In Obi-Wan Kenobi Part 4, as members of The Path talk with Kenobi about the Fortress Inquisitorious on Nur and ways to infiltrate it, Sully mentions that, “The truth is, nobody knows what it looks like in there.”
But that’s actually not true.
The statement suggests that Cal Kestis is not known by this particular rebel group, but five years prior to the events of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Kestis and Cere Junda infiltrated the Fortress, as explored in the video game Jedi: Fallen Order. Their purpose in doing so was to retrieve a valuable holocron that had been stolen by Junda’s former apprentice, Trilla Suduri, who was now the Second Sister. The holocron contained a list of Force sensitive younglings, something that would be devastating in the hands of the Inquisitors.
Cal swam underwater to get into the base, just like Kenobi would do. Once inside, he made his way through the base and eventually came to the interrogation room, where the holocron – and Trilla – were waiting for him. He dueled her and bested her in combat, and Cere soon arrived to talk with her. As they got through to Trilla, however, a dark presence emerged: Darth Vader showed up and killed Trilla for her failure, then pursued Cal through the base as the Jedi Padawan attempted to flee. Cal and Cere were only able to escape by causing the glass on a window to break, allowing the ocean waters to rush in. Vader was forced to stop his pursuit of them to use the Force to hold off the waters from sweeping him away, which allowed the Jedi to swim to safety. In the aftermath, they destroyed the holocron, ensuring it would never fall into the wrong hands again.
You can tell just how similar that story is with what we got in Kenobi. They both managed to sneak into the base by swimming underwater. They both snuck around the base, discovering some of its secrets. They both accomplished the mission that drove them there, both in an interrogation room. They both dealt with a breaking window and someone needing to hold off the waters with the Force. Both led to Vader’s fury with an Inquisitor.
All of that was influenced by Fallen Order, and that’s pretty awesome. Lucasfilm President Kathy Kennedy told Empire after the episode released that the video games are influencing what happens in other Star Wars storytelling, like the Disney+ shows. She said:
“It’s funny, the more I’ve got to know how games are written, and that kind of persistent storytelling that goes on in a game environment where you’re just constantly building upon a single story, that’s much closer to what Star Wars is. There’s intention around [bringing in elements from games], because there’s a huge investment by people in Star Wars along the way. We have fun identifying who carries forward, and what we reference, and the history. You always want to feel that there’s a history behind everything that’s happening in Star Wars. So there’s a lot of conversation that goes around that.”
This actually isn’t the first time we’ve seen a Disney+ series influenced by Fallen Order either, as a BD droid was introduced in The Book of Boba Fett, after Cal’s trusty droid companion BD-1 was introduced in Fallen Order. In this episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi, though, it went far beyond a droid model showing up, but actually felt thematically similar too.
And that’s a really good thing for a Fallen Order lover like myself – it’s my favorite Star Wars video game I’ve ever played. It is a bit ironic, and convenient, that this super secret Fortress has now been infiltrated twice in much the same way, but I’m willing to overlook that as the hubris of the same Empire that just rebuilt the Death Star right after it was destroyed. They are astoundingly arrogant, and that’s precisely part of their downfall. Of course they would just assume that it wouldn’t happen again, even though now it has.
It also tells us, though, that Cal Kestis isn’t a part of this rebel cell known as The Path, which is helping Force sensitive children get to safety. We don’t actually know what Cal is up to during htis period, but the sequel to Fallen Order, Jedi: Survivor, is releasing next year and will be set five years after the previous game – meaning that it takes place around the same time as the Obi-Wan Kenobi series. Just saying.
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