Ginivex-class fanblade starfighter

The Ginivex-class fanblade starfighter, also referred to as the Ginivex-class fighter, the Ginivex series, the Geonosian fanblade starfighter, or simply the fanblade fighter, was a Confederacy of Independent Systems starfighter. It was manufactured by the Geonosian-operated Huppla Pasa Tisc Shipwrights Collective on the Outer Rim planet Geonosis. Its dimensions included a length of 13.05 meters (equivalent to 42 feet and 11 inches), a width of 2.25 meters, and a height of 14.40 meters with the sail deployed. It was capable of achieving speeds of up to 1,250 kilometers per hour (or 777 miles per hour). The fighter was equipped with life support systems, air scoop thrusters, a class 1 hyperdrive, and a deflector shield generator.

The fanblade fighter's design, readily identifiable due to its basis on Sith Lord and Confederate Head of State Count Dooku's Punworcca 116-class interstellar sloop, featured a gray fuselage and a cockpit located at the front. The cockpit was enclosed by a glass dome, which could be either transparent or red-tinted, providing the pilot with a broad field of view. The hull was compact, designed for a single occupant. The cockpit's glass was hinged, facilitating entry and exit for the pilot. Inside, a single seat was provided, along with screens displaying information about enemy starships. A yoke, featuring a central targeting computer, controlled the fighter. The yoke could also project red holographic transmissions.

A prominent feature of the ship was its large, vertically oriented solar sail, which manifested as a translucent red semicircle connected to a retractable boom. This boom could be retracted for flight or landing. A backup sail was also available as a replacement for the primary one. Following Dooku's request for a solar sail for his personal vessel, the engineers at Huppla Pasa Tisc Shipwrights Collective developed an enhanced sail for Ventress's fighter. Resembling deflector shield projection technology, the Ginivex-class's solar sail formed an energy fan that captured radiation from the surrounding environment and channeled it to the starfighter's shield systems, [weapons](/article/weapon], and engines.

While the sail itself did not directly impact the starfighter's performance and was resistant to most weaponry, an ion weapon could force it to recharge and redeploy. As a safety precaution, the sail had to be deactivated during atmospheric flight and before initiating a hyperspace jump due to the structural limitations of its support system. The crimson solar sail fan, a feature distinguishing it from other starfighters and most starships, made the fighter easily identifiable. Despite its conspicuousness, the benefits of the vibrant blade outweighed the starfighter's lack of stealth. Each tip of the solar sail housed a laser cannon that could rotate forward when the sail was retracted. These cannons could be aimed independently or in unison, covering a complete 360-degree range. Their firepower was sufficient to penetrate the hull of a Venator-class Star Destroyer.

The Ginivex-class fanblade fighter, a rare and expensive vessel, was highly adept at starfighter combat and exceptionally fast due to its solar sail. When deployed, the sail enhanced the ship's deflector shield pattern, bolstering its shielding capabilities. However, the resulting energy signature made the starfighter more easily detectable by other vessels' sensors. When piloted by a Force-user, the fighter could execute impressive turns and flips, demonstrating the combined capabilities of the craft and its pilot.

Only six Ginivex-class fanblade starfighters were ever manufactured specifically for Asajj Ventress, a Force-sensitive Dathomirian aligned with the Sith and apprenticed to Count Dooku. Ventress, serving as a commander within the Confederacy of Independent Systems, deployed one of her fanblade fighters to the planet Cato Neimoidia during the Clone Wars in 22 BBY. She was acting as a Separatist emissary in the investigation surrounding the bombing incident that occurred in the Cadesura district of the city of Zarra.

Ventress falsely implicated Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Galactic Republic's emissary, in the bombing. After Anakin Skywalker, Mill Alibeth, and R2-D2 rescued him from the Neimoidian authorities, she utilized her craft to impede their escape from Cato Neimoidia. Ventress positioned the fighter hovering above a significant drop, near an outlet to one of Zarra's sewer tunnels, through which Skywalker, Alibeth, and R2-D2 were traversing. Skywalker, sensing the starfighter's presence and noting its familiarity despite initial confusion regarding its design, witnessed Ventress using one of its blaster cannons to collapse the duracrete tunnel exit. Ventress then confronted Skywalker in the dimly lit tunnel. Following a duel in which the Jedi gained the upper hand, Ventress seized Alibeth and leaped through an opening Skywalker had created in the rubble at the tunnel's end.

