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One of the more interesting aspects of the Star Wars universe is the pool of bounty hunters that we see being used for varying storylines. While Boba Fett is arguably the most famous bounty hunter of all, there are several others that have incredibly interesting stories. One of those is the bounty hunter, Aurra Sing.
She’s ruthless, cunning, and a bit psychopathic, everything needed in an efficient target killing machine. She has two running storylines in Canon and Legends, and we’re going to look at both in this bio.
Bottom Line Up Front: Aurra Sing was a Palliduvan bounty hunter who appeared most prominently in the time of the Clone Wars. She was an incredibly skilled marksman, and she worked with notable names such as Boba Fett, Ziro the Hutt, and Cad Bane.
She was particularly skilled in fighting Jedi. Aurra Sing met her eventual demise at the hands of Tobias Beckett after he pushed her off a ledge.
Description/Overview
While not much is known in great depth about Aurra Sing’s Canon origins, we know that she was a member of the Jedi Order in the early stages of her life. Before that, she had a harsh upbringing, shaping her into the character she eventually became.
She left the Jedi Order to become a bounty hunter. We can assume that she never made it far in her training as she doesn’t use the Force when fighting. Although, she’s an excellent marksman, and her Force-sensitivity may have something to do with that.
She was widely recognized in the galaxy thanks to her white skin, lengthy fingers, and built-in antenna on her head. She could use this antenna to communicate with other comlinks.
Before the Clone Wars, Aurra Sing accepted odd jobs here and there. One notable one was when she worked with Cad Bane to do a job for Darth Maul.
They planned to retrieve a captured Jedi Padawan who was being auctioned off on Nar Shaddaa, a moon above the home planet of the Hutts. Another notable job was one she was doing on Tatooine at the famous Boonta Eve pod race.
The Clone Wars Bring Her Fame
Aurra Sing became a lot more prominent when the Clone Wars began. She was a long-time companion of Jango Fett. The two of them did jobs together and formed a close friendship. However, Jango Fett was killed by Mace Windu at the beginning of the war. His son, Boba Fett, sought revenge on the Jedi and got a few bounty hunters to help him.
Aurra Sing was one of them. The other two were Bossk and Castus. Aurra Sing became a mentor figure to Boba Fett, giving him advice and training him in the ways of assassination and bounty hunting.
On Boba’s first attempt to kill Mace Windu, he posed as a clone cadet and infiltrated a Republic ship called the Endurance. Aurra Sing showed her ruthlessness by encouraging Boba to blow up the ship’s reactors.
This would have killed hundreds of people, but it would achieve the goal of killing Windu. Boba was apprehensive at first as he was still somewhat innocent, but he hesitantly agreed to do it.
As Boba escaped in an escape pod with a few other cadets, Aurra encouraged him to launch them into space as they were witnesses to what happened. This was another defining moment that showed that Aurra Sing was completely okay with killing children. Thankfully, the cadets in that escape pod were saved by Mace Windu and Anakin Skywalker.
Mace Windu managed to escape, so Aurra Sing decided to bait him. She captured an admiral, a commander, and a naval officer from the wreckage of the Endurance on the planet below. The Commander’s name was Ponds, and she encouraged Boba to kill him. He couldn’t bring himself to do it, so she fired the killing blow.
They flew Slave I (Jango Fett’s old ship that was now being used by Boba Fett) to a planet called Florrum. The planet had a pirate gang led by a man named, Hondo Ohnaka. Aurra Sing and Hondo used to date, and she went to him for advice on the whole hostage and baiting situation.
When they were there, Aurra killed Castus, one of their bounty hunter colleagues, after she overheard him speaking badly about her. Instead of Mace Windu coming to rescue the captives, Ahsoka Tano and Plo Koon came instead. After a bit of fighting, Aurra Sing ran away and abandoned Boba Fett.
Some of Aurra Sing’s Alliances
She was later seen in the Clone Wars working for Ziro the Hutt. Ziro tasked her with assassinating Padmé Amidala. She attempted the assassination twice but was stopped by Ahsoka on both occasions. On the second attempt, she was caught, arrested, and locked up in a prison on Coruscant.
Aurra Sing’s last job in the Clone Wars era was when Cad Bane freed her from prison. He and a group of bounty hunters had been tasked to raid the Senate Building to take hostages. These hostages would then act as leverage to free Ziro the Hutt from his imprisonment. The plan worked, and Aurra Sing escaped along with the other bounty hunters.
Continuing Her Work
She continued to take on jobs around the galaxy after this, but none of them were as high-profile or noticeable. She was eventually killed by Tobias Beckett, a human male working for the Crimson Dawn crime syndicate.
It’s unclear how it went down exactly, we just know that Beckett pushed her off a ledge and she fell to her death. This is mentioned briefly when Tobias Beckett meets Lando Calrissian.
In the true nature of storytelling, you can never be sure if someone is dead if you never saw them die. So, Aurra Sing may still be around after falling from that ledge. However, she’s presumed dead for now.
