Savage Opress’s Death Explained: How & Why Was He Killed?

If there’s one character who ended up becoming a favorite among fans in ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars,’ it was Savage Opress due to how cool his design was and how he was able to hold his own against actual Jedi Masters. But while Savage was strong, he needed his brother, Darth Maul, as a mentor to become stronger. Still, things didn’t turn out too well for Savage Opress. So, how did Savage Opress die?

Savage Opress died in a two-on-one duel against Darth Sidious. Darth Maul and his brother fought the mighty Sith Lord, only for Sidious to showcase his superiority when he took both of them quite easily. Sidious slew Opress by impaling him, and he died, regretting that he was never as talented as Maul.

The death of Savage Opress gave Maul more reason to hate his former master, Darth Sidious, as he developed the need to take revenge on the Sith Lord. In that regard, Maul truly cared about his brother instead of simply looking at him as a pawn for his rise to power. So, with that said, let’s look at what happened to Savage Opress and how he died.

Savage Opress’s background explained

One of the things that we know about the events of ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ is that there were a lot of different characters introduced in a span of three years, as this was a very eventful time in the history of the Star Wars galaxy.

At one point in the storyline, Count Dooku was looking for a new apprentice to train and use as an assassin after he lost his faith in Asajj Ventress, who failed him numerous times throughout the Clone Wars.

To that end, Dooku went to Mother Talzin to try to get a new apprentice because he knew about the strength and ferocity of the Dathomirian Zabrak males. But he didn’t know that Ventress had already arrived on Dathomir to tell Talzin of Dooku’s betrayal. As such, they decided to appease the Sith Lord to use the new apprentice as a way to kill Dooku.

Savage Opress was one of the male Zabraks living in Dathomir. The Nightsisters used a series of different physical tests to determine who among the males on the planet was worthy of becoming Dooku’s next apprentice. Thanks to his ferocity and training, Savage won and was chosen. The Nightsisters used their Magicks to enlarge Savage’s muscles and give him the power of the Force to become a worthy apprentice to Dooku.

As such, Savage went on to serve Dooku as his new apprentice. He trained in the ways of the dark side of the Force while also learning how to wield a double-bladed lightsaber. But what Dooku didn’t know was that Savage was also working for Asajj Ventress as her secret apprentice so that they could kill Dooku together.

Savage proved himself well enough to Dooku by attacking a Republic base and even killing a Jedi without using a lightsaber. This allowed him to get closer to Dooku, who actually made Savage hate him so that the Dathomirian Zabrak warrior grew stronger in the dark side.

It came to a point wherein Ventress and Opress eventually attacked Dooku, who could hold his own well enough against the duo. But when Ventress started to verbally abuse Savage for his inability to help her against the Sith Lord, his anger got the better of him and forced him to use the Force against both Ventress and Dooku. Felt betrayed, he returned to Mother Talzin, who told him about his brother Darth Maul’s survival.

Intent on learning under Maul and becoming even stronger in the dark side, Savage went on a mission to find the former Sith Lord all over the galaxy. This led him to a junkyard planet, where he found a mentally unstable Maul, whose lower body had been replaced by spider legs.

Savage was able to convince his brother to return with him to Dathomir as Mother Talzin used her Magick to fix Maul’s mind and replace his spider legs with new legs from the battle droids that were destroyed after General Grievous killed and massacred almost all of the Nightsisters.

A renewed Darth Maul took his brother as his new apprentice and even declared themselves the true Sith. Together, the brothers started wreaking havoc throughout the galaxy as the Jedi Order was able to pick up on their activities. At one point, Jedi Masters Obi-Wan Kenobi and Adi Gallia had to go up against the pair of Zabrak warriors, only for Opress to kill Gallia. Kenobi was able to prevail against the brothers with the help of Hondo Ohnaka, who thought that they had killed the monstrous duo.

But while Maul and Savage survived, they didn’t have the strength and resources to try to take on the Jedi Order or Darth Sidious and Count Dooku. As such, Maul decided to form his own underground empire by uniting the powers of the Death Watch and the different crime syndicates of the planet. This allowed him to form the Shadow Collective, which he used to destabilize Mandalore and allow Death Watch to rule it.

But Maul betrayed Death Watch’s Pre Vizsla by challenging him for the right to rule Mandalore. After defeating Vizsla, Maul ruled Mandalore and the Shadow Collective together with his brother and apprentice, Savage Opress.

How did Savage die?

After the successful conquest of Mandalore by Maul and Opress, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine felt disturbed as he decided to go to Mandalore all on his own. In his Darth Sidious attire, the Sith Lord made his presence known to Maul, who felt fear upon sensing his former master’s dark aura.

Sidious understood that Maul and Savage were growing stronger, so he had to take matters into his own hands. He didn’t want anyone to pose a threat to his secret Sith Order and his plans of taking over the entire galaxy. While Maul tried to make his former master forgive him, Sidious still thought that Maul and Savage had become a rival because the former Sith Lord had taken an apprentice of his own.

To that end, Sidious challenged Maul and Opress to a duel. While the brothers were skilled enough to stand up against the powerful Sith Lord, Sidious was simply too strong as he effortlessly took on the duo. He used his superior skill against Savage Opress, impaling him with his lightsabers as he was the only one that he wanted to kill in that encounter.

As he was dying in Maul’s arms, Savage’s body lost its size and mass because the Nightsisters’ Magick had already worn off. He died telling his brother that he was never as strong and as talented as he was. Meanwhile, Sidious defeated Maul and told him that he never wanted to kill his former apprentice because he still had some use for him.

Savage’s death added more fuel to the burning flames of rage within Maul, who now had more reason to hate the Sith Order. Several years later, Maul told Ezra Bridger the story of how he hated the Sith partly because of his brother’s death. And Maul ended up living a life of vengeance after Savage Opress’s death.

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