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GeneralGrievous
General Grievous
Background information
Feature films Revenge of the Sith
Television programs Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008)
Video games Star Wars: Battlefront II
Star Wars Empire At War
Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes
Star Wars: Galaxy at War
Disney Infinity
Star Wars Battlefront II (DICE) (upcoming)
Park attractions
Portrayed by
Animators
Voice John Dimaggio (Clone Wars)

Matthew Wood (ROTS, TCW)

Performance model
Designer
Inspiration Other Jedi killers, Sith, Dark Lord of the Sith
Honors and awards
Character information
Full name Grievous
Other names General
Personality Evil, ferocious, powerful, rageful, cowardly, crazy, hot-tempered
Appearance 7 foot tall creepy cyborg.
Birthday
Occupation General of Confederacy of Independent Systems
Affiliations
Goal To destroy the Jedi and the Republic (failed)
Home Kalee
Relatives Sheelal family.
Pets
Allies Count Dooku, Darth Sidious
Minions IG-100 MagnaGuards, Battle Droids
Enemies Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano, Padmé Amidala, Ki-Adi-Mundi
Likes Killing Jedi
Dislikes Getting chased by Obi-Wan, Jedi
Powers and abilities Brute Strength
Weapons 6 lightsabers
  • Blaster rifle
  • Electrostaff
Fate Shot to death by Obi-Wan Kenobi
Quote "Army or not, you must realize, you are DOOMED!"-ROTS

Grievous is a recurring antagonist in the Star Wars franchise. He is the cyborg Supreme Commander of the Droid Army of the Confederacy of Independent Systems and and sith apprentice of Count Dooku. He was a secondary antagonist in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and a major antagonist of the original Clone Wars series. He was voiced by John Dimaggio in the animated series and Matthew Wood in Revenge of the Sith and the 2008 version of The Clone Wars series.

History[]

Star Wars: Clone Wars[]

Aayla and Ki-Adi vs

Grievous in the 2003 series.

In Star Wars: Clone Wars, General Grievous's first public appearance is when he attacked several Jedi on Hypori. After killing Daakman Barrek, Grievous surrounded Tarr Seirr, Sha'a Gi, Aayla Secura, K'Kruhk, Ki-Adi-Mundi and Shaak Ti. After stating he would grant the Jedi a "warrior's death", Grievous killed Gi, and Seirr then injured Secura, Ti, and K'kruhk. He managed to possess three lightsabers (one in each hand and the third using his left foot) to fight Mundi. As they fought lightsabers blazing, clone troopers arrived to save the surviving Jedi from Grievous, though they left K'kruhk thinking he was dead.

Sometime later, Grievous searched for Supreme Chancellor Palpatine on Coruscant and fought several Jedi that took Palpatine to a secret bunker aboard a maglev train. However, Grievous and his MagnaGuards reached the hardened bunker and made his way to Palpatine. As Grievous was about to escape, Mace Windu Force-crushed his chest plates which severely damaged his lungs which gave him terrible coughing and wheezing problems.

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of The Sith[]

In Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, General Grievous holds Supreme Chancellor Palpatine hostage aboard his flagship Invisible Hand. After a rescue operation results in Count Dooku's death at Anakin Skywalker's hands, Grievous retreats from the battle after the Jedi infiltrate his command bridge and later takes command over the Separatist Council.

230px-Grievous on Invisible Hand

Grievous during the Movie.

Now the Republic's top priority, Grievous takes refuge on the sinkhole planet Utapau, the Separatist Council's base. Under orders from Darth Sidious, Grievous relocates the Council to the volcanic planet Mustafar. After Palpatine authorizies an invasion of Utapau, Grievous engages Obi-Wan Kenobi in a lightsaber duel. When Kenobi gains an early advantage, Grievous flees the scene towards his starfighter with Kenobi hot on his heels. The chase ends at Grievous's secret hangar where the pair fight hand to hand. Making use of his robotic body, the General has the clear advantage in the brawl and prepares to kill Kenobi but the Jedi Master manages to rip open his chestplate in the process. Using the Force to pull Grievous's blaster to him, Kenobi fires five shots into the cyborg's heart, incinerating him from the inside.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars[]

