Caretaker droid

"Hey! You're that caretaker droid. I wondered what happened to you."
"Oh, young one. I mean, soon to be Jedi Knight. I had to get away from that terrible…"

―Jedi Commander Ahsoka Tano spots 4-A7

The role of caretaker droid was a position held by a droid tasked with looking after a location. During the Battle of Teth in 22 BBY, the RA-7 protocol droid 4-A7 claimed to be the caretaker of a B'omarr Order Monastery on the Wild Space world, though he was truly a spy droid for the Confederacy of Independent Systems. While Jedi General Anakin Skywalker and his Torrent Company initially believed the unit's lies, the droid's true loyalties were exposed when Jedi Commander Ahsoka Tano saw him with several B1 battle droids. She then turned her lightsaber on the Separatist droids, quickly taking out the combat droids and 4-A7 himself.

Description

"Who are you?"
"Merely the humble caretaker, O mighty sir. You have liberated me from those dreadful battle bots. I am most thankful."

―Jedi General Anakin Skywalker meets 4-A7 during the droid's caretaker act

A caretaker droid was a droid that had been tasked with looking over a location, such as the monasteries of the B'omarr Order. Caretakers could be humble individuals that respected those who helped them. The role could be given to protocol droids like the RA-7 series.

History

"The droids have done their part. Now it's your turn."

―Dark acolyte Asajj Ventress dispatches 4-A7 to meet the Republic

In 22 BBY during the Clone Wars, a galactic conflict fought between the Galactic Republic and Confederacy of Independent Systems, the prototype spy droid and RA-7 unit named 4-A7 was tasked with framing the Jedi Order in the kidnapping of the son of crime lord Jabba Desilijic Tiure, Rotta, who the Confederacy had captured and taken to the Wild Space planet of Teth as part of a plot to gain access to Hutt Clan hyperlanes and territory. Thus, during the Battle of Teth, after the Republic's Torrent Company fought past the battle droids guarding an occupied B'omarr Order Monastery, dark acolyte Asajj Ventress dispatched 4-A7 to greet their enemies. Pretending to be the monastery's humble caretaker droid, 4-A7 approached the company's Jedi General, Anakin Skywalker, claiming that the Republic had liberated him from the battle droids.

Actually a servant of the CIS, 4-A7 claimed to be a caretaker during the Battle of Teth.

When Skywalker asked him where Rotta was being held, 4-A7 pointed the Jedi Knight to the detention level, warning him that it was dangerous and not a place for Ahsoka Tano, Skywalker's Padawan learner whom he claimed to have confused for a servant girl. After 4-A7 offered a thousand apologies for this, Skywalker and Tano rescued Rotta from the dungeons and brought him to the courtyard. 4-A7 recorded them place the screaming infant into a backpack, fulfilling his role to frame the Jedi Order in the kidnapping, as the edited footage was sent to Count Dooku to use as evidence against the Republic for Jabba. A short time later and unfortunately for the protocol droid, Tano, Skywalker, Rotta, and the astromech droid R2-D2 arrived at the platform containing the G9 Rigger freighter Twilight, which 4-A7 and a group of B1 battle droids hoped to escape on.

Upon spotting him, Tano, who had been wondering what had happened to 4-A7, continued to assume he was a caretaker droid and greeted him as such. Though 4-A7 initially tried to keep up his caretaker act, the B1 units walked into view, exposing his true loyalties to the Jedi Commander. Tano accused the fake caretaker of treason, and 4-A7 dropped his act, ordering the battle droids to kill her to prevent Rotta's rescue. However, Tano made short work of the B1s with her lightsaber. The young Jedi then turned her blade on 4-A7, swiftly decapitating the droid she had thought was an ally.

Behind the scenes

The position of caretaker droid was first mentioned in the 2008 film Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Within the Star Wars Legends continuity, the position was first mentioned in the The Clone Wars novelization and junior novelization, which were released before the film itself, before making its first proper appearance in 2016's Star Wars: The Old Republic: Knights of the Eternal Throne.

Appearances

• Star Wars: The Clone Wars film (First mentioned)

Sources

• Star Wars Helmet Collection 45 (Highlights of the Saga: The Battle of Teth)