Agrippa Aldrete

Agrippa Aldrete
Biographical information
Homeworld	Alderaan
Descriptive information
Species	Human (Alderaanian)
Gender	Male
Pronouns	He/him
Hair color	Gray
Eye color	Blue
Skin color	Light
Chronological and political information
Affiliation(s)	Galactic Republic Alderaan Senatorial Delegation

Agrippa Aldrete was a Human male hailing from the peaceful planet of Alderaan. In the last decades of the Galactic Republic, Aldrete served as the senator of his sector in the Galactic Senate, under the reign of Queen Mazicia of Alderaan. He was later succeeded by his compatriot Bail Antilles, to whom he eventually became a senatorial aide. By 32 BBY, Agrippa Aldrete was still serving in the Senate, and he witnessed the political turmoil that resulted from the invasion of the small planet Naboo by the Trade Federation conglomerate.

Biography

Agrippa Aldrete was a Human male from Alderaan, a very old, pristine planet located in the Core Worlds, in the waning decades of the Galactic Republic. Agrippa shared his surname with other Alderaanians of note, namely the noblewoman Alya Aldrete and the bureaucrat Celana Aldrete. Agrippa Aldrete came of age at seventeen, following the Alderaanian law. He built himself a career as a politician, ascending to the position of senator, with the duty to represent Alderaan's sector in the Galactic Senate. His delegation held considerable power in the Senate Rotunda, since Alderaan was once part of the Tetrahedron, an ancient area of the galaxy that contained the founding worlds of the Republic.

The CR90 corvette Star of Alderaan was built for Senator Aldrete to use.

During Aldrete's mandate, the reigning Queen of Alderaan was Mazicia Organa, mother to the future Viceroy and First Chairman Bail Organa. The Queen ordered the construction of the Star of Alderaan, a blockade runner CR90 corvette which was reserved for Senator Aldrete's use.

At some point before 33 BBY, Senator Aldrete stepped down from office, making way for his fellow Alderaanian Bail Antilles—who held the title of prince on their planet. Former senator Aldrete eventually returned to the Senate as an aide to his successor, a duty he shared with the female diplomat Liana Merian. In 32 BBY, Agrippa Aldrete was still a member of the Senate when the Trade Federation, a complex organization of trade officials and associated bureaucrats, invaded the remote world of Naboo. Following the crisis, Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum was removed from office and replaced by Senator Palpatine of Naboo.

Personality and traits

Agrippa Aldrete was a light-skinned man with blue eyes and a slim build. At the time of the Naboo crisis, he was an older gentleman sporting short gray hair, darker bushy eyebrows and a pointy goatee.

Equipment

Following a tradition of the Alderaanian ambassadorial community, he wore an all-white tunic parting down the middle, with a high collar and ornated with sober stripes of embroidered lozenges.

Behind the scenes

Character origins

Agrippa Aldrete

Agrippa Aldrete was among the many characters that were ultimately cut from the 1999 movie Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace, the first installment of the Star Wars prequel trilogy. He was featured in a scene where Bail Organa, played by the Irish actor Adrian Dunbar, seconded the motion for a Vote of No Confidence in the leadership of Chancellor Valorum. Aldrete was present in Bail Organa's repulsorpod along with Liana Merian and another draped senator. The scene even contained a medium shot focused on Organa and Aldrete, with the senator searching the eyes of his aide, waiting for his approval before standing up to support the motion. The actor had no dialogue, however, and Aldrete only signaled his approval by a short bow.

Although that scene was ultimately excised from the final movie, Adrian Dunbar's likeness was later reused as Bail Antilles, and Agrippa Aldrete was referenced in various sources that brought him back into canon. A picture of him appeared in the reference book Star Wars: Episode I The Visual Dictionary, which was put on the market the same year as the movie. Years later, in October 2006, an article from the Refresher Reading feature of the Star Wars Insider magazine established a link between Aldrete, Mazicia Organa and the Star of Alderaan. In the article, however, the character's name was misspelled as "Aggripe Aldrite."

In real-life, "Agrippa" was originally an old Latin name that was first used as a praenomen (a given name) and afterwards as a cognomen (an "additional" name, which distinguished branches of a clan from each other). According to University of Wisconsin–Green Bay's official news page, Agrippa Aldrete was named after the university's Professor Gregory Aldrete and his Labrador retriever Agrippa.

Lookalikes

"Algrippa [sic] doesn't have the side beard. Also, this model is replicated in some shots, so who's to say which one is the real Agrippa Aldrete?"

―Leland Chee, regarding the Aldrete-lookalike seen in The Clone Wars

Aldrete's double in Assassin

The likeness of Aldrete has often been reused for separate characters in the Expanded Universe. In the video game adaptation of Star Wars Episode I, a character working at the Tourist Center on Coruscant resembled Aldrete, both in clothing and physical traits. Later in the game, another individual represented by the same character model could be encountered in the lower levels of Coruscant.

In 2010, a character matching Aldrete's physical appearance and characteristic outfit appeared alongside Senators Bail Organa, Mon Mothma and Padmé Amidala in "Assassin," a third season episode of the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Two years later, the same character model was also used in the fourth season episode "Crisis on Naboo," although with a different outfit. In that episode, the Aldrete lookalike attended Chancellor Palpatine's speech on the occasion of Naboo's annual Festival of Light. Nonetheless, Keeper of the Holocron continuity database Leland Chee later indicated that the character seen in The Clone Wars was not Agrippa, stating that the beard looked too different and that the character model was replicated in some shots.

Appearances

• Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace (In deleted scene(s))

Sources

• Star Wars: Episode I The Visual Dictionary (First mentioned)
• Star Wars: Episode I Insider's Guide
• Star Wars: The Complete Visual Dictionary
• "Refresher Reading" — Star Wars Insider 90 (as Aggripe Aldrite)
• The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia
• Aldrete, Agrippa in the Databank (content now obsolete; backup link)
• Merian, Liana in the Databank (content now obsolete; backup link)

Notes and references

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