Every good show has a villainous character that pops up only rarely — say, two or three times a season — and yet always steals the show. The type of character where you’re sitting on the edge of your seat and smiling wickedly, anxious to see what they’ll say and do next.
Rise of a new bounty hunter
“The X-Files” had the Cigarette-Smoking Man. “Buffy” had Spike. “Dawson’s Creek” had Abby. And “Star Wars” has Cad Bane — no relation to Darth Bane (Bane and Antilles are like Smith and Jones in the “Star Wars” universe), but arguably cooler.
The first bounty hunter introduced on “The Clone Wars” (in late Season 1) and the launching pad for Season 2’s theme, “The Rise of the Bounty Hunters,” Bane is a bounty hunter is its purest, deadliest form: He takes the cash, he takes the job, but he takes no prisoners. When money is no object to a client, they hire Bane. He’s Darth Sidious’ go-to bounty hunter just as Boba Fett will later become Darth Vader’s.
Fittingly for a prototypical bounty hunter, Bane is modeled after bounty hunters in Westerns like “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.” Bane is an all-around triumph of character design. “Clone Wars” designer Kilian Plunkett made him a Duros, which gave surprising new depth to the previously bland blue-skinned species.
Corey Burton gives him a European accented voice, which is then modified by computer to give it a metallic edge, which perhaps has something to do with those tubes coming out of his cheeks.
Out of authorities’ reach
Now granted, our heroes have been able to escape being killed by Bane a time or two, but they’ve never been able to capture him, even when he infiltrated the Jedi Temple and stole a valuable Holocron right under their noses.
Bane is more frightening than Jango or Boba Fett because he’ll doing anything if the money is sufficient, including infecting injured clones with a virus and stealing Force-sensitive children.
Yet he’s not at all crazy: He’s intelligent, level-headed and methodical, and he’ll use any means necessary to get the job done — the assistance of a cleverly programmed droid or fellow bounty hunters; the subterfuge of donning clone armor and stealing a ship; or a flat-out duel with a Jedi, just like in a Western, only with more and different weapons.
Bane appeared early in Season 3, but it looks like we’re done with him for the year. That will only increase our anticipation for when he pops up in Season 4.
Main image: Lucasfilm