Fight on Concordia

Prelude

Mandalore's Neutrality Proposal

Roughly around 738 BBY, a war erupted between the Galactic Republic and the Mandalorians, devastating the Mandalore sector. While many warrior clans dispersed, the New Mandalorian faction emerged from the destruction. Abandoning many of the old warrior codes traditionally followed by Mandalorians, the New Mandalorians advocated for peace, neutrality, and tolerance as the best path for Mandalorian survival and success. By the time of the Clone Wars, this movement, under the leadership of Satine Kryze, prioritized pacifism and non-violence. Kryze was appointed as the Duchess of the new government, and Almec was designated as the Prime Minister. Under their governance, those within their society who resisted these reforms were exiled to Concordia, Mandalore's moon. Following the onset of the Clone Wars during the First Battle of Geonosis, Kryze established the Council of Neutral Systems, an alliance of at least 1,500 star systems that wished to remain uninvolved in the war.

Meanwhile, Pre Vizsla, the Governor of Concordia, gathered the remaining members of the Death Watch, a Mandalorian splinter group that embraced extreme violence and dishonorable actions. In stark contrast to the honorable True Mandalorians and New Mandalorians, the Death Watch voiced their disapproval of Kryze's leadership over Mandalore through acts of vandalism and terrorism targeting public areas. As the Clone Wars began, the group secured backing from Count Dooku of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Dooku urged Vizsla to provoke the Galactic Republic into deploying a military presence on Mandalore, which would incite a rebellion among the citizens of Mandalore with the support of the Death Watch. Heeding Dooku's advice, Vizsla dispatched a lone Death Watch saboteur to assault a Republic cruiser. Republic forces aboard the ship managed to subdue the saboteur. However, rather than submit to interrogation, the man ended his own life.

In response to this event, the Jedi Council dispatched Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi to Mandalore on a diplomatic mission to reaffirm Kryze's neutral position. Kryze and Almec assured Kenobi that no member of the New Mandalorian faction would ever take up arms against the Republic. Kryze suspected that the Galactic Senate was attempting to interfere in Mandalorian affairs, even though the Jedi Council had ordered the investigation.

Diplomacy on Concordia

A Death Watch bomber, loyal to the cause, planted a bomb within the Memorial Shrine located in Sundari, the capital city. The bomb exploded while Kenobi and Kryze were taking a stroll through the area. Just before the explosion, Kryze revealed to Kenobi her growing worries regarding the recent resurgence of the Death Watch, dismissing them as mere "hooligans" who vandalized public property. Upon discovering the Death Watch symbol at the site, Kenobi informed Kryze that they were more than just hooligans and that the bombing was an act of defiance against her government. Kenobi ordered a lockdown of the area, preventing anyone from leaving without being questioned. The bomber, concealed within the crowd, fled out of fear. Kenobi pursued him on foot, eventually reaching a dead-end platform. The bomber fired at Kenobi with his pistol. Kenobi deflected the shots and disarmed the bomber, but he couldn't prevent him from jumping off the platform to his death.

With his last breath, the bomber declared his allegiance to the Death Watch in a dialect of Mando'a spoken on Concordia, confirming the Duchess's suspicions that the group was based on Mandalore's moon. Kenobi and the Duchess arranged a meeting with Pre Vizsla, the governor of Concordia and secretly the leader of the Death Watch. While the Duchess kept Vizsla occupied during dinner, Kenobi went to investigate a local mining facility believed to be abandoned.

The Skirmish

Mining Facility

Upon arriving at the local mining facility, which was actually a Death Watch stronghold, Kenobi determined that the facility was still in operation. Further investigation revealed a rack of jetpacks and a rack of Mandalorian helmets. Capitalizing on Kenobi's interest in the helmet, a Death Watch member ambushed the Jedi from behind and opened fire with his blaster. Kenobi's quick reflexes enabled him to block the shots with the Mandalorian helmet, but the Mandalorian quickly attacked Kenobi, knocking him to the ground. As Kenobi stood up and drew his blue lightsaber, the warrior seemed to vanish.

Kenobi declared to the Death Watch that he was under the protection of Duchess Satine of Mandalore. Another Death Watch member rejected Kenobi and Satine, stating that the Death Watch did not acknowledge Satine's authority. The warrior attacked Kenobi over a conveyor belt, firing two shots at the Jedi. Kenobi deflected the two shots with his lightsaber and countered with a kick, but the warrior fired a third shot that disarmed him. Kenobi quickly grabbed the Mandalorian and punched him in the face several times. However, the other Mandalorian reappeared and grabbed Kenobi's right arm, allowing both warriors to punch Kenobi simultaneously, knocking him to the floor. As Kenobi tried to recover, he was incapacitated by a kick to the face.

