Bria Tharen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Star Wars character | |
| Bria Tharen | |
|---|---|
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| Position | Unknown |
| Homeworld | Corellia |
| Species | Human |
| Gender | Female |
| Height | 1.57 meters |
| Affiliation | Rebel Alliance, Red Hand Squadron |
| Portrayed by | N/A |
Bria Tharen (b. 29 BBY, d. 0 BBY) was a fictional red-haired woman and Han Solo's first love in the Star Wars Expanded universe. Bria would also become a key figure in the Rebellion against the Empire, but not before facing her own trials and tribulations.
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[edit] Exultation
Like the famed smuggler himself, Bria was born on the temperate planet of Corellia. Because she was born to a wealthy shipping family, her early life was one of privilege and luxury. Her family decided and fully expected that she would marry an equally wealthy and socially ranked man, but the extremely independent Bria was not happy with that idea. Thus, she canceled her wedding, and deciding that traveling the galaxy to see the stars and studying archeology at the University of Coruscant was in her best interests, left home.
Unfortunately, such independence came with a price. In her late teens, the year she attained the legal age of majority on Corellia (17), Bria joined a cult that preached about the euphoric effects of the "Exultation." In one of the cult's ceremonies, the young woman experienced a radical sensation that was promised to her by the cult. She naively believed that this was from a higher power, and was unaware that it was simply a biological accident produced by the organs of the t'landa Til priests. Eager to follow the Exultation, Bria headed to their headquarters on Ylesia, but while she expected to feel the same sensations she had before, the young Bria was instead forced into slavery in a spice processing plant, with the Exultation as a carrot to keep working.
For nearly a year filled with arduous labor, Bria - referred to simply as Pilgrim 921 - was slowly stripped of her individuality. Despite this, the impressionable Tharen still believed in the Exultation, clinging to its transcendent effects. However, a chance encounter with Han Solo, a youthful con artist turned spice smuggler, drew her back into reality. Solo, who was smitten by Bria's beauty, arranged for her to leave the labors of the spice plant and transfer into working in the head tlanda T'il priest's immense art collection, where she applied her archaeological skills as curator for the collection. It was there that Bria finally learned the truth about the t'landa Til and the Exultation from Solo. Freeing her from a lifetime of slavery, Han fled Ylesia with Bria with blasters blazing and sacks full of rare and valuable artwork. He planned to spend the rest of his life with her.
[edit] The Rebellion
To Solo's dismay, Bria suddenly left the smuggler on Coruscant, breaking his heart. Tharen was still suffering the varied physical, mental, and spiritual effects of withdrawal from the Exultation - it nearly consumed her as she struggled to recuperate and rebuild herself. During this rehabilitation, Bria became involved with a local group that was one of the first to challenge the might of the Galactic Empire; her initial motivation was outrage that the Empire condoned and even supported slavery such as she suffered under on Ylesia. The Red Hand Squadron accepted her loyalty, and working with this early Rebel group she helped carve a name for the Red Hand as a ruthless organization, with an especial hatred toward slavers.
On Cloud City, Bria met with resistance members from Alderaan to push for what would be known as the Rebel Alliance; with the efforts of General Bel Iblis, the "Corellian Accord" would be agreed upon, consolidating the many local resistance groups into one. On Kashyyyk, she met with like-minded Wookiees to gain their support. Developing a plan to take out the slavery operations on Ylesia, the young Rebel leader sought help from Jabba the Hutt and smugglers from Nar Shaddaa. Jabba agreed, supplying the operation, intending to use the Rebel group to further his business war against the rival Besadii Hutt clan which owned and operated the Ylesia racket. One such smuggler was the still-infatuated Han Solo, who had not seen Bria in ten years. To Solo's immense surprise, Bria and her soldiers betrayed the smugglers, stealing the Ylesian slavers' riches to finance the fledgling Rebellion.
[edit] Demise
Tharen's Red Hand Squadron was the outfit that received the Death Star schematics on Toprawa and subsequently passed them on to Princess Leia aboard the Tantive IV. She was unable to escape, however, as Imperial forces descended upon her. She refused to submit to capture interrogation, knowing that she could never live with betraying the Rebellion, and took a poison pill that ended her life.
The day before Solo's fateful encounter with aged Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi and young farm boy Luke Skywalker in a Tatooine cantina, he received news of Bria's demise. The information was passed on to the dejected smuggler with a bounty on his head from Boba Fett himself, who had previously promised Bria Tharen that when she died, the bounty hunter would do what he could to inform her parents of her death. As Boba Fett could not track down Tharen's parents, he turned to Solo, whom he could find, and whom Fett knew had previously met Tharen's parents subsequent to the Ylesia escape (the encounter had gone poorly, as Bria's mother was suspicious of Solo to start, and their opinion of Han did not improve when Tharen's brother remembered how Solo used to be a con artist working for Garris Shrike).
[edit] References
- The Paradise Snare, 1st paperback printing, 1997. A. C. Crispin, ISBN 0-553-57415-9
- The Hutt Gambit, 1st paperback printing, 1997. A. C. Crispin, ISBN 0-553-57416-7
- Rebel Dawn, 1998. A.C. Crispin. ISBN 0-553-57417-5
