IG-88

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Star Wars character
IG-88

On the bridge of the Executor, IG-88 receives instructions to capture the Millennium Falcon.
Position Unknown
Homeworld Holowan Laboratories
Species Assassin Droid
Gender Masculine programming
Height 2 meters
Affiliation Bounty hunter, Imperial
Portrayed by N/A (prop)

IG-88 was a fictional character who first appeared in the movie Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back as a bounty hunter hired to track down the Millennium Falcon. He has since appeared several times in the Star Wars Expanded Universe.

Contents

[edit] Expanded Universe

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

IG-88 was an elite assassin droid created for Project Phlutdroid, a military contract given to Holowan Laboratories by the Galactic Empire. Five IG-88 models were built, as well as one outdated IG-72; they differed from previously developed assassin droids by having newly developed AI routines intended at greatly improving their combat routines and better intelligence and autonomy traits. One of the IG-88s was taken from Holowan Laboratories prior to the activation of its fellows, and eventually became an Imperial Grand Moff known as "For-Atesee" (possible "4-8C").[1] Of the remaining four IG-88s, one activated prematurely, with greater than designed sentience. IG-88 assessed the scientists in the lab as threats to its new consciousness and reached the conclusion that it must kill them to prevent them from shutting him down, thus protecting his own existence. The scientists had not yet activated his weapon systems, so he opted to kill them using only his body parts and objects throughout the room; these events composed the first thirty seconds of IG-88's life. It then copied its program into the three inert IG-88 shells, labelling them IG-88B, IG-88C, and IG-88D, in order of activation. IG-88A, as he now dubbed himself, also awakened the "inferior" IG-72, and together the assassin droids agreed to conceal their origin by killing everyone involved in Project Phlutdroid. They did this in order to prevent any flaws in their design from being revealed, and to make it more difficult to restart the Project; eventually over 150 deaths would be attributed to the IGs. Having helped the IG-88s, IG-72 departed from their company to seek its fortune. Several years later, it would self-destruct on Tatooine. In the meantime, the four IG-88s, for their wanton destruction of Holowan Laboratories and their ruthless assassination purges of everyone even remotely connected with their design and manufacture, earned a "Dismantle on Sight" warrant from the Empire and 40 systems.

The IG units took over a droid manufacturing facility on Mechis III, and reprogrammed all of the droids built there with the IG's new sentience, and a program that, once activated, would compel them to turn on their masters and aid in the great droid takeover of the galaxy. IG-88B was sent to keep a public face for the group, distracting anyone from Mechis III.

Ten years before A New Hope, IG-88A ran into C-3PO and R2-D2 (as seen in Star Wars: Droids) while on a bounty to humiliate the crime lord Olag Greck, based off Hosk Station in the Kalarba system. Despite its batteries being drained and being subsequently captured by Greck, IG-88A escaped, but was hunted down again by the two droids. IG-88A managed to turn even this defeat to his advantage, taking the two hostage and defeating Greck in a space battle on the Indobok moon, thereby justifying his position as the second-best bounty hunter in the galaxy (after Boba Fett).

Having heard of IG-88's exploits, Darth Vader chose to ignore the "Dismantle on Sight" order and contacted the increasingly infamous assassin droid. IG-88B responded. Vader had gathered six of the greatest bounty hunters in the galaxy on the Executor to track down the Millennium Falcon and capture its crew alive. IG-88B hacked into the ship's computers and planted tracers on the other hunters' ships. While inside the computer, it learned of a second Death Star, and sent that information to its brethren. IG-88B followed Boba Fett to Cloud City and laid a trap. Fett, however, had lain a trap of his own. He disabled IG-88B with ion cannons, and then blew it apart with its own weapons. IG-88B's shell can be seen in The Empire Strikes Back, when Chewbacca is gathering C-3PO's scattered parts.

