Page 71 - Star Wars Insider #177

ASAJJ VENTRESS

person who might be Dooku’s new Revenge of the Sith, he may well way to entrap her victims before,
apprentice. Ventress again is not think back to this moment and she has never been in a true, equal
swayed by the philosophy of the remember Ventress’ words to him partnership with someone before.
Jedi, and makes sure Ahsoka knows and how the Council put Ahsoka This change brings her both joy
that her help is not guaranteed. on trial. and tragedy. In the end, she elects

However, it’s a conversation after Ventress’ last defi ning personal to sacrifice her life for Vos and, of
Ahsoka has returned to the temple relationship is with a very different the two of them, she is the one who
that really reveals the emotion that Jedi: Quinlan Vos, with whom she argues that the path to the dark side
has been stewing beneath Ventress’ develops a romantic relationship. only leads to suffering.
surly surface. She tells Anakin: “I Her relationship with Vos is “Nothing is ever enough,” she

realized that your fallen Padawan one of her first in which there is tells Vos. “You get more, and more,
and I had a lot in common... my no power struggle. Unlike her time but you’re never happy. It’s a trap
Master abandoned me and that’s with Savage, Ventress does not baited with all the things you want
exactly what you did to her. You see Vos as an attack dog whom most in life—and it’s not worth
and your precious Jedi Order.” she can send out on missions as living. I already left that behind.”
Ventress identifies with Ahsoka she pleases. They work together, She sees that her quest to fi nd

now that she is on the run and and she begins to experience what a family led her down a dark path
cut off from her adopted family. it’s like to have an easy, equal with the Nightsisters, and that
Looking ahead, we can also see that partnership with another person. her existence as a bounty hunter
this might also be a pivotal moment Their partnership taking afterward was merely one job after
for Anakin. When Darth Sidious a romantic turn is also a new another, without any friends or
begins to plant doubt about the experience for her. While she family to support or enrich her.
Jedi Council in Anakin’s mind in has used her physical wiles as a This change of heart and
new-found wisdom
comes about not
04
only because of Vos,
but also because of
her encounters with
the other Jedi and
her personal search
for meaning. The
decision to sacrifi ce
herself is hers alone
and—similar to Luke
Skywalker’s willingness
to lay down his
lightsaber instead of

fighting Darth Vader—
it shows that she has
developed an inner
strength. In Ventress’
case, however, she
does not get to live
to see her new future.
She is gifted one final vision, in

which she sees that “burning
vengeance that only increased the
hunger for more” is not the only
path open to her. She tells Vos to
return to the Jedi, then joins her
sisters in death, fi nally recovering
the family that she once lost.
Ventress was a Jedi, a would-be
Sith, and a bounty hunter—almost
everything except a quiet citizen.
She survived enough loss and pain
for four lifetimes, becoming in the
process both a memorable hero and
05 a complex villain.

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