R5-D4, also known as R5 (Arfive) and called "Red" by Luke Skywalker, was a red and white R5-series astromech droid astromech. This droid was owned by a group of Jawas located on Tatooine during the early period of the Galactic Civil War. In the time leading up to the Battle of Yavin, the Jawas tried to sell him to Owen Lars. However, the droid intentionally caused his motivator to fail, influenced by R2-D2, so that Lars would buy R2-D2 instead of R5-D4. He survived an Imperial assault on the sandcrawler soon after this event, and then set out to locate the Rebellion. By the time of the New Republic Era, R5 was still functioning and eventually became an employee of Peli Motto, the hangar manager in Mos Eisley. Later, he was acquired by Din Djarin, the Mandalorian, for his mission to the Living Waters located on Mandalore.
R5-D4, the astromech droid, was among the last droids manufactured in the budget-friendly R5 astromech droid series by Industrial Automaton, a line known for its issues with malfunctions. He served a master in Mos Espa on Tatooine twenty-two years prior to the Battle of Yavin, and he was seen traversing the streets when Anakin Skywalker returned to Tatooine.
Later, he became involved with the rebellion against the Galactic Empire. However, four years before the Battle of Yavin, he became the property of a group of Jawas who were working as junkers; these Jawas also wiped the droid's memories. R5-D4 spent the next four years hoping to be sold and repaired. One evening, R5 felt extremely happy when two Jawas examined him and decided that he was ready to be sold. They removed sand from his tool compartments, cleaned his photoreceptors, and applied lubricant to his chassis and joints.
Hours later, he was awakened by a sudden movement and observed several Jawas handling an R2 unit. This droid turned out to be R2-D2, who had been captured by the Jawas after the events of the secret mission to Tatooine. R5-D4 watched as R2 was fitted with a restraining bolt. Later that night, R5 was awoken by the R2 droid, who was in the process of sabotaging him to ensure he would be the only remaining functional astromech that the Jawas had for sale. R5 bleated angrily, and R2 apologized explaining he was on an important mission. R5 responded that he was on no mission and that his memory had been wiped four years ago.
R2 replied that he had to escape the sandcrawler the next day, emphasizing that the fate of the galaxy rested on his sale. Unbeknownst to R5, R2 was carrying the stolen Death Star plans inside his memory banks. R2 then added that the Rebellion needed his help. The word Rebellion triggered something, the phantom of a memory. When R2 begged again, R5 responded that if he did not escape this sandcrawler and find a new master soon, he would cease to function. R2 was sympathetic but stressed that if he did not find his master, the galaxy would be doomed. As a couple of Jawas approached, R2 promised not to hurt him again.
The following morning, the sandcrawler came to a stop at the moisture farm owned by the Lars family, which included Owen Lars and Luke Skywalker, his nephew. Lars and Skywalker expressed interest in buying droids from the Jawas. The droids, including R5, R2, and the protocol droid C-3PO, were lined up for Lars to select, and he chose R5 and C-3PO. As Lars negotiated the purchase with the Jawas, Skywalker began to guide C-3PO and R5 toward his home. When R2 moaned, R5 reassured him that someone would buy him.
R2 then reiterated that the galaxy was doomed and told R5 that he was his only hope. Realizing how important R2's mission was, R5 loosened the hinge on his head plate and redirected the lubricant into a mass just behind his photoreceptors. When that was ready, R5 purposely discharged the power, causing his head plate to pop off. This led Skywalker to think that R5 had a bad motivator. In his place, Lars instead purchased R2-D2, C-3PO's companion and, along with the protocol droid, secretly a member of the Rebel Alliance. Only powering his auditory receptors, R5 heard R2's farewell, thanking him for his sacrifice and that he would never forget him.
R2's warning proved accurate when Imperial stormtroopers halted the sandcrawler and questioned the Jawas regarding the two droids they had sold. While the stormtroopers eliminated the Jawas with blaster fire, R5 feigned being deactivated, which caused the stormtroopers to overlook him. Later, R5 regained his composure and began a journey along the Jawas' trade route, hoping to find a new owner in the next valley and possibly locate the Rebellion.
