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This Star Wars Legends article contains information that is affected by the Star Wars: The Clone Wars project.

A definitive Legends Clone Wars timeline was never established by Lucasfilm. The exact chronology of the events described in this article is unknown.

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"And that mechanical arm… revolting. A gentleman would have learned to fight one-handed."
Count Dooku[1]
LukeHand

Luke Skywalker tests his prosthetic hand which is an L-hand 980 model.

A cybernetic replacement was any biomechanical device used to replace body parts ranging from internal organs to limbs, which were usually lost or destroyed by disease or dismemberment. Prosthetic replacements were connected to organic tissue via a complex synth-net neural interface, which provided the recipient with control and sensation. External replacements were often covered by synthflesh to emulate actual organic tissue. An individual with cybernetic replacements was known as a cyborg.

Overview[]

"Prosthetics offer sensation and do everything flesh can. They're ideal substitutes in every way, except for requiring maintenance."
Valin Horn[2]
VaderOperation-ROTS

Darth Vader having prosthetic limbs installed by medical droids.

The galaxy had centuries of advanced technology at its disposal. Among them were the ability to replace and, for a price, modify and enhance the body. Cloning was expensive and, given the horrors of the Clone Wars, illegal on most planets after the era. Some limited regeneration of limbs was considered acceptable but there were medical dangers involved with a science that had, for obvious reasons, not seen much development in later decades after the Clone Wars. For the majority of galactic citizens, cybernetic replacements were the cheap, effective, legal, and safe solution to unfortunate and severe physical injuries.

For those willing to make the sacrifice of flesh and expense, the body could be "upgraded" to allow for additional skills and abilities. Some were very innocuous, the Shepherd chip issued to military service members for instance. Others involved modifying the limbs and internal systems of the potential patient. As with everything in the galaxy, this came at a potential price, in credits and in the potential loss of self. Someone could easily go too far in attempting to be "more human than human."

When flesh failed—and sometimes even before that—cybernetics took over. Prosthetic limbs and replacement organs powered by batteries and controlled by electrical impulses were the low end of these procedures with sophisticated cybernetic hardware designed to improve or augment the recipient's body and mind at the high end of the scale.

Artificial organs could be implanted by droids such as the DD-13 medical assistant droid.[3]

Cybernetic types[]

Telescopic eye

A Bothan with a telescopic eye enhancement.

Two major kinds of cybernetic attachments existed in the galaxy: replacements and enhancements.

Replacements: Replacements were prosthetic or artificial units intended to replace lost limbs and damaged organs. Common replacements provided no benefits other than duplicating the essential functions of their biological counterparts, and they presented little strain on the beneficiary's overall well-being. In appearance, a cybernetic replacement could be recognizably artificial or virtually indistinguishable from the real thing. Example: Rianna Saren's cybernetic lekku.
Enhancements: Enhancements bestowed new abilities or improved the recipient in some fashion. Enhancements included skeletal reinforcement, subcutaneous communications hardware, and weapon mounts. Some enhancements had visible external components, while others were hidden beneath the skin. Enhancements put more of a drain on the body's resources, and recipients frequently suffered debilitating physical or mental side effects. Example: General Grievous' replacement body.

Subjects of cybernetic replacements/enhancements[]

"An arm is as far as I'm willing to take it."
Anakin Skywalker[4]

Many beings had prosthetic replacements throughout galactic history. Several beings were well known for employing unique or extensive prostheses.

  • General Grievous was forced to have almost his entire body replaced by cybernetic parts after a near-fatal shuttle crash. Though he retained his vital organs, such as his brain, eyes, heart and stomach, nearly everything else was cybernetic.
  • Neks were enhanced with cybernetic implants for use as animal weapons during the wars that erupted on Cyborrea.
Nexu-EotEBtR

A cybernetically-enhanced nexu stalks a spacer from the trees on Cholganna.

