Ric Olié/Legends

"Enemy fighters straight ahead!"

- Ric Olié

Ric Olié was a Human male starfighter and starship pilot who served in the Royal Naboo Security Forces. He was the commander of the Naboo Royal Space Fighter Corps, and the leader of Echo Flight, Alpha Flight and Bravo Squadron. An expert pilot, he was qualified to fly any vessel that was a part of Naboo's fleet.

Olié's talents also landed him the job of the Queen's personal pilot, often flying the Royal starship in the service of Padmé Amidala. Due to Naboo's pacifistic nature, Olié's skills were rarely in use, although he saw military action during the Invasion of Naboo. He was also slightly superstitious, and thought of his astromech droid R2-A6 as a good luck charm.

Early life
In his youth, Olié's enthusiastic flying earned him the nickname "Reckless Ric." He flew short flights for civilians in his Sandtek Skyflipper around the land surrounding his small village. One day, he crashed his Skyflipper into one of Naboo's many grassy hills, a disaster that would discourage most from the dangerous profession of flying. Olié, however, was far from discouraged. He built a new craft from the broken parts of the old ship and continued piloting. Eventually, he tempered his reckless behavior after seeing too many pilots die in crashes.

Early career
After his graduation from public school, Olié decided to enroll in the Chommell Sector's academy, hoping to land a career as a home guard pilot. Because of his loyalty to Naboo, he refrained from joining the Republic Defense Academy, instead choosing to join the Naboo Royal Space Fighter Corps. Because he was unique among Naboo's fighter pilots in that he had actually seen combat, Olié was promoted to captain and placed in command of Theed's main fighter squadron, Bravo. Although some of his peers scoffed at his service in the Chommell Sector, claiming that the enemy pirates were prone to flying into one another, Ars Veruna held the upmost faith in his abilities, and as a result, Ric was one of the first pilots to field-test the N-1 starfighter.

In time, he became head of the Space Fighter Corps, which put him in charge of Echo and Alpha Flights, as well as Bravo Squadron &mdash;Naboo's entire starfighter navy. Since Bravo Flight was the most prominent of the three, Olié's call sign was that of Bravo Leader. In his role, he flew his personal N-1 starfighter, the control configuration of which he had modified. His only superior in the Royal Naboo Security Forces was Captain Panaka, who had handpicked him for his position over the star fighter corps.

Olié disliked paperwork, and would often leave administrative chores to his second-in-command, Esarra Till, who would willingly accept the extra responsibility. Olié was able to recognize skilled volunteers, such as Porro Dolphe, and acknowledged their abilities. Most of the pilots in Olié's care, however, were simple barge drivers or transport pilots, with very little combat experience, leaving them, like the rest of the Security Forces, ill-prepared for the coming threat.

Invasion of Naboo (32 BBY)
"Shield generator's been hit!"

- Ric Olié

The Space Fighter Corps was not given much chance to defend Naboo when the Trade Federation decided to blockade the planet as a protest against the Republic's new trade route taxation. Instead, Olié, along with the rest of his pilots, were captured and arrested by Federation forces when they swept into Theed. Their Queen was also arrested, and Naboo was subjugated swiftly by the forces of OOM-9. However, they did not anticipate the intervention of two Jedi, Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi, who were able to rescue the Queen, her entourage, Olié, and his pilots. Olié had no time to comprehend what was going on, as he was quickly ushered into the Queen's Royal Starship, and ordered to set a heading for Coruscant.

Escape would not come easily, as the Federation's blockade would provide Olié with a significant challenge. He was flying an unarmed transport against a fleet of heavily-armed capital ships. Although he tried his best, the ship sustained heavy damage during the escape, and lost its shield generator. R2-D2, one of the ship's astromech droids, repaired the shields, which allowed Olié to pilot the ship through the blockade to safety.

