Deadeye Duncan

The Human male who came to be known as Deadeye Duncan lived and worked on the city-world of Taris during the Jedi Civil War, a conflict between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire. He was a competitor in non-lethal duels fought in a dueling ring that was owned by Ajuur the Hutt; the arena was located in Taris's Upper City Cantina prior to the destruction of Taris. The arena's energy suppression fields prevented weapons from inflicting fatal damage, but combatants still occasionally sustained serious injuries. Duncan was viewed as the worst of the combatants by dueling fans, and after Duncan's defeats, the arena announcer made light of Duncan's losses as no great accomplishment for the victors. Some individuals, including the announcer and a veteran duelist named Marl, thought that Deadeye Duncan was the worst duelist of all time.

In 3956 BBY, a Sith battle fleet led by the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Malak attacked and destroyed the Republic warship Endar Spire above Taris. Soon afterward, Duncan lost his fifty-fourth consecutive match against a maimed but formerly excellent duelist named Gerlon Two-Fingers. Duncan dropped his blaster as soon as the match began, and while retrieving his weapon, he was shot and subsequently incapacitated by Two-Fingers. By that time, Duncan had been attempting to defeat a duelist named Ice in the ring for years.

When the amnesiac former Dark Lord, Revan, crashed on Taris after the destruction of the Endar Spire, he approached Ajuur the Hutt for an opportunity to earn money in the dueling ring while he searched for the Jedi commander of the Endar Spire, Bastila Shan. Duncan continued his losing streak as the first duelist beaten by Revan under the pseudonym "Mysterious Stranger," before Revan went on to become the dueling champion. After his defeat by the "Mysterious Stranger," Duncan was ranked sixth among the duelists in the ring, which was still the lowest berth among the competitors.

While Deadeye Duncan's profession was that of a duelist, he had very little success as a competitor. Duncan was nonetheless persistent and continued to pursue victory during his losing streak; he had been trying to beat a duelist named Ice for years before the Sith attack on the Endar Spire. By 3956 BBY, Duncan had earned such a reputation that whenever he was defeated, the duel announcer proclaimed that the loss was of no surprise to anyone. Some Taris dueling fans even considered matches featuring Duncan as not worth watching because of his poor performance. There were also fans who wondered why he did not quit due to his lack of skill. Marl, a twenty-year veteran and the second-placed duelist at the dueling ring at the time of the attack on the Endar Spire, viewed Duncan as the worst duelist ever and claimed that his nickname of "Deadeye" was earned because he fought like he was blind. Gerlon Two-Fingers viewed Duncan as a joke, but he also thought that defeating Duncan was not bad for a rookie duelist.

Duncan did not think it was fair for other duelists to have great abilities while he had such meager skills. He viewed the other duelists as lucky rather than skilled or well-trained. He enjoyed gloating over any unlucky duelists whom he happened to defeat. As of 3956 BBY, Duncan's hair was graying from its original black. He also had brown eyes and fair skin.

Deadeye Duncan accused duelists of gloating if they tried to talk to him after they defeated him, as he did to Revan after their match in 3956 BBY, while Revan was dueling under the name of the "Mysterious Stranger."

In some of his duels, Deadeye Duncan used a blaster pistol, which he occasionally dropped. However, Duncan sometimes fought in duels with a sword instead of his blaster. Duncan wore a combat suit during his duels.

Deadeye Duncan appeared in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, a 2003 video game produced by BioWare. In the game, Duncan was a non-playable character whom the player could fight in the Taris dueling ring, in which he served as the first and easiest combatant for the player to face. After Duncan is defeated in the dueling ring, the player would receive one hundred credits, or more if Ajuur the Hutt could be persuaded to give a bigger cut than ten percent. This article was written with the assumption that Revan defeated Deadeye Duncan, though the player could choose not to fight in the dueling ring at all. Also, the player might have lost to Duncan, which caused him to gloat about his victory if he was approached by the player-character. The dueling announcer would also speculate about the player being the new all-time worst duelist.

Originally, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was to feature a scene on the planet Manaan that would be triggered if the player defeated all the duelists in the Taris dueling ring, including Bendak Starkiller. During this scene, Duncan would approach the player outside of the hangars on Manaan and comment on the player being a Jedi. He would then tell an exaggerated story about how he escaped the destruction of Taris by overpowering a dozen Sith soldiers to take one of their ships. However, due to the player-character expressing doubt about the story, he would elaborate that the Sith soldiers were killed by falling debris. After telling the player about his escape from Taris, Duncan would relate how he was trying to become a mercenary but had been unable to find work because of his poor reputation as a duelist. Duncan would then ask the player for permission to use the name "Mysterious Stranger"—the player's alias in the dueling ring—reasoning that he could benefit from his supposed status as the Taris dueling champion, since no one knew what either he, or the "Mysterious Stranger," looked like. The player had the choice of either accepting Duncan's request or denying it. This scene was cut from the final release, but was still available through the game's files.

• Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic: Prima's Official Strategy Guide
• The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia