IG-100 MagnaGuard/Legends

"I saw an Intel report on this. I think they are Grievous's personal bodyguard droids. Prototypes built to his specifications. To fight Jedi."

- Anakin Skywalker, to Obi-Wan Kenobi

The IG-100 MagnaGuard, also known as the Self-Motivating Heuristically Programmed Combat Droid, was an advanced type of battle droid that was used during the Clone Wars as bodyguards of General Grievous, as per Count Dooku's order as well as being specialized infantry on the battlefield.. After the InterGalactic Banking Clan secured Grievous's services as an enforcer, they refused to hire his Kaleesh, and thus the cyborg general demanded a cadre of "more intelligent battle droids" to serve him. The construction of the MagnaGuards were then commissioned and were also occasionally employed to escort Count Dooku himself.

Appearance and characteristics
"Remember what you were saying about 'worse than destroyers?' I think we're looking at them."

- Anakin Skywalker, to Obi-Wan Kenobi

Constructed by Holowan Mechanicals, MagnaGuards were roughly two meters tall, with a humanoid body shape, but possessed a far-superior mechanical anatomy. This allowed for superhuman acrobatics, speed, and combat ability. Their internal systems were furnished with advanced combat learning programs, which, compared to most of the droids utilized by the Confederacy of Independent Systems, allowed the MagnaGuards to adapt to a highly diverse variety of tasks. These tasks ranged from melee and ranged combat to starfighter control. The faces of the MagnaGuards featured two red photoreceptor "eyes", which were complemented by a backup system mounted on the chest. The droid's weapon of choice was the lightsaber-resistant electrostaff, and wore cloaks and head wraps similar to the garments of Grievous's old Izvoshra elite during the general's time as a Kaleesh warlord. Several models existed, superficially denoted by color&mdash;black, alabaster, blue, and the rare gray were all spotted throughout the war. Each model had a specific programing, training, and thus specialty. These droids were part of the same Holowan Mechanicals series as the later IG-88 line.

Hardiness
MagnaGuards were fully optimized to battle Jedi Knights and could prove a danger to even Masters. This was due to not only their impeccable melee functionality but also, distinctively, their capability to withstand a massive loss of structural integrity before total system failure, as well as their inability to feel pain. Even after decapitation, or bisection, they could continue to effectively engage a target. In addition, they were ,at the very least, partially plated with strong duranium armor. This resilience, exceeding both organics and much cheaper armor used by regular droids, greatly enhanced the danger they posed to both clones and Jedi alike.

Vocalization
MagnaGuards were capable of speech and were programmed to taunt their opponents in a low growling Basic. Aside from Human speech, they appeared to occasionally use an audible form of droid language.

Training
"The age of the Jedi is over."

- An unknown MagnaGuard

The MagnaGuards were originally programmed with optimum performance in several combat techniques. However, the dissatisfied Grievous had their minds wiped and personally trained his bodyguards in the seven classic styles of lightsaber combat so that they, like he, would be equipped to effectively engage and then kill Jedi. Grievous would not allow any repairs to be made to the droids, believing that their numerous scrapes and battle scars made them more intimidating to enemies. Grievous engaged his bodyguards in practice fights as part of training, often damaging them in the process.

History
"What in the galaxy was that?"

- RC-1262, upon first sighting an IG-100

Clone Wars
General Grievous was given the bodyguards even though he was very impatient with droids due to their many limitations. Count Dooku then commissioned Holowan Mechanicals, a company indebted to the InterGalactic Banking Clan, to develop a cutting-edge warrior droid that would meet Grievous's standards. Upon activation, Grievous destroyed all the MagnaGuards present, venting his frustration at being treated as a droid. The droids were first used in combat during the Battle of Parein II 4, where one of Grievous's MagnaGuards killed the Jedi Sannen by thrusting its electrostaff through his throat. The MagnaGuards proved to be formidable, capable of taking on Jedi and clone troopers with ease, and were regarded as being even more daunting than droidekas by some. During the Second Battle of Xagobah, the young bounty hunter Boba Fett encountered two MagnaGuards in the Mazariyan fortress, accompanying Grievous during the conflict. Fett, disguised as Durge with the help of a holo-shroud, engaged the droids in battle, and was able to momentarily incapacitate one with an ion stunner, though he was ultimately defeated and left for dead by Grievous himself. During Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano's mission to Tatooine, they were attacked in the exosphere by several MagnaGuards piloting Porax-38 starfighters. Anakin managed to destroy the droids and make it onto the surface of the planet. Once on the planet, Ahsoka Tano faced off against three more MagnaGuards, while Anakin fought off Count Dooku. Ahsoka managed to destroy all three of her opponents. During a mission to destroy a CIS listening post near Ruusan, Anakin Skywalker battled several MagnaGuards that were preventing R2-D2 from being rescued.

MagnaGuards were present at Grievous's castle on Vassek's third moon. Upon Grievous's return to his castle, he discovered his force of elite MagnaGuards had mysteriously been deactivated. When Count Dooku alerted him of the infiltration of his castle by Jedi Master Kit Fisto and his former apprentice, Nahdar Vebb, Grievous realized Dooku himself had deactivated his guards to ensure no intrusions on his duel with the Jedi.

After being reactivated, one MagnaGuard was sent to destroy the Nu-class attack shuttle with a rocket launcher, while another squad was sent to destroy Kit Fisto's Jedi starfighter. However, Fisto's astromech droid managed to personally pilot the ship to safety. The remaining droids accompanied Grievous. As Nahdar Vebb made his way toward the General, he destroyed Grievous's entire escort and was later killed by Grievous himself. Many more were destroyed as he fought the Jedi, Kit Fisto, until Fisto managed to escape the castle with his Jedi starfighter.

Bounty hunter Cad Bane, while under contract with the CIS, was given several MagnaGuards for use in capturing keeper of the Kyber memory crystal, Jedi Master Bolla Ropal. One stood sentry as Cad Bane tortured the Jedi to death, afterward using its staff to crudely check for any vital response from the dead Rodian. Grievous employed his guards in the capture of Jedi Master Eeth Koth over Saleucami. The droids aided the General in getting the upper hand on Koth, surrounding the Jedi and slowly wearing him down with electrostaff strikes. Once Koth was captured, the droids tortured the Jedi in a transmission sent to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. However, they were unaware that the Zabrak was still cognizant, resisting their torture, and sending a coded hand signal to alert the Jedi to his location.

During the Battle of Boz Pity, MagnaGuards were used in the service of Dooku. During the battle, two of them distracted Mace Windu long enough for the Count to make his escape, and one of them almost killed Asajj Ventress with a blaster under Dooku's orders. Delta Squad was forced to fight several MagnaGuards on Kashyyyk during their rescue of the Wookiee chieftain Tarfful. The clone commandos managed to destroy the droids with great difficulty. At the end of the war, MagnaGuards assisted Grievous in the kidnapping of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine during the Battle of Coruscant. Shaak Ti faced off dozens of MagnaGuards with difficulty before they retreated, alerting her to the Chancellor's danger. Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi fought two of the droids on the bridge of General Grievous's command ship, the Invisible Hand, shortly afterward. Kenobi beheaded his opponent, only to find himself engaging a still-functioning headless droid. Skywalker managed to bisect the second droid as Kenobi finished the first off. Kenobi also faced four MagnaGuards on Utapau. He incapacitated three of them immediately when he used the Force to drop a large block of metal upon them. The fourth was partly pinned under the block; it attempted to reach its electrostaff, but was decapitated by Kenobi by the time it picked up its weapon.

Post-Clone Wars
Following the massacre of the Separatist Council by Darth Vader, under Darth Sidious's orders, all IG-100 MagnaGuards were deactivated. However, the Geonosian Gizor Dellso would later use IG-100 MagnaGuards as infantry in his personal army. At least a decade later, two MagnaGuards were reactivated by the Galactic Empire for use as N-K Necrosis's bodyguards, and redesignated as NK-3s. The bureaucrat Narp Pilyev owned two MagnaGuards and used them as security guards, to protect his apartment on Coruscant. Aside from these examples, other persons of note occasionally employed them as guards and henchmen. Many IG-100s were commisioned at the end of The Clone Wars which was part of the reason that there were enough IG-100s to create a private army.

MagnaGuards in the galaxy
"Crush them! Make them suffer!"

- Grievous, to his MagnaGuards aboard the Invisible Hand

Notable units
Distinguished MagnaGuards include IG-101 and IG-102, both of whom served on the Invisible Hand. Grievous used IG-109 as part of a training session as well as IG-138, and destroyed them both. Another pair, IG-153 and IG-182 were employed by Grand Moff 4-8C. Another one, IG-179, was Iron Knight Luxum's chief lieutenant.

Electrostaffs
Grievous’s bodyguards notably wielded several models of high-quality phrik alloy electrostaffs, blunt energy weapons which emitted a visible electromagnetic pulse on each end. The lightsaber-resistant nature of phrik allowed the MagnaGuards to effectively deflect a Jedi’s lightsaber. This, coupled with the specialized combat mechanics of the droids, made them a dangerous enemy, even to those skilled in the Force.

Armament flexibility
Though specialized to serve as bodyguards, the on-board combat systems of the MagnaGuard, coupled with articulating hands/humanoid anatomy allowed them to be trained to operate a vast array of available weapons in addition to dedicated arms. Depending on context and necessity, MagnaGuards were known to use blaster rifles, grenade and rocket launchers, remote-controlled drones, lethally irradiating weapons, melee weapons, et al.

On-board utilities
Other devices and equipment were occasionally used. Whether or not all units shared these capabilities is unknown. The droids made use of many gadgets, such as built-in tow-cables, a personal cloaking device, and magnetized limbs. At least one MagnaGuard was known to have the ability to extend its arm many times its usual length. The MagnaGuards encountered by clone commando squad Delta on Kashyyyk utilized a violent self-destruct sequence activated, if the system was still functional, after severe damage. In addition, these particular droids could fire pairs of small seeking missiles from internal magazines in their back plating.

Behind the scenes
Grievous's MagnaGuards were realized in Revenge of the Sith by stunt performers wearing green and blue jumpsuits, which were then replaced by computer generated models. The MagnaGuard design was originally proposed by concept artist Warren Fu as a design for Grievous himself. George Lucas himself reviewed it and asked for Grievous's final appearance to be developed from it, but it was nonetheless eventually used as the MagnaGuard. In the original script of Episode III, MagnaGuards could talk, but this concept did not make it to the released film.

Non-canon appearances

 * Dark Jedi
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
 * You can't hit the brakes in space
 * Sith make the best pancakes
 * Path of the Jedi
 * Star Wars: Grievous Getaway