by Revival
June 30, 2013 in Episode Guides by Firebird
#101 Season 5 Episode 1
“Strength in character can defeat strength in numbers.”
Fueled by vengeance and rage, the newly reunited brothers Savage Opress and Darth Maul spread terror and violence across the galaxy. As the Sith brothers forcibly recruit Hondo Ohnaka and his pirates, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Adi Gallia chase them down, leading to a deadly confrontation.
Revival Commentary, Preview and starwars.com Episode Guide. Clip 1, Clip 2.
Original Airdate: 29 September 2012
Writer: Chris Collins
Director: Steward Lee
Concept Art and Trivia
Palpatine’s character model has undergone some subtle changes, softening some of the more extreme angles of the earlier look, including changes to the hair, ears, nose, and hands. He is also wearing a new outfit—the same he wears in Episode III when kidnapped by General Grievous.
Likewise, Yoda has undergone a model upgrade. The new version has smaller hands, larger feet, smaller ears, and less stylized hair. The main motivation behind these character model changes is a complete upgrade of the facial rig to allow a better performance in the animation. Illustration by Kilian Plunkett.
In the prologue footage, there is a scene of Darth Maul and Savage Opress killing the female Twi’lek Jedi (Finn Ertay) and a male Nikto Jedi (as yet unnamed, but based on Master Di’s model) at an unidentified spaceport.
The warehouse supervisor was simply described in the script as having a “slight build with a frontier twang.” His final design is that of a Snaggletooth-type alien, in a blue jumpsuit with silver boots, the kind made famous by a vintage 1970s Kenner action figure that was included in a Sears exclusive cantina playset.
When talking to Obi-Wan Kenobi via hologram, Hondo Ohnaka says, “First you lose this system and Grievous comes in and destroys my entire stronghold, leaving me here to just rummage through the leftovers of my once great empire!” Though Hondo is prone to exaggeration, Grievous did indeed attack Florrum in a story which was shown later in season 5.
In the background of Hondo’s camp is a huge piece of superstructure with the Aurebesh words, “HONDO’S SALVAGE – PRICES SLASHED,” stenciled on it.
The pirates and the warehouse supervisor all initially mistake the Sith brothers as Jedi. This is to show that the average galactic citizen has no real knowledge of the Sith or that most have never met a Jedi.
The warehouse office where Maul and Savage find the credit chip coffer is a re-dress of black marketer Siddiq’s office on Mandalore, seen in the third season episode, “Corruption.”
Though the lead deputy droid never gets to complete his sentence, he declares to Maul, “You are trespassing on InterGalactic—,” possibly suggesting that the station or its offices may have been the property of the Banking Clan. The warehouse station is a modified re-use of the Quarzite station seen in the fourth season episode, “Bounty.”
I totally loved this episode…Go Obi!
Here’s where S5 got good.
I was secretly hoping Adi Galia would die for a long time so “Obsession” would be non-canon.
Leland Chee has said that the Obsession storyline is still canon and that you just have to ignore any parts with Ventress and Adi.
{snorts} that’s probably the most desperate bit of EU defence I’ve ever heard 😆 Yeah, just ignore the bits that don’t fit but accept the rest of it … even if it is completely inconsistent with the character that Ventress has become and her relationship with Obi-Wan. What a crock of ****!
I hear people mention EU all the time but have no idea what EU is? I’m a Star Wars fan and probably should know this but I don’t :/.
Extended Universe. All the books and comics and computer games based on SW. It used to be that only the 6 movies were G-Canon (made by GL and therefore absolutely, definitely ‘real’) but I think with the level of involvement he had in TCW it can be added. Everything else is a sort of second level which a lot of fans view as ‘real’ but which GL can render non-canon, and has, which is why a lot of EU fans hate TCW so much. Probably why some of them hate the PT too.
Even though it was the first episode. 😉
Yah, I meant chronologically. 😛
Perfect episode. Loved it all the way through! I wish they would have aired this episode along with the other three parts of this arc at the same time though.
And have A War on Two Fronts as the premiere?
No not neccesarily have “A War on two fronts” as the premeire but maybe do the whole arc at one time later in the season or as the first arc of the season all together. Either that or start off with another arc. But then again all the other arcs were either to lame to be an opener arc or ones that were to good to be the opener that had to be last in the season. So I guess it served well.
One of my favourites. Shame Adi did so little before she died, though. 🙁
“The main motivation behind these character model changes is a complete upgrade of the facial rig to allow a better performance in the animation.” Sigh, we barely got to see how far they could have went. 🙁
Disney B*tches.
Would have wanted Eeth Koth to die to them too.
I’d rather have had them show the Temple bombing in “Sabotage” and have Eeth die because of it.
That would have been awesome if they showed the temple bombing! Like show a bunch of janitor’s and worker’s of the Temple inside working on a peacfull day just minding there own buisness. Mopping the floors and etc. Then out of nowhere an aircraft slams through the wall and we see an explosion and then it goes of camera back to Anakin on Cato- Nemodia :).
I thought that the battle on Cato was a bit pointless. I’d rather have seen the bombing.
I agree but it made for a good opener I guess.
DF said it was to show that Ahsoka was in her prime but we knew that she was already. She comes off as more competent than most Jedi Masters in the series. 😐
(Continuation) So Firebird would the story of Ferus Onlin be considered EU? I think I know what you mean. EU in the sense of other things in the Star Wars realm that go on that are from different galaxies and have different people that don’t have to do with the time period and the Republic and the war?
If he’s not in the movies or TCW then he’s EU. There are lots of EU stories during the period of the Clone Wars and the Rebellion, but also before and after.
There are also stories which aren’t EU, just a bit of fun, like the comic where Han and Chewie end up on Earth and Han dies and his remains are discovered by Indiana Jones 🙂 What if? type stories. Then there are the ones that were EU-canon but now they’re not because the PT or TCW over-wrote them.
To me Obsession falls into that category. The death of Adi Galia just puts the final nail in its coffin. The complete change in who and what Ventress is means that the whole comic is now clearly ridiculous and can’t possibly happen in the same reality as TCW.
Would it still be considered EU if there in video games? Like Star Killer for instance.
Yes, the games are also considered part of the EU canon, although I think you really need to take the powers that characters are given with a very big pinch of salt. They’re that way because it makes the game more fun to play, not because it really fits in with the SW universe.
I agree guys. If we draw this down to easiest explanation, its a game. For as much as Starkiller is a BEAST force user he’s still a video game character. Much EU is really in touch with the Star Wars mythos. However its canonically inferior to the movies, and now TCW. Surely even more, it’ll be inferior than Rebels, that will be canon :/.
I thought the episode was quite good especially liked the animation when Maul lifts Obi-Wan with the force cool scene leading into Savage losing the arm
When you lift someone up with the force do you do it with force choke or force grasp? Cause some people grab there throats when they get lifted but it would make sense that grasp is what you would use to lift somebody.
Well, you’re basically grasping the throat. 😛