User:Menkooro/R2-D2

"We're talking of revenge, Roblio! That's not the path of a Jedi! Having lost so much, must we now give that up as well?"

- Bultar Swan, to Roblio Darté

Bultar Swan was a Human female Jedi Knight who served as a General during the Clone Wars, the Galactic Republic's conflict with the Confederacy of Independant Systems. Originally apprenticed to the Jedi Council member Micah Giiett, Swan came under the tutelage of Jedi Master Plo Koon after Giiett perished during the Yinchorri Uprising in 33 BBY. Eleven years later, Swan, by now a Jedi Knight, was part of a Jedi strike force&mdash;led by Jedi Master Mace Windu&mdash;to rescue Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi, his Padawan Anakin Skywalker, and Senator Padmé Amidala from the Confederacy of Independant Systems on Geonosis. Swan survived the ensuing battle, becoming a General in the Grand Army of the Republic. During the conflict, Swan participated in numerous battles, fighting against Seperatist forces on Amaltanna and Aargonar.

In 19 BBY, Swan survived the initial stages of Order 66, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine's command to all clone troopers to murder the Jedi Knights. One month after the initiation of the Great Jedi Purge, Swan located Jedi Master Tsui Choi and rendezvoused with Jedi Masters Koffi Arana, Roblio Darté, Jastus Farr, Ma'kis'shaalas, and Shadday Potkin, as well as Jedi Knight Sia-Lan Wezz, in an abandoned spice mine on the world of Kessel. However, the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Vader stormed the meeting, searching for Obi-Wan Kenobi. Swan and her fellow Jedi ambushed and attacked Vader, determined to kill the Sith Lord. Vader defeated Wezz, Potkin, and Ma'kis'shaalas and deactivated Arana's, Darté's, and Farr's lightsabers using Potkin's cortosis blade. Swan and Choi managed to wound Vader by cutting off his sword arm, and the Sith Lord attempted to deceive the Jedi by surrendering. Arana, however, insisted that the Jedi end the Dark Lord's life. Swan implored Arana to remain true to the Jedi way, and refrain from murdering Vader. However, Arana killed her in order to take her still working lightsaber, and used it in an attempt to slay Vader. Shortly after Swan's death, Arana was killed by Vader. The Sith Lord and the 501st Legion of Imperial stormtroopers proceeded to murder Choi, Farr, and Darté.

Jedi training
Bultar Swan, a Human female, was born on the planet Kuat during the final decades of the Galactic Republic. She displayed a high level of Force sensitivity at an early age and was discovered by the Jedi Order. The Jedi separated her from her family and brought her to the galactic capital of Coruscant to begin training with their order, and after several years of studying in the Jedi Temple, Swan was assigned to Jedi Master Micah Giiett as his Padawan. She counted herself lucky, as Giiett was one of the most respected teachers in the order. Under Giett's guidance, Swan displayed prowess in a number of combat disciplines, including Teräs Käsi and the Verdanaian "Sliding Hands" method. The Twi'lek Jedi Master Anoon Bondara aided Giiett in teaching Swan to blend the two unarmed combat styles.

Giett was killed by Yinchorri extremists during the Yinchorri Uprising in 33 BBY, and Swan continued her training under Jedi Master Plo Koon, a longtime friend of Giiett's. Koon placed greater emphasis on practising lightsaber combat than Giiett had, and helped Swan learn to use the weapon to complement her skills in martial arts. He took her to Yinchorr to visit the site of Giiett's death, and told her that her former Master had sacrificed his life in order to save several other Jedi. Although she still heavily felt his loss, Swan sensed that Giiett had been at peace at the time of his death and believed that he was proud of her accomplishments as a Jedi Knight.

Knighthood
"Despite the best efforts of Jedi negotiators, the hostilities between the worlds of Dimok and Ripoblus have resumed."

- A HoloNet News report on Swan's mission to the Sepan system

Swan was knighted within the following eleven years, and entered active service as a Jedi Knight in a galaxy growing more dangerous. In 22 BBY, she was paired with Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi and his Padawan Anakin Skywalker on a mission to the Fondor system. A Fondorian patrol ship had encountered what it believed to be the Sun Runner, a starship that had been missing for four thousand years. After its crew had notified Fondorian authorities about their discovery, the patrol ship had disappeared. The three Jedi had thus been tasked with investigating both the patrol ship's disappearance and the alleged Sun Runner reappearance. However, unbeknownst to them, the starship was not in fact the Sun Runner, but a fake created by the shipbuilder Groodo the Hutt, who intended to crash it into the Fondor Shipyards in order to eliminate his major competition.

After taking a ship of their own to the Fondor system, the three Jedi witnessed the false Sun Runner, sitting derelict in space, bring its systems online and proceed towards the center of the system. Kenobi and Skywalker followed it in starfighters while Swan stayed aboard the Jedi's ship. When Kenobi returned, he told Swan that he and Skywalker had discovered they were chasing a false Sun Runner, and that they had found the Fondorian patrol ship safe inside of its hangar. He and Skywalker had freed the patrol ship and destroyed the false Sun Runner in order to prevent it from destroying the shipyards, but Skywalker had crashed his starfighter into Fondor's moon of Nallastia. Following Skywalker's homing beacon, Swan and Kenobi recruited margravine Quenelle of Nallastia to their search and located the Padawan at the fortress of the moon's skull queen. After meeting a young boy named Klay, Skywalker had taken Nallastia's Princess Calvaria hostage in order to bargain for the release of Klay's parents, two zoologists that native Nallastians had brought to the skull queen to be sacrificed. Quenelle revealed that she herself was the skull queen, and that the energy field the zoologists had been placed in would end their lives in three hours. Their deaths could only be prevented if the Lost Stars of Nallastia, three ancient jewels hidden somewhere on the moon, could be found.

Along with Quenelle and Klay, the three Jedi set out to locate the jewels. When a giant spider attacked and injured Swan and Klay, Skywalker brought them back to Quenelle's fortress for medical treatment. Kenobi contacted the Jedi High Council and requested backup, sensing that something wasn't right on nearby Fondor, and then located the jewels with Quenelle's help. With the jewels discovered and Klay's parents freed, the three Jedi were treated to a dinner at Quenelle's fortress and named guests of honor. Shortly thereafter, Jedi reinforcements arrived in the form of Masters Mace Windu and Kit Fisto, and the five Jedi learned that Groodo and his son Boonda had taken over a spaceport on Fondor and that Calvaria was one of their hostages. Actually hoping to use the spaceport to destroy the shipyards, Groodo bluffed to Quenelle, claiming that he would tell her his demands in one hour's time. Swan, Windu, Fisto, and Quenelle took the Republic cruiser Windu and Fisto had arrived in to Fondor, but were attacked by a Venrap, a large purple snake that had boarded their ship. After neutralizing its threat, they traveled to the Fondorian spaceport, destroyed a force field surrounding it, and landed, where they disabled the Hutts' team of GNK power droids and rescued Calvaria. With the droids destroyed, the Hutts fled, and the Jedi returned to Coruscant.

Throughout the mission to Fondor, Swan learned much from Kenobi and Skywalker. Her experience made her an obvious choice for other peace missions, and later in the year, she and fellow Knights Empatajayos Brand and Chellemi Chuovvick traveled to the Sepan system to negotiate the cessation of hostilities between the Ripoblus and the Dimok after decades of conflict. The three Jedi were able to bring the civil war to a month-long standstill, but upon their return to the galactic capital of Coruscant, the fighting flared up again.

The Battle of Geonosis
"This party's over."

