The first trailer for Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 3 appears to have revealed Asajj Ventress’ death during the Clone Wars has been retconned. Asajj Ventress was originally a Rattataki up-and-coming Sith who served Count Dooku and led CIS forces in the Star Wars Legends continuity. The modern Star Wars canon significantly rewrote Asajj Ventress’s background, establishing her as a Nightsister of Dathomir from a reimagined version of the planet Dathomir. Ventress also received a definitive ending to her story – at least, until the Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 3 trailer.
The Bad Batch, which takes place in the immediate aftermath of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and the early years of the Galactic Empire, has helped tie up Clone Wars-era loose ends. Not only do beloved characters like Captain Rex and Commander Cody return, but the series also explains how the heroic (albeit brainwashed) clone troopers are quickly replaced by recruited TK Troopers, who are themselves precursors to Imperial Stormtroopers. The series will end with season 3, whose trailer – shockingly – reveals a living Asajj Ventress seemingly contradicting her established demise.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 3 Trailer Breakdown: Asajj Ventress, Mandalorian Connections, & More
Star Wars has released the first trailer for the final season of The Bad Batch, featuring major character returns and teases to The Mandalorian.
Asajj Ventress’ Death In Star Wars Canon Explained
Christie Golden’s 2015 novel Dark Disciple canonized several stories that were planned before Disney canceled Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The novel completes the long-running redemption arc of Asajj Ventress, having her assist Jedi Master Quinlan Vos in appearing to fall to the dark side without truly succumbing. The novel ends with Ventress sacrificing herself to save Vos, being struck down by a lethal barrage of Force lightning by Count Dooku. Despite the many atrocities that Asajj Ventress had committed during the Clone Wars, her body was brought to her homeworld of Dathomir and she received a respectful burial.
Star Wars Legends Hints At How Asajj Ventress Could Have Survived
Throughout unknown means, however, Asajj Ventress will return in The Bad Batch. Modern Star Wars canon, unfortunately, has rewritten or otherwise retconned published properties on multiple occasions, with Ventress’s apparent return now undoing her death in Dark Disciple. However, The Bad Batch‘s supervising director and executive producer Brad Rau has assured there won’t be a contradiction. Speaking to StarWars.com, he noted, “We don’t want to spoil anything, but want fans to know that any new storytelling with Ventress will align with the events of Star Wars: Dark Disciple.” Perhaps Ventress “survived” the same way her original Legends-era counterpart did.
Haden Blackman and Brian Ching’s 2005 miniseries Star Wars: Obsession ended the story of Asajj Ventress on an ambiguous note. After being betrayed and critically injured by Count Dooku, Ventress appeared to have died in Obi-Wan Kenobi’s arms. In truth, Ventress entered a Force healing trance, and when she awoke aboard a Republic medical transport, she commandeered the craft and took it as far from the Clone Wars as possible, leaving her fate ambiguous. The modern canon’s Asajj Ventress may have similarly feigned her death, allowing her to return in Star Wars: The Bad Batch.