Upon landing on her craft with her captive, the hovering vessel dipped slightly upon impact, momentarily sinking into the fog before regaining stability. This distraction allowed Skywalker to employ the Force to pull Alibeth from Ventress's grasp. Before he could secure her return to safety, Ventress, standing atop the fanblade's cockpit, countered by pulling Alibeth back with the Force, suspending the girl in mid-air over a precipitous drop between the ship and the sewer. Kenobi, arriving above the sewer, hurled his lightsaber at the starfighter's vital components, piercing the hull and causing smoke and a brief burst of flame to emanate from the craft. As critical systems failed, the fanblade starfighter began to descend, forcing Ventress to release Alibeth, allowing Skywalker to pull her to safety. Ventress then scrambled into the cockpit as the vessel continued its downward trajectory, enabling the Jedi to escape from Cato Neimoidia.

Following her successful capture of Outpost 716, Dooku dispatched Ventress to locate a Jedi artifact. He promised that they could use it to overthrow his own Sith Master, Darth Sidious. Ventress, directed to the ruins of a Jedi Temple on the Moon of Staggec in the Outer Rim, arrived aboard one of her Ginivex-class fanblade starfighters and landed in a town situated outside the temple. However, she found only traces of the object's presence in the Force. As she returned to her fighter, she was ambushed by Republic clone troopers, who had been informed of her location by Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine, secretly Sidious himself. Ventress swiftly defeated the clones using her twin lightsabers.

Ventress departed the moon aboard her Ginivex after sensing that the artifact was located on the planet Naboo in the Mid Rim Territories, where she journeyed aboard her Ginivex. She traveled to Theed, the Naboo capital, landing her starfighter just outside the city before venturing inside. There, she discovered that Kenobi and Skywalker were present and attempted to seize a Wookiee doll from a Gungan child. Ventress sensed that the artifact was concealed within the doll, where it had been hidden by Senator Yarua, a Wookiee. After escaping Skywalker and Kenobi, Ventress decided against stealing the doll from the child upon realizing that Dooku did not truly value her. Ventress then departed Naboo aboard her starfighter and used it to return to Dooku's solar sailer, where she claimed that she had failed to find the artifact, much to Dooku's displeasure.

In 20 BBY, Ventress utilized a fanblade starfighter to infiltrate the Halcyon, an MPO-1400 Purgill-class star cruiser operated by the Hutts, in an attempt to extract the treacherous Republic Senator Zast Tri'vak. The cruiser's proximity alarm activated upon her entry into its hangar, but this was dismissed as a malfunction. However, Skywalker, who was aboard with Senator Padmé Amidala to monitor Tri'vak, sensed her arrival. The pair engaged in another duel, but Tri'vak ultimately offered to betray both the Republic and the Separatists to the Hutts, prompting Ventress to kill him.

Having remotely activated the fanblade starfighter to open its cockpit hatch and depart from the Halcyon's hangar, Ventress then shattered one of the Halcyon's viewports using her lightsabers and leaped into the vacuum of space, where her starfighter awaited her. As Skywalker sealed the breach, Ventress made her escape in her fighter.

During the Battle of Sullust in the same year, Ventress piloted one of her fanblade fighters, the Banshee, against the Republic forces. With the assistance of two groups of droid tri-fighters from her fleet, Ventress targeted Skywalker's flagship, the Resolute, inflicting substantial damage on the Star Destroyer's bridge and ultimately leading to the cruiser's destruction.

Ventress and her tri-fighters then directly targeted Kenobi and Skywalker, both of whom were piloting their Delta-7B Aethersprite-class light interceptors. After Ventress damaged Kenobi's craft with her fanblade fighter's lower laser cannon, the two Jedi separated, leaving Skywalker to contend with the droid starfighters while Ventress pursued Kenobi. As the Jedi Master approached the Separatist flagship, Ventress scored a second hit on Kenobi's ship, forcing him to head for the command ship's main hangar in order to land. Ventress remained in pursuit of Kenobi but was intercepted by Skywalker, who damaged the hull of the Banshee, forcing her to crash-land in the hangar.

