Dedra Meero was a human female who served as a lieutenant and supervisor in the Imperial Security Bureau. Following the incident on Ferrix, Meero participated in a meeting of ISB supervisors chaired by Major Lio Partagaz. Diligent and methodical, she collected and analyzed evidence across the galaxy that indicated an ostensibly more organized rebel effort than her superiors suspected.

Biography[]

A turbulent briefing[]

During the reign of the Galactic Empire, the human female Dedra Meero served with the military rank of lieutenant in the Imperial Security Bureau. She was part of the Enforcement branch^[2] before transferring to Investigations.^[5] Eventually, Meero was promoted to an ISB Supervisor in charge of two sectors, including the locations of Steergard and Sev Tok.^[2] In 5 BBY,^[6] Meero attended a meeting in the ISB Central Office building on Coruscant chaired by Major Lio Partagaz, in which different supervisors delivered informative reports from their respective sectors.^[2]

At the meeting, after berating Captain Lagret for the captain's mistakes, Partagaz opened a question to the room about the nature of the Imperial Security Bureau, to which Meero responded with the verbatim portion of the organization's mission statement. Partagaz emphasized her response and dismissed it as wrong. When Supervisor Blevin reported the status of the Ferrix incident and mentioned the theft of an Imperial N-S9 Starpath Unit, Meero used her datapad to inquire about it.^[2]

Jurisdictional conflict[]

Following the briefing, Meero was in her office with Attendant Heert searching for more details on the theft of the Starpath unit, in order to establish jurisdiction over what happened on Ferrix. As the device had been stolen from the Steergard Naval Yard, which was under her jurisdiction, Meero asked Heert to send a request to Blevin's office to get involved in the situation.^[2]

When the request was denied, Meero went to Blevin's office to discuss the matter in person while her colleague indicated that he had work to do and suggested that she book an appointment. After Meero insisted on her jurisdiction in the matter due to the device being stolen from Steergard, Blevin argued that Ferrix was in his sector and accused the supervisor of wanting to use the moment to rise through the ranks. Meero claimed that she did not need his career advice, and after Blevin denied her request twice, finding herself stuck, she decided to take the matter up with Major Partagaz.^[2]

Meero and Blevin met in the meeting room and took their differences on the matter to Partagaz. When Meero brought up the theft of the Starpath unit and her claims of jurisdiction over the Ferrix incident, Blevin accused her of wanting to increase her portfolio and recommended that she take care of her own bases. An instinctive Meero asserted to Partagaz that there were multiple indications of organized insurgency regarding the theft of Imperial artifacts and coordinated attacks in multiple sectors, with three previous case files on her desk indicating a pattern. However, Partagaz requested Meero provide factual evidence, which she could not. Partagaz thus recommended that both of them confine their activities to the sectors that were assigned to them.^[2]

After dispatching Blevin, the major told Meero that he knew that working with Blevin could be a challenge, but nonetheless, his quarterly reports were delivered unlike Meero's. Partagaz told Meero that a high performance was expected from her for an exceptionally promising career within the bureau, advising Meero to minimize trifles and suggesting more work like her impressive number of detainees at Sev Tok, going so far as to say he may send her more work of that sort. After Partagaz left the room, Meero breathed a sigh of relief.^[2]

Never climbing the same fence twice[]

Meero was walking through the corridors of the ISB headquarters when she saw Blevin walk by with a group of attendees. After discussing a matter regarding Hosnian Prime and its military component, Meero ordered Heert to leave as she did not know the time and it was late. The attendant refused to leave when Meero told him that she didn't know what she was doing about anything. Heert told her that she was following clues, listing events in different locations such as Kessel, Fondor, Jakku, Base Cay, and Steergard. However, Meero agreed with Major Partagaz, who believed that it was too scattered to be organized.^[7]

Heert again rebutted and said that Meero did not believe that. The supervisor was fully aware that if she were on the other side, she would disperse the activities and never climb the same fence twice. When the attendant told her that it was too random to be random, Meero asked if they could check two more files each, to which Heert nodded. Taking a stimulant pill with a beverage, the supervisor then resumed her work.^[7]

