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Cato Parasitti was a Clawdite female bounty hunter from Zolan who operated during the Clone Wars. As a changeling, Parasitti used her natural abilities to make a career as a spy and assassin, charging a massive rate and quickly becoming one of the leaders in her field of work. She employed holographic technology alongside her advanced shape-shifting skills to make her impersonations nearly flawless. A member of the galaxy's criminal underworld, Parasitti frequently worked with the bounty hunter Cad Bane, often subcontracting assignments or hiring assistance for him as needed. On one such endeavor in 22 BBY, Parasitti worked with Bane to steal a Jedi holocron from the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, as part of a job from the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Sidious. She adopted the guise of the late Jedi Master Ord Enisence to infiltrate the Jedi Archives, acting as an inside agent to help Bane and his techno-service droid, Todo 360, gain access to the heavily guarded Holocron Vault.

Posing as Enisence and then as Chief Librarian Jocasta Nu, Parasitti was able to neutralize the Temple's security systems so that Bane and Todo 360 could reach the Holocron Vault. When a Jedi Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, uncovered her deception, Parasitti attempted to escape, wielding Nu's lightsaber against Tano. However, Parasitti lacked Nu's superior talents in lightsaber combat, and she was defeated in the ensuing duel. Before being taken away for incarceration, Parasitti offered the Jedi information on Bane's next target: Bolla Ropal, the keeper of the Jedi Order's Kyber memory crystal. By 20 BBY, she was out of custody and, at one point, visited the Mos Eisley Cantina on Tatooine.

Biography[]

Hunter from Zolan[]

The Clawdite female Cato Parasitti lived during the final decades of the Galactic Republic's rule, hailing from Zolan,^[1] her species' homeworld in the Mid Rim.^[4] Born as a changeling, she used her natural proficiency in shape-shifting to make a career for herself out of bounty hunting. Operating in the criminal underworld, she became known as one of the galaxy's best spies and more lethal assassins,^[1][5] allowing her to charge a high rate, to the point that some considered it astronomical.^[1] As was the case with other contemporaries in her field of work,^[6] her only loyalty became her focus on credits. She often operated with another leading mercenary, Cad Bane, for whom she would subcontract assignments or enlist extra assistance as needed.^[1] By the time of the Clone Wars, in which the Republic fought with the Confederacy of Independent Systems for galactic supremacy, Parasitti was considered to be one of the leaders in her line of work.^[5]

The Jedi Temple job[]

In 22 BBY, the first year of the war,^[7] Bane contacted Parasitti to enlist her services for a job on the galactic capital, Coruscant.^[3] She proceeded to Bane's apartment in a seedy hotel in the Coruscant underworld,^[8] being greeted at the door by Bane's techno-service droid, Todo 360. After setting down her blaster rifle, Parasitti joined Bane at a computer terminal to examine an intelligence file on Bolla Ropal, a Jedi Master who would be their next target once they had completed their first objective for their client, the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Sidious. To Parasitti's surprise, she learned that the Sith Lord had hired Bane to steal a Jedi holocron from the Jedi Temple. Although Sidious had provided holographic schematics of the Temple and data on its security systems, Bane's infiltration plan required an inside agent. Parasitti was to thus use her shape-shifting abilities to pose as a Jedi and infiltrate the Jedi Archives, from where she would be able to assist Bane and Todo 360 in entering the heavily guarded Holocron Vault. Bane then showed her to the body of the late Jedi Master Ord Enisence,^[3] whom he had killed in a previous job for Sidious^[9] and whose identity she would assume to enter the Temple.^[3]

Once Parasitti had adopted the Skrilling Jedi's form, Bane handed her an ear-comlink that they would be using to keep in communication throughout the operation. She proceeded to the Jedi Temple and, with Enisence's likeness, was able to gain access to the Jedi Archives. As she passed by the main rotunda on her way to^[3] the Archive Library's Fourth Hall,^[10] Parasitti was intercepted by Padawan Ahsoka Tano, who had been assigned to guard duty at the Archives and was looking for someone to help. When Parasitti was commed by Bane—who was with Todo 360 on the Temple exterior, waiting for her to get into place—she impatiently spurned Tano's repeated offers for assistance. Although her outburst caught the attention of Chief Librarian Jocasta Nu, Parasitti continued on to a computer and accessed the Temple security systems. She soon found a weak point in the Temple's energy shield and transmitted its location to Todo 360, then briefly jammed the local scanners so that Bane and his droid could bypass the defensive shield and enter the central ventilation system. As Bane and Todo 360 descended into the main vent shaft, Parasitti guided Todo 360 to the control board for the series of fans blocking their way, but notified the pair—too late—of the secondary motion-sensing security switch. She was able to remotely deactivate the fans from her computer terminal just in time, saving Bane and Todo 360 from pulverization in the spinning blades.^[3]

