Xanatos

"You destroyed everything I loved. You destroyed me that day, Qui-Gon. Yet I was reborn. Stronger, wiser. I have surpassed you."

- Xanatos, to Qui-Gon Jinn

Xanatos was a Human male failed Jedi and the second Padawan of Qui-Gon Jinn, who earlier had trained a young Jedi named Feemor. He was the son of Telosian Governor Crion, the brother of Nason and fathered a boy named Granta with Tura Omega.

During the final trial that would have made him a Jedi Knight, Xanatos was corrupted by the mind and power of his father. After he witnessed his sister Nason's death in a riot and Crion's death at the hands of his former master Jinn, he became a Dark Jedi and the head of a mining facility on his homeworld of Telos IV.

Many years later, Xanatos fought Jinn and his new pupil, Obi-Wan Kenobi. He planned to bring the Jedi Temple into ruins, but the two Jedi put a stop to that at once. After one final humiliation that nearly placed him at the hands of Telosian authorities, Xanatos committed suicide by leaping into a pool of acid.

Early life
Qui-Gon Jinn discovered Xanatos when the boy was three years old. Impressed by his Force-potential, Jinn decided, after some brief hesitation, to bring Xanatos to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant for training. In doing so, Xanatos was taken away from the three things he loved most at an early age: Crion, his father; Nason, his sister; and Telos IV, his home planet. Crion gave his consent for Xanatos to leave for the Jedi Order. Once Xanatos got to Coruscant he tried to impress other younglings with his powerful background. Qui-Gon ignored this fault and went on to train him as a Jedi.

In the Jedi Order
"I didn't start it."

- Xanatos to Qui-Gon Jinn, whenever an argument erupted

After achieving Knighthood going on solo missions in a matter of five years, and later achieving Mastery by training his first Padawan Feemor, Jinn took Xanatos to be his second Padawan. Jinn trained Xanatos for a number of years going on various missions, though Xanatos tended to be aggressive, which concerned the Jedi Council.

Xanatos met Feemor at least once during a sparring match between the latter and Qui-Gon.

As a final test for Xanatos, Yoda, skeptical of his readiness to be a Jedi Knight, sent him, Qui-Gon, Master Tahl, and Masterless Padawan Orykan Tamarik, to Telos, where the planet was in a brutal crises secretly started by Xanatos' father Crion&mdash;governor of the planet Telos IV.

Fall to the dark side
Crion, now a corrupt governor of Telos, regretted sending his son to the Jedi Temple. He encouraged his son to stay with him on Telos and enjoy wealth and power. After the death of his sister, Nason, Xanatos sided with his father in the civil war, thus failing his final test. Under Crion's direction, he sabotaged the first meeting to rally the Telosians against Toprawa. But as the former Jedi Dairoki confessed having committed crimes in Crion's name, Hukowl An Devi, one of the governor's top advisers, revealed the truth to the people of Telos. Civil war soon broke out. Xanatos was said to have been appointed as the head of the Telosian army.

Jinn went after Crion himself, hoping to rescue Xanatos from the madness his father had caused, but the governor attempted to duel Jinn instead. Xanatos watched in terror as his former master rushed to Padawan Tamarik's rescue, thus destroying the sword Crion wielded and knocking the governor into among the decorative fires of his palace. Crion died instantly. Jinn tried to apologize, but Xanatos' inextinguishable anger at his father's death caused him to turn to the dark side. He picked up his father's burning right hand from the nearby fireplace and pressed the ring (which had been cut by Jinn's lightsaber) to his right cheek. The broken-circle scar later became his "trademark" and the symbol for the Offworld Mining Corporation, a company he took control of through deceit and conspiracy. Before Xanatos and Qui-Gon could fight each other, the rioters stormed the palace and Xanatos was forced to escape. He stole the Telosian treasury and fled Telos on a transport.

Jinn told the Council that he had "died" in the fighting on Telos. It was also symbolic as he intended to disrupt Jinn's life and the lives of others he could exploit. Xanatos would go on to stir up trouble for Qui-Gon Jinn and his new apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi in the decades preceding the Invasion of Naboo.

Bandomeer
"If you are reading this, I suppose I underestimated you. I won't next time. I enjoyed our adventure together, Master. I am certain you will have the pleasure of meeting me again."