Shortly thereafter, a Rebel infiltration team stole approximately 80 million credits that were part of an entire sector's quarterly payroll from an Imperial installation on the planet Aldhani.^[2] As a result of the robbery, Major Partagaz summoned all the supervisors and their staff to the meeting room. Meero stood with the rest of the staff as the major ordered every Star Sector and Planetary Emergency Retaliation plan to be ready for presentation by midnight, and told them to inform their staff and families that nobody would be leaving.^[8]

Supervisor on the rise[]

Meero prepared the next day, changing out of uniform, to attend a briefing in the ISB meeting room chaired by Colonel Wullf Yularen. Yularen informed the Imperial staff of the bureau of the countermeasures that would be taken throughout the galaxy in the wake of the Aldhani heist, mentioning, among other things, that he had spoken with Emperor Palpatine to ensure permanent leadership of the ISB in the matter, providing full access to resources for both the Army and Navy, as well as calling an emergency session of the Imperial Senate to grant an amendment that would give full control over matters of surveillance, search and seizure.^[9]

The supervisor was not delighted with the new rules imposed by her superiors, as she considered that they were playing directly into the rebels' hands by taking what happened in Aldhani as a simple robbery and not for what it really was: an announcement. Afterwards, Meero walked through the halls of the ISB to the datavault, at the time manned by attendant Felzonis, to request a Multi-Sector Data Blend from two years earlier, which included a report of bases and repair facilities and missing-item reports. When Felzonis asked the star system for which Meero wanted the report, she answered all star systems and that it be confidential to her office.^[9]

Later, Meero was at another meeting of ISB supervisors when Major Partagaz reprimanded Supervisor Lonni Jung for failing to keep pace with the neighboring sectors. Partagaz then asked Supervisor Blevin if he was eager that morning. Blevin replied that he didn't have any good news to share either as he wanted to press charges against Meero. Hypothesizing that Meero's overreach on the matter at Ferrix compromised Imperial security, Partagaz asked Meero if she was okay with her integrity being questioned, to which Meero replied that she was interested in hearing what her fellow supervisor had to say about the matter.^[9]

After a heated crossfire and Blevin's mention of unauthorized access to his sector records, Meero took pity on Partagaz and claimed that she used the Imperial Emergency Act to collect data on multiple sectors without official sanction. She then opened a question to the room as to whether they believed the Rebellion operated around the sector's boundaries, to which Lagret replied that those sectors were created by Partagaz. Meero countered that they were created simply as organizational principles and that the rebels didn't really care about those boundaries. When Partagaz questioned the relevance of his own work, Meero responded that systems change or die. The major asked Meero to elaborate on her thesis, and she replied that there was an organized rebel effort that was acquiring Imperial military components.^[9]

Meero pointed out that Blevin knew that she had a report with the information ready to go and that his accusations were more self-preservation than a sense of urgency. Blevin then expressed that she was more urgent as a renegade intelligence with such a lax sense of rules. Partagaz highlighted his suggestion, mentioning Meero's dedication and reassigning the Morlana sector to her jurisdiction before ending the session. Meero walked past him to thank him, to which Partagaz replied to watch her back.^[9]

Later, Meero sent her Attendants Heert and Corv to the Imperial Bureau of Standards to bring Syril Karn for interrogation at the ISB central office. When Karn revealed during interrogation that he was unable to read the Ferrix report before being dismissed from his job in the Morlana System, Meero and Heert had to leave to attend another meeting elsewhere in the building. As the pair left, Meero ordered Corv to give Karn a copy of the report to read.^[10]

During this meeting, Meero requested additional resources to hunt down Cassian Jeron Andor, who had been identified as one of the two culprits of the Ferrix incident. Among the resources she was hoping to gain were a full planetary comnet, a full tech package from the Ferrix garrison, Series Nine Spectrum surveillance, funding for local agents, and a Code Droid. Although Meero and her staff were unable to identify Luthen Rael, whom they had code-named "Axis" for his centrality in the plot, she was nonetheless determined to hunt him down. Later that day, the ISB officers returned to the interrogation room. Although the former Deputy Inspector believed he could identify Rael's voice if he heard it again, Meero determined that Karn's description of Rael was not of further use. Karn protested that he did well at his job and that he could be a valuable asset to her operations. However, she ordered him to forget that this had ever happened.^[10]

