Son

"He is just so selfish and was taking too long to die, so I decided to move things along."

- The Son

The Son was a powerful male Force wielder who embodied the dark side of the Force and could change his physical form at will. He was the son of the Father, the patriarch of his family, and the brother of the Daughter. Due to the nature of their power, the Son and his family retreated to the planet Mortis, where they existed outside of the material world. There, they remained in balance and under the control of the Father, whom the Son grew to resent, as the Daughter embodied the light side of the Force in contrast to the Son.

After the Father lured Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker to their realm, seeking to convince the prophesied Chosen One to replace him on Mortis, the Son sought to use Skywalker to leave Mortis and return to the galaxy. The Son betrayed the Father and kidnapped Skywalker's Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, before corrupting her with his power, using the Togruta learner against her Jedi Master. This forced the Daughter to seek out the Dagger of Mortis, a weapon that could kill the Force wielders, and use it against the Son. Tano, however, intercepted the weapon for the Son before it could be used against him, at which point he used it to kill the padawan.

The Son attempted to kill the Father with the dagger next, but the Daughter intervened, resulting in her death by his hand instead. Distraught by the death of his sister, the Son fled, and Tano's life was restored using the Daughter's remaining life force. Soon after, the Son lured Skywalker to the Well of the Dark Side and corrupted him with a Force vision of Skywalker's future, promising to help the Chosen One destroy both the Jedi and the Sith in order to bring peace to the galaxy and end the ongoing Clone Wars. However, before the duo could leave Mortis, the Father wiped Skywalker's mind of the visions, freeing him from the Son's control. The Father then stabbed himself with the Dagger of Mortis, which left the Son vulnerable to a deadly attack from Skywalker's lightsaber and, thus, restored balance to Mortis.

Origins
"My children and I can manipulate the Force like no other."

- The Father, speaking of the Son and the Daughter

The Son was a male individual of the enigmatic Force wielder species, and a member of the family known as the Ones. He was the son of the patriarch of the family, the Father, and the brother of the Daughter. The Son was an ambitious user of the Force, and, like all Force wielders, was a powerful Force-sensitive. Unlike his sister, however, the Son aligned himself with the dark side of the Force, acting as the embodiment of selfishness.

The Father sought to maintain balance in the Force after realizing his children could rip the very fabric of the universe apart and, together, the Ones retreated to the Wild Space world of Mortis. There, by abandoning the material world, the Father was able to control both the Son and the Daughter to keep the siblings in balance. After the Son and his family adopted the Mortis realm as their new home, few eventually remained with knowledge of their existence.

While Mortis acted as both a sanctuary and a prison for the family, the realm was believed to be have been origin point of the Force itself, acting as a conduit for all things connected through it, which allowed the Father to keep watch over the balance in the Force throughout the galaxy. During this time, the Son grew tired of waiting to take his father's place, and continued to succumb to the seduction of the dark side. When news reached the Father that the Chosen One, a prophesied Jedi legend, had been found, he made his move to bring the Chosen One to Mortis, which intrigued both the Son and the Daughter.

Seeking the Chosen One
"What are you?"'' ''"Your fate!"

- Anakin Skywalker and the Son

In order to lure the Jedi Knight believed to be the Chosen One, Anakin Skywalker, to Mortis, the Father sent out a 2,000 year-old distress signal during the Clone Wars. The signal was received by the Galactic Republic Admiral Nils Tenant, who relayed it to Skywalker and two other Jedi, his Padawan Ahsoka Tano and the Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. When Skywalker attempted to rendezvous to the point of the distress signal, he and his Jedi companions instead encountered the Mortis monolith, which blocked their communications and pulled them into the realm of Mortis. There, the Daughter approached the trio and offered to take them to the Father. The Son, however, intervened, causing a rockslide and separating Skywalker from Kenobi and Tano as they traversed a mountainous path. The Daughter ordered the group to wait for her to return, warning them that her brother's work put them all in danger and that they needed shelter before nightfall.

Skywalker, however, insisted that Kenobi and Tano return to their shuttle and attempt to send a distress signal, meanwhile he would follow the Daughter. The Son, in cohesion with his father's plan to test if Skywalker was truly the Chosen One, hid away the Jedi's shuttle and confronted Kenobi and Tano when they arrived looking for it. The Force wielder, with curiosity, asked if Skywalker really was the Chosen One, which prompted the two Jedi to draw their lightsabers against him in suspicion. The Son implored the group to wait and told them they could not leave Mortis yet, using the Force to effortlessly deactivate their lightsabers. When Kenobi asked the Son if he was a Sith, the Son replied he both was and was not, and that the Chosen One's test was about to occur regardless of their efforts to stop it. Before leaving the duo, the Son warned Kenobi and Tano that the storms on Mortis were lethal, forcing them to take refuge in a nearby cave as he shapeshifted into his gargoyle form and flew away.

