D4-R4B

For other uses, see D4.

D4-R4B, also known as "Arforb," was a grouchy R4 astromech droid that served in the Alliance to Restore the Republic. The astromech droid was stationed in the Great Temple on the moon Yavin 4 where it excelled at ground maintenance in order to compensate for a programming glitch that meant it was afraid of flying, meaning it was not assigned starfighter duty. In 1 BBY, the droid was in one of the temple's hangars on several occasions when the criminal Jyn Erso passed through.

Biography

D4-R4B, nicknamed "Arforb," was an R4 astromech droid^[3] that served in the Massassi Group of the Alliance to Restore the Republic based in the Great Temple on the moon Yavin 4. One of dozens of^[2] Industrial Automaton's^[1] R-series astromech droids in the base's droid labor pool, D4-R4B had a programming glitch that made it afraid of flying. As such, the droid was not assigned starfighter duty, but excelled at ground maintenance to compensate for its shortcomings.^[2]

In 1 BBY,^[4] D4-R4B was stood in one of the Great Temple's hangars when the criminal Jyn Erso was escorted through the room by a member of the Alliance's military police. Soon after, the R4 unit was stood with fellow astromech^[5] R2-BHD^[2] beside a T-65 X-wing starfighter in the hangar when Erso was led back through by Alliance Intelligence agent Captain Cassian Andor before they departed for the moon Jedha. Sometime later, D4-R4B was stood in the mouth of the hangar as Erso and Andor boarded the stolen Imperial cargo shuttle SW-0608 in order to travel to the planet Scarif.^[5]

Characteristics

D4-R4B was a grouchy droid, a trait that its fellow astromech R2-BHD found to be illogical.^[2] It felt great guilt over the bug that prevented it from aiding pilots in combat and so compensated with its excellent maintenance work on the ground. D4-R4B had white paneling with charcoal gray stripes^[3] and a black sensor.^[2] The droid's coloring matched that of the Imperial droid R4-M9.^[6] D4-R4B stood 1.15 meters (3 feet 9 inches) tall.^[1]

Behind the scenes

D4-R4B was created for the Anthology Series film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,^[5] which was released on December 16, 2016.^[7] Prior to the film's release, the droid was revealed in the first teaser trailer for Rogue One,^[8] which was released on April 7, 2016.^[9] The astromech was first identified in the reference book Star Wars: Rogue One: The Ultimate Visual Guide, which was written by Pablo Hidalgo^[2] and released on the same day as the film.^[7]