Goethar Kleej

"The slavers supply the meat for the low-end duels&mdash;and when one of us gets big, it's the Franchise that cashes in. Goethar Kleej is their investment&mdash;and their product. They own everything I am."

- Goethar Kleej

Goethar Kleej was a male Gotal who was kidnapped by Crucible slavers to compete in swoopdueling matches for the Franchise. Despite suffering the severing of his sensory cones, Kleej performed well in training and in 3,963 BBY, he had managed to win the Solo Aerials four times consecutively. At the end of his fourth win, he tried to tell the spectators about the slaving operations behind the Franchise, but a pre-recorded speech was played over his words. The operator of the events, Bardron, assaulted Kleej for attempting to expose the Franchise, but he later made an offer of retirement to Kleej provided that he and his son, Aubin, won the Tandem Open event. Aubin was hindered by his inability to filter electromagnetic signals received through his cones, so he would be unlikely to progress without help. As Kleej would not be in the same round as his son until the final, he intimidated fellow competitor Zayne Carrick into protecting Aubin. Father and son both managed to advance to the final, where Carrick, now wanting to help Kleej, set in action a plan for them to escape. Deliberately crashing out of the arena, the Gotals were then smuggled out of the venue in a trash bin. Upon reaching the safety of the planet below, Kleej saw that one of Carrick's companions had been a Crucible slaver and fled with his son.

Biography
Goethar Kleej was a male Gotal who was abducted by The Crucible slaving organization and forced to train as a competitor for swoopdueling matches run by the Franchise. Early on during his stay in The Crucible's training pits, Kleej's slaver became angry with him and ordered his cones&mdash;sensory organs unique to Gotals that picked up electromagnetic signals&mdash;severed, a heinous act in Gotal culture. Kleej later had false cones implanted to disguise the fact but still had to rely on his other senses to live. While in the slave pits, Kleej had a son, Aubin, with another Gotal. Aubin's mother was able to help him filter out the electromagnetic signals he received but she was later killed, leaving Aubin helpless. Kleej performed well in training and was put through to the top swoopdueling events, participating in the Solo Aerials at Jervo's World&mdash;a massive space station run by the Franchise over the planet Pantolomin&mdash;and, as of 3,963 BBY, managed to win it four times consecutively. Kleej's popularity was such that he did advertisements and endorsements, had a toy line, and was used as a mascot for the events. At the end of his fourth winning bout, he attempted to inform the crowds of spectators about the hidden slaving practices that provided duelists for the Franchise and pleaded for help, but a pre-recorded speech was played to the spectators instead in which he announced his retirement. In return for threatening to reveal the slavery behind the game, Kleej was physically beaten by two underlings of Bardron&mdash;the Krish in charge of the actual games themselves&mdash;and threatened with being sent back to the training pits. Kleej noted that, if sent back to the pits, he would at least be able to see his son not having done so since the start of the season. Expecting the emotional attachment to Aubin, Bardron revealed that the Gotal's son had been put in the Tandem Open and the other competitors told to avoid him. Bardron made Kleej the offer that, if both he and Aubin won the Open, they would both be able to retire fully. However, the two Gotals would not be in the same round unless they both advanced to the finals. Meanwhile, former Jedi Padawan Zayne Carrick had entered the same Tandem Open round as Aubin and also managed to advance to the next round. Kleej approached the Human after the round and ordered him to protect Aubin so that he would make it through to the finals.

In the semi-finals, Carrick successfully got himself and Aubin through to the next round despite the Gotal struggling throughout. At the same time, Kleej had returned to the sport in the same semi-final round and fought with another contender, "Spikes," the "Mandalorian miscreant." The duo exchanged punches before suddenly turning and shooting a Night-Soarer competitor, leaving them as the last two standing and putting them through to the final. After the round, Kleej explained to Carrick how he was tied to the Franchise and showed the Jedi his false horns after Carrick showed a willingness to help expose the slaving practices. Meanwhile, on another part of the station, Marn Hierogryph&mdash;one of Carrick's companions&mdash;eavesdropped on Bardron and Jervo Thalien plotting to remove Kleej permanently and set up a plan involving the music played during the fights. In the final round, several of the safety mechanisms in place were disabled on Bardron's orders to put Aubin, Goethar, Carrick and "Spikes" at a disadvantage. Shortly after the start, the brakes failed on Kleej's swoop bike and the accelerator became jammed, forcing him to transfer Aubin to Carrick's bike. When a Mandallian Giant competitor attacked Aubin and Carrick, Kleej leapt to protect his son and dispatched the fighter. Remounting his swoop, Kleej followed Carrick's plan and crashed his bike through a window in the side of the arena with Carrick and Aubin following suit. To distract the crowd, the event's musician played his data cube, not knowing that Hierogryph had replaced its contents with parts of Kleej's original speech exposing the Franchise as well as part of the conversations between Bardron and Thalien that Hierogryph had eavesdropped. Using the uproar this generated in the crowd as cover, Carrick smuggled Kleej and his son to a spaceport on Pantalomin below in a large trash bin. Kleej fled with Aubin after seeing that one of Carrick's other companions, Jarael, used to be a slaver for The Crucible.

When Carrick was a prisoner of The Crucible on Volgax, he suspected that the leader of the operations there, Chantique, was the minder who had ordered Kleej's cones removed.

Personality and traits
"You fight like you are fighting for someone."

- "Spikes," to Kleej

After suffering poor treatment at the hands of The Crucible when in training, Kleej dedicated himself to swoopdueling so that he could get his son out of the fighting. Kleej also held himself responsible for not being able to help Aubin deal with the myriad of electromagnetic signals he received. When Aubin was put into the Tandem Open, Kleej strived to protect him by making death threats to Carrick and later dispatching a competitor attacking Aubin. Despite the difficulties that faced him, Kleej remained optimistic with a saying from the training pits that "false hope was better than none." Kleej also had an extreme fear of the slavers whom had trained him, a fear that made him get himself and Aubin away from Jarael as soon as he recognized what she was.

Skills and abilities
"He's done it! He's done it! Goethar Kleej has just become the first warrior to win the Solo Aerials for the fourth consecutive time!"

- A commentator at the Solo Aerials

Kleej was an exceptional swoop rider and duelist, ably winning the Solo Aerials four times. Such was his success and popularity that swoop manufacturer Lhosan Industries awarded a specially painted bike to the winner of Kleej's last Tandem Open. The Gotal also successfully managed to cope with the loss of his cones, relying on his other senses to do so.

Behind the scenes
Kleej's first and only appearance was in the Dueling Ambitions story arc of the  Knights of the Old Republic comic book series, penciled by Brian Ching and written by John Jackson Miller. When planning the story arc, Miller has said that he came up with Goethar's species by first trying to find a suitable species that would fit Aubin's predicament.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: Dueling Ambitions
 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 44: The Reaping, Part 2
 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 46: Destroyer, Part 2