the desert moon of Oba Diah that was identified as the ship of former Jedi Council member Sifo-Dyas and which still contained his lightsaber in 19 BBY, Nu was asked to brief the Jedi Council on the events surrounding the Jedi Master's demise. She informed them that Sifo-Dyas' last assignment was to Felucia, where he was killed attempting to negotiate a peace treaty between two tribes. Plo Koon inquired about the status of Sifo-Dyas' body, and Nu informed him that she did not know as further records on the mission had been ordered sealed. Master Mace Windu asked who had sealed them, and Nu revealed that the Office of the Supreme Chancellor was responsible. Windu thanked Nu for her briefing and she took her leave to allow the Jedi Council to discuss the situation.[19]

During the war, Master Eno Cordova arrived on Coruscant. While exploring an ancient Zeffonian temple, Cordova received a vision of the fall of the Jedi Order and rushed to warn the Jedi Council however, none of the Council were concerned and disregarded his vision. The only member of the Order who believed him was Nu, his trusted confidante during his time at the Temple. Nu entered the archive and created a copy of the holocron listing all potential Force-sensitive children across the galaxy and gave it to Cordova to protect. This holocron was hidden in a Zeffo Vault on Bogano, where it remained until the vault was opened by Padawan Cal Kestis.[20]

Near the end of the Clone Wars, Nu explained to Caleb Dume, Sammo Quid, and Tai Uzuma, three Jedi Initiates who had passed their Initiate Trials, how Jedi Knights chose Padawans. Dume questioned how and why the Jedi settled on that method to choose their Padawans and if anyone had ever questioned it. Nu noted that Dume was questioning it now, but he protested that he simply wanted to know how that method had been developed.[21]

According to the Grand Inquisitor, she separated the Jedi in her mind: the ones worthy of education and those who were not. He believed that she did not find him worthy of education, and claimed that she didn't allow him into the higher archives.[7] It should be noted that the Grand Inquisitor was a highly biased source of information and who had been preyed upon by Sidious.

Preserving the Order[]

"Whoever is seeing this… It's up to you now. Don't let our deaths have been in vain."
―Jocasta Nu's message she recorded in a number of holocrons[7]
Jocasta nu post purge

Jocasta Nu, in hiding during the Jedi Purge.

Nu survived the destruction of the Jedi and during the early stages of the Jedi Purge she attempted to gather and preserve whatever she could of the Order's legacy. Nu went into hiding and started recording holocrons and collecting information with her assistant Gar, in an attempt to start a school for new Jedi.

The Empire included Nu on a list of possible survivors, which Darth Sidious gave to the Grand Inquisitor. He was shocked that Nu survived, as he had not seen her fight once in her life. The Inquisitorius was instructed to find Nu. When Vader was joined the hunt for Nu, with orders that she was to be brought in alive, the Grand Inquisitor spoke with him about the Jedi Master, and admitted how much he hated her. Sidious believed that Nu had a way to access key information that was hidden in the Jedi Archives. As Jocasta had served the Archives for decades, she would have known about every relic the Jedi possessed. Sidious believed that Jocasta would most likely try to escape custody.[7]

At her school, Jocasta remembered that the Jedi Archives contained a holocron with a list of every Force-sensitive child catalogued prior to Order 66,[11] and decided to return to Coruscant to rescue it. As Nu was about to leave, she bid him farewell and when Gar asked what could be worth the risk, she told him that her school would need students. Once on Coruscant, while trying to sneak into the former Jedi Temple, Imperial shock troopers found her and told her to identify herself, but she was able to escape them with a mind trick.[7]

Once inside the Temple, she was shocked at the devastation the Empire caused. She snuck into the Archives, where she spotted the Grand Inquisitor poring over the knowledge she once kept. She was horrified that the Empire was using the Archives, but forced herself to focus on her mission. Entering a secret vault within the Archives, Nu reunited with Cator and retrieved the holocron, relieved that it was still there. She was confident, that, with the holocron, the Jedi could return, and, in time, overthrow the Empire. She thanked Cator for looking over the vault despite everything, and asked him to remain guarding the vault. When she left the vault, she saw the Inquisitor again, and, offended that he insulted and tossed aside her books, confronted him, demanding that he leave her books alone.[11]

GrandInquisitorVsJocastaNu-DLOTS08

The Grand Inquisitor's disregard for knowledge of the archives caused Nu to impulsively attack him, which consequently led to her death.

