Luminara Unduli/Legends

"Pure defense is inferior to a combination of defense and offense."

- Barriss Offee, training with Luminara Unduli

Luminara Unduli was a Mirialan Jedi Master and a Jedi General of the Galactic Republic during the time of the Clone Wars. Her last Padawan was Barriss Offee. The two Mirialans often worked together on the battlefield, their amazing lightsaber skills and agility making them a formidable duo.

Biography
Luminara had become a Master in the years prior to the Invasion of Naboo. Like Offee, her previous Padawans had all been natives of Mirial, as their culture had a requirement that any children given to the Jedi Order were to be trained by Mirialan masters. Luminara was a close friend to fellow masters Shaak Ti, and Quinlan Vos.

Mission to Ansion


In the years preceding the Clone Wars, Luminara and Offee would serve on several missions together. Sometime before the Clone Wars, Luminara and Barriss were sent by the Jedi Council on a mission to the world of Ansion in order to forestall any secessionist movement fermenting there. Not long after arriving on the planet, they were ambushed in the Cuipernam streets by employees of Soergg Vosadii Bezhin. They were cornered against a wall and Luminara sustained a minor blaster graze when Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi arrived and handily defeated their attackers.

Luminara and Obi-Wan, along with their Padawans then conducted initial negotiations with the Unity Council representing the city-dwelling Ansionians. After a particularly unorthodox demonstration of the Force on the Armalat delegate Tolut and promising a very favorable settlement with the Alwari, or native Ansionians who controlled the vast prairies, Luminara was able to persuade the Council to agree to stay in the Galactic Republic, as long as the Jedi upheld their part of the bargain. Their plan was interrupted when Barriss was captured by two Ansionian gangsters Bulgan and Kyakhta. In exchange for healing them, Barriss was allowed to escape. Unsurprisingly, Luminara found her Padawan before the other Jedi and they planned an expedition to locate the scattered Alwari clans, particularly the Borokii overclan.

Riding on magnificent suubatars, the four Jedi and their guides set out to find the Alwari. During the expedition, Luminara noticed the tension between Barriss and confident Anakin, and discussed his unusual case with Obi-Wan. On the way, they had to fend off attacks by gairk at a river crossing, and seek shelter from a large flock of suicidal kyren. At the camp of the first Alwari clan they encountered, the Yiwa, Luminara and the others were welcomed, but were required to provide entertainment that evening. After gaining a deeper understanding of the Alwari sense of tradition, Luminara contrived an entertainment that would satisfy the Yiwa. Taking a handful of sand from the ground, she let it fall through her fingers, but against the wind. Turning the stream of sand into a coil with expert manipulation of the Force, Luminara lifted twirling columns of sand around her in glittering spirals. Then she also began to twirl herself, until she was rapidly whirling around with spirals of sand forming a vortex around her as she rose off of her feet into the air. Climatically, the sand was formed into a globe around her as she spun in mid-air. Her dizzying performance completed, she returned to her place among the other Jedi amid the Alwari equivalent of applause. Even her companions were impressed by this feat.



Luminara again had cause to worry about Barriss when the Padawan disappeared chasing a Gwurran thief Tooqui. However, the Padawan was found, this time surrounded by rambunctious, inquisitive Gwurrans. Tooqui insisted on coming along with them, and Luminara reluctantly agreed, passing off responsibility for him to Barriss. The Gwurran would prove his worth when he rescued all four Jedi and the two Alwari after the Qulun clan used a scented perfume to send the Jedi to sleep and capture them in order to receive a payment from Soergg. After they escaped with their mounts, Luminara would later save Anakin's life when he was attacked by two predatory shanhs.

After being led to the Borokii clan, the Jedi were required to retrieve a tuft of wool from the exceedingly rare albino surepp herd animals without modern technology. Luminara went into the herd at night, bouncing off the top of each animal and retrieved the wool. On the way back, she slipped and was knocked unconscious. The other Jedi brought her out of the herd and the negotiations proceeded. The Borokii agreed to the settlement, but the Jedi were required to deal with their traditional enemies, the Januul clan. Under the leadership of Obi-Wan, the Jedi agreed, although Luminara was flabbergasted. When the two clans drew up to engage each other, the Jedi went in between of them and declared their intention to not fight either side. Luminara and the other Jedi then fended off attacks launched against them by both sides, but they parried only weapons, injuring and killing none of the combatants. Stunned, both clans agreed to the Jedi's proposition.

