25 Greatest Characters in Star Wars History

22. Darth Malgus

(Write-up by David Harris (Razor), Dork Side of the Force Editor in Chief)

Before Anakin Skywalker as Darth Vader stormed the Jedi Temple and killed all the younglings inside, Darth Malgus had the honor of completely decimating the original incarnation of the symbol for the Jedi Order on Coruscant, and he did it looking much like Darth Vader would eventually look, only cooler.

In the days of the Old Republic, during the Great Galactic War that lasted 28 years, between 3681 BBY and 3653 BBY, Darth Malgus made a name for himself, and rose to power in the Sith Empire. These weren’t the days of the Rule of Two, no, back then there were vast armies of Sith and Jedi who constantly fought each other…one side bent on domination and the other, dedicated to stopping them. Malgus distinguished himself among hundreds of thousands of Sith warriors, lords, and Darths.

Malgus was a deep and complex character, for while his hatred of the republic and Jedi was only rivaled by his brutality, he also had a side that only one other soul was allowed to see. During his rise to power, Malgus fell in love with a Twi’lek slave girl named Eleena Daru. She eventually grew to love him back, and throughout the Great Galactic War, the two fought beside each other; One a powerful Sith Lord and the other a slave who was deadly accurate with a blaster.

My first introduction to Darth Malgus came in the opening cinematic for Star Wars: The Old Republic, and it was because of how completely badass he was, that I chose to play only characters from the Galactic Empire, and to be more specific, Sith. The cool thing about Malgus was that he was no “one and done” villain, no, he was a lasting presence the entire time I played that game. And, while the new Sith Lords like Darth Maul and Kylo Ren are definitely cool…in an evil sort of way, none of them can old a candle to their fore-bearers, like Darth Malgus.

Next: The co-founder of Rogue Squadron