Ventress is a villain I can really cozy up to

Asajj Ventress is pictured above wielding one red lightsaber, but more often than not, she is found with two in hand (see picture below). Remember in one of the Star Wars movies when Yoda said that, "Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny?" Well that little line fed to Luke doesn't appear to be true at all.

Correction, maybe it was true for Darth Sidious, Darth Maul, Darth Vader, and Darth Tyrannus, but it never was for Ventress. She always did what she wanted to do. To be fair though, she never got the "Darth" title either, which may have something to do with her ability to just walk the line as far as good and bad goes. I have no idea if that's because she's just got a really strong mind, or if it's because she's a woman. Maybe Yoda just didn't get it right because he was a dude. Something to think on, eh? If I recall details from the Star Wars extended universe, there are other women who used the Dark Side who also ended up coming back from it too. Was Mara Jade one? I hope someone can weigh-in on the comments below with regard to my theory of "women being particularly resistant to the dark side."

For awhile, Asajj Ventress worked for the Separatist army and their endless droids.

Anyway, Asajj got recognized as a child when she was given away for training among the Jedi. Her master taught her some and her strength in the force grew. Unfortunately for her though, that all ended when her master got killed.

Ventress' story is replete with tragedy.  Recognized for being a Force prodigy, Ventress wound up at some point training with Count Dooku who took her rudimentary training and turned it into a formidable weapon that he and his Separatist army could rely upon.

Fearless in battle, Asajj Ventress wasn't afraid to take on Obi-Wan and other Jedi. She even fought him alongside Anakin, and it made for some of the greatest lightsaber combats. Despite the fact that Ventress always lost, she always got away too. That's a sign of a good villain. Ventress always had a reliable escape plan at the ready if things ever went sour.

At some point in season 3 of The Clone Wars, Ventress got so powerful that she created a "disturbance in the force." Darth Sidious contacted Darth Tyrannus (Count Dooku) and ordered him to kill Ventress, because she'd gotten too powerful. Dooku whined some because he really liked her, but acquiesced and tried to have her killed by blowing up the starship she was on. Of course, Ventress escaped and went home to the Nightsisters (her family) to plot her revenge on Dooku.

That "revenge" didn't go well. It ended up destroying the Nightsisters clan leaving her alone in the universe. At that point, Ventress wasn't "sith" anymore or necessarily a "nightsister." She was a free agent doing whatever she wanted to do.

Surprisingly, Ventress came to the rescue of Obi-Wan, helping him to fight Savage Opress and Darth Maul when he got cornered and overwhelmed. And in the series finale, she proved instrumental by allying with Ahsoka Tano and Anakin to oust Barriss Offee as the Jedi responsible for framing Ahsoka in the bombing of the Jedi temple.

The actress who played Barriss Offee in the second movie. The
quote is from the 2003 Clone Wars shorts from Cartoon Network.
Barriss Offee was the student of Master Luminara Undulee

In the clip below is a great scene of Barriss Offee and Ahsoka Tano fighting in the streets of Coruscant. Now, Barriss at this point is disguised as Asajj Ventress. Barriss is extremely powerful and overwhelmed Asajj and took her lightsabers to complete the disguise. Asajj never had the kind of telekinesis that Barriss wields and neither did anyone else. I think Barriss (as I've said before) was probably the most powerful telekinetic to have ever lived in the Star Wars universe. If you watch carefully, you'll see what I'm talking about. She doesn't even have to visualize objects to hurl them around (she can be behind corners). My original post on Barriss can be found HERE. And yeah, Ahsoka (even though she's basically a Jedi Knight at this point) doesn't stand a chance. I'm a little miffed with The Clone Wars being canceled because I want to know what happened with Barriss, Asajj, and Ahsoka. These are three very interesting women whose storylines are basically just "cut off" with no resolution in the series finale. It's enough to make me say "arrrggghhh!" Enjoy the clip.

And below is a second (extremely short clip) showing a deleted scene from the original Clone Wars episode because it was too "controversial." Watch it and see the personality of Ventress in full force (another reason I really liked her).

Luminara Unduli versus the droid saboteurs of Ilum

Today I want to tell you about one of my favorite secondary characters in the Cartoon Network's The Clone Wars. Her name is Luminara Unduli. She was a Jedi Master and trained Barriss Offee (you can find the post that I did on Barriss located HERE).

First off, Luminara was a complete master of Soresu style combat. In Soresu, a Jedi uses the lightsaber to establish defense. And even if an attack manages to get past a lightsaber's blade, a proper user of Soresu should be able to avoid the blow through bodily contortions. Essentially, Luminara was almost impossible to hit if she was in her fighting stance. Think of a martial art based on the principle of economy of motion. In other words, keeping up constant blade movement to build up momentum, but at the same time conserve energy. Practitioners of Soresu were marathon fighters, using their lightsaber skills to wear down and tire an opponent and take advantage of them when they made mistakes.

Luminara served as a Senior Jedi General in the fading years of the Galactic Republic. She also advised the Jedi High Council, the Supreme Chancellor, and the Galactic Senate.

Luminara Unduli (left) and Barriss Offee (right). Luminara loved Barriss, but
only in a professional way. She was often critical of Anakin who seemed to
cross a line when it came to his own padawan, Ahsoka Tano. Anakin was
always kind of cursed when it came to women, getting too attached, etc.
And we know how that story went. Luminara was always prepared to lose
her padawan, whereas Anakin would have been devastated.

Four months after the Battle of Geonosis depicted in Attack of the Clones, Luminara led Offee to the secret Jedi Temple on the icy world Ilum. This is where the Jedi go to construct their final lightsaber (a right of passage so to speak). During the construction ceremony, Master and Padawan were attacked by cloaked Separatist chameleon droids, which had infiltrated the temple in an attempt to destroy the cavern's precious natural lightsaber crystals. In the destruction of the temple, Barriss and Luminara held up the roof for days with nothing but telekinesis. It's actually a pretty incredibly display of TK and goes beyond anything any of the other Jedi ever did with the same power. I think Barriss and Luminara together had the strongest telekinetic ability out of any of their contemporaries.

Below is the clip of Luminara Unduli versus the droid saboteurs of Ilum. The animation comes from the 2003 Clone Wars series which predates the one with the fantastic animation that I've been raving about for weeks now. If you are a Star Wars fan, you should watch it, because it is the only clip I know of that shows exactly how a lightsaber is assembled and what goes inside it.

Barriss Offee

Barriss Offee

Barriss Offee was padawan to Jedi Master Luminara Unduli. You saw her briefly in the movies when she and her master were sent to the planet Geonosis (that would be in "Attack of the Clones") and quite a bit in the Clone Wars (where the above picture is from).

Barriss Offee had the ability to use floating meditation, which looks kind of cool. She's also a skilled Jedi healer with very strong telekinesis abilities. She and her master held up an entire cave roof that was collapsing long enough for Yoda to arrive to rescue them. The Jedi-pedia says that Offee can force choke someone to death without even being in the same room or being able to see them. Even Vader couldn't do that.

I was really surprised that Barriss Offee turned to the dark side in the last episode of the series. And I'll probably always want to know what Luminara Unduli would have to say about that. Below is the speech that Barriss gave to the Jedi Order shortly before she was sentenced for the terrorist attack on the Jedi Temple.