R5's malfunction resulted in Skywalker discovering a message inside R2 from Leia Organa, the Princess of Alderaan, which was soon delivered to Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, as instructed by Organa to R2. Because Skywalker owned R2 instead of R5, he joined Kenobi and eventually destroyed the Death Star during the Battle of Yavin. Eventually, he also found his own place within the Rebellion, much like his friend R2. He served with Carson Teva.
The Galactic Civil War concluded in 5 ABY. Following his service to the Rebellion, and after suffering a tragedy, R5 ended up back on Tatooine, where R5 found himself wandering aimlessly across the dunes. After many days of this, R5 made it to the Mos Eisley spaceport on the planet right before a sandstorm hit. He eventually ended up at Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina in the spaceport and wheeled randomly by its garbage masher until he was discovered by EV-9D9, a former torture droid who worked as a bartender at the cantina. He then started working at the cantina as EV-9D9's trainee, the bartender liking that he was nervous and understated instead of snippy like newer droids. However, R5-D4 still hoped for a permanent home.
Around 9 ABY, when the Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarin came to the cantina in search of work. R5 rolled past him and later bumped into one of the patrons by the counter.
One day, R5 ran into the bar during his shift, earning a reprimand from EV-9D9 but promising to fix the scratch it made. When R5 retreated into a memory echo state that EV-9D9 thought was a result of undergoing many memory wipes in the past, EV-9D9 offered to take him to a droidsmith after their shift. When a rowdy Trandoshan entered the bar and disparaged it for being only run by droids, EV-9D9 reminded R5 that all sentients were equal. When the Trandoshan then kicked R5, EV-9D9, believing the patron had crossed a line, poisoned the Trandoshan's drink and quickly left with R5.
Following the incident involving the Trandoshan, EV-9D9 escorted R5 to Hanger 3-5 as dusk approached, suggesting that he might be of use to Peli Motto, the hangar's proprietor. During their journey, R5 offered to share the story of his service in the Rebellion and inquired why she always carried a restraining bolt. EV-9D9 explained that she did so to remind herself that she had the power to make choices, encouraging him to remember that he too had the power to choose. Upon arriving at the hangar, Peli Motto acquired him, and he eventually encountered Din Djarin once more in Mos Eisley. R5 projected an old map of Tatooine at Motto's request, although she felt he took an unreasonably long time to do so. The map revealed the location of Mos Pelgo.
R5 accompanied Motto to the Mos Eisley Cantina when she assisted Din Djarin in finding someone who knew the location of Mandalorians. Later, BD-72 was attacked by a womp rat. Motto asked R5 and her other droids to assist, but they refused. Eventually Djarin rescued Motto and her BD unit by killing the rat. While Motto helped Djarin to modify his N-1 starfighter, she asked R5 to check if Jawas were still in the area.
After Djarin left with his new ship, R5 was reunited with R2-D2, as he was present at Motto's hangar when R2-D2 arrived with Grogu on a X-wing starfighter.
After reuniting with Grogu, Din Djarin visited Motto looking for a replacement for IG-11's memory circuit. Motto questioned some Jawas, but they did not have the part Djarin was looking for. Instead, Motto offered to sell R5 to Djarin, who was in need of a droid to aid him on his quest to find the Mines of Mandalore and bathe in the Living Waters. R5 was hesitant to go with Djarin, but was eventually convinced to join him on the mission after Motto threatened to sell him back to the Jawas. Djarin acquired R5 at a discount of half the price Motto would have supposedly sold him for.
Upon their arrival on Mandalore, R5 was dispatched to gather an air sample from the ruins beneath the planet's surface. After R5 vanished from Djarin's scope, the Mandalorian initiated a search for the missing droid. Djarin was ambushed by a group of Alamites, but he prevailed and rescued R5, after which they both returned to their ship. R5's analysis revealed that the air on Mandalore was indeed breathable, prompting Djarin and Grogu to venture further into the mines.
Later, Djarin had become captured by a cyborg, so Grogu and R5 visited Bo-Katan Kryze on Kalevala in search of help. The three of them then returned to Mandalore in Kryze's Gauntlet starfighter to save Djarin. R5 remained with the ship while Kryze and Grogu went back underground for Djarin.
