General Grievous

**General Grievous**is the secondary antagonist of *Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith*and one of the main antagonists of the *Star Wars: The Clone Wars*series. General Grievous is the ruthless and demanding Supreme Commander of the Separatist Droid Army.

## History

### Early Life

Though he would achieve his greatest infamy as the cyborg General Grievous, Qumaen Jai Sheelal was originally an organic Kaleesh, the reptillian natives of Kalee, a world torn by famine and war. For generations, Kalee had been assaulted without respite by technologically superior insectoid species, the Yam'rii who coveted the Kaleesh as slaves. The conflict between the two species was known as the Huk War.

Sheelal's father, seeking an outlet for his son's anger, taught him how to use an slugthrower rifle. The young Sheelal proved himself an excellent marksman with a mind as finely honed as any weapon; by eight years of age he had already become an expert sniper with more than forty Huk kills to his credit. By the age of 22 years old, he had slain many Huk that the Kaleesh people considered Sheelal a demigod.

### Clone Wars

Grievous was first let loose in the Geonosian catacombs during the Battle of Geonosis in 22 BBY where he safeguarded the Separatist Council from Jedi and Clone Trooper companies; he left none alive to tell of his existence. Dooku, impressed with the General's performance at Geonosis, trained Grievous in the art of lightsaber combat, which Grievous took to at a rapid pace. Learning all of the seven classic forms of Jedi arts including the rarely seen Makashi and Jayu, Grievous quickly surpassed the other apprentices of Dooku in terms of individual combat. Despite his obvious prowess, and the time and resources expended to creating him, Dooku still viewed him second to the Chiss General Sev'rance Tann. It was only after Tann's death one month after Geonosis that Grievous truly began to come to his own.

Grievous' first public appearance against the Republic and Jedi Order was at the Battle of Hypori four months after the Battle of Geonosis. Grievous led a massive attachment of Battle Droids to attack the Jedi on Hypori, and his tactics resulted in the obliteration of an entire Republic task force. Grievous cut down Jedi Master Daakman Barrek as he attempted to request reinforcements from Jedi Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi, who were meanwhile fighting on Muunilinst. With six Jedi Tarr Sierr, Sha'a Gi, Aalya Secura, K'Kruhk, Ki-Adi-Mundi and Shaak Ti trapped in the remains of a downed Acclamator-class Transport, Grievous ordered his Super Battle Droids to stand down, effectively surrounding the Jedi. The General addressed the trapped Jedi, stating that he would grant them a "warrior's death" and lying in wait for them to move. Once Padawan Gi ran screaming into the unprotected open, Grevious jumped on and killed him. The General then perched himself of the top of the transport and hung from his point, surveying the five remaining Jedi Knights before landing below and engaging them in combat, unleashing vicious dual-lightsaber attacks on his adversaries.

### Endgame

After learning the Jedi were onto him, thanks in part to the recordings discovered from the mechno-chair, Darth Sidious, who was actually Chancellor Palpatine, informed Grievous that he had a special mission which was to invade Coruscant and kidnap the Chancellor. Grievous was on the Wookie homeworld of Kashyyk, leading the Separatists in the opening stages of the battle there, but left for Coruscant. Grievous led the Separatist starfleet in an all-out attack on the Republic capital, using secret hyperspace routes given to him by Sidious. During the battle, Grievous ordered diversionary tactics such as sending suicide squadrons of Vulture Droids to cause chaos in the city and terrorize the citizens. While a massive battle raged between Separatist and Republic forces, Grievous led an assault on 500 Republica with intelligence provided by Darth Sidious. During Grievous' search for Palpatine on the surface, he encountered X2, a Force-sensitive Clone who served the Republic. They fought each other, however Grevious was unable to defeat the clone, so he left to continue his mission.

The Jedi, commanded by Shaak Ti, took Palpatine to a secret bunker aboard a maglev train; however, Grievous and his MagnaGuards caught up with them and dueled the Jedi Mace Windu and Kit Fisto on top of the train. The duel ended with Grievous being pushed off the train, although he was saved by a hijacked LAAT/i gunship, unknown to the Jedi. Grievous reached the hardened bunker with six of his MagnaGuards in tow, and accessed it using codes provided by Darth Sidious. Cutting a bloody path of destruction through the bunker, he made his way to Palpatine. He killed four of Palpatine's Jedi protectors: Roron Corobb, Foul Moudama, Roth-Del Masona and B'ink Utrila, as well as a number of Clone Troopers before kidnapping the Chancellor. With no threat to him, Grievous threatened Palpatine, who rebuked that he wasn't afraid of the General. Palpatine asserted that Grevious wouldn't dare harm him and inquired what his masters' would say if any harm came to him. Grievous told Palpatine told him he was lucky they wanted him alive, not realizing Palpatine was one of them. He then dueled Shaak Ti and spared her to inform the Jedi that the Chancellor was gone. As he fled, Jedi Master Mace Windu Force crushed the plates covering Grievous' internal organ sac, injuring his lungs and aggravating the General's already irritating wheezing and coughing problems; a result of organic form not taking well to his cyborg implants. This crippling blow injured Grievous for the rest of his life which would not be long.

Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi, fresh from victory on Tythe, got wind of what had happened and set off to rescue Palpatine. After fighting their way through a massive battle, the Jedi boarded the Invisible Hand, killed Dooku and escaped with the Supreme Chancellor, not knowing that they had walked into an elaborate trap. The two Jedi were soon entrapped in a ray shield and surrounded by Battle Droids who brought the captives before Grievous on the ship's bridge. As Grievous gloated, the Jedi managed to uncuff themselves while R2-D2 provided a distraction, Anakin and Kenobi then swiftly defeated Grievous' MagnaGuards. In an attempt to escape the ship and leave them to die, Grievous shattered the front window of the cruiser with an electrostaff. Kenobi, Anakin and Palpatine managed to stay in the ship, however Grievous was sucked into space. Protected from exposure to vaccum, the General survived and used a grappling hook installed to his arm to latch onto the hull of the ship.

Grievous fled in one of his flagship's escaping pods, which was later picked up by a Lucrehulk-class Battleship. In fact, he had every single pod launched, leaving the Jedi abandoned; yet Anakin used all his skill to bring half of the ship down the planet's surface for a safe landing. Realizing that his objective had failed, the cyborg leader and his fleet retreated. Grievous boarded his Sheathipede-class Transport Shuttle and headed for the secure planet of Utapau in the Outer Rim Territories, where the Separatist Council was hiding. He had previously used Utapau as a base as early as 21 BBY, but unbeknownst to him, he was being monitored there by Clone Intelligence units. Now that Grievous was there again, the Null-class Advanced Recon Commandos N-6 and N-10 reported this, and Grievous' presence on Utapau became known by the Republic.

With Count Dooku's death, Grievous succeeded him as Head of State of the Separatist Alliance, thus making him both political and military leader of the Separatists. Under the direct orders of Darth Sidious, Grievous relocated the Council to the planet Mustafar while he stayed on Utapau, waiting for the arrival of Kenobi, of which he was warned by Sidious. When receiving his orders, he protested that the Clone Wars were going to end soon and that the Separatists would lose due to Dooku's demise, however Sidious reassured him that the loss of the Separatist leader was necessary. The Sith Lord would soon have a new apprentice, one far younger and more powerful.
After the Republic received word that Grievous was hiding in Utapau, Kenobi was sent to defeat him. Though Nute Gunray and other Separatists leaders doubted Grievous' ability to lead, they followed his orders, leaving just moments before Kenobi's arrival. Still weak and injured from his encounter with Windu, he immediately split his arms in four and attacked the Jedi Master. During the duel, Grievous' craven reflexes kicked in, however his inability to penetrate Kenobi's Form III defense even when attacking with twenty strikes per second made his offense sloppy. Kenobi took advantage of this and altered the angle of his parries to cut Grievous' wrists. Grievous lost two of his hands to Kenobi before Clone Marshal Commander Cody and the 212st Attack Battalion arrived, ambushing the droid army. Fighting broke out all over Pau City between droid and clone forces.

Grievous fled on his wheel bike, surprised and angered by Kenobi's ability to fight and gain an advantage in a one on one battle. Pursued by Kenobi on a Varactyl named Boga, after a prolonged chase and running duel, the two crashed onto the General's private landing platforms where his personal, customized starfighter, the Soulless One, was docked. As they fought in hand-to-hand combat, Grievous made use of his mechanical body and superior strength, although Kenobi managed to rip open Grievous' previously damaged chest plates, revealing the synthskin gut-sack containing his remaining organs. Angered, Grievous tossed Kenobi off the platform, but the Jedi managed to catch hold of the edge.

Grievous, deprived of his arsenal, picked up an electrostaff and charged at Kenobi, raising the staff to finish him off. Before he could deliver the finishing blow, Kenobi used the Force to summon Grievous' personal blaster to his outstretched hand. The oils preserving Grievous' remaining biological components ignited, incinerating the famed cyborg from the inside and destroying him.

## Abilities

Grevious was a calculating and cold General, a brilliant strategist and a powerful fighter. He was known as one of the greatest Jedi hunters and a collection of lightsabers of the fallen Jedi, which he used against enemies. Grievous hunted Jedi for sport, keeping the four lightsabers of his most powerful victims within his cloaks as trophies of his superiority. Trained in lightsaber combat by Dooku, he developed a personalized unorthodox fighting form, involving prolonged lightning-fast flurries and power moves designed to overwhelm his opponents.

## Quotes

* "Army or not, you must realize you are doomed!"
* "That wouldn't be you!"
* "I wield power, Jedi fool!"
* "Crush them! Make them suffer!"
* "Back away! I will deal with this Jedi slime myself!"
* "If we attack from above, they will have the advantage. So we will go through the rocks."
* "My lord, they will never capture me or this ship."
* "I am Grevious, warlord of the Kaleesh and Supreme Commander of the armies of the Confederacy. And I am not a droid!"