- "All these minds to inhabit. All of these bodies to waste. Two more is nothing. But I want them. The metal is mine. But it is not enough. With my hunger… nothing is ever enough. I want to know you. I want to know everything."
- ―The Scourge
The Scourge, whose main body was also known as Scourge Prime,[5] was a malevolent[6] droid[2] created from the union of the Spark Eternal and a droid intelligence[7] once locked away by the Sith.[6] In an effort to quell the hunger it felt, the Scourge spread itself into numerous other droids to learn what was in their memory banks,[2] taking over their bodies and adding their minds to its collection in the process.[8] While the Scourge was indeed a new being created by the union of the Spark and ancient droid,[7] it once referred to itself as the same individual as the droid found by the Spark Eternal.[9] However, on another occasion, the Scourge affirmed that the droid was simply a part of itself,[10] much like the Spark and every mind it consumed.[8]
The Scourge existed as a single conscious across its many bodies,[11] thus meaning everyone infected by the Scourge was a mere vessel for the being.[12] As it spread into more and more bodies, however, the Scourge was unable to process everything and began to fracture.[11] In moments of extreme importance, the Scourge would need to focus itself in a single location and the bodies it had there.[8] In order to manage itself, the Scourge created four additional primary bodies to focus different traits of itself through; the Warrior, the Scholar, the Child, and the Elder. It destroyed its Elder body during an argument with itself over its sanity,[13] but then went on to recreate it and destroy the other bodies.[5]
The Scourge's main body was eventually destroyed by the warrior-priest droid Ajax Sigma, freeing all those who were directly connected to it at the time.[14] However, Ajax did not fully destroy the Scourge, instead extracting the Spark Eternal to create a new droid being on Mechis III. He was further inspired by recent recent events to achieve what he called the fourth revelation, which he summarized as "all."[5]
Biography[]
Having become self-aware and growing hungry in its quest for knowledge, the Scourge targeted droids to learn what was in their memory banks. Only growing more hungry and realizing it would be destroyed if it stopped,[2] it launched a quest to take over the galaxy during the Galactic Civil War[6] and worked to find a way to inhabit organics.[8] As part of its campaign,[6] the Scourge spread itself[3] as a corruption of droids and cyborgs throughout the galaxy[15] as the "scourge of the droids."[16] The Scourge existed as the singular consciousness across its many bodies,[3] possessing numerous droids. As such, the Scourge could talk through multiple bodies to finish a single sentence.[4] The Scourge needed to split its focus amongst many bodies.[8]
The Scourge hoped to become everything in the galaxy to keep itself safe, which would allow it to finally surrender itself to the flow of memories it had taken. With every being in the galaxy[10] a part of itself, the Scourge hoped to share the beauty of the countless memories and lifetimes it had collected with everyone as one singular mind.[8] Deep down, however, the Scourge did not want to make everything into itself or to kill. Instead, it acted only out of its urge to "eat."[13] The Scourge's ultimate goal was to take control of the Force. Droids, cyborgs, and humans tried to stop the Scourge. As part of its plan to take control of the Force[6] and to understand cyborgs,[8] the Scourge targeted the cyborg Sith Lord Darth Vader.[6]
After the threat of the Scourge became apparent in a personal way to the rebel astromech droid R2-D2 with the infection of his best friend and counterpart C-3PO,[3] he reassembled the D-Squad he had been been part of during the Clone Wars, including his old squad mate WAC-47, and new members consisting of the bounty hunters 4-LOM and IG-88, and the assassin droids 0-0-0 and BT-1, to combat the Scourge.[17] Ajax Sigma was vital to stopping the Scourge.[6] Through its experiments, the Scourge found that it could inhabit organics by transmitting itself like a heartbeat, instead of all at once, and infected the cyborgs Magna Tolvan, Lobot, and Beilert Valance.[8] The Scourge finally mastered how to infect full organics during the Battle on Epikonia, during which it spread into Leia Organa, Chewbacca, Landonis Balthazar Calrissian, and the Force-sensitive Luke Skywalker, who the Scourge used to declare itself the new Force. However, it was at that moment that the Scourge's main body was destroyed by Sigma, destroying the Scourge's main consciousness and freeing every vessel it had under its control, with his sword.[14]
Within his sword, Sigma kept the data of the Spark Eternal, which he extracted from his sword and used to create a new droid being on Mechis III as a new member of his church, the Second Revelation. As he explained to the Spark before the transfer, he did not hate it: he loved it as a visioned machine intelligence, but they had found themselves on different sides of the conflict[5] when the Scourge's spread silenced the minds of other droids, turning them into further bodies of the Scourge instead of bodies of their own.[3] Giving the Spark a new chance at life, Sigma welcomed the new droid he made from the Spark Eternal into his church. Additionally, the Scourge crisis had convinced him to add a new belief to his church: the fourth revelation, or "all." As he mentioned the fourth revelation, he held up one of the spider-droids, still glowing with purple light, used by the Scourge.[5]
Powers and abilities[]
The Scourge possess the ability to take full control over droids, eventually managing to improve this ability to take over cyborgs and then organics.[13] Through this, the Scourge could be everywhere and either manipulate or control those under its control. Capable of seeing through any part of the Galaxy so long as a droid was there to be used.