Key Features/Moments
- Aurra Sing leaves the Jedi Order very early to become a bounty hunter.
- She meets Jango Fett. They become close friends and do several jobs together.
- She is seen at the Boonta Eve Classic podracing event. This is her first appearance in the Star Wars universe.
- Aurra Sing joins Boba Fett’s crew and helps him in a revenge attempt to kill Mace Windu.
- She takes captives to lure Mace Windu but is met by Ahsoka Tano and Plo Koon instead. A small rivalry is started between her and Ahsoka.
- Aurra takes a job from Ziro the Hutt. She is tasked with killing Senator Padmé Amidala. She is stopped by Ahsoka Tano on both occasions and gets arrested.
- Cad Bane frees her and gets her to help him take hostages from the Senate. Their plans work out and Aurra Sing escapes.
- She is presumably killed by Tobias Beckett after he pushed her off a ledge.
Aurra Sing Themes
Mentorship with Boba Fett
While Aurra Sing was seen as a brutal and cunning murderer, she seemed to have a special place in her heart for Boba Fett. This was due to her relationship with Jango Fett. Boba was the clone child that Jango adopted after his DNA was used for cloning. There was no mother involved, so Boba was left with no one after Jango was killed.
Aurra Sing took him under her wing after that. She mentored him and taught him the ruthless art of bounty hunting. We see multiple times how Aurra tries to encourage Boba to kill people and not think too much about taking lives.
While Boba was initially very hesitant, he eventually became one of the most notorious bounty hunters in the galaxy. So, Aurra’s early teachings would have been the catalyst to that.
Even though she valued Boba, she was only loyal to herself at the end of the day. We see this when she completely abandons Boba when the Jedi come to save the captives they were holding.
She had no care for what happened to him after that. Boba Fett most probably learned from this. Bounty hunting is a vicious game and having close attachments to people may get in the way of finishing a job.
Appearance at the Boonta Eve
Aurra Sing’s appearance at the Boonta Eve Event is one of the big mysteries in the Star Wars universe. When Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace came out, Aurra Sing was simply a side character with no backstory that was placed in a scene to add a bit of depth.
After her character was expanded upon in comics and the Clone Wars TV series, it led us all to ask what she was doing there. Was she on a job? Or was she simply enjoying the podracing?
Thankfully, a book released by Pablo Hidalgo answered these questions a bit. The book was called Scum and Villainy and suggested that Aurra Sing was doing a job for Jabba the Hutt.
One of the podracers, Neva Kee, had a special podracer that he went into debt designing. Neva Kee disappeared in the race, and it’s assumed he did so to avoid paying back the debts he owed.
However, it’s also assumed that he was shot down by Aurra Sing. Farwan and Glott, who were the original manufacturers of Neva Kee’s podracer, wanted the acquire the pod to find out what he had done to it. So, they worked in conjunction with Jabba and Aurra Sing to get it and dispose of Neva Kee.
Relationships with Other Bounty Hunters
Something I’ve always loved about Star Wars is the bounty hunter culture. Our first-ever view of it was when Darth Vader met with Boba Fett and several others to hire them to hunt down Han Solo. I like to think that if Aurra Sing was still alive at that point, she’d be in that scene as well.
Interestingly enough, she had encounters with many of those bounty hunters before the rise of the Empire. Most of them were around during the Clone Wars, and bounty hunters tended to encounter each other fairly often.
Aurra Sing was part of Boba Fett’s crew alongside Bossk for quite a while. Bossk was one of the interesting characters in that famous Darth Vader scene.
Another bounty hunter from that scene, Dengarr, was also part of Boba Fett’s crew for a while. However, he was with Boba Fett at a different time from when Aurra Sing was. So, we don’t know if they ever met.
Perhaps the most famous bounty hunter that Aurra Sing worked with other than Boba Fett was Cad Bane. He was highly active in the Clone Wars, being hired on multiple occasions to do jobs for standout characters.
Canon vs Legends
Before the Clone Wars TV series came out, Aurra Sing was a featured character in many of her own comic books. While the TV series falls under Canon, the comic stories fall under the Legends continuity.
In Legends, Aurra Sing was a much more ruthless and brutal character. She was also incredibly sadistic, being one of the few bounty hunters who killed people for the thrill of it instead of for money.
She still has the same tragic background and beginnings in the Jedi Order in the Legends continuity. However, her story is a lot darker. When she joined the Jedi Order, she was trained by the Dark Woman.
The Dark Woman was a Jedi Master who trained very difficult apprentices. Aurra Sing was abducted by pirates. From those pirates, she was abducted by a Hutt who sent her to a school of assassins after realizing her fighting potential.
As she trained as an assassin, her resentment for the Jedi grew as she felt that they abandoned her. She eventually became a fully-fledged Jedi hunter. She used a red lightsaber along with other weapons and brutally murdered as many Jedi as she could.
Aurra Sing had an insatiable bloodlust. On one occasion, she murdered an entire police force and tortured the last remaining member to draw out the Jedi.
