This Was The Only Ship In The Clone Wars That Didn't Rely On Just Droids For The Crew

Star Wars

Nov 6

The Invisible Hand — Image Source: YouTube

The Clone Wars animated show has long been a high point among Star Wars fans. What it lacked in CGI it made up for in storytelling and filling in the gaps left by the prequel trilogy. It introduced us to Ahsoka Tano and certain characters that may not have gotten enough screen time to be better fleshed out such as Count Dooku and General Grievous. It also tells us the finer points of the Clone Wars, like the fact that all the ships in the droid army were piloted exclusively by droids except for one, General Grievous' flagship, the Invisible Hand.

Revenge of the Sith was the first appearance of General Grievous and his flagship before being promptly destroyed in the opening scene by Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. Before its demise, the Invisible Hand was a force to be reckoned with. A modified Providence-class Dreadnought, it came fully loaded with an excessive amount of ion cannons, photon torpedoes, tractor beams, and mass-driver cannons. In addition to a very powerful deflector shield, it is almost impossible to overcome the ship in a head-to-head battle. On top of this, it was armed with scores of large aerial and ground droids in the tens of thousands, and around 1.5 million deactivated battle droids. However, unlike every other ship, droids were not the only crew. A number of Neimoidians also worked on the ship, so there had to be life support systems installed and other modifications to cater to the only living crew in the droid army. The question is why?

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For the answer to this, we need to look at its history. The Invisible Hand was actually made before the outbreak of the Clone Wars and was the very first Providence-level Dreadnought ever created. It was originally the flagship of Trade Federation leader Nute Gunray and was subsequently partially crewed by Neimoidians. So how did it get into General Grievous's many hands? After the Trade Federation's failed hostage situation at Naboo, they decided to ally themselves with Count Dooku's Confederacy of Independent Systems. The Invisible Hand was a point of contention with many wanting to command one of the most feared ships in the galaxy. However, Gunray maintained control for the time. One of the people vying for it was General Grievous who would have likely had command of the ship sooner had it not been for his loss of the Malevolence which results in his fallen standing to Count Dooku. Eventually, Grievous demanded control of the Invisible Hand from Gunray, who initially refused but was then instructed to by the Sith Lord Darth Sidious. Many of the Neimoidian crew stayed on leading to a mixed crew.

Ironically, Darth Sidious was the reason for the destruction of the Invisible Hand. The ship met its end during Obi-Wan and Anakin’s mission to rescue Sheev Palpatine. Thus ended the last ship with living crew in the droid army. The Invisible Hand is another example of how well The Clone Wars added detail to something that was on the silver screen for mere minutes and how detailed Star Wars lore can get.

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