Aayla Secura
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Aaylas'ecura, better known as Aayla Secura, was a female Twi'lek Jedi Knight and General during the era of the Clone Wars.
Aayla was an empathic and highly intelligent Jedi with impressive fighting skills, but she was impulsive and somewhat mischievous. She was a master of the Ataru form of lightsaber combat and had some skill in Djem So.
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Biography
Early life
Aayla was always strong with the Force, and at a young age was discovered by the Jedi during a mission on Ryloth undertaken by the young Quinlan Vos, the Kiffar Padawan of Jedi Master Tholme. The very young Aayla was kept with the Twi'lek slaves of the local Hutt to be safe from any possible threat. She was still Lon Secura's niece, but the wampa guard of the Hutt went on a rampage, and the little Secura was in peril. Fortunately she was sensed and saved by Quinlan. He and Aayla had a strong connection with each other through the Force. Quinlan persuaded master Tholme to test Aayla on Coruscant for Jedi training where she passed the tests.
She was a skilled swordsman; she studied and used Form IV of lightsaber combat. She also studied the Jar'Kai form, using a green and a blue lightsaber. She would also occasionally use a pink lightsaber. Padawan Aayla and her Master, Quinlan, undertook many successive missions together.
Aayla once learned a very valuable lesson when her dear pet T'da died. Her master comforted her by relating how her beloved was now part of the Force, and would also live on in her heart. Ironically enough, it was on Felucia that she buried T'da—a planet which she would return to towards the end of her life.
They rescued a little princess from the Skyboat Pirates of Xoman Free, faced the Terbeasts of Ogden Minor, solved the Mystery of the Lodi on Solibus IV, and even witnessed Sebulba, a Dug, threatening a Gungan on Tatooine. She also had a good relationship with a young Twi'lek Padawan named Xiaan Amersu, to whom Aayla gave a Heart of Fire as a gift. She also had a very close relationship with Kit Fisto, one which pushed the limits of the Jedi Code at times. But when Quinlan and Aayla were assigned on a mission to Ryloth to investigate the sources of glitteryll, all went wrong. The two were captured and drugged. Aayla and her master suffered heavy amnesia. She was taken by her uncle Pol Secura, who had to feed her more glitteryll every day because her spirit kept reasserting itself. She forgot that she was a Jedi; she forgot she had a master and Force powers.
One day a strange man came to Pol Secura's quarters, looking for his "Padawan" Aayla. He showed Aayla her lightsaber, but she still couldn't remember anything. After a while, when the man figured out that Pol Secura was behind the drugging he came back for him. When Aayla tried to rescue her uncle, she accidentally Force pushed him off the balcony. She blamed the stranger, Quinlan Vos.
Brush with the dark side
Aayla wanted revenge on the man who killed her uncle. She hid herself on a pirate ship en route to Kiffex. On that planet she discovered and released Dark Jedi Volfe Karkko from his stasis field. She gave into the dark side of the Force and was willing to help the Anzati Dark Jedi. He gave her command of his Anzati minions and let her hunt down the Jedi on Kiffex. Karkko needed them alive to regain his strength; he needed to suck their "Jedi-soup". But first he needed to feed himself and his Anzati. Aayla took the Anzati and stormed a local stronghold. There she faced off against Quinlan Vos, Tholme, and Zao and got away with their captured people. Quinlan followed her and reached the prison of Karkko. Again she fought against her former master, but then she at last realized her true identity. At that moment Karkko used Force lightning to knock her out. When she woke up, she found Karkko dead and later on she was assigned to Master Tholme, Quinlan's former master. Quinlan pictured himself as "a leaf blown forth by the wind" and left Kiffex, going where the Force told him to go.
Ascension to Knighthood
Aayla and Tholme returned to Coruscant and, like Quinlan, she was re-trained in the Jedi Temple. Master Plo Koon agreed to use his telepathy to guide Aayla as she arranged her newly-recovered memories. She also learned of the Stark Hyperspace War when she met the veteran Jace Dallin.
In 28 BBY, Aayla went undercover in the Twi'lek clan Fenn. She discovered that the clan's leader, Ro Fenn, was planning an attack on the Secura clan's heir Nat Secura. She informed Tholme and hurried to her master, ready to help him. He faced off against two Nikto Morgukai, was defeated but still managed to slip on their ship. Unfortunately he was discovered and imprisoned. Aayla followed Vilmarh Grahrk, who was in league with the Nikto, and his ship Inferno, but lost them.
