Catarine Towani

"Please, Mace. We're not mad at you!"

―Catarine desperately calling for her children^[2]

Catarine Towani was a Human female who had two children with her husband, Jeremitt: Cindel and Mace. In 3 ABY, the Towani family was marooned on the Forest Moon of Endor after their star cruiser crashed there. While stranded, Catarine and Jeremitt temporarily left their children by the starship, instructing them to stay there, but when they returned, Cindel and Mace were gone. Catarine and Jeremitt tried to search for them, but as they did so, they were captured by a Gorax, who took them to his lair.

Cindel and Mace later teamed up with the moon's native Ewoks to find their parents and go to the Gorax's lair in order to bring them home. The children-and-Ewok party arrived, reuniting with Catarine and Jeremitt by distracting the Gorax. Following a short skirmish with the beast, in which they suffered a single Ewok loss, they were able to rescue the captives and return to the Ewoks' Bright Tree Village. Later that year, the village was invaded by Sanyassan Marauders, and Catarine, Mace, and Jeremitt were among the casualties.

Biography[]

Marooned on Endor[]

"I knew we shouldn't have left them alone, not even for a minute."

―Catarine Towani^[2]

SearchForKids-COC — The Towani parents search for their children.

Catarine Towani^[3] was a Human female who was married to the Human Jeremitt Towani. The pair had two children together: Mace,^[4] who was born around 11 BBY,^[5] and Cindel, born nine years later.^[6] In 3 ABY,^[1] the Towanis were traveling home in their family star cruiser, with Catarine and Jeremitt piloting, but they crashed on^[7] the Outer Rim's^[8] Forest Moon of Endor.^[7] Due to their being marooned in the forest, Catarine and Jeremitt asked their children to stay in the ship^[4] while they made a vain attempt to locate civilization,^[6] but Mace, who was prone to ignoring instructions, left the ship with his sister. Catarine and Jeremitt later returned, terrified to find their children missing.^[4] They began searching for them with flashlights, calling out their names and splitting up.^[2]

The two regrouped back at the star cruiser, where Catarine asked her husband if he had found Cindel and Mace, which he had not. She reminded Jeremitt that each day since they had crashed, they had both given reminders to the children to stay by the ship. She then lamented their decision to leave them alone in order to find a transmitter since they were only young children who would not know what to do. Jeremitt rechecked the cruiser, with Catarine calling out their names once again. She also shouted that she and their father were not mad at them for leaving. It was then that Jeremitt found Cindel's jacket on the ground. Catarine noted aloud that she hoped her daughter had kept on her life monitor.^[2]

As they continued searching, Jeremitt embraced his wife, assuring her that their children would be found.^[2] However, their cries for Mace and Cindel attracted the attention of a Gorax beast^[4] who, after chasing after them with a large axe,^[2] captured the Humans and took them to his fortress.^[4] Mace and Cindel were later located by a tribe of native Ewoks, who used magic to find where Catarine and Jeremitt had been taken as the children longed to be reunited with their parents. They helped them assemble a caravan to find the Gorax's lair, despite no Ewok having ever returned from the fortress prior.^[2]

Saved by the caravan[]

"Hurry!"

―Catarine, to Mace^[2]

TowanisRescued — Catarine and Jeremitt's rescue

The Ewoks arrived at the lair and made their way to the Gorax, where they found the parents locked up in a cage that hung from the ceiling. Jeremitt held Catarine in his arms as the Gorax came close to them, but one of the Ewoks was able to cause a distraction that made the Gorax chase after him and the others. Once the Gorax was—albeit temporarily—out of sight, Mace and the remaining Ewoks devised a plan to get the Humans down from the cage, which involved using an axe to catapult Mace upward. Jeremitt then noticed that Mace had arrived, which he excitedly told Catarine. Once Mace was launched upward, he reunited with his parents and let down a long rope, up which the Ewok Chukha-Trok then climbed.^[2]

Jeremitt was confused by the Ewok, but his son assured him that he was a friend. With Chukha-Trok and Jeremitt holding the rope, Mace went back down, intending to bring his parents next, with his mother urging him to hurry. However, the Gorax then returned, but his attention was turned to a runaway Ewok, so Jeremitt and Catarine were able to safely descend. It took a bit longer for Chukha-Trok, whose rope broke, causing him to fall to the ground. With everyone down, the party rushed out, but Chukha-Trok stayed behind to fight, stabbing the Gorax's foot. The party was stopped when they reached a cliff, with Catarine noticing that Mace was missing. The two parents had a realization, both worrying for their son.^[2]

