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Ferren Barr was an Iktotchi male fallen Jedi who sought to avenge the Jedi Order by overthrowing the Sith-ruled Galactic Empire. Despite his altruistic motives, Barr resorted to methods contrary to the Jedi Code, using the Force to control his followers and assassinating the Imperial ambassador to Mon Cala. However, his actions ensured that the Mon Calamari would ultimately join the Alliance to Restore the Republic, becoming an essential part of the fight to restore democracy to the galaxy.

A Padawan during the last years of the Republic Era, Barr served in the Clone Wars until the Galactic Republic was reformed as the Galactic Empire. He managed to survive the immediate execution of Order 66, unlike other Jedi officers who were killed by their clone troopers, and escaped into exile while the New Order rose to power. During the early days of the Imperial Era, Barr formed a plan to undermine Galactic Emperor Darth Sidious' rule. Using his position as an advisor to King Lee-Char, Barr orchestrated a conflict between Empire and the Mon Calamari monarchy, resulting in the king's capture, the Imperial Military's invasion of Mon Cala, and Barr's death in a lightsaber duel against the Sith Lord Darth Vader.

Ultimately, Barr's prophecy was realized through the victory of the Rebel Alliance. Bolstered by remnants of the Mon Cala Mercantile Fleet, the Alliance Military defeated the Empire's forces in the Battle of Endor, while the deaths of Sidious and Vader fulfilled the prophesied destruction of the Sith.

Biography[]

Jedi career and Clone Wars[]

Ferren Barr began his training in the ways of the Force as a Padawan^[5] of the Jedi Order during the last years of the Galactic Republic. In his time as a padawan, he sparred with Anakin Skywalker in lightsaber combat on at least one occasion.^[2] Like his fellow Jedi, he participated in the Clone Wars as part of the Grand Army of the Republic alongside the Republic clone troopers until the commencement of Order 66—the command to execute all Jedi as enemies of the state.^[4] Although Barr survived the immediate massacre^[2] thousands of his brothers and sisters in the Force were exterminated by their own soldiers, both at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant and across the galaxy.^[6] As a result, he fled into exile^[2] while the Sith, ancient enemies of the Jedi Order, returned to power through the rise of the Galactic Empire.^[6]

Exile and investigation[]

Fascinated by how swiftly the Sith decimated the Jedi Order, Barr set out to uncover the truth behind the conspiracy that enabled the Jedi's enemies to regain control over the galaxy. In time he learned about Order 66 as well as the roles that Count Dooku and the clones played in it. He also learned that Anakin Skywalker—Jedi Knight and the Chosen One of the Force—had turned to the dark side of the Force. Aided by a slicer, Barr hacked into a Coruscant Security Force holocam and discovered footage of Skywalker leading the 501st Legion's siege of the Jedi Temple. Knowing that Skywalker was, in fact, Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine's apprentice and enforcer, Barr was also aware that other Jedi had fallen from the light side of the Force and became an elite group of Jedi hunters known as the Inquisitorius. His findings were downloaded into the R1-series astromech droid Endee for record keeping.^[2]

In addition to his investigation, Barr recruited several acolytes to his cause. Nipaltoo, whose sister was one of the younglings in the Jedi Order, was distraught when he witnessed Palpatine's speech regarding the Republic army's military response to an alleged Jedi rebellion. Orvek was one of many civilians who were forcefully relocated from their homes by the clone shock troopers of the Coruscant Guard; Daren felt a debt of gratitude to the Jedi—in particular, Anakin Skywalker—for saving his life during the Clone Wars; Rebb and Stell opposed the Empire and all that it stood for. Although Barr's acolytes sympathized with the Jedi Order and resented the Empire, he utilized his Force powers to guarantee their allegiance.^[5]

Planning for the future[]

After recruiting Verla as his sixth acolyte, Barr and his followers journeyed to the oceanic planet of Mon Cala. Serving as a Jedi advisor to King Lee-Char, Barr encouraged the Mon Calamari monarchy to inspire hope across the galaxy by openly defying the Empire. The Empire dispatched Ambassador Telvar to Mon Cala in an effort to resolve the situation through diplomacy, although the Emperor had already decided to make an example out of the Mon Calamari to the rest of the galaxy. In order to ensure that nothing would delay the inevitable war against the Empire, Barr sabotaged Telvar's shuttle, killing the Imperial diplomat in a fiery explosion. The king denied any involvement in Telvar's assassination; nevertheless, the Empire had been given a pretext to invade Mon Cala.^[3] At the same time, the Emperor ordered Vader to track down and eliminate Lee-Char's Jedi advisor with the help of the Inquisitors. The king contacted his ally shortly after Vader's arrival, hoping to warn Barr that the Emperor's Jedi hunters had come and were led by a black-armored warrior. Based on the king's description of Vader's appearance, Barr knew that it was, in fact, his former brother in the Force—Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker.^[3]

