Malevolence/Legends

The Malevolence was a Subjugator-class heavy cruiser active during the Clone Wars. It served as the flagship of Confederacy General Grievous.

Characteristics
The Malevolence was a Subjugator-class heavy cruiser. It possessed two twin ion cannons. Once fired, the wave from the cannons would expand over greater distances, but would not weaken.

History
"Our ship is unstoppable."

- General Grievous

The Malevolence was designed by Ruggle Schmong and built by Quarren Separatists on Pammant. It served as General Grievous' flagship prior to his use of the Invisible Hand and destroyed dozens of Galactic Republic task forces, including the Galactic Republic Fourth Fleet.

The battleship's existence became known to the Galactic Republic following the destruction of said task forces, but the details of the ship remained unknown due to the absence of any survivors from the attacks. Commentators speculated that the weapon could be a weaponized space slug variant, or a starship equipped with cloaking devices.

After destroying dozens of task forces, General Grievous set his sights on the Kaliida Shoals Medical Center, which housed over 60,000 wounded clones and was the primary Outer Rim medical facility for the Republic. In an attempt to stop him, the Republic sent a squadron of brand-new BTL-B Y-wing starfighters, nimble bombers that could avoid the ion cannon's bursts. The Republic force, led by Jedi General Anakin Skywalker, managed to damage the two heavy ion cannons, causing them to overload, also causing the hyperdrive to be disabled.

Senator Padmé Amidala and C-3PO entered the battle, being led to believe they would be meeting IBC officials for a peace treaty that would lead them to leave the CIS. In reality, it was a trap set up by Darth Sidious to ensure that the Malevolence could escape. They were captured by a tractor beam, but evaded capture by destroying their ship.

Skywalker, Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, and astromech droid R2-D2 entered the ship in the chaos and began searching for Amidala. Padmé contacted them, leading Anakin to find her, but C-3PO got lost and Kenobi went looking for him. R2-D2 then found him and Kenobi went to damage the hyperdrive further, which had almost been fixed at the time.

In the generator room, Kenobi was attacked by General Grievous, but escaped and met up with Skywalker, Amidala, C-3PO, and R2-D2, who hijacked the hyperdrive beforehand and escaped aboard the Twilight. Grievous attempted to give chase in his starfighter, together with several Vulture droid fighters. Meanwhile, the droid crew aboard the Malevolence, believing the hyperdrive to be fixed, prepared to jump to CIS space, but Skywalker's "hijacking" caused it to jump into a nearby moon. Grievous frantically ordered the droids to reset the navicomputer but they failed to do so, resulting in the destruction of the ship. Grievous, however, escaped to his secret hideout in Sector 4 and the Twilight returned to the awaiting Republic ships. The Malevolence's threat was over.

It was known that the Malevolence possessed at least one sister ship, the Devastation.

Behind the scenes


Count Dooku named the Malevolence meaning "wishing evil to others."

The Malevolence was originally based on a concept art for a Separatist communications ship meant to be used in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The finished version was designed by Russell Chong and is based upon the GR-75 medium transport. According to Director Dave Filoni, the Malevolence and its story was based in part on the real-life German battleship Bismarck, which was hunted relentlessly by the British Royal Navy during World War II.

In the The Clone Wars episode "Shadow of Malevolence", Anakin Skywalker commands the Y-wing bombers to attack the starboard ion cannon, but the visuals show that it is the port cannon that is destroyed. The explosion takes out both cannons, however, therefore making this statement moot. It is possible however, that due to either using the same power generator or really just being one, big, 2-way shooting cannon that can pick which side to fire from, that cause the destruction of one to cause a chain reaction that destroyed both guns, as well as causing extensive damage to most of the ship.

The destruction of the Malevolence by crashing into a moon echoes the fate of the Executor by falling into the second Death Star's gravity field, as well as the dispute over its size.

Henry Gilroy has suggested that the reason the Malevolence is able to receive holographic communications while in hyperspace is due to the size of the ship's internal gravity field.

Appearances



 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars novel
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars Volume 1: Shipyards of Doom
 * The Clone Wars: Prelude
 * HoloNet News — A Galaxy Divided
 * The Clone Wars: Shakedown
 * The Clone Wars: Procedure
 * The Clone Wars: Agenda
 * The Clone Wars: Departure
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels
 * The Clone Wars: Departure
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels

Notes and references
Malevolence Malevolencia