Obi-Wan Kenobi (ASWS)

"There's always a bigger fish."

- Obi-Wan Kenobi

Obi-Wan Kenobi was a Jedi Knight during the Stark Hyperspace War and the blockade of Utapau. After the Galactic Senate enacted anti-slavery laws in the outlying star systems, the Trade Federation blockaded Utapau in a desperate attempt to change the situation. Obi-Wan and his former master Jard Dooku were called upon by Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum to negotiate for the release of Utapau. When they arrived, they were quickly targeted for assassination and were forced to flee to the planet in the Federation vessels.

When Obi-Wan arrived on the planet, he was chased through the forests by battle droids before Dooku was able to fend off the attackers. He then met Jar Binks, who said he was the Crowned Prince of the Gungan Empire, who brought them to the Gungan capital for safety. After speaking with the Gungan High Council, he and Dooku were given a Gungan vessel piloted by Jar, who Obi-Wan had saved from execution, and made their way through the ocean core towards the capital of Theed. When they arrived, they freed Queen Sabé Arcadia and escaped aboard the queen's starship. After they determined that the hyperdrive was leaking, Obi-Wan ordered the pilot to set a course for and land on. However, when preparing to land, a sandstorm caused the vessel to crash.

Early Life and Jedi Training
Obi-Wan Kenobi was born on to two young settlers who allowed the Jedi Order to take their son for training. Obi-Wan trained under Jedi Master alongside many other padawans of his age such as one of his good friends, Quinlan Vos. When he was thirteen years old, he fell in love with fellow padawans Siri Tachi, but nothing was able to come of their forbidden relationship as Siri and her master were transferred to the School of Hidden Wisdom on Baltimn. After she left, Obi-Wan continued his pre-apprentice studies with notable masters such as Cin Drallig, one of the greatest lightsaber duelists of all time. His abilities with the Force and the blade made him somewhat arrogant, but under Yoda’s guidance he was able to become more humble and reserved.

Despite his power and potential, when Obi-Wan neared the age of thirteen standard years it had appeared that he had little chance of becoming a Jedi Knight, as younglings who were not selected by a master to be trained by the age of thirteen were assigned to the Jedi Service Corps. One afternoon, Obi-Wan found out that Jedi Master Jard Dooku would be visiting the Jedi Temple to find an apprentice, so Obi-Wan fought against one of his competitors, Bruck Chun, to draw the attention of Master Dooku. However, the fierce offensive made Obi-Wan appear to be too dangerous for training, so Dooku did not select him.

Because of his rejection, Obi-Wan was assigned to be a miner on Bandomeer for the AgriCorps. However, Obi-Wan believed that fate had given him a second chance, as Dooku had also been assigned to a mission on Bandomeer and they traveled together on the same voyage. En route to the planet, Obi-Wan and Dooku realized that Dooku’s old padawans, Xanatos, had set a trap for him and was plotting to assassinate him. This helped Dooku realize that Obi-Wan was worthy to be his padawans and after the successful completion of the mission, Obi-Wan officially became Dooku’s apprentice.

Stark Hyperspace War
Over the years, Obi-Wan and Dooku had very different views on the nature of the Jedi Order and its relationship to the Supreme Chancellor and the Galactic Senate. This caused a great strain in their relationship, and Obi-Wan’s training often became awkward to the point of downright tension and ferocity. Even so, the Stark Hyperspace War proved that, when necessary, they could be each other’s strongest ally and that they could work together under any situation.

The Stark Hyperspace War was a small regional military conflict fought in the Quotile system, and it was one of the many minor conflicts that the Republic faced after the Ruusan Reformation. The Republic and the Jedi were forced to fight against the forces of the Stark Commercial Combine, a fierce group of pirates, mercenaries, bounty hunters and assassins that had united together under the leadership of Iaco Stark. The Combine received some aid from the Trade Federation during the conflict.

