Suvudu Universe

During the Star Wars: A New Dawn panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2014, Del Rey Books announced a new novel featuring Asajj Ventress and Quinlan Vos. Written by Christie Golden, the novel will be based on the unfinished scripts of the Emmy Award winning series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. New information concerning the book’s synopsis and released date have surfaced, and the book will debut next summer on July 7, 2015.

The last story never told in The Clone Wars television saga: A tale of trust, betrayal, love, and evil starring the hugely popular ex-Sith/never-Jedi female bounty hunter, Asajj Ventress! A tale written but never aired, now turned into a brand-new novel with the creative collaboration of the Lucasfilm Story Group and Dave Filoni, Executive Producer and Director of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels!

When the Jedi decide to target Count Dooku—Darth Tyranus—himself, they turn to his ex-apprentice, Asajj Ventress, for help in getting close to the slippery Sith Lord. But when unexpected sparks fly between Ventress and Quinlan Vos, the unorthodox Jedi sent to work with her, the mission becomes a web of betrayal, alliances, secrets, and dark plotting that might just be the undoing of both Jedi and Sith—and everything in between!

From the moment I first heard about the upcoming novelization of the untold The Clone Wars arc starring Asajj Ventress and Quinlan Vos, I’ve had mixed feelings.

Though initially I had great excitement, the few facts of the story and the writer who was chosen to pen this novel left me with worries. While quite possibly unfounded, I have had a lingering fear that this tale has been set up to see one of the–what I consider–most compelling and multiple seasons-spanning character arc in the series become undone.

Not just with the possibility of Asajj Ventress being broken down to nothing more than her most basic components, but more so, her death.

Now, this isn’t to say that I’d be forever upset at her character dying; everyone dies at some point, either by outside forces or natural causes. Saying that, there are ways of killing off an established character, especially a female character, without it feeling cheap or destined to only have it happen to give the leading man, Quinlan Vos, pain. I don’t want Ventress to become yet another female character who dies a senseless death.

Now, you may be saying to yourself, “Elisa, this could be really good!”

Yes, it could be, and if it is, I will be over the moon with joy about it!

The fact that it’s known that ‘sparks fly’ between Asajj Ventress and Quinlan Vos is enough to make me groan. While Ventress famously flirted with Obi-Wan on multiple occasions and kissed a single clone in the series, the untouchable seductress is an aspect I enjoyed about her character. Loving to toy, but never actually taking that final step.

This isn’t to say I’d never want to watch her fall in love. Quite the opposite! But time and again, media has made me wary of the ‘strong independent woman who falls in love’ tales. They die a lot, and I would hope that Star Wars wasn’t following through on that trope, but events of the past make me worry.

In light of the other previously untold TCW arc, the now-concluded comic that featured Darth Maul, entitled Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir, I have even greater apprehension for the safety of my ex-Sith. While Ventress may not have ended up in the proverbial house with a white picket fence, she did still have a future. A future that, when she uttered her final line at the end of the episode Bounty, was full of hope and promise.

I want her to have that future, and in having it, have a death that honors who she had ultimately grown to become.