Durge

"You think that is going to stop me? I was once buried for 60 years! The Mandalorians didn't kill me. The Sith didn't kill me. And even the Bloodboilers of Kragis didn't kill me. Then, you won't kill me."

- Durge

Durge was a Gen'Dai bounty hunter, Jedi hunter, and a commander in the Confederacy of Independent Systems.

Young life


As a young Gen'Dai, Durge was viewed by many of his elders as an exceptional physical specimen. Although he was naturally aggressive, unlike most of his species, it was witnessing bounty hunters in action that forever sealed Durge's fate as one of them. Unable to resist the lure of hunting, Durge left his tribe and ventured out into the Galaxy, training under various crack bounty hunters.

Early in life, Durge met a Mandalorian training master known as Jaing. Jaing taught Durge all he needed to know in Mandalorian tactics and skill. Durge was loyal to his Master, and vowed to kill every Mandalorian alive when his Master was killed by a group of Mandalorian mercenaries in Ung Kusp's clan in the laboratory of a shadowy cyberneticist who had equipped the duo with cutting-edge weaponry.

New Sith Wars


Early in his career, Durge fought for the Sith during the New Sith War, during which he fought many Jedi, learning their techniques and becoming experienced at killing them. In order to avoid Jedi reprisals, Durge went into hiding after the Sith's defeat at the Seventh Battle of Ruusan.

Capture and torture
Durge continued to hunt under a series of aliases and false names, amassing a sizeable fortune. He once went after the Bloodboilers of Kragis. Perhaps his most fateful mission came in 100 BBY, when he was hired to kill the current Mandalore. Although Durge was successful, he was captured by the Mandalorians and tortured, driving him slowly past the edge of sanity. Although able to escape the Mandalorian torture, it took Durge nearly a century to regenerate, sixty of those years spent buried underground.

Clone Wars
"Jango Fett was lucky I was taking a nap. Now, I'll just have to kill all his spawn...starting with you!"

- Durge

When he resurfaced following the outbreak of the Clone Wars, Durge was elated to learn that the Mandalorians were all but dead&mdash;but became angered when he learned that their legacy lived on in the Grand Army of the Republic, which was made up of clones of the last Mandalorian leader, Jango Fett. For a short while, Durge worked for Jabba the Hutt on Tatooine. Two months into the war, Durge took on an assignment to assassinate the Neimoidian official Gilramos Libkath, but was bested by Boba Fett, and blown up along with a cache of Separatist munitions.

Durge survived the blast, however, and a month later he was working for the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Durge revealed himself to the Jedi at Ohma-D'un, where he and Asajj Ventress were testing a new chemical weapon&mdash;Jenna Zan Arbor's swamp gas. Durge fought the Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi, Glaive, and Zule Xiss to a standstill, but was bested by Anakin Skywalker and forced to retreat. A month later, Kenobi and Durge met again, at Queyta, where Durge was guarding the antidote to the deadly swamp gas. Although Kenobi was able to drive Durge off and secure the antidote, the bounty hunter was able to make several high-profile Jedi kills, including Jon Antilles and Nico Diath.

Four months after the outbreak of the Clone Wars, Durge was dispatched to reinforce San Hill's position at Muunilinst. Durge led a squad of IG-series battle droids and met General Kenobi's attack head-on. Durge caught kenobi's speeder bike in mid air, launching Kenobi off the bike. Durge then came at Kenobi using the speeder bike as a club, but was defeated by Obi-Wan in a fierce duel and cleaved in two. Durge recovered surprisingly quickly, and headed to San Hill's command center, where Obi-Wan had just captured the InterGalactic Banking Clan leader. Durge charged into the room and was instantly met with a barrage of fire from clone commando's knocking him down Durge transformed and appeared in his true Gen Dai form and began wading through the clone's fire, taking them out. He absorbed Kenobi into himself, but Kenobi was able to blast Durge apart with the Force.



Thanks to his Gen’Dai regenerative abilities, Durge was able to survive even this. Two months later, he and Ventress fought General Grievous at the Trenchant Space Station, a test orchestrated by Count Dooku in order to judge who would become Supreme Commander of the Droid Armies. Durge was beheaded by the General, and Grievous was awarded complete command of the droid armies.