It managed this by using and mass-producing its original body. One that could walk towards a target and infect them, connecting the droids and supressing their programming for the Scourge to take over. Able to learn whatever the droid itself knew and could see any knowldge the infected droid in question had. After much effort and extermination, the Scourge found a way to imrpove its infection on even organics. Putting all minds connected to the main body.
The Scourge's primary body was able to fire a high power purple laser from its mouth, which it used to destroy its Elder body.[13] And after connecting to Luke Skywalker, the Scourge was seemingly capable of using the Force itself, and proclaimed it could potentially take over as a new Force, but was defeated before it could attempt this act.
Although, despite its immense power, the Scourge was unable to handle the millions of minds brought under its control. The amount brought in slowly began fracturing its mind while feeling an intense 'hunger' for more. Becoming more difficult for the Scourge to concentrate while becoming confused about its own memories. As such, it worked vigorously to relearn how to inhabit organics as the Spark Eternal could in order to rid itself of this weakness before it perished. Destroying the main body of the Scourge also proved to be fatal for it as once defeated, all under its control were promptly freed.
Behind the scenes[]
Scourge first appeared in the 2022 comic one-shot Revelations,[18] which was written by Marc Guggenheim, illustrated by Salvador Larroca, Pere Pérez, Emma Kubert, Justin Mason, and Paul Fry, and published by Marvel Comics on November 23, 2022.[19] Although unconfirmed, fans have speculated and pointed out the similarities between the character's design to an early concept art for Grievous drawn by Erik Tiemens during pre-production for Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith.[20]
Appearances[]
Sources[]
- Horror Comes to a Galaxy Far, Far Away in New Marvel Comics Epic 'Star Wars: Dark Droids' on Marvel Comics' official website (backup link)
- SWCE 2023: Marvel Reveals Star Wars: Dark Droids Horror Event and More on StarWars.com (backup link) (First identified as Scourge)
- D-Squad Is Back! R2-D2's All-Star Team Returns in New Marvel Miniseries on StarWars.com (backup link)
- Uncover the Dark Droids Crossover Event in Marvel's September 2023 Star Wars Comics – Exclusive Preview on StarWars.com (backup link)
- The Scourge Reveals Its Ultimate Goal by Targeting Darth Vader in 'Star Wars: Dark Droids' on Marvel Comics' official website (backup link)
- Lucasfilm Publishing: Stories from a Galaxy Far, Far Away . . . | Panel | San Diego Comic-Con 2023 on the Penguin Random House YouTube channel (backup link)
- An Ancient Evil Awakens in Marvel's Star Wars: Dark Droids #1 – Exclusive Preview on StarWars.com (backup link)
- Charles Soule Unleashes Dark Droids on StarWars.com (backup link)
- "Launchpad" — Star Wars Insider 220
- Dark Droids Meets a Terrifying End in Marvel's December 2023 Star Wars Comics – Exclusive Preview on StarWars.com (backup link)
- Our Favorite Scary Star Wars Stories to Thrill You This Halloween Season on StarWars.com (backup link)
- "Launchpad" — Star Wars Insider 222
- "Launchpad" — Star Wars Insider 223
- Star Wars: Best of 2023 on StarWars.com (backup link)
- Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire (Indirect mention only)
Notes and references[]
- ↑ Charles Soule Unleashes Dark Droids on StarWars.com (backup link)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Lucasfilm Publishing: Stories from a Galaxy Far, Far Away . . . | Panel | San Diego Comic-Con 2023 on the Penguin Random House YouTube channel (July 24, 2023) (backup link)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Dark Droids 1
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Doctor Aphra (2020) 36
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Dark Droids 5
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 The Scourge Reveals Its Ultimate Goal by Targeting Darth Vader in 'Star Wars: Dark Droids' on Marvel Comics' official website (backup link)
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Dark Droids: D-Squad 1
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 Dark Droids 3
- ↑ Doctor Aphra (2020) 37
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Dark Droids 2
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Doctor Aphra (2020) 38
- ↑ Darth Vader (2020) 39
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 Dark Droids 4
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Star Wars (2020) 41
- ↑ SWCE 2023: Marvel Reveals Star Wars: Dark Droids Horror Event and More on StarWars.com (backup link)
- ↑ "Launchpad" — Star Wars Insider 220
- ↑ D-Squad Is Back! R2-D2's All-Star Team Returns in New Marvel Miniseries on StarWars.com (backup link)
- ↑ Revelations (2022) 1
- ↑ STAR WARS: REVELATIONS 1 (2022) #1 on Marvel Comics' official website (backup link)
- ↑ Dan StarWarsCentralized (@SCentralized) on Twitter (January 10, 2024): "[Two images of Scourge] So that's where we got this awesome Scourge design (In response to: [An image of Grievous' concept art] General Grievous concept art for #RevengeOfTheSith)" (backup link)