What You Don't Know About The Great Ochi of Bestoon
Ochi of Bestoon.
Loyal Assassin.
Servant of the Emperor.
This one singular character who appeared in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the alien responsible for the death of Rey’s mom and dad, has by some miracle managed to become an expansive character within the wider Star Wars Expanded Universe. A far cry from how he started as a mere blip on the radar in Episode 9, when the only times we see him is in a flashback and his skull. Though who is Ochi of Bestoon, why did he get the task of killing Rey’s parents? Why did he serve the Emperor, and where did he come from? Well, this is what people don’t know about Ochi of Bestoon.
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The Emperor’s Bungling Assassin
Ochi began and ended his career as an assassin of the Emperor, sent to hunt down and challenge Darth Vader in Grek Pak’s Vader run of comics. It was all part of a test by the Emperor to challenge Vader and tear him down.
However what made Ochi interesting was not really what he was tasked to do but how he executed it. For despite being an assassin to the Emperor himself, he tends to be a bit of a bungler. Someone who seems very full of himself, overconfident, but his abilities don’t tend to match his demeanor. Making him a very wily, but also very fun to read about, character.
Throughout the comics he has been Vader’s sidekick, for lack of a better term. While Vader does most of the heavy lifting, Ochi tends to bungle his way through, either getting injured or smacked around. All the while he still survives.
Along with Vader he travels to Exegol as well, and witnesses the power of the dark side first hand. The power of a massive Kyber Crystal blinds him, thus why in Rise of Skywalker he has those metal contraptions in his eyes.
Now Ochi, in his latest endeavors during the Original Trilogy, has secretly joined forces with Crimson Dawn, although as of now we don’t know entirely why. For he will once again return to the Emperor’s service by the time of Rise of Skywalker. Why he has joined up with Qi’Ra is hard to say. It could be a double-agent deal or he could have really switched sides. Though we know that he will live, how will the wily Ochi get out of this latest predicament is anyone's guess at the moment.
Expanding a Character
It’s a fascinating take but one that would make sense given what little we know about him from the movie. His only real claim to fame is killing Rey’s parents, only to have his speeder bike crash later on Panassa. So taking him in the direction of being a bungling assassin who is very full of himself seems to fit with the spirit of a character who went out so easily.
When expanding on such a character you really have nothing to go on. Boba Fett once upon a time used to be the same way, until they expanded him, giving him a very deep and personal backstory and changing his character in a way to make him more of a fighter and a competent character, instead of the guy who got easily taken out by a blind Han Solo. Ochi so far has gone in the opposite direction.
It is sorta comedic to think about an assassin of the Emperor who died almost by accident, so why not play up that comedic aspect but make him a comedic character. Ochi, whose only claim to fame is killing Rey’s parents and then dying in a crash, should be a bit of a klutz, someone who we like because he’s full of himself and a bungler. It makes him more fun to learn about in the grand scheme of Star Wars storytelling and honestly makes his death even more hilarious, but makes sense and lines up with what little we know of him in the first place.
Ochi has gone through an odd but fun expansion of his character since first appearing in Rise of Skywalker. He has become a staple of the comics, and a fun one at that. Hard to believe, and yet makes sense, that one of the servants of the Emperor is such a fun yet full of himself bungler.
For he is Ochi...Ochi of Bestoon!
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Source(s): Wookieepedia