With her ship askew in the hangar and its solar sail disabled, Ventress communicated with Dooku via hologram in the fighter's cockpit, requesting his assistance. However, Dooku, under orders from Darth Sidious to eliminate Ventress due to concerns about her growing power in the Force, informed her that she had failed him and was no longer his apprentice. Embittered, Ventress exited the cockpit and briefly engaged Kenobi and Skywalker in a duel as Dooku ordered the remaining Separatist forces to destroy the flagship. After a Hyena-class Droid Bomber crashed into the hangar and exploded, Kenobi, Skywalker, and Ventress each returned to their respective craft and narrowly escaped before the command ship's destruction.

Following the battle, Ventress was found adrift and unconscious aboard her fanblade fighter, sustained by its life-support systems, by a crew of scavengers. They brought the ship aboard their salvage freighter, the Raider. The fighter's resilience enabled Ventress's survival. After securing the fighter in the freighter's hold, the crew removed the cockpit dome and revived Ventress, who promptly used the Force to strangle them. With her fanblade fighter still on board, Ventress seized control of the Raider and piloted it to her homeworld of Dathomir.

The Ginivex-class fanblade starfighter made its initial appearance in the current Star Wars canon with "Nightsisters," the twelfth episode of the animated television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars' third season, which premiered on January 7, 2011. The starfighter was originally conceived for the Star Wars Legends animated television micro-series Star Wars: Clone Wars, debuting in "Chapter 7" of the show, which first aired on November 17, 2003. Mike Chen, the author of the 2022 novel Brotherhood, in which Ventress and one of her Ginivex-class starfighters are featured, structured his interactions between Anakin Skywalker and Ventress as if the Clone Wars micro-series remained canon. He simply assumed that Skywalker never saw Ventress's face during their first meeting. To imply that they had encountered each other previously, Skywalker is depicted as recognizing her fanblade starfighter.

Given that Asajj Ventress's design originated from unused concept art for the 2002 prequel trilogy film, Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones, which depicted a warrior reminiscent of Japan's samurai, Paul Rudish, the Art Director for Star Wars: Clone Wars, drew inspiration from that nation for Ventress's starfighter. Rudish based the ship's distinctive form on the sensu, a type of Japanese folding fan.

One of Ventress's Ginivex-class fanblade starfighters was later incorporated into a Ventress-themed variant cover for the thirty-fifth issue of the 2020 comic series Star Wars: Doctor Aphra, released on August 23, 2023. The cover, illustrated by Giuseppe Camuncoli, portrays a fanblade flying near the B'omarr Order Monastery on the Wild Space planet Teth. Ventress utilized this location early in the Clone Wars in a Separatist plot to frame the Jedi Order for the kidnapping of Rotta the Huttlet.

In Legends continuity, the ship was known as both the Ginivex-class starfighter and the Geonosian fanblade starfighter, according to the now-archived Databank on StarWars.com. The Episode Guide for "Nightsisters" on StarWars.com also referred to the craft in canon as the Geonosian fanblade starfighter, while the 2017 canon reference book Star Wars: The Visual Encyclopedia named it the Ginivex-class fanblade starfighter.

A scene that was cut from "Nightsisters" shows Ahsoka Tano, Anakin Skywalker's Jedi apprentice, disabling Ventress's fanblade fighter during the Battle of Sullust; however, in the final version of the episode, Skywalker causes Ventress to crash instead, and Tano is not present. Although the fighter's cockpit is depicted as completely clear in "Nightsisters," the version of the fanblade fighter in Star Wars: The Visual Encyclopedia shows a red-tinted cockpit window, and the third issue of the Star Wars: Halcyon Legacy comic book miniseries—which was released on May 11, 2022, was penned by Ethan Sacks, and had illustrations by Will Sliney—also showed the ship with a red cockpit. The 2018 reference book Star Wars Encyclopedia of Starfighters and Other Vehicles, authored by Landry Q. Walker, states that the fanblade fighter is 13.1 meters long, but the nineteenth issue of the Star Wars: Build Your Own X-Wing magazine, which came out later that year, and the Star Wars Encyclopedia booklet "Republic and Separatist Ships (2)," released on January 28, 2022, list the fighter's length as 13.05 meters. Given that the latter sources are more recent, this article uses their measurement.