  • A great deal of Darth Vader's ravaged body was supported by prosthetic replacements, although they had a comparatively low quality compared to others. Vader's artificial limbs were incredibly heavy and purposely badly made, frequently snagging on the inside of his suit.[7] However, despite the low quality, his artificial limbs never tired or weakened.
  • Grand Moff Trachta was kept alive by a cybernetic respiratory system, and his eyes were replaced with ocular cameras, including a third "eye" in the back of his head.
  • Luke Skywalker was also fitted with a prosthetic hand after losing his own during a duel with his father on the planet Bespin. This hand was replaced during his brief service to the resurrected Emperor.[9] The replacement was later severed during a duel with Lumiya, so he was given yet another replacement prosthesis.[10]
  • Boba Fett's left lower leg was eaten by the Sarlacc. He used a prosthetic replacement in later years after escaping from its belly.[11]
  • The Sith Lady Lumiya also received extensive amounts of prosthesis after crashing her starfighter following a dogfight with Luke Skywalker. It was her claim that high levels of prosthesis dampened an individual's sensitivity to the Force, though others, like Darth Plagueis, thought otherwise. This, she claimed, had stopped Darth Vader from attaining the full potential of a Sith Lord and was also stifled her attempts to achieve a mastery of the dark side of the Force.
  • Imperial Knight Azlyn Rae was fitted with first a full suit of life-preserving armor made by Rawk, and later an artificial breather constructed by Hogrum Chalk, after her lungs were burned during an assassination attempt on Darth Krayt.

Alternatives to cybernetics[]

DarthScorpionKing-SWE

Darth Maul's prosthetic lower body resembled an arachnid.

This area of medical technology was spurred by the carnage of the Clone Wars, and the replacement of body parts with lifelike replicas reached a high level of refinement during the Galactic Civil War. Not all prostheses, however, were designed with replicating the real body part in mind. The prosthetic arm of Arden Lyn, a Teräs Käsi master, was conspicuously disproportionate to her body and was in fact a modified droid arm. Similarly, Darth Maul, the former Sith apprentice to Darth Sidious, after narrowly surviving his fight with Obi-Wan Kenobi with his lower half lost, had created a crude substitute for his lower half via a prosthetic that more resembled an arachnid than an actual Dathomirian Nightbrother lower half, although it was later replaced with a pelvis and legs more closely resembling his original ones when he was recovered by his half-brother, Savage Opress.

Although prostheses were widely available, not all candidates accepted the replacement limbs offered to them. The Jedi Tenel Ka lost an arm during a practice lightsaber duel with Jacen Solo but chose to shun the offer of a replacement, instead choosing to focus upon her own physical and Force-based abilities to compensate for the loss. Wolf Sazen also kept his arm from being replaced after Darth Nihl cut it off until later in 137 ABY.

Also, the arrival of the Yuuzhan Vong, who wielded advanced biotechnology, opened new avenues for the replacement of lost limbs. After being captured by the Yuuzhan Vong, A'Sharad Hett's synthetic arm was replaced with a grown organic replacement. Decades later, Hett, now Darth Krayt, would order that a similarly organic replacement be given to Darth Nihl after the Nagai lost his right arm to Cade Skywalker.

Appearances[]

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Non-canon appearances[]

Sources[]

BaneHatlessHS-CotF

Cad Bane and his cybernetic breathing tubes.

Notes and references[]

  1. Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith novelization
  2. Fate of the Jedi: Outcast
  3. The New Essential Guide to Droids
  4. "Suited" — Star Wars: The Clone Wars Comic 6.10
  5. Darth Plagueis
  6. Though The Clone Wars 9 has Ventress injuring Wolffe's left eye, his later-implemented cybernetic eye in the episode "Grievous Intrigue" was shown to have replaced his right eye, not his left one that was injured in the comic. This error was rectified in In Service of the Republic's trade paperback collection, which correctly showed that Wolffe's right eye was injured by Ventress and therefore required the cybernetic eye replacement.
  7. Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader
  8. Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
  9. Star Wars: Dark Empire
  10. Legacy of the Force: Exile
  11. Daniel Keys Moran's early Fett-centric short stories "A Barve Like That" and "The Last One Standing" both reference this; however, later-written post-4 ABY stories such as K. W. Jeter's The Bounty Hunter Wars do not.
  12. Fate of the Jedi: Vortex
  13. Fate of the Jedi: Ascension

External links[]

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