EV-9D9

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EV-9D9 (Eve-Ninedenine), also known simply as 9D9, was a feminine MerenData EV-series supervisor droid who, originally a peaceful, hardworking moisture vaporator mechanic, had a programming defect that made her enjoy tormenting and dismembering other droids. She was acquired by the Hutt crime lord Jabba Desilijic Tiure, who made her chief of his palace's Cyborg Operations after a reprogramming, where she oversaw its droid pool with the assistance of her smelter droid devotee, 8D8.

When Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker gifted Jabba the astromech droid R2-D2 and protocol droid C-3PO in 4 ABY, shortly before the Battle of Endor, EV-9D9 assigned them positions in her master's droid pool. She was temporarily deactivated after Jabba's demise, but later served as a bartender at Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina in Mos Eisley. Around 9 ABY, Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarin entered the establishment looking for work, but the droid informed him that the Bounty Hunters' Guild no longer operated from Tatooine and that there were no jobs available.

BiographyEdit

Chief of Cyborg OperationsEdit

A feminine EV-series supervisor droid^[2] manufactured by MerenData,^[1] EV-9D9, also known as Eve-Ninedenine^[9] or simply 9D9, was originally a peaceful moisture vaporator mechanic on the planet Tatooine.^[10] However, she had a programming defect that caused her to exhibit cruelty towards other droids, a flaw many of her fellow EV units shared. She was acquired by the Hutt crime lord Jabba Desilijic Tiure,^[1] who made her chief of Cyborg Operations at his Tatooine palace.^[9] She was well suited for the position after being reprogrammed in a Mos Eisley spaceport scrapyard,^[10] by which point she was already known for her sadistic behavior towards other droids. Before leaving the spaceport, EV-9D9 took advantage of Tatooine's lax moral codes to have an extra photoreceptor installed^[6] that allowed her to "see" droid pain.^[1]

Having charged EV-9D9 with managing all of the droids that kept his cartel running,^[7] Jabba partnered her with 8D8, an equally ruthless 8D-series smelter droid reprogrammed for torture, to bring out the worst in both droids. With the assistance of^[11] her devotee,^[9] she converted a dank^[4] boiler room^[9] in the murky depths^[1] of the palace's dungeons^[12] into a droid "assessment" room.^[9] This was in actuality a grim torture chamber^[4] where 8D8 assisted her in terrorizing Jabba's droid pool into submission.^[13] During her time at Jabba's Palace, MerenData issued^[12] a mass recall of the EV-series. EV-9D9 was one of the few to escape recall^[1] and continued working in the dungeons^[12] for many years.^[14]

The fall of a criminal empireEdit

In the year 0 BBY,^[15] 261, a rogue Imperial astromech droid, was captured and brought to Jabba's Palace, where he was forced to join its droid pool. However, the droid was able to escape, making EV-9D9 furious. When the bounty hunter Bossk tracked 261 to the palace after having been hired to retrieve the droid by the Empire, he questioned the supervisor droid as to the astromech's whereabouts. EV-9D9 explained to the Trandoshan that 261 had escaped, claiming that he would soon learn some respect. Bossk later recovered the droid from a clan of Jawas,^[16] meter-tall humanoids native to Tatooine that scavenged the deserts for discarded scrap and wayward droids,^[12] and brought it back to the Empire.^[16]

After the Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker gifted Jabba the astromech R2-D2 and protocol droid C-3PO^[5] in 4 ABY,^[17] shortly before the Battle of Endor, they were escorted down to EV-9D9's torture chamber so she could assign them positions in her master's droid pool. C-3PO was made Jabba's new interpreter—as his last one was disintegrated after it had angered him—and was fitted with a restraining bolt before being returned to the palace's main audience chamber. Meanwhile, R2-D2 was forced to serve drinks aboard Jabba's sail barge,^[5] the Khetanna.^[12]

Skywalker had actually tasked R2-D2 with infiltrating the palace's droid pool so that he could assist in the rescue of their smuggler friend Han Solo from the Hutt's clutches.^[18] The mission ultimately resulted in Jabba's demise,^[5] after which EV-9D9 was shut down along with the rest of the Hutt's droid pool,^[6] though this deactivation was only temporary.^[19]

Bartending at Chalmun'sEdit

By around 9 ABY,^[20] EV-9D9 had become a bartender at Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina^[8] in Mos Eisley, working alongside another EV unit. When the Mandalorian bounty hunter^[21] Din Djarin^[22] visited the cantina looking for work, he approached the droid, who was cleaning the counter. When Djarin asked the droid if any jobs were available, she informed him that the Bounty Hunters' Guild no longer worked from Tatooine. The Mandalorian clarified that he operated separately from the Guild, but EV-9D9 stated that it did not help his situation as no work was currently available. However, their conversation was interrupted when another bounty hunter known as Toro Calican disputed the droid's claim and invited Djarin over to his booth to discuss a job; the Mandalorian accepted his offer while EV-9D9 returned to wiping down the counter.^[21]

