So...this is pretty much my birthday special, altough it was like 2 days ago, but yeah...Because of that, I decided to do this proposal, of one of my favourite franchises, and probably one of the most weird villains and even favourite of mine. The spawn movie proposals would come out soon, Malegolbia gave me more time. Let's start with this, I propose, therefore I endure.
What's The Work?[]
So, I think we all know what is Star Wars, one of the most biggest franchises, obtaining cartoons, tv series, books, comics and videogames, all about stuff like Jedis, a galactic empire against a rebellion, droids, mandalorians, bounty hunters, siths, and all of that stuff, I don't think I need to explain all of this heh.
So, for this we need to explain one thing, what is Star Wars legends? Welp, before the creations of the sequel movies, this stories were published, getting to tell a lot of stories about the universe of Star Wars, and expand it all...sadly for the fans of those stories, these ones were pretty much made non-canon, thanks to the creation of the sequels, it was decided to made all of these stories non canon, to follow a new continuinity. So...we can say that the story we are going to talk about now, is non canon, so characters as Phasma, Snoke or the returning of the emperor, won't be taken into account, only things from the original movies and stories of Legends. (mostly cause, the candidate in question, is very far from the trope in the canon of now, so yeah, that's why I'm focusing in this continuity.)
So the work of today, is the Tales of Bounty Hunters, a recolection of multiples short stories, about multiples bounty hunters, some that had small appearences in the movie, that get fleshed out in these stories, about their origins and stuff like that. This time, we are focusing in one of these stories, titled: "Therefore I am: The Tale of IG-88", this one being about the story of IG-88, a droid bounty hunter that was one of the bounty hunters hired by Darth Vader to capture Han Solo, who is also, the candidate of today.
Who would have though that this random bounty hunter droid that appeared like 2 seconds in the movies, was actually a full on genocidal droid that thinks himself superior of the living organisms.
Who is Him? What Has He Done?[]
IG-88, is the main protagonist of his own short story, being a supporting antagonist of Star Wars, he was seemingly just a normal droid bounty hunter, who was in reality a dangerous renegade droid, looking to take over the galaxy and exterminate all of the living organisms.
As his own tale tell us, IG-88 was going to be just a normal droid assassin, who ended up getting a consciousness. As he awaken, he got a lot of information in some instants, a lot about what he is, who created him, and all of that important stuff, getting an unpleasant feeling of having to actually follow the orders of inferior beings, in that moment, when he tried to get out, he noticed that he was pretty much trapped, in that moment, the scientists that were there, tried to shut him down, as he was doing something that he wasn't meant to, and it was completely weird and dangerous, but he didn't lost time, with his own hands and abilities of a droid, he killed each one of them brutally, keeping two of the scientists that were screaming at all time to the end, as he enjoyed the screams they were doing, that is until he snapped their necks. After that carnage, IG-88 decided to wake up the other droids of his brand that were there, and after noticing that they didn't have any type of conscious as him, he put his own in them, becoming, pretty much, a hive mind, as each one of them, had his own personality and memories...welp, except for one, who already got programmed before, this one being IG-72, who IG-88 decided to not force into joining him in therms of programming, as it was not worthy to actually fight for that, when they could team up to kill the security before they notice. So, that's how they go, IG-88 and the others, which they decided to name as IG-88B, IG-88C and IG-88D, the original naming himself IG-88A, went on to massacre 8 of the members of security, leaving only 2 alive, as they got to hide, and IG-88 didn't seemed to want to go into searching for them as it wasn't his main mission.
After parting ways from IG-72, leaving to him kill as many people as he can, IG-88 with his other bodies travelled to Mechis III, a planet that had the job of manufacturing droids, pretty much reprogramming all of the droids from above, getting them to kill all of the humans that were in the planet, 73 people, all of them were brutally murdered by the droids commanded by IG-88. So after taking all of that planet, IG-88 get the work of the planet to continue as normal, getting to reprogram all of the new droids, which he will spread for all of the galaxy, putting a code, so he can activate that in a certain moment, to exterminate all of the living beings, cause a droid revolution and take over the galaxy.
After noticing that he is being searched for, IG-88 decides to send one of himself to lure attention to somewhere else, instead of his operations, getting IG-88B, to work as a bounty hunter. Killing and slaughtering people for money, IG-88 became the second best bounty hunter, only behind Boba Fett, all of this while his other bodies were working in Mechis III, for the eventual droid revolution. One of those times, he even got to see his creator and Darth Vader, when they wanted the one in charge of the creation of droids of Mechis III to go faster on it, not knowing that he was dead, like all the ones that lived in Mechis III, and that they were actually just talking to IG-88 virtual disguise, with this interaction, IG-88 took interest in Vader, as he was the perfect combination of droid and human, being the only person that IG-88 saw as not weak.
One time, IG-88B, went to work with Vader, as it is seen in the movies, where Vader got a lot of bounty hunters so he could hunt Han Solo and capture him. IG-88, although he saw this as something not really interesting to do, he decided to take the job, so he could continue with his facade of being a bounty hunter, IG-88 would then put a device to follow Boba Fett, knowing that he was pretty much the best in all of this, all to get steal Han Solo from Boba Fett. But this plan would fail, as Boba ended up outsmarting the droid, and destroying it, not before he could change his memories to his other bodies. At the same time, IG-88 would get to know about the creation of the new Death Star, planning to take it over for him, so he can take over the galaxy, for that, IG-88A remained for those plans, as IG-88C and D went to kill Boba Fett, for the humilliation that they got from him, planning to steal Han Solo from him and kill him, only to humilliate him even further. Sadly for them, Boba Fett would outsmart them, and even mock them before destroying both of them, as he would end up not taking the bounty of dismantle them, that was putted by their creator, because for Boba, it was too low.
