Hobbie – ‘Star Wars’ Character Spotlight
This week’s _Star Wars_ Character Spotlight is shining on Hobbie, the cult favorite rebel pilot from _The Empire Strikes Back_. While he had plenty of backstory in the Expanded Universe, his current canon stories are a bit more limited.
Originally played by Richard Oldfield in _The Empire Strikes Back_ , “Hobbie” was the only name attached to his character in the script, which is odd considering that pretty much every tertiary _Star Wars_ character comes with a full name. It has since been established that Hobbie was merely a nickname.
## **Joining the Empire**
All we really know about Hobbie’s early life is that he hailed from the planet Ralltiir, had a talent for flying since an early age and was given the nickname “Hobbie” as a child. His real name was Derek Klivian. According to the _On the Front Lines_ reference book, Hobbie always introduced himself using his nickname, as he hated the name Derek.
Like many young men eager to become a pilot, Hobbie joined the Empire. He was stationed at Skystrike Academy, where he became good friends with Wedge Antilles over games of Sabacc.
It didn’t take long for the two of them to realize they were on the wrong side, as they became more and more dismayed with the Empire’s actions. They managed to indirectly contact a Fulcrum agent, expressing their wish to defect to the Rebellion.
This brings us to Hobbie’s earliest appearance in current canon, the third season of _Star Wars Rebels_. While the Rebellion made plans to scoop up two talented Imperial recruits, the ISB also got wind of the transmission, dispatching Governor Pryce to uncover the identity of the wantaway recruits.
Sabine Wren soon joined the academy with a view to breaking them out. The first attempt came during a training exercise, which failed as Pryce spotted their attempt to flee and deactivated the wings on their TIE Fighters and shot one of the marooned TIEs to dissuade the Rebels from attempting to pick up Sabine, Wedge and Hobbie. The other escapee perished.
Hobbie and Wedge were locked in a cell back on Skystrike while Sabine was questioned by Pryce. Thankfully, it didn’t take long for Sabine to escape and she busted the two out of their cell. They ran to the hangar only to be intercepted by Agent Kallus, who sidestepped and urged them to keep running (he may or may not have been Fulcrum at this point).
The three of them made it to a TIE Bomber and flew into space, where they were picked up by the Rebels just in time. From that point on, Hobbie was a member of the Rebel Alliance.
## **Battle of Atollon and recruiting Biggs Darklighter**
Hobbie only appears sporadically across the rest of _Star Wars Rebels_. In Season 3, he and Wedge can be spotted late in the season chatting in the hangar even though they were behind schedule. After some sharp words from Hera, they were surprised and bumped into each other in their rush to get ready.
They flew out on a mission and disappeared for the rest of the episode while the base was infiltrated by an Imperial droid.
Hobbie next appeared in the Season 3 finale, flying an A-Wing as Grand Admiral Thrawn began his siege of the Rebel base on Atollon. He flew with Wedge as they attempted to destroy the AT-ATs attacking the base, but were forced to engage with the TIE Fighters Thrawn had deployed to counter them.
They survived the dogfight and managed to escape the battle with the remainder of the Rebel forces.
According to the _Ultimate Star Wars_ reference book and a trading card, Hobbie was instrumental in recruiting Biggs Darklighter. He went undercover at the Prefsbelt military camp, and both he and Biggs were posted on the Imperial ship _Rand Ecliptic_. Hobbie instigated a mutiny and convinced Biggs to jump ship to the Rebel Alliance.
## **Galactic Civil War**
By 0 ABY, Hobbie was part of Red Squadron, which didn’t take part in the Battle of Scarif in _Rogue One_. In _From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back_ , it’s mentioned that he comforted Wedge, who like him was forced to miss the battle.
While Wedge got to participate in the Battle of Yavin, Hobbie did not. He was the standby for Red Six, which was filled by Porkins. Wedge had to comfort him in turn as he remained on Yavin during that battle.
Hobbie then popped up in three issues in the 2015 run of the main _Star Wars_ comic, where he can be seen hanging out with other Rebel pilots before eventually taking part in a battle after the Empire attacked a Republic star cruiser.
Shortly after this, he joined Rogue Squadron, which was set up by Luke Skywalker as a way of honoring the original Rogue One team who lost their lives on Scarif.
## **Battle of Hoth**
According to _From a Certain Point of View_ , Hobbie fought in multiple battles in X-Wings as part of Rogue Squadron. When it came to the Battle of Hoth however, Hobbie had to pilot a snowspeeder along with the rest of his wingmates.
This is Hobbie’s first canon appearance, and he even gets a line during Princess Leia’s briefing in _The Empire Strikes Back_ , expressing his doubts that the Rebel ships could make their way past the Empire’s Star Destroyers even if they got off-planet. Leia reassured him that this was what the ion cannon was for.
He flew out into battle along with Luke Skywalker, which did not go well. Though he lasted longer in his snowspeeder than Luke and Rogue Two Zev Sensesca, he was soon hit by an AT-AT as well.
Though his gunner was killed in the initial blast and he was injured, Hobbie still managed to fly his snowspeeder into the head of the AT-AT, which destroyed it and killed General Veers. Unfortunately, he sacrificed his life and died in the crash.
After the battle, his fellow pilots honored him by naming an alcoholic drink after him, calling it a Klivian. It was tradition that all deceased pilots get a drink named after them, and Hobbie was no exception. The pilots toasted to his memory, ensuring that he would never be forgotten.
## **What next?**
In Legends, Hobbie survived the Battle of Hoth, ejecting from his snowspeeder just before the crash. He was originally scripted to die in _The Empire Strikes Back_ , but his final scene was cut from the film, giving writers licence to ensure he survived well into the New Republic era.
Unfortunately, _From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back_ confirmed his death in the current canon. It wouldn’t be unprecedented that this gets retconned at some point, but it appears unlikely. If we see Hobbie again, it will be in a story set before _The Empire Strikes Back_.
Thanks to _Wookieepedia_, without whom I’d have never known that Hobbie recruited Biggs.
##### Josh Atkins
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Josh is a huge Star Wars fan, who has spent far too much time wondering if any Star Wars character could defeat Thanos with all the Infinity Stones.
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Hobbie – ‘Star Wars’ Character Spotlight This week’s Star Wars Character Spotlight is shining on Hobbie, the cult favorite rebel pilot from The Empire Strikes Back. The post Hobbie – ‘S...
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