Star Wars is full of great villains, ones whose effect on the galaxy far, far away are legendary. Villains like Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader helped define what evil looks like for generations of fans. Throughout Legends and Disney Canon, there are all kinds of amazing villains—ones with interesting stories and who pose as grave threats to challenge the heroes.
However, that doesn't mean that every villain in the Saga is a winner. In fact, there are a good number of them who, for various reasons, just never really lived up to their potential, even ones that fans are quite fond of. Whether it be because of story reasons or otherwise, not every villain in Star Wars can be a winner.
10 Savage Oppress Is Darth Maul But Yellow And Angrier
Darth Maul was a villain who would have been on this list if it wasn't for Dave Filoni's work on Star Wars: The Clone Wars. By bringing Maul back and digging into the character, Filoni redeemed one of the Prequel Trilogy's biggest travesties. However, in doing so, he also ruined Savage Oppress.
Savage Oppress was Darth Maul's brother and had a lot of potential—potential he was never able to reach because of the return of his more famous and just plain better brother. Oppress could have been an interesting villain out for revenge but instead played second fiddle to his brother constantly and would end up dead by Palpatine's hand.
9 Count Dooku Never Really Cemented A Case For Why He Was So Feared
Star Wars: The Clone Wars did a lot to redeem the Prequel Trilogy, but Count Dooku was one of the places where it made things worse. Dooku in Attack Of The Clones seemed like a dangerous and powerful enemy before being unceremoniously killed off in Revenge Of The Sith. TCW had a chance to really show how good he was but instead made him seem rather incompetent.
Dooku got beat at every turn, which is never a good look for a villain. Sure, he was still portrayed as a good fighter, but he was a lousy judge of who to depend on, and it never really seemed like he was that good at his job.
8 General Grievous Got Jobbed Out Constantly
Everyone can agree that General Grievous looked cool, but that's really about it. TCW didn't do any favors for Grievous either—sure, he got some wins and proved how tough he could be—but he got jobbed out all the time because he had to be. He couldn't kill any of the main characters, so he had to lose.
This took anything good about the villain and killed it. Grievous even lost to Jar Jar Binks one time. It was just all kinds of bad. The show didn't even really get into who Grievous was beyond a kind of incompetent cyborg. Sometimes, expanding on something isn't a great idea.
7 General Hux Was Just Kind Of Pathetic
Being a villain in the Sequel Trilogy was pretty thankless work, all told, and General Hux got a lot of the worst of it. While The Force Awakens made him seem like a sneering true believer in the First Order and its superiority, as well as an integral part of its military machine, The Last Jedi pretty much wrecked the character, starting with Poe's terrible mama joke scene and going from there.
Hux could have been a Grand Moff Tarkin type but got sacrificed on the altar of Rian Johnson's script, with The Rise Of Skywalker trying to wrest something interesting from him but failing. The damage was already done.
6 Prince Xizor Was A One-Off Villain That Should Have Gotten More Love
Legends were full of villains that had a lot of potential that was never really realized. One of the biggest examples of that was Prince Xizor. Xizor is a great villain, one who provided an interesting foil for Darth Vader and the heroes of the Rebellion in Shadows Of The Empire, a fondly remembered mid-90s book and video game.
The problem comes in that he was only around for the one book and then killed off. While he would appear in flashbacks in K.W. Jeter's Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy, he had so much more potential, but it was wasted because of his early death.
5 Darth Malak Was The Only Disappointing Part of Knights Of The Old Republic
Knights Of The Old Republic is one of the most beloved Star Wars games of all time, with many fans considering it superior to the Sequel Trilogy. Just about every character is well written and has tons of fans, except for the main villain, Darth Malak. There's nothing wrong with Darth Malak, per se, but in a game, as amazingly written as KOTOR, he's disappointing.
Malak is a stereotypical power-hungry Sith with no nuance. He wants to topple the Republic and the Jedi and that's the extent of his character. In a game known for its excellence, such a cliche villain doesn't really fit at all.
4 Jabba The Hutt Has Been Ill-Served By Disney Canon
Jabba The Hutt was a weird addition to the Original Trilogy, basically a sidequest in the final movie. However, Legends continuity did a great job of showing just how powerful and important he was, showing fans why he was such a feared crime lord. Disney Canon, however, hasn't done anything of note with Jabba.
Jabba The Hutt and his criminal empire are rife with story potential. Still, the Lucasfilm Story Group has pretty much ignored it, as have the writers of the Marvel comics that deal with the time period when Jabba was most powerful. It's was disappointing, to say the least.
3 Until Recently, Boba Fett Was Just A Cool Suit Of Armor
From the moment he appeared on screen in The Empire Strikes Back (that business in The Star Wars Holiday Special doesn't count), fans loved Boba Fett. He backtalked Vader and looked cool. Fans expected so much from him and what they got in Return Of The Jedi was.. well, it was disappointing, to say the least.
Boba Fett got dealt with quickly and easily, taking all of the potential he had and throwing it away. Fans still loved the character, and creators in Legends did their best to make him cool again, but for the majority, he was the guy who screamed like child as he fell in the Sarlacc... until The Mandalorian brought him back and showed just how great he could be.
2 Kylo Ren Was Built Up To Be The Big Bad By The Last Jedi, But The Rise Of Skywalker Undid That
Kylo Ren was one of the best parts of the Sequel Trilogy, partly because of Adam Driver's performance and partly because of the writing he got. The dark side dominated his life and the ending of The Last Jedi had him lean into that, killing Supreme Leader Snoke, trying to turn Rey to his side, and becoming the leader of the First Order. Then The Rise Of Skywalker happened.
Instead of leaning into Kylo Ren as the big bad, it made him subordinate to a returned Emperor Palpatine, taking off all the character's potential and squandering it for mystifying reasons.
1 Supreme Leader Snoke Was All Unrealized Potential
The treatment of Supreme Leader Snoke is a huge bone of contention in critiques of the Sequel Trilogy. While his death was a key part of the character growth of Kylo Ren, many fans wanted more from the character, and everyone was disappointed with the reveal that he was basically a Palpatine-created homunculus.
Supreme Leader Snoke was all potential, and none of it got realized. One could argue that his death was important to Kylo Ren's development. Still, The Rise Of Skywalker ruined both that development and Snoke's own origin, taking a villain with potential and completely killing it.
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