Using his astromech droid's archival footage of Skywalker's exploits during his time as a Jedi, as well as his actions during the execution of Order 66 in the Jedi Temple, Barr told his acolytes the story of the rise and fall of Skywalker—how Skywalker became one of the greatest Jedi Knights of his generation until he turned against the Order on the first night of the Purge. His followers insisted on taking the fight to Vader, desiring to avenge the Jedi Order by killing the traitor, but Barr overruled them stating that the former Jedi was a formidable adversary. However, he was fully confident that his plan presented another path; one that would eventually see the Jedi avenged, the Sith destroyed, and the galaxy liberated from the rule of the Empire.^[2]

To ensure his plan's success, Barr used his influence with the king to prevent the Mon Calamari from cooperating with the Empire's investigation. Possessed of insight into future events through the Force, Barr revealed that the attack on Mon Cala was only the beginning of the erosion of freedom across every planet in every star system under the Empire's control. However, he also foresaw that the Mon Calamari would be at the forefront of a rebellious movement that would herald the liberation of the galaxy day. Inspired by Barr's visions, King Lee-Char ordered his officers, Gial Ackbar and Raddus to oversee the military's defense of the Mon Calamari homeworld.^[2]

Confronting former comrades[]

During the Imperial assault on Dac City, the king informed his Jedi advisor that he had given the location of Barr's refuge to the Inquisitors while under the duress of torture.^[7] Having achieved his objective to start a war on Mon Cala between its inhabitants and the Empire, Barr intended to do the same thing again on as many worlds as possible until the Rebellion was finally formed. Upon evacuating the chamber, the group was pursued by an Imperial submarine carrying Vader and the Inquisitors.^[5]

The pursuit resulted in the deaths of Nipaltoo and Orvek. Rebb and Stell elected to remain behind and ambush the Inquisitors, hoping to delay their advance while Verla and Barr searched for a way off of Mon Cala. Nevertheless, Barr and his last remaining disciples were cornered in Bel City by the Inquisitors and a squad of Purge Troopers, with Daren being cut in half by one of them. Deducing that the troopers were clones—the last generation to be activated before the complete shutdown of the cloning production line on Kamino—Barr informed them that the Inquisitors were still Jedi in spite of their allegiance to the Empire. Persuaded by Barr's logic and influence through the Force, the clones' indoctrination compelled them to carry out Order 66 against the Inquisitorius^[5] just as Barr anticipated, aware that the clones would follow their programming like droids. Barr and Verla were able to use the distraction as an opportunity to escape deeper into the city, leaving the Inquisitors and their soldiers to kill each other.^[4]

Duel with Vader and death[]

Unlike the other acolytes, Verla was attuned to the Force. Serving as her Jedi Master, Barr began instructing her in the Jedi arts but suspected that he would not be able to complete her training. Therefore, he commanded her to leave him and seek out other survivors of the Purge, such as Grand Master Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi, or even Quinlan Vos. It was his hope that Verla would find a new Master in order to become a full-fledged Jedi.^[4]

After parting ways with his apprentice, Barr moved to confront Vader in person. By the time he reached the Royal Command Bunker, Moff Wilhuff Tarkin's Imperial fleet of Star Destroyers had begun bombarding the planet from orbit, resulting in billions of casualties. While engaging the Padawan in a lightsaber duel, Vader deduced that Barr was responsible for Telvar's death, an accusation that Barr confirmed. In response to Barr's confession, Lee-Char ordered his forces to stand down and surrender to the Empire, but Tarkin proceeded with the bombardment of Mon Cala regardless. Barr assured the king that the sacrifice of billions would save trillions of lives in the long run, all the while inspiring hope and rebellion across the galaxy.^[4]

