Battle of Naboo

The Battle of Naboo, also known as the Battle for Naboo or Liberation of Naboo, was the final conflict of the Trade Federation's invasion of the planet Naboo. The battle featured four separate parts and was conceived by Queen Padmé Amidala upon returning to her planet, after unsuccessfully pleading with the Galactic Senate for help. The plan would be to use the Gungans and their Grand Army to lure the Trade Federation army away from Theed, the capital city, so Amidala and her security forces could infiltrate the palace and capture Trade Federation Viceroy Nute Gunray. Meanwhile, a team of starfighter pilots would enter orbit in an assault on the Federation command ship, the destruction of which would disable all Federation battle droids on the planet.

In what became known as the Battle of the Great Grass Plains or simply the Battle of the Grassy Plain, the Gungans lured the Federation army away from the city to distract them through a fight in the Great Grass Plains, while the queen and her team made their way to the palace in the Battle of Theed, which was also known as Second Battle of Theed due to a prior engagement. Once inside, and as the starfighter pilots made their way into orbit after being freed, the Naboo were confronted by the Sith Lord Darth Maul. The queen's Jedi protectors, Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi, fought the Sith Lord throughout the palace while Amidala and her forces made their way to the Viceroy. Another front of the Theed battle opened up at Camp Four, where imprisoned Naboo, led by Mariek Panaka, rebelled against their droid captors.

By the battle's end, the Federation control ship had been destroyed by Anakin Skywalker, saving the Gungan army from destruction; Amidala and her security personnel captured Gunray; and Darth Maul was defeated and presumed dead after having killed Jinn in lightsaber combat. The battle liberated Naboo from the Federation, led to Kenobi's promotion to Jedi Knight, and convinced the Jedi Council to accept Skywalker for Jedi training.

The Battle of Naboo was ultimately part of a much larger plot. The invasion itself had been orchestrated by Naboo's Senator Sheev Palpatine, who was secretly the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, in a successful effort to be elected Supreme Chancellor. He later engineered the Clone Wars to amass total control over the Galactic Republic so he could transform it into the Galactic Empire and destroy the Jedi Order. During the war, in which Palpatine achieved his goals, Count Dooku remarked that, despite ten years passing between them, the Clone Wars truly began during the Naboo Crisis.

Text and facts from the “Battle of Naboo” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.