Bichan

Bichan was a Sith Lord who was active during a war waged between the Sith tradition of Force-users and the Jedi Order, their ideological antithesis, at some point by 1032 BBY. During that conflict, Bichan fought a group of at least nine Jedi on a platform enveloped in a red-colored mist. The Sith Lord killed seven of his opponents before his attention was drawn to Toul, a Jedi Padawan facing him with his lightsaber drawn. Bichan rushed to strike the young Jedi down, but his attack was blocked by Toul's Jedi teacher, who used the Force to repulse their enemy. The Jedi proclaimed the Sith—whom they knew by name—to be "nothing but a disgrace" and launched a fierce attack on him, with the latter also leaping to engage in combat. Bichan, however, then used the whip attached to his lightsaber to fatally impale Toul's teacher.

In response, the enraged young Jedi apprentice himself attempted to attack the Sith, only for Bichan's whip to wrap around Toul's wrists and pin him to the ground. In response to the Padawan swearing he would kill him, Bichan goaded Toul to embrace his anger and the dark side of the Force, lifting the Jedi into the air and inviting him to find him later. Proclaiming his belief in the inevitable triumph of the Sith over the Jedi, Bichan then used his lightsaber to create a scar on Toul's face before dropping the Padawan to the ground and walking away from the site of the carnage.

Some time later, Toul was meditating aboard a warship housing the Jedi High Council. During his meditation session, the young Jedi experienced a flashback to the duel with Bichan—an event that had left him with a lingering sense of fear. Toul was subsequently dispatched on a mission to the planet Dolgarak, accompanying the mechanic Ara with the aim of "cutting off the dark head," that is, decapitating one of the two mystical statues of prophecy located there—specifically the one associated with the dark side—in order to try and affect the course of the ongoing war.

In order to acquire supplies for the mission, the pair traveled to a marketplace asteroid housing a city—with Bichan also being present at the settlement at the time. While observing a passing group of individuals bearing red-smoking incense burners, Toul experienced an uncertain sensation and suddenly saw Bichan, who was standing atop a building on the far side of the city. While the Jedi was gazing transfixed at the Sith, the latter in turn became aware of Toul's presence and turned to watch him in return.

Ara and Toul subsequently departed for Dolgarak, with Bichan following the pair aboard a personal starship. While the former's craft approached the statues of prophecy, Toul was experiencing a sense of physical discomfort that at one point was punctured by him sensing the presence of Bichan behind them. The Sith Lord then opened fire with the laser cannons of his ship, landing a hit on the other vessel's wing that sent it falling toward the planet's surface. Wondering as to Toul's purpose in traveling to Dolgarak, the Sith followed the other's ship, continuing to fire upon it until it ultimately crash-landed in the courtyard of a local temple situated at the base of the statues.

In his ship, Bichan then briefly hovered over the crashed vessel before arming his cannons for another salvo, but at that point Ara and Toul emerged from the wreckage aboard a speeder with which they rammed the Sith's ship. Bichan struggled to control his spinning craft, yet it, too, crashed into a ball of fire. The Sith Lord himself, however, jumped onto the top of his quarry's speeder, which had begun to traverse the spiraling pathway leading up along one of the statues. With Toul also climbing atop the speeding vehicle to face Bichan, the Sith once again taunted him by inquiring whether he had been visualizing their upcoming confrontation, at which point the two engaged in a lightsaber duel.

The confrontation—during which Bichan further claimed that the Jedi Order had known that he was searching for Toul but had regardless sent the latter to Dolgarak without any Jedi backup—continued until Ara drove the speeder off the statue and above the cloud cover engulfing the statues' heads. Toul and Bichan both leaped to the large stone ring connecting the heads; there, the Sith discarded his mask and cloak in preparation for the final face-off with the Jedi.

When the two Force-users once again engaged in combat, the intensity of the blue-, red-, and purple-colored energy discharges pulsating throughout the ring and the statue heads rapidly increased. The duel saw the combatants crash into the crystalline interior of the ring, where they fought each other before once again emerging atop the structure. At that moment, sunlight pierced through the clouds, and the colored energy inside the light side– and dark side–representing heads began to mix, leading Bichan to comment on the supposed pointlessness of Toul's visit to Dolgarak. Launching another attack on Toul, the Sith Lord eventually gained the upper hand over the Jedi by disarming him, after which Bichan used his whip to hold his opponent aloft over the edge of the ring.

While the Sith demanded that Toul choose between joining him or perishing, Ara, who was observing the confrontation while preparing to blow up the neck of the "dark" head, realized that she had witnessed it before—in a prophecy foretold years earlier, when she was participating in the recording of prophecies at the temple situated at the base of the statues. Further realizing that, aside from Toul and Bichan, she herself was playing a central role in the prophecy—and giving up on her mission—Ara then redirected the explosives to fly from the statue's head toward Bichan, who used the Force to deflect them upward into the sky. When Ara subsequently detonated the charges, the distracted Sith Lord struggled against the resulting aftershock, giving Toul the opportunity to telekinetically summon his lightsaber and behead Bichan.