- Xanatos' farewell message to Jinn

As the leader of Offworld Corporation, Xanatos was later contacted by VeerTa, head of the Home Planet Mine on Bandomeer. Hoping to make a profit, the Meerian told Xanatos that she had discovered ionite. In return, Xanatos said that if Offworld took control of the mines, it would be "for the good of Balmorra." But it was far from the truth.

Seeing an opportunity to enact his revenge on Qui-Gon Jinn, Xanatos arranged a backup plan, in case his scheme for profiting off Bandomeer didn't succeed. He arranged VeerTa to sneak Offworld mining supplies into storage rooms of the Agricultural Corps's Enrichment Zones and hid it with coated transparasteel made from his homeworld of Telos IV. What VeerTa didn't know was that among the items were ion bombs, which encased in boxes imprinted with the broken circle. Xanatos then set up a series of charges to ignite a chain reaction around Bandomeer, planning on killing Jinn.

Later, forged a message to Supreme Chancellor Kalpana that looked like it came from Bandomeer's governor, SonTag, requesting Jinn to act as a diplomat for the peace meeting between Offworld and its rival company, the Arcona Mineral Harvest Corporation. He also sent a somewhat taunting message to Jinn that read: "I have been looking forward to this day; beside his name was a drawing of the broken circle. Since Jemba the Hutt had recently died, Xanatos would have to take his place as Offworld's representative. Before attending the meeting, he arranged for a bomb to placed in the Home Planet Mine, where its sensor was sabotaged. Arriving late, he found Jinn with Arcona Mineral Harvest Corporation chief operations manager Clat'Ha, Governor SonTag, and VeerTa; he adopted a cheery disposition to his former master and went on how he "went astray" from the Jedi teachings before going to Offworld.

Moving on to business, Xanatos claimed that he desired peace between Offworld and Arcona Mineral Harvest. To further his ruse, he proposed sending ten percent of Offworld's profits for the Bandomeer reclamation effort. Then, the bomb went off in the Home Planet Mine. Veer'Ta, suspecting Offworld, lunged herself at Xanatos, but was stopped by Jinn. Xanatos, feigning surprise, denied all involvement. SonTag sent VeerTa off to help the miners out of the wreckage.

When the rescue was completed, Xanatos sent SonTag an offer to rebuild the mine: not only would he send credits, droids, and anything else Bandomeer would need, but also put recently unemployed miners to work at Offworld. Sure enough, Offworld was as good as its world, but only to sell the deception.

Later, Xanatos traveled at the Eastern Enrichment Zone with five Offworld security officers, under the assumption of making an "exploratory trip to the northern mine quadrant." In actually, he was intent on capturing Obi-Wan Kenobi. Entering alone, he traveled to the Dome found Kenobi inside the secret storage compartment. He ensured Kenobi that he was a "friend" and warned him that the boy would not make it as Jinn's apprentice, thanks to his cold nature. It was enough to fill Kenobi's mind with doubts.

Then, as if signaled by Xanatos, the guards stormed in while pretending to identify their employer and Kenobi as thieves. Xanatos activated his lightsaber and made a feigned attack on the guards, with Kenobi on the defensive: neither were willing to kill the guards. After Kenobi dealt with three guards, a fourth raised an electrojabber against Xanatos, under the feigned intent to strike the Dark Jedi. Kenobi rushed to apprehend the guard, only to be shocked in the ribs. He was then knocked unconscious from behind, either by Xanatos or another guard. Xanatos then sent Kenobi off to the mines within the Great Sea of Bandomeer, but not before taking the boy's lightsaber and comlink.

With the help of Kenobi, Jinn thwarted his plans by disabling the charges. Xanatos fled into hiding, vowing to get revenge some day. He returned to Telos, where he planned to stripmine the planet to obtain wealth. Jinn and Kenobi tracked him down and put a stop to his plans.

Attack on the Jedi Temple
Xanatos had planned an attack on Yoda and caused multiple sabotages with the help of a Temple student, Bruck Chun, whom he manipulated through his father. His modus operandi was Disruption + Demoralization + Distraction=Devastation, a maxim he recalled from a previous mission as Jinn's Padawan. Xanatos held a Mon Calamari Padawan named Bant Eerin hostage to force the Jedi to give back his transport, which they had found in a tunnel close to water purification tanks. He narrowly escaped, but not before planting volatile crystals in the Temple's fusion furnace. However, Jinn discovered his plot and managed to save the Jedi Temple.

Downfall on Telos
"I am your biggest failure. Live with that. And live with this."

