Kyle Soller recently spoke to Screen Rant about the challenges of playing the “power-hungry” villain Syril Karn opposite Diego Luna in the new Andor series, now streaming on Disney+. Karn is the latest in a long line of Star Wars villains who hold a grudge against the heroes.
Darth Vader resented Obi-Wan Kenobi for holding him back, General Grievous resented the Jedi for slaughtering his people, Captain Phasma resented Finn for defecting from the First Order, and Jabba the Hutt resented Han Solo for failing to pay back his debts.
Jabba The Hutt
In the opening act of Return of the Jedi, Darth Vader gets some time off from his duties as the main villain when the Rebels infiltrate Jabba the Hutt’s palace, one by one, in a bid to save a frozen Han Solo from a life as Jabba’s wall ornament.
Jabba had spent the first two movies pursuing Han, because the iconic space pirate owed him money. The longer Han evaded Jabba, the more Jabba hated him.
Count Dooku
The three apprentices that Palpatine trained throughout the prequel trilogy each represented a dimension of Anakin’s character. Darth Maul represented his rage, General Grievous represented a humanoid trapped in a cybernetic exoskeleton, and Count Dooku represented the fallen Jedi.
Much like Anakin did when Palpatine managed to turn him, Dooku left behind the Jedi in favor of the dark side of the Force. He doesn’t just have a personal vendetta against one Jedi; he has a vendetta against all of them.
Captain Phasma
As a Stormtrooper who defected from the evil empire that employed him to join the rebellion against them, Finn was a truly unique Star Wars hero. Villains ranging from General Hux to Kylo Ren hated Finn for leaving the First Order and joining the Resistance. But no one hated him more than “chrome dome” Captain Phasma.
She called him “scum” for defecting and always referred to him by his Stormtrooper designation, FN-2187, even after he quit being a Stormtrooper. Phasma was determined to kill Finn, but he managed to emerge as the victor in their final fight.
Moff Gideon
The big bad of The Mandalorian, Moff Gideon, is the Imperial Remnants commander in charge of capturing Grogu to extract his midichlorian-filled blood. Ever since Mando disobeyed his orders to save Grogu, Gideon has held a personal grudge against the helmeted bounty hunter.
In the season 1 finale, when Gideon first confronted Mando, he gave a speech that Mando later repeated back to him in season 2: “You have something I want. You may think you have some idea what you are in possession of. But you do not.”
Maul
When he was introduced in The Phantom Menace, Darth Maul was a pretty standard Sith Lord who embodied anger and wanted nothing more than the Jedi’s destruction. But after his apparent death at the end of the movie, he became a more nuanced character in his animated resurrection.
Maul wanted revenge against Obi-Wan Kenobi for bisecting him and sending him down a bottomless pit in The Phantom Menace. Of course, that feud went both ways as Kenobi wanted to avenge his master Qui-Gon Jinn, who was killed by Maul in the same movie.
Unkar Plutt
At the beginning of The Force Awakens, Rey enjoys a humble existence on Jakku. She traverses the desert wasteland, collecting scrap parts from downed Imperial ships and selling them to Unkar Plutt in exchange for portions of food.
Plutt was never particularly fond of Rey, but he was furious at her after she stole the Millennium Falcon from his scrapyard. He chased her across the galaxy in an attempt to exact vengeance for the theft.
Boba Fett
In Attack of the Clones, Star Wars fans were introduced to a young Boba Fett and his father Jango. As it turns out, Jango was the genetic template for the Grand Army of the Republic and Boba was one of the clones that the Kamino clone engineers set aside to let Jango raise as his own son.
During the movie’s climactic battle, poor Boba bears witness to Mace Windu decapitating his father. This sparked a lifelong grudge against the Jedi that was later explored in The Clone Wars animated series.
Kylo Ren
Kylo Ren oppressed the entire galaxy under the rule of the First Order just because he hated his parents (and also his uncle). Ben Solo was so resentful toward his father Han Solo and his mother Leia Organa that he joined forces with Supreme Leader Snoke to tear down the New Republic that they fought so hard to build.
After waking up to his uncle and Jedi master Luke Skywalker ready to kill him in his sleep, Ben massacred the rest of Luke’s students and destroyed his academy.
General Grievous
Like Maul, General Grievous was introduced as a straightforward villain in the prequel trilogy before his character development was significantly expanded in the animated series. Grievous isn’t just pure evil; he has a good reason for wanting to kill all the Jedi.
Grievous harbors a perfectly reasonable personal vendetta against the Jedi, because they slaughtered his people, seemingly without a just cause. No wonder he hates these so-called “guardians of peace.”
Darth Vader
Anakin Skywalker resented Mace Windu for not granting him the rank of Master, which led him right into the tutelage of Darth Sidious. But Darth Vader’s true arch-nemesis is Obi-Wan Kenobi. After Obi-Wan tried to save Anakin from turning to the dark side and left him for dead when he realized that was futile, Anakin became hellbent on tracking down his former master.
When Obi-Wan had his fabled rematch with Vader in his self-titled Disney+ series, Vader got something off his chest: “I am not your failure, Obi-Wan. You didn’t kill Anakin Skywalker; I did.”