General Grievous

Template:SW Character General Grievous is a villain from the fictional Star Wars universe. He is the leader of the military forces of the Confederacy of Independent Systems and an enemy of the Jedi. Though a member of the Kaleesh species, his physical body is a fusion of a powerful robotic structure and an organic brain, nervous system and sensory organs. Another interesting fact about him is that he nearly killed Boba Fett in a Republic siege of Xagobah. While he was voiced by John Di Maggio in Chapter XX of the Cartoon Network Star Wars microseries, Clone Wars, Richard McGonagle took over the voicing of Grievous for the rest of the micro series, and Matthew Wood voices Grievous in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Dark Horse began publishing a 4-part comic about General Grievous in March 2005.

Grievous was known as a Jedi hunter, killing them for sport and collecting their lightsabers to proudly place around his belt as trophies and use them in his battles. The general possessed strategic ingenuity and flawless cunning. He is a commander in the Separatist régime and becomes the leader of the Separatists upon Dooku's death at the hands of Anakin Skywalker.

Contents

1 Background information 2 Grievous's recorded Jedi kills 3 Behind the Scenes 4 Movie notes 5 External Links

Background information

General Grievous was originally a warlord on his native Kalee. During a war with the rival Huk worlds, the Republic was called in to settle the dispute, which had gotten out of hand. Because Huk was rich in resources compared to the barren Kalee world, the Republic sided with the Huk and sent several Jedi Knights to attack the Kaleesh. Grievous and his armies were defeated and his homeworld was left in ruins, to suffer in poverty and shame of defeat.

These harsh times led Grievous to become a security chief for the Intergalactic Banking Clan. San Hill, leader of the Banking Clan, noticed that Grievous was both a brilliant strategist and an excellent fighter, and mentioned him to the Confederacy of Independent Systems leader, Count Dooku- secretly the Sith Lord Darth Tyranus. Together with his master Darth Sidious, the Sith Lords conspired to draw Grievous into the Separatist army. Despite the offers of San Hill, Grievous still refused to lead the Separatist army.

So Sidious, Dooku, and Hill arranged to have a bomb planted on the shuttle Grievous was on, and to blame it on the Republic. Grievous was mortally wounded in the crash, and his shattered, dying body was taken to the planet Geonosis, where his brain, eyes, and other organs were implanted into a droid body forged by Geonosians that would complement his natural reflexes.

It might have been his rage at the Republic, who he believed caused his shuttle crash; it might have been a feeling of gratitude toward the Separatists for saving his life and giving him a new and improved body; or it might have been the modification that Banking Clan scientists made to his brain while he was unconscious; but when Grievous woke up in his new body he was more than willing to take up Hill's offer and agree to lead the Separatist troops throughout the galaxy against the Republic.

During the Clone Wars, Grievous was particularly hostile toward the Jedi; he made it a personal goal to hunt them down and humiliate each Jedi by defeating them and keeping their lightsabers as his personal prize. This was a result of the Jedi siding with the Huk in the earlier wars, but it might have also been perhaps due to a personal friendship he had earlier with the bounty hunter Jango Fett who was killed by Jedi Master Mace Windu with a lightsaber. It was believed that Griveous briefly adopted Boba Fett after Jango's death.

Somewhat surpisingly (at least when considering his proficiency with the lightsaber), the General is completely incapable of using the Force. Despite this handicap, General Grievous was trained in lightsaber combat by Count Dooku, and though he replaced Asajj Ventress as commander of the droid armies, Grievous did not replace her as Dooku's apprentice, as some believe.

General Grevious was active from the beginning of the Clone Wars. However his existence was a secret, since no Jedi had escaped his presence alive. He first revealed himself to the public when he attacked and dispatched a team of seven Jedi Knights in an aggressive display of lightsaber mastery during the Battle of Hypori. With his mechanical enhancements and attributes combined, he was able to battle five Jedi single-handedly. Only three survived the onslaught. The Separatist general began the swift conquest of several Outer Rim planets, much to the dismay of the Republic. Time after time, Grievous's ability to strategize attack plans with brilliant ideas and destructive results made the Republic's star fleet commanders fearful of his abilities and talents. Grevious led the assault into the inner systems, along the Correlian Trade Spine, conquering world after world.

Grievous would later resurface during the Battle of Coruscant, using the first wave of his attack as a distraction to kidnap Chancellor Palpatine. In the process, he killed Foul Moudama and Roron Corobb. Shaak Ti survived, but her lightsaber became an addition to his grisly collection. Just as he withdraws with his prize, Chancellor Palpatine, Grievous was gravely injured when Mace Windu uses the force to crush his chest. Over Coruscant, Lt. Commander Needa of the Integrity contacted Grievous and asked him to surrender. Grievous responded that if the Republic fleet did not allow his forces to escape, he would execute Palpatine live on the HoloNet. Subsequently, Grievous was cornered by Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker onboard his vessel, The Invisible Hand but escaped by smashing a window on the ship and allowing himself to be sucked into space.

