The Surprising Reason Behind General Grievous's Famous Cough
When it comes to iconic bad guys in the Star Wars universe, General Grievous certainly ranks quite high. George Lucas has a talent for creating distinctive and memorable characters and General Grievous is certainly no exception. Over the years, Grievous has become a bit of a cult figure and has been featured in many forms of Star Wars media.
Originally conceived as a droid general by George Lucas, he made his movie debut in Revenge of the Sith in 2005. Grievous was a warrior from the planet Kalee who volunteered to make his body mostly mechanical following an accident. Everything about him screamed droid apart from one thing: his famous asthmatic cough! This (along with his eyes) is enough to imply that there is more to Grievous than meets the eye. Interestingly, Grievous’s cough in Revenge of the Sith was recorded by George Lucas himself who was having a coughing fit on set. He decided to use it to hint at the droid general’s back-story.
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It was not until the final showdown with Obi-Wan Kenobi that we got a true glimpse of Grievous as Kenobi ripped open Grievous’ chest plates to reveal that there are real organs hidden beneath. As it turned out, they did not react well to blaster fire.
So what made up this bad guy General Grievous, and how did he get his famous asthmatic cough? Revenge of the Sith did not give anything away. After all, Grievous’s story did not start there. We would have to delve into the ever-evolving background world of non-movie Star Wars canon and Legends material to find out more.
Grievous first made his debut in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated television series in 2003. It was not until Chapter 25 (or Season 3 Episode 5 if you prefer) that Grievous had a showdown with Mace Windu. During the encounter, Windu used the Force to crush the chest plates of Grievous, severely injuring his lungs, and causing his now distinctive cough, which made its way into Revenge of the Sith.
Mace Windu uses Force Crush on General Grievous
As we have come to expect with Star Wars though, it was never that simple. In the documentary Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed, George Lucas said that he wanted the cough to represent the imperfection of cybernetic technology at the time rather than having it be from an injury sustained in combat. The story of what actually happened is quite tragic.
General Grievous chose to become a cyborg after being offered the enhancements by the Sith, who had been conducting research into cybernetically enhanced individuals. These enhancements were done over time, and Grievous chose to receive extreme cybernetic upgrades to increase his combat skill. After a near fatal shuttle resulted in very little of his body remaining intact, Count Dooku offered him the life-saving surgery. Dooku was actually responsible for the crash, but told Grievous that it was the Jedi who had sabotaged the shuttle. This in turn fueled his hatred of the Jedi. As a result of the enhancements, his organic lungs were irritated by some of the implants, resulting in his persistent cough.
The Sith research developed and improved over time, and Emperor Palpatine would have learned from Grievous. This was why the technology used on Anakin Skywalker when he became Darth Vader was far superior. These improvements also called back to George Lucas’s view that the Grievous’s cough was a result of the technology not being as good as it could be, and how it then improved over time. It was very clear that the cough of General Grievous was meant as a foreshadowing of the now infamous breathing of Darth Vader.
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Source(s): CBR, Wookieepedia