Asajj Ventress

"The dark side is strong in me, for I am Sith!"

- Asajj Ventress. "Jedi. Their Order is a fading light in the dark. Corrupt and arrogant. They must be punished! The Jedi shall fall!"

- Asajj Ventress.

Asajj Ventress is a Dark Jedi assassin and a major antagonist in both the  Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV series and comics.

Asajj Ventress serves as the secondary antagonist of the 2008 film, Star Wars The Clone Wars, and the supporting antagonist in the series. She sometimes serves as the anti-hero in some episodes.

Early Life
Asajj Ventress was born to the Nightsisters clan on the planet Dathomir. However, some time later, Mother Talzin, leader of the Nightsisters, was forced to give the infant Ventress up to a Siniteen criminal named Hal'Sted as payment for protection of the clan. Hal'Sted took Ventress back to his home planet Rattatak to raise her.

A few years later, a gang of Weequay pirates attacked Rattatak and Hal'Sted was killed in the ensuing chaos. The pirates eventually cornered a young Ventress, but she was rescued by a Jedi named Ky Narec. He found that Vantress was strong in the Force, and took her into his care to train as a Jedi.

Becoming a Jedi
Years later, Narec trained Asajj in the ways of the Force into her late teens when Weequay pirates attacked Rattatak again. Ventress and Narec fought bravely, but one of the pirates shot Narec in the chest, killing him. Enraged, Ventress ignited her lightsaber and began killing off the pirates, eventually causing them to call off their attack. Consumed with fury and a desire for vengeance and raw emotions that led her to the dark side of the Force. She blamed the Jedi for abandoning her master and ignoring the suffering on her homeworld, vowing to destroy them. She pledged herself to the dark side, and began training in the ways of the Sith.

A few years later, during the Clone Wars, Ventress met the Separatist leader Count Dooku and impressed him with her lightsaber skills and hatred of the Jedi. He took Ventress on as his apprentice and personal assassin one of his most valuable servants.

Dooku's apprentice
Ventress' first assignment as Dooku's apprentice was to kill a Jedi Padawan named Anakin Skywalker. Ventress fought Anakin on the planet Yavin IV, but he overpowered her and sent her falling off a cliff. Ventress survived and later bribed a clone named Slick into betraying his allies and commanded battle droids on planet Christophsis. She later encountered Anakin, now a Jedi Knight, and his former master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and dueled them. The two Jedi defeated her, but she was able to escape. Later, Ventress went to Tatooine and kidnapped Jabba the Hutt's son Rotta on Dooku's orders in an attempt to frame the Jedi for the crime and have the Hutts join the Separatists.

Ventress held Rotta hostage on the planet Teth, where he began to grow ill. Later, the Republic attacked Teth and Ventress yet again confronted Anakin, this time accompanied by his Padawan Ahsoka Tano. They dueled briefly, but the two Jedi quickly escaped with Rotta on a derelict transport ship called the Twilight. Ventress tried to pursue the duo, but was stopped by Obi-Wan, who dueled her. Obi-Wan was able to defeat Ventress, but Ventress escaped by jumping onto a passing droid starfighter.

Later, Dooku sent Ventress to Toydaria to negotiate an alliance between the Toydarian King Kantuunko and the Separatists. Kantuunko allowed Ventress to duel Jedi Master Yoda, pledging to side with whoever won. Yoda defeated Ventress easily, and Kantuunko decided to join the Republic. Dooku ordered Ventress to kill the king, but Yoda, along with three clones accompanying him from Coruscant, stopped Ventress from assassinating the king. Ventress had no choice but to flee in her ship.

Later, Ventress was sent to planet Kamino to spy on the cloning facilities from underwater as part of a plan for the cyborg General Grievous to invade Kamino and destroy the cloning facilities, thus preventing the Republic from producing more clones. Although Grievous failed the first part of the plan, he returned and Ventress and her droids emerged on squid-like vehicles out of the ocean and attacked the facility. They were met with Jedi resistance, however. When Ventress managed to steal clone DNA, she was confronted by Anakin and she clashed with him while Obi-Wan clashed with Grievous.

Ventress was defeated by Anakin who took the DNA, but when she tried to force pull it out of Anakin's hands, a clone quickly grabbed it as she was force-pulling. Anakin and his troopers cornered Ventress and ordered the Clones to execute her, but Ventress force pushed the clones away and jumped onto Grievous's passing escape pod and escaped Kamino.

Later, Dooku sent Ventress to intercept the Republic warship Tranquility and rescue Trade Federation Viceroy Nute Gunray. She killed the first few clones on board, but was confronted by Ahsoka and Jedi Master Luminara Unduli. During the fight, she managed to blind Luminara in her left eye, and quickly fled. She regrouped with traitorous senate commando Captain Faro Argyus and freed Gunray. The trio made their way to an escape pod before the two Jedi caught up with Ventress, leaving the two Jedi to watch as their escape pod blasted off into space. Argyus then attempted to discredit Ventress, but Ventress quickly killed him and escaped with Gunray into space.

