Sy Snootles

For other uses, see Snootles.

"Sounds like that rough crowd out there is an easy one tonight."
"All in a night's work, baby."

―A Twi'lek dancer and Sy Snootles, after their performance for the Grand Hutt Council^[6]

Sy Snootles, also known as Miss Snooty, was a female Pa'lowick singer and part-time bounty hunter. The former lover of Ziro the Hutt, she killed him on behalf of his nephew, Jabba Desilijic Tiure, after Ziro abandoned her. Snootles was also a spy for the Hutt Clan and later become the lead vocalist for the Max Rebo Band. When it split up after Jabba's death, she resumed her solo singing career.

Biography

Affair of the Fluid Sack

"I thought you were coming back for me. I waited so long. I thought you didn't love me anymore."
"Our separation last time was a bit abrupt, and I do blame Jabba for that."
"Jabba?"
"He forced me to have you sent away from Coruscant, shattering the serenity of the happiest time of my life."
"Oh, Ziro, honey, being with you was the happiest time of my life too."

―Sy Snootles and Ziro^[6]

Originally from Lowick,^[1] Sy Snootles was a successful singer who dated Ziro,^[7] a Hutt crime lord who represented the Hutt Clan's business interests on the planet Coruscant.^[8] However, according to Ziro, his nephew Jabba Desilijic Tiure, forced him to send Snootles away from Coruscant, and while he promised to come back for her, he never did. A broken-hearted Snootles^[6] then became a spy for the Hutt criminal cartels^[2] and part-time bounty hunter.^[7]

Femme fatale

"Next time you'll think twice about breaking someone's heart. Oh, wait, there won't be a next time."

―Sy Snootles before killing Ziro^[6]

SnootlesShootsZiro-HFZ — Snootles kills Ziro

In the year 21 BBY,^[9] a vengeful Snootles was hired by Jabba^[10] to kill Ziro and retrieve his holodiary, which contained the Hutt Council records. After entertaining the Grand Hutt Council at Gardulla the Hutt's Palace on Nal Hutta with a lavish musical number, she discovered that Ziro was incarcerated in the palace's dungeon^[6] following his escape from Coruscant's detention center.^[11] Manipulating Gardulla's Gamorrean guards into fighting each other, the Pa'lowick slipped her way past and to her estranged lover's cell. Exploiting her affection, they shared a kiss through the bars before Snootles broke Ziro out, the two escaping through the swamps on a Pongeeta-class speeder.^[6]

Jabba receives the records — Snootles turns over Ziro's holodiary to Jabba

Arriving at Mama's house, Ziro convinced her to provide the pair with a starship to travel to Teth, where his father was buried and his holodiary, which the Hutt planned to sell so they could retire to Solarine, was hidden. After retrieving it, a vindictive Snootles turned on Ziro and shot him twice in the chest. She then took his holodiary to Jabba's Palace on Tatooine, where the Hutt's nephew rewarded her handsomely for her services, while she boasted that nobody would suspect someone as "lovely" as her of being capable of doing a bounty hunter's work.^[6] Neither Obi-Wan Kenobi nor Quinlan Vos, the Jedi Knights sent to recapture Ziro, ever found out that Snootles was the one who overtook them and murdered Ziro, allowing her to get away with her crime.^[12]

In 20 BBY,^[9] a very tipsy Snootles, bottle in hand, was carried out of Bilbousa saloon by a pair of Twi'leks.^[13]

The Max Rebo Band

"Whoop! Uh-oh!"

