Asajj Ventress
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Asajj Ventress is a fictional character from the Star Wars Expanded Universe. She is best known for her appearances in the Star Wars: Clone Wars animated series, in which she is voiced by Grey DeLisle and serves as Anakin Skywalker's arch nemesis during the first season. She also appeared in many other Expanded Universe novels, comic books and video games, and will be featured in the upcoming series Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
Character overview
Ventress is a Dark Jedi, and one of Count Dooku's Force-attuned apprentices. She is a powerful warrior with exceptional combat abilities, and desires most of all to join the Sith order. She has many distinctive Sith tattoos and wields twin red lightsabers.
Background
Ventress' back story is explained in "Hate and Fear", a story from the Star Wars: Republic comic book series. She hails from the planet of Rattatak, and is the daughter of farmers. From a young age, she endures cruel whippings that begin when warlord Osika Kirske kills her parents. Ventress barely escapes with her life and encounters the Jedi Master Ky Narec, who had crashed on Rattatak. Narec and Ventress are both hunted by Kirske, and so he starts training with her in the ways of the Jedi so she can defend herself. Kirske kills Narec before Ventress can become a full-fledged Jedi, however. This is the last straw; she develops a deep hatred for the Jedi who had abandoned her mentor and ignored the bloodshed on her planet.[1]
Ventress soon becomes a force of authority on her lawless homeworld, defeating most of the remaining warlords and getting her revenge on Kirske. She keeps Narec's lightsaber as a memento.
Clone Wars animated series
In the Clone Wars series, Ventress appears before Count Dooku when he arrives on Rattatak to add it to his Separatist movement. He has also come in search of an apprentice. Ventress defeats every other combatant in a large arena and claims to be a Sith warrior. Though impressed by her victory in the arena, Dooku laughs aside the notion that she is a Sith. The enraged Ventress tries to attack him, but he renders her unconscious with a blast of Force lightning. After she wakes, Dooku abruptly attempts to attack her, but she jumps backwards and ignites her lightsabers. A short duel takes place in Ventress' quarters, but Dooku cuts her lightsabers in half and renders her defenceless. The Count states that it would not be so easy to defeat a Sith warrior, but he is nonetheless impressed with Ventress' abilities. He recruits her by appealing to her hatred of the Jedi. Once he has enticed her into his service, he appoints her commander of his Separatist forces. He presents her with a pair of lightsabers with curved hilts. Dooku's master, Darth Sidious, then reveals himself to Ventress, and personally assigns her to kill Anakin Skywalker. After she leaves, Sidious tells Dooku that her failure is certain, and that she is merely an instrument used to test Skywalker's willingness to release his anger.
Ventress then engages the Republic fighter forces in orbit of Muunilinst and lures Anakin Skywalker into a chase. Ventress and Skywalker go to Yavin IV, and the two fight a fierce battle from the forest to the Massassi temple. Though she initially gains the upper hand in the ensuing lightsaber duel, Skywalker soon calls upon his immense connection to the Force and brutally overpowers her. Only her fall into a deep crevasse saves her life.
Novels
As portrayed in the novel The Cestus Deception, Ventress appears on Ord Cestus during the Bio-Droid Crisis. She is behind the X'Ting criminal Trillot's dealings with Obi-Wan Kenobi. Ventress also destroys the Republic Cruiser carrying Barrister Doolb Snoil returning to the Republic; however, Snoil survives. Ventress later challenges Kenobi and his fellow Jedi Master Kit Fisto to a duel. Ventress disarms Fisto, but is then engaged by Kenobi. Their duel leads them into an underwater chamber, and Ventress is forced to escape after Kenobi slices her across her abdomen. She lets loose a smoke bomb and flees back to the Confederacy and Dooku.
Comic books
In the Republic story "The New Face of War", Ventress joins forces with the bounty hunter Durge on the invasion of Naboo's moon, Ohma-D'un. Together they use swamp gas to wipe out the Gungan colony and prepare to launch a biological attack on Naboo. In the ensuing battle with Republic forces, Ventress makes her first public appearance in the war. Ventress kills Jedi Master Glaive in the battle and cuts off his apprentice Zule's left arm. She engages Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the pair are evenly matched. Ventress escapes with Durge after ARC Trooper Alpha destroys their fueling station.
