Ziro Desilijic Tiure/Legends

Ziro was a Hutt crime lord and one of Jabba Desilijic Tiure's uncles.

Biography
Starting out as a loan shark on Sleheyron, Ziro moved to Coruscant to pursue a bigger career. He eventually became a vigo of the criminal organization Black Sun, and had a tattoo of its symbol. He used a rundown tower that used to belong to the Lantillian Spacers' Brotherhood as his personal base. The tower was transformed into a gaudy-looking pleasure palace.

During the Clone Wars, Ziro was approached by Senator Padmé Amidala at his palace on Coruscant, when she tried to reopen communications with the Hutts, as they believed that the Jedi had abducted Jabba's son, Rotta. In reality, Ziro had struck a deal with Count Dooku to kidnap the child as part of a plot against his nephew. When the Jedi sent to retrieve Rotta die, the Order would have no choice but to bring Jabba to justice and Ziro would gain control of the Hutt empire. He attempted to dispose of Amidala with the help of his sentry droid IG-86, but was ultimately apprehended by Republic troops led by C-3PO and put into custody. Via holocomm, he was forced to confess to his nephew of his part in his grandnephew's kidnapping. Furious at his Uncle's treachery, Jabba vowed to have him punished severely.

Behind the scenes
Ziro the Hutt was voiced by Corey Burton in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Ziro was originally going to speak Huttese. George Lucas stepped in and specifically asked for Ziro to sound like Truman Capote.

Dave Filoni says the topic of Ziro's sexuality is ambiguous, as Hutts are hermaphrodites. AfterElton, a news site about gay and bisexual men in the entertainment industry, described Ziro as an extremely over-the-top and offensive stereotype, not only due to his mannerisms, voice and appearance, but also due to the fact that he is villainous and cowardly. The site compared Ziro to other perceived Star Wars stereotypes as Jar Jar Binks (African-American), Watto (Jewish) and Nute Gunray (Asian-American), and pointed out that no apparently gay characters had ever been featured in a Star Wars film before Ziro. Seattle blogger Jeff Walls also described Ziro as an offensive stereotype, and wrote that he was "surprised it hasn't generated more of an uproar." EW.com ranked Ziro as #14 on its list of "The Most WTF Movie Moments From Summer 2008".

Appearances

 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars novel
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars film

Notes and references
Ziro