A character Star Wars killed off just returned for Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 3 on Disney+.
Asajj Ventress was a Nightsister, former Jedi Padawan, and Sith assassin who regularly appeared in Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series.
While Christie Golden's Dark Disciple novel completed Asajj's story by sacrificing herself for Jedi Quinlan Vos, Star Wars resurrected the former baddie for Season 3, Episode 9 of The Bad Batch.
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Bad Batch Brings Back Dead Clone Wars Villain
After Hunter and Wrecker inquire about Omega's M-count in Episode 8 of Star Wars: The Bad Batch, Fennec Shand calls up Asajj Ventress who knows a thing or two about midi-chlorians and the Empire's interest.
But while Asajj still possesses the same steely, self-possessed personality, she's now a bounty hunter with a new look, no allegiances, and a yellow lightsaber.
The issue with Ventress' comeback is that her Dark Disciple death occurred before Revenge of the Sith, and Season 1 of Star Wars: The Bad Batch began with Order 66 and has been exploring the aftermath ever since.
Adding to audience confusion is Star Wars' enduring claim that Dark Disciple is still canon.
In fact, in talking exclusively with The Direct, The Bad Batch's Supervising Director Brad Rau revealed that "[they're] not contradicting anything that happened" in the 2016 novel:
“Yeah, I mean, we're huge Ventress fans. And when we talked with our creative team to figure out that we could bring her into the storyline. We were very excited. We pulled designs from unaired arcs of the Clone Wars which inspired the novel 'Dark Disciple,' and we're not contradicting anything that happened in ‘Dark Disciple’.”
In true Ventress fashion, the former Separatist Sith sympathizer and Clone Wars antagonist revealed nothing about her resurrection and its lack of canon contradictions, only making a casual reference to her having "a few lives left."
That still doesn't mean fans don't have their theories.
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Why Did Star Wars Bring Back Asajj Ventress?
At the end of Dark Disciple, Asajj's body is returned to the Nightisisters' home planet of Dathomir where dead is often a relative term.
It's also worth noting that Obi-Wan Kenobi confirmed Quinlan Vos, her Dark Disciple love interest, survived Order 66 and is helping save Force-sensitive children.
Since Asajj Ventress now knows of the seemingly Force-sensitive Omega, all signs point toward a Dark Disciple reunion and the return of Quinlan Vos to help protect the young clone.
Finally, there's Ventress' yellow light saber which she first wielded in the novel and is now doing so on-screen.
Following Rey's ignition of a yellow blade in The Rise of Skywalker, yellow lightsabers have become more commonplace in that galaxy far, far away and are believed to represent balance.
Perhaps this further proves Asajj's newfound place between the dark and the light.
While much is still up for debate, Brad Rau warned The Direct that "not all of the answers" will be revealed in The Bad Batch, but "There may be future answers down the road:"
"But I will say that not all of the answers to the mystery of interest will be told in 'The Bad Batch' show. There may be future answers down the road in something else. But it was really great to have that character in our show to interact with our characters. [It] was really cool.”
Since Star Wars: The Bad Batch is coming to a close, the question is whether Lucasfilm intends to continue this story in a new animated series or another live-action show.
Hopefully, fans will learn more about Lucasfilm's unfolding plans following the series' finale on Wednesday, May 1.
New episodes of Star Wars: The Bad Batch premiere on Wednesdays on Disney+.