In the first season of the computer-animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Grievous is the commander of the Separatist warship Malevolence armed with a pair of heavy ion cannons. He also clashes with Obi-Wan Kenobi aboard the Malevolence for the first time when he chases him aboard the warship's railway system. During the ensuing lightsaber duel, Grievous nearly gets the better of Obi-Wan, but the Jedi Master escapes at the last moment. Meanwhile, Anakin secretly sabotages the Malevolence's navigation computer, sending it crashing into a nearby moon. However, Grievous escapes on his starfighter and continues his campaign against the Republic. A few episodes later, Grievous discovers Anakin and Padawan Ahsoka Tano infiltrating his secret listening post and seeks out to search for them. He then engages Ashoka and her squad of clone troopers, defeating all the troopers and then engaging in a cat and mouse game with the Padawan. However, Anakin and Ahsoka still manage to destroy his listening post. Aware of Grievous' recent string of failures, Count Dooku arranges a test for his cyborg henchman – in the form of Jedi Master Kit Fisto and Jedi Knight Nahdar Vebb. In Grievous' personal castle on the third moon of Vassek, the two Jedi and a squad of clone troopers ambush Grievous and cut off his legs. Once repaired, Grievous duels and kills Vebb. On the outskirts of Grievous' castle, the general climbs up from the ledge and unleashes four lightsabers on Fisto. Using the fog to his advantage, Fisto successfully cuts off one of Grievous' hands and reclaims Vebb's lightsaber. Armed with two lightsabers, Fisto gains the upper hand over Grievous to which the general calls in his Magnaguards and Fisto flees. Grievous reports to Dooku, who says that there is room for improvement.

During the second season, Grievous boards a Republic Cruiser with Jedi Master Eeth Koth on board. Grievous duels Koth and takes him prisoner. Obi-Wan, Anakin and Jedi Master Adi Gallia attempt to rescue Koth and capture Grievous, resulting in a confrontation between Obi-Wan and Grievous over the planet Saleucami, which Grievous loses. Though the Jedi succeed in rescuing Koth, Grievous, helped by his droids, escapes once again.

In the third season, Grievous, Dark Jedi Asajj Ventress and their armies attack the clone factories on the planet Kamino. During the battle, Grievous clashes with Obi-Wan again. However, their duel ends in stalemate and Grievous flees the planet with Ventress. Later on, Grievous commands a sabotage mission using infiltrator droids on the Galactic Senate, resulting in a deregulation of the banks.

During the fourth season, Grievous suffers a humiliating defeat when he attempts to invade Naboo. Jar Jar Binks distracts Grievous in a series of negotiations long enough for the Gungan army to shut down Grievous' invasion force. As Grievous pursues Jar Jar, he slaughters many Gungan soldiers. At that moment, General Tarpals intervenes and engages Grievous in a duel. Although he is mortally wounded by the cyborg, Tarpals impales Grievous through his chest which allows the Gungan Army to bombard the wounded general with energized projectiles and capture him. However, he is freed in a prisoner exchange with Anakin between Dooku and Padmé Amidala. Later, Grievous attacks Gallia's ship, engaging her in a lightsaber duel down a narrow hallway. The duel ends when Grievous kicks Gallia in the chest, sending her flying across the hallway. Grievous then captures Gallia. Shortly after, Gallia escapes Grievous' custody when a strike force led by Jedi Master Plo Koon boards his ship and frees the Jedi Master, prompting Grievous to flee once again. Grievous is later sent to the planet Dathomir under Dooku's orders to exterminate the Nightsisters. Immediately upon landing on the planet's surface, the general begins his rampage and his droid army turns Dathomir into a battlefield. However, Ventress turns the tide of the battle and fights her way to the general's shuttle where the cyborg emerges to confront her personally. As they duel, Grievous grows overconfident and begins to toy with Ventress until she surprises him by chopping off one of his arms and knocking him to the ground. Grievous then orders his troops to fire on Ventress, wounding her. As Grievous prepares to deliver the death blow to his longtime rival, he is attacked by Nightsister zombies and is forced to fight them off while Ventress flees. Under new orders from Dooku, Grievous turns his attention to Nightsister leader Mother Talzin and slaughters his way to her fortress where she narrowly escapes from the general's grasp by teleporting away. Grievous is later seen on Serenno listening to Dooku's fears about Savage Opress.

In the fifth season's premiere episode, Grievous is mentioned by Hondo Ohnaka as having defeated Obi-Wan and won the battle for the system that Florrum is in. This battle is shown in the episode "Bound for Rescue" where Grievous attacks Obi-Wan's ship; the General slaughters a squadron of clones and duels Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan is no match for Grievous and is subsequently defeated, forcing him to abandon his ship. Later, Grievous goes to Florrum personally and announces that the system is under his control now, and that Dooku is having him punish Hondo for holding him for ransom. The droids destroy Hondo's stronghold and his belongings, and hold him prisoner, but Hondo is rescued when Ahsoka and a group of younglings free him and retreat off the planet. Grievous pursues them and fights Ahsoka. Although she has grown stronger since their last battle, Grievous still proves to be more than a match for her. The duel ends when Hondo picks up Ahsoka in the Slave I and takes off, leaving Grievous to stew in his anger. In the first episode of the droid arc "Secret Weapons", Grievous is mentioned in the opening credits, and the primary goal of the mission is to retrieve a module that will decode a transmission that Grievous made about an important Separatist attack.

