Page 124 - Star Wars Insider (Special Edition 2019)

TRICIA BARR CONTINUES HER
ANALYSIS OF ICONIC STAR WARS
CHARACTERS. THIS ISSUE, ONE OF THE
SAGA’S MOST COMPLICATED VILLAINS.

ften heroes are born of ideas, grand
notions of saviors. Heroes must face
down villains, the opponents over
whom the hero triumphs along their
Oepic journey. Sometimes, though, a
story focuses on the arc of a protagonist
who lacks usual heroic traits like nobility
and selflessness—an anti-hero. The

simplest example is Anakin Skywalker’s
descent into darkness in Revenge of the
Sith; he is no hero as that chapter of his
saga concludes. Since his tragic story
unfolded on screen, many more anti-
heroes have followed in his wake. One
of my favorites is assassin-turned-
bounty hunter Asajj Ventress, whose
path to greatness was far from typical.
When the Ultimate Star Wars
writing assignments were distributed,
I was excited to receive some of my
favorite characters, including Princess
Leia, Ahsoka Tano, and Asajj Ventress.
Condensing characters like Leia and Luke
Skywalker, while intimidating because of
their importance to the saga, actually
proved far simpler than the ladies from
Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Ultimate Star
Wars is intended to serve as a summary
of the canon events from the movies
and television shows. Within that scope,
both Luke and Leia have relatively tight
character arcs that play out over three
movies. Summarizing Ahsoka proved
easier than Asajj, even though Ventress
did not have quite the catalogue of episode
appearances. The sporadic nature of
her unfolding arc created part of the
challenge, but so did the fact that Asajj
Ventress started as an idea in George
Lucas’s imagination long before she
became a fascinating piece of Clone
Wars lore.

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