Hondo Ohnaka helped Ezra Bridger and the crew of the ghost during the Liberation of Lothal, where they fought against the tightening imperial grip on the planet by Grand Admiral Thrawn, before he was successfully and sent into the unknown regions by Ezra Bridger. But what happened to Hondo after the Liberation of Lothal? I’m going to break down exactly what happened to hondo Ohnaka After Rebels, and why he kept his loyal astromech, R5-P8 by his side.
In the short few weeks before the destruction of Jedha by the test firing of the death star, Hondo was hired by Dok-Ondar from the planet Batuu to retrieve a kyber crystal statue from inside the Temple of Kyber on the sandy world. Dok-Ondar and Hondo travelled to the temple which was strong in the force, but inside, they were confronted by the guardians of the Whills, who fiercely defended their ancient force relics. Despite this, Dok-Ondar was able to fight back the Guardians of the Whills and cut the statue from its resting place with the lightsaber of Ki-Adi Mundi, which he had purchased from Jabba the Hutt years earlier. Let me know down below if you’d like to hear the story of what happened to Ki-Adi Mundi’s lightsaber after he was gunned down during Order 66. It’s a really interesting story, and very surprising! As Hondo and Dok-Ondar made their way out of the temple with the statue, they were confronted by Chirrut Imwe. Eventually, Chirrut allowed them to leave with the statue. Hondo then loaded the kyber statue onto their shuttle, and they were able to successfully navigate past the Empire’s tight blockade of the area.
Some time after the battle of Yavin, but before the Battle of Hoth, a man from Tatooine, named Saponza, along with his business partner, accepted a contract with Hondo where he worked as a subcontractor for him, but was not a full member of Hondo’s crew. The business venture included many extremely important jobs and of course a large amount of profit.
Saponza and his other partner quickly established a base of operations at their Tatooine homestead, but they soon attracted the wrath of the mighty Jabba the Hutt because of their criminal activity. Bib Fortuna attempted to warn the two that Jabba would soon seek revenge against them for their activities, including killing six of his henchmen, but they did not listen. They simply believed that Jabba would forget about them after a short amount of time, or would not even bother to go after them… Unfortunately, they were completely wrong about this, and Soon after, Jabba sent his men to completely burn the base of operations to the ground, leaving nothing but the black and red scorching embers in the yellow sands. The two men quickly realized that they could not defeat Jabba on their own and were forced to leave the business agreement with Hondo, strongly disappointing him. Following this, they were forced to choose between the Empire or the Rebel Alliance, eventually choosing the Rebels. This will be important later on for determining Hondo’s fate, so keep that in mind.
Some time after the battle of Endor, a portrait of Hondo Ohnaka was hung inside of Maz Kenata’s castle on Takodana. It’s not clear exactly what Honda did to earn a portrait of himself on the castle, but he probably helped Maz Kenata out in a time of need, or proved to be a reliable trading partner, which is slightly out of character for the pirate. Either way, it’s awesome to see it make an appearance there. Let me know down below, when was the first time you noticed at all that Hondo was on the Takodana map from Battlefront II?
Many years later, after the cold war between the First Order and the Resistance began to simmer, Hondo established a new shipping company on the planet Batuu, named Ohnaka Transport Solutions. For those of you who don’t know, the Galaxy’s Edge theme park in the real world is actually Canon, and it is set at the black spire outpost on the planet Baatu. For this reason, we know that Hondo, and many other characters who appear there in real life, are actually still alive in Canon! After the creation of Ohnaka Transport solutions, Hondo reunited with his incredibly loyal astromech droid from the Clone Wars, R5-P8, because he would prove very useful in the operation of his new company. During the rise of the Galactic Empire, R5 had been separated from Hondo after the Ohnaka gang was dissolved, forcing the shiny astromech to join a new gang, led by an old member of Hondo’s growth, called Gwarm. Honestly really awesome to see that Hondo and his droid were able to reunite after all those years apart. So if you ever get the chance to go to Galaxy’s Edge, make sure you look out for Hondo who is right there on Batuu.