Around a month later, Meero was present on Ferrix in the former hotel that had been converted into the headquarters for the Ferrix garrison. She was present for the torture of Salman Paak and Bix Caleen, alongside Prefect Vanis Tigo and Doctor Gorst.^[10] Meero taunted Caleen during the interrogation, before the doctor forced her to listen to the harrowing cries of dying Dizonite children. After the torture, as she left the hotel, Meero ordered Captain Tigo to keep Caleen alive, due to her being a witness who could identify Axis. When asked about Salman Paak, Meero responded that she did not care what happened to him, to which Tigo replied that he wanted to hang the prisoner.^[4]

Upon her return to Coruscant, Meero attended a meeting with Major Partagaz, bringing her ISB Attendants Heert and Corv to the meeting as well. She discussed the list of Imperial equipment that Caleen had given after interrogation, which contained a targeting unit that was recovered from a safehouse operated by a rebel cell associated with Maya Pei. Through Andor's return to Ferrix three days after the Aldhani heist, she connected Axis to the events on Aldhani. When Heert presented statements from two soldiers at the Aldhani Garrison who believed Andor looked similar to one of the rebels, Partagaz responded that the amplified interest made the connection to Aldhani worth following up. Captain Lagret asked why Meero did not question Maarva Andor, to which she cunningly responded that she decided to wait and that she could be used as bait to lure Andor back to Ferrix.^[4]

The Kreegyr lead[]

When arriving to work the next day, Meero was stopped on her way into the central officer building by Syril Karn, who thanked her, believing she had a role in his recent promotion. Meero responded dismissively, and then questioned why Syril was waiting outside her workplace. Under the impression that Karn was stalking her, Meero threatened that if he continued to pursue this, she would have him imprisoned on the Outer Rim. Upon entering her office, Supervisor Meero was met by Attendant Heert, who informed her that Imperial authorities had detained a rebel pilot using a stolen Imperial masking unit, and that Attendant Corv was checking if the unit was off of their list. Meero ordered her aide to send Doctor Gorst to interrogate the prisoner on the Destroyer above Steergard where he was being held. Heert responded that he had already sent Gorst, and asked if she wanted to go as well. She replied that there was no time and dismissed her assistant from the room after congratulating him on his work.^[4]

After having remotely interrogated the prisoner, Meero attended a small meeting with Partagaz, her attendant Heert, Lagret, and two of his attendants. During his interrogation, the prisoner claimed that he did not contact anyone during his escape attempt. Heert added that the masking unit had been stolen from the Imperial naval yard in Lozash the previous year. Supervisor Lonni Jung and his attendant entered the room, having arrived late due to being offsite. Partagaz informed them about the capture of the rebel pilot, who was part of Anto Kreegyr's rebel cell. The major informed Jung that he believed that Kreegyr was unaware of the pilot's capture, and that the prisoner had revealed a planned raid on the Spellhaus Imperial power station.^[4]

When Jung warned that the pilot would be counted missing soon by not showing up on Kafrene, Lagret proposed destroying the ship and making it seem accidental. Meero proposed the idea of fouling the ship, damaging a mechanical component and planting the pilot's body in the cockpit. She suggested staging the accident quickly and allowing the ship to drift into traffic near Kafrene. Agreeing, Partagaz ordered her to make it top priority and to act carefully, leaving no trace. As Meero and Heert left the conference room, the major ordered the other Supervisors to schedule a meeting with Military Intelligence about the planned raid on Spellhaus.^[4]

Meero was in the conference room when Supervisor Lagret confirmed the trap set for Anto Kreegyr's men on Kafrene. Her assistant, Heert, handed her a datapad, from which she read the situation report to Major Partagaz. Meero mentioned the details of the supposed mechanical failure implanted. Supervisor Lonni Jung suggested Partagaz go ahead with a routine inspection, assuming Kreegyr was watching their movements.^[11]

After the trap had been sprung on Anto Kreegyr's men, Meero expressed concern and frustration about Military Intelligence not taking any prisoners when they could have done so, as the captives could have had information valuable to the Empire. Partagaz stated that the point of the massacre was to "wipe the taste of Aldhani from the Emperor's mouth,"^[12] referring to the Aldhani raid, where over 80 million credits were stolen from the Aldhani Garrison by rebel operatives, among them Vel Sartha and Cassian Andor.^[8]

The funeral[]

