Aayla Secura

Aayla Secura (AY-lah seh-CURE-uh), or Aaylas'ecura, was a Rutian (blue) (RUE-shun) Twi'lek (TWY-leck) Jedi, born on Ryloth. Though she led a very short life--she was killed on Felucia by clones at 16--she was alive long enough to have a close run-in with the dark side, briefly under the command of a Dark Lord. She was one of few survivors of the fight in the Geonosian execution arena, but was killed on Felucia by her own clone troopers.

Darth Maul

When Darth Maul (I hope you know how to pronounce that) was young, Darth Sidious (SID-ee-uss) took him from Iridonia (eye-ri-DOH-nee-uh), his home planet, to mentor him in the dark side of the force. During his tutelage, Darth Sidious saw him as a useful tool for his ambtious nature. Darth Maul was outfitted with Sith tattoos all over his body by adolescence, and was fairly loyal; he only ever considered killing his master until what is called his "final test." Sidious pitted Maul against another Force-user, one he considered taking on as his apprentice, but the young Zabrak (ZAB-rack) won. After a month of abandonment, Sidious returned to challenge Maul to a duel. When Darth Maul lost, he was so enraged by his master's contempt that the evil Dark Lord of the Sith told the Zabrak he was to be Darth Maul, because of his "biting" show of hatred of his master. (For, of course, Maul bit him.)

Though Darth Maul was very successful in all the assassinations he carried out, he wished to duel with and kill Jedi. When he dueled with Master Jedi Qui-Gon Jinn and his Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi, however, he did emerge victor over Qui-Gon, but, in underestimating the skill in his apprentice, was chopped in half by Obi-Wan Kenobi.

R2-D2

R2-D2, or just Artoo, you should all know. (At least, you would know unless you have just stumbled upon my blog by accident, and know nothing about Star Wars.) He is a simple astromech droid, a robot programmed to repair and sometimes help control a ship, as is the case with a small starship. He belonged, for a time, to the Royal House of Naboo (in The Phantom Menace), and even spent a short time under Jabba the Hutt (Return of the Jedi), but he was, for the most part, under the Skywalkers. R2-D2 saves the lives of a friend in need in all six of the movies--heroic, don't you think?

Just a tidbit of interesting, useless information: in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Artoo appears on the wall of the Well of Souls, in what appears to be just an Egyptian mural on the wall. Go to http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Image:Oldr2.jpg to see that picture. He is right in the middle, but fairly hard to see.