The conflict began with a series of raids in the Outer Rim and was solved by peaceful negotiations by the Republic’s diplomats, most notably Senator Finis Valorum and Jedi Master Tyvokka. The conflict escalated into a full scale war through the aggressions of Senator Ranulph Tarkin and the actions of the Combine and the Trade Federation. The entire war was fought in five battles that took place around Troiken, except for one battle on the planet Thyferra. At the end of the war, Stark decided to defect and help the Republic end the war. Soon after, the war official ended.

Obi-Wan, Dooku and Quinlan Vos had been a member of Tyvokka’s negotiation team and were forced to fight in the Fourth Battle of Quotile, a conflict in which Obi-Wan risked his life to save the life of Dooku. It was at that point where they proved that, despite their differences, they could work together. It was also during that battle that Obi-Wan’s friendship with Vos grew, and they came to consider each other the best of friends.

The war had numerous consequences for the Republic. Tyvokka and Ranulph Tarkin were both killed, and their seats on the Jedi Council and the Galactic Senate, respectively, were left vacant and had to be filled. Nute Gunray also used the position to solidify himself as Viceroy of the Trade Federation. Finally, because of his handling of the negotiations during the war, Finis Valorum was elected Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic by his colleagues in the Galactic Senate.

Despite the fact that Obi-Wan and Dooku were able to prove that they had a somewhat strong relationship of trust as master and apprentice, the tensions between them continued to grow until their relationship became one of bitterness. Obi-Wan confided in a Jedi Council Member named Qui-Gon Jinn, and Jinn advised him on the situation. Though he was on the council, Qui-Gon was somewhat of a maverick Jedi and believed deeply in the Living Force while others did not. Qui-Gon attempted to teach Obi-Wan its philosophies, but Dooku became aware of it and demanded that the lessons be stopped. Qui-Gon complied, but that did not stop him from being a mentor to Obi-Wan both before and after Obi-Wan passed his trials and became a Jedi Knight. From that point on, Obi-Wan simply saw Dooku as a teacher rather than a master.

Utapau Crisis
Many years after the war, the passed a law that declared all forms of slavery illegal in the outlying systems. The Trade Federation, which relied heavily on slave labor, was outraged by the measure and blockaded the peaceful world of Utapau. Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum tasked Obi-Wan and Dooku with traveling to Utapau as ambassadors and negotiating for the release of the planet from the blockade. Obi-Wan and Dooku accepted the assignment and secretly left Coruscant, leaving only the Jedi Council to know where they were.

Shortly after they arrived on the Trade Federation command ship, they were targeted for assassination. Obi-Wan was forced to fight off a battle droid squadron while Dooku attempted to break in to the bridge, but in the end there were too many droids so they were forced to flee. They made their way into the ventilation system which led them to a docking bay where they found an invasion army preparing to make its way to the surface. They agreed to stow aboard separate ships and meet each other on the planet’s surface.

When the Federation ship Obi-Wan had stowed aboard was making its way to the surface, Obi-Wan assaulted the battle droid pilots which caused the ship to crash in the swamps. Obi-Wan cut his way out of the bottom and dropped into a lake just in time to avoid being detected by the other forces that were in the area. However, his lightsaber also shorted out when it was hit with the water, causing it to be inactive for some time afterwards. The inactive lightsaber proved to be a problem when he was assaulted by battle droids once again, but Dooku was in the area and was able to destroy the battle droids. Once the droids were destroyed, Obi-Wan met Jar Binks, a Gungan that said he was the Crowned Prince of the Gungan Empire. Jar offered to bring them to his city or safety, but quickly rescinded the offer when he told them that he had been banished. However, Obi-Wan was able to convince Jar otherwise and he brought them through the swamps to the underwater city.

