Oh, General Grievous, we grieve (ha!) for thee. You had such a great first appearance in the original Star Wars: Clone Wars cartoon, but then you were a cowardly joke in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. All of your much-improved appearances since then are almost a moot point, since most people only know of your hacking and wheezing in the film, don’t they?

For those of you who somehow don’t have a clue as to what I’m babbling about, let me give you a quick recap. General Grievous was created to be the new bad guy for the third Star Wars prequel, Revenge of the Sith. From what we saw in the film, he was a cyborg who controlled the droid armies, had a severe asthma problem, ran away from fights a lot, and ultimately met his demise at the hands of Obi-Wan Kenobi. (This follows the pattern established in the previous two films: introduce a badass new villain, then kill him off in spectacular fashion. Darth Maul and Jango Fett say hello.)

However, outside out of the film, Grievous’ character was much more developed, and thus much more interesting. As I stated earlier, his first appearance was actually in the original Clone Wars cartoon, which predated Revenge of the Sith by over a year. There, he beat the living shit out of a group of powerful Jedi, killed off most of them, and would’ve succeeded in executing the rest if not for the timely arrival of the clone army. A coward he most certainly was not.

Moving forward into the current animated series, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Grievous has made a few appearances there, and he’s been just as tough as he was before. He brutally murdered a Jedi by pinning him to the wall and shooting him in the chest, and toyed with Ahsoka the way a cat would toy with its prey. The episode “Lair of Grievous” was especially interesting, as we’re shown a hidden fortress in which Grievous stores a lot of his spare parts along with a medical droid to repair him. (This explains slight differences in his armor across his various appearances.)

Grievous was also meant to bridge the gap between the prequel trilogy and the classic trilogy, as his droid/organic hybrid appearance was the precursor to another famous cyborg: Darth Vader. In fact, it’s been established that upgraded versions of the technology used in Grievous’ armor were integrated into Vader’s life support suit.

I’ll admit it: Grievous was definitely my favorite character from the prequel era, and he’s also one of my favorite characters across the entire saga. That’s why it’s so aggravating that his primary appearance in Revenge of the Sith, the one a majority of people are familiar with, is so lame. I don’t care if purists hate everything in the Expanded Universe; the stories found there, my friends, are what saves General Grievous from the crappy portrayal seen on film.