Photonic charge

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"We must find a way to reignite the core."
"You can't… we used a non-incendiary photonic charge to destroy the fuel rod…"
―Kenobi and the surviving burglar[1]

Photonic charges were a type of explosive charge that created a photonic burst.[1] At some point between 41 BBY and 32 BBY,[2] a group of burglars used a non-incendiary photonic charge while attempting to steal a shipment of diamonds from a mining outpost on the planet Codia I's second moon.[1]

They used the device to destroy the fuel rod in the outpost's power core, but the photonic burst interacted with the core, which was primarily made of solid accelerite, and produced unusual radioactivity that supressed the entire light spectrum in the outpost and drove the Defel miner Rosack Denahst mad. After Denahst had slaughtered all the burglars, the Jedi Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi was eventually able to reassemble the shattered fuel rod using the Force, ending the radioactivity and restoring Denahst's sanity. Many years later[1] in 1 BBY,[3] Kenobi would reflect on the incident and wrote about the charge in his journals while sheltering in his home on the planet Tatooine during a sandstorm.[1]

Behind the scenes

In the new Star Wars canon, photonic charges were mentioned in the second issue of the Star Wars: Obi-Wan comic series which was written by Christopher Cantwell, illustrated by Luke Ross,[1] and published on June 29, 2022.[4] The charges originated in the Star Wars Legends continuity, where they were mentioned in the 2013 novel The Last Jedi, which written by Michael Reaves and Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff.[5]

Appearances

  • Obi-Wan 2 (First mentioned) (In flashback(s))

Notes and references

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Obi-Wan 2
  2. ↑ In the flashbacks seen in Obi-Wan 2, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn go on a mission. Padawan depicts Kenobi's first mission, and since Obi-Wan 2 depicts a different mission, it must take place after. As Jinn is still alive in the flashback, it must take place before his death. As Star Wars: Timelines dates the novel to 41 BBY and Jinn's death to 32 BBY, the flashback must take place between those two years.
  3. ↑ StarWars.com A Tale from Obi-Wan's Youngling Days and More from Marvel's May 2022 Star Wars Comics – Exclusive Preview on StarWars.com (backup link) establishes that the frame story in Obi-Wan 1 takes place during Obi-Wan Kenobi's final days on Tatooine, meaning it is set soon before the events of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. As Star Wars: Timelines dates the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which days before A New Hope, to 1 BBY. Therefore, the frame story of Obi-Wan must occur in 1 BBY.
  4. ↑ Marvel-TemplateLogo Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022) #2 on Marvel Comics' official website (backup link)
  5. ↑ The Last Jedi