By nightfall, Skywalker had already reached the Father's monastery and had reluctantly remained as his guest, due to the storm outside and having nowhere else to go. While Skywalker slept, the Son disguised himself as the Jedi's deceased mother, Shmi Skywalker Lars, and awoke Skywalker with the promise of a secret. Skywalker, despite being wary of the Son's form, opened up to the Force wielder and admitted that he believed he had failed both Shmi and the Jedi Order when he indulged in vengeance the night his mother died. The Son promised Skywalker that he was destined to become more than a Jedi, but that he could only fulfill his destiny if he renounced his love for Padmé Amidala, his wife, whom the Son called the "poisoner." Skywalker, seeing through the Son's form, confronted the Father about seeing his deceased mother, accusing him of being a Sith Lord. The Father indulged Skywalker with his family's origins and explained that they revealed themselves to him in order to learn if he truly was the Chosen One, as part of an effort to maintain balance in the Force.

Unbeknownst to Skywalker, the Father planned to force the Jedi into a test to see if he was indeed the prophesied one. Under the Father's orders, the Son and the Daughter transformed into their gargoyle and griffin forms, respectively, and went after Kenobi and Tano the following morning, grabbing them as they exited the cave they had sheltered in the night before. The siblings brought the two Jedi to the monastery arena, where the Father and Skywalker were already waiting. The Father then revealed that Skywalker was to choose which of the two Jedi to save, as the Son and the Daughter had been instructed to kill them both, implying he could only save one. Skywalker refused the ultimatum, however, instead using the Force to overpower both the Son and the Daughter, proving he was, in fact, the Chosen One. After the Son and Daughter were forced to kneel before Skywalker, they both reverted back to their humanoid forms. Following this, the Father informed Skywalker that the Chosen One's destiny was to remain on Mortis to keep the balance between his children, but Skywalker rejected the Father's warning of dooming the galaxy and chose to leave Mortis instead.

Embracing the Darkness
Later that morning, the Son manifested in Skywalker's dream as a mirror image of the young Jedi Knight. During the dream, the Son tried to tempt Skywalker into embracing the dark side and restore balance to the Force. When Skywalker refused and turned away, the Son morphed into the form of a monster and attacked the Jedi, jerking Skywalker awake. Shortly later, before Skywalker and his companions could leave Mortis, the Son entered their ship and kidnapped Ahsoka Tano. He then jumped out of the shuttle and morphed into his gargoyle form, while taking the captive Tano with him. Skywalker and Kenobi pursued the Son in their ship into a canyon of mist-shrouded spires. However, the Son managed to outrun his Jedi pursuers and disappeared into the mist.

The Son then took his captive Tano to his cathedral, a towering structure in the wilderness. There, he morphed into the form of a small alien creature that taunted the chained Padawan by claiming her master would never come back. When Tano insisted that Skywalker would come back for her, the creature released her from her chains. After unsuccessfully trying to convince Tano to forget her master, the Son bit her on the arm, infecting Tano with the dark side of the Force. As Tano collapsed on the floor, the Son changed back to his humanoid form. Meanwhile, his Jedi pursuers split up. While Kenobi traveled back to the monastery to get help from the other Force-wielders, Skywalker decided to scale the tower and rescue Tano.

Later, the Son rejoined the Father and the Daughter at their monastery. When the Father implored the Son to let go of the dark side, the enraged Son struck him with Force lightning just as Kenobi and the Daughter entered the chamber. The Son then left the scene while the Daughter tended to her Father's wounds. When Kenobi implored the Daughter to assist him in stopping the Son from escaping offworld, the Daughter sprung to his defense saying that it was not his fault since it was his nature. She also refused to lay a hand against her brother. Instead, the Daughter showed Kenobi a powerful Force weapon known as the Dagger of Mortis, which was the only thing capable of harming a Force-wielder.

Back at the tower, Ahsoka Tano, under the influence of the dark side, attacker her master Skywalker in a lightsaber duel. Meanwhile, Kenobi and the Daughter confronted the Son in his inner sanctum. During the fight, Kenobi was separated from the Daughter and forced to help Skywalker parry against Tano, whom they were unwilling to harm. The Son and his sister parried against each other with their Force powers before morphing into their gargoyle and griffin forms respectively. However, their fight was interrupted by the arrival of the Father, who used his Force powers to forcibly separate his children and hurled them among the Jedi.

The Son attacked his weakened Father with Force lightning, causing the older Force-wielder to fall to the ground. Kenobi then attempted to pass the Dagger of Mortis to Skywalker, but Tano intercepted it. After handing the Dagger to the Son, the Force-wielder thanked Tano and told her that she had outlived her usefulness. Touching her forehead, the Son drained her off her life force, causing her to die. Enraged, Skywalker attempted to attack him, but the Son easily repelled him with the Force. The Son then attempted to stab the Father but was blocked by the Daughter, who took the brunt of the blade and was mortally wounded as a result. Horrified that he had killed his sister, the Son fled from the scene. Despite the Daughter's mortal wounds, she used her last life force to resurrect Ahsoka Tano from the dead.

Downfall and reconciliation
"I always knew there was good in you."

