Depa Billaba

"You're lucky I'm not my Master. She'd never let you get away with&mdash;" "All the things you tried to get away with?"

- Kanan Jarrus and Ezra Bridger

Depa Billaba was a female Chalactan Jedi Council who served on the Jedi Council during the final years of the Jedi Order. She was born on Chalacta and became a member of the Order at a young age, where she was trained by Jedi Master Mace Windu. She was later appointed to the Council alongside her former teacher, and was present when Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn presented Anakin Skywalker, the Chosen One to the governing body. She later attended Jinn's funeral after the Jedi Master was killed during the Battle of Naboo. She retained her seat on the Jedi Council in the political crisis that led to the Clone Wars.

During the war, Billaba took on a Padawan named Caleb Dume. The two were attacked by clone troopers after the execution of Order 66, which branded the Jedi as traitors against the Galactic Republic. Billaba sacrificed herself to allow Dume to escape, and he survived and took on a new name&mdash;Kanan Jarrus. Initially traveling low and taking odd jobs, he eventually became a rebel fighting against the Galactic Empire, and he remembered his master fondly. He would use some of her teachings while instructing his own Padawan, Ezra Bridger.

Life as a Jedi
Depa Billaba was born on the planet Chalacta many years prior to the Clone Wars. As a child, she was held as a captive by space pirates. She was rescued by Mace Windu, a member of the Jedi Order, and he brought her into Order. Billaba became Windu’s Padawan and trained under the Jedi Master in the ways of the Force until becoming a Jedi Knight. She was renowned for her skills with a lightsaber and favored Form III when teaching other Jedi.

Eventually, Billaba was given a seat on the Jedi Council, serving alongside Master Windu. During the Invasion of Naboo, she was present in the Jedi Council chambers of the Jedi Temple when Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn told the story of how he encountered Darth Maul on Tatooine, and how Jinn believed that Maul was a Sith Lord; Maul had been attempting to capture Queen Padmé Amidala of Naboo. The Jedi Master also revealed he had found Anakin Skywalker, a young slave he had freed on the desert planet, and that he believed the boy was the Chosen One destined to destroy the Sith and bring balance to the Force. The Council was skeptical of both claims, but nonetheless agreed to test the boy and investigate Darth Maul. Despite being impressed with Skywalker's abilities, the Council initially rejected Jinn's request that the boy be admitted into the Jedi Order on the basis that Skywalker was too old to begin Jedi training. They instead ordered that Jinn and his apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi, travel to Naboo to protect Queen Amidala, who was returning to her planet to fight back against the Trade Federation invasion.

The Federation's invasion and occupation ended during a battle to retake the planet. Maul mortally wounded Jinn in lightsaber combat, before Kenobi gravely wounded the Sith Lord; Maul went into exile and would not be heard from again for many years. Jinn's dying wish was that Kenobi train Skywalker as a Jedi, a wish that the Council agreed to. Billaba and other members of the Jedi Council traveled to Naboo and attended Jinn's funeral, before taking part in a ceremony marking a newfound peace between the Humans and Gungans of Naboo; the Federation, as a common enemy, brought the once-feuding peoples together.

The Clone Wars
"My young strategist has been thinking again."

- Billaba, to Caleb Dume, after the training session with Obi-Wan Kenobi

Ten years later, the Secessionist Movement plunged the Galactic Republic into a political crisis, with thousands of star systems seceding from the Republic and joining the Confederacy of Independent Systems; the conflict was designed by Darth Sidious, the Dark Lord of the Sith publicly known as Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, as part of a plot to destroy the Jedi Order and take over the galaxy. She was present as a member of the Jedi Council when the body ordered Kenobi to investigate the plot to assassinate now-Senator Amidala, an outspoken opponent of the Military Creation Act that would have allowed the Republic to raise an army to combat the Separatists; Skywalker was further ordered to travel with Amidala to Naboo so she could be protected from harm. These events ultimately led to the Battle of Geonosis, which sparked the Clone Wars between the Republic and the Separatists&mdash;just as Sidious had intended.

