Aayla Secura/Legends

Aayla Secura (48 BBY–19 BBY), pronounced Aaylas'ecura in her native tongue, was a female Twi'lek Jedi Knight and General during the era of the Clone Wars. Aayla was an empathic and highly intelligent Jedi with impressive fighting skills, but she was impulsive and somewhat mischievous. She was a master of the Ataru form of lightsaber combat.

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, a Kiffar and Padawan of Jedi Master Tholme. The very young Aayla was kept with the Twi'lek slaves of the local Hutt to be safe of 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. Quinlan and Aayla had a strong connection with each other through the Force. He persuaded master Tholme to test her on Coruscant for Jedi training. She passed the tests.



Padawan Aayla and her master Quinlan undertook many successive missions together. They rescued a little princess from the Skyboat Pirates of Xoman Free and had faced the Terbeasts of Ogden Minor. But when they were assigned on a mission to Ryloth to investigate the sources of Glitteryll, it went wrong. The two were captured and drugged. She and her master suffered heavy amnesia. She was taken by her uncle Pol Secura. He had to feed her more Glitteryll everyday 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 quaters, 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 accidentily Force-pushed her uncle off the balcony. She blamed that man, Quinlan Vos.

She wanted revenge on the man that 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 stasisfield. She gave into the dark side and was willing to help the Dark Anzati Jedi. He gave her command of his Anzati minions and let her hunt down the Jedi on Kiffex. He 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 realized her true identity, and at that moment Volfe 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 himself pictured himself as "a leaf blown forth by the wind" and left Kiffex, going where the Force said him to go.

They returned to Coruscant with the ship the Intrepid and like Quinlan was before she was re-trained in the Jedi Temple also. There Jedi 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 when she met the veteran Jace Dallin.

In 28 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 discoverd and imprisoned. Aayla followed Vilmarh Grahrk's ship (Vilmarh was in league with the Nikto) 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 torturedroid AX/RX, freed Tholme and Nat and went to Quinlan to help him. Quinlan already beheaded Tsyr but he was smacked to the ground by Bok. Aayla saved Quinlan's live by fighting Bok before he could deliver the final blow. She wounded the Nikto, but did not kill him. Bok let himself fall hundreds of meters in order to keep his honor. All but 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.

Back on Coruscant, Aayla and Quinlan were both promoted by the Jedi Council. Aayla was knighted and became a Jedi Knight and Quinlan a Jedi Master.

Clone Wars


After the Clone Wars began, Aayla became a General in charge of the 327th Star Corps. She was present at the Battle of Hypori, where she was one of the Jedi who survived their first encounter with General Grievous. She was often partnered with clone commander Bly, and served on worlds as diverse as Honoghr, Devaron and Kamino. She began the training of her own padawan, Ekria, who served with Secura in the final battles of the Clone Wars.

Aayla was known to have an especially close friendship with Master Kit Fisto, a friendship that would probably have become more if neither had been a Jedi.

While fighting on Felucia, Aayla was betrayed and killed by her clone troopers 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.

Behind the scenes


Aayla Secura is played by actress Amy Allen in the movies. The character was originally created for the Expanded Universe by artist Jan Duursema and writer John Ostrander, but after a piece of striking cover art captured George Lucas's eye, the character was placed in the film.

Her appearances in the films are brief, though, and she sees most of her action in Expanded Universe material.

Even though she was shot several times in the back and head in Revenge of the Sith, and a clear statement in the StarWars.com Databank leaves little doubt that she was killed, the popularity of the character has led some fans to come up with scenarios which would allow her survival. Any claims of Aayla Secura's survival are, of course, fanon.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Republic: Twilight
 * Heart of Fire
 * Star Wars Republic: Darkness
 * Star Wars Republic: The Stark Hyperspace War
 * Star Wars Republic: Rite of Passage
 * Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
 * Elusion Illusion
 * Tides of Terror (see Star Wars Tales 14)
 * Star Wars Republic 49: Sacrifice
 * Star Wars Republic 50: The Battle of Kamino
 * ''Star Wars: Clone Wars
 * Jedi: Aayla Secura
 * Star Wars Republic 65: Show of Force, Part 1
 * Star Wars Republic 68: Armor
 * Star Wars Republic 72: Trackdown, Part 1
 * Star Wars: Obsession
 * Star Wars Republic: The Siege of Saleucami
 * Reversal of Fortune
 * Star Wars Battlefront II
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith