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So in Episode 6, Mon Mothma says that "many" Bothans died to bring them information about the Death Star project and installations. I don't remember much about the EU, but wasn't there an event where Bothans who were part of their Spynet and retrieving information relevant to the Death Star were used as part of an Imperial trap somehow and got shot up? (I might be misremembering and they might not have been working on Death Star-related information - sorry, it's been a while!) That's a room full of slicers at most, I'm not sure it counts as "many."

Is this all that Mon Mothma is referring to, or is there some other incident of Death Star information-related Bothan mass deaths?

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    According to the new (canon) novelisation, the bothans were a crew that was working in an Imperial installation. They committed suicide after transmitting the Death Star plans to Leia.
    – Valorum
    Sep 25, 2015 at 13:59
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    Do you want a Legends answer?
    – Rogue Jedi
    Sep 25, 2015 at 14:05
  • Any answer is good, whichever continuity it is from!
    – Wolfie Inu
    Sep 26, 2015 at 13:16
  • @Richard - any indication of how many they were?
    – Wolfie Inu
    Sep 26, 2015 at 13:19
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    @WolfieInu - "Many".
    – Valorum
    Sep 26, 2015 at 13:29

2 Answers 2

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According to Shadows of the Empire, at least 13 Bothans died.

12 Bothan pilots were killed by Imperials in a space battle and one was killed in a fight with bounty hunters. There were likely other deaths that weren't explicitly stated.

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  • So I guess this means "many" is "about a dozen?" Man, Mon Mothma puts a premium on Bothan lives for someone who probably routinely sends Rebels to die by the score, if not by the hundreds :D But if that's the only recorded instance of Bothans dying in connection with Death Star II, then I guess it answers my question. Leaving this question open for a bit in case someone else has more info.
    – Wolfie Inu
    Sep 26, 2015 at 13:18
  • You forgot Koth Melan himself too and if we consider Rogue Squadron 2 as canon-ish then there's the question of how many Bothans were aboard the Corellian Corvette 'Razor' that was captured by a Star Destroyer and crashed with it on Kothlis
    – IG_42
    Oct 3, 2015 at 14:11
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As a side note, I think the main reason Mon Mothma mentioned the demise of the Bothan group is not only because she values all life as a Rebel leader, but also because this was worth emphasizing for the hardship of the very job. Bothan commandos, spies and assassins are famous for their professionalism, after all, as in:

The only response Alema heard was a long liquid purl, but Jacen responded as though he had been spoken to.
"That’s ridiculous. I’d know if I had been followed. Not even Bothan assassins are that good." (Legacy of the Force: Tempest)

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  • Interesting! It seemed to me like she was going more for the "our people died for this, so honor their memory and don't waste the opportunity" angle, rather than the difficulty. But emphasizing that difficulty would make sense as well, as in: "If it was this hard for the Bothans to get the information, we might not get another chance to retrieve information of this caliber; so this could be our last chance to get at this facility with good current information on our side." Never thought of that!
    – Wolfie Inu
    Oct 5, 2015 at 4:39

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