There's a lot of Star Wars references in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, but players likely missed one important one mentioning General Grievous. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts in November of 2019. The game explores events following the demise of the Galactic Republic, giving players the chance to assume the follow of Cal Kestis, a new Jedi padawan introduced into the Star Wars canon.
The game has been highly praised for its innumerable references to Star Wars films and literature. Countless favorite characters make small cameos in the game, and even if they don’t get any screen time, Jedi: Fallen Order still manages to make lots of references to off-camera characters that are still important to the overarching storyline.
General Grievous is one such character that players would have loved to see in the game. But while the General doesn’t make a physical appearance, he is referenced in a significant scene and his past actions in other Star Wars media have consequences for Jedi: Fallen Order.
Jedi: Fallen Order's Clone Wars Connection
Although General Grievous doesn’t make a physical appearance in Jedi: Fallen Order, he is indirectly referenced in a scene featuring Merrin and Cal, and even more, Grievous’ actions during the Battle of Dathomir are central to the events in the game. When Merrin initially meets Cal, she reveals the story of what happened to her family, the Nightsisters. She references an armored warrior who massacred her family with the use of a lightsaber, and based on Merrin’s words, it seems pretty clear she’s talking about General Grievous. “I was only a child when they attacked. An armoured warrior brandishing this [a lightsaber] descended upon us and cut down my people, my sisters, until I was left alone with the dead,” she explained of the infamous massacre.
The events Merrin referenced are explored in-depth in The Clone Wars. The Nightsisters were originally introduced in season three of the animated Star Wars series as a group of witches living on Dathomir. After Count Dooku betrays his apprentice Asajj Ventress, who was a Nightsister at birth, she reaches out to her old coven for help. Talzin, the coven’s mother and biological mother to both Merrin and Darth Maul, had despised Dooku for kidnapping her son years ago, so she agreed to use the coven’s power in an attempt to assassinate the Count. The plan ultimately fails, however, and in retaliation General Grievous launches a mass droid assault on Dathomir to kill the Nightsisters. The Battle of Dathomir is explored in season four of The Clone Wars, where viewers can watch Separatist soldiers launch an attack on the planet to exterminate the coven.
Most of the Nightsisters die in the process, leading Merrin to later believe she is the only surviving member of her family. Therefore, as she grows older, it becomes Merrin’s mission to seek revenge on behalf of her fallen coven. Had it not been for General Grievous’ massacre, however, Merrin would’ve never come to believe this and the entire events of the game would be different. She would’ve never spent years waiting to avenge the Nightsister’s massacre nor would she have agreed to fight alongside Cal Kestis. Therefore, despite not making a single physical appearance in the game, General Grievous is crucial to the functioning storyline of Jedi: Fallen Order.
General Grievous is an important side character to Jedi: Fallen Order’s story, even though he doesn’t make an actual appearance during the entire game.