Although Barr confronted Vader with every intention of defeating him, in the end he was slain in battle by the Dark Lord of the Sith. However, he died confident in the knowledge that his actions would eventually lead to the destruction of the Sith Lords and the restoration of freedom throughout the galaxy. In the aftermath of the battle, three Mon Calamari cruisers escaped into hyperspace but Mon Cala was lost. The Empire placed the planet under military occupation and Lee-Char was taken prisoner by Vader.^[4]

Legacy[]

Shortly after the Battle of Fortress Vader, Vader entered a portal constructed by Darth Momin to resurrect his wife Padmé Amidala. While walking through visions, he encountered Barr along with many Jedi with their lightsabers ready to battle him. However, Vader killed all the illusions, impaling Barr through the chest along with Eeth Koth as the words "Let the past die" resounded in his mind.^[8]

Barr's prophecies came to pass many years after his death. As Barr foresaw,^[4] the early rebellion against the Galactic Empire culminated in the rise of the Alliance to Restore the Republic.^[9] Although his plan led to the subjugation of Mon Cala, his actions ensured^[4] that the Mon Calamari retaliated against the Empire by becoming one of the key species in the Rebel Alliance,^[10] as prophesied by Barr.^[4] Determined to restore freedom to the galaxy, the Mon Calamari provided a powerful fleet of capital ships^[11] that became the backbone of the Alliance Fleet.^[10] Armed with turbolasers, ion cannons, tractor beam projectors and deflector shield generators, Mon Calamari Star Cruisers possessed the firepower and defense capabilities^[11] the outnumbered Alliance^[10] needed in order to contend with the Imperial-class Star Destroyers.^[11]

In addition, the Alliance gained the knowledge and tactical expertise of Lee-Char's veteran commanders, admirals Raddus^[12] and Ackbar.^[13] A strong proponent of openly defying the Empire with a powerful military force,^[12] Admiral Raddus led the Alliance forces against the Empire at the Battle of Scarif where the Rebels secured vital schematics to the Death Star.^[14] As a result, the Rebels exploited a flaw in the battle station's design that led to its destruction in the Battle of Yavin.^[15] While the Empire was in the middle of constructing a second Death Star, Admiral Ackbar masterminded the Rebel attack on the new superweapon at the Battle of Endor.^[13] By the end of the Galactic Civil War, the Sith Lords were dead and the Empire was defeated by the forces of the New Republic,^[16] again as Barr predicted.^[4]

Decades later, the First Order^[17]—a successor to the Empire in all but name^[16]—destroyed the Republic capital of Hosnian Prime and thereby ended the era of renewed peace and democracy that the Rebel Alliance fought to create.^[17] Yet, as Barr had foreseen, the Mon Calamari opposed the rise of the First Order by contributing their ships to the Resistance, a paramilitary organization led by General Leia Organa. The MC85 Star Cruiser Raddus served as Organa's flagship during the evacuation of D'Qar. Pursued through hyperspace by the First Order Navy, the Resistance fleet was decimated until only the Raddus remained. In an effort to save the survivors who were in the process of fleeing to the planet Crait, Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo rammed the Raddus into the Mega-class Star Dreadnought Supremacy at lightspeed, severely damaging the First Order flagship in the process.^[18]

Personality and traits[]

Ferren Barr was an Iktotchi male with orange skin and brown eyes as well as two large, curved horns protruding downward from his head,^[2] although the right horn was damaged by the time of the Empire's formation.^[5] As a member of the Jedi Order, Barr believed in the Force and its power to shape the future according to its will. The loss of his Jedi brothers and sisters drove Barr to seek the truth behind the conspiracy that brought down the order he served.^[2]

A studious and resourceful investigator, Barr discovered a considerable amount of information pertaining to the rise of Emperor Palpatine as well as Anakin Skywalker's transformation into Darth Vader. Barr regarded Vader and the Inquisitors as traitors to the Jedi Order; because of their betrayal, he felt that the true threat to the order came not from outside the Jedi ranks, but from within. He made no distinction between the personas of Skywalker and Vader; to Barr, they were the same person responsible for the deaths of many Jedi, including the youngest of the order. Like other Jedi of his time, such as Obi-Wan Kenobi whom Barr held in high esteem, Barr believed in Skywalker's destiny as the Chosen One—the prophesied one who would herald the restoration of balance in the Force by destroying the Sith. The revelation that Skywalker instead betrayed the Jedi Order disillusioned Barr,^[2] who deviated from the Jedi way in his desire to destroy the Sith.^[19]