- The Father

As a result of the Daughter's death, Mortis was plunged into darkness. The Son then turned his attention to corrupting Anakin Skywalker, the Chosen One, so that he could escape the planet and return to the galaxy. The Son later met Skywalker in the Well of the Dark Side, a volcanic place in the bowels of Mortis that was strong in the dark side. There, the Son sought to bring the young Jedi to his side by revealing glimpses of Anakin's future including the death of his secret wife Padmé Amidala, the Jedi Purge, the rise of Palpatine's Galactic Empire, and his transformation into Darth Vader. With Anakin overcome by fear and anguish, the Son offered to help him change the future. When Skywalker asked whether they would bring peace, the Son claimed this was so. As a result, Skywalker decided to join forces with the Son, who also deceived Skywalker into believing that the Jedi were a threat to peace.

When Kenobi and Tano learned that the Son had succeeded in winning over Skywalker, Tano sabotaged the Jedi starship in order to prevent the Son and Skywalker from leaving Mortis. Worried that the two Jedi would join forces with the Father, the Son traveled to the Daughter's crypt where he stole the Dagger of Mortis. Meanwhile, the Father succeeded in erasing Skywalker's memories to break the hold of the dark side on him. The Son then made his way to the monastery where he was confronted by the Father and the three Jedi. The Son proved too powerful for the three Jedi and his weakened Father to overcome. In order to strip the Son of his Force powers, the Father sacrificed his own life by stabbing himself. Shaken by remorse, the Son reconciled with the Father just before he was impaled by Skywalker's lightsaber. Through the deaths of the Son and the Father, Skywalker succeeded in fulfilling his role as the Chosen One by restoring balance to the Force on Mortis. The monastery and the temple vanished in a bright flash of light and the three Jedi found themselves back in their shuttle.

Personality and traits
"Do not hate him, father. It is his nature."

- The Daughter

The Son was a selfish and manipulative Force wielder who embodied the dark side of the Force. According to the Daughter, it was in his nature to be selfish, manipulative, and deceptive. The Son chafed under the Father's authority and sought to break free of Mortis and dominate the galaxy. While he fought with his sister, who embodied the light side of the Force, he still loved her and felt greatly distraught and burdened by the guilt of his role in her death. Unlike his relatives, the Son preferred to dwell in places strong in the dark side like his cathedral and the Well of the Dark Side.

Like the Father and Daughter, the Son believed that Anakin Skywalker was the Chosen One who would bring balance to the Force. However, he wanted to corrupt and bring Skywalker over to the dark side; a goal that put him at odds with both the Daughter and the Father. While he succeeded in corrupting Skywalker by showing him a vision of his future as Darth Vader, he was thwarted by the Father, who erased Skywalker's memories of the vision. The Son came to his senses and abandoned his ambitions after witnessing the Father stab himself with the Dagger of Mortis. At that point, the Son realized that he loved his Father.

Powers and abilities
As a Force-wielder, the Son had the power to change into different forms including that of a Gargoyle, Shmi Skywalker Lars, and even a small alien creature that bit Ahsoka Tano. He was also capable of infecting sentient beings with the dark side by biting them and could also harness a red-colored Force lightning. While the Son was extremely powerful in his own right, he ultimately was no match for the powers of the Chosen One Anakin Skywalker until he fully succumbed to the Dark Side and was therefore able to easily best Skywalker in terms of power. The Son was also capable of conjuring up powerful Force visions, and appearing within Skywalker’s dreams. He was also capable of entering physically secure structures, like buildings and starships, unhindered by appearing and disappearing at will without alerting others to his presence. One known weapon capable of harming him was the Dagger of Mortis. The Son also lost his immortality when the Father stabbed himself with the Dagger; allowing Skywalker to kill him.

Behind the scenes
The Son debuted in the Mortis trilogy of third season of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series in 2011. He appeared in all three episodes of the trilogy arc, "Overlords," Altar of Mortis," and "Ghosts of Mortis." He was voiced by Sam Witwer, who had done voice work for the Star Wars Legends brand prior to appearing in The Clone Wars. While masquerading as other characters, the Son was voiced by their respective voice actors from The Clone Wars, with the addition of Pernilla August as Shmi Skywalker, who had originally portrayed Shmi in the 1999 film Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace.

The Son and the story of the Mortis trilogy were created by George Lucas, the original creator of Star Wars. Originally, the specters of the Sith Lords Darth Bane and Darth Revan, two Sith Lords from the Legends brand, were supposed to be behind the Son's influence and complete fall to the dark side. However, this was ultimately cut from the Mortis arc, as both Lucas and The Clone Wars supervising director Dave Filoni believed that the Sith Lords existing beyond death or outside of the Force contradicted the established aspects and meaning of the Force in Star Wars canon.

Some of the character concept designs of the Son and his gargoyle form were created by Randy Bantog. In the spinoff television series to The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, Filoni and lead character designer Kilian Plunkett created a character with an unintentional resemblance to the Son, the Pau'an villain known as the Grand Inquisitor. Filoni believed that the close resemblance made sense, as the Son's arc in The Clone Wars was metaphorically intended to represent both the past and the future within the Star Wars lore.