In Star Wars: Jedi - Mace Windu, Dooku sends Ventress to Ruul to help frame the titular Jedi Master. Ventress briefly confronts Sora Bulq, who had been secretly corrupted by Dooku, as a ruse. Ventress kills Mira in the battle and then engages Sian Jeisel, K' Kruhk, and Rhad Tarn. Ventress single-handedly defeats the three Jedi. After framing Windu for the crime, Ventress corrupts Rhad Tarn. While Tarn fights against Jeisel, Ventress defeats K'Kruhk in combat. Windu's timely arrival saves the Jedi; Ventress finds that she is ill-prepared to fight a being as powerful as Windu, and is forced to flee.
In the Republic story "Blast Radius", Ventress and Durge again engage the Jedi taskforce in a facility on the planet Queyta. Ventress briefly fights against Kenobi and Fay. Durge kills Jon Antilles and Knol Ven'Nari. After an explosion kills Ven'nari, Durge pushes Antilles into a lava pit. Ventress uses her lightsabers to collapse the ceiling, sending a shower of lava onto Diath's head. Although the Separatists claim a victory, Ventress spares Kenobi's life on orders from Dooku, though she impales Fay in the chest with her lightsabers. Fay gives Kenobi the last of her strength to escape the facility.
In "The Battle of Jabiim", Ventress captures Kenobi and Alpha from Jabiim and transports them to Rattatak for torture and interrogation. Kenobi and Alpha escape in the following story, "Hate & Fear", and the Jedi Master takes Ky Narec's lightsaber, making their animosity deeply personal.
In "Dreadnoughts of Rendili", Ventress and another Dark Jedi, Tol Skorr, fight Obi-Wan Kenobi and Quinlan Vos on Titavian IV. Kenobi unleashes a rancor to distract Ventress, but she manipulates it via the dark side. Kenobi fights Ventress after killing the rancor, but Kenobi escapes with Vos before the duel is settled. Separatist leader General Grievous arrives to rescue the two Dark Jedi, shaming Ventress in the eyes of her master, Dooku.
Ventress then travels to Coruscant to kill Vos and Kenobi. During the mission, she discovers Anakin Skywalker's secret marriage to Senator Padmé Amidala. Enraged, Anakin engages Ventress. During the duel, Ventress scars Skywalker's face, but she is once again overpowered and suffers another huge fall. Republic Intelligence assumes that she is dead.
"Obsession" marks her final appearance in both Republic and Star Wars media. Ventress survives her encounter with Anakin Skywalker on Coruscant, but is badly injured. She is sent to Boz Pity, where Dooku places her in a bacta tank and fits her with cybernetic modifications. One month later, Kenobi infiltrates the facility. Ventress wakes up and subsequently attacks him. She fights against both Kenobi and Skywalker, only to be abandoned by Dooku, who orders an IG-100 MagnaGuard to kill her as she runs towards Dooku's shuttle. Enraged and badly wounded, Ventress tries to kill Kenobi as he tries to help her. Skywalker slashes her from behind, mortally wounding her. As she lays dying, she tells him the location of the Separatists' next target. Believing Ventress to be dead, Kenobi puts her on a ship bound for Coruscant.
However, Ventress survives by placing herself in a Sith trance. While on the shuttle, she emerges from her trance and orders the pilots to take her as far away as possible from the war, Dooku, and the Jedi. She is seen a month later at the battle of xagobah.
The Clone Wars series
Ventress can be seen in the first trailer of the new 3D CGI animated series, Star Wars: The Clone Wars. She appears to have a double-bladed lightsaber (like the one Darth Maul used) instead of the twin lightsabers she usually wields.
Video games
Ventress is a downloadable character in the Xbox version of the video game Star Wars Battlefront II. In Battlefront II, she has two curve-handled lightsabers, but unlike the Clone Wars series, they are connected by a fiber-cord. The character selection screen lists the weapon as "Linksabers".
Character origins
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
Before the character of Count Dooku was developed, the Art Department for Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones developed a female Sith as the film's villain, as seen in concept art by Dermot Power in The Art of Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones.[2]
Juno Eclipse
The Expanded Universe resurrected the idea as one of Dooku's underlings who could appear more frequently throughout the Clone Wars. The nameless Separatist Commander was dubbed Juno Eclipse, but this name was rejected as "not villainous enough", and she was renamed Asajj Ventress.[3] (The name Juno Eclipse was later recycled for use in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.)
References
- ^ "Star Wars - Databank". Retrieved 2007-10-30.
- ^ "Star Wars - Databank". Retrieved 2007-10-30.
- ^ "Star Wars - News". Retrieved 2007-11-01.
External links
- Asajj Ventress in the StarWars.com Databank
- Asajj Ventress on Wookieepedia, a Star Wars wiki