Kueller

"Your problem is that you don't understand the power of hate."

- Kueller to Brakiss

Kueller was once a student at Luke Skywalker's Jedi Praxeum on Yavin 4 where he was known as Dolph. After leaving the Academy, he became a resistance fighter on his homeworld and later engineered a plot to topple the New Republic.

Fall to the dark side
After less than a year of training at the Jedi Academy, Dolph heard the tragic news that his parents had been killed by the Je'har regime—the then-current government of his home planet of Almania. When he left the Academy to go to Almania to confirm it, he found their bodies impaled before the governmental palace.

He spiraled into the abyss that was the dark side of the Force. Though his training was undisciplined, he had enough skills in the force to be dangerous and lethal in battle. Seeking out vengeance against the government that killed his parents, he used his powers to aid him in bringing down the Je'har regime. During this period he disguised himself with a Hendanyn death mask and took the name of Kueller—an infamous, long-dead Almanian general. The ranks of his forces quickly filled and he led them to victory, toppling the murderous regime and then killed all those who he branded as "sympathizers" of the old regime. Kueller became Almania's undisputed ruler.

After many months, Kueller picked his next target: The New Republic. He saw himself as a great man who would bring peace to the Galaxy with his strength, and preventing more mass murder. Like his namesake, Kueller reconciled his murderous deeds with his view of himself as the benevolent ruler of the Galaxy by rationalizing that the ends justified the means.

Almanian Uprising
"Impatience is the downfall of most megalomaniacs, Femon."

- Kueller to Femon



Kueller planned to bring down the New Republic by secretly planting bombs in droids and critical components of computers. He took this first step by having Brakiss — another former student of Skywalker's that Kueller had helped — supervise the droid factories at Telti. Brakiss's role as supervisor would prevent anyone outside of the plot from discovering the bombs.

The droids would be sold at bargain prices to specific buyers, and then Kueller could use the bombs as a scalpel to undermine the faith of a populace that had already suffered crisis after crisis under New Republic rule. He used the revenue generated by the sale of the droids to purchase all available Imperial surpluses, intending to take advantage of the fear a resurgent Empire would provoke and further destabilize the Republic. Simultaneously, he would feed on the deaths caused by his droids to gradually increase his power in the dark side, which would enable him to defeat the Skywalkers, and thus become a new Emperor.

Kueller began his galactic campaign first by killing the inhabitants of Auyemesh and Pydyr, two of the three inhabited moons that orbited Almania. He quickly followed them up by causing the droids in the New Republic Senate to self-destruct as it's first session was being opened. This had the effect of killing the representatives of several planets, forcing them to hold emergency elections. Several former Imperial officials became representatives of their planets, giving the opposition to Chief of State Leia Organa Solo a simple majority in the Senate. A no-confidence petition was soon filed.

Kueller further undermined Leia by demanding that she let him become the ruler of the New Republic, or else her brother — Luke, who had come to Almania to find him — would be executed. Instead of giving into his demands and allowing the no-confidence petition to come to a vote, she resigned. Mon Mothma, Leia's predecessor, took over for her.



Leia took off for Almania to find Luke along with a small fleet led by General Wedge Antilles. When they arrived at Almania, Kueller was already ready for them with three Victory-class Star Destroyers that were crewed entirely by droids. Leia managed to slip past them and their fighters and made it to the surface of Almania.

Kueller's fleet was initially successful, inflicting heavy losses on the New Republic task force. However, by observing the actions of Kueller's fleet closely, General Antilles realized the true nature of the crew of the Star Destroyers and their fighters. He ordered his gunners to fire on the other ships in the Republic convoy. This caused the droids in Kueller's fleet to believe that the ships of the Republic fleet were actually their allies. The Star Destroyers went into a flanking position to protect their "allies." They were then crippled by precise turbolaser fire from the Republic fleet.

Back on Almania, Luke escaped from his prison, his sister found him, and both made their way to her ship. Luke was still weak and Leia accidentally left him behind when she rushed ahead. In those moments when they were apart, Kueller found Luke and forced a lightsaber duel. Leia came back to find both locked in combat. As they dueled, Luke abruptly decided to give up. As Kueller raised his lightsaber to strike Luke down, he lost his connection to the Force. He tried to use his anger to tap into the Force, but doing so was useless, since a thernbee that had swallowed an ysalamir nutrient frame had wandered into the general vicinity. He had one last trick up his sleeve though, he used a remote to send the signal to self-destruct his remaining droids. However, Kueller's last gasp of malice was thwarted thanks to the efforts of R2-D2, C-3PO, and a young mechanic named Cole Fardreamer. As Kueller had attempted to activate his remaining bombs, Leia shot him. She removed the death mask from his lifeless body, revealing Dolph's boyish face.

Behind the scenes

 * The mask Kueller wears is described as being very similar to Skeletor's face in the film Masters of the Universe. Due to this fact, Kueller's true name, Dolph, may be a reference to Swedish actor Dolph Lundgren, who portrayed He-Man in the Masters of the Universe film.
 * "Dolph" may also refer to the historical figure Adolph Hitler, who attempted to murder entire ethnic groups in his pursuit of power. This theory is further supported by the fact that the name of Kueller's homeworld, Almania, is very similar to the Spanish word for Germany, "Alemania."

Appearances

 * The New Rebellion
 * Specter of the Past
 * Star Wars: Union