Highlights
- Darkness runs deep in Star Wars characters like Boba Fett, Asajj Ventress, and Darth Maul, shaping their tragic fates and motivations.
- Grand Admiral Thrawn showcases tactical genius and domination, proving that some characters are born from darkness.
- Darth Vader and Kylo Ren embody inner conflict, loss, and redemption, illustrating the battle between light and darkness within the universe.
Darkness is integral to the DNA of Star Wars, woven into characters to give them conflicted purposes and to constantly battle with the light within them. These Star Wars characters have often shown a darkness, whether it can be understood, redeemed, or entirely abhorrent, they’re important to the stories of the galaxy far, far away, and the battle of the Dark Side and the Light Side doesn’t just exist within the Jedi and Sith.
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The darkest characters in the Star Wars universe are fit with tragedy, deep-rooted issues, and anger that can make audiences sympathize or revile them equally, and these characters certainly deserve a spot of focus in the galaxy for their actions and behaviors that prove what they are.
7 Boba Fett
A Bounty Hunter, Scarred By The Grief Of Losing His Father
Boba Fett lived a somewhat tragic life, which led him down a dark path. His father, Jango Fett, was a feared bounty hunter with talents that were known across the galaxy. Yet, Jango was decapitated by the Jedi Master Mace Windu, and Boba Fett, not even a teenager, had to watch. This grief would force Boba into the same path as his father, becoming a bounty hunter and wearing his armor in his honor.
Boba would kill anyone worth some credit, and his fate was forever changed when he was thrust into the Sarlacc Pit, leaving him scarred. Yet, Boba’s redemption doesn’t begin with the basking of Sarlacc acid, but instead, with the teachings of a Tusken Raider tribe, who were all but eradicated, furthering the darkness that he harbors for others.
6 Asajj Ventress
A Night-Sister Who Sees Love As A Triumph Over The Dark Side
Asajj Ventress was a promising Sith apprentice, trained in the ways of the Sith by none other than Count Dooku, who was once Qui-Gon Jinn’s master. Ventress is a native of Dathomir, so already her nature is twisted and dark, having a superiority over others and a sisterhood in magick, Asajj Ventress would become a brutal warrior in her fight against the Jedi until she was betrayed.
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Forced by Palpatine to follow the Rule of Two, Dooku tries to have Ventress assassinated, which leaves her clueless as to where to go in the vast galaxy. That is until she meets a Jedi, Quinlan Vos, whom she falls in love with and develops a bond with the light side of the Force. Her life was shrouded in darkness, and even when she found the light, it was too late, and she was killed by her former master.
5 Grand Admiral Thrawn
A Tactical Genius, The Heir To The Empire
A being from the far reaches of the known galaxy, Thrawn is a master of cunning, and his tactical genius is to be feared. Thrawn can easily herald in a new age of the Empire, even without Palpatine to provide him with the support he needs. Thrawn makes his own allies and creates plans within plans that will see his enemies eradicated, once and for all, and all with a calming smile of domination.
Whilst Thrawn doesn’t exactly have a complex background to make him this way, his tactical genius and prowess in the field prove that he is a character born of darkness, as he seeks no redemption but just the domination of inferior life forms that can add to the Empire’s reign.
4 Kylo Ren
The Conflicted And Fanatical Grandson Of Darth Vader
Darkness looms within Ben Solo, a training Jedi under the wing of his uncle, Luke Skywalker. Through manipulation and deceit, Ben was groomed as his grandfather was into following the steps that would take hold of a Sith, and the curious flame was only fanned more by Luke Skywalker who contemplated murdering his nephew in his sleep.
Ben would become Kylo Ren, and terrorized the galaxy for Supreme Leader Snoke, and the First Order. Writhing with tantrums and emotional outbursts, the conflict within Kylo Ren tore him, even after the murder of his own father. Kylo Ren was a tragic and dark character who may have been redeemed in the end, but his conflict remained far too long into his life.
3 Darth Maul
A Failed Sith Prodigy, Consumed By The Obsession Of Revenge
Stolen from his clan when he was but a boy, Maul would be abused by Sheev Palpatine into the perfect Sith Apprentice. Filled with lies about the Jedi, Maul would develop his emotions through negativity, crafting hate and anger to become a reviled Sith that would usher in a new age for the galaxy after millennia of absence.
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Maul’s darkness would only grow through the years after his master abandoned him, something Maul placed the blame onto the man who cut him in half, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Maul’s hate festered for years, and his darkness would consume him until his sole focus was making Obi-Wan Kenobi hurt.
2 Emperor Palpatine
The Sinister Ruler Of The Galaxy Who Purged The Jedi
There is perhaps no Sith as evil as Palpatine, a man who’s cunning would see him cheat death to conquer the galaxy and eradicate the Jedi, once and for all. Sheev Palpatine was the perfect Sith, executing the Rule of Two and assassinating his master in his sleep. Whether through manipulation, Force abilities, or a lightsaber, Palpatine would see his plans to conquer come to fruition.
There is no redemption for Palpatine, and he would cackle at someone suggesting he would even want such a thing. Palpatine has all the pure qualities of a Sith Lord, and his character is so consumed by the Dark Side that it shows in his wretched physical appearance.
1 Darth Vader
The Chosen One, Steeped In The Pain Of Tragedy
There is no greater tragedy than the fall of Anakin Skywalker, a promising Jedi Knight, the Chosen One, who fell to the Dark Side out of the manipulation and desire to save the ones he loves. Anakin’s being is shrouded in darkness and grief, from his fatherless conception to living as a slave and watching his own mother die. Anakin saw through the lies of the Jedi, and their hypocrisy, and aided in their destruction.
Anakin lost his friends, his unborn children, his wife, and his limbs because of his turn to Darth Vader. Now more machine than man, Darth Vader is a walking reminder of the suffering he must endure for what he did, the heroism within him only fueling his anger and self-hatred to make him an evil Sith.
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