When it comes to talking about the most powerful characters in Star Wars, we almost never bring
up bounty hunters, instead, it's usually Jedi, Sith, or simply any character who can use
the force.
But there is one Bounty Hunter who possess abilities that surpass even full fledged Jedi
Masters and perhaps even Sith.
His name is Durge, a bounty hunter who has plagued the galaxy for thousands of years.
He is apart of a super rare species known as Gen'Dai, a species that are made up entirely
of just muscle and nerves.
They have no bones, hearts, or lungs.
On top of that, they possess a regenerative ability that keeps them alive from what are
considered to be fatal injuries.
In other words, literally almost nothing can kill them.
Lets just look at what Durge himself has gone through.
He was stabbed in the chest with a lightsaber, and his reaction to it was just to laugh at
the Jedi’s feeble attempt at trying to kill him.
Later his limbs were cut off, another feeble attempt, as they regrew mere minutes later.
And finally, Durge was literally blown into bits from the inside out.
Yeah, you thought Obi Wan killed him after doing that?
Nope, Durge was still alive, and just slowly regenerated back into his full self, becoming
active again in the clone wars a few months later.
Although his regenerative powers made him an unkillable foe, it was his 2,000 plus years
of combat experience which made him so dangerous.
A little over 2,000 years before the clone wars, a young Durge became obsessed with hunting
after witnessing a group of bounty hunters in action.
This propelled him to leave his planet and train under various bounty hunters throughout
the galaxy, wishing to perfect the art of hunting prey, whether they be mere animals
or full fledged warriors.
He eventually was trained by a Mandalorian known as Jaing, who taught the Gen’Dai bounty
hunter Mandalorian fighting tactics and combat skills.
They both were later contacted by a cyberneticist doctor who wanted to enhance their abilities
by providing them advanced armor and cybernetics, in return for their protection.
Believing not taking up the offer would make them obsolete in the future, they both accepted
and underwent the procedures.
After their surgeries, both Durge and Jaing were outfitted with highly advanced armor,
which gave them a targeting computer that was linked directly to their brains, allowing
them to target an enemy simply by looking at them.
The armor also provided balance and automatic counter attacks for them when the enemy got
too close, as well as increasing their speed and accuracy.
Shortly after their practice fight with one of the Doctor’s experiments, an entire squad
of Mandalorians blew through the faculty’s walls and started to attack them.
They were hired by an individual who sought to take back a sith artifact that the Doctor
supposedly stole.
Initially, they were able to fend off against the Mandalorians, but the tide of the battle
quickly shifted when Jaing was injured by a thermal detonator.
Seeing his mentor get blown up right in front of him, Durge went into full rage mode, eliminating
many of the surviving Mandalorians, and causing the rest to retreat.
When things settled, Durge comforted his dying mentor, demanding the doctor to save him.
The Doctor told him that he had nothing to worry about and that his friend would survive,
but that his life would always be in danger as long as the Mandalorians were alive.
This caused Durge to go after the Mandalorians to their homeworld Mandalore.
After Durge left, the Doctor revealed his secret agenda, which was to cause a war among
the Sith and the Mandalorians, and that this was one of the first steps into achieving
this goal.
Jaing later died, though it’s unknown if the Doctor let him die or just failed to save
him.
When Durge learned of Jaing’s death, he became obsessed with avenging his mentor’s
death by killing as many Mandalorians as he possibly could.
Once the New Sith Wars began, a series of conflicts in which the Sith fought against
the Jedi and their Mandalorian allies, Durge aligned with the Sith, wishing to kill the
Mandalorians into extinction.
During this war, Durge confronted Jedi, to whom he became very accustomed to killing,
learning of their techniques and their weaknesses.
After the Sith lost the war, Durge went into hiding, not wanting to be hunted by the Jedi
constantly and at every corner.
As time passed, he eventually became a bounty hunter again, where he made himself a fortune.
About 100 years before the clone wars, Durge accepted a bounty to eliminate the current
Mandalore, who was the leader of the Mandalorians.