Kryze successfully rescued Djarin and, following Djarin completing his mission to the Living Waters, the group departed the planet on Kryze's starfighter. However, they were pursued by a swarm of TIE interceptors. In the resulting dogfight over Kalevala, R5 was thrown around in the starfighter's cockpit. Kryze and Djarin escaped to an unidentified planet where the Children of the Watch's covert is based, and R5 stayed aboard Kryze's starfighter as she, Djarin, and Grogu disembarked. R5 was later contacted by Adelphi Rangers Captain Carson Teva. He revealed the location of the Covert to Teva, who wanted to Djarin's help in fighting the Pirate Nation at Nevaro. He continued as Djarin's co-pilot when fought Gorian Shard's Corsair and as Kryze's when she found the Mandalorian fleet at Plazir-15.
R5 later accompanied Djarin, Kryze and their volunteers as they went to Mandalore's surface and met with more survivors on a langskib. Together, they traveled to the Great Forge. He then assisted Djarin and Kryze's forces in fighting Moff Gideon's Imperial remnant's Beskar-armored commandos at the Imperial base. R5 was able to get past several MSE-6 series repair droids. He was able to transmit the base's schematics to Djarin from a terminal. R5 then deactivated the base's first, second, third and fourth shield on Djarin's command. He was then found by a mouse droid, but was able to push it over the edge. He then escaped with his booster rockets before the base was destroyed by Wove's light cruiser.
R5-D4 was an R5 unit featuring a white and red chassis. Due to the persistent issues afflicting his line of astromech droids, R5 experienced increasing frustration as time passed. R5 once served with the Rebellion but was captured by Jawas, who erased his memories. For the next four years, R5 yearned to be sold so he could find a new master and escape the sandcrawler, which became his prison. R5 became angry when R2 attempted to sabotage him to ensure that he could continue his mission for the Rebellion. R5 regarded the well-maintained R2 unit as snobbish initially. However, R5 became sympathetic to R2's cause when the other droid explained that the fate of the galaxy depended on him being sold. This led R5 to make the difficult decision to sacrifice his own opportunity of being sold by blowing off his own head plate. R5 kept a low profile while the stormtroopers killed his Jawa captors, allowing him to escape and find a new master. R5 had a holoprojector which could be used to project a map of Tatooine. R5 was also equppied with a Rocket Booster and Arc welder. While working for Peli Motto, the woman commented that R5 was slow and ancient, apologizing to Djarin for R5's performance.
After the character appeared in the 1977 film Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, R5-D4 was featured in a number of Star Wars Legends stories. One such story was "Skippy the Jedi Droid," an Infinities story from the 1999 comic book anthology Star Wars Tales 1. The story posited that the character, nicknamed Skippy, could use the Force. After seeing a vision of Luke Skywalker's future, Skippy made it appear that his motivator malfunctioned so that Owen Lars could purchase R2-D2 and Skywalker could fulfill his destiny as a Jedi Knight.
Another storyline, first included in the 1989 roleplaying game sourcebook Galaxy Guide 1: A New Hope, had R5-D4 as an ordinary droid who was eventually purchased by Rebel Alliance historian and spy Voren Na'al. As part of the Rebel Alliance, R5-D4 helped Na'al spy on the Imperial forces on Tatooine and provided background information for official Alliance profiles for R2-D2 and C-3PO.
Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope began location filming on March 22, 1976. One of the first scenes shot was Scene 26, where Luke Skywalker purchases the droids. Originally, R5-D4's head was supposed to be where an explosion occurred, although this could not be done for the radio–controlled robot. Production designer Les Dilley fixed this by repainting the stand-in for R2-D2 red, and used that for the explosion instead.
R5-D4's canonical origins story was retold in Rae Carson's short story "The Red One," which was published in the 2017 anthology collection From a Certain Point of View. As in the Legends Star Wars radio adaptation, R2-D2 still attempts to sabotage R5-D4 but relents when the droid wakes up. R2-D2 instead convinces R5-D4 that the fate of the galaxy depends on him being sold. After R2-D2 mentions he is fighting for the Rebellion, R5 decides to sacrifice his own opportunity of being sold in order to guarantee the success of R2-D2's mission.
R5-D4 appeared in the fifth episode of the 2019 Disney+ television series The Mandalorian, whose appearance was teased by the show's creator Jon Favreau many months prior to its release.