During the war, Billaba took on a Padawan named Caleb Dume. She trained him in the ways of the Force, as well as in lightsaber combat, where she preferred Form III over other styles. Billaba saw Dume as having a mind for strategy and encouraged him to put his mind to good use. At some point, Billaba brought Dume to one of the thousands of Jedi Temples in the galaxy in order to undergo a rite of passage in which he would need to face and overcome his greatest fears.

Some time during the war, Billaba was present during a group training session in which Kenobi, now a Jedi Master and a member of the Jedi Council, told a group of Padawans, including Dume, about a beacon in the Jedi Temple that could call all Jedi back to Coruscant in times of great crisis. Dume asked the Jedi Master if it could be used to warn Jedi away from Coruscant, a thought that Kenobi had never entertained and that caused concern and commotion amongst the assembled Padawans. Billaba attempted to stop Dume from his line of questioning, but Kenobi encouraged him and speculated that the beacon could indeed be used to warn Jedi away in times of unexpected peril. By the end of the session, Billaba was again impressed by Dume's strategic mind.

By the end of the war, Billaba and Dume served in the field alongside the clone troopers of the Grand Army of the Republic, fighting against the battle droid armies of the Separatist Alliance. As the culmination of his plan, Sidious executed Order 66, a command to all clone troopers ordering them to kill the Jedi as traitors. The clone troopers turned against Billaba and Dume, and Billaba was killed protecting her Padawan from the Republic soldiers.

Legacy
"What exactly am I looking for?" "Nothing, and everything." "That doesn't help." "I know, but it's what my master told me."

- Ezra Bridger and Kanan Jarrus, during Bridger's tests in the Jedi Temple on Lothal

Because of Billaba's sacrifice, Dume was able to escape the clone troopers. Sidious declared himself Emperor and transformed the Republic into the Galactic Empire, with Jedi branded as enemies of the state. After watching a message from Master Kenobi&mdash;a message broadcasted over the Jedi beacon, warning Jedi to stay away from Coruscant just as Dume had predicted&mdash;Dume went into hiding and changed his name to Kanan Jarrus. He kept his identity as a Jedi secret so as to avoid execution, and he gave up the Jedi path for many years. He had fond memories of Master Billaba, despite living as a civilian. He eventually joined Hera Syndulla, a Twi'lek resistance fighter, and formed a rebel cell that operated on and around the Outer Rim planet of Lothal.

During their rebellion on Lothal, Jarrus took on his own Padawan, Ezra Bridger, who helped him reconnect with the Jedi path. Some of Jarrus' own teachings were recollections of what Billaba had taught him, such as when Jarrus brought his student to a hidden Jedi Temple on Lothal in order to face and overcome his fears. Jarrus himself also had to face his own fear of being an inadequate teacher, due to his training under Master Billaba having been incomplete by the time the Clone Wars ended. Both Bridger and Jarrus were guided, from afar, by Jedi Master Yoda, who served as the Grand Master of the Jedi Order and leader of the Jedi Council when Billaba served upon it.

The records of the Jedi Temple also remained after its fall, and after it was renovated into the Imperial Palace. The Inquisitor, a Dark Side Adept tasked with hunting down and eliminating Jedi who had survived the Clone Wars, was aware of Billaba from the Temple records. During a confrontation with Jarrus, the Inquisitor correctly deduced that Jarrus had been trained by Master Billaba due to his preference towards Form III.

Powers and abilities
Billaba was trained in Form III of lightsaber combat, a form she favored in close-quarters fighting.

Behind the scenes
Depa Billaba was originally planned to appear in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. She was set to appear in the "Crystal Crisis on Utapau" arc, which was revealed in concept art released on StarWars.com, but she was not included in the episodes' story reels upon their release in The Clone Wars Legacy.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace
 * Star Wars Journeys: The Phantom Menace
 * Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones
 * Star Wars: Kanan
 * A New Dawn
 * The Rebellion Begins
 * The Secret Jedi: The Adventures of Kanan Jarrus: Rebel Leader
 * The Secret Jedi: The Adventures of Kanan Jarrus: Rebel Leader