| “ | 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 in 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, 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.
- He is selfish, and everything he does is solely for himself, proving he has no standards whatsoever.
- There is no indication that he cares for his right-hand man, Rune Haako; all the evidence suggests that he is being purely professional with him. Him treating Haako properly is probably out of pragmatism. Furthermore, he does not even react at all when Vader strikes Haako down right in front of him. His affability to Darth Vader is unlikely to be genuine at all either.
- While he is openly bitter about Count Dooku dying, it's only because he felt safer when he was alive.
- While he is implied to care for the Neimoidian race and supposedly trusts that the war will end in a good way for his people, this isn't given enough elaboration to count as a redeeming quality.
- He also only obeys Darth Sidious for his own glory and is clearly uncomfortable around any Sith Lords (for all the wrong reasons). He was willing to
- While he does suffer a cruel, sadistic and humiliating death at Vader’s hands (while he begs for his life), it doesn’t make him a scapegoat in the slightest, as he more than deserved to die for all of the horrific war crimes he committed solely for profit.
- Although he has a few comedic moments, such as when he exclaims “Shoot her! Or something!” after Padmé’s execution fails, they don’t make him and his crimes any less heinous.
- Most if, not all of the B1 battle droids' actions throughout the Clone Wars can be tied directly back to him as he designed them himself and brought them into existence.
The Phantom Menace[]
- Under Darth 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, more than happy to obey Sidious' orders to murder them in cold blood, floods a room with poisonous gas.
- He also sends 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, before invading the planet by sending tanks to flatten trees and antagonize the animals, subjecting Theed to unlawful military occupation and taking up residence in the palace himself. He also reportedly had various people throughout the planet starved and put into work camps, and the death toll is stated to be "catastrophic".
- 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.
- It is heavily implied that he connivingly forced Governor Sio Bibble into sending a transmission demanding the Queen contact him to trick her into giving out her whereabouts, which really worries Obi-Wan, who wisely stops Sabe from responding at all due to rightfully believing Gunray will see the frequency coming from on Tatooine.
- Made worse is that Darth Maul was already taking care of the issue so this is outright overkill on Gunray's part.
- He taunts 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 also explicitly states that he intends for all of his people to die, which is mundicide.
- 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 and condemn an entire sentient species to extinction.
- 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.
- Enraged that someone so young should get the better of him, so he orders Padmé to be assassinated, which leads to the death of her 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.
- Nothing even suggests he has the authority to order Jango around in the first place.
- He sends his droids to kill the oncoming clone reinforcements to no avail, alarmed that the Jedi have a powerful army, and eventually conceding with Rune Haako that they need to get their starships off of Geonosis so they can invade entire star systems instead of wasting their time on clone troopers' mounted cannons. Gunray proceeds to help start the Clone Wars in earnest.
The Clone Wars[]
- He, 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.
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 Darth Sidious 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 Darth Vader arrives and advances on his longtime right-hand Rune Haako with homicidal glee, Gunray does nothing to protect him despite Haako having faithfully served him for well over a decade (although it is extremely unlikely he could do anything to take out a raging Sith Lord).
Why Doesn't He Stand Out?[]
- Although he lacks any redeeming qualities and easily passes the baseline for murdering many innocent people, as well as his takeover of Naboo, he still relies too much on a lot of off-screen villainy. He fails the massive heinous standards, especially to later figures of the Clone Wars such as Dr. Nuvo Vindi, Cad Bane, Wat Tambor, and Admiral Trench, who all did worse with similar or lower resources.
- Most of what he did was through Palpatine anyway, as the Dark Lord was the true mastermind behind most if not all of his acts, so he also fails to Sidious despite having less resources than him. As a result, he also fails the system standard since a lot of Separatist Alliance members like to make assassination attempts on the Republic's governors and invade various planets. Gunray is simply one such Separatist, thus is no different from the majority of them (aside from Wat Tambor).
Trivia[]
- Nute Gunray can be seen as a foil to Captain Panaka in many ways. He is a Villainous Benchmark whose actions were mostly behind Palpatine, a Pure Evil villain he fails the heinous standards to, while Captain Panaka is a Heroic Benchmark who mostly acted under, and fails the admirable standards to, Padmé Amidala, a Pure Good hero. Panaka also acts as Padmé's main bodyguard/protector while Gunray has the biggest desire to kill her.
External Links[]
- Nute Gunray on the Villains Wiki
- Nute Gunray on the Hate Sink Wiki
- Nute Gunray on the Star Wars Wiki
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 Villainous Benchmarks
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 Villainous Benchmarks
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