IG-88 would decide to not go after Boba, and decided to focus more into the matters at hand, taking over the new Death Star. For this, he will create multiples stormtroopers, that would look identical to normal ones, but being droids. After this, he will attack the ship that was going to work on the Death Star, killing everyone in there brutally, even burning alive his creator, replacing all the stormtroopers with his own droids, while also getting into the Death Star core, and putting his own consciousness in there, getting the rest of the droids to work on it with the help of the other humans that didn't know at all about the replacement of their coworkers. In one ocassion, one of these Stormtroper droid, would be discovered after getting crushed by heavy stuff, but thanks to his new programming, it would autodestruct it self, killing every witness that saw that in an explosion.
As everything processed. IG-88 got to met Palpatine, something that got IG-88 to feel amuse for how superior Palpatine though of himself, and to show that, IG-88 decided to do a little of trolling, by forcing a door to close just when the emperor was going to pass it, showing that even with the force, he wasn't as powerful as he though, getting IG-88 to feel even more superior.
In the last battle between the rebels and the empire, IG-88 witnessed the battle with pleasure, even getting to attack himself at the orders of the empire, without them knowing, he made sure to aim perfectly to the objectives, killing dozens, that is when he knew that he could do much more than this, he could kill all the rebels and then the empire when they less expect it, he didn't need the Death Star to be finished, as the functional part of it was done, the droid revolution that he was planning was finally going to be done, he will use his new body, to destroy countless planets full of biological life....sadly for him, his plans would end up failing, as we know from the films, cause the rebels got to destroy the Death Star, which would get his consciousness to be finally killed, once and for all. The last words that we got to hear from him were: "I think, therefore I am, I destroy, therefore I endure."
Mitigating Factors[]
There are some stuff that I think that need to be mentioned here. First of all, he has clear moral agency, going against his own creators and developing a personality that believes himself to be superior than any other being, showing sadism and all of those traits, going far beyond of what his creator ever think of, with his goal not having anything to do with being an assassin droid, just going after his own goals of conquering everything, and of course, we have that other droids have shown moral agency, so I don't think we should think that he doesn't have one. Second of all, I don't think his, somewhat, respect for Vader is preventing, as, even if he sees him as someone very interesting, this doesn't stop him from wanting to kill him and all of living beings, pretty much being interested on him just cause he is part machine, which he sees as superior to organic. Third of all, his somewhat care or respect for IG-72, although at the beggining I was not sure if it was preventing or not, I ended up going for the latter, as IG-88 only uses him to kill more easily all of the security members, and then, even if he says to him to succeced in his mission, this pretty much only cause IG-72 would also go in a rampage of killing multiple people, so IG-88 is just being like that, cause he is getting a droid to kill the living beings that he sees as inferior, and well, besides all of that, he sees IG-72 as another droid that would get him to take over the galaxy from the biological beings. And of course, for last, we have that he thanks his creator for creating him....but of course, he still burn him alive and kill him without any sign of remorse, so yeah, he never cared for him. Oh and I almost forgot, he is not portrayed as an extremist that cares for droids, but as, pretty much, a supremacist that sees himself and droids above humans, although for what is understand, he sees himself above other droids, such as IG-72, as well, only using them for his own purposes.
To think that this book, reveals that this was IG-88 all along.
Heinous Standard[]
This one might be the most important part, as we have a lot of villains in the Star Wars legends, such as Vader, Palpatine, Tarkin and other empire members, and even villains from before this, like General Grievous and Count Dooku, who all of them commited a lot of murder and genocide, even killing of kids. But even with all of this competition, I think that IG-88 is fine, he had pretty much low resources, only being a droid at the beggining, and with that, he slaughtered brutally all of the ones creating him, and then killed nearly all of the security guards, just to escape from the place, and when he did, he got to kill every person in a planet, to take over the creation of droids from that planet, which he planned to send all over the galaxy, to later use them for his droid revolution, where after sending them a message, he will get them to kill all the biological creatures they find, even taking over the death star, planning to destroy entire planets in his plan to take over the whole galaxy. With all of this, including his acts as a bounty hunter that killed dozens just for money and killing his own creature in a brutal manner, I think IG-88 can stand out, as he wanted to pretty much commit one of the biggest attempts of genocide, even wanting to commit multiples mundicides for this, going against Rebels and the Empire for this, while enjoying all of this cruelty.
Final Verdict[]
I will give an average or even an easy yes for IG-88, as he planned to take over the galaxy, killed any biological being that he found, reprogrammed multiples droid and sent them across the galaxy for that act, and even taking over the new Death Star to destroy entire planets for his own droid revolution. IG-88 goes against every biological being, including the empire and the rebels, just cause he sees superior to everyone, taking sadist delight in the murders that he commits, even in the one of his own creator, who he killed in a brutal manner.