In the “Star Wars” universe, it’s almost impossible for a character to quietly, slowly emerge as a fan favorite. Most characters on this list arrived with a lot of hype behind them (Ahsoka) or they were already a popular character from the movies (Tarkin, Boba Fett).
I remember Asajj Ventress as a welcome villainous presence in those early “Clone Wars” novels and comics and the Cartoon Network microseries that came out between 2002 and 2005. The writers couldn’t do anything with Dooku or Sidious so as not to step on “Episode III’s” toes, and Grievous hadn’t been invented yet. But Ventress was a wild card, and readers knew by the way Obi-Wan and Anakin reacted to her presence in a battle that she was a Dark Jedi to be taken seriously.
When Ventress passes Dooku’s trials in the microseries — he essentially threw a bunch of monsters at her in an arena reminiscent of “X-men’s” Danger Room (except that the monsters were real) — I thought it was more of Dooku’s story than Ventress’. I thought she was a random Force-wielder thrown in there so we could see how Dooku operated behind Sidious’ back. I don’t think she is even named in that episode.
Furthering my belief that Ventress was meant to be a foil rather than a full-fledged character, one of the final episodes of the microseries features a stylized duel between Anakin and Ventress on a jungle planet that ends with Ventress falling down a bottomless chasm. (We don’t know how Ventress survived that; suffice it to say that we never saw a body, and on TV, that’s reason enough to suspect a character is still alive.)
Ventress flew under the radar of great “Star Wars” villains until the “Clone Wars” movie hit the big screen in 2008. Although critics almost universally disliked the film, many made it a point to praise Ventress, particularly Nika Futterman’s vocal performance (taking over for Grey DeLisle, who did the microseries). Futterman makes Ventress sound like she delights in being evil, yet she’s not a cliché. She’ll take the half-second to respond to Obi-Wan’s quip with one of her own, but then she immediately tries to kill him. She believes it is beneath her to even exchange lightsaber clashes with a beginner like Ahsoka, but again, that doesn’t stop her from trying to kill her.
Although some people felt her backstory was unnecessarily rewritten this season when it was revealed that she was from Dathomir rather than Rattatak, Ventress has actually become a more fascinating character due to the events of that “Nightsisters” trilogy. We actually find ourselves rooting for Ventress after Dooku tried to have his new apprentice, Savage Opress, kill her. And this was after Ventress found and trained Opress for Dooku. One could argue that Ventress has one good quality: She was utterly loyal to Dooku. Everyone’s been burned by someone they trusted, so we can sympathize with Ventress’ situation. She’s the bad guy against our Jedi heroes, but she is a good guy against Dooku and Sidious.
We should see even more interesting Ventress episodes now that she is unaffiliated with a side in the war. In those early “Clone Wars” stories, it was unthinkable that Ventress and the Republic’s Jedi would ever team up, but they now have a common enemy, so such a scenario could indeed play out next season.
Main image: Lucasfilm