Season 1 Episode 21

“Compromise is a virtue to be cultivated, not a weakness to be despised.”

The battle for theTwi’lek homeworld of Ryloth rages as the Republic attempts to drive off the occupying droid army led by Separatist Leader, Wat Tambor.

With his forces stretched thin, Mace Windu must convince Twi’lek freedom fighter, Cham Syndulla, to help him save the capital city from the droids’ destruction. Initially, the Twi’lek hero is hesitant to aid Mace, but ultimately realizes the Jedi can be trusted and joins with him to liberate the city — and ultimately the planet — in the climactic battle.

Liberty on Ryloth Commentary, Preview and starwars.com Episode Guide.

Concept Art and Trivia

Early concepts of Cham Syndulla by Plunkett. “The only male Twi-lek that we knew from the movies was Bib Fortuna, but Bib’s a bad guy. Though Cham is a little shady at first, he’s not so bad when you get to know him, so we had to figure out a way to make him more approachable. Because Cham had to be more than just some big, muscle-bound guy, we were thinking of someone who was more cerebral than physical”

Early concepts of Mace Windu by Plunkett.

The original script for the episode describes Mace Windu using his lightsaber to cut open the fallen walker’s canopy. In the final episode, he uses the Force to shatter the glass instead, consistent with his expanded universe talent for finding and exploiting shatterpoints.

The Lightning Squadron AT-RTs have “BEA” written on the side of them in Aurebesh letters.

An earlier version of the story had Mace rescuing captive Twi’leks from a prison suspended over the caldera of a volcano, however the production paintings of such an apocalyptic setting ended up looking too similar to Mustafar.

Clone Commander Ponds has an Aurebesh phrase written on the back of his helmet that reads, “some guys have all the luck.”

This episode is rather heavy with peculiar Aurebesh phrases. One of the Republic display screens in the background reads: “TROUBLE ON THE HORIZON: Status report of advance trooper recognition therapy syndrome evaluation team current phase of experiment proceeding satisfactorily according to projected schedule.” This same screen includes the following notation: “second most important sport right after football.”

Among the treasures being hoarded by Wat Tambor is the Ark of the Covenant, slightly modified to have Twi’lek cherubim atop the box.

Designer Jackson Sze visualised the city of Lessu as a SW version of Minas Tirith.

Hyena bombers have two heads with two independent ‘minds’ which communicate with each other.