How Is Asajj Ventress Still Alive? Another Star Wars Show May Hold The Answer
This article contains spoilers for "Star Wars: The Bad Batch" season 3, episode 9, "The Harbinger."
Asajj Ventress is dead.
At least, that's what we all assumed right up until the trailer dropped for the final season of "Star Wars: The Bad Batch."
Like many characters on the animated "Clone Wars" TV series, Asajj Ventress — the wicked Sith assassin turned morally ambiguous bounty hunter — was a victim of the show's initial cancellation prior to its revival on Disney+. Her plotline was never quite finished, though there were episodes planned to wrap her story up. Those episodes were in pre-production and Lucasfilm even showed some of their unfinished story reels at conventions, but any hope of actually getting to see those episodes quickly fizzled.
Eventually, the scripts for those episodes were handed over to Lucasfilm's book division, and author Christie Golden was given the task of bringing them to life in novel form. Golden wrote "Star Wars: Dark Disciple" based on those screenplays and the book was published to a lot of fanfare.
Curiously, "Dark Disciple" wrapped up Asajj's story with a tidy bow, complete with her death and burial. By the end of the novel, Quinlan Vos and Obi-Wan Kenobi — two Jedi who'd had many dealings with the former agent of the Sith and Jedi Padawan — took her body back to her home planet of Dathomir and buried her.
Yet here she is on "The Bad Batch" season 3 in the flesh. So what gives?
More lives left
In "Harbinger," the latest episode of "The Bad Batch" season 3, Asajj arrives mysteriously at the behest of Fennec Shand. In last week's episode, Fennec offered to introduce one of her underworld contacts to the Bad Batch so they could discover why the Empire is after Omega. They knew it had something to do with Omega's "M-Count," but they didn't know what that meant. It's only natural that Fennec would lean on a fellow bounty hunter with a strong M-Count herself and send Asajj to speak to Hunter about Omega and explain what an M-Count actually is.
But how did Asajj make it from her dirt nap on Dathomir to the peaceful planet of Pabu (where the Bad Batch have made their refuge)? The episode is short on answers, but long on hints.
Asajj casually tells Hunter that she has "a few lives left" during the episode, which is a tacit acknowledgment of her resurrection, but offers no details beyond that. However, I think we can look to other parts of the "Star Wars" canon and the story of Ventress's people to get a better understanding of how she came back from the dead.
For the Bad Batch, her resurrection isn't as concerning as how she found them in their refuge in the first place, as she warns them that they're not as safe as they think they are.
Dathomir
It would seem as though the answer to Asajj's ability to come back from the dead likely has to do with the planet where she came from and where she was buried. Dathomir had a long history of making impossible things happen with the old dark magick in the Force wielded by the Witches of Dathomir. In fact, when General Grievous attacked the planet during "The Clone Wars," Mother Talzin — the powerful matriarch of witches — was able to raise an entire army of the undead using her green-tinged abilities in the Force. They attacked the Separatists and repelled the attack for a time, but they were no match for the superior numbers of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Talzin eventually found ways to cheat death and resurrect herself. More recently on "Ahsoka," we saw powerful witches of the order bring Stormtroopers back from the dead to attack Ahsoka Tano as she fought to prevent Thrawn from making his way back into the known areas of the main "Star Wars" galaxy.
Knowing that witches and Force users from the planet of Dathomir have had a long history of not staying dead and have the ability to resurrect others, would it be any surprise if Asajj, returning to the soil of her home planet, tapped into some deep well of magick that revived her? It reminds me a bit of the resurrection of Jason Todd in the DC Universe, where he literally just grew back inside his coffin during the new Crisis.
Though we've yet to see any of the telltale green smoke around Asajj on "The Bad Batch," we did see it swirl around Maul as it healed his mind and bulked up his brother, Savage Opress, as he was injected with power to become Count Dooku's apprentice on "Clone Wars." When Savage was eventually slain by Darth Sidious on Mandalore, that smoky green energy left him.
Would something similar happen to Asajj if she were to spend another one of those lives? I would assume so.
Ventress and Omega
When one looks back to Asajj's backstory and how she was left behind as a Padawan and forced to fend for herself, it makes perfect sense why she would be willing to help Omega. Omega is hunted by the Empire and is nothing more than a wide-eyed child. As Ventress tests her abilities with her midi-chlorians — which is a word Ventress finally utters on "The Bad Batch" — she fills the role of seasoned Force user and teacher with aplomb.
Though Asajj has a lot of bad behavior to make up for from her past, this episode gives one the idea that she's looking to make up for it all. Redemption might still be a ways away for her, but "The Bad Batch" proves that there is still a long road left for her character. "How she survived will be revealed in future content," producer and head writer Jennifer Corbett previously told StarWars.com, "but for this story, we were thrilled to include her and explore her unique connection to, and compassion for, Omega."
Regardless of whether Asajj shows up on "The Bad Batch" again or not, the fan-favorite character clearly has a role to play in the future of "Star Wars."
New episodes of the final season of "Star Wars: The Bad Batch" premiere on Wednesdays on Disney+.