The next day, Cassian Andor's mother, Maarva, passed away due to disease; Ferrix garrison commander Captain Vanis Tigo contacted and informed Meero of the fact. He reported that the local citizens' society Daughters of Ferrix had requested a public funeral on Rix Road as per local customs and that he was prepared to deny their request. Meero, however, ordered the captain to authorize the ceremony, as it would be an ideal trap for Andor, who Meero was certain would return.^[13] By nighttime she had arrived on Ferrix on board a Lambda-class T-4a shuttle accompanied by a guard of two death troopers. She was debriefed in the Imperial planetary headquarters on the Rix Road hotel, after which she went for a walk in the city accompanied by Attendant Corv.^[12]

The next morning, as Imperial forces were preparing for the funeral, she was briefed on the security measures the garrison had taken from a hotel balcony. She instructed Tigo to not use lethal force against anyone, as she needed Andor alive; she also ordered that an Imperial sniper unit stationed by the street be replaced by a riot unit. The funeral service started earlier than expected, giving Imperial units little time to prepare and set up a perimeter around the hotel. During the ceremony, Nurchi, a friend of Andor's who had been told of his arrival to the town the night before, approached Corv with information on Andor's whereabouts, prompting Corv to pretend to arrest him and lead him to Meero. The supervisor immediately picked up her escort and arrived to inspect the supposed hiding place, finding no trace of Andor inside. Unbeknownst to her, Andor had escaped through the old furnace tunnels and was entering the hotel while its security was busy attending to the funeral outside as Maarva Andor's recorded farewell speech was particularly anti-Imperial and the crowd was visibly moved.^[12]

Enraged with the spectacle, Tigo rushed to the droid B2EMO, who was broadcasting the speech, and kicked it down. This action roused the crowd, which immediately attacked Tigo and the Imperial security trooper detail standing by, causing the Prefect to crawl through the action beaten up and hide behind the Imperial perimeter. The riot caught Meero unprepared and outside Imperial protection, as Andor had just taken out one of her death trooper escorts inside the hotel. Alone, Meero fought the protesters with her blaster drawn until she was attacked and beaten up. While she was crawling through the mud attempting desperately to reach her pistol, she was taken by an armed man who cornered her in a warehouse, shutting the door; grabbing a tool, Meero attempted to fight him, only to realize it was actually Karn who had saved her. Shocked, she admitted that she should thank him. Karn simply responded that there was no need to.^[12]

Personality and traits[]

Meero was a human female with fair skin and blonde hair that she wore in a tight bun at the back of her head.^[2] Her face often displayed a measured but severe expression. An ambitious and relentless agent of the Imperial Security Bureau, Supervisor Meero was a devoted advocate for the organization, determined to make her way up its male-dominated hierarchy.^[14] Steely,^[15] ruthless, and fiercely intelligent, she possessed an acute acumen regarding the rebellion, predicting their actions.^[14]

Equipment[]

Meero donned the signature white uniform of the Security Bureau along with black boots. She had three blue squares on her rank insignia plaque, as well as a pair of code cylinders. At times, Meero donned a cream-white overcoat, a black kepi, and black gloves, in addition to her uniform.^[2] She occasionally also carried a briefcase^[2] or a Power 5 blaster.^[12] She traveled on a Lambda-class T-4a shuttle.^[12]

Behind the scenes[]

Portrayed by Denise Gough,^[17] Dedra Meero was created as^[18] the primary antagonist^[19] for the 2022 Andor television series.^[18]

Creator^[20] and writer^[6] Tony Gilroy purposely made Meero hard not to root for in order to give the heroes and villains the complexities of real people.^[20] When Gilroy and the other writers wrote Meero and built her up, they realized she was an underdog trapped in the world and one of the only two women working^[21] at the ISB.^[2] Gilroy viewed her as someone fighting their way up in a male environment and being better at their job than everyone else.^[22] Gilroy^[22] and the writers started rooting for Meero and tried to figure out how to make her a strong character. When they got to the Ferrix episodes,^[21] they questioned Meero's actions^[23] and realized they did not need to endorse someone else's thinking or sadism, but instead needed to get in there and be with Meero to make her strong.^[21]

After seeing Denise Gough's performance in the play People, Places and Things, Gilroy was impressed and knew she was right for the role. Gough's agent later told her that Star Wars called, and Gilroy then approached her for the role. However, Gough had two concerns: she did not know who Gilroy was and knew almost nothing about the Star Wars. Gilroy then told her that was great and he also knew little about the franchise. He then explained the series to Gough and sent her the scripts for the first three episodes, which the actress thought were magical. After they spent an hour talking about Dedra Meero, Gough decided she wanted to play her in the show.^[23] Gough gravitated towards Meero because of the show's interest in the characters.^[24]