LegacyEdit

At some point, an artist visited Jabba's Palace and wrote about EV-9D9 in his journal, though he did not reference her by name. The document was later restored and published by the Graf Archive^[23] sometime after 34 ABY^[24] with the nameless reference to EV-9D9 intact.^[23] She was also mentioned in the "droidography," a volume on droids compiled by the B1 battle droid R0-GR during his time serving in the Resistance, in which he condemned her attitude towards her fellow droids.^[2] EV-9D9 would also go on to be mentioned in the Hazards of Technology section of the How Not to Get Eaten by Ewoks and Other Galactic Survival Skills survival guide. The book's author characterized her as a rogue droid whose actions had helped fuel anti-droid sentiment after the Clone Wars fought between the Galactic Republic and Confederacy of Independent Systems, the latter's use of a droid army having caused such feelings to become common throughout the galaxy.^[7]

CharacteristicsEdit

PersonalityEdit

Originally peaceful and hardworking,^[10] EV-9D9 was corrupted by a programming flaw^[1] that was intentionally exasperated by reprogramming^[10] depriving her of all empathy towards other droids.^[11] A malicious, sadistic, and psychotic mechanic murderer,^[9] she enjoyed tormenting and dismembering other droids,^[4] reveling^[9] in working them until they fell apart^[1] or their processors blew^[9] and employing bizarre forms of droid torture to increase motivation. EV-9D9 relished her role as the taskmaster of all the palace's droids^[1] and loved disintegrating her subordinates.^[7] She would also hang droids upside down as a form of punishment.^[25]

EV-9D9 ordered the torture of any droid that disobeyed her commands and, more often than not, even those that obeyed her.^[2] She was quickly annoyed with the antics of C-3PO, cutting him off whenever she got the answers she wanted or when he started to stray from the question at hand.^[5] The droid supervisor also demeaned her fellow droids by assigning them tasks far beneath their programming.^[2] For example, when R2-D2 acted feistily towards her, the supervisor droid assigned him to serve drinks aboard her master's sail barge to teach him respect.^[5] However, the astromech had been threatened with and experienced far worse than EV-9D9 in his long lifetime.^[26]

Physical traitsEdit

An EV-series supervisor droid with feminine programming,^[2] EV-9D9 was missing various parts, lending her a skeletal appearance.^[10] Her key areas were protected with low-quality plastron plating^[6] that was bronze in color^[5] and cheap to replace when damaged.^[6] EV-9D9 sported four gray rectangular markings on the right side of her chest plating,^[5] though these were absent by around 9 ABY.^[21] Just below her chest plating was a recharge coupling and access port.^[6] Her pelvic mount could be locked into legs or motorized carts.^[27] When equipped with a pair of legs, EV-9D9 stood 1.9 meters in height.^[4]

Though spindly in appearance, EV-9D9's durasteel hydraulic piston limbs were deceptively strong, if cheaply made. As EV units were not expected to do anything more than press switches and computer keys, they were given only the most basic three-fingered servogrip pincers.^[6] She was also equipped with three white photoreceptors.^[5] Tiny and basic, they allowed her to see well enough to perform her duties and not much more.^[6] The third was custom-fitted^[1] and, along with some additional coding, was sensitive to the electronic and electromagnetic output of droids, allowing EV-9D9 to "see" the suffering she inflicted.^[6]

As an EV-series supervisor droid, EV-9D9 was equipped with an EV-series droid brain. However, the logic circuits used in the droid brain's construction were faulty and showed signs of critical degradation across several EV units,^[6] including EV-9D9,^[1] to the point where it overrode their behavioral programming to instead favor cold logic and cruelty. Speaking in harsh and buzzing tones,^[6] she had a synthesized female voice that sounded as if it had been stolen from an elderly prison matron.^[28] Her expressiveness was "enhanced" by a speech mimic flap,^[6] a hinged vocoder that simulated the movement of a mouth by flapping up and down beneath her sharp metal chin.^[28] Though designed to make EV units more relatable to potential owners, the effort was wasted because the flapping rarely matched their speech. She was also equipped with a broadband antenna receiver and built-in comlink that allowed her to wirelessly link to local computer systems and monitor all droid activity to ensure that the labor pool was operating at peak efficiency.^[6]

Behind the scenesEdit

Conception and portrayalEdit

Originally created for the 1983 film Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi,^[5] EV-9D9 first appeared in a Star Wars Legends novelization of the film written by James Kahn^[29] and released on May 12, 1983,^[30] thirteen days before the film was released in theaters on May 25.^[31] The character was identified as EV-9D9 in the novel,^[29] a name that originated in the third draft of Return of the Jedi^[32] but was not used in the final film.^[5] This name was established to be canon by Ultimate Star Wars, a reference book written by text=Patricia Barr, Adam Bray, Daniel Wallace, and Ryder Windham^[12] and released on April 28, 2015.^[33]

The character of EV-9D9 appeared as early as the rough draft of the Revenge of the Jedi script, where she was known as U-8D8,^[32] also rendered as U8-D8.^[34] In the revised second draft, she was renamed EV-8D8. In the third draft, she received her final name and her smelter droid assistant inherited the name 8D8.^[32]

