Roblio Darté

"We strayed from the path of the Jedi when we became generals, didn't we? I am not looking for vengeance, Bultar Swan. I am looking to make things right!"

- Roblio Darté to Bultar Swan.

Roblio Darté was a male Human Jedi Master and Jedi General during the Clone Wars. He was noted for his skilled use of the crossguard lightsaber.

Biography
A Force-sensitive Human, Roblio Darté was educated in the ways of the Force by the Jedi Order, ascending to the rank of Jedi Knight after completing his Trials of Knighthood. Proficient with a lightsaber, Darté crafted for himself a rarely seen crossguard variant with two blue blades. After further service to the Republic, Darté was promoted to Jedi Master by the Jedi High Council.



When the Separatist Crisis between the Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems erupted into the Clone Wars, Darté dutifully reported to Coruscant and took up the rank of General in the Grand Army of the Republic, leading clone troopers against the Separatist Droid Army. Taking to the battlefield of Parcellus Minor, Darté and his men fought in the jungles against the droid army until the fleet in orbit began to bombard the planet with turbolaser fire. The jungle's flora, which was high combustible, began a planetwide fire that wiped out ninety percent of Darté's troops. Extraction teams managed to locate Darté and some of his men, escaping offworld in failure. Two days after the evacuation, Darté reported back to Coruscant to report the disaster to the High Council. Within the High Council Chamber, the bandaged and scarred Darté bowed before the twelve Masters as he recounted the events. During his report, Senators Bail Organa, Mon Mothma, and Ask Aak entered to listen in, as the report had was largely downplayed by the media and the Galactic Senate. Senator Aak stormed out of the chamber, blaming the Jedi for the destruction of another world.

Darté remained active throughout the rest of the war, serving alongside troops until the conflict ended abruptly. Indeed, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine of the Republic, secretly the alter-ego of Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Sidious, issued Contingency Order 66 to the Grand Army, commanding them to kill the Jedi Generals. Through whatever means, Darté survived the slaughtered and went to ground, disappearing from the watchful eyes of the newly formed, Sith-controled Galactic Empire. In the months following the downfall of the Order and the Republic, Darté was contacted by fellow Master Shadday Potkin who wished to have a conclave with other survivors. Assembling in an abandoned mine on Kessel, Darté and his compatriots discussed the future of the Order and the next course of action they should pursue. While Master Bultar Swan and Tsui Choi argued against outright attacks against the Sith or the Empire, Darté thought that justice needed to be served and the Republic revived.



As the meeting drummed on, Master Potkin revealed the true purpose of the conclave: it was in fact a trap she had set to lure Sidious' Sith apprentice Darth Vader to his death. Shocked by Potkin's deception, the assembled Jedi prepared to defend themselves against the Sith Lord. As the Sith Lord entered the chamber, all eight Jedi attacked in force. Helpless to intervene when Jedi Sia-Lan Wezz and Ma'kis'shaalas were killed, Darté watched as a well-aimed strike from Jastus Farr damaged Vader's armor, and Vader leaped away to kill Master Potkin. Vader returned with Master Potkin's cortosis blade and crossed it with Darté's weapon, deactivating it. Darté, along with Masters Choi and Farr used the Force to create an avalanche of rubble, and crushed Vader underneath it. When, all of a sudden, stormtroopers appeared and opened fire on the Jedi, Darté saw Master Farr fall from the shots, and protected himself by lifting a door in front of him, shielding him from the blaster fire. Tsui Choi somersaulted up to kill the stormtroopers, but Vader grabbed the Aleena through the Force, allowing the troopers to kill him. Turning their blasters on Darté, the clones concentrated fire on the door he still held aloft in front of him and destroyed it, along with Darté.

Behind the scenes
Roblio Darté is the creation of John Ostrander. While the character's first appearance was in Star Wars: Republic 61: Dead Ends and his name appeared in the comic's script, it was not until Star Wars: Purge that the name was made canonical. Ostrander speculated that Darté was born in 50 BBY.

Darté is the first character to be seen with a forked lightsaber; completely unique, a smaller blade angles off the main blade at the hilt. This unique weapon is visible in Star Wars: Republic 61: Dead Ends and Star Wars: Purge. In a few panels of Purge, the smaller blade is drawn, but not colored in like its other appearances.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Republic 61: Dead Ends
 * Star Wars: Purge