Warning! SPOILERS for Obi-Wan Kenobi episode 5.
Episode 5 of the Obi-Wan Kenobi series explains a moment in Return of the Jedi through the use of a thermal detonator. Thermal detonators debuted in Return of the Jedi’s first act, as used by a disguised Princess Leia to threaten Jabba the Hutt while alarming nearly everyone in his throne room. While thermal detonators are used throughout both Star Wars continuities, this was their only live-action appearance until the Obi-Wan Kenobi series demonstrated their destructive power during a battle.
Just as the Star Wars franchise’s blasters are far more powerful and versatile than real-world firearms, thermal detonators are extremely deadly incendiary explosives. Thermal detonators used the fictional and highly-unstable chemical known as baradium, which can easily disintegrate materials and beings in massive explosions whose magnitude is even greater than blasters set to full power. Thermal detonators are commonly used by soldiers and bounty hunters most frequently as grenades - and occasionally as time bombs - with their small, concealable size making them even more dangerous.
With this in mind, it’s no surprise that Leia (disguised as the bounty hunter Boushh) made an entire room full of the galaxy’s toughest criminals recoil in horror at the mere sight of a thermal detonator, which she ultimately deactivated when Jabba the Hutt accepted her price for the “captured” Chewbacca. In the Obi-Wan Kenobi episode “Part V,” a dying Tala Durith halts the advance of Imperial stormtroopers and purge troopers by activating a thermal detonator, instantly disintegrating herself and stopping the troopers dead in their tracks. This depiction of a thermal detonator not only explains the terrified reactions to the weapon in Return of the Jedi, but it’s consistent with its other appearances in the Star Wars franchise.
Thermal detonators appear throughout Star Wars canon and Legends non-movie material, with their explosions being described in Shadows of the Empire as being “small thermonuclear fusion reactions.” In both the 2004 and 2015 iterations of Battlefront, thermal detonators instantly spell doom for any soldier caught in its radius, while in the Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace video game adaptation, thermal detonators create gargantuan explosions. In Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Cad Bane used a thermal detonator to wipe out an entire squad of Senate Commandos and in Shadows of the Empire, Lando Calrissian destroys an entire building on Coruscant with a single, well-placed, thermal detonator.
Princess Leia’s thermal detonator would have vaporized nearly everyone in Jabba’s throne room, and perhaps even Boba Fett, who wears durable beskar Mandalorian armor, wouldn’t have survived the explosion. For hardcore Star Wars fans, the threat level of a single thermal detonator is clear. For less hardcore viewers, it may seem odd that the small metallic sphere could threaten a whole room, even if it is the Star Wars equivalent to a grenade. The Obi-Wan Kenobi series nicely explained this Return of the Jedi moment by showing just how powerful a thermal detonator is.
New episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi release Wednesdays on Disney+.
