Ziro Desilijic Tiure/Legends

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

Biography


Starting out as a loan shark on Sleheyron, Ziro moved to Coruscant to pursue a bigger career. He did, however, adopt the tattoos, headdress and jewels of wealthy Sleheyroni Hutts. 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 ordered the murder of fellow Black Sun vigos, though his IG-86 assassin droid, KRONOS-327, failed in this task. Shortly after KRONOS-327 reported his failure, 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 died, 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 KRONOS-327, 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.

During the Hostage Crisis bounty hunter Cad Bane commanded Chancellor Palpatine to release Ziro, who was taken to a Republic detention facility but later was released via  Palpatine's orders. After Ziro was released Bane and his bounty hunter cronies picked Ziro up.

Later when the Jedi Council was seeking information on the Nightsisters after the attack on the Sedawan, Ziro was held captive in his own palace by Asajj Ventress. He was rescued by two Jedi, but was also confronted by Ros Lai at the same time, whom Ziro owed a debt. The Jedi agreed to cover Ziro's debt and give Ros Lai transport off Coruscant in exchange for a data chip containing intercepted Nightsister transmissions.

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

Ziro was originally going to speak Huttese into a microphone which would translate his speech into English, but this idea was dropped because the producers felt that younger audiences wouldn't be able to understand what the translator was. Later, George Lucas stepped in and specifically asked for Ziro to sound like Truman Capote. The character was a favorite of the production team, and they plan to have him return in the TV series.

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. Maxim.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 junior novel
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars film
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars Official Movie Storybook
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Jedi Alliance

Notes and references
Ziro Ziro