While continuing to direct Bane through the ventilation system, Parasitti was interrupted by Jocasta Nu, who was informing all Jedi in the Archives that the Temple was being placed on high alert. After thanking Nu for the notification, Parasitti attacked her and knocked her unconscious, dragging her inert body into an aisle out of sight. Morphing to mirror Nu's appearance, Parasitti lifted her lightsaber from her person, then returned to her seat at her terminal. Presently, Bane informed Parasitti that they had reached the vent shaft above the Holocron Vault. She examined the security systems and managed to disable the grid of laser sensors protecting the Vault, granting Bane and Todo 360 access to the safe. Just as Parasitti detected that two Jedi were heading toward Bane's position in the vents, Tano—having learned from Grand Master Yoda about the potential presence of an enemy agent inside the Temple—overheard her conversation with Bane. When Tano confronted her, Parasitti activated Nu's lightsaber and initiated a lightsaber duel with the Padawan, lashing out with a flurry of strikes before heading to escape. However, she lacked Tano's training in lightsaber combat, and as Tano pursued her through the holobook shelves of the Archive Library, she was consequently forced onto the defensive.^[3]

Breaking off from engaging Tano, Parasitti headed out of the Fourth Hall, making her way back toward the rotunda. While glancing over her shoulder to check her pursuer's progress, Parasitti was outmaneuvered by the Padawan, who used the Force to cut off her escape by telekinetically toppling a chair in her path. Held at lightsaber-point, Parasitti surrendered and, upon being interrogated, revealed that Bane's objective laid in the Holocron Vault. Tano handcuffed Parasitti and escorted the bounty hunter to the Vault, being joined along the way by Nu, who had recovered consciousness. Bane, meanwhile, had made off with the holocron and escaped from the Temple, as Parasitti and her Jedi captors discovered upon seeing that the holocron was missing from the Vault.^[3]

As Tano was about to lead her away, Parasitti stopped, deciding to point the Jedi to Bane's next target: Bolla Ropal. Master Ropal was the keeper of the Jedi Order's Kyber memory crystal, a record of all known Force-sensitive infants in the galaxy. While Tano left with her Master, Anakin Skywalker, to seek out Ropal in the Devaron system, Master Obi-Wan Kenobi saw to Parasitti's imprisonment and spearheaded the search for Bane on Coruscant.^[3] Parasitti's disclosure of Bane's target earned her the ire of her colleague, who swore to return the favor when Skywalker and Tano intercepted him at Devaron.^[11]

Out of jail[]

By 20 BBY, two years after her detainment by the Jedi,^[12] Parasitti was out of custody. At one point while on the desert world of Tatooine, she visited the Mos Eisley Cantina in the Mos Eisley spaceport, sitting at a table with other patrons. She exchanged a laugh with several other customers after another guest, Asajj Ventress, killed a bounty hunter who tried to talk her up; Ventress's response was to run one of her lightsabers through the bounty hunter's stomach, saying she was "not much of a talker."^[13] Parasitti also patronized the cantina on another occasion, having a drink at the bar and being served by the 2-1B medical droid bartender.^[14]

Personality and traits[]

In her native form, Cato Parasitti had green skin and yellow eyes, standing at 1.79 meters^[5] and weighing 52 kilograms.^[2] An accomplished bounty hunter, she exploited her natural talents as a changeling to advance her career in the criminal underworld,^[5] becoming known for her duplicity^[1] and unscrupulousness.^[15] A convincing liar, she often prepared to strike her targets by first spying on them to discern their weaknesses.^[2] She established herself as one of the galaxy's more lethal assassins, becoming attached to the financial reward of her missions and working for anyone who could afford her sizable rate, though her affiliation—aside from her sole loyalty to credits—was often only to herself. She subsequently became an associate of^[1] another veteran mercenary, Cad Bane, who shared her penchant for credits. Although she knew of Bane's reputation for ruthlessness, she did not fear him like others did; being a shape-shifter, she could easily disappear into the crowd when needed.^[5]

Parasitti kept a tight hold on her identity, telling those who inquired after her name that it was none of their business. Despite initially believing, like Bane, that breaking into the Jedi Temple was impossible,^[3] she could not pass up the opportunity to disguise herself as a Jedi Master, being able to walk undetected among the Jedi.^[5][16] While on the job, she kept a cool head under pressure, managing to deactivate the fans in the ventilation shaft before they could kill Bane and Todo 360. She did not back down when confronting a Jedi, Ahsoka Tano, though the Padawan ultimately defeated her. After Bane escaped on his own,^[3] Parasitti, furious with being left behind in Jedi custody,^[17] tipped off the Jedi to his next target,^[3] a decision that earned her a promise for payback from her comrade.^[11]