The Force led her to a junkyard on Ord Mantell. There she found her former Master Quinlan and helped him fight against bounty hunters. She explained everything to Quinlan, and the two decided to rescue Nat Secura and Master Tholme. They traced Vilmarh and made him tell where the two Morgukai went. Quickly they set course to Kintan, the home planet of the Nikto, and faced off against the two Morgukai Bok and his father, Tsyr.
The Nikto escaped and went to the fortress of the Twi'lek Kh'aris Fenn, who was behind all this misery all the time, and waited for the Jedi to arrive. The two Jedi broke in the fortress and inside they confronted the Nikto again. Aayla was to rescue Nat Secura and Tholme, Quinlan would fight the Nikto.
Aayla reached the dungeon, defeated the torture droid AX/RX, freed Tholme and Nat and went to Quinlan to help him. Quinlan had already beheaded Tsyr but he was smacked to the ground by Bok. Aayla saved Quinlan's life by fighting Bok before he could deliver the final blow. She wounded the Nikto, taking his right hand, but did not kill him. Bok let himself fall hundreds of meters in order to keep his honor. The three Jedi and Nat survived. They returned the young Twi'lek boy to his father, but, unfortunately, Kh'aris escaped from Ryloth to Dooku's hidden stronghold. Ro Fenn was sent into the Bright Lands, the side of Ryloth that was baked in eternal sunlight.
Back on Coruscant, Aayla and Quinlan were both promoted by the Jedi Council.
Aayla was granted the rank of Jedi Knight and Quinlan a Jedi Master.
Clone Wars
Aayla was in the Jedi Temple at the time of the Battle of Geonosis and thus was a member of the 200 Jedi task force sent to Geonosis to rescue two Jedi and the Senator Padmé Amidala held captive. She was one of the few survivors of the battle between the Confederacy of Independent Systems and the Jedi that ensued in the Petranaki arena and then led her own squad of clone troopers into battle. Thus was sparked the conflict known as the Clone Wars.
Aayla became a Jedi General in charge of the 327th Star Corps. Eight standard days after the Battle of Geonosis, she was sent on a mission to intercept Techno Union scientist Ratri Tane, who had fled to Corellia with the files and prototype of new droid circuitry, along with fellow Caamasi Jedi Ylenic It'kla.
Less than a standard month later, she infiltrated the Wheel, posing as a down-on-her-luck mechanic named Jayzaa, in order to locate Quinlan Vos, who hadn't reported from his undercover mission since the Battle of Geonosis. Together, they secured a copy of the plans of the impending Confederacy attack on Kamino. Using the intelligence they had collected, the Galactic Republic was able to fend off the attack on the rainy planet. In the Battle of Kamino, Aayla defended the cloning facilities in her Jedi starfighter. She would remain on the planet, alongside Kit Fisto, and save the facilities once again, this time from sabotage from within—a Kaminoan nano-virus meant to wipe out the clone troopers. Four months after Geonosis, the Twi'lek Jedi participated in the Battle of Hypori, where she was one of the Jedi who survived their first encounter with General Grievous.
Twenty-seven standard weeks into the war, Aayla investigated Separatist raids on Republic supply lines along the Corellian Trade Spine as part of a Jedi task force. When the headquarters of the raiders were pinpointed to the planet Devaron, Aayla went undercover as Tuulaa Doneeta, the spoiled daughter of a Twi'lek shipping baron. This way, she managed to infiltrate Senator Vien'sai'Malloc's apartments as her guest, with Masters Tholme ("Miles Croft"), and An'ya Kuro ("Saba") as her servants. The Senator was the one who backed the raiders, hoping to play both sides in the war. She had hired bounty hunter Aurra Sing, an ex-Jedi, to make sure nobody learned of her plans.
The Jedi on Devaron were Sing's next targets, and after caving in her former Master and Tholme, she ambushed Aayla. The Twi'lek survived and attacked Aurra. The two fought, and Aayla was able to win by hitting the bounty hunter where it hurt: her feelings of abandonment. Aurra reacted by unleashing her rage, but thus became disorientated, and Aayla cut off the antenna implant—installed by the hunter's Anzati mentors—that allowed Sing to feed off the fear of her prey. As Aurra was enveloped in anger, Aayla was at peace, and turned the former Jedi over to local authorities. She eventually ended up on the penal colony of Oovo IV. Then, Secura rescued Tholme and Kuro and provided intelligence she had gathered about the raider headquarters to Kit Fisto and T'ra Saa and the raiders were dissolved in a battle between them and Republic forces.
Aayla was known to have an especially close friendship with Master Kit Fisto, a friendship that would have become something more, as fellow Jedi speculated, had neither of them been a Jedi of that period.
