Remote/Legends

"Look, good against remotes is one thing. Good against the living? That's something else."

- Han Solo

A remote was a small, spherical hovering droid used for a variety of purposes, such as exploration or reconnaissance. Fitted with light blasters, they could be used for military training. With higher-power weapons, they could be employed on the battlefield as mobile, hard-to-hit battle droids.

Many Force-users (such as the Jedi Younglings) used remotes as training tools to hone blaster defense abilities by deflecting the remote's low energy plasma blasts with their lightsabers. Some would also cover their eyes with some sort of shield, relying exclusively on the Force to guide their actions. Typically, remote training was used in conjunction with the basic Form I of lightsaber combat.

Some models, such as the common Marksman-H training remote, were used by marksmen to practice quickdraw skills, reaction times, and accuracy. Depending on the training program being run, this could be difficult, as the fast and nimble droids were very difficult to hit, especially from a distance. In order to prevent permanent damage, trainees usually fired light-only bolts at the remote.

Although used primarily for training purposes, remotes could also be configured to serve in a variety of other roles, including long-range surveillance, as a portable microphone, and even as a cargo mover.

Specially modified remotes called seekers were used by Imperial forces in pursuit of certain targets. Fitted with deadly armament and highly capable sensors, these mobile remotes were capable of wreaking havoc due to the difficulty in targeting them.

One of the few remotes to gain note was one created by a Zabrak named Bao-Dur. After he created the remote, it followed him through his life and even through the Mandalorian Wars that the Zabrak helped end at Malachor V. Later Bao-Dur and the remote met the Exile that he had earlier met in the Mandalorian Wars. After the remote and Bao-Dur followed the Exile back to Malachor V, Bao-Dur asked the remote to activate the destructive Mass Shadow Generator that he created to end the earlier war. The remote performed his master's request and stayed behind to ensure the activation of the generator.

Behind the scenes
The training remote in A New Hope was cited as inspiration for NASA's SPHERES program of miniature satellites.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
 * Tag & Bink: Revenge of the Clone Menace
 * Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
 * Star Wars: Battlefront II
 * Republic Commando: Hard Contact
 * Honor Bound
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
 * Han Solo at Stars' End
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (novel)
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
 * Allegiance
 * Dark Forces
 * Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight
 * Dark Empire II
 * I, Jedi
 * Jedi Academy: Leviathan
 * Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast demo
 * Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
 * Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
 * Revenants
 * Edge of Victory II: Rebirth
 * Tempest