They rushed back, calling his name, to find him trying to fight the Gorax by using Izrina the Wistie. She successfully aggravated the Gorax, driving him away, but in his anger, he triggered a rockfall onto Chukha-Trok, killing him. Mace said goodbye and thanked him, but the battle was not won yet, for the Gorax had returned. Jeremitt and an Ewok assembled a rope to trip up the Gorax, which worked, but he did not fully fall into the gorge. The Ewok Kaink tried to use her magic to push him over the edge, but was unsuccessful. As the Gorax tried to get up again, Catarine shot his shoulder with a blaster, giving him the necessary push over the edge.^[2]

Final escape and celebrating a victory[]

"We thought you were dead."
"Oh, darling!"

―Cindel and Catarine^[2]

TowanisReunited-CoC — The Towani family bar Cindel reunites.

Once the Gorax was gone, Catarine gave Jeremitt a hug. Mace then ran over to his parents, hugging them as well, with Catarine telling him that she had thought he was lost forever. Cindel and her Ewok friend Wicket Wystri Warrick then arrived; Cindel waved to her mother, with both of them excited to see each other. However, the Gorax returned once again, having climbed out of the gorge. The party of Ewoks and Humans screamed in fear, but Mace threw Chukha-Trok's axe at his neck, sending him over the cliff once more, this time for good.^[2]

Mace used the rope to swing to the other side of the ravine, with the Ewoks and his parents following suit. There, Catarine reunited with Cindel, who confessed that she thought her parents had been killed. Izrina then returned as well, leading the caravan back to the Ewok home of Bright Tree Village. A party was held to celebrate the return of Catarine and Jeremitt, where there was Ewok music and dancing. Wicket's mother, Shodu, handed an item to Catarine, and Wicket also gifted her a flower. She thanked both of them for the gifts.^[2]

Death and legacy[]

"My family, they're all dead. What happens to me now, Wicket? I'm all alone."

―Cindel Towani^[9]

Catarine-EtBfE — Mace taking his mother into a hut

Later that year,^[1] the Ewok village was attacked by a group of Sanyassan Marauders. Wicket and Cindel were away for the initial siege, so managed to survive, but Catarine was present, and her health quickly deteriorated so that Cindel's life monitor alerted her to her mother's dire situation. The young Human ran over to her, finding Mace fighting off the Sanyassans next to their mother's lifeless body. Mace shouted at his sister to get away and find their father, dragging Catarine into a nearby hut and continuing to fire his blaster at the Marauders. However, Jeremitt was also under attack; he briefly escaped, but Catarine and Mace did not survive. Jeremitt consoled Cindel for their deaths, instructing his young daughter to save herself, leave him, and join the Ewoks. He soon died as well.^[9]

A year later, in 4 ABY,^[10] another Human female, the Rebel Leia Organa, traveled to Endor and encountered Wicket. The Ewok was reminded of Catarine when he saw Organa.^[11]

Personality and traits[]

"We thought we'd lost you."

―Catarine, to Mace^[2]

Catarine Towani was in anguish at the prospect of her children being lost, and regretted the decision to leave them alone after they crashed on Endor. She was relieved when Mace rescued her and Jeremitt from the Gorax, which confirmed Mace and Cindel were alive, but she was still nervous to get out, biting her nails in apprehension. She cautioned her son as he climbed down the rope, worried for him. She had brown hair and light skin.^[2]

Equipment[]

Towani wore white clothing with a white jacket. She utilized a blaster to shoot the Gorax.^[2]

Behind the scenes[]

Catarine Towani first appeared in the 1984 television film Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure, where she was portrayed by Fionnula Flanagan.^[2] Caravan of Courage was filmed in Marin County, California between June and August of that year.^[12] The portrayer of Catarine's corpse in the 1985 film Ewoks: The Battle for Endor was not credited.^[9] Her last name was confirmed to be "Towani," akin to her family name, in the 1998 reference book Star Wars Encyclopedia.^[3]

In the 2022 video game LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, one of the side missions on Endor is to fix a painting of the Towani family, including Catarine, that has been broken into pieces, though their name is not mentioned in the game.^[13]