BL-17

One of a mere 1,000 droids of the BL-series Battle Legionnaire line, BL-17 was manufactured by Baktoid Combat Automata after the Mandalorian Protectors, under the leadership of Alpha-Ø2, joined forces with the Confederacy of Independent Systems during the Clone Wars. The Battle Legionnaires saw action in the Second Battle of Kamino and the Battle of New Bornalex, but suffered significant casualties during the unsuccessful Mission to Norval II against the Galactic Republic and their Mandalorian allies.

As one of the few Battle Legionnaires who survived the Republic's victory on Norval II, the damaged but operational droid was later discovered by bounty hunter Boba Fett in the early years of the Galactic Empire. Recognizing the battle droid's potential due to his own Mandalorian heritage, Fett took BL-17 as his assistant.

In 15 BBY, Sise Fromm, a gangster on Boonta, contacted Fett to eliminate the racing team of Thall Joben and Jord Dusat, along with their rebel associate Kea Moll. The team had destroyed Fromm's Trigon One weapons satellite, crippling the Fromm Gang against rival factions. Despite Jabba the Hutt having a bounty on Fromm and his son Tig, Fett accepted the assignment in exchange for a past favor from the Fromm Gang.

Fett's strategy involved working from the inside, so he deployed BL-17 to find and befriend C-3PO, the team's protocol droid. BL-17 quickly achieved this by feigning a shared origin from the same production facility. When C-3PO mentioned Joben and Dusat's need for a repair location for their racing landspeeder, the White Witch, before the Boonta Speeder Race, BL-17 offered them a garage supposedly owned by his absent master. C-3PO relayed this to Joben, who gratefully accepted and moved the speeder to the garage.

BL-17 used his friendship with C-3PO to isolate the others, making them vulnerable. Although he suggested R2-D2 join them, C-3PO declined, citing R2-D2's lack of conversational skills. BL-17 saw an opportunity when Moll was alone in the garage. As he and C-3PO departed, BL-17 sabotaged the door controls, trapping Moll inside, and remotely triggered a gas leak in the welding tanks to kill the Human. However, R2-D2's presence foiled the plan when the astromech droid, unaffected by the gas, used a heavy lifter to smash the door open and rescue Moll.

Upon BL-17 and C-3PO's return, Joben had taken Moll for medical attention, leaving R2-D2 guarding the White Witch. BL-17 suggested the speeder was unsafe in the open garage and offered a secure storage location. C-3PO agreed, helping BL-17 move the White Witch to a remote processing plant, blaming R2-D2 for the welding tank incident and refusing to let him accompany them.

BL-17 exploited the situation by sending a false signal to R2-D2, supposedly from C-3PO, directing him to their location. The Battle Legionnaire knew R2-D2 would lead his masters to Boba Fett at the processing plant. With C-3PO expendable, BL-17 prepared to eliminate him, but was interrupted by Proto One, an older droid with a grudge against BL-17. Seeing a chance to eliminate two enemies, BL-17 drew his blaster and aimed at Proto One.

Still unaware of BL-17's true intentions, C-3PO tried to intervene, giving Proto One the opening to charge. BL-17 swiftly threw Proto One aside and refocused on C-3PO. The arrival of R2-D2, Joben, and Moll saved the protocol droid—as BL-17 turned to face the new threats, C-3PO tackled him, sending the battle droid crashing into a nearby scrap pile. The unstable heap collapsed, crushing BL-17.

Joben escaped the trap in the White Witch, drawing Fett away from the processing plant and Moll. Fett pursued Joben even while participating in the Boonta Speeder Race, but when the bounty hunter's Silver Speeder was destroyed, he opted to capture the Fromms and their assistant, Vlix Oncard, handing them over to Jabba the Hutt and using the reward to offset the loss of BL-17 and the Silver Speeder.

BL-17, like all BL-series Battle Legionnaires, was engineered for combat. He possessed an internal first-aid kit, an integrated signal jammer, photoreceptors usable as spotlights, and military-grade balance gyros. These gyros, combined with joints calibrated for maximum torque, allowed him to lift thousands of kilograms and maintain speeds of thirty kilometers per hour for extended periods without needing to recharge. Armed with a Briletto AAP-II "blaster box" attachable to his chest, he was finished in olive-drab military camouflage to match the Mandalorian Protectors' armor. His resemblance to the Cybot Galactica 3PO-series protocol droid aided him in gaining C-3PO's trust.

The droid was a ruthless and efficient killer—qualities that Boba Fett recognized—and even took pleasure in killing, eager to eliminate both C-3PO and Proto One. BL-17 was capable of deception, a skill useful in his work with Fett, and successfully manipulated C-3PO, exploiting the perceived animosity between C-3PO and R2-D2.

Boba Fett noted in The Bounty Hunter Code that BL-17 was both competent and versatile, and he intended to acquire a replacement droid after completing a mission in the Mechis system.

Peter Sauder and Steven Wright created BL-17 for the animated series Star Wars: Droids, with his sole appearance in the first story arc's final episode, "A Race to the Finish," which aired on September 28, 1985, and its picture book adaptation. The Star Wars: Droids opening credits showed BL-17, alongside another droid and Boba Fett, riding a skiff through a desert canyon in search of R2-D2 and C-3PO, a scene not depicted in any episode.

BL-17's involvement in "A Race to the Finish" has been referenced in various sources, though discrepancies exist. Bill Slavicsek's second edition of A Guide to the Star Wars Universe states that Fett's continued ownership of the droid is uncertain. This contradicts Fett's intention to cover BL-17's loss in "A Race to the Finish" and sources like The New Essential Guide to Droids, which confirm his destruction. Andy Mangels's The Essential Guide to Characters mentions the character in Boba Fett's entry, mistakenly referring to him as "BR-17." The 2004 Polyhedron 170 article Star Wars Droids: The Adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO by Abel G. Peña and Rich Handley also recaps the episode, stating that BL-17 planted a thermal detonator in the White Witch at the processing center. However, in the episode, Tig Fromm and Vlix Oncard are the ones who plant the detonator.

BL-17's model remained unidentified until 2005, when Peña's article The History of the Mandalorians for Star Wars Insider 80 described the origins of the Battle Legionnaires, identifying them with the BL prefix. Daniel Wallace later expanded on the Battle Legionnaires and BL-17 in The New Essential Guide to Droids.