How 'Old Republic' Droids Connect to 'Rogue One' and 'Aftermath'

The legacy of ill-tempered battle droids in Star Wars continues in the third book in the canon Aftermath trilogy, Empire’s End, especially when Mister Bones — a heavily modified B1 battle droid — glitches and drops a line straight out of the metal mouth of ancient Old Republic battle droid HK-47.

(Props to Katharine Trendacosta over at i09 for pointing out the reference.)

The Aftermath trilogy chronicles events taking place between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, heavily featuring Temmin “Snap” Wexley (a Blue Squadron pilot in The Force Awakens) and his trusty, custom-built robot companion Mister Bones.

Bones (as he’s often called), glitches in the latest novel and says the following:

“COMMENTARY: I SAY WE BLAST THE MEATBAG AND SAVE YOU THE TROUBLE, MASTER.”

It could be the result of legitimate errant legacy programming or really just a forced Easter egg, but there’s no doubt that the line is a callback to HK’s blunt, violent dialogue.

The Hunter-Killer assassin droid was constructed by Darth Revan shortly after the end of the Mandalorian Wars in 3960 BBY (roughly 4,000 years before the Clone Wars) and was prominently featured in both Knights of the Old Republic games and even The Old Republic.

Part of his dialogue programming required that HK preface each statement with a characterizing noun (inflection was never his strong suit), and “meatbags” was his favorite moniker for flesh-and-blood beings, especially humans.

Though he’s (presumably) long gone, it’s a pleasure to see that HK-47’s legacy of deadly combat prowess and ill-tempered dialogue lives on in the likes of both Rogue One’s K-2SO and now Bones as well.