Aayla Secura/Legends

"This girl&mdash;Aayla&mdash;she called me through the Force. She helped calm me in battle with the wampa. Could she be&hellip;" "A Jedi? Perhaps."

- Quinlan Vos and Tholme

Aaylas'ecura, better known as Aayla Secura, was a female Rutian Twi'lek Jedi Knight and General during the era of the Clone Wars.

Biography
"Aayla Secura came to see us off personally. She said we were the bravest soldiers she had ever met. It's a good thing we had our helmets on, because none of us could bear to look her in the eye."

- Diary of the 501st, before Order 66.

Early life
Aayla was always strong with the Force, and at a young age was discovered by the Jedi during a mission on Ryloth undertaken by the young Quinlan Vos, the Kiffar Padawan of Jedi Master Tholme. The very young Aayla was kept with the Twi'lek slaves of the local Hutt to be safe from any possible threat. She was still Lon Secura's niece, but the wampa guard of the Hutt went on a rampage, and the little Secura was in peril. Fortunately she was sensed and saved by Quinlan. He and Aayla had a strong connection with each other through the Force. Quinlan persuaded master Tholme to test Aayla on Coruscant for Jedi training where she passed the tests.



She was a skilled swordsman; she studied and used Form IV of lightsaber combat. She also studied the Jar'Kai form, using a green and a blue lightsaber. She would also occasionally use a violet lightsaber. She had a good relationship with a young Twi'lek Padawan named Xiaan Amersu, to whom Aayla gave a Heart of Fire as a gift. She also had a very close relationship with Kit Fisto, one which pushed the limits of the Jedi Code at times.

Aayla once learned a very valuable lesson when her dear pet T'da died. Her master comforted her by relating how her beloved was now part of the Force, and would also live on in her heart. Ironically enough, it was on Felucia that she buried T'da&mdash;a planet which she would return to towards the end of her life.

Padawan Aayla and her Master, Quinlan, undertook many successive missions together. They rescued a little princess from the Skyboat Pirates of Xoman Free, faced the Terbeasts of Ogden Minor, solved the Mystery of the Lodi on Solibus IV, and even witnessed Sebulba, a Dug, threatening a Gungan on Tatooine. But when Quinlan and Aayla were assigned on a mission to Ryloth to investigate the sources of glitteryll, all went wrong. The two were captured and drugged. Aayla and her master suffered heavy amnesia. She was taken by her uncle Pol Secura, who had to feed her more glitteryll every day because her spirit kept reasserting itself. She forgot that she was a Jedi; she forgot she had a master and Force powers.

One day a strange man came to Pol Secura's quarters, looking for his "Padawan" Aayla. He showed Aayla her lightsaber, but she still couldn't remember anything. After a while, when the man figured out that Pol Secura was behind the drugging he came back for him. When Aayla tried to rescue her uncle, she accidentally Force pushed him off the balcony. She blamed the stranger, Quinlan Vos.

Brush with the dark side


Aayla wanted revenge on the man who killed her uncle. She hid herself on a pirate ship en route to Kiffex. On that planet she discovered and released Dark Jedi Volfe Karkko from his stasis field. She gave in to the dark side of the Force and was willing to help the Anzati Dark Jedi. He gave her command of his Anzati minions and let her hunt down the Jedi on Kiffex. Karkko needed them alive to regain his strength; he needed to suck their "Jedi-soup." But first he needed to feed himself and his Anzati. Aayla took the Anzati and stormed a local stronghold. There she faced off against Quinlan Vos, Tholme, and Zao and got away with their captured people. Quinlan followed her and reached the prison of Karkko. Again she fought against her former master, but then she at last realized her true identity. At that moment Karkko used Force lightning to knock her out. When she woke up, she found Karkko dead and later on she was assigned to Master Tholme, Quinlan's former master. Quinlan pictured himself as "a leaf blown forth by the wind" and left Kiffex, going where the Force told him to go.

Ascension to Knighthood
Aayla and Tholme returned to Coruscant and, like Quinlan, she was re-trained in the Jedi Temple. Master Plo Koon agreed to use his telepathy to guide Aayla as she arranged her newly-recovered memories. She also learned of the Stark Hyperspace War and met the veteran Jace Dallin.

In 29 BBY, Aayla went undercover in the Twi'lek clan Fenn. She discovered that the clan's leader, Ro Fenn, was planning an attack on the Secura clan's heir Nat Secura. She informed Tholme and hurried to her master, ready to help him. He faced off against two Nikto Morgukai, was defeated but still managed to slip on their ship. Unfortunately he was discovered and imprisoned. Aayla followed Vilmarh Grahrk, who was in league with the Nikto, and his ship Inferno, but lost them.

