Willrow Hood/Legends

Willrow Hood was a Human male miner who lived and worked on the gas giant planet Bespin, in the main station Cloud City. He worked for A'roFilter, a mining company sympathetic to the Alliance to Restore the Republic, as the head of dealing with the rebels for discounted Tibanna gas. Eventually, though, the Galactic Empire invaded and conquered the planet; in order to protect the Rebellion contacts Hood was responsible for, Willrow Hood took A'roFilter's main computer's memory core, where the encrypted information was stored, and disposed of it, rather than risk it falling into the wrong hands, saving the Alliance's interests. Hood would remain on Cloud City throughout the Imperial occupation, suffering imprisonment and torture but revealing nothing. Eventually, he would join together with Tian Chyler, a former Imperial Security Bureau agent disenfranchised with the Empire who had defected, to transmit information on Cloud City's Imperial-run defense systems. Utilizing this information, the Alliance was able to capture the planet and liberate it from the Empire. Even with this victory, Willrow Hood decided to take it easy, and retired from active duty.

A'roFilter work
At some point in his life, Willrow Hood, a Human male miner, moved to Bespin, and began working for A'roFilter, a mining company based off of the gas giant. Willrow was a longstanding resident of Cloud City, and had been working with A'roFilter for quite some time. The mining company he was employed by was sympathetic to the Alliance to Restore the Republic's causes, and, as such, would deal much-needed Tibanna gas at discounted prices to the fledgling rebellion. Willrow headed the department responsible for the dealing, and monitored the company's main computer. All data on the transactions was stored, heavily encrypted, on the main computer; this data included such things as Alliance codenames and locations of Rebel agents.

However, Hood's job was made difficult by the presence of spies working for the Galactic Empire. While Hood knew such individuals existed, he was only able to suspect one of them: Tian Chyler, posing as a Corellian mining official, originally stationed on Ando, who had been relocated to Bespin after the Imperial occupation of Ando along with other refugees. Unbeknownst to the population of Bespin's main Tibanna gas facility Cloud City, though, Chyler was actually an Imperial Security Bureau agent, recruited to monitor questionable Tibanna gas transactions. Though Willrow Hood was unable to gather any solid proof, he continued to suspect her.

Imperial invasion
Before long, Chyler discovered the underground Tibanna gas market. She contacted Darth Vader, who in turn visited Cloud City and met with Baron Administrator Lando Calrissian. Vader used the information to blackmail Lando, so that the Baron Administrator would have to aid the Dark Lord in trapping Han Solo, Princess Leia Organa, and their companions, in an effort to eventually force Luke Skywalker into meeting Darth Vader. Eventually, parts of Darth Vader's plan fell into place; Solo, Organa, and company were captured, and Luke was on his way to rescue them.

An Imperial occupation force began to invade Cloud City, per Chyler's instructions. Willrow Hood knew that the discovery of A'roFilter's main computer would lead to the discovery of what was hidden inside the computer core. As such, Hood recovered the computer's memory core and dumped it in a nearby waste disposal unit. The core was never found, and the Rebellion contacts remained hidden.

Hood, however, stayed behind on Bespin during the course of the invasion. He did so not because it was his desire, but rather to aid his fellow miners. While he tried to stay mainly out of the spotlight, he was arrested once under the charges of possibly being a seditionist. The Imperial authority subjected Hood to information gathering techniques, including scan-grid interrogation. Willrow Hood, however, managed to stay true to his affiliation and withheld any information. He was eventually released for not knowing anything relevant to his arrest.

Taking back Cloud City
Word of the Rebellion's successes in the Galactic Civil War eventually reached Bespin and Cloud City. Tian Chyler, disenfranchised by the treatment given by the Empire over an incident with Aqualish miners, saw the effects of the Alliance's successes, and defected accordingly. She possessed knowledge pertaining to the defense of Cloud City, and sought out Willrow Hood. She, like Hood, had suspected the other knew more than what appeared, and suspected that Willrow Hood possessed contacts to the Rebel Alliance.

While, at first, Hood distrusted the former ISB agent, he watched to see what she was willing to do. Eventually, the former A'riFilter employee agreed to aiding her, and began to trust her and her motives. Chyler came through on her end and presented Hood with the defense information, which he in turn sent to the Rebellion. The plans eventually made it and the plan to retake both the city and the planet succeeded. At the termination of these events, Willrow Hood decided he had had enough action, and planned to settle down.

Personality and traits
Willrow Hood was very loyal to both his employers and those he sympathized with. When given the opportunity to escape Cloud City before the Imperial invasion, he instead stayed behind to aid his fellow miners who would have been stranded on the planet. He was willing to risk his own life and well-being to make sure that security with the Alliance went uncompromised. Because of his devotion, he was in a position later along the way to recapture his homeplanet by supplying the Rebel Alliance with critical information regarding the planet's security and defenses. Furthermore, even when subjected to torture, Willrow Hood retained his loyalties, and revealed nothing of use to his torturers. Hood possessed a decent amount of suspect toward several questionable people who he felt were more than they appeared. Still, he was shown to be willing to trust even those he suspected, provided they truly revealed a willingness to assist. Even with all of his contacts and abilities, Willrow Hood preferred a simple life without action, and, once he was able to, took the opportunity to do so.

Behind the scenes
Willrow Hood's identity was first touched upon in the Star Wars Customizable Card Game, where it was explained that he was a miner employed by a company with Rebellion contacts and contracts. His story was further elaborated upon by Benjamin Christopher Norton Dawe, under the name "Captain Yosarrian", through Star Wars Hyperspace's What's The Story? feature. Dawe explains in his blog that Willrow Hood's involvement with the Rebel Alliance was mainly to explain the existance of the large, unknown, white object he was carrying as the Imperials began to take over. Dawe also tied Tian Chyler's story into Hood's, as Chyler's "What's the Story?" entry was published just before Hood's, by explaining that Willrow Hood was Tian Chyler's contact to the Alliance to Restore the Republic, and her channel to inform the Rebels.

Star Wars Insider 49 published an amusing take on Willrow Hood as part of its "Ultimate Empire Strikes Back Insider's Guide". Written by Daniel Wallace, the article notes Willrow Hood as "the infamous Ice Cream Guy", and wishes him luck in finding a more appreciative planet to sell his ice cream. However, as the article was written as a parody and has since been explained in another manor, this alternate story is non-canon.

He is often nicknamed "Ice Cream Guy," "Ice Cream Maker Guy," or "Ice Cream Man," since the prop his actor holds looks similar to an ice cream maker. The What's The Story? entry finally revealed that the unknown object was a computer's memory core.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back