Refined and elegant, The Clone Wars depict the Sith as broken antagonists dominated by sorrowful ion. It's an evolution of the Star Wars villain that was preempted by 2002's Star Wars: Bounty Hunter.
Bounty Hunter tells the story of how Jango Fett became the template for the Republic's clone army by hunting down the drug lord Komari Vosa. She is Count Dooku's former apprentice, and a thorn in Palpatine's side. Combining Sith knowledge with death sticks and poison, she creates a potent mind-control agent that enables her influence to expand at a frightening rate. Vosa herself has a personal vendetta against Dooku because he abandoned her. As Bounty Hunter's creative director, Jon Knoles, told Screen Rant in an exclusive interview, Vosa orders her followers, the Bando Gora, to “carry out suicidal raids on Trade Federation star ships and other high value industry targets” all to “exact her revenge on Dooku.” Dooku's abandonment of her led to horrific pain, and the game does not shy away from it.
Officially, Vosa was Dooku's padawan, though he covertly trained her in the Dark Side, and she attempted the trials to become a Jedi Knight. She failed and Dooku cast her out. In an effort to regain his favor, she secretly ed a Jedi task force sent out to stop the Bando Gora. She was captured and brutally tortured which drove her “mad and deeper to the Dark Side,” Knoles said. Vosa only escaped by assuming control over the cult by killing her fellow prisoners. She, then, went on to propagate the same horror she experienced in Star Wars: Bounty Hunter by using her concoction to violate the minds of others. What makes Vosa so unique, especially for the time, is how palpable this history is in the game. Most of it is never directly talked about, and players only meet Vosa at the game's conclusion, but her suffering is immediate. She is covered in scars, which Knoles said came from “poison-tipped finger claws,” and she becomes aroused at at others' pain. Unhinged, and clearly disturbed, Vosa channels the horror her predecessors only hinted at.
How Ventress and Kylo Ren Mirror Vosa's Pain
Beloved Clone Wars character Ventress has numerous parallels with Vosa. Aside from being an apprentice of Count Dooku and having a similar appearance, Ventress shares Vosa's psychological trauma. The Clone Wars novel Dark Disciple chronicles Ventress' redemptive arc but the nature of the journey highlights the suffering she faces because of her connection to the Dark Side. The core conflict of the novel stems from Ventress' need to corrupt Vos, the Jedi with whom she falls in love. Vos loves Ventress, dearly, but she cannot trust it, so she pushes him towards the Dark Side, believing that they can be together only if he is tainted. The resulting narrative is one of Star Wars best, and most complex, but its also immensely disturbing.
The newest Star Wars films have their share of detractors, but many would agree that Kylo Ren stands out as a bright spot thanks to a riveting performance and genuine pathos. Unlike Vader, who leads his troops with unshakeable confidence, Ren trembles with doubt. He throws genuine tantrums, destroys rooms, and routinely looses his composure. Ren feels palpable remorse over killing his father and is unable to handle his own responsibility over his fallout with Luke Skywalker, with their confrontation resulting in him wildly swinging his lightsaber at air. Ren is the antithesis of Vader and Palpatine from the original trilogy. Where they belie their misery with a cool calm, Ren betrays all he feels with reckless abandon.
With Komari Vosa, Star Wars: Bounty Hunter foreshadowed a profound evolution in Star Wars storytelling. Portraying a villain as broken rather than just evil, the game helped usher in a new wave of indelible characters that have redefined the Star Wars universe.
