Scarecrow droids were mobile agrirobots designed to operate in crop fields, serving both as functional farm droids and as scarecrows. They featured a tall, straw-wrapped frame with short mechanical arms and a tracked base for movement. Twenty years after the Sith rebellion, scarecrow droids were present on a farm in a village on the Outer Rim planet Genbara, where an attack by the self-styled Dark Lord of the Sith Kouru and her Bandit Troopers was repelled by a former Sith known as the Ronin and a group of hired bodyguards.
Description
A farm on Genbara employing scarecrow droids
Scarecrow droids were a type of[1] mobile[2] farm droid[1] employed on crop fields[2] that could additionally serve as scarecrows.[1] They possessed a tall, pole-like build. The central shaft was wrapped in bundles of straw, bound at intervals by rope with two short, horizontal mechanical arms ending in simple claw-like grippers. The lower section was mounted on a rectangular tracked platform that allowed for mobility and carrying of objects such as bales. The head design varied, either with a boxy visual unit coupled with a wide conical hat, or a stylized helmeted head with curved, decorative contours.[3]
History
Two decades after the Sith rebellion,[4] scarecrow droids were used on a farm in a village[2] on Genbara, a planet in the Outer Rim Territories. Around that time, self-styled Dark Lord of the Sith Kouru and her Bandit Troopers raided the village, but were met with resistance by hired bounty hunters acting as bodyguards and a former Sith known as the Ronin and his astromech droid companion R5-D56,[4] both of whom happened to be at the nearby Tono's Teahouse.[2]
Behind the scenes
- "There was a scene where Ronin fought in a really sneaky way by hitting the droids one after the other [to distract her]. Cutting this scene diminished the concept we were going for of 'evil against evil' because Ronin's sneakiness was no longer portrayed."
- ―Takanobu Mizuno
"The Duel" marked the first appearance of scarecrow droids.
Scarecrow droids appeared in "The Duel," a non-canon short film in the first volume of the Star Wars: Visions series, produced by Kamikaze Douga and released on Disney+[2] on September 22, 2021.[5] They were first identified in an interview with "The Duel" director Takanobu Mizuno for the website Backstory, published originally on February 3, 2022.[1]
In the interview, Mizuno revealed that a scene was cut from the short in which the Ronin evaded Kouru in a field of tall crops lined with scarecrow droids, striking the droids one by one to distract her before their climactic duel on the river. Mizuno stated that this scene would have emphasized the "evil against evil" theme by portraying Ronin's fighting style as more cunning and less honorable. The sequence was removed to reduce the film's runtime and production workload, though a remnant of the idea appears in the finished short when the Ronin uses the Force to strike the Sith from behind with a broken droid.[1]
Appearances
Star Wars: Visions — "The Duel" (First appearance)
Sources
- The Art of Star Wars: Visions (Picture only)
Notes and references
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6
Star Wars Visions: The Duel on Backstory (February 3, 2022) (backup link archived on February 4, 2022)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4
Star Wars: Visions — "The Duel"
- ↑ The Art of Star Wars: Visions
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Ronin: A Visions Novel
- ↑
Stunning New Star Wars: Visions Trailer Debuts on StarWars.com (backup link)
External links
- Star Wars Visions: The Duel on Backstory (February 3, 2022) (backup link archived on February 4, 2022) (First identified as scarecrow droid)