Betrayed
As the Clone Wars drew to a close, Dooku grew tired of Ventress' failures and resolved to get rid of her. He ordered her to attack a Republic warship over the planet Davaron, facing a vastly superior Republic fleet commanded by Anakin and Obi-Wan. The Jedi decimated her troops and shot her down, forcing her to crash-land in the Separatist flagship's hangar. She begged Dooku for reinforcements, but he refused to assist her, claiming that she had failed him for the last time and that she was no longer his apprentice. Left alone to fend for herself against the Jedi, she refused to surrender, battling Anakin and Obi-Wan at the same time. Unknown to the three of them, Dooku had ordered the nearest separatist cruiser to fire upon the very ship they were on. In an act of desperation, injured by the crash, Ventress savagely force choked both Anakin and Obi-Wan into submission. A nearby explosion broke her concentration, and the Jedi disarmed her. As a wrecked ship crashed into the hangar, Ventress was able to make an escape. When the cruiser exploded, Dooku assumed Ventress was dead.

In reality, Ventress narrowly escaped in her damaged ship just before the flagship exploded, though she was knocked unconscious. Her ship floated through a graveyard of ships when a scavenger ship picked her up. Ventress told them to take her to Dathomir, but they refused. In response, Ventress Force choked them to death and flew the ship to Dathomir. Upon arrival, she was surrounded by Nightsisters warriors, but was stopped by Mother Talzin, who recognized her and took her to the Nightsister village here she was born. Talzin read her mind, and Ventress relived her past up to the point of Dooku betraying her. Ventress then swore revenge on the Count, and Talzin enlisted two Nightsister warriors to help Ventress kill him. Talzin also gave Ventress and her partners a potion to make them invisible, as well as lightsabers and a poison dart. Ventress and her two warriors then left for the Separatist planet Serenno to kill Dooku.

However, the Nightsisters failed to defeat Dooku, and he used his Force lightning to send them off a cliff. They survived and returning to Dathomir, where Ventress reported their failure to Talzin. Later, Ventress went to the other side of Dathomir to find a member of the Nightbrother clan to replace her after Talzin contacted Dooku. Eventually, she took in a Nightbrother named Savage Opress, and the Nightsisters empowered him with the dark side of the Force, which he used to kill his brother Feral. The plan was to get Savage close enough to Dooku to kill him.

The Nightsisters presented Opress to Dooku, who took him back to Serreno with him. Later, Ventress made her way to Dooku's Separatist frigate and teamed up with Opress against Dooku. When Opress was wounded by Dooku's Force lightning, Ventress angrily told him to get up and kill Dooku. Opress refused and attacked Ventress, giving Dooku time to flee. Ventress pursued Dooku and fought him again, but failed to defeat him and fled. Ventress quickly took advantage of the chaos on board the frigate and escaped by ejecting from the ship in an escape pod. Ventress glared at Dooku's frigate briefly before her escape pod jettisoned and vanished into space. Ventress returned to Dathomir and formally rejoined her clan, but Dooku targeted the Nightsisters and dispatched General Grevious and his droid army to massacre Ventress, Mother Talzin, and the Nightsisters. Despite their best efforts, Ventress and Mother Talzin were the only survivors. Talvin told Ventress to leave the planet and find her own path.

Bounty Hunter and Unexpected Alliances
Ventress decided to make a living as a bounty hunter. She freed a Kage girl named Pluma who she was suppose to deliver to the Belugan Lord Otua Blank, who wanted her as his bride. She then rescued Obi-Wan Kenobi from Darth Maul and Savage Opress. After making her way to the underlevels of Coruscant, Ventress began once again taking up the profession of bounty hunter, sporting a new voice disfiguring helmet. After Ahsoka Tano's expulsion from the Jedi Order, Ventress encountered the fallen Padawan on Level 1213 of the underworld, capturing her and intent on turning her in. Ultimately, however, she decided to help Ahsoka, as she hated the Jedi more than she wanted the bounty. Ventress was latter interrogated by Anakin, who thought she had framed Ahsoka. Ventress was able to lead Anakin to the true culprit: fallen Jedi Barriss Offee.

Final Unexpected Alliance and Redemption
The Jedi Order partnered former master Quinlan Vos with Ventress to assassinate Count Dooku. The two fell in love, and Ventress trained Vos in the ways of the dark side, but cautioned him only to use it as a weapon to kill Dooku. When Vos fell to the dark side completely under Dooku's influence, Ventress vowed to save him. With help from bounty hunter Boba Fett, she infiltrated Dooku's hideout, where she found that Dooku had brainwashed Vos and was using him as a minion. Vos accused Ventress of betrayal and engaged his former lover in a brutal duel from which she was forced to retreat. Left with no other options, she appealed to her old nemeses Anakin and Obi-Wan, who reluctantly agreed to help her in order to save Vos.

The trio infiltrated Dooku's hideout and managed to free Vos, who had repented of the dark side after reconnecting with Ventress. She appeared before the Jedi Council, who pardoned her war crimes in appreciation for rescuing Vos. She then resumed her relationship with Vos. He enlisted her in a plot to kill Dooku and his master Darth Sidious, but they were captured by the former before they could put their plan into action. When Dooku attacked Vos with Force lightning, Ventress jumped in the way of the blast, sacrificing her life so he could escape. Vos took her body back to Dathomir to be laid to rest with her sisters.

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Asajj Ventress