- Xanatos, to Qui-Gon Jinn, before the former kills himself

Jinn and Kenobi doggedly tracked Xanatos all the way to Telos, to find him thought of as a hero by the Telosians and possessing immense influence within the government. Xanatos then used his influence to turn Jinn and Kenobi into criminals. They soon found out that Offworld Corporation was mining in Telos' restoration areas and distracting the citizens with a gambling project supposedly controlled by the government, called Katharsis. The profits from Katharsis were supposedly used for the restoration of Telos. In truth, Xanatos' company, Offworld, controlled Katharsis, which was fixed so the winner was only given a fraction of the credits and the rest, including profits, were used by Offworld to conduct its mining programs. The Jedi were able to show the public all of this and Xanatos was caught.

When cornered, Xanatos told Jinn that he was his biggest failure. He then leaped into a pool of black acid, committing suicide instead of being captured by his former master.

Legacy
Later, Obi-Wan Kenobi encountered Xanatos' son, Granta Omega. Omega followed the same formula that his father did, although he believed that Jinn killed his father and refused to believe what Kenobi was trying to say. He would then walk in his father's footsteps by trying to convert Kenobi's Padawan, Anakin Skywalker to the free life.

Kenobi had a vision of Xanatos' death while on the Sith planet of Zigoola in 22 BBY.

Xanatos would be remembered even by the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Sidious. He was the protégé of Senator Sano Sauro sometime after his fall. He taught the Senator everything he knew about midi-chlorians. This compelled Senator Sauro to eventually come up with a plan to use Force-sensitive children to train pilots for the Galactic Empire so within a decade, the Empire would have an invincible fleet. Anakin Skywalker, now as Sidious's Sith apprentice, Darth Vader, thought it was an absurd plan.

Personality and traits
"I always have a back door."

- Xanatos

What made Xanatos special, even as a young Padawan, was the quickness of his mind and strategical prowess. He always had a dual reason for every action and always seemed to be one step ahead of his adversaries. He was manipulative, deceiving when he wanted to be, and of course, like all Dark Jedi, pursued his own interests. Jinn saw all of this and chose to ignore it out of affection for him, like a father who chooses not to see his son's faults. Xanatos employed the dark formula for destruction very effectively and his only undoing was his singular hatred for Jinn.

Because he loved his father Crion so much, Xanatos used the late Telosian governor's name as a password for the datapad stored in his office on Bandomeer.

Powers and abilities
Xanatos's mastery of the lightsaber was unsurpassed in his class, and his ability to focus on the Force matched his masters. He passed the preliminary tests with a near-perfect score as well, during his time as a Padawan.

Based on his skills, Xanatos was likely a practitioner of Form IV: Ataru like his master, but also had some skill in Jar'Kai, attacking Qui-Gon Jinn in the Offworld Mining Corporation mining area, with his and Obi-Wan Kenobi's lightsaber. Xanatos used a blue lightsaber crystal for his blade, before turning to the dark side of the Force and replacing the original crystal with a synthetic red one.

While dueling Qui-Gon, he was perceived to have grown more powerful, though his footwork was still his weakness. Obi-Wan Kenobi perceived him as faster than any fighter he had ever met, and was the best at the Blindfold test.

Behind the scenes
Xanatos and his father Crion's last name is unknown, with Xanatos' mistress Tura Omega passing along her surname to their son, Granta. He is suggested to be a practitioner of Ataru by his skills in Jedi Apprentice: The Dark Rival, which would make sense, considering that his master, Qui-Gon Jinn, was a practitioner of the form as well.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Jedi&mdash;The Dark Side
 * Jedi Apprentice: The Rising Force
 * Jedi Apprentice: The Dark Rival
 * Jedi Apprentice: The Hidden Past
 * Jedi Apprentice: The Mark of the Crown
 * Jedi Apprentice: The Uncertain Path
 * Jedi Apprentice: The Captive Temple
 * Jedi Apprentice: The Day of Reckoning
 * Jedi Apprentice Special Edition: Deceptions
 * Cloak of Deception
 * Jedi Quest: Path to Truth
 * Jedi Quest: The Trail of the Jedi
 * Jedi Quest: The Shadow Trap
 * Jedi Quest: The False Peace
 * Jedi Quest: The Final Showdown
 * Legacy of the Jedi
 * The Clone Wars: Wild Space
 * The Last of the Jedi: A Tangled Web
 * The Life and Legend of Obi-Wan Kenobi