During the escape, the hyperdrive suffered enough damage to prevent the ship from finishing the journey to Coruscant. Kenobi suggested that they land on Tatooine, a desert planet, and purchase the parts needed to make repairs. Qui-Gon Jinn, the Queen (in disguise), the Gungan, Jar Jar Binks, and R2 set out to look for the parts. After a few days, they returned with both the parts and a new member of the group&mdash;nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker, an aspiring pilot. Olié took to the boy and offered him a few short lessons in starship piloting. When the Queen's pleas with the Galactic Senate to send aid to her besieged planet went unheeded, she decided to return and take matters into her own hands. Olié flew the group back to Naboo to confront their Trade Federation adversaries. Olié's skills, combined with a lessened Trade Federation space presence, allowed them to land on the planet with enough time for Amidala to contact the native Gungans to enlist their help.

The battle of Naboo
"We didn't hit it!"

- Ric Olié

The Queen had a plan&mdash;the Gungan Grand Army would assemble and draw OOM-9's forces out of Theed, she and Panaka would then sneak into the city and capture the Trade Federation Viceroy, Nute Gunray, and Olié and his pilots would attempt to knock out the Lucrehulk-class Droid Control Ship. Destroying the ship was the key to deactivating all droid units and saving the outmatched Gungans.

When the Queen and the Jedi liberated Theed's hangar, Olié and his pilots sprang into action, clambering into their N-1 starfighters and setting out for the Droid Control Ship. As soon as his craft was airborne, Olié transmitted rendezvous coordinates for the squadron, from whence they would launch their attack against the command ship. The Federation launched Vulture droid starfighters in attempt to counter the Naboo offensive, and succeeded in destroying many of the N-1 fighters. Only upon reaching the enemy ship did Olié realize that the deflector shield was too strong, and that the battle seemed hopeless. Just when it seemed as though the Naboo fighters would fail in their mission, Anakin Skywalker managed to fly inside the ship and destroy it. Bravo Flight jubilantly returned to their liberated homeworld.

Post invasion
Olié participated in the celebrations held in Theed, and in the years following Naboo's bloodiest conflict, he would accrue further fame with Bravo Flight. Olié's actions during the Clone Wars are not known, but his one-time protégé, Anakin Skywalker, went on to become a skilled pilot.

Personality and traits
"Coruscant&hellip;the entire planet is one big city."

- Ric Olié

Olié was a very vocally observant man, and had a reputation among his peers as the one most likely to point out the obvious. He was considerably brash in his youth, and instead of learning from his mistakes, he found only encouragement in failure. He was also extremely proud of his homeworld, and did not hesitate to "advertise" the skills of Bravo Squadron in front of foreigners.

He was a naturally gifted pilot and adapted to Naboo's military system quite easily. He was reverent towards his Queen and always respected her decisions. However, he was not oblivious to the fact that Naboo was an imperfect world, and did not always agree that tradition was the safest thing for his planet's welfare. Olié also had a superstitious mind, leading him to believe that his astromech droid, R2-A6, was actually a good luck charm.

When in the company of foreign pilots, namely those who flew for the Republic, Olié was prone to being a bit of a show-off. He participated in many minor skirmishes with Chommell Sector pirates and would often escort dignitaries to Coruscant and back. During such missions, he would attempt to demonstrate his considerable skills.

Behind the scenes
Ric Olié first appeared as a supporting character in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, where he was portrayed by Ralph Brown. Olié was voiced by Jess Harnell in Star Wars: Starfighter and Clint Bajakian in Star Wars: Battle for Naboo.

Ric Olié is referred to by some fans as "Captain Obvious" due to dialogue that simply states well-observed facts, such as "There's the blockade!," "That's it&hellip; Tatooine," and "We didn't hit it!"

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Darth Plagueis
 * Star Wars: Starfighter
 * Star Wars: Battle for Naboo
 * Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace / novel / comic / junior novel /  PhotoComic / book-and-record
 * Star Wars Episode I: I Am a Pilot
 * The Life and Legend of Obi-Wan Kenobi
 * Episode I: Obi-Wan Kenobi
 * Star Wars: Yoda's Challenge Activity Center
 * Star Wars: Yoda's Challenge Activity Center