The Force led her to a junkyard on Ord Mantell. There she found her former Master Quinlan and helped him fight against bounty hunters. She explained everything to Quinlan, and the two decided to rescue Nat Secura and Master Tholme. They traced Vilmarh and made him tell where the two Morgukai went. Quickly they set course to Kintan, the home planet of the Nikto, and faced off against the two Morgukai Bok and his father, Tsyr.

The Nikto escaped and went to the fortress of the Twi'lek Kh'aris Fenn, who was behind all this misery all the time, and waited for the Jedi to arrive. The two Jedi broke in the fortress and inside they confronted the Nikto again. Aayla was to rescue Nat Secura and Tholme, Quinlan would fight the Nikto.

Aayla reached the dungeon, defeated the torture droid AX/RX, freed Tholme and Nat and went to Quinlan to help him. Quinlan had already beheaded Tsyr but he was smacked to the ground by Bok. Aayla saved Quinlan's life by fighting Bok before he could deliver the final blow. She wounded the Nikto, taking his right hand, but did not kill him. Bok let himself fall hundreds of meters in order to keep his honor. The three Jedi and Nat survived. They returned the young Twi'lek boy to his father, but, unfortunately, Kh'aris escaped from Ryloth to Dooku's hidden stronghold. Ro Fenn was sent into the Bright Lands, the side of Ryloth that was baked in eternal sunlight.



Back on Coruscant, Aayla and Quinlan were both promoted by the Jedi Council. Aayla was granted the rank of Jedi Knight and Quinlan a Jedi Master.

Clone Wars
Aayla was in the Jedi Temple at the time of the Battle of Geonosis and thus was a member of the 200 Jedi task force sent to Geonosis to rescue two Jedi and the Senator Padmé Amidala held captive. She was one of the few survivors of the battle between the Confederacy of Independent Systems and the Jedi that ensued in the Petranaki arena and then led her own squad of clone troopers into battle. Thus was sparked the conflict known as the Clone Wars.

Aayla became a Jedi General, later in charge of the 327th Star Corps. Eight standard days after the Battle of Geonosis, she was sent on a mission to intercept Techno Union scientist Ratri Tane, who had fled to Corellia with the files and prototype of new droid circuitry, along with fellow Caamasi Jedi Ylenic It'kla.

Less than a standard month later, she infiltrated the Wheel, posing as a down-on-her-luck mechanic named Jayzaa, in order to locate Quinlan Vos, who hadn't reported from his undercover mission since the Battle of Geonosis. Together, they secured a copy of the plans of the impending Confederacy attack on Kamino. Using the intelligence they had collected, the Galactic Republic was able to fend off the attack on the rainy planet. In the Battle of Kamino, Aayla defended the cloning facilities in her Jedi starfighter.

She would remain on the planet, alongside Kit Fisto, and save the facilities once again, this time from sabotage from within&mdash;a Kaminoan nano-virus meant to wipe out the clone troopers. During the last minutes of the battle against super battle droids (under the control of a double-crossing Kaminoan), Secura fell into the waters of Kamino and nearly drowned to death before being saved by Fisto. As an amphibian, the Nautolan was able to absorb oxygen from the water and breathe it into Aayla to help her breathe. When they were up on the surface again, they killed the double-crossing Kaminoan using the virus by tricking him into injecting it into himself. When Fisto saved Aayla, it marked a significant point in the lives of both Jedi. The event started a brief relationship between the two that pushed the limits of the Jedi Code. Similar to the relationship of Obi-wan Kenobi and Siri Tachi. It was more than "breathing for both of them" to Aayla and Fisto, especially by the manner in which it was done.



Four months after Geonosis, the Twi'lek Jedi participated in the Battle of Hypori, where she was one of the Jedi who survived their first encounter with General Grievous. However, she suffered grave wounds in the attack, and only survived due to the intervention of a squad of Advanced Recon Commandos.

Twenty-seven standard weeks into the war, Aayla investigated Separatist raids on Republic supply lines along the Corellian Trade Spine as part of a Jedi task force. When the headquarters of the raiders were pinpointed to the planet Devaron, Aayla went undercover as Tuulaa Doneeta, the spoiled daughter of a Twi'lek shipping baron. This way, she managed to infiltrate Senator Vien'sai'Malloc's apartments as her guest, with Masters Tholme ("Miles Croft"), and An'ya Kuro ("Saba") as her servants. The Senator was the one who backed the raiders, hoping to play both sides in the war. She had hired bounty hunter Aurra Sing, an ex-Jedi, to make sure nobody learned of her plans.



