Peppi Bow/Legends

Peppi Bow was a female Gungan shaak herder living on Naboo during the final years of the Old Republic. Shortly after the beginning of the Clone Wars, the Gungan's herd became skittish when near the eastern swamps, in much the same way they had during the Trade Federation's Invasion of Naboo ten years prior. A concerned Bow contacted the leader of the Gungans, Boss Rugor Nass, who brought her before the Naboo Royal Advisory Council. Bow explained to the Naboo Queen Neeyutnee that she feared battle droids had returned to Naboo&mdash;fears that were dismissed by much of the council. She was later vindicated when a patrol of the Royal Naboo Security Forces intercepted a squad of Confederacy of Independent Systems droids.

Bow returned to her herd, most of which would later be killed after drinking from a river just outside of Naboo's capital of Theed. She learned from Naboo politicians Padmé Amidala and Jar Jar Binks that her animals were the victim of a Confederate biological weapon that had contaminated the river. Bow aided the two in locating the weapon's source, and after they were captured by Confederate forces, she aided Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano in locating the politicians. Tano and Bow discovered that they were being held in a secret Trade Federation laboratory beneath the eastern swamps&mdash;the same laboratory where the bioweapon was developed. While Tano and Republic forces assaulted the lab, Bow waited in the swamp above to prevent any Confederate forces from escaping the battle. At the end of the raid, Doctor Nuvo Vindi, who was responsible for the bioweapon and the capture of Amidala and Binks, attempted to flee Republic forces, but was stopped by Peppi Bow after she tackled and incapacitated him.

Life as a shaak wrangler
"Mesa shaaks, dey detectin' some-tin. Some-tin dey no liken at all.''" "Da last time dey bein' like dis?" "''Over ten years. When da mackineeks... when dey comin' to Naboo."

- Peppi Bow and Boss Nass

Peppi Bow was a female Gungan native to the Galactic Republic world of Naboo. Prior the rise of the Galactic Empire, she lived on the planet as a herder and wrangler of shaaks &mdash;domesticated animals indigenous to Naboo that were commonly used as livestock. Bow resided in the planet's capital city of Theed, which was invaded in 32 BBY by the Trade Federation mega-conglomerate. During the invasion, Bow's shaaks became skittish and unsettled when in proximity to the Federation's battle droid forces. The invasion ultimately met with failure when Queen Padmé Amidala's Royal Naboo Security Forces retook the capital from the Trade Federation.

For the following decade, Bow continued her life as a shaak wrangler, ushering her herd about the plains outside of Theed. Shortly after the outbreak of the Clone Wars between the Republic and Confederacy of Independent Systems in 22 BBY, she noticed a change in her animal's behavior when they neared the eastern swamps. Bow was deeply concerned, and so contacted the Gungan leader Boss Rugor Nass and informed him of her worries. Nass arranged for Bow to be brought before the Naboo Royal Advisory Council so she could explain her concerns directly the Queen of Naboo herself. At the time, the throne was occupied by Queen Neeyutnee, who granted Nass and Bow an audience before her council. Before presenting their issue to the Queen, the two Gungans waited within the throne room of the Theed Royal Palace while the council held their regular session. When Neeyutnee gave Nass the floor, the Gungan Boss introduced Peppi Bow to the Advisory Council and allowed the shaak wrangler to explain her findings herself.

Although she was initially apprehensive about addressing the queen, Bow was able to speak before both Neeyutnee and the rest of the council after receiving encouragement from Nass. She informed the queen of her herd's strange behavior, which led Neeyutnee to believe it may be the result of predators invading the area. The Gungan insisted that the problem was not predators, but instead that her animals were detecting something in the swamps that caused them to be so jumpy. After Boss Nass questioned her on the history of her animal's behavior, Bow explained that the last time they had acted so peculiarly was during the Trade Federation's invasion ten years prior. Both the queen and Naboo Governor Sio Bibble were taken aback by the insinuation that Federation droids had returned to their planet, as the conglomerate had allied itself with the Confederacy in its war against the Republic. Since the Clone Wars supposedly posed no immediate danger to the peaceful world, both Bibble and Officer Chrin of the Royal Naboo Security Forces challenged Bow's report, with Chrin going so far as to openly mock her claims. The officer explained to the court that if battle droids had come to Naboo, the sensors that the Security Force had placed throughout the countryside would have detected them. Nass defended Bow's claims and Security Captain Gregar Typho reprimanded Chrin for speaking out of turn before volunteering to take a squad of security officers out on a patrol of the plains near the eastern swamps in order to discern the truth. During their patrol, the officers intercepted and destroyed a squad of B1 battle droids and captured an intact T-series tactical droid. The incident confirmed Bow's suspicions and alerted the Naboo to the possibility of a Confederate invasion.