Returning to Cuipernam to inform the Unity Council, Soergg again tried to ambush the Jedi, who were then aided by an honor guard of both Januul and Borokii clans. Luminara then proceeded to the negotiations, where Ansion&mdash;a vital hub of alliances&mdash;agreed to stay in the Republic. Her hard work, research, ingenuity and skill had helped keep a vital world in the Republic.

The Clone Wars


Luminara and Barris were later part of the strike force sent to rescue Obi-Wan and Anakin, and as a result fought in the Battle of Geonosis. Luminara and Mace Windu were the vanguard for the Jedi approaching the Geonosis arena, clearing the way in their fighter tanks.

During the Clone Wars, she served as a Jedi General; under her command stood the 41st Elite. She would fight against Grievous on Nadiem. Luminara's last mission alongside her Padawan was at Ilum, where they were able to stop a CIS attempt at destroying the Force Crystals that formed inside the cave. After this, and a similar mission on Drongar, Barriss ascended to the rank of Jedi Knight, and the two rarely crossed paths from then on.



Luminara was one of several Jedi sent to Kashyyyk following Separatist incursions into the area. Right before the battle of Kashyyyk, she and Jedi Master Quinlan Vos were fighting droids while out-numbered and out-gunned, a scenario they would have died in if it was not for Quinlan's old friend, Vilmarh Grahrk and the young Wookiee Chak. When the battle of Kashyyyk came, she was healing the wounds when the battle was nearing an end. The treacherous Order 66 was transmitted to the clone troopers in her squad and she was gunned down by the troopers under Commander Faie's command.

When the Galactic Empire emerged, official records compiled by Sate Pestage stated that Luminara was executed because she was a conspirator in the plot to overthrow the Republic.

Postmortem
Eight months after the execution of Order 66, the Wookiee Chak created a memorial to the Jedi lost on Kashyyyk in one of the high caves. Her image stood above that of Quinlan Vos, and adjacent to Master Yoda's.

Powers and Abilities


"Her lightsaber skills were impressive. In battle, her movements were focused and precise, flowing from one to the other. All Jedi are my brothers and sisters, but only with a few, like Luminara Unduli, do you intuitively mesh with."

- Quinlan Vos on Luminara Unduli's skills.

Trained as a Guardian, Unduli possessed power that very few Jedi were able to overcome. She had amazing lightsaber skills, as she was a master of Form III and had some skill in Form V. Not only were her lightsaber skills superb, but she had also trained herself to become so incredibly flexible that she could easily twist to evade almost any attack that she did not block with her green lightsaber. These skills were in tandem with her apprentice Offee, who had long studied at her side. Quinlan Vos thought in particular that she was one of the few Jedi that easily connects with her companions during battle.

Appearance
Her lower lip was stained a permanent purplish-black, and a series of interlocking black diamond-shaped tattoos covered her chin, while more intricate markings covered her knuckle joints. These were Mirialan signs of her dedication to physical discipline. Her eyes were of an intense blue color, a contrast to her olive-colored skin, that gave the Jedi Master a serene, outworldly look.

Behind the scenes


Luminara was played by Mary Oyaya in Attack of the Clones and Fay David in Revenge of the Sith. She was voiced by Cree Summer in the Star Wars: Clone Wars cartoon, and by Lori Tritel in the The Clone Wars video game.

Luminara seems to be inspired from the Latin word for light, lumen/lumin-. One word descended from this root that may have inspired Luminara's name is the Spanish luminaria, a Christmastime decoration used in Latin America and the Southwestern U.S.

In The Approaching Storm, Alan Dean Foster mistakenly describes both Luminara and her Padawan, Barriss, as being Human instead of their canon species of Mirialan. She is also mistakenly called Jedi Knight through the same book contrary to Cloak of Deception where she already held the title Jedi Master.

Appearances

 * Cloak of Deception
 * The Approaching Storm
 * Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
 * Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones comic
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars game
 * Clone Wars Chapter 1
 * Clone Wars Chapter 14
 * Clone Wars Chapter 16
 * Hide in Plain Sight
 * Star Wars Republic: Show of Force
 * CIS Shadowfeed Dispatch 15:01:15 Edition
 * MedStar I: Battle Surgeons
 * MedStar II: Jedi Healer
 * Versus
 * Star Wars Republic: Trackdown
 * Boba Fett: Pursuit
 * Republic Commando: Order 66
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith comic
 * Star Wars Republic: The Hidden Enemy
 * Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader
 * Coruscant Nights I: Jedi Twilight
 * Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader
 * Coruscant Nights I: Jedi Twilight

Notes and references
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