The Road to Episode Infinity: Who is Asajj Ventress?

Asajj Ventress: Nightsister of Dathomir, Jedi Apprentice, Sith Assassin, Bounty Hunter. Assaj Ventress was many things in the decade that she graced our TV screens. Every Star Wars fan knows Ventress by name or at least by her character design. Yet few fans know the whole story. So who is Assaj Ventress?

Origins: Clone Wars (2003 – 2004)

Asajj Ventress was introduced as the main antagonist in the 2003 microseries “Clone Wars”. This groundbreaking series was created by Genndy Tartakovsky and aired on Cartoon Network. Though episodes are only 3-5 minutes in length, the format works quite well for the series. For fans who have never seen this cartoon (or have not visited it in a while) it is worth checking out. Asajj Ventress appears in six of the episodes as a mysterious and dark force to be reckoned with. Rewatching the “Ventress Episodes” is a powerful experience and it could be argued that the original “Clone Wars” is Star Wars animation at its finest.

Character Development: The Clone Wars (2008-2014)

Ventress returned in the theatrical film “The Clone Wars” in 2008 (directed by Dave Filoni). The animation was now rendered in 3D and Ventress was voiced by a new actress. Asajj functioned as an important villain in Season 1 of the TV show and by Season 3, she had her own backstory.

Ventress was born on the planet Dathomir to a clan of Nightsisters. Though most fans know Nightsisters from The Clone Wars television series, their origin can be traced back to the 1994 book “The Courtship of Princess Leia”. If you want to get technical about is, the sorcerous Charal from the 1985 film “Ewoks: The Battle for Endor” was retconned as a Nightsister. So they’ve been with us for a while.

Ventress was sold into slavery at a young age and eventually saved by a Jedi Master named Ky Narec who, when recognizing her force abilities and took her in as his Padawan. Ventress trained with Narec for a decade until her master was killed and she left the order.

Ventress felt betrayed by almost every person in her life. Betrayed by the Nightsisters who had sold her into slavery, betrayed by the Jedi who had abandoned her master, betrayed by Dooku who had ordered her death when she was deemed unworthy by Darth Sidious. Eventually Ventress became a Bounty Hunter. Though Ventress was still distrustful of those around her, she did sometimes team up with former enemies (Such as Obi-Wan Kenobi and Boba Fett) to capture her prey.

In the fifth season of “The Clone Wars”, Ventress attempts to track down the fallen Jedi, Ahsoka Tano, who has been framed for a murder. When Ventress, captures her bounty, Ahsoka plead her innocence and asked Ventress not to turn her over to the bail bondsman. Ventress ultimately sympathized with Ahsoka, seeing a part of herself in the young girl who had betrayed by the Jedi Order. Ventress reluctantly agrees to help Ahsoka prove her innocence.

Ultimate Fate: Dark Disciple (2015)

Ventress was supposed to have her own eight-part story arc during Season 7 of “The Clone Wars”. Ventress would have returned to the series with a redesign to her character, which would have included short white hair in place of her formally bald head. However, Disney purchased Lucasfilm and Clone Wars was cancelled. The 8-part story (written by Katie Lucas) was eventually adapted into a novel by Christie Golden.

In this novel Jedi Master Quinlan Vos approaches Ventress with a plan to assassinate Count Dooku. Ventress agrees to help Vos and ultimately the two develop romantic feelings for each other. Ventress’ decade-long story arc comes to a satisfying conclusion at the end of the novel.

"Ventress had become one of the most interesting characters… we had all this material, we had all these designs… This is based on scripts we had written with George Lucas… I'm super excited about this book." ―Dave Filoni

The Legacy of Ventress

Ventress will proably be remembered as the soulless villain that she was in the early seasons of “Clone Wars” and “The Clone Wars”. What will likely be ignored (or forgotten) by most Star Wars fans is that she is a complex character with a rich story arc.

Ventress made a few cameo appearances in 2017 Star Wars material such as a brief mention in the book “From a Certain Point of View” and brief scenes in comic series such as “Star Wars Adventures” and “Jedi of the Republic: Mace Windu”. However, Ventress’ main story arc was born and died within the confines of the two prequel-era television series. Yet, in a galaxy full of rich characters, Ventress is certainly one that is worth remembering.