Grievous appears as a major character in the four-part comic series, Son of Dathomir, an unproduced story arc intended for Clone Wars season six. Dooku sends him to hunt down the rogue Sith Lord Darth Maul, who has become a significant threat to Sidious' plans. Grievous is ordered to only wound Maul's forces, but not kill him; this is in order to draw out Mother Talzin, who is later revealed to be Maul's mother. Though he thinks it foolish to keep Maul alive, Grievous does as he is told. He takes a huge army of droids to Zanbar and attacks Maul's army of Death Watch warriors. Despite heavy casualties, Grievous' droids ultimately win the battle. During the battle, Grievous briefly fights Maul and wins, forcing him to flee. Later, Grievous and Dooku are lured into a trap by Maul and his minions, and are taken prisoner in order to draw out Sidious. However, Grievous soon escapes and rejoins Sidious, who orders Grievous to attack Dathomir again, where Maul and Talzin are planning using Dooku as a sacrifice to restore Talzin to full strength. Sidious fights Talzin while Grievous duels Maul again. Maul eventually overpowers Grievous and Force-pushes him through a wall. Grievous quickly reappears, however, and after Sidious and Dooku have subdued Talzin (who has thrown Maul out of the battle to save his life), Grievous stabs her through the chest with his lightsabers, killing her.

Grievous was to undergo a design change in the seventh season to look more like his design in Revenge of the Sith. Though the series was cancelled before this could happen, the unfinished animations of the Crystal Crisis arc showed this design. In this arc, Grievous is sent by Dooku to purchase a giant kyber crystal on Utapau, and while Grievous at first obtains the crystal, it is lost when Anakin and Obi-Wan destroy it by overloading its power.

Grievous makes a brief appearance in the openning sequence of the first episode of the Siege of Mandalore story arc from the seventh and final season. As the arc takes place during the events of Revenge of the Sith, Grievous has a different design, similar to that from the movie, and is shown to have launched an invasion of Coruscant to capture Palpatine. Grievous is again mentioned in the second episode, set after the Battle of Coruscant, when Obi-Wan states that he has been assigned to hunt him down on Utapau. He is mentioned for the last time in the arc's third episode, when Ki-Adi Mundi says during a meeting with the Jedi Council that he has been destroyed (similarly to a scene from Revenge of the Sith).

The Bad Batch[]

Towards the end of the Clone Wars, General Grievous escapes from the Battle of Coruscant after his attempt to kidnap Chancellor Palpatine is thwarted by Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. Retreating into the outer rim, Grievous orders his Separatist armies to mount a counterattack against Republic forces across the galaxy.

Personality[]

General Grievous was a brilliant Separatist military strategist and a feared Jedi hunter, known for his ruthlessness and hacking cough. A twisted melding of flesh and metal, his body itself was a weapon, allowing him lightning quick strikes and devastating blows. He was also quick to retreat from a disadvantageous tactical position in battle, a tactic that worked until one final meeting with Obi-Wan Kenobi. He was also a brilliant military strategist who can't be bothered with compassion or mercy for his enemies. His lightning strikes and effective battle planning made him infamous in the eyes of the Republic, Grievous' living matter was encased within his precision-engineered artificial body; inside the hardened shell beat the heart of a remorseless Jedi killer. A pressurized gut-sack held his vital organs, while his skull-like mask contained his living eyes and brain. Each of his six-fingered arms could split in two, resulting in an array of four limbs, each armed with a lightsaber that he would take as a grim trophy of his foes. Grievous could spin these arms in a whirling storm of deadly light. Despite his imposing image, it seemed Grievous was a coward at heart, only entering into combat with opponents he believes he can defeat. This was due to invasive and manipulative brain surgery performed on him in secret by separatist scientists, and originally, Grievous was known to willingly take on seemingly impossible foes. His ruthlessness and thirst for victory at any cost made him Enemy Number One in the eyes of the Jedi Council.

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • In both the popular T.V. show and the 3rd film in the Star Wars saga, General Grievous seems to have an alliance with Count Dooku.
  • When Genndy Tartakovsky was creating The Clone Wars, George Lucas explained that General Grievous was the main villain of Revenge of the Sith which led Genndy to creating General Grievous in the series. In the series, Grievous was cold-machine that hunted Jedi by taking their lightsabers and later the Jedi were after him always in The Clone Wars series. His chest was force-crushed in the Clone Wars. After this, Lucas needed a new design for Grievous in the Movie which led to the creation of General Grievous for his villainous appearance of coughing and wheezing in the Movie.
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