Although he was successful with killing him, he was captured by the other Mandalorians,
who tortured him beyond belief.
They couldn’t kill him, so they made him feel as much pain as possible, endlessly cutting
him up and then letting him regenerate, just so they can repeat the process over and over
again.
Durge was able to eventually escape, but such extreme torture left him completely damaged
and deformed, forcing him to bury himself so he could allow himself to slowly regenerate
and heal himself.
This healing process took over 60 years.
Once he finally came out of his hibernation, Durge came to learn that there weren’t many
Mandalorians left to kill like there were in the past.
This left him disappointed, but then he learned of the clone army of the republic, which was
an entire army created from a mandalorian.
So to him, killing them would be just as satisfying as killing regular Mandalorians.
With this new bloodlust targeted towards the clone troopers of the republic, Durge was
recruited by Count Dooku to become a commander within the separatist military.
In his early engagements, he usually was paired up with Asajj Ventress.
Together, they killed many Jedi, with at one point even having Obi Wan Kenobi at their
complete mercy, though fortunately for him, they were ordered to keep him alive, as Dooku
had plans for the Jedi master.
On one occasion, when Durge was attacked by a Jedi from behind, he just grabbed him and
dunked him into lava, killing him instantly.
Sure he lost his arms in the process, but why would he care, they would just regenerate.
Near the end of the war, Durge was assigned solo missions.
On one mission, he bested both Jedi Masters Kit Fisto and Plo Koon, forcing them to retreat
and call in for backup.
Along with his combat experience, his natural abilities allowed him to sense the heartbeat
of his enemies from up to 200 meters.
He also could shoot his nerves out like tentacles, wrapping them around his enemies and crushing
them to death.
And when things got too intense, he would go into total rage mode, which increased his
body mass and made him basically act and fight like the Hulk, using his newfound strength
to crush everything in his path for a limited amount of time.
Despite his natural powers and his immense knowledge in combat, Durge was not a perfect
warrior, and this was mostly due to his mental state.
Although his regenerative powers were his greatest strength, they did indirectly contribute
to his greatest weakness.
His regenerative powers only brought back his brain tissue, but did not heal them, meaning
that through age, his brain tissue degenerated over time, causing him a form of psychosis.
On top of that, the torture he experienced from the mandalorians and his unending rage
towards them also contributed to his deteriorated psychological state, making him insane and
impaired from outside senses.
This caused him to be a bit too aggressive at times, having his rage take over his rational
thought, making him do things that could lead to his defeat.
On top of that, his ability to not die made him very carefree when he fought.
Since he really had no sense of death, he couldn’t really care less if his foes beat
him, as he could always just regenerate and try again.
So there was no reason for him to perfect his fighting nor did he have to strategically
plan out his attacks.
This is why General Grievous was able to defeat him so easily, as Durge simply didn’t really
care and didn’t take the effort to analysis his new foe.
He just ran at grievous like he did with every other enemy, and attacked him as if he were
a Jedi or Mandalorian.
But Grievous operated like nothing he has fought before, which is why Grievous was able
to decapitate Durge and make him submit.
Proving to Dooku that Grievous should be the supreme Commander of the droid army, not Durge.
Along with his carefree attitude, Durge was also very overconfident.
Whenever he fought a Jedi, he would mock them and not really take them seriously, usually
bragging about how he killed so many Jedi before during the fight.
Though this overconfidence was eventually his downfall.
Like was said before, literally almost nothing can kill Durge.
Almost nothing.
There was only one way to kill a Gen'Dai, and that was by having their entire body and
all of their matter completely vaporized at the atomic level.
Meaning that only them being blown up by a nuclear bomb or being thrown into a star could
kill them.
Durge was killed by the latter, in which during his fight against Anakin Skywalker, he was
force pushed into an escape pod and launched into a nearby star.
With no means of escape, Durge vaporized as he made contact with the star, finally killing
him for good.
Had Anakin not done this, Durge would probably still be alive for thousands of more years,
wreaking havoc to all of his enemies in his unending bloodlust.