The general displayed amazing dexterity and was capable of fighting with six lightsabers simultaneously by dividing his mechanical arms into four and holding a lightsaber in each prehensile foot while using the repulsorlifts in his legs to float. Grievous traveled with his droid bodyguards, a set of IG-100 series MagnaGuards, who wielded electrified staffs made of phrik alloy, which could defend against most weapons (including lightsabers. This is the first time Star Wars fans have seen an non-lightsaber weapon that can withstand the cutting power of a lightsaber itself in a movie.

His movements imitate those of a monkey in his stance and general lightsaber control. Not only can he produce an extra pair of arms, he can use his feet as hands. His "unorthodox" moves mainly involve misdirection with his many limbs, something only the most experienced and talented of Jedi can withstand. Much of this misdirection involves releasing a lightsaber from one limb and catching it with another, sometimes even while two other limbs are performing the same trick. The opponent, focused on limbs which are no longer dangerous, is then struck.

Although General Grievous has no command of the Force whatsoever, he nevertheless has the lightning-quick reflexes and the fighting ability of the Jedi. It is evident that the General has no affinity with the Living Force: this is most obvious when watching him in battle with the Jedi. Although he cannot use the Force, he is skilled in the Jedi form of combat, having been trained by Count Dooku.

His only recognized weakness in battle was his inability to take a direct hit from a "Force Push". The Jedi regularly make use of telekinetic abilities. In Grievous's first witnessed encounter with the Jedi (i.e. The Battle of Hypori), the knights attempted to fling objects at him using the Force in order to avoid lightsaber combat. Unfortunately, given the general's superhuman reflexes, this approach proved futile. Grievous was supremely confident as a duelist, but after Mace Windu used the Force to crush Grievous' entire torso he developed a sickly cough, his reflexes were slowed and he became craven.

He commanded the droid armies of the Separatists under Darth Sidious and Count Dooku. During the Clone Wars, Grievous was continuously hunted by the Republic and the Jedi. He managed to narrowly escape each time.

While on the planet of Utapau, Grievous was ambushed by Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. Faced with a true master of the Force, Grievous lost two of his arms and fled the battle. Obi-Wan pursued Grievous as scores of Battle Droids and Clone Troopers clashed around them. The pair engaged in a desperate bout of hand-to-hand combat as Grievous attempted to flee in his personal starfighter. Obi-Wan was able to expose Grievous' internal organs and destroyed them with a few well placed blaster bolts, killing him. General Grievous had finally fallen, and the Republic's victory in the Clone Wars was all but assured.

Like Darth Maul and Darth Tyranus (Count Dooku) before him, Grievous's appearance and role in the film is meant to foreshadow a characteristic of Darth Sidious's ultimate apprentice, Darth Vader. Darth Maul was an enforcer of Sidious's will, sent to keep control over Sidious's other servants, and kill any who resist him. Count Dooku was an intimidating former Jedi with a commanding presence who became a Sith, and Grievous was kept alive through machine parts as a cyborg.

Grievous's recorded Jedi kills

• Daakman Barrek
• Soon Bayts
• Roron Corobb
• T'chooka D'oon
• Adi Gallia
• Sha'a Gi
• Jmmaar
• Foul Moudama
• Nystammall
• Puroth
• Tarr Seirr

Behind the Scenes

General Grievous was developed for Episode III as a powerful new villain on the side of the Confederacy. The initial instructions that Director George Lucas gave the Art Department were very open-ended: "a droid general." From that vague direction, the artists developed a lot of explorations, some purely mechanical, some not, for the look of General Grievous.

The initial design for General Grievous was done by Warren Fu. That initial sketch was refined and made into a foot-tall maquette sculpture. That was further refined when it was made in to a realisitc computer-generated model by Industrial Light and Magic. This was one of the most complicated model ever created by ILM, with many parts of differeing physical qualities. General Grievous is completely CGI in the movie. On set, Duncan Young read the lines off-screen, while Kyle Rowling wore a bluescreen or a greenscreen suit to act out the fights with Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Movie notes

• Gary Oldman originally agreed to provide the voice for Grievous in the film. He later pulled out because the film featured actors who are not part of the Screen Actor's Guild, of which Oldman is a member. This report is disputed by Matthew Wood, who provided the final voice. He claims that Oldman is a friend of producer Rick McCallum, and agreed to submit a voice audition, but that his involvement never went beyond that. Lucas never officially offered him the role.

• In a somewhat humorous and much criticised, aspect, Grievous has an asthmatic cough for most of the movie's length. This was meant to exhibit Grievous's organic side (so that the audience would know he was more than just a droid). However, because previous portrayals of Grievous did not have this weakness, the second season of the animated Clone Wars series showed that the cough was due to an injury sustained during his encounter with Master Windu who Force-crushed his torso.

External Links

• Star Wars Databank (http://www.starwars.com/databank/character/generalgrievous/) entry for General Grievous.

Preceded by: Darth Tyranus

Head of State and Government of the Confederacy of Independent Systems 19 BBY

Succeeded by: Separatist Council/Confederacy demolished Template:End boxfr:Général Grievous fi:Kenraali Grievous ja:グリーヴァス将軍