She demanded he tell her who he was, and was shocked and horrified to discover that he was once a Jedi. Disgusted that he had betrayed the Order, Nu told him that he was a traitor and that he had less right in the Archives than she imagined. She attempted to kill him, telling him to prepare to meet a traitor's end. However, he was able to block her blow, and the two engaged in a duel. Nu asked why he betrayed his order, and he responded that he felt the Jedi had betrayed him, by only showing him the light side of the Force. She told him that the Archives were deep, complex, and full of secrets, and that if she refused him access, then it meant that she believed he wasn't ready. She stated that it was her duty as Chief Librarian to safeguard the knowledge, and that it was still her duty. The Inquisitor claimed that since the Jedi were gone, she had no duties, and that she could do nothing to stop him from taking the knowledge within the Archives for himself. He claimed that even before the Purge he had dreamed of killing her. He bested her, threw her to the ground, and, about to kill her, claimed that it felt better than he had imagined.[22]

Jocasta closed her eyes and began praying, but Vader saved her life, restating that she was to be captured alive. A brief argument between Vader and the Inquisitor then ensued, and while they were distracted, Nu telekinetically hurled several books at the two and fled. Vader claimed that she had nowhere to go and asked her to surrender. She responded, saying that she knew that he had destroyed the Order and that he wanted her alive so he could plunder the secrets of the Archives. She claimed that she would never help him, and deleted the Archives. As Vader continued his pursuit, Nu assembled a lightsaber rifle to fight Vader.[22]

Vader found her, and tried to convince her to surrender. Nu refused, attacking him. She revealed that she knew Vader was Anakin Skywalker. She taunted him, claiming that he was a slave to the Emperor, little more than a droid. She promised the Jedi would return, but her rifle failed just as she said this. Her saber ruined, Vader believed the fight over, but she overloaded the weapon, forcing it to self-destruct and blowing a hole in the Temple. Grabbing a green-bladed lightsaber from a shelf, Nu attempted to escape through the hole, but was forced to fight off several Coruscant Guard shock troopers led by Commander Fox. The troopers mistook Vader for another Jedi and fired on him due to Fox neglecting to provide a description of the Sith Lord. Nu found this greatly amusing. Snapping the commander's neck as punishment for this error in judgement, Vader ordered the troopers to take Nu alive, but she attempted to commit suicide by jumping off the Temple wall. Vader was able to save her using the Force, and she was captured.[23]

Restrained and confined aboard a patrol transport, Nu was forced to watch as Vader accessed the coveted information: the Kyber memory crystal, containing a list of all known Force-sensitive children in the galaxy. She revealed that the Emperor would turn those children into dark side warriors, as he had with Vader, and asked Vader if that was what he wanted, which the Sith Lord did not respond to. When the troopers regarded her with contempt for being a Jedi, Nu told them that Vader was in fact Anakin Skywalker, a Jedi Knight. Vader then killed all the troopers to protect his identity. When Nu inquired as to what her fate would be, Vader ignited his lightsaber but met no resistance from Nu, who accepted her death.[23]

Legacy[]

Vader told Sidious that Nu tried an escape attempt and that she had perished in the process. The Emperor expressed regret at this and told him to tell him the details of her death in person. When Sidious asked if he learned anything from her before she died, Vader replied that he had learned nothing, crushing the holocron.[23] Later on, Sidious told Vader that even though he wouldn't call the encounter with Nu a victory, he couldn't call it a defeat, as the relics she held were fascinating.[24]

Shortly after the Battle of Fortress Vader, Vader entered a portal constructed by Darth Momin to resurrect his wife Padmé Amidala. While walking through visions, he encountered Nu along with many Jedi with their lightsabers ready to battle him. However, Vader killed all the illusions, impaling Nu through the chest as the words "Let the past die" resounded in his mind.[25]

In 0 ABY,[26] one of her holocrons managed to make it into the grasp of Grakkus the Hutt, who added it to his collection of Jedi artifacts in the criminal world of Nar Shaddaa. Vader's son Luke Skywalker, was forced to open all of the holocrons in the collection by Grakkus. As he opened the holocrons one by one, he noticed Madame Jocasta's message and many others.[27]

Though Nu perished on her failed mission to locate prospective Jedi students, her sacrifice was ultimately not in vain. Her secret vault of Jedi artifacts and knowledge was tended to faithfully by Gar for many years until he grew too old to continue protecting it and sealed it by commiting suicide. The vault, and the information inside it, was then uncovered many years after her death by Luke Skywalker, who was attempting to rebuild the Order.[23] Skywalker recovered all of Nu's holocrons and artifacts from her cache.[28]

Personality and traits[]

"Get your filthy hands off my books."
―Jocasta Nu, to the Grand Inquisitor[11]

Jocasta Nu had white hair, blue eyes, and light skin. She had a blue scar going down her cheek. She was thin and frail by the time of the Separatist Crisis and often wore her hair in a tidy bun.[5] Although she was often resistant to giving help when asked to,[16] she could indeed be helpful whenever she felt like it.[18] She was on good terms with Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and did not mind his odd requests for information.[16] She could be suspicious when something peculiar was happening at the Archives, including when "Ord Enisense" hassled Tano.[6] She was not skilled in solving crimes, but she was willing to refer Jedi to members of the Order who were.[18]

Due to her position as Chief Librarian of the Jedi Archives, Nu was sometimes too confident that her library had the answers for all the questions and that it cannot be altered,[3] to the point that she could easily became irritated by the suggestion that her records could be incomplete.[5] According to the Grand Inquisitor, she supposedly separated the Jedi in her mind, the ones worthy for education and the rest of them.[7] When she felt that they weren't ready,[22] she refused them access to the higher archives and apparently hovered over them when she did let them read a datafile or two.[11] However, Nu ran the Archives as a tool rather than a service, expecting the Jedi to do their own research.[29] She took this as her goal as Chief Librarian and that it was her duty.[11]

Powers and abilities[]

"You may have Madame Jocasta's shape, but not her skills."
―Ahsoka Tano, to Cato Parasitti — (audio) Listen (file info)[6]
JocastaNu-TCWCEJtB

Jocasta wielding her lightsaber.

