Attack of the Clones' Geonosis Arena Jedi, Ranked

Sure, he shows up with the Clones to rescue the survivors, but he shows up late. “aRoUnD tHe SuRvIvOrS, a PeRiMeTeR cReAtE!” Well Yoda, ever thought about how there’d be more survivors to create a perimeter around if you’d hurried your tiny green ass a bit more?

Famous for being one of the first Jedi to go out like a chump in the arena, when Jango Fett just promptly shoots him the second he gets close to Dooku. You’re a Jedi, man, blocking blasters with your lightsaber is a Jedi 101 move.

I’m sorry, Agen Kolar’s Padawan, but if this is your default picture on Wookieepedia, odds are you didn’t do that great.

Now see: Ki-Adi-Mundi’s pretty great. Great design, cares about droid attacks on the Wookiees, goes on to do some pretty cool stuff in the EU and whatnot. But: we see Ki-Adi early on in the battle as he ignites his lightsaber from the stands... and the next time we see him is when he and two other Jedi are being pushed into the crowd of surviving Jedi as the battle ends, implying that they were captured and taken out of the fight. Which, when you’re ranking their performance in said fight, isn’t exactly great!

Aayla likewise turns in a poor performance due to this capturing. But since this is the first time we got to see her in action at all—and her design was so standout she went on to inspire writers to flesh out her character in the pages of the excellent Clone Wars Dark Horse comic in Legends—she gets to pip Ki-Adi-Mundi. Sorry man.

Now, I hate to do this to my boy Plo—one of my favorite Jedi of the prequels—but like Aayla and Ki-Adi-Mundi, he’s one of the apparent captives, and that’s 100% loser material. I’m ranking him the highest of the three though, because it’s my list and I said so.

Let me show you a brief excerpt from Sarrissa Jeng’s Wookieepedia page:

I mean, if that’s your notable quotable? Yeah you’re ranking low.

Roth was so blink-and-you’ll-miss him in this battle, but he apparently survived it as we basically get to see him in the circle of survivors—and later on, as the full Battle of Geonosis begins.

Another blink-and-you’ll miss it Arena Jedi, Sora went on to have a fascinating arc in Legends material, slipping to the Dark Side as a user of Mace Windu’s dangerous lightsaber form, Vapaad. But that doesn’t count for much here and now, so he gets to rank low.

Joclad—played by Christopher Lee’s fight double Kyle Rowling—doesn’t get to do much in the battle outside of this one very blurry prominent shot, but we see his body as the Jedi escape the arena, implying that he dies in that final dash to the transports. Tough break!

You ever get the feeling George Lucas just shot a bunch of people doing generic Jedi-y things for the arena fight and then just slotted them in anywhere it vaguely makes sense? Well, here’s Bultar Swan, randomly waving her lightsaber about and then sticking her hand into the air like she’s using the Force... before the fight’s even begun.

Likewise, Barriss opens the battle by... swinging her lightsaber around at nothing. I know you’re a Padawan, Barriss, and will go on to do much more interesting things in Clone Wars, but this is far from your finest hour.

Poor Saesee, a cool alien design in want of actually doing something noteable other than being in the background of this fight.

Stass was a replacement character, having meant to have been a recast of Phantom Menace Jedi Adi Gallia before producers realized she looked too different to be considered the same character. In Legends, we know Adi—the protagonist of tie-in game Jedi Starfighter—was up in the space around Geonosis leading a team of Jedi fighters to engage the Droid armies, while Stass mostly just... hung out on the ground apparently. At least she survived, but it says a lot about the Jedi that ranked behind her that her most prominent appearances in the movie feature the back of her head.

We don’t know much of what Pablo-Jill actually did in the fight, but he survived at least, so that counts for something. Also, look at him! That’s a cool-ass alien design, at least. Bonus points just for that.

So minor it took getting two action figures to even give him a name, Fi-Ek was a Return of the Jedi grunt alien who got to be a Jedi in this scene, a Nikto. We actually get to see him in the background a few times, but he doesn’t survive the battle.

Another brief appearance, but Tarados is a Klatooinian—another alien who we’d basically only seen as Jabba’s thugs in Return of the Jedi at this point—so it’s cool to see one as a Jedi, at least.

Agen, like Stass, got turned into an entire new character in this battle, instead of being a recast of fellow Zabrak Jedi, Eeth Koth. Sure, we don’t see him do much, but that’s a cool notable fact right there. Plus, his little spinny kick right into this Geonosian’s face!

Our third Return of the Jedi alien grunt Jedi, Que-Mars, ranks highest. Is it because he gets more screentime? Certainly not. It’s because his name is Que-Mars Redath-Gom. Go on, say it out loud. Star Wars is so stupid, I love it.

Not only a rare Padawan to be seen in the fight, Etima is actually the dark-robed figure tagged teamed with another unidentified Jedi (Etima’s on the left here) that took out the battle droid with C-3PO’s body, which... I guess that counts as half a kill?

I want you to know this is how weird Star Wars is: Ekim Ryelli is Lumas Etima’s master, and apparently is the guy on the right in the background when Threepio gets his “Die, Jedi Dogs!” moment. We see him kick a battle droid, and that’s funny, but that’s it. But he has a name! In the Legends continuity, he goes on to appear in a comic where he’s killed by a fallen member of the Jedi Exploration Corps—the Force-sensitive initiates who fail to become Padawans—who gets some evil Dark Side armor and becomes Malleus, Hammer of the Dark Side!!!

Still, the kick’s cool though.

One more “we wanted to recast a Jedi but they looked too different,” Sar was originally supposed to be Depa Billaba, and actually got canonized as her sister. Sar gets a couple of cool on-camera kill in her teeny appearance, but alas, is confirmed to have died in the battle shortly after.

What defines a Jedi? Is it their power in the Force, their skill with a lightsaber? No, it’s looking cool. Shaak Ti knows this, starting the battle off with this fabulous splayed legs battle stance. Do we see her do much else? No. Does it matter? Absolutely not.

Likewise next to Shaak Ti, Luminara understands the power of a great pose to kick off a fight, and is even better at it. Look at it! That’s a statement. Bravo, Luminara, bravo.

Anakin, having the time of his life here, getting to flirt with Padmé about aggressive negotiations and whack things with a borrowed lightsaber. Shame he’s about 20 minutes out from losing a limb, but still, in this moment, he’s having fun.

OK yeah, sure, he’s Obi-Wan Kenobi. He’s a main character, he gets to do a lot. Some good kills, including the Acklay, and he gets to have and a nice little back to back moment with Mace. Good for you, Obi-Wan.

A package deal? Two keyboard-smashed named randos above Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi? Well, not just any keyboard-smashed named randos: Sephjet and Nicanas are the two human Jedi who throw their spare lightsabers to Anakin and Obi-Wan as the fighting breaks out. They have the most important mission of all the Jedi in the arena, and Anakin and Obi-Wan wouldn’t have been able to do anything they did without them. Legends.

Okay sure, Sephjet and Nicanas were important, but Mace is arguably the MVP of this entire scene. The purple lightsaber, scoring a major kill by lopping Jango’s head off. Did we mention the purple lightsaber? The party’s over indeed, but only because Master Windu’s ready to start one of his own. But if Mace is the MVP and only number two, then who could possibly top him?

I mean, look at that smile. Dude saw a Battle Droid with a protocol droid and was like “hell yeah, time to have a laugh.” Kit Fisto’s just having a blast, and we love it for him.

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