When they arrived in the city, they were immediately arrested by Gungan guards who brought them to the Gungan High Council. When they arrived, Obi-Wan and Dooku requested their assistance in helping defend against the droid army, but the Gungans refused as they did not like the of the planet. However, Dooku was able to convince them to provide them with a transport to reach the capital city. Obi-Wan was also able to save Jar from execution, as he would have been pounded to death for breaking his exile. Immediately after leaving, they were given a bongo transport and took it to the ocean core, the quickest way to the city, where they learned that Jar had been banished for carelessly letting the Humans steal the Kaiburr Crystal, an artifact supposedly given to the Gungans by their gods. Jar told them that the Human legend regarding the crystal was that a minion of a Dark Jedi named Xendor left it on the planet and the Gungans simply came across it. The story was interrupted when the transport was attacked by a large sea creature, but an even larger sea creature attacked it which allowed the transport to safely escape into an underground route that would bring them to Theed, the capital of the planet.

When Obi-Wan arrived in Theed with Dooku and Jar, he immediately helped to free Queen Sabé Arcadia and her advisers, including Governor Sio Bibble and Captain Panaka, from their battle droid captors. Once the royal party was freed, Panaka led the Jedi to the hangar bay where Obi-Wan destroyed a group of battle droids in order to free the royal pilots. Immediately upon their release, Obi-Wan made his way into the queen’s personal starship. Within moments, the ship made its way out of the hangar and into space. The ship was nearly destroyed when the shield generator was nearly destroyed, but the astromech droid R2-D2 was able to repair it and allow the ship to escape the blockade. Once they did, Obi-Wan was told that the hyperdrive generator was leaking so he ordered the pilot, Ric Olié, to set a course for as he knew that the Trade Federation did not have a presence there.

Tatooine
When things on the ship had settled down, Obi-Wan and Dooku told the queen that they were en route to Tatooine. Panaka protested, knowing how dangerous the were and how large of a presence they had there, but Obi-Wan and Dooku were able to convince Arcadia to trust in their judgment. Hours later, the ship arrived at Tatooine and began to descend towards the surface to land on the outskirts of the settlement. However, their short range navigational sensors were offline which caused them to not see a large sandstorm that had formed a few kilometers from the city. By the time they realized their mistake, it was too late. The ship grazed the storm and crashed just in between the settlement and the storm, though the damage was concentrated mostly in and around the hyperdrive generator.

Shortly after the crash, Obi-Wan encountered a young man named Annikin Skywalker that had made his way into the cargo hold. The royal guards attempted to apprehend him, but Obi-Wan told them to let him go and introduced himself. Annikin told him that he had come to the ship to make sure that everyone was safe, and to Obi-Wan’s disappointment Annikin’s heroism was met with mockery from Dooku. However, Obi-Wan relayed to Annikin the problems with the hyperdrive generator and, much to Obi-Wan’s surprise, Annikin offered to try to fix it. Obi-Wan led Annikin down the hall where he told Obi-Wan that he believed he would be able to fix it. However, all systems would have to be turned offline, so the ship would be relatively uninhabitable due to the heat. Annikin offered to let the crew stay at his home, and with Arcadia’s permission Obi-Wan agreed to go with Annikin to the to seek permission from Annikin’s family. Before they could leave, however, Dooku chastised Obi-Wan for taking on another “pet project”, but Obi-Wan became frustrated and walked off. He could tell that Annikin overheard the short debate, so Obi-Wan told him to ignore any insults that Dooku threw his way.

Because Annikin’s speeder had been relatively destroyed from the storm, he and Obi-Wan began to walk to the Lars homestead on foot. When they arrived one hour later, they were greeted by Annikin’s mother Shmi Skywalker-Lars, his stepfather Cliegg Lars and his stepbrother Owen Lars. Obi-Wan and Annikin proposed to them Annikin’s offer of hospitality, though at first it seemed as if the family was reluctant. However, after a very short time, Cliegg agreed to let the crew stay at the homestead. As Annikin and Owen walked off, Obi-Wan thanked Cliegg and Shmi for their hospitality.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Episode I - The Chosen One