Despite being far from the strongest Force user or lightsaber combatant, Nu was still capable in both regards and possessed basic skills as a Jedi. She was therefore able to use telekinesis, which she could use as a tool or as a weapon, from activating and assembling a holocron to summoning the books in the Jedi library to throw them at Vader and the Grand Inquisitor. Additionally, Jocasta demonstrated skill with the mind trick, which she used on shock troopers to get them to ignore her. Despite her wealth of knowledge however, she was described by Darth Sidious as being "middling in the Force" and "barely competent with a lightsaber."[7]

While she was well past her physical prime, Nu also demonstrated feats of physical prowess, such as jumping down several stories from a crater made in the wall of the Jedi Temple. As a lightsaber duelist, she was skilled enough to briefly hold her own against the Grand Inquisitor, until she was overwhelmed by his own skill and strength. She could also deflect several blaster bolts fired at her by multiple shock troopers.[23]

Equipment[]

Jocasta Nu had a blue-bladed lightsaber and was known to have skills in lightsaber combat, despite rarely using the weapon.[18] She also wore brownish robes on the outside with several symbols on it and wore black clothing on the inside.[5] At the time of her death, she wore a black cloak and used her lightsaber in a lightsaber rifle. After losing both weapons, she picked up a green-bladed lightsaber from a shelf, until she was captured.[22]

Behind the scenes[]

Jocasta Nu was played by actress and comedian Alethea McGrath in the 2002 film Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones, the second installment of the Star Wars prequel trilogy.[5] She was voiced by Flo Di Re in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV series and Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi anthology series.

Her fate differs from Star Wars Legends, in which Skywalker kills her during Order 66 as a result of refusing him access to the Archives.[30]

In an interview featured in Star Wars Insider 75, McGrath indicated that a lot of Nu's backstory and scenes from Attack of the Clones were cut before filming and during editing, including the revelation that Nu and Count Dooku used to be in love during Dooku's days in the Jedi Order.[31]

Appearances[]

Non-canon appearances[]

Sources[]

Notes and references[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 StarWars Jocasta Nu in the Encyclopedia (content now obsolete; backup link)
  2. Star Wars: Timelines
  3. 3.0 3.1 StarWars-DatabankII Jocasta Nu in the Databank (backup link)
  4. Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Character Encyclopedia - Join the Battle!
  5. 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 TCW mini logo Star Wars: The Clone Wars — "Holocron Heist"
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 Darth Vader (2017) 7
  8. 8.0 8.1 Ultimate Star Wars
  9. Star Wars: The Visual Encyclopedia
  10. ToppsDigitalLogo Star Wars: Card Trader (Card: Jocasta Nu - Jedi Archivist - Base Series 1)
  11. 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 Darth Vader (2017) 8
  12. 12.0 12.1 Star Wars: Timelines places the events of Master & Apprentice in 40 BBY. Master & Apprentice also establishes that Qui-Gon Jinn is forty years old, which places his birth in 80 BBY. As Jinn became the Padawan of Dooku when he was twelve, he must have become Dooku's Padawan in 68 BBY.
  13. Master & Apprentice
  14. Tales of the Jedi logo Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi — "Choices"
  15. Jedi Fallen Order - Dark Temple 1
  16. 16.0 16.1 16.2 Queen's Peril
  17. Tales of the Jedi logo Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi — "The Sith Lord"
  18. 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 TCW mini logo Star Wars: The Clone Wars — "Lightsaber Lost"
  19. TCW mini logo Star Wars: The Clone Wars — "The Lost One"
  20. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
  21. Kanan 7
  22. 22.0 22.1 22.2 22.3 Darth Vader (2017) 9
  23. 23.0 23.1 23.2 23.3 23.4 23.5 Darth Vader (2017) 10
  24. Darth Vader (2017) 12
  25. Darth Vader (2017) 25
  26. The Star Wars Book places the Battle of Vrogas Vas in the year immediately following the events of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, which Star Wars: Galactic Atlas states concluded in 0 ABY. Therefore, the Battle of Vrogas Vas must have taken place in 0 ABY. As the events of this comic take place prior to the Battle of Vrogas Vas and after the events of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, the comic must also take place in 0 ABY.
  27. Star Wars (2015) 9
  28. The Star Wars Book
  29. Star Wars: Force Collection (Card: Jocasta Nu (★★★))
  30. Star Wars: Purge: Seconds to Die
  31. SWInsider "Appearing Knightley" — Star Wars Insider 75
  32. Dooku: Jedi Lost

External links[]

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