- Mace Windu, revealing to Count Dooku his 200-strong Jedi strike team, of which Swan was a part

In 22 BBY, the Separatist crisis was bringing the Republic to its knees. Several thousand star systems began leaving the Republic, many of them joining the Confederacy of Independent Systems, led by the former Jedi Master Count Dooku. When Obi-Wan Kenobi discovered that the Confederacy was building a battle droid army on Geonosis, he was taken captive along with Skywalker and Senator Padmé Amidala of Naboo. Supreme Chancellor Palpatine was given emergency powers by the Galactic Senate, and commissioned a Grand Army of the Republic. As Jedi Master Yoda went to Kamino to recruit an army of clone troopers that Kenobi had earlier discovered the Kaminoans had been secretly building for the Republic, Master Windu brought a strike team of 200 Jedi to Genosis, Swan among them. As Kenobi, Skywalker, and Amidala stood in Geonosis's Petranaki arena surrounded by Separatist battle droids, the Jedi strike team infiltrated the arena and came to their aid, igniting their lightsabers and charging at the droids.

Swan had largely rejected unarmed combat by this point and charged into battle with her lightsaber. All of her combat training came into play as she struggled to resist the barrage of battle droid laserfire. Many Jedi fell to the overwhelming force of rapidly-firing droids, and Swan joined a survivor's circle in the center of the arena as the droids ceased firing, and Count Dooku, observing the melee from above, called on the Jedi to surrender. Windu refused, and as the Jedi again raised their lightsabers, the clone army arrived, landing in and outside of the arena in LAAT gunships. A battle began between Republic and Separatist forces, kicking off the Clone Wars. The surviving Jedi joined the clones in sending Separatist forces fleeing from the planet.

On the front lines
"Victory is always complicated."

- Ki-Adi-Mundi, after troops under his and Swan's command defeated Separatists on Aargonar

Like many other Jedi, Swan became a General in the Republic's army, leading clone forces into battle against the Separatists. Six months after Geonosis, she led Republic forces against the forces of Separatist Leader Baron Edi Wedd fortress on Amaltanna. All of the clones under Swan's command were killed, simultaneously destroying every battle droid in the process. As the lone survivor of the battle, Swan entered Edd's fortress and sought out the Baron. Via comlinks and cameras, Edd followed Swan's every move and repeatedly taunted her, claiming that she couldn't reach his command chamber. During her search, Swan discovered corpses of native Amaltannans that had attempted to reach Edd in the past.

Edd dispatched small spider droids and a pair of B2 super battle droids to halt Swan's progress, but the Jedi Knight swiftly destroyed them all. After destroying the fortress's communications array, she arrived at the Baron's command chamber. Amidst more of Edd's taunting, Swan plunged her lightsaber into the chamber door's control panel, short-circuiting the door-opening mechanism. Swan then left the fortress, leaving Edd to die in an inescapable tomb.

Nearly one year later, Swan and Jedi Master Ki-Adi-Mundi led Republic forces against the Confederacy on Aargonar. When Skywalker, Master A'Sharad Hett, and Hett's Padawan Bhat Jul became trapped behind enemy lines, Swan lost contact with them, and Hett's troops began to give ground to the enemy. As the Republic base was overrun by battle droids, Mundi ordered Swan to hold the location until the clone troopers under his command finished gathering at nearby Vondar Canyon. A gathering sandstorm prevented them from fleeing the planet, and they planned to mount a counterattack from the canyon after the storm lifted. In order to prevent the Separatists from seizing Republic supplies, Mundi further order Swan to disable whatever they could not take with them. The two generals ignited their lightsabers and joined their clones in making a stand at the base. After holding it for a brief period of time, their forces retreated to the canyon, and Swan discovered that the ion-charged sandstorm had disabled the tracking, targeting, and communication systems of their equipment. Despite a lack of ships, both Jedi boarded LAAT gunships and continued the fight from the air, hoping to get a better view of how the battle was proceeding. The onslaught of battle droids and IG-227 Hailfire-class droid tank prompted Swan to order her troops to fall back, but her instructions were preempted by the arrival of Skywalker and Hett in a Gunship Bomber Enhanced closely pursued by a Gouka dragon. Their arrival shifted the tide of the battle, and the broken lines of the Confederate troops fell to the more focused Republic forces.

