Destroy Malevolence

"Destroy Malevolence" is the fourth episode of Season One of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series. It is the fourth episode of the series overall, and concludes a three-part storyline. It aired on October 17, 2008 on Cartoon Network. Its title was first revealed on Anthony Daniels' website.
==Official description==
Padmé Amidala and C-3PO are taken hostage by General Grievous, leaving Anakin and Obi-Wan to save the Senator and complete the destruction of the Malevolence. Anakin and Obi-Wan chase down the Malevolence, hoping to destroy it before it can escape. But when Padmé and C-3PO are captured and held hostage aboard, the Jedi are forced to hatch a new plan.
==Plot summary==
Heavily damaged during the Battle of the Kaliida Nebula, the Malevolence, under the command of General Grievous, flees, pursued by three Republic attack cruisers. Due to the Malevolence's sheer size, the cruisers are limited in the degree of damage they can cause. Jedi Master Plo Koon suggests summoning reinforcements. General Kenobi asks about Jedi Master Luminara Unduli, but Anakin Skywalker tells him that she is currently engaged with a Separatist fleet and unable to lend support. Believing the Malevolence's hyperdrive is damaged, General Kenobi orders all guns to target the Malevolence's bridge.
Count Dooku contacts Grievous and informs him that a trap has been set to give Grievous an advantage over the Jedi. Senator Padmé Amidala is currently en route to the Malevolence under false pretenses. Capturing her and holding her hostage should convince the Republic to cease their attack.
Senator Amidala travels through hyperspace in a Nubian yacht, accompanied by her droid companion C-3PO. Per information given to her by Chancellor Palpatine, the senator believes she is rendezvousing with the Supreme Executive of the InterGalactic Banking Clan at a clandestine point in space to negotiate a treaty. Amidala's ship emerges from hyperspace directly in the path of the Malevolence barely avoiding a collision. Ahsoka sees the ship on the scanners and Anakin tells her to contact the ship. Padme answers identifying herself and explaining to them her situation, imploring them to continue their attack. Anakin, however, orders the attack to stop.
Lamenting her gullibility, Padmé sets her ship's power systems to overload then flees with C-3PO. Grievous arrives in the hangar and boards Padmé's ship just before it explodes. He is caught in the blast, but survives. He orders his droids to search for the stowaways.
Anakin, Obi-Wan, and R2-D2 mount a rescue mission and fly the Twilight toward the Malevolence, hoping the battleship's sensors are too damaged to notice their approach. They successfully dock with an emergency airlock and make their way on board. Padmé manages to contact Anakin and they arrange to rendezvous at a central location along the battleship's rail jet system.
At the rendezvous, Amidala and C-3PO are spotted by a passing droid patrol and are forced backward onto separate rail jets heading in opposite directions. Anakin spots Padmé and jumps onto a passing rail jet running alongside hers. Obi-Wan goes after 3P0. A super battle droid destroys the track in front of Padmé and Anakin uses the Force to safely pull Padmé aboard his rail jet. As the two are about to enjoy a romantic moment, Obi-Wan contacts Anakin to tell him he's been separated from C-3PO. Anakin says he'll go after the droid, but Padmé informs the Jedi that she overheard Grievous and that the ship's hyperdrive is close to being repaired. Obi-Wan pledges to destroy the hyperdrive. Monitoring the ship's internal communications, Grievous overhears this plan and sends droids to guard the drive.
Obi-Wan duels with Grievous after dispatching his droids and manages to avoid the cyborg's clutches.
Meanwhile, Anakin and Padmé reach the bridge when the ship is almost ready to jump to hyperspace. They quickly destroy all the droids and rig the ship's navicomputer. They then leave the bridge after hiding the broken droids.
Obi-Wan reaches the Twilight along with the others and, as they leave, Grievous pursues in his starfighter. The droids on the Malevolence try to jump to hyperspace, only to discover that Anakin rigged the navicomputer to set a course into the moon. Grievous watches in horror as the ship crashes into a nearby moon, then flees the system.
While Grievous was not killed on the Malevolence, his warship is finally destroyed and Senator Amidala is rescued from the ship. The loss hurts Grievous's credibility with Count Dooku, the former ending communications with the Count due to the shame of the ship being destroyed.
==Continuity==
Some ideas from the original script of the episode included: Quarsh Panaka being captured alongside Padmé and being brutally murdered by Grievous; a lightsaber duel between Grievous and Plo Koon on the exterior of Malevolence in space; and Jedi sneaking aboard the Malevolence by freezing themselves in carbonite to get past droid bioscans and radiation beams. While the first two ideas were eventually abandoned completely, the carbonite infiltration maneuver was later adapted into the stories of The Clone Wars: Shipyards of Doom and the Season 3 episode "The Citadel."
Additionally, Anakin's original plan of entering the Malevolence was a foolish hyperspace micro-jump to deploy the Twilight centimeters from the ship's hull. Padmé and C-3PO were also originally rushing to the battle site to aid in the evacuation of the Kaliida Shoals Medical Center, but these were also changed after script revisions.
When General Grievous and his droids surround Obi-Wan near the hyperdrive, he says "Hello there." Obi-Wan would later repeat this line to the General in Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith, to a young Luke Skywalker in Obi-Wan Kenobi, and later he say the line to R2-D2 during his debut appearance in Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope.
General Grievous said the lines "General Kenobi." "I will deal with this Jedi Myself." is said in Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith, at the Battle of Utapau.
Anakin's comments about spinning "being a good trick" are references to his line in Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace.
The final frame of the episode shows all major prequel characters (Anakin, Obi-Wan, Padmé, C-3PO, and R2-D2) being depicted together for the first time (They were scattered across different planets in the films).
==Behind the scenes==
A preview snippet of this episode can be unlocked on the Star Wars: The Clone Wars (film) Blu-ray after playing a memory game.
==Credits==
==Appearances==
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==Notes and references==
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