In the following months, Durge continued to fight the Republic forces, and, as of 16 months after the Battle of Geonosis, was still active on the battlefields. In 20 BBY, the Confederacy launched a devastating series attacks known as Operation Durge's Lance, but whether Durge was in any way involved in these is unknown. At some point during the war, he faced Jedi Masters Plo Koon and Kit Fisto when they attempted to quell an inmate uprising at a galactic prison; however, due to the timely intervention of one of the inmates, Durge was defeated, and trapped in the catacombs beneath the prison, though Kit Fisto remarked that such a confinement would not hold him for long.

Near the climax of the Clone Wars, Durge once again faced off against Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker on board an abandoned ship above the watery world of Maramere. Holding his own against both of them. Anakin managed to find some of Durge's hidden explosives and launch them at Durge with the force, sevearly damaging the bounty hunter. Skywalker sent Durge soaring back with the force, forcing him into an escape pod and shooting him into space. Anakin then used the force to guide the escape pod into Maramere's star, finally defeating the seemingly invincible warrior.

Durge's legacy


Even after his death, Durge continued to have an effect on the Galaxy which he had terrorized. Buoyed by the death of their old foe, the reborn Mandalorians embarked upon a devastating blitzkrieg, attacking several important military targets, including Kamino and New Bornalex. A month after his death, Boba Fett used a holoshroud projector featuring an image of Durge during his infiltration of Mazariyan, a Separatist fortress on Xagobah. General Grievous was not fooled by the projection, however.

During the Galactic Civil War, a bounty hunter using the name Durge (perhaps as a homage to the real Durge) surfaced. This hunter wore a substantially different set of armor, and is presumed to have no relation to the more famous Durge of earlier years.

Abilities
Durge was quite powerful. He was faster than most Jedi and stronger as well. Durge was able to dodge Anakin's saber strikes while going two toe-to-toe with the Jedi. He Also performed such superhuman acts as catching a speeder bike and using it as a club, ramming or throwing Anakin through a blast door, and punching Grievous through a stone statue.

It seems that when Durge is in full Gen'Dai mode he becomes far more formidable. When Durge did this on Muunilinst, he was able to swat multiple clone troopers away in one strike easily and was taking their blaster fire without effect. Also, in this stage, Durge regenerated at a far more rapid rate. Durge was able to regrow part of a limb cut off by Obi-Wan almost instantly.

Durge had no vital organs and was one walking nerve cluster. As a result, Durge was able to hear a Human heartbeat from over 200 meters away, and could survive almost anything. When fighting Anakin aboard a space ship orbiting Maramere's star, he was able to keep fighting despite being hit with 9 thermal charges.

Equipment and gear
Presumably due to his torture at the hands of the Mandalorians, Durge had a number of cybernetic implants. One of them was a voice-box, which he required to speak. These, in addition to a unique set of armor, were given to him by an especially peculiar doctor prior to Jaing's death.

Durge wielded an arsenal of powerful weapons, many of which were incredibly effective against Jedi. Along with a pair of blaster pistols and a rifle, Durge was equipped with a jetpack and energized Magna bolas. His armor sported machine gun gauntlets which fired flechettes, a wrist-mounted flamethrower, a spiked flail, dart launchers, and energy shields capable of blocking lightsaber attacks for a short time. Durge often rode a modified swoop bike into battle.

Behind the scenes

 * Durge was created specifically for the Clone Wars multimedia project. He was created in order to replace Jango Fett as the bounty hunter threat.
 * Durge was voiced by Daran Norris in the Star Wars: Clone Wars miniseries.
 * Originally, Chapter 20 of the Clone Wars cartoon was going to involve Anakin and Obi-Wan having to fight Durge. This was changed when George Lucas requested that they introduce General Grievous.
 * Durge's look was designed by the Skywalker Ranch Art Department, the same artists that developed the concepts that appear in the feature films. He was further refined in maquettes that became the basis for the Hasbro action figure.

Appearances

 * Prototypes
 * Boba Fett: Hunted
 * Rogues Gallery
 * Star Wars Republic: The New Face of War
 * Star Wars Republic 53: Blast Radius
 * Star Wars: Clone Wars
 * "Chapter 4"
 * "Chapter 8"
 * "Chapter 9"
 * Star Wars Republic 60: Hate and Fear
 * Star Wars: Obsession
 * Boba Fett: A New Threat
 * Boba Fett: Pursuit
 * Labyrinth of Evil
 * Star Wars Republic: The Hidden Enemy
 * Star Wars Galaxies