The two Death Watch members stole Kenobi's lightsaber and attached him to a rock-crushing machine. Under Pre Vizsla's orders, the two searched the area for other Jedi. Kenobi regained consciousness as the two left and contacted Satine, who was having a dinner conversation with Pre Vizsla about the current political climate surrounding Mandalore's neutrality. Satine excused herself from the dinner table, claiming to feel sick, and used a speeder to travel to the mining facility, using a tracker in her comlink to guide her.

The two Death Watch members activated the rock crusher, hoping to make Kenobi's death appear accidental. However, they were distracted by a false alarm triggered by Satine and left to investigate. In their absence, Satine deactivated the rock crusher before it could kill Kenobi. The two Death Watch members returned to the machine and restrained Satine, who kicked a metal canister into the rock crusher's gears, allowing Kenobi to free himself. Kenobi used the metal canister to launch himself to the ceiling, then used the ceiling to launch himself into a spring kick, incapacitating the Mandalorian restraining Satine. As the other Mandalorian attacked Kenobi, Kenobi grabbed him and threw him into the wall, incapacitating him as well. Kenobi and Satine escaped the mining facility in an elevator.

Firefight

As the elevator reached the surface, Kenobi quickly knocked out a Death Watch member guarding the door with two quick punches to the head. A nearby squad of Mandalorians witnessed this and opened fire, causing the elevator to detach and fall. Kenobi realized that his lightsaber had been stolen, and instead used the blaster weapon of the Mandalorian he had incapacitated. As three Death Watch members flew towards Satine and Kenobi using their jetpacks, Kenobi shot one of them.

As the two remaining Mandalorians approached, Kenobi used the unconscious Mandalorian's jetpack as an improvised explosive. He threw the jetpack at the two Mandalorians and shot it, causing it to explode and take out one of the Mandalorians. However, the other survived the blast and attacked Kenobi. As he approached Kenobi, Satine distracted the Death Watch member by throwing a rock at his head, giving Kenobi a few seconds to sweep the Mandalorian off his feet and knock him out with a kick to the stomach.

Duel with Pre Vizsla

Vizsla, observing his men losing the battle against the Jedi, ordered the rest to retreat while he personally confronted Kenobi. Accompanied by three of his Death Watch warriors, Vizsla demonstrated his ruthlessness by executing the Mandalorian Kenobi had just knocked out with a single blaster shot. He then revealed his true identity to Kenobi and Kryze, expressing his resentment towards the Duchess and the New Mandalorian culture. Vizsla returned Kenobi's lightsaber, inviting Kenobi to defend the Duchess in an honorable duel. Vizsla's weapon of choice was a unique black lightsaber known as the Darksaber, which had been passed down to him after it was stolen from the Jedi Temple during the fall of the Old Republic.

Kenobi managed to disarm Vizsla, but Vizsla quickly countered and knocked Kenobi off his feet, giving him time to retrieve his weapon. Vizsla activated his jetpack and attempted to execute Kenobi with a jetpack-enhanced jump, but Kenobi recovered and grabbed Vizsla, throwing him to the ground. Vizsla, realizing that Kenobi had the advantage, ordered his Death Watch warriors to eliminate him. The three warriors fired their jetpack-mounted rockets in unison, initially missing Kenobi. However, when the rockets looped back around to track Kenobi, Kenobi was forced to escape with Satine down an elevator shaft. Vizsla ordered the warriors not to pursue.

Aftermath

Kenobi escorted the Duchess back to Sundari on Mandalore, where they met with the Jedi Anakin Skywalker and the two clone troopers Rex and Cody. They were tasked with escorting the Duchess to Coruscant aboard her starship, the Coronet, so she could present her neutral views on the war to the Galactic Senate. However, Tal Merrik, the Senator representing Mandalore, was secretly allied with the Death Watch and smuggled crates of assassin probes into the ship's cargo hold, leading to multiple assassination attempts on the Duchess during the journey to Coruscant.

Behind the scenes

The battle between Obi-Wan Kenobi and the Death Watch on Concordia was first shown in "The Mandalore Plot," an episode from the second season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. During the final duel between Kenobi and Vizsla, Vizsla was originally intended to use a vibroblade. However, George Lucas determined that only a lightsaber could effectively counter another lightsaber, and with this in mind, he assisted the show's crew in developing the concept of the Darksaber.