One of the greatest Star Wars villains of the late Republic was General Grievous, the Separatist cyborg who collected lightsabers from the Jedi he killed for sport. He was eventually slain in combat with Obi-Wan Kenobi during the events of Revenge of the Sith, but one of his greatest in-canon stories appears in Jody Houser and Luke Ross' Star Wars: Age of the Republic - General Grievous one-shot.

In the issue, Grievous entered an ancient Jedi temple, where he was greeted by the voice of a powerful Force entity. His cybernetics were stripped away, revealing the person he once was, someone who had far more in common with the Jedi than he would ever care to admit.

RELATED: Star Wars: How Age of Republic Expanded the Prequel Era

The voice observed that Grievous was "steeped in" destruction. Revealing itself to be a powerful entity with ties to the Force--if not the embodiment of the living Force itself--the voice reverted Grievous to how he appeared before he became a cyborg, when he was a Kaleesh warrior named Qymaen jai Sheelal, and with its next words, it suggested he might once have even been Force sensitive: "You have brought destruction upon yourself. You seek to destroy a power you don’t comprehend. You have carved away your own connection to it. Replaced it with parts whose strength you understand. But your understanding is not strength. It is small. You are small."

Humbled and terrified as his own insignificance was laid bare, Grievous grappled against this fact. For the first time, he confronted the true power of the Force that he had tried to "carve away [his] own connection to." Travis Lanham's lettering does an excellent job of showing the unknowable enormity of the presence echoing through the void as the letters pulsate and bend with different colors. As Grievous's additional metal limbs floated away from him, he desperately grasped at them, only to seize hold of flesh--flesh he had tried to replace with metal but could never erase from existence.

RELATED: Star Wars: Doctor Aphra Is A HUGE Fan Of The High Republic

General Grievous. Star Wars: Age of Republic

Whether or not Grievous originally had Force powers is not yet known, but all beings are connected to the living Force in some way. He waged war against not just the Jedi, but also the Force. To oppose their connection to all life, he tried becoming something unliving and therefore removed from the Force, replacing every part of his body except for his organs with a droid-like exoskeleton. Interestingly, the technology used to keep him alive would later be used to make Darth Vader's new metal body, and much later, would allow two cyborg twins, Aiolin and Morit Astarte, to replicate the powers of the Force without actually having Force-sensitivity. Paradoxically, it is possible that Grievous hoped his technological apotheosis would allow him to replicate the abilities of the Jedi. If so, that would suggest his hatred of them is fueled by the loss of his own connection to the Force.

The last panel of the scene showed a brain, eyes, and other organs floating in the void, representing all that was left of the Separatist's original body. Then, he was hurled back through the waterfall and into the temple. Furious at what he had been forced to confront, the general engaged in one final act of destruction, ordering his ship to bombard the temple from orbit, ensuring he would never again need to confront these uncomfortable truths.

KEEP READING: Star Wars: Princess Leia Challenged Emperor Palpatine To A Lightsaber Duel While She Was Pregnant