When Gough asked Gilroy about her character's backstory, he explained that she was an outsider trying to be in a position of power to feel in control.^[25] Gilroy also pitched Meero as "fascist" and "badass." To prepare, Gough only watched the film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story so that she would not have too much information and she could avoid being a version of something. Instead, she tried to play her character and flesh out the characteristics described by Gilroy.^[23] The actress was influenced by the villain Gustavo Fring from the Breaking Bad television series, and she stole the steely elegance from actress Jennifer Connelly's performance in the Snowpiercer television series.^[26]

The actress loved playing a female character who is gaining power in a male-dominated world. She also loved showing the dangerous effect that the pursuit of power and control has on everyone.^[24] She found Meero to be a sincerely devout believer in the Empire despite being a villain, portraying Meero as someone who felt her fellow Imperials were "very mediocre."^[14] Gough found Meero terrifying due to being interested in control of everyone and everything, which she thought made her the antithesis of Luthen Rael.^[23] She aimed to play Meero as ambitious as the most villainous men and "color in all the shades" so that viewers would be conflicted. Gough wanted Meero to not be redeemed. She presumed Meero felt like she needed to achieve and be seen because she was never validated psychologically.^[20] During Gough's first fitting in Meero's uniform, she told the designer the uniform had to be tailored and nipped in a certain spot.^[25]

Gilroy^[22] and director Toby Haynes wanted the audience to empathize with Meero. Haynes believed that the scariest villain is one who thinks they are doing the right thing, so he tried to show that in three dimensions to make the audience think about what it takes to be a good guy.^[27] Scenes on Ferrix were filmed in an intricate set in Little Marlow, Buckinghamshire.^[14] According to Gilroy, everything on Ferrix was filmed first.^[28] On Gough's first day on set, she was in the Ferrix set^[25] during Maarva Andor's funeral,^[23] where Gough and two death troopers walked through a large group of extras.^[25] Gough loved playing Meero and rooted for her because she worked in a room where she was surrounded by men not doing their jobs properly.^[20] Early in the shoot^[23] for the episode "Announcement,"^[9] Gough had to say she needed a Multi-Sector Data Blend going back two years, but she had difficulty enunciating the line. After a discussion with director Benjamin Caron, Gough realized she needed to use muscles she usually only used on stage, and she could then say the line.^[23]

When Gough first met Kyle Soller, Syril Karn's actor, and they filmed their scenes together, she thought it was great because Karn was an intense as Meero. Both actors tried to match each others' ambition and intensity.^[20] When Gough filmed Meero's rejection of Syril Karn outside the ISB Building^[23] in the episode "Nobody's Listening!,"^[4] Gough tried to be furious to show how Meero did not like being touched by Karn. The actress was excited for the scene of Meero torturing Bix Caleen. She said her twitchy face emerged organically, likely from her body language being under control. Caron instructed Gough to have her hands behind her back and to not have any swiss. Gough initially had reservations about Meero getting rescued by Karn in the finale. When Karn brought Meero into a little room, Gough figured out a way so that Meero would first reach for something to hit her rescuer with.^[23]

Gough received the scripts for the second season of Andor. She wanted the season to include Meero out of uniform to show who she is underneath.^[23] When Soller, Gough, and Bix Caleen actress Adria Arjona were invited on as guests for the "Dagobah Dispatch" podcast, they were asked if Karn and Meero would develop a romance in the second season: Gough stated she was unsure if any person would be able to romance Meero, aside from Meero herself. Soller responded by saying his character had delusions of grandeur that he would not stop chasing until he could fulfill them.^[29]

Appearances[]

• Andor — "Aldhani" (First appearance)
• Andor — "The Axe Forgets"
• Andor — "The Eye"
• Andor — "Announcement"
• Andor — "Narkina 5"
• Andor — "Nobody's Listening!"
• Andor — "One Way Out"
• Andor — "Daughter of Ferrix"
• Andor — "Rix Road"

Non-canon appearances[]

• LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (DLC)

Sources[]

Notes and references[]

External links[]

• ANDOR Production Brief V3 FINAL 8-04-22 on Getty Images (August 4, 2022) (archived from the original)