Bichan was a human with light skin, dark eyes, and long dark hair. He sported a gray tattoo that marked his chin and cheeks and covered his neck. Bichan, who believed in the inevitability of the triumph of the Sith over their opponents, the Jedi, became intrigued by the rage displayed by the Jedi Padawan Toul during their first encounter. The Sith Lord was interested in the dark side potential in Toul, as evidenced by the latter's anger and fear, and wished to become Toul's Sith teacher, considering his destiny as a Jedi to be "meaningless" and claiming that together they could conquer the galaxy. In order to goad Toul into surrendering to his anger and joining him, Bichan taunted the Jedi in both of their confrontations.

Bichan eventually came to view himself and Toul as "connected," believing that their destinies were linked. When Toul traveled to the planet Dolgarak, the Sith Lord was curious as to the purpose of the journey. Bichan ultimately viewed the Jedi's voyage to the statues of prophecy—as well as the latter's efforts at affecting the ongoing Jedi–Sith war—as "pointless." The Sith also referred to the ring connecting the statues' heads as the "stage" that Toul had supposedly chosen for their confrontation.

Bichan was skilled in the use of the Force, both for non-combat applications—such as telekinesis or sensing another person's presence across a large distance—and to augment his performance in battle, such as by rapidly closing the range to an enemy or by leaping across large distances. He was proficient with a lightsaber, using it while single-handedly killing at least seven Jedi—though not without letting out grunts and panting due to exertion in the process. The Sith Lord utilized a style of lightsaber combat that incorporated both a two-handed– and a single-handed grip of the weapon as well as acrobatic leaps. In combat, Bichan also used to lethal effect a whip attached to his lightsaber.

In his last duel against the Jedi Toul, the Sith displayed superior timing when telekinetically manipulating a stone slab in order to disarm his opponent—however, a distraction also cost Bichan his own life, allowing Toul to deal him a mortal blow. Bichan was also adept enough at piloting an armed starship to continuously attack another vessel while maneuvering during an atmospheric encounter—and subsequently escape the fiery crash-landing of his own craft alive.

Bichan wore a dark gray tunic with black and red accents over layered white and red undertunics. His attire also included a black and red sash, dark gray pants, black boots, and black and red vambraces. The Sith Lord also wore a black and dark gray cloak and a dark metallic helmet that included a mask. The mask was red in color, completely obscured Bichan's face, and featured a freely hanging band of textile that extended down to his knees. Bichan wielded a Sith lightsaber with a red blade that extended from a dark hilt with brown and tan accents. The hilt was fitted with an extended guard, and at its pommel was attached a long, segmented, variable-rigidity whip with a sharp tip. Bichan also piloted a dark-colored, armed single-person starship.

Bichan was created as the antagonist of "Journey to the Dark Head," the fifth episode of the second volume of the Star Wars: Visions non-canon animated anthology television series, which was produced by the South Korean Studio Mir and premiered on Disney+ on May 4, 2023. Prior to the episode's release, Bichan was first depicted in the April 10, 2023 official trailer for Visions second volume, and the character's name was introduced in a StarWars.com article published the same day. Bichan's name in Korean is written as 비찬, with the Korean alphabet character 비 meaning "rain."

The character was voiced by Yun Yong Sik in the Korean and Daniel Dae Kim in the English voice cast—with the latter noting that they always enjoyed portraying villains. The installment of the Star Wars: Visions Filmmaker Focus series of featurettes accompanying "Journey to the Dark Head" presents an English translation of several lines of the episode's Korean dialogue spoken by Bichan that differs from the lines in the English dub of the episode.

Concept art of Bichan was made by the artists Kim Hyun Min and Choi Ji Hyeon, with a piece by Choi depicting a scene not present in the released episode—an unmasked Bichan leaning in close to Toul with the former's whip wrapped around the latter's neck. According to Studio Mir's Art Director Kang You Tae, Bichan's apparel was designed to render the character's appearance "inhumane and terrifying," and to achieve that, the character's silhouette was made to appear "vague and ambiguous," including a vague distinction between his face and body. The clothing also incorporated vertical lines so as to give an intimidating impression to the viewer.

Bichan's helmet adapted the curved shapes characteristic of the traditional Korean artifacts known as the Hahoe masks, and it features patterns resembling those on both Hahoe masks and depictions of the mythological creature known as the haetae. While designing Bichan, giving him weapons such as a tonfa or a "trident lightsaber" was initially considered. However, the lines and characteristics of the character reminded the creative team of a snake, and consequently the design of the weapon morphed into the "snake-like" whip attachment of the lightsaber seen in the episode—a weapon that, according to Kang, reflected Bichan's character.

Chung Se Rang, the writer of "Journey to the Dark Head," expressed their belief that Bichan's interest in Toul stemmed from the latter's increased sensitivity to the light and dark sides of the Force. The StarWars.com episode guide for "Journey to the Dark Head," released on July 28, 2023, also noted that the prophetic image that "Journey to the Dark Head" establishes to have depicted, among others, Bichan, was also meant to show the silhouettes of several iconic characters from the Star Wars saga of films—Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Vader, Queen Amidala of the planet Naboo, and their twin children, Luke and Leia.

• Star Wars: Visions — "Filmmaker Focus – Journey to the Dark Head"
• "Jedi Master's Quiz" — Star Wars Insider 224