Homeworld threatened
After giving her report to the council, Bow returned to her herd. Together with her shaaks, the Gungan journeyed to a river on the plains outside of Theed. Her animals proceeded to drink from the river, but began to honk and snort in alarm. Just as Bow herself was about to drink some of the water, her animals began to fall to the ground, dead. An alarmed Bow realized that the water was somehow contaminated and attempted to push the shaaks away from the river with her electropole, but was too late. Although only six of the animals died immediately, almost every other shaak in her herd fell ill and eventually perished. A short time later, Bow witnessed an approaching vessel touch down near the river. Unaware of its origins, Bow took cover behind a ruin on the river bank and watched as two individuals clad in hazardous materials suits inspected the bodies of her animals. The Gungan was suspicious of their intentions and so attacked them with her electropole, however, unbeknownst to Bow, the individuals were in fact Naboo's senator Padmé Amidala and Associate Planetary Representative Jar Jar Binks, who returned to the planet to discern the origins of the battle droids. After forcing Amidala to the ground, Bow turned on Binks, striking him repeatedly before removing his air-tight helmet. As Binks panicked, Amidala recovered and pulled a blaster pistol on Bow. At the senator's request, she returned the helmet to Binks, who swiftly placed it back over his head.

Understanding that the two were just as concerned about the death of her herd as she, Bow informed Amidala and Binks that it was safe to remove their helmets, as the contamination was in the water only, and not the air. Once Amidala dropped her blaster and took off the protective head gear, Bow introduced herself to the two of them before being informed that it was a virus that had killed her animals. Amidala explained that the virus originated in an area surrounded by perlote trees, which Bow was able to identify as the eastern swamps. She gave the two politicians directions to the region and offered to take them there, but Amidala insisted that Bow remain on the river bank and wait for Naboo security officers to escort her back to her home in Theed. The shaak wrangler agreed and waited while Amidala and Binks ventured into the swamps.

Upon her arrival in Theed, Bow was informed that Amidala and Binks had gone missing while investigating the swamps. As she had been the last person to see the two, Bow was summoned to the Royal Palace to meet with Captain Typho. Typho took the Gungan to the Theed Hangar, where the two of them met with Jedi Generals Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker and Skywalker's Padawan Ahsoka Tano. Bow explained to the three that Amidala and Binks had been searching for the source of the virus when they went missing. Skywalker ordered Tano to go with Bow into the eastern swamps to begin the search for the senator and representative, while he and Kenobi stayed in Theed to discuss the situation with Captain Typho. Bow and Tano departed, riding one of the Gungan's few surviving shaaks to the swamps. During their journey, Tano was informed that the swamp hid a massive underground laboratory which had been discovered by Amidala before her disappearance. As night fell on Naboo, the two arrived at the swamps and followed the footprints left by Amidala and Binks deep into the perlote trees until they inexplicably stopped. Dismounting their shaak, they attempted to investigate the area, but were interrupted when Bow was raised off the ground by a photoreceptor scope that extended upward under her feet from beneath the swamp's muddy floor. While Bow balanced on one foot atop the scope, Tano maneuvered around it to avoid detection. When she had an opportunity to hide herself and Bow from the scope, Tano jumped up and tackled the Gungan off the scope and threw her behind the base of a large tree.

Once the scope descended back into the swamp floor, Tano contacted her master and informed him of the situation in the swamp. The Padawan was ordered to detonate a bunker bomb at one of the laboratory's entrance hatches as a distraction for the forces within. Once that was complete, Kenobi and Skywalker would enter the lab with clone troopers of the Grand Army of the Republic to rescue Amidala and Binks and negate the threat of the virus. Before Tano initiated the operation, Bow called her shaak mount to take cover with her behind the tree. While they waited there, Tano used the Force to place a thermal detonator over one of the lab's hatches. Once the detonator exploded and breeched the lab, Tano prepared to enter, but was stopped by Bow, who wished to aid in the assault. The Jedi Padawan refused her request, instead ordering Bow to wait in the swamp above and to prevent any Confederate personnel from escaping the laboratory.

