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| Three villains from the Clone Wars television series. From left to right: Darth Maul (yes he lived), Savage Opress, and Pre Vizsla (leader of Death Watch). They are all motivated by revenge. Pre Vizsla wanted revenge on those factions on Mandalore who had turned the populace away from their historical warrior-like way of life. In the U.S., he'd be a member of the N.R.A. |
Savage Opress was a Dathomirian Zabrak Nightbrother who became a Sith Lord alongside his brother, Darth Maul, during the Clone Wars television series. He came about in the third season because Darth Sidious (Emperor Palpatine) demanded that Count Dooku kill his most prized apprentice, Asajj Ventress. Asajj had become too powerful and as a result, created a "disturbance" in the force. In a nutshell, Darth Sidious did not want his own apprentice (Count Dooku) to rise up and overthrow him (which is entirely possible if he trained an apprentice with as much power as Dooku wielded). It's also great foreshadowing to the fact that Sidious is overthrown by his own apprentice (Darth Vader) in "Return of the Jedi." I love that scene because it's a testament of how powerful Darth Vader really was. He single-handedly did it all himself and relied on no help at all. Just kind of a "You know what old man? I'm really tired of your crap, and I've decided this is your retirement party." And it was done. Something Yoda, Mace Windu, and probably countless others could never accomplish.
It must be difficult being a powerful Sith Lord. Not only do you have to worry about the Jedi, but you must always look to your own for possible backstabbing. It kind of makes the whole "this is a team effort" motif problematic, because your team could turn on you at any time.
Anyway, the reason for my post today is (up until I got introduced to Savage Opress) I kind of thought the Star Wars universe was this big space opera that could inspire all kinds of fan fiction, and that it's so huge that you could literally tell any story. I suppose that at least part of that is true. However, I also think that if you wanted to stay with Lucas' vision for whatever reason (since Star Wars is his baby), I believe you'd want to stick with the whole "revenge" theme in any plot or story you wrote. Revenge literally infuses practically every story line and drives all the evil you see present in Star Wars from the movies to the television series and probably even the comic books and novels. Here's my "rudimentary" evidence:
1) Lucas called the third prequel "Revenge of the Sith." That's pretty straight-forward. Obviously the Sith are very butt hurt at being oppressed by the Jedi and really really want their revenge. And it matters so much that the very word makes it into a title.
2) In the television series, Savage Opress is birthed out of revenge when Asajj Ventress survives and wants revenge against her former master that tried to kill her. So the Nightsister witches make Savage Opress out of black magic and then plan on using him as an assassin that they can control once he learns enough from being Count Dooku's apprentice.
3) The whole "dark side" seems to be motivated out of revenge. In other words, the Sith often seem to channel hate for some wrong that they feel they've been dealt and want revenge against the people who wronged them.
4) Darth Maul is cleverly re-written as someone who survives being cut in half and naturally, he wants revenge on the person that cut him in half, i.e., Obi-Wan Kenobi. So he gets his revenge by killing Duchess Satine right in front of him about mid-way through Season 5, because Obi-Wan loves Duchess Satine. Nice revenge plot there.
5) Anakin starts to slip to the dark side when he kills a whole clan of Tuskan Raiders after they kill his mother. If that isn't revenge, I don't know what is.
6) Bounty Hunter Boba Fett is totally motivated out of revenge after witnessing the Jedi cut down his father Jango Fett in the second movie. They even show the boy touching his head to his father's helmet.
So there you have it. Savage Opress gave me six insights as to why Star Wars is really a story about revenge. So I predict episode VII will probably kick off three more movies centered around revenge. Someone will be extremely butt hurt over something and then they will spend three movies trying to deal with that "wronged" person. I actually hope it's not formulaic like that, but let's be honest...a lot of Star Wars is formulaic. A lot of publishing for that matter. We are creatures of habit and we love our formulas!
Don't even get me started on James Bond.
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