―Sy Snootles watches Oola fall into the rancor pit^[4]

Sy Snootles Singing — Snootles performs with the Max Rebo Band at Jabba's Palace

In the years that followed, Snootles turned her attention to her singing career. After meeting on board a luxury liner, she and fellow singer Greeata Jendowanian became good friends and formed a performing duo. Having spotted them playing in a cantina, the Ortolan Maximilian Rebo offered Snootles a place as lead vocalist in his Max Rebo Band, which she only agreed to join on the strict condition that he also hired Jendowanian as a dancer and singer.^[1] She also became quite taken with fellow band member Snit, whom she suggested change his name to the more palatable Droopy McCool,^[14] a stage name given to him by Rebo. She and her bandmates were outraged^[1] by Rebo's hasty decision to establish the band as a permanent attraction in Jabba's court,^[14] having immediately accepted the Hutt crime lord's offer of a contract that paid only in free meals.^[1]

There,^[1] under the protection of Nizuc Bek,^[15] Snootles worked as a double agent, feeding majordomo Bib Fortuna's lies to Jabba's enemies.^[1] In 1 BBY,^[16] Snootles, Rebo, and McCool were performing when Trandoshan bounty Bossk arrived at Jabba's Palace looking for 261, a rogue Imperial astromech droid.^[17] Shortly after the attack on Cymoon 1 in 0 ABY, the trio was ordered out of Jabba's court when Sith Lord Darth Vader arrived to negotiate with the Hutt crime lord.^[18]

In 4 ABY,^[9] the Max Rebo Band performed at a party in Jabba's Palace. Mistaking Jabba's advances on Twi'lek dancer Oola as a request for another song, Rebo began leading the ensemble through a variation on a popular standard, with Snootles belting out improvised lyrics.^[4] Her improvised lyrics were so saucy they embarrassed Bib Fortuna, and most likely would've been banned by the Galactic Empire.^[5] Their performance was interrupted when Oola fell down a trapdoor, where she was devoured^[4] by Pateesa,^[19] Jabba's pet rancor. Shortly after, the group witnessed the bounty hunter Boushh, in reality a disguised Leia Organa, enter the palace with the Wookiee Chewbacca as his prisoner. Later, Snootles watched as Jabba's guards captured Organa and Han Solo after Organa had freed Solo from the carbonite he had been encased in.^[4] The Max Rebo Band then accompanied Jabba's entourage aboard his sail barge,^[1] the Khetanna,^[20] to view the executions of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Chewbacca at the Great Pit of Carkoon.^[4] Although the sail barge was destroyed, the Max Rebo Band's members survived, but split up after Jabba's death. Snootles would find it hard to make it anywhere mainstream, chiefly because many found her vocals just too weird.^[1]

Personality and traits

SySnootles-HuntForZiro — Snootles was shrewd and ruthless underneath the guise of a sweet, innocent singer.

Sy Snootles was a female Pa'lowick with mottled yellow-green skin, with blue spots. She had blue eyes and large red lips. Snootles wore a feather on top of her head and a skirt made of some strange material.^[5] She was considered a minor celebrity during her career. Although she was often viewed as an innocent person, she was shrewd, devious, and ruthless.^[21] She did have some standards, though, as she expressed shock in horror the moment she saw Jabba drop Oola to her death, stopping singing upon witnessing the act.^[4]

She was best friends with fellow performer Greeata Jendowanian.^[21] Their friendship was so strong that Snootles only accepted being hired by Max Rebo on the condition he hired Jendowanian as a singer and dancer too.^[1]

Behind the scenes

"Sy was originally a classic marionette, performed from a scaffold overhead. However, she was about five-and-a-half feet tall, very heavy, weighing about sixty pounds. I redesigned her as a suspended, reverse string marionette."

―Tim Rose on the design of Snootles for Return of the Jedi.^[22]

SySnootles-BaseSeries1 — The Sy Snootles puppet

Sy Snootles first appeared in Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi. Phil Tippett described Snootles as "an egg on stilts." The character's big red lips were a suggestion from Executive Producer George Lucas, who saw the marionette in the behind the scenes workshop and remarked that the character simply needed Mick Jagger-style lips to complete her look.^[23] Her puppet was designed^[22] and operated by Tim Rose.^[23]

For the "Hunt for Ziro" episode in the third season of The Clone Wars animated series, Sy Snootles was voiced by actress Nika Futterman,^[24] who provided the voice of the Sith assassin Asajj Ventress in the series.^[25] The episode first aired on November 12, 2010, as the ninth episode of season three.^[26]