Tano ventured into the complex, followed shortly by Kenobi, Skywalker, and their clone troops. The raid lasted until the following morning, when Naboo's sun once again rose over the swamps where Bow waited. After rescuing Amidala and Binks, Skywalker and Kenobi pursued the Faust Doctor Nuvo Vindi to an underground landing pad in the laboratory complex. Vindi&mdash;the Confederate scientist who developed the virus&mdash;planned to escape the Jedi in a Sheathipede-class shuttle, but first had to delay the two by throwing vials containing samples of the virus at them. Kenobi safely caught all the vials, but was left within the lab when Vindi raised the landing pad upward through large hangar doors on the swamp floor. Bow was standing directly above the hangar as the doors began to split and open to reveal Vindi's escape ship, and nearly fell into the widening maw.

After jumping to safety, Bow watched as the landing platform brought Skywalker and Vindi into view. Although the Jedi had Vindi at lightsaber point, the doctor was unwilling to surrender and once again attempted to break a vial of the virus and release a plague upon Naboo. Because the doctor was distracted by his own glee for his apparent victory over the Jedi, he did not notice Bow as she climbed atop the landing platform. Just before Vindi was able to open the vial, the Gungan tackled him, causing him to drop both his case of vials carrying the disease as well as the individual vial he had almost opened. Skywalker prevented the individual vial from falling to the ground and breaking while Bow continued her assault on Vindi, striking him repeatedly with her electropole so as to prevent him from reclaiming his case filled with the virus. Despite being defeated, Vindi still laughed while claiming that bombs filled with the virus were about to detonate. His claim proved false however, as the explosives had already been deactivated by clone forces.

Death
"Mesa hope da water wasn't poison! Mesa would get sick!"

- Peppi Bow's final words

When Peppi was going to give her animals some fresh water to her animals, Count Dooku snuck up behind Peppi activated his lightsaber and then stabbed Peppi in the back, killing her and Peppi Bow's life was ended.

Personality and traits
"I'll never doubt the survival instincts of a shaak again, sir.''" "''And see that you learn to trust the concerns of a neighbor too, Chrin."

- Officer Chrin and Captain Typho discuss Bow and her herd

Peppi Bow was a pink-skinned Gungan who bound her long, floppy ears together behind her head. She garbed herself in a small teal top and a short, matching skirt worn over long pink pants. Bow also carried a lengthy electopole, a fambaa-hide carryall, and donned a large, wide-rimmed conical hat. She had a fondness for chewing on straw while riding her shaak mount.

Although she lived in the Naboo capital city of Theed, Peppi Bow led a rural life, spending her time alongside her shaaks in the Naboo countryside. Bow had an innate understanding of her herd's behavior, and was rightly concerned upon noticing their wariness near the eastern swamps. Although nervous about presenting her findings to the Royal Advisory Council, Bow was reassured by Boss Nass, who urged her to continue her report to the Naboo officials. Despite her efforts to forewarn the Naboo, Bow's herd was the first casualty of the Confederacy's bioweapon. She was quick to recognize that the river water was unhealthy and attempted to save her animals from drinking it, but the effects of the weapon were too fast to counteract.

She had no knowledge of the virus, but Bow knew that her shaaks were too strong to have been killed by any naturally-occurring substance in the water. Determined to discover the source of the contamination, Bow assaulted Amidala and Binks under the belief that they may have been involved with the contagion. Upon discovering their true intentions, Bow offered to help the two, just as she later offered to assist Tano in locating and infiltrating the Confederate lab. She dutifully followed Tano's orders to remain outside the laboratory, and aided in the capture of the man responsible for her herd's death&mdash;Doctor Nuvo Vindi.

Behind the scenes
"She is a very rural Gungan female. She needed a different look from the other Gungans, so I put the stalk of wheat in her mouth to give her a farm girl look."

- Wayne Lo on Peppi Bow

The Gungan Peppi Bow was created for "Blue Shadow Virus," the seventeenth episode of the first season of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series. She was first introduced in The Valley, an issue of StarWars.com's weekly webcomic that served as a prelude to "Blue Shadow Virus."

In the episode, Bow is voiced by Gwendoline Yeo, who has also voiced the Bettie-Bot VJ, Nala Se, and Cato Parasitti for the series. Her design was done by artist Wayne Lo, who saw her as more rural than other Gungans, and so provided her with a stock of wheat to chew on in order to achieve a "farm girl look." As the first female Gungan to be featured prominently in a Star Wars work, Bow presented several challenges to the design team, as they experienced difficulties in making a Gungan appear feminine. To supply her with proper gender identification, Lo put Bow's long ears behind her head in a clasp, akin to a ponytail.

Appearances

 * The Clone Wars: The Valley

Notes and references
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