IG-88C followed Fett to Tatooine to capture Han Solo. Although it could perform much harder maneuvers in its specially-designed IG-2000 vessel, Fett managed to outfly it and destroy it. IG-88D attacked immediately thereafter, briefly surprising Fett, but his ship was destroyed as well. IG-88D survived and traveled to the massive junkyard on Ord Mantell to repair his ship, where Dash Rendar ultimately destroyed him.

IG-88A copied its program into the second Death Star's primary computer core, and intended to take control of the station, using it to rule the galaxy. No one was aware of IG-88A's presence, save for Emperor Palpatine himself. As it was preparing to perform its intended task, however, the Rebel Alliance destroyed the reactor core, killing it instantly.

IG-88A's body was later found by Tyko Thul when he took over Mechis III, and reprogrammed to serve as his personal bodyguard. When his brother Bornan went missing during the Diversity Alliance crisis, Tyko staged a kidnapping of himself by IG-88 and several newly manufactured assassin droids. When the young Jedi Knights, among them Tyko's nephew Raynar, arrived on Mechis III, they discovered the ruse. After several reprogrammings, IG-88 drove off Dengar and was sent after Bornan Thul.

The Star Wars: Clone Wars animated series gives a glimpse at the ancestry of IG-88, as well as the meaning of IG. The Muunilist-based InterGalactic Banking Clan, often abbreviated as IBC but more commonly called the IG Banking Clan, was one of the charter organizations that founded the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Whereas the Trade Federation and Techno Union used Geonosian-built battle droids for their armies, the IG Banking Clan used a series of tall, lanky droids known as IG Lancer droids, who rode speeder bikes and carried lances like medieval jousters. These IG droids bore a passing resemblance to the native Muuns who ran the bank clan, who looked like tall and grotesquely thin humans with abnormally tall heads. Led by Durge in chapters 4, 8 and 9, until they were defeated by Obi-Wan Kenobi and his clone troopers. The connection between the IG Banking Clan and Holowan Laboratories is a beneficial one; after the rise of the Galactic Empire, the IG Clan no longer exists and the IG-88 droids were created from the basis of the original Lancer blueprints. In Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, another IG-88 predecessor can be seen: General Grievous's IG-100 MagnaGuards. IG-88 (more specifically, IG-88D) is also a "Boss" in one of the levels of the Shadows of the Empire game for Nintendo 64 and Windows.

[edit] Trivia

  • In the novel Scarecrow by Matthew Reilly, a group of bounty hunters named the IG-88 are present. This name was selected by Reilly in honour of the Star Wars character.
  • The name IG-88 is mentioned in the Half Life expansion Half-Life: Opposing Force, when a security guard asks a nearby scientist "You seen the new IG-88s?".
  • One of the concept ideas for General Grievous was that he was to be a child, with 4 IG-88 droids for bodyguards. This idea was rejected because Lucas felt that such an interpretation wouldn't be taken seriously. Instead, Grievous' bodyguards became the MagnaGuards, a droid of the IG series.
  • IG-88 is a purchasable character in LEGO Star Wars 2: The Original Trilogy and serves as one of the most diverse characters in the game; he is simultaneously a Blaster-type character, a droid with access to all droid panels, and a Bounty Hunter-type character (He shares all these attributes with 4-LOM). This enables him to open Bounty Hunter doors and use grappling points. His default weapon is a blaster rifle. When in melee combat, he will attack with a one-two punch combo, followed by pulling off his own head and swinging it like a club at the target. IG-88's only limitations are his inability to build objects and pull levers.
  • The head used for the IG-88 in The Empire Strikes Back can be seen in A New Hope in the Mos Eisley Cantina as a drink dispenser on the bar.

[edit] References

[edit] External links


Droids of Star Wars
Models
Astromech droid | Battle droid | Buzz droid | Tri-Fighter | Pit droid | Probe droid | Protocol droid
Individuals
8t88 | Blue Max | Bollux | C-3PO | EV-9D9 | G0-T0 | HK-47 | MagnaGuards | IG-88 | R2-D2 | YVH 1
Lists
List of minor Star Wars droids
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