First introduced in theStar Warsprequel trilogy, the droid army has become an important part of the galaxy’s history, although their fate is never truly shown at the end of the Clone Wars inStar Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. In fact, the third prequel movie isn’t the onlyStar Warsproject that’s shied away from showing what happened to the battle droids. BothStar Wars: The Clone WarsandStar Wars: The Bad Batchneglect covering this topic in great detail as well, although we have learned more over the years.
BetweenStar Wars’TV shows, books, comics, and more, information about the fate of the droid army has increased more and more. After largely glazing over the fate of the droids initially, the aforementioned animatedThe Bad Batchseries also provides some details as to what happened to some of these battle droids after the Clone Wars. From mass shutdowns to surprising criminal activity, here’s what happened to the Confederacy of Independent Systems' droid army after the Clone Wars ended.
The Majority Of The Droid Army Was Shut Down
They Were Given An Order To Do So
The biggest reason whyStar Warsis so quiet about the fate of the droid army in theStar Warsmovies and TV showsis because of the simple fact and assumption that most of the droid army was simply shut down when the Clone Wars ended. This was first modeled inStar Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, when the Trade Federation’s droid army was shut down after their command ship was destroyed by Anakin Skywalker. After the Separatists' leadership collapsed at the end of the Clone Wars, history repeated itself.
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This is further evidenced by battle droids we have seen recently in live-action, most notably inSkeleton Crew. When powered up briefly, a B-1 battle droid says toJod Na Nawood, “Did we win?” This being the first thing it says after waking up essentially proves thatit was shut down before it could even learn about the outcome of the Clone Wars, as was the case for most of the droid army. Of course, this wasn’t the only fate battle droids had, as many others have been spotted doing other things after the conclusion of the galactic conflict.
Some Droids Still Survived & Continued Helping Separatists
They Operated Under Local Command Or Their Own
Whether they were manually turned back on after the shutdown or they somehow survived, there were plenty of battle droids who managed to continue helping any lingering Separatists during theGalactic Empire’s rise to power. This was seen most prominently inThe Bad Batch, wherea tactical droid and several other types of battle droids were working to protect the Separatist world of Desixunder Governor Tawni Ames' command. While most of her forces were ultimately thwarted by Crosshair,Commander Cody, and their fellow troops, they still held out for quite a while prior to this siege.
This conflict is shown inThe Bad Batchseason 2, episode 3 “The Solitary Clone,” which continues to make droids a frighteningly worthy opponent for the clones.
This wasn’t likely an isolated case. While we haven’t seen much more of this happening around the galaxy, we do know that some battle droids still managed to survive and desired to fight for the Separatist cause. As shown inStar Wars Rebels,some tactical droids, such as one found by Captain Rex and the Spectre rebel cell on Agamar, received the order to shut down and prevented it from happening, thinking that it was a trick of sorts. Those droids then survived and continued fighting, completely unaware that the war had actually ended.
Other Battle Droids Were Repurposed (& Reorganized)
There Were Still Many Battle Droids Across The Galaxy
For the most part, though, most battle droids post-shutdown were repurposed - or they completely reorganized themselves.The Mandalorianseason 3 shows battle droids being used on the opulent world of Plazir-15, fulfilling most of the work humans or other species would have been doing themselves and thus giving people the freedom to participate in recreational activities.The droids were, of course, programmed not to be hostile anymore, aside from an incident that was investigated and solved by Din Djarin and Bo-Katan Kryze.
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Other battle droids, however, maintained their awareness to almost a frightening degree, and some united to create the crime group known as the Droid Gotra.These were battle droids who were retaliating against the Galactic Empire for abandoning them after the war, using rather violent means to get their point across. They advocated for droid rights that they would, unfortunately, not receive, but they still tried. This group truly gives battle droids quite a legacy in theStar Warsgalaxy, despite the fact they weren’t completely successful.
Star Wars
Star Wars is a multimedia franchise that started in 1977 by creator George Lucas. After the release of Star Wars: Episode IV- A New Hope (originally just titled Star Wars), the franchise quickly exploded, spawning multiple sequels, prequels, TV shows, video games, comics, and much more. After Disney acquired the rights to the franchise, they quickly expanded the universe on Disney+, starting with The Mandalorian.
