You know when someone writes something that hits you right where you live and you had no idea it was coming? That’s what happened when I got to a certain moment in Chuck Wendig’s final instalment of his Star Wars: Aftermath trilogy, Empire’s End. I actually yelled with joy reading this book.
Image: LucasArrts/Bioware
I’m putting the spoiler warning up, but nothing I’m putting here actually ruins the plot. Here’s the deal: Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath series includes a reprogrammed B1 Battle Droid named Mr Bones, the robot pal of the young Snap Wexley (played by Greg Grunberg in The Force Awakens). He is in the grand tradition of droids with bad-bordering-on-homicidal attitudes, with Knights of the Old Republic‘s HK-47 being his obvious forerunner. Rogue One‘s K-2SO is also an obvious continuation of their line.
Anyway, it caused me no end of joy when, due to a malfunction, Mr Bones says the words, “COMMENTARY: I SAY WE BLAST THE MEATBAG AND SAVE YOU THE TROUBLE, MASTER.”
“Commentary” is one of the ways HK-47 started his lines. And “meatbag” was his favourite epithet for humans. Mr Bones using his lines is now going to cause fans to spin out trying to explain the droids’ connection and I am 100 per cent ready for it.