In 19 BBY, after three years of continuous warfare, the Separatists launched a strike at Coruscant. General Grievous, the Supreme Commander of the Confederacy's Droid Armies, brought the Confederate Navy into the system and began loosing warships against both military and civilian targets. His vulture droids and tri-fighters hammered themselves against the planet's defenses and disrupted traffic lanes, and Swan joined Jedi Masters Saesee Tiin, Agen Kolar, and several other Jedi by piloting a Jedi interceptor against the attacking Separatist ships. During the battle, Grievous kidnapped Supreme Chancellor Palpatine and brought the Republic's leader aboard his flagship, the Invisible Hand. Kenobi and Skywalker, now respectively a Jedi Master and a Jedi Knight, infiltrated the warship and rescued Palpatine, killing Count Dooku and forcing Grievous and his fleet to flee in the process. Over the next few days, Swan left Coruscant and transferred to a Republic medstation.

Endgame
"Some do not think the Sith should be allowed to win."

- Swan invites Tsui Choi to a conclave of surviving Jedi

While Swan was at the medstation tending to wounded soldiers, Chancellor Palpatine revealed himself to Skywalker as Darth Sidious, Dark Lord of the Sith, and reorganized the Republic into a Galactic Empire with Skywalker, now named Darth Vader, as his Sith apprentice. As he had been manipulating both sides of the war, Sidious had Skywalker murder the Separatist Council and shut down all Separatist battle droids, while he himself ordered all clone troopers to murder their Jedi generals. Jedi across the galaxy were shot and killed, but Swan managed to escape execution when other healers at the medcenter warned her of the clones' order. With the war over, the remaining Jedi were scattered and leaderless. Swan was nevertheless contacted by Shadday Potkin a month later, who wanted to organize as many Jedi as possible into a force to counteract the Sith. Potkin invited Swan to discuss their situation on Kessel, but Swan traveled to Eriadu first and rendezvoused with Jedi Master Tsui Choi. She found him while he was killing several clone troopers who had been hunting him, and told him of Potkin's invitation. The two of them then journeyed to Kessel.

Arriving at an abandoned mine on the rocky planet, they were met by Potkin, who introduced them to five other Jedi that had been invited to attend the meeting: Roblio Darté, Jastus Farr, Ma'kis'shaalas, and Sia-Lan Wezz. A discussion began regarding the current galactic situation and their responsibilities as Jedi; although some in the room advocated hunting and killing the Sith, Swan offered her opinion that revenge was not the way of the Jedi. No consensus was reached, and Potkin, having expected such a result, revealed that she had invited Darth Vader to the meeting so that he might fall to the blades of eight Jedi. Vader then stormed the room, acting on false intelligence that stated Kenobi would be attending the meeting, and was attacked by everyone present save for Swan and Choi, who hung back.

Vader killed Wezz, Ma'kis'shaalas, and Potkin, and used Potkin's own cortosis blade to disable the lightsabers of Arrana, Farr, and Darté. As he prepared to finish them, Swan and Choi emerged from hiding, respectively slashing the Sith Lord's leg and amputating his sword arm. Vader surrendered to the Jedi, but a weaponless Arrana suspected a trap and ordered Swan to kill him. Swan was unwilling to kill an unarmed opponent, prompting Arrana to seize her weapon, stab her, and attack Vader. Swan died, and Arrana was quickly killed when Vader telekinetically impaled him with the cortosis blade. Vader took up Swan's lightsaber to continue the fight, and killed the remaining three Jedi with the aid of the newly-arrived 501st Legion of Imperial stormtroopers. The details of Swan's death were filed in a report by Clone Commander Bow. The official records, which were modified by Imperial Advisor Sate Pestage from a compilation of various reports created by Moff Marcellin Wessel, stated that Swan was killed by her fellow Jedi in a power struggle.

Personality and traits
"Don't give in to your anger, Master Koffi! Beware the dark side!"

