One of the most entertaining parts ofStar Warsis its unique characters, especially those outside the good and evil morality. The good guys recruited Han Solo, a career criminal who repeatedly tries to leave the war, and turned him into an award-winning hero. The villains paid Boba Fett, a skilled bounty hunter with more honor than most of his coworkers, to hunt and kidnap their political enemies. Ochi of Bestoon defies expectations by being a hired hand who might be more antagonistic than his employers.
The Rise of Skywalkeris a mess among the otherStar Warsfilms. It tries to balance familiar material with new lore and winds up feeling like two retreads at once. It reachesinto Poe Dameron’s pastand establishes new history for Leia Organa, but in bizarre ways. Much of the film follows a chase for a MacGuffin that will lead them to the final battle. Their lead happens to come from Ochi’s corpse.
Who was Ochi?
Ochi of Bestoon is an assassin who carried out killings for the Sith from the early days of the Galactic Empire into the New Republic era. Fans know nothing about his early life. He became a Jedi hunter during the Clone Wars, serving the Sith before it became known to most people. While killing Jedi for sport and profit, he collected Sith artifacts as a hobby or religious habit. He’s a zealous supporter of the Sith, even when they aren’t apparently present. He became Darth Sidious' go-to contract killer before the Sith Lord ditched his day job. He almostkilled Mace Windu’sPadawan, but the Jedi Master fought him off. Despite his initial failure, he stayed in Sidious' employ for decades.
Ochi’s most notable early job came when Sidious ordered him to hunt down Darth Vader. Sidious favored extreme methods to train his new apprentice, so sending a master assassin after Vader seemed to make sense. Vader bested Ochi without using the Force, then walked into a cave inhabited by a deadly spider creature. Though Ochi assumed Vader would die in the cave, he hired pirates to help him attack if the Sith Lord survived. Vader returns, having passed the spider’s test and earned a Sith wayfinder. Thepirates wound Vader, but they turn on Ochi when they realize Vader’s parts aren’t worth the effort. Vader decimates the pirates and saves Ochi, rendering him a slave for the rest of their excursion. After a trip to Exegol, Ochi tries to convince Vader to surrender and return to Sidious’s side. He only agrees when a mountain of kyber underneath the planet’s surface proves he can’t defeat his old master.
Ochi loses his eyes to the kyber crystal’s brilliant flash, but he wears a visor that lets him see. He serves Vader for years to come, traveling with him as hehunts down Han Solo. He joined Crimson Dawn, an underground criminal organization seeking to use the chaos that Maul left to unseat the Empire. Ochi sought to obey whoever commanded the most power in the galaxy. If someone toppled the Empire, he’d be prepared to become their lapdog instead. His nature was inherently servile, seemingly taking pride in working for the best. He workedwith Sabe and theHandmaidens to defeat Vader, but none of his plans came to fruition, and he regularly acted cowardly throughout. Noted archivist Madelin Sun described Ochi well:
As long as I knew him, he remained a terrified little beast, who killed because anyone he murdered could not kill him. His road was paved in corpses.
What happened to Ochi after he killed Rey’s parents?
Ochifirst appeared inThe Rise of Skywalker, but all his screen time is in flashbacks. He served Sidious again after the Sith Lord’s resurrection. Sidious tasked him with kidnappinghis granddaughter, Rey. Ochi killed Rey’s parents, but they cleverly hid her away and laid traps to prevent him from finding her. His parents planted evidence leading Ochi to Pasaana, though Rey lived on Jakku. Lando Calrissian and Luke Skywalker tracked Ochi across the galaxy, looking for his Sith dagger. Ochi died on Pasaana, piloting a malfunctioning speeder over the planet’s Sinking Sands. Rey found his body years later, picking up his Sith dagger to guideher path to Exegol. It seems fitting that he would die as he lived, constantly terrified.
Ochi of Bestoon was a despicable monster. He was a contemptible coward wearing a mask of confidence to hide his terror. His life was one of pitiful servitude to thestrongest being he could find, but his disloyalty and arrogance outweighed his limited usefulness. Few characters inStar Warsare simultaneously so pathetic and powerful. Ochi proved he could kill everyone who tested him and still lose everything. Becoming a bad memory and a pile of bones picked clean by bugs seems like a fitting punishment.
