Vatié Bibble

"People like her couldn't survive in the Empire, could they? It wouldn't let them"

- Lané Votorina

Vatié Bibble was the daughter of Theed governor Sio Bibble and ninth royal handmaiden to Padmé Amidala. She was later a freelance investigative reporter who was arrested and persumably executed for sedition by the Galactic Empire.

Self-Made Man's Daughter(47 BBY to 33 BBY)
When Vatié was born in 47 BBY, her father, having made money in the plasma industry but strongly disliking it, was attempting to start a political career, a difficult prospect on Naboo when he was already past forty years of age and not from a political family. Nonetheless, by the time she was six he was a highly-placed aide, and he was encouraged to educate his daughter politically and establish a new family. This was something he refused to do, instead surrounding young Vatié with cultural pursuits. She showed an early talent for writing, and also learned to play the osslyin.

After her mother's death when she was eleven, Vatié entered a period of depression, and was left uncertain what to do with her life. When she was fourteen she applied to be made a handmaiden to Princess Amidala should she be elected Queen, and was selected. Though many thought this was at the suggestion of her father, and Amidala even worried for Vatié's willingness, he had in fact been against it, though he supported Vatié nonetheless.

Handmaiden(32 BBY to 24 BBY)
During the invasion of Naboo, Vatié was deeply distressed by her father's arrest and by being unable to do anything for him. She nonetheless accepted Saché Aeyinson's insistance that he did not want the handmaidens to try to rescue him, and followed her as leader without objections. However, after fighting in the battle of Theed, she accompanied the group of resistance fighters that liberated the various prison camps, including the one where her father had been placed.

Though through her handmaiden years she continued to practice her ossylin, alongside fellow musicians Eirtaé Lasara and Lané Catalin, who would later become aide to her father and heir to his position, by the time Amidala left office she had decided to pursue a career in journalism.

Reporter(24 BBY to 19 BBY)
For most of 24 BBY Vatié worked for various local periodicals in the Chommell Sector, but towards the end of the year a particularly good article on the growing sucessionist movement brought her some recognition, and she started writing for more prestigious publications, many of them Corellian. She ended up buying a home on Corellia, where she met and fell in love with Dal Antilles. The two of them were all but engaged to be married when Corellia's withdrawing from the Republic suddenly cut Vatié off from her adopted home.

She and Dal were on Coruscant when the announcement was made. They married immediately, but it still took nearly two months for Vatié to obtain the the special provision necessary to return to the Corellian sector. Though she and Dal spent two weeks on Naboo with her father during this time period, for the rest of it Vatié decided to put her current situation to its best use and conduct some investigation of the Senate. The resulting article, which was deeply critical of its subject, was published in several journals on Corellia and Naboo, and was picked up by more, but the outbreak of the Clone Wars caused most of them to cancel publication.

Her Last Articles
Angered, Vatié retreated to Corellia and she and Dal remained there, Vatié publishing articles firmly Corellian-centered, even after Corellia entered the war. But as the Republic began to fall apart she was drawn back to events of Coruscant, and through three trips back there gathered enough material for an article in which she starkly exposed the almost-complete transition of the galactic government from a democracy to a dictatorship. Knowing better than to try most of her usual publishers, Vatié took the article to a radical journal based on Tralus. She was waiting for the issue with her piece in it to come out when she received word of the death of her former mistress, and she and Dal travelled to Naboo for the funeral.

On Naboo, she heard Motée's accusations of murder against Palpatine, and backed her up on his seizure of power. Along with all the other handmaidens she took an oath against him. Though she had initially intended to hurry back to the Corellian system, Dal pointed out that there was little for her to do there, and on her father's urgings they agreed to stay on Naboo longer. Thus Vatié was witness to the deaths of Briné Salmune and Rabé Excenil, and wrote a piece dedicated to the latter's memory.

Arrest and Persumed Death
While Vatié was writing what would be her very last piece, the Tralus publication to which she'd given her article was raided by Imperial forces. The following day Imperial forces on Naboo arrested her for sedition. When her husband protested he was also taken into custody. The two of them were separated immediately, with Vatié taken away on a space shuttle. What happened to her afterwards is unknown, but it is likely she was tortured, then executed. Dal was held in Theed for several days, then released on the urging of Sio Bibble and Queen Apailana.

Legacy
After her arrest, Imperial agents attempted to erase all of Vatié's writings. Most of her early writings were neglected, however, and New Republic historians eventually retrieved 18 of them. Unfortunately, her article on the Seperatists was not amoung them. Her pre-Clone Wars exposé and some of her Corellian articles were preserved underground and were circulating on Haali-Ola-Edi's smuggling ring for banned media by 14 BBY; ultimately six of them survived to resurface after the Empire's fall, a very small number considering how prolific a writer she was.

Her memorial to Briné was also preserved when following her arrest, Losté Dulks was able to retrieve her computer and reverse its deletion, and it was given to Haali-Ola-Edi herself for preservation, but while Dal later said she had carried a copy of the article that had led to her arrest with her to Naboo, it is believed to have been on her person at the time of her arrest, and it was lost completely.

In 24 ABY the holofilm Vatié and Dal was made, focusing on the two months she and her husband spent on Coruscant while waiting for provision to return to Corellia, and the writing of her first exposé.