Skills and abilities[]

Cato Parasitti's abilities as a shape-shifter were quite advanced:^[1] she was able to morph her likeness into that of another individual after physical contact,^[18] though her shape-shifting was limited to other humanoid forms.^[2] Besides imitating Humans such as Jocasta Nu, Parasitti succeeded in altering her form to that of a Skrilling, Ord Enisence. In the latter case, she was able to avoid being uncovered by his fellow Jedi, with an outburst of impatience being the only potential error to her mimicry.^[3]

Besides infiltration,^[5] Parasitti was skilled in fighting, using acrobatic somersaults to supplement her efforts against Ahsoka Tano. Yet she lacked lightsaber training and was thus at a disadvantage when dueling Tano.^[3] During their fight, Parasitti mainly concentrated on defensive moves, with her attacks coming across as untrained and overdone.^[19] She was subsequently defeated by the Padawan.^[3]

Equipment[]

Cato Parasitti customarily wore a helmet with night vision lenses that only partially covered her head,^[5] often wearing it even when not on the job.^[3][14] She used a set of armor for her chest, arms, and shins that she scavenged from a captured fugitive, while she also employed extra thigh padding for swoop riding. A pair of utility pouches held various equipment above her waist.^[5][16] Parasitti utilized holographic technology to supplement her shape-shifting, allowing her to imitate clothing such as Jedi robes in addition to her bodily alterations.^[1] For weaponry, she wielded an LL-30 blaster pistol^[16] and a blaster rifle of an ancient model^[20] that was commonly used in the underworld.^[5]

Behind the scenes[]

The character of Cato Parasitti was created for the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series. Prior to her debut in "Holocron Heist," which aired on October 3, 2009 as part of the series' second season premiere,^[8] series modeler Chris Bostjanick's model of her was previewed in the July 2009 compilation, The Art of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.^[22] In the episode, Parasitti was voiced by actress Gwendoline Yeo.^[8] According to Series Supervising Director Dave Filoni, the production crew made it a point during the duel sequence to make Parasitti's lightsaber moves primarily defensive or otherwise rather crude, to reflect the fact that she lacked training with the weapon.^[19] She received entries in such source material as the StarWars.com Databank,^[1] The Clone Wars Character Encyclopedia,^[5] and New Battlefronts: The Visual Guide, among others.^[16]

In March 2011, Parasitti was featured as a character in the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable editions of the non-canon video game LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars. Following the "Legacy of Terror" level, she is made available for in-game purchase for use in the game's "Free Play" mode.^[23] She later made brief appearances in the episodes "Bounty" and "Revenge," which aired in March 2012 as part of the finale story arc for the television series' fourth season.^[24][25] Although the episodes showed her to be free from Jedi custody, it was not clarified how she came to be free.^[13][14] Holocron continuity database manager Leland Chee implied she had escaped, stating that she managed to "find her way out of custody" after "Holocron Heist" to appear in those episodes.^[26]

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Head-to-Head lists Parasitti's height as 1.8 meters,^[2] which is slightly off from the 1.79-meter height detailed in prior publications; the original figure was established in her StarWars.com Databank entry and repeated in The Clone Wars Character Encyclopedia.^[1][5] This article assumes that The Clone Wars: Head-to-Head is in error.

Non-canon history[]

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Head-to-Head presents a non-canon matchup showdown between Parasitti and Chieftain Thi-Sen of the planet Orto Plutonia's village of Talz. Parasitti is hired by corporate barons to eliminate Thi-Sen, whose Talz colony is thwarting their scouting efforts to find valuable resources amidst the planet's glaciers. Parasitti first spends some time posing as one of the Talz, observing Thi-Sen and his culture. When the time comes to confront him, she exploits Thi-Sen's limited exposure to technology and alien lifeforms by shape-shifting into a young Talz, confusing him. She then takes on the form of a demon from Talz mythology, distracting Thi-Sen long enough to blast him and thus completing her assignment.^[2]

Appearances[]

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• The Clone Wars: The Holocron Heist (First appearance)
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars — "Holocron Heist"
• The Clone Wars: Stand Aside - Bounty Hunters!
• The Clone Wars: Act on Instinct (Mentioned only)
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars — "Bounty"
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars — "Revenge"

Non-canon appearances[]

• LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (PlayStation Portable & Nintendo DS versions only)

Sources[]

Notes and references[]

External links[]

• Drawing Cato Parasitti on StarWars.com (content now obsolete; backup link)