Gardulla the Hutt
Among Jabba the Hutt's rivals on Tatooine is an influential Hutt named Gardulla. One hundred standard years older then Jabba, but every bit as powerful, Gardulla is a constant source of intrigue. Drawn to Gardulla's power and confidence, Jabba feels at once compelled to woo her and dominate her. Gardulla, of course, ralizes the effect she has on Jabba. She is thoroughly disgusted by his childish need to please her or, failing that, to conquer her.
Like Jabba, Gardulla was born on Nal Hutta to an influential Hutt family, the Besadii, with a long history of illegal endeavors. Gardulla's family fared nowhere near as well as Jabba's in the criminal power struggles that periodically shook Nal Hutta. When things looked bad for her family, she was sent to distant Tatooine for her own protection. Gardulla was furious, both at being treated like a helpless child and being forced to endure Tatooine's harsh environment. Determined to prove to her family that she was made of stern enough stuff to remain on Nal Hutta, she took her family's tiny criminal holdings in Mos Taike and rapidly expanded them into a fairly powerful kingdom of slaves, contraband, and protection rackets.
But Gardulla's plan backfired. Although her family was impressed enough to admit that she would be safe on Nal Hutta after all, they had learned that the Desilijic family had sent one of their own - Jabba - to oversee their own holdings on Tatooine. If Gardulla returned to Nal Hutta, the Besadii's holdings on Tatooine would swiftly fall to the Desilijic. Gardulla had proven that the best course of action was to remain exactly where she was. As if that wasn't enough to fill Gardulla with rage, her family had the further aplomb to advise her to allow Jabba to court her - only until they were married, at which point she could dispose of him, of course - in order to increase Besadii control of Tatooine.
Gardulla decided that she could go through with the plan if she found Jabba attractive, but she was thoroughly disappointed to discover him a brutal, petulant thug interested only in his own gratification. Still, she made the appropriate overtures. Jabba responded by sendig gifts, inviting her to his celebrations and feasts, and otherwise doing his best, in his own way, to court her affection. Over time, Gardulla began to see that Jabba cunningly concealed his true intellect behind his oafish exterior, but rather than make her more attracted to him, this simply made her realize what a threat he could be. She lost all interest in him as a mate.
Jabba seemed to take this as a sign that he should try different tactics. He set about what she referred to as "a campaign of annoyances," in which he would one day send her dwarf nunas - her favorite delicacy - then a week later send pirates to attack ships smuggling contraband for her. He seemed to be trying to both enhance his appeal and to make her more dependent on him. Gardulla merely loathed him all the more.
As time wore on, Jabba's tactics slowly weakened Gardulla's position on Tatooine. She fell victim to his scheme of getting her interested in Podracing. Gambling on the Podraces gradually drained away Gardulla's fortunes, and she found herself giving up various luxuries, such as slaves (including Shmi Skywalker and her infant son Anakin) on unlucky bets. Jabba tricked her into backing a Xexto pilot named Gasgano and betting heavily on him. Jabba already knew (by virtue of his astromech droid's oddsfiguring skills) that Gasgano could never beat Sebulba - Jabba's favorite.
With her fortunes dwindling, Gardulla finally decided it was time to negotiate with Jabba. They entered into a limited partnership, in which Gardulla surrendered most of her smuggling and protection operations to Jabba, but in return gained complete control of slave trading on Tatooine and Ryloth. Unfortunately for Gardulla, Jabba had outmaneuvered her. Shortly after their arrangement was finalized, the Republic at long last put into motion its plans to end slavery in the Outer Rim. In short order, Gardulla was stripped of all her holdings, arraigned on charges of slave trafficking, and sentenced to life imprisonment. She has not been seen since.