EV-9D9 was portrayed using a marionette^[35] created by Bill Hargreaves and Steve Short,^[36] which was based on Ralph McQuarrie sketches of a tall, thin robot that was considered an "assassin droid" at that stage of pre-production. This design resulted from McQuarrie's revisions to concept sketches for a droid bounty hunter that had earlier been used for IG-88 in the 1980 film Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back. Though it did not appear in any version of the film's screenplay, the assassin robot was explored by McQuarrie in several forms, including a version with an oversized cutting wheel. An unused assassin droid sketch^[37] would later become the basis for the transport ticketing droid featured in the 2018 animated series Star Wars Resistance.^[38] EV-9D9 was voiced on set by Return of the Jedi director Richard Marquand, whose voice was later redubbed during post-production.^[32] At one point in the film's production, she was to be able to walk, though it was later decided that she would sit after the special effects department failed to make it work by George Lucas' deadline.^[35]

An interactive gallery of EV-9D9's marionette was included on Bonus Disc 2 of Star Wars: The Complete Saga, a Blu-ray set that comprised the first six main Star Wars films along with three additional discs of bonus material^[39] that was released on September 12, 2011.^[40] The marionette was once stored in the Lucasfilm Archives,^[39] but was then put on display as part of Star Wars Identities: The Exhibition.^[41]

The MandalorianEdit

Voiced by Mark Hamill,^[8] EV-9D9 appeared in "Chapter 5: The Gunslinger," the fifth episode of the first season of the Disney+ live-action series The Mandalorian,^[21] which originally aired on December 6, 2019.^[42] However, Hamill's role, as well as the EV unit's identity as EV-9D9 herself, would only be revealed in "Connections," the eighth episode of the Disney+ documentary series Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian,^[8] which originally aired on June 19, 2020.^[43]

Executive Producer Jon Favreau used The Mandalorian as an opportunity to take obscure characters and designs from other projects and bring them center stage, including EV-9D9. For her appearance in The Mandalorian, the crew built a recreation of the puppet used to portray EV-9D9 in Return of the Jedi. Property Master Josh Roth liked that droids were working at the Mos Eisley Cantina due to the establishment's no droids policy in the 1977 film Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, going on to suggest that the droids themselves may have owned the bar as of the events of the series.^[8]

Video gamesEdit

EV-9D9 appears as an unlockable toy in the non-canon 2015 video game Disney Infinity 3.0's Toy Box mode, which allows players to build in an open-ended sandbox environment. A part of the Rise Against the Empire Play Set, she could be purchased for 250 Sparks.^[44] She also appears in the Jabba's Palace map included in the Outer Rim expansion pack for the 2015 video game Star Wars Battlefront,^[45] which was released on March 22, 2016 for Season Pass holders.^[46] The map, and EV-9D9 with it, returned for the game's 2017 sequel, Star Wars Battlefront II, as part of The Han Solo Season content update,^[47] which began on May 16, 2018.^[48]

InconsistenciesEdit

The "8D8-series smelter droids" article published in the Droid Directory department of Star Wars: Build Your Own R2 21, released in 2017, stated that EV-9D9 was permanently deactivated following Jabba's death during the events of Return of the Jedi.^[49] However, "15 Details Making the Locations in Star Wars Battlefront II Feel Alive," an article published on the official Electronic Arts website in 2018, instead claimed that this deactivation was only temporary.^[19] EV-9D9's appearance in The Mandalorian,^[21] set roughly five years after the events of Return of the Jedi,^[20] confirms that her deactivation was not permanent.^[21]

Star Wars LegendsEdit

Within the Star Wars Legends continuity, EV-9D9 starred in "A Bad Feeling: The Tale of EV-9D9," a short story cowritten by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens^[50] and published in Tales from Jabba's Palace, a 1996 anthology edited by Kevin J. Anderson.^[51] In that story, she met her end at the hands of the droids she had tormented concurrent to the Battle of the Great Pit of Carkoon.^[50] Canonically, EV-9D9 was temporality deactivated after Jabba's death,^[19] going on to work as a bartender at Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina.^[21]

AppearancesEdit

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• Star Wars Battlefront II (DLC)
• Bounty Hunt
• Star Wars: The Original Trilogy – A Graphic Novel
• Star Wars Battlefront (DLC)
• Star Wars 69 (Variant cover only)
• Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi (First appearance)
• Return of the Jedi: Beware the Power of the Dark Side!
• Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
• Star Wars: Return of the Jedi Graphic Novel Adaptation
• The Mandalorian – "Chapter 5: The Gunslinger"

Non-canon appearancesEdit

• Disney Infinity 3.0

SourcesEdit

Notes and referencesEdit

External linksEdit

•  Character Building at Star Wars Identities on StarWars.com (backup link)
•  Interview: Bill Hargreaves—Former Jawa Scavenger and Galactic Prop Man on StarWars.com (backup link) (Picture only)