As they arrived, she killed a Jedi Master in front of their Padawan while taunting them at the same time. She then sent the Padawan back to the Jedi Temple so that they could train to become a knight and meet the exact same fate as their master. Rough!
Aurra Sing lived longer in the Legends continuity than she did in the Canon. She even did a job for Darth Vader at one point, and Vader wanted to see if she could become a Sith Inquisitor. She failed Vader’s test, though, and continued a separate path.
Overall, the Canon Aurra Sing is a lot more PG than the character from Legends. Whether that is a good or bad thing depends on who’s watching or reading the stories!
Special Abilities
Aurra Sing’s standout ability was her proficiency with a rifle. From the very first moment we see her, we see that she’s carrying a long rifle, ready to shoot her target. She had pinpoint accuracy and was effortlessly able to shoot targets that were miles away.
Her time in the Jedi Order also revealed that she was Force-sensitive. While she never outwardly used the Force in the Clone Wars, being Force-sensitive made her better in battle than people who were not.
She also had a surprising amount of strength. We see this when she easily breaks the neck of a Commando from the Senate.
Aurra Sing was able to hold her own when fighting one-on-one Jedi. Not too many people could handle that, showing that she was exceptionally skilled in battle.
In the Legends continuity, she uses many Force powers such as Force speed, Force jump, Force sight, Battlemind, and telekinesis. All of these abilities made her one of the most overpowered bounty hunters in the galaxy, and it’s no wonder many of the Jedi feared her.
Key Quotes
- “They’re living witnesses, honey.” – Aurra Sing telling Boba how he had to help kill the clone cadets as they knew about their plans.
- “Dooku might pay us for killing Windu, then we’re looking at a profit.” – Aurra Sing being the bounty hunter she is and trying to make money from killing people.
- “I never took you for a coward, Castus. And what about you Bossk, do you feel the same?” – Aurra constantly challenging her peers when they don’t back her strong and violent ideas.
- “I am prepared to kill you, the hostages, whatever it takes to get what Boba wants!” – Aurra shows how much she wanted to help Boba, even if it meant murdering several people.
- “You left me for dead! Luckily, Hando pulled me out of the wreckage.” – Aurra on her second encounter with Ahsoka Tano.
- “Couldn’t handle her, could you? Well, don’t be ashamed. You’re not the first man to bail out from under her command.” – Hondo Ohnaka referring to his past relationship with Aurra Sing.
FAQs
Question: Who Killed Aurra Sing?
Answer: It’s mentioned in a short comment in Solo: A Star Wars Story that Aurra Sing was killed by Tobias Beckett. He was doing a job for the Crimson Dawn crime syndicate, and he had an encounter with Sing.
They battled, and it ended with Beckett pushing Sing off a ledge. Dryden Vos, the public leader of the Crimson Dawn, found out about it and paid Beckett extra for killing her.
As this was just a brief comment in the movie and many Star Wars characters have fallen off ledges and lived before, we can’t be one hundred percent certain that she is dead. However, she is presumed to be dead for now.
Question: Was Aurra Sing a Jedi?
Answer: Aurra Sing joined the Jedi Order but never made it past the rank of Padawan. She left the Order to become a bounty hunter. It’s not stated in Canon why she left or how she became a bounty hunter. However, it’s elaborated on a lot more in the Legends continuity.
She was abducted by pirates and then sent to an assassin training and then became a bounty hunter afterward. So, Aurra Sing was never a fully-fledged Jedi, but she had a bit of Jedi training.
Question: Why was Aurra Sing’s Story Different in the Clone Wars TV Series?
Answer: Her story in Legends was very dark and grim. The Clone Wars TV series is mostly light-hearted and intended for a larger audience that includes children. So, her character was made less cruel in the show.
Also, she’s one of many characters to have their story changed from the Legends continuity. The writers of the show probably found it more fitting for her as Legends stories often become too extravagant. Her Canon persona is a lot more grounded than the bloodthirsty Jedi hunter from Legends.
Question: Who are the Famous Bounty Hunters in the Star Wars Universe?
Answer: The most famous bounty hunter is arguably Boba Fett. Some other popular ones are Aurra Sing, Cad Bane, Bossk, Dengar, Jango Fett, IG-11, and Din Djarin (The Mandalorian).
Other than Sith and Jedi, bounty hunters are some of the most famous characters in the Star Wars franchise.
Conclusion
I’ve always found it incredibly interesting that Aurra Sing lived and died through short scenes in movies. Her first appearance was in a short frame in The Phantom Menace, and her last scene was in a quick comment from Tobias Beckett in Solo.
She did an extraordinary number of things in the timeline between those two movies. From training Boba Fett to taking on Jedi in single combat, Aurra Sing was one of the best bounty hunters around during the Clone Wars.
If you really want to see the darker side of her, you should read the Legends comics. Otherwise, her scenes in the TV series are fantastic to watch.
The fact that she was once part of the Jedi Order adds a lot of depth to her character compared to the other bounty hunters. It shows that leaving the Jedi and becoming a bad guy doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to join the Sith.
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