EV-9D9

"Ah, good. New acquisitions. You are a protocol droid, are you not?''" "I am C-3PO, human-cyborg&mdash;" "Yes or no will do." "''Oh. Well, yes."

- EV-9D9 and C-3PO

EV-9D9, also referred to as "Eve" or simply 9D9, was a feminine MerenData EV supervisor droid who had a programming defect that made her enjoy tormenting and dismembering other droids. She was acquired by the Hutt crime lord Jabba Desilijic Tiure, who assigned her to oversee the droid pool in his palace with the assistance of the smelter droid 8D8. When Luke Skywalker gifted Jabba R2-D2 and C-3PO shortly before the Battle of Endor, EV-9D9 assigned them positions in her master's droid pool and was deactivated sometime after his demise.

Biography
"How many languages do you speak?''" "I am fluent in over six million forms of communication and can readily&mdash;" "Splendid. We have been without an interpreter since our master got angry with our last protocol droid and disintegrated him." "''Disintegrated?"

- EV-9D9 and C-3PO

A feminine EV supervisor droid manufactured by MerenData, EV-9D9, also known as "Eve" or simply 9D9, had a programming defect that caused her to exhibit cruelty towards other droids, a flaw many other EV units shared. She was one of the few to escape MerenData's mass recall and was acquired by the Hutt crime lord Jabba Desilijic Tiure, who placed her in charge of the droid pool in his palace on the planet Tatooine. EV-9D9 converted a dank boiler room in the murky depths of the palace's dungeons into a grim torture chamber where 8D8, an 8D-series smelter droid reprogrammed for sadism, assisted her in terrorizing Jabba's droid pool into submission.

After the Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker gifted Jabba R2-D2 and C-3PO shortly before the Battle of Endor, they were escorted down to EV-9D9's torture chamber so she could assign them positions in her master's droid pool. C-3PO, a protocol droid, was made Jabba's new interpreter, as his last one was disintegrated after it had angered him, and R2-D2, an astromech droid, was forced to serve drinks aboard Jabba's sail barge, the Khetanna. However, R2-D2 was actually tasked with infiltrating the palace's droid pool so that he could assist in the rescue of Han Solo from the Hutt's clutches, a mission that ultimately resulted in Jabba's demise, after which EV-9D9 was deactivated with the rest of the palace's droid pool.

Characteristics
Corrupted by a programming flaw, EV-9D9 was sadistic and enjoyed tormenting and dismembering other droids, working them until they fell apart and employing bizarre forms of droid torture to increase motivation. She relished her role as taskmaster of all the palace's droids and was quickly annoyed with the antics of C-3PO, cutting him off whenever she got the answers she wanted or when he started to stray from the question at hand. When R2-D2 started acting feistily towards her, EV-9D9 assigned him to her master's sail barge to teach him respect.

A gangly bronze and silver colored mechanical with feminine programming, EV-9D9 was missing various parts, lending her a skeletal appearance. Her manipulator arms and legs were motivated by exposed pistons, and both of her hands terminated in three multi-jointed digits. She stood at 1.9 meters in height and had three yellow photoreceptors, one of which she custom-fitted to allow herself to "see" droid pain. EV-9D9 had a degraded logic center and spoke with a grating mechanical voice, and whenever she communicated a flap located at the base of her elongated head opened and closed, simulating the movement of a mouth.

Behind the scenes
"Richard Marquand was playing EV-9D9 in that scene and was terrific. It's very easy acting with a piece of tin when it's got a voice like that coming out of it. He used to be an actor, so he knows what it feels like, all the tensions you feel being on a set with a camera pointed at you, how you need to be encouraged and praised. He's very gentle, which is nice."

- Anthony Daniels

Originally created for the 1983 film Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi, EV-9D9 first appeared in a Star Wars Legends novelization of the film written by James Kahn and released on May 12, 1983, thirteen days before the film was released in theaters on May 25. The character was identified as EV-9D9 in the novel, a name that originated in the third draft of Return of the Jedi but wasn't included in the final film. This name was established to be canon by Star Wars: The Complete Saga, a Blu-ray set that comprised the first six main Star Wars films along with three additional discs of bonus material that was released on September 16, 2011.

Conception and portrayal
"At one time 9D9 was to walk and special effects said it could be done; George said it couldn't be done. But they said, 'Yeah, we'll show you.' He said, 'I want you to show me three days before the shoot.' He walked in and there was this elaborate rig overhead. They tried and it didn't work, so they said, 'Oh, we'll make it work.' George said, 'He'll sit.' And George was right&mdash;those guys would still be working on it if he hadn't stopped them."

- Howard G. Kazanjian

EV-9D9 appeared as early as the rough draft of the Revenge of the Jedi script, where she was known as U-8D8. In the revised second draft, she was renamed EV-8D8. In the third draft, she received her final name and her smelter droid assistant instead inherited the name 8D8. She was portrayed using a marionette created by Bill Hargreaves and Steve Short, which was based off of Ralph McQuarrie concept art of an assassin droid, and was voiced on set by director Richard Marquand, whose voice was later redubbed during post-production. At one point in the production of Return of the Jedi, EV-9D9 was to be able to walk, though it was later decided that she would sit after the special effects department failed to make it work by George Lucas' deadline. An interactive gallery of EV-9D9's marionette was included on Bonus Disc 2 of Star Wars: The Complete Saga. The marionette was once stored in the Lucasfilm Archives but is now on display as part of Star Wars Identities: The Exhibition.

Inconsistencies
"Originally a peaceful hardworking moisture evaporator mechanic, she has risen to the top of this junk heap thanks to some very nasty reprogramming in a Mos Eisley scrapyard."

- Return of the Jedi: Beware the Power of the Dark Side! offers an alternative explanation of how EV-9D9 acquired her sadistic tendencies.

Return of the Jedi: Beware the Power of the Dark Side!, a canon junior novelization of Return of the Jedi written by Tom Angleberger and released on September 22, 2015, presented an alternative explanation for EV-9D9's sadistic personality, claiming that she was intentionally reprogrammed to act in such a manner. This article attempts to integrate non-contradictory information from this book but treats EV-9D9's reprogramming and the events surround it as non-canon.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: The Original Trilogy: A Graphic Novel
 * Star Wars Battlefront
 * Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi
 * Return of the Jedi: Beware the Power of the Dark Side!