One of Aayla's missions during the clone wars was a mission to Endor. There, with the help of a battle droid she saved the Ewoks from a dangerous beast.
Aayla was often partnered with Clone Commander Bly, who developed a close friendship with her, and served on worlds as diverse as Honoghr and Saleucami. Aayla had also gained the respect of the 501st Legion in the time they served with her. Following the siege of Saleucami, Aayla and her troops were sent to Felucia to help Barriss Offee uncover a plot to poison Felucia's water supply. Template:Quote
While fighting on Felucia, Aayla was betrayed and killed by her clone troopers including the ever-loyal Commander Bly, after they received word from Palpatine to carry out Order 66. Soon after, the AT-TE walker that was closest to her fired at Barriss Offee, making her the next victim of the Great Jedi Purge.
Post mortem
When the Galactic Empire emerged, official records compiled by Sate Pestage stated that Aayla and Barriss were both executed because they were plotting to poison Felucia's water supply.
However, despite the attempts of the Empire, Aayla was remembered by the peoples of the worlds she aided, in some cases merging with pre-existing goddess myths or historical figures. Even as late as 40 ABY, the descendants of such worlds were still writing fictituous accounts of her life.
Behind the scenes
Although portrayed by actress Amy Allen in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, the character was originally created for the Expanded Universe by artist Jan Duursema and writer John Ostrander. But after a piece of striking cover art captured George Lucas's eye, she was placed in Attack of the Clones, being thus one of the few C-canon characters that made it into the films. However, her appearances in the films are brief, and she sees most of her action in Expanded Universe material. Her surname came from Nat Secura, originally introduced in the short story Of the Day's Annoyances: Bib Fortuna's Tale from Tales from Jabba's Palace. The two eventually appeared together in Rite of Passage. Writer John Ostrander originally wanted to kill Aayla in Twilight, but was convinced by Jan Duursema's daughter to let her live.
Even though she was shot several times in the back and head in Revenge of the Sith (the scene is revisited in one of the comics in the Hyperspace section of StarWars.com), and a clear statement in the StarWars.com Databank leaves little doubt that she was killed, the popularity of the character has led some fans to come up with scenarios which would allow her survival. Any such claims are, of course, fanon. However, Amy Allen has stated that the character survives Revenge of the Sith, and she hopes to play a role in the 2009 live-action television series.[1]
Aayla is depicted in the game Star Wars: Battlefront II (PS2, Xbox, and PC) as having two lightsabers (on Tatooine, Kashyyyk, Cloud City, Yavin IV, both Rhen Var levels, Felucia, and Jabba's Palace)—a green one and a blue one (although she has blue and purple 'sabers in the cutscenes), despite the fact that in Attack of the Clones she can be seen with a blue lightsaber during the Battle of Geonosis, and in Revenge of the Sith, when she is killed on Felucia, she has only one lightsaber at her belt. She is also one of the few Jedi that does not wear traditional robes, most likely due to her conceptual origins in the Expanded Universe.
Appearances
- Star Wars Republic: Twilight Template:1st
- Heart of Fire
- Star Wars Republic: Darkness
- Star Wars Republic: The Stark Hyperspace War
- Star Wars Republic: Rite of Passage
- Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
- Elusion Illusion
- Tides of Terror
- Star Wars Republic 49: Sacrifice
- Star Wars Republic 50: The Battle of Kamino
- Jedi: Aayla Secura
- Star Wars Republic 65: Show of Force, Part 1
- Star Wars Republic 68: Armor
- Star Wars Republic: Trackdown
- Star Wars: Clone Wars
- "Chapter 20"
- "Chapter 21"
- "Chapter 22"
- Star Wars: Obsession
- What Goes Up...
- Star Wars Republic: The Siege of Saleucami
- Labyrinth of Evil Template:Mo
- Evasive Action: Reversal of Fortune
- Star Wars: Battlefront II
- Sithisis
- Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
- Evasive Action: Recruitment Template:Mo
- Evasive Action: Prey Template:Mo
- Evasive Action: End Game Template:Mo
- Star Wars Republic: The Hidden Enemy Template:Flash
- Star Wars Empire: "General" Skywalker Template:C
- Betrayal Template:Mo
- Tempest Template:Mo
Sources
- Template:DB
- Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith: Illustrated Screenplay
- The New Essential Chronology
- Star Wars Chronicles: The Prequels
- Order 66: Destroy All Jedi - Star Wars Insider 87
- Star Wars Miniatures: Clone Strike
