If you were to ask a Prequels fan to think about some of the time period’s most powerful and formidable figures, they would instantly think of Jedi like Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka, as well as Sith-aligned individuals such as Lord Sidious, General Grievous, Darth Maul, Count Dooku, Savage Opress (Yeah there is a Star Wars villain whose name is literally “Savage Opress.” We might talk about him later), and General Grievous. However, a really fun fact that only Clone Wars fans know is that every single one of these people, with the excpetion of Sidious, has at one point been captured and/or defeated by THIS GUY:
This Slashflim article does a really good job at explaining who Hondo is and why he’s awesome, and in this post I will be talking about some of the reasons I personally think Hondo is one of the best Star Wars character of all time. On the off-chance that you did check out that article, you saw that Hondo is voiced by Jim Cummings who is best known as the voice of Winne the Pooh and Tigger. (Quick side note on that point; A lot of prequels fans have made jokes about Ewan McGregor, who plays Obi-Wan in the prequels, being cast as adult Christopher Robin in that Disney movie that came out this August, like the one pictured below, but this tweet from Jim Cummings is also absolutely hilarious to me.)
Anyway, there are two major reasons why Hondo’s voice actor is significant. The first is that Cummings does an INCREDIBLE JOB at voice acting him. SO much of the appeal of Hondo comes from his fantastic performance. Here’s a cool fraction of a scene that shows why I can’t help but smile every time Hondo is on screen and how much of his character derives from the way Jim Cummings delivers his lines.
The other reason it’s significant- and you may have gleaned this from the video- is that Hondo Ohnaka is a straight savage. He murders and tortures people all the time (because Clone Wars is a kid’s show). In one episode I watched a few days ago he straight up ordered his men to kill children if they got in the way of his profit. As you hopefully read in the article, though, he really can’t be classified as an all-round bad guy, and that’s part of what makes Hondo so refreshing in a galaxy full of so much black and white morality.
He’s also just hilarious. Here are two clips of my favorite Hondo quotes
“Insolence?! We are pirates. We don’t even know what that means”
“THIS EFFORT! IS NO LONGER! PROFITABLE!”