The Jedi on Devaron were Sing's next targets, and after caving in her former Master and Tholme, she ambushed Aayla. The Twi'lek survived and attacked Aurra. The two fought, and Aayla was able to win by hitting the bounty hunter where it hurt: her feelings of abandonment. Aurra reacted by unleashing her rage, but thus became disorientated, and Aayla cut off the antenna implant&mdash;installed by the hunter's Anzati mentors&mdash;that allowed Sing to feed off the fear of her prey. As Aurra was enveloped in anger, Aayla was at peace, and turned the former Jedi over to local authorities. She eventually ended up on the penal colony of Oovo IV. Then, Secura rescued Tholme and Kuro and provided intelligence she had gathered about the raider headquarters to Kit Fisto and T'ra Saa and the raiders were dissolved in a battle between them and Republic forces.

One of Aayla's missions during the Clone Wars was a mission to Endor. There, with the help of a battle droid she saved the Ewoks from a dangerous beast.

Aayla was often partnered with Clone Commander Bly, who developed a close friendship with her, and served on worlds as diverse as Honoghr and Saleucami. Following the siege of Saleucami, Aayla and her troops were sent to Felucia to help Barriss Offee uncover a plot to poison Felucia's water supply. There, Aayla had also gained the respect of the 501st Legion in the time they served with her.

"When her death came, I hope it was quick. She earned that much."

- Unknown 501st clone trooper

While fighting on Felucia, Aayla was betrayed and killed by her clone troopers including the ever-loyal Commander Bly, after they received word from Palpatine to carry out Order 66. Soon after, the AT-TE walker that was closest to her fired at Barriss Offee, making her the next victim of the Great Jedi Purge.

Post mortem
"They believe you are a forest spirit&hellip;"

- Anonymous B1 battle droid



When the Galactic Empire emerged, official records compiled by Sate Pestage stated that Aayla Secura and Barriss were both executed because they were plotting to poison Felucia's water supply.

However, despite the attempts of the Empire, Aayla Secura was remembered by the peoples of the worlds she aided, in some cases merging with pre-existing goddess myths or historical figures. Even as late as 40 ABY, the descendants of such worlds were still writing fictitious accounts of her life.

Abilities and traits
Aayla Secura was trained as a Jedi Guardian, leading her to focus more on the physical aspect of the Force, becoming an impressively skilled fighter. She mastered the fourth form of lightsaber combat, Ataru, and had some skill in Form V, as well as being a user of Jar'Kai. She was an empathic and highly intelligent Jedi, but was impulsive and somewhat mischievous. Thanks to the training of Vos and Tholme, Aayla was very skilled in stealth and infiltration. Aayla also had some skill with Force Cloak.

Behind the scenes


Aayla Secura was originally created for the Expanded Universe by artist Jan Duursema and writer John Ostrander. After seeing a piece of cover art of the character, Lucas decided to place her in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, making Secura one of the few C-canon characters that made it into the films. In the films, she is portrayed by actress Amy Allen. However, the character's appearances in the films are brief, and she sees most of her action in Expanded Universe material.

Her surname came from Nat Secura, originally introduced in the short story Of the Day's Annoyances: Bib Fortuna's Tale from Tales from Jabba's Palace. The two eventually appeared together in Rite of Passage. Writer John Ostrander originally wanted to kill Aayla in Twilight, but was convinced by Jan Duursema's daughter to let her live.

Aayla is also depicted in the game Star Wars: Battlefront II (PS2, Xbox, and PC) as having two lightsabers (on Tatooine, Kashyyyk, Cloud City, Yavin 4, both Rhen Var levels, Felucia, and Jabba's Palace)&mdash;a green one and a blue one (although she has blue and purple sabers in the cutscenes and the PSP version), despite the fact that in Attack of the Clones she can be seen fighting with a single blue lightsaber during the Battle of Geonosis, and in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, she can be seen carrying one lightsaber in her hand and another on her belt.

Secura is one of the few Jedi that does not wear traditional robes, most likely due to her conceptual origins in the Expanded Universe. It is possible that this is due to the fact that she is a Twi'lek, as Twi'lek females traditionally wore less clothing. She is seen wearing a Jedi robe as a child though.

Even though she was shot several times in the back and head in Revenge of the Sith (the scene is revisited in one of the comics in the Hyperspace section of StarWars.com), and a clear statement in the StarWars.com Databank leaves little doubt that she did die, the popularity of the character has led some fans to come up with scenarios which would allow her survival. Any such claims are, of course, fanon. There were rumors that Amy Allen had stated that the character would survive Revenge of the Sith, and that she hoped to play a role in the 2009 live-action television series. However, it is still unknown as to whether or not this is true or merely hopeful speculation among loyal fans. There was speculation that Secura would be making an appearance in the upcoming game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, either in a flashback scene or, according to concept art, battling alongside the surviving Shaak Ti against Vader's apprentice. Kari Wahlgren's personal website listed her as voicing Secura, causing more speculation. This appearance was indeed confirmed in the April 2008 when GamePro reported that she would appear in the Wii-exclusive duel mode.