- Bultar Swan to Koffi Arana

Prior to the Clone Wars, Bultar Swan was respected within the Jedi Order for having never killed an opponent, but Swan saw it as an objective statistic rather than as a point of pride. She hoped to never have to kill anyone, but if forced to, her goal was to make her opponent's death quick and painless. Although Plo Koon surmised that she would one day sit on the Jedi Council, Swan felt that she was nowhere near ready. Until she knew how she would react to killing someone, she felt that she was unfit to sit in any kind of judgment over other Jedi.

Swan was respectful of other Jedi, and sought the advice of higher-ranked Jedi while on the battlefield. She was honored to train under esteemed Jedi Masters, and although she was saddened by the death of her first Master, Micah Giett, she felt that he would be proud of her accomplishments. Swan was willing to fight for the things she believed in, and believed that revenge was not the path of the Jedi. During the Great Jedi Purge, refused to kill an unarmed opponent.

Powers and abilities
"Bultar Swan! You live!"

- Tsui Choi, surprised by Swan's survival of Order 66

Graceful, athletic, and acrobatic, Swan was a skilled Jedi Knight whose ability to use the Force was spotted at an early age. She developed an interest in unarmed combat techniques early in her Jedi training, and under the direction of Micah Gieet and Anoon Bondara she soon excelled in a unique fighting style that blended Teräs Käsi and the Verdanaian "Sliding Hands" method. Her style required her to maintain physical contact with her foes in order to allow her to judge their next move, and her mastery of the two disciplines allowed her to defeat opponents with ease without having to kill them. Prior to the Clone Wars, Swan had never taken a life despite having been involved in a dozen combat encounters.

When fighting an opponent, Swan would remain still and entice her foe to attack. She would then strike forward with awesome speed, blurring her complex routine of moves into a whirl of motion. When Giett was murdered and Swan's training continued under Plo Koon, the Kel Dor Jedi Master taught her to blend her style with a strong lightsaber defense. Under Koon's guidance, Swan developed a fluid and acrobatic combat style. In combat, she would use her lightsaber to block attacks while seeking an opportunity to disarm her foe. She would then rain punches and kicks on her unarmed opponent until they surrendered.

When the Clone Wars began, Swan had rejected unarmed combat in favor of her lightsaber. The war saw her finally kill opponents, abandoning her respected record of never having taken a life. Swan was also skilled with various uses of the Force; she was capable of deflecting blaster shots with her bare hand, and after visiting the location of Micah Giett's death, was able to sense that he had been at peace when he died.

Behind the scenes
Bultar Swan first appeared in George Lucas's 2002 film Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, in which she was potrayed by actress Mimi Daraphet. Nearly four months prior to the release of the film, an image of Swan debuted on StarWars.com, captioned "Bultar Swan, heroic Jedi". Swan was later featured as the central protagonist in the short comic Impregnable, published in the Clone Wars Adventures Volume 7 trade paperback, and aditionally appeared in the Clone Wars comic book Star Wars: Republic 59: Enemy Lines. In the 2005 comic Star Wars: Purge, Swan was killed during the Great Jedi Purge in the aftermath of the events of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Details of Swan's Jedi training and combat techniques were revealed in several sourcebooks,  and in 2008, she was given an entry in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia.

Hasbro has released two action figures of Swan. In 2007, a comic pack of Swan and Koffi Arana was released, packaged with a reprint of Purge, and in 2008, a new figure of Swan was packaged with Luke Skywalker and Qui-Gon Jinn in a "Jedi Legacy" three-pack.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Adventures 1: Hunt the Sun Runner
 * Star Wars Adventures 2: The Cavern of Screaming Skulls
 * Star Wars Adventures 3: The Hostage Princess
 * Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
 * Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones comic
 * Star Wars: Republic 59: Enemy Lines
 * Labyrinth of Evil
 * Star Wars: Purge
 * Labyrinth of Evil
 * Star Wars: Purge