Barr was willing to use the Force to influence his acolytes, ensuring their support for his quest to avenge the Jedi Order.^[5] His long term goal for defeating the Sith entailed a plot to inspire dissent and opposition against the Emperor by maneuvering the Empire into committing genocide on Mon Cala. Although his plan required the loss of billions of lives, he believed it was a necessary sacrifice that had to be made in order to inspire trillions of beings to rise up against the Empire.^[4]

In addition to his intellect and propensity for research, Barr was adept at improvisation and adapting to unanticipated setbacks. When the Inquisitorius cornered him in Bel City,^[5] Barr knew that he could use their own troopers to his advantage by making them see the Inquisitors as targets of Order 66 due to their past affiliation with the Jedi Order.^[4] Although the Inquisitors had forsaken their former identities, believing the past to be irrelevant, Barr disagreed. From his perspective, the past, history, and the truth still mattered. Therefore, he argued, a fallen Jedi was still, in fact, a Jedi. As for the clones, Barr had come to view them as mere machines who were bound by programming to be as obedient as a droid.^[5]

Barr did not wish to see the Jedi Order end with himself or the few others who managed to survive the initial execution of Order 66. Having found no evidence of the deaths of Yoda, Kenobi, or Quinlan Vos, it was his hope that Verla would complete her training in the ways of the Force under a different Jedi Master, just in case Barr did not survive his encounter with Vader. Although he knew that he could not defeat the Dark Lord in single combat, Barr still confronted his former brother in the Force—an act motivated by pride, as sensed by Vader. The Dark Lord accused Barr of failing to follow the Jedi way, an assessment which Barr concurred with. Nevertheless, the former Padawan had made peace with his decisions and died believing that everything he had done was in service to the greater good of the galaxy.^[4]

Powers and abilities[]

Like all Jedi, Ferren Barr was Force-sensitive, and therefore, selected for Jedi training. He held the rank of Padawan at the time of the Clone Wars, but his training was incomplete when the Jedi Order fell. As such, he never completed the Jedi Trials to become a true Jedi Knight. Despite his incomplete training,^[2] Barr was talented in certain aspects of the Force such as telekinesis and mind trick, which he successfully applied on his followers and the Purge Troopers.^[5] He also possessed a natural affinity to foresee events long after his time. Hence, he knew for certain that the Mon Calamari were vital to the rebellion that would oppose and ultimately defeat the Empire.^[4] Yet despite his ability to predict outcomes well into the future, his foresight was rather limited when it came to events closer to the present. Vader's arrival on Mon Cala came as a surprise to Barr, who had thought that the Force would reveal the time when he would confront the Sith Lord well in advance.^[2]

Even without the application of the mind trick, Barr was skilled in persuasion. Using his position as both a Jedi and advisor to the king, Barr managed to persuade Lee-Char into openly resisting the Empire in spite of the consequences of defiance.^[2] He also possessed skills in lightsaber combat, to the extent that Barr held his own against Darth Vader, one of the most skilled duelists of the time, albeit briefly. Ultimately, Barr was unable to match the skill of Vader, who slew the former Padawan in single combat. Prior to his death, Barr used his limited training to pass on the Jedi ways to his apprentice, Verla.^[4]

Behind the scenes[]

Ferren Barr first appeared in the 2018 comic Darth Vader (2017) 13,^[3] written by Charles Soule, penciled by Giuseppe Camuncoli, and published by Marvel Comics.^[20] He was identified as Barr in the subsequent comic Darth Vader (2017) 14^[2] and his first name, Ferren, was revealed in Darth Vader (2017) 16.^[5]

Appearances[]

• Darth Vader (2017) 13 (First appearance)
• Darth Vader (2017) 14 (First identified as Barr)
• Darth Vader (2017) 15
• Darth Vader (2017) 16 (First identified as Ferren)
• Darth Vader (2017) 17
• Darth Vader (2017) 25 (Vision to Darth Vader)
• The Odyssey of Star Wars: An Epic Poem (Mentioned only)
• Star Wars (2015) 48 (Indirect mention only)
• Star Wars (2020) 6 (Mentioned only)

Sources[]

• The Star Wars Book
• "Darth Maul and Other Followers of the Dark Side" — Star Wars Encyclopedia
• Star Wars: Timelines
• "A Certain Point of View" — Star Wars Insider 219 (Indirect mention only)

Notes and references[]