| “ | Your little insurrection is at an end, Your Highness. Time for you to sign the treaty and end this pointless debate in the Senate. | „ |
| ~ Viceroy Nute Gunray |
Viceroy Nute Gunray is the secondary antagonist of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and a major antagonist of Star Wars: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.
He is the corrupt and genocidal Viceroy of the Trade Federation with an eternal hatred for Padme Amidala, being hellbent on destroying her. In the end, he was betrayed by his own master, Lord Sidious, and struck down by the newly appointed Darth Vader.
He is portrayed by Silas Carson and voiced by Tom Kenny.
His Evil Ranking[]
His Villainous Deeds[]
In General[]
- He's a corrupt and greedy official who only cares about profit and self-preservation, with no redeeming qualities or honor or good intent, being genuinely feared by his enemies and accepting his defeat on Naboo with ominous silence, and he has no tragedy in any shape or form. Everything he does is solely for himself.
- There is no indication that he cares for his right-hand man, Rune Haako, or that his affability to Lord Vader is genuine. Him not treating Rune poorly or addressing Vader coldly is probably out of pragmatism. Furthermore, he shows no concern when Vader strikes Rune down right in front of him.
- While he is openly bitter about Count Dooku dying, it's only because he felt safer when he was alive.
- He also only obeys Sidious for his own glory.
- While not as heinous as Dr. Nuvo Vindi or Jabba the Hutt, he does not have access to omnicidal viruses or a sarlaac, thus is capable of less than they are.
The Phantom Menace[]
- As per Lord Sidious' orders, he blockades Naboo to cut off supply lines and anyone who wishes to go offworld.
- When Chancellor Valorum sends Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon to negotiate with him, he is more than happy to obey Sidious' orders to murder them in cold blood. He floods a room with poisonous gas and sics lots of B1 battle droids and two P-series droidekas on them, but they fortunately escape by stowing away on dropships.
- He lies to Queen Amidala that the Jedi were never here and disrupts all communications on Naboo. Then he proceeds to invade Naboo, sending tanks to flatten trees and antagonize the animals, subjecting Theed to unlawful military occupation and taking up residence in the palace himself, and reportedly having various people throughout the planet starved and put into work camps.
- He tries to blackmail Queen Amidala so she will sign a treaty ratifying his invasion, threatening that her people will die otherwise, before having her transferred to one of his aforementioned camps (though she is rescued before this can happen).
- His blockade takes out several astromech droids, leaving only R2-D2 alive.
- He taunts Governor Sio Bibble about people starving and proceeds to give him a death threat when he states that the people will not live under his tyranny.
- He sends his army to exterminate everyone in Otah Gunga, intending to massacre thousands of innocent Gungans just to further cement his iron fist around the planet. When they flee and re-mobilize their own military near a swamp, Gunray asks for and receives Lord Sidious' permission to have his B1s gun down everyone.
- When Padme returns to her palace, he sends droidekas after her, and when Anakin Skywalker destroys them, he sends two more, forcing her to let her and her allies be captured. He proceeds to order her to sign his treaty and falsely justify his crimes one final time.
- He orders his battle droids to take out Sabe to no avail, due to falsely assuming she is the real queen, only for his vanguard to be wiped out moments before his entire army is immobilized by Anakin, leaving him with no choice but to come quietly.
Attack of the Clones[]
- Despite having to go back to the Galactic Senate to explain his actions, he still remains the Viceroy of the Trade Federation by reportedly outmaneuvering four different court procedures.
- He gets enraged that someone so young should get the better of him, so he orders Padmé to be assassinated, which leads to the death of the decoy Corde and the bounty hunter Zam Wesell. He sadistically demands that Dooku present him with Padme's decapitated head before he will join the Separatists over what happened on Naboo when it was really her soon-to-be husband Anakin's doing that Naboo was victorious over the Trade Federation. Made worse is that Padme was at the forefront leading the opposition to a Republic army. So keeping her alive would have benefited him, but he still wanted her dead, which in turn shows his grudge was extremely irrational.
- Along with other Separatist leaders, he tries to have Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Padme executed by monsters in an arena while they are dishonorably chained and unarmed. He even snickers when the nexu claws Padme and leaves bloody cuts on her backside.
- When the prisoners defy the arena beasts, Nute orders Jango Fett to shoot them down, only for Dooku to firmly tell him to be more patient.
- He sends his droids to kill the oncoming clone reinforcements to no avail, alarmed that the Jedi have a powerful army.
The Clone Wars[]
- He helps start the Clone Wars and along with the other Separatists uses his droid armies to oppress numerous worlds and kill countless innocents because it will make him wealthier.
- He blackmails Padme's friend Onaconda Farr into betraying her by withholding critical supplies from his people, only to renege on the deal.
- After being arrested, he gets Argyus to break him out of Republic custody.
- He helps Cad Bane steal a Holocron on Lord Sidious' orders.
- He disrespects General Grievous by calling him a droid, which he nearly kills him for.
- Basically most if not all of the B1 battle droids' actions throughout all seven seasons can be tied directly back to the Viceroy.
Revenge of the Sith[]
- He scoffs at General Grievous when he says the Separatists will be safe on Mustafar and throws his defeat on the Invisible Hand in his face. He also does nothing to halt the Republic's subsequent arrival, leaving his droids and organic political allies to fend for themselves.
- He sadistically informs Emperor Palpatine that the Jedi Purge is going as he promised it would, utterly delighted that the war he has fought to the end of destroying the Jedi is actually going alarmingly well for the bad guys.
- When Lord Vader arrives and advances on his longtime right-hand Rune Haako with homicidal glee, Gunray does absolutely nothing to protect him despite Haako having faithfully served him for well over a decade (although to be fair, it's extremely unlikely he could do anything to take out a raging Sith Lord). Then he refuses to show remorse for putting a target on the back of the wife of his imminent killer, merely reminding Vader of Palpatine's promise that he would have peace with his final breath.
Why Doesn't He Stand Out?[]
- Although he has nothing redeeming about himself at all and has killed many innocent people, he relies too much on a lot of off-screen villainy and he fails the High Heinous Standard far too much to Dr. Nuvo Vindi, Cad Bane, and his own boss Lord Sidious, who all did worse with lower resources. All of his actions just make him a Hate Sink, not a remarkably heinous supervillain - his crimes are normal for a Star Wars villain to do and Palpatine was the true mastermind behind most of his acts.
- He has several comedic moments that detract from his villainy, such as how inhumanely he talks and cowardly begging Anakin to spare him only for Anakin to kill him mid sentence.
External Links[]
- Nute Gunray on the Villains Wiki
- Nute Gunray on the Hate Sink Wiki
- Nute Gunray on the Star Wars Wiki
