K - 3PO / Legends K - 3PO ( Kay - Threepio ) was a white , older model 3PO - series protocol droid who became one of the most valued droids to serve the Alliance to Restore the Republic . K - 3PO was originally owned by starfighter pilot Arhul Narra , who used K - 3PO as a repository for his personal files while fighting for the Old Republic during the Clone Wars . When Narra later joined the Rebel Alliance , he maintained detailed records of his service with the Rebellion , which often included top - secret data that he kept only in shielded files within K - 3PO . As K - 3PO accumulated thousands of files over the years , the military tactics contained within began to seep into his comprehension circuits . Consequently , K - 3PO became a tactical expert , and so Narra refrained from performing a memory wipe on his droid , whose military value increased every day . After an offhand remark K - 3PO made to Narra during the Battle of Ton - Falk prior to the Battle of Yavin revealed a simple tactic that the Alliance exploited to defeat a sizable Imperial force , K - 3PO became one of the few droids granted the honor of " recognition " by Alliance High Command . K - 3PO served as the coordinator of all droids in High Command at the Alliance headquarters on Yavin 4 , Thila , and finally Hoth , where he was placed in charge of the Echo Base droid pool . Although K - 3PO was destroyed during the Battle of Hoth , his salvaged memory would later serve Rogue Squadron through the unit ' s protocol droid , M - 3PO . Biography . Recognition . A white 3PO - series protocol droid , K - 3PO , also called just " Kay , " was manufactured by Cybot Galactica during the days of the Old Republic . K - 3PO was originally the property of Arhul Narra , who fought for the Republic during the Clone Wars , using his protocol droid as a walking repository for his important files . When the veteran Narra later joined the Alliance to Restore the Republic as a starfighter pilot , eventually leading the legendary Renegade Flight and helping form the elite Rogue Squadron , units both attached to the roving Alliance High Command headquarters , K - 3PO became a valuable military asset . A military junkie , Narra maintained detailed memoirs and records of the various missions and assignments during his service with the Alliance . Because these records often included top - secret Alliance data , Narra kept them only in shielded files within the memory banks of K - 3PO . As the years passed , Narra refrained from wiping K - 3PO ' s memory , and not without reason . The wealth of military tactics installed within K - 3PO unexpectedly began to absorb into his comprehension circuits . With the thousands of tactics and other files stored within K - 3PO , the droid served Narra more as a tactical advisor than a protocol droid . In fact , during the Battle of Ton - Falk , prior to the Battle of Yavin , K - 3PO made an offhand remark to Narra that revealed an ingeniously simple tactic that Narra and his forces exploited , leading to an Alliance victory . The resulting Imperial losses during the battle — two frigates and a " Dreadnaught " - class heavy cruiser — proved K - 3PO ' s value . Narra demanded that Alliance High Command " recognize " K - 3PO ' s worth , a formal process by which droids were respected as individuals in their own right . After some initial disputes , High Command agreed , and , with at least two decades of military service , K - 3PO became one of the few droids granted the Alliance honor of " recognition . " High Command assigned K - 3PO to the Support Services branch of the Alliance Military . K - 3PO served as the coordinator droid for all droids in Alliance High Command , first at the Massassi Station on Yavin 4 and later at the temporary Thila outpost following the Battle of Yavin . Echo Base service . K - 3PO continued to serve High Command at Echo Base , the secret Alliance headquarters on the ice planet Hoth , by 3 ABY . As the coordinator in charge of Echo Base ' s droid pool , K - 3PO became a fixture in the base ' s command center leading up to the Battle of Hoth , where he served as an advisor to base commander General Carlist Rieekan and Princess Leia Organa . K - 3PO , along with Head Controller Toryn Farr , also operated Echo Base ' s v - 150 anti - orbital ion cannon and monitored its systems . During this time , K - 3PO confronted the droids C - 3PO and R2 - D2 , attempting to reassign the former to Echo Base ' s communications center and the latter to ice cavern - drilling operations . Taken aback , C - 3PO protested , claiming that he and R2 - D2 were personal aides to Commander Luke Skywalker and Princess Organa , and warned that he was on an errand for the princess and that she would deactivate K - 3PO if he interfered . K - 3PO eventually rescinded the order . At the conclusion of the confrontation , C - 3PO remarked that he and R2 - D2 had turned up the heating system in the princess ' s chambers after finding the room freezing cold , which K - 3PO alarmingly warned would result in the melting of the cavern walls and potential damage . C - 3PO and R2 - D2 rushed off to correct their error . K - 3PO was present in the command center shortly thereafter , monitoring a tactical screen , when Han Solo announced his intentions to leave the Alliance for personal reasons . At some point , K - 3PO detected a wampa in Echo Base ' s south corridor while on a late - night patrol , and he had to escape to call for help . Because the Rebels ' tauntauns were irritated by ultrasonic frequencies emitted by certain droids , including himself , K - 3PO was careful to keep his distance from them . Nevertheless , K - 3PO suffered structural damage to his external frame when an obstinate tauntaun ' s tail swatted a hole through his right breast plating , damage that would never be repaired . During the early stages of the Battle of Hoth , K - 3PO occupied the command center as the Rebels fired off the opening shots of the engagement from Echo Base ' s planetary ion cannon . He proceeded to help coordinate the base ' s evacuation and maintained communication with the Rebels ' escaping GR - 75 medium transports to verify their sublight and hyperdrive engines were operational . K - 3PO was destroyed during the battle when the command center was hit and left as a ruined hulk , before being blown apart completely during the Imperial advancement upon the base . Nevertheless , the droid ' s valuable programming and memory , and some of his circuitry , were salvaged and would later serve Rogue Squadron more directly through the unit ' s own protocol droid , M - 3PO . Characteristics . K - 3PO was an older model protocol droid whose compiled military records of at least twenty years of service not only increased his military value daily but also made him a veritable tactical genius . His strategic and analytical abilities , and also his organizational prowess , earned him a position as the coordinator unit of all droids in Alliance High Command , serving at the Alliance headquarters as it moved from Yavin 4 , to Thila , and finally Hoth . K - 3PO ' s original owner , Arhul Narra , neglected to regularly wipe the droid ' s mind , trusting K - 3PO with the great responsibility of maintaining his stored tactics , plans , mission simulations and parameters , and much more , within his memory banks . As a result K - 3PO never developed any sort of personality — outside of being uniquely logical , unemotional , and precise — and he spoke with a mechanical , lusterless voice . During their time together on Hoth , C - 3PO came to disregard K - 3PO for his meddling behavior , finding his complete lack of personality to be a disservice to droids with auditory abilities like himself . K - 3PO likewise offered no regard for C - 3PO ' s claims that he and R2 - D2 were among the Heroes of Yavin . Nevertheless , C - 3PO ' s condemnation of K - 3PO as an " officious dullard " came unfairly , as K - 3PO performed his duties well . K - 3PO ' s upper right chest was branded with red rank insignia . His features included two photoreceptors and two audio sensors , a broadband antenna receiver , AA - 1 VerboBrain , TranLang III communications module equipped with over six million languages , and a vocabulator system capable of emitting an extraordinarily wide range of sound effects and an exact impersonation of voices , making K - 3PO an expert interpreter . His expertise included knowledge in alien species , bureaucracy , cultures , military history , planetary systems , and naval tactics . K - 3PO ' s skills proved particularly useful when the Alliance set up operations on alien planets . Additionally , K - 3PO was skilled in repairing multiple types of systems . He could diagnose and repair computer and starship systems . In this capacity , he utilized a scomp link to more easily speak with computers directly , a device that bridged his logic housing with the system ' s interface port . K - 3PO also employed a comlink to broadcast announcements to Echo Base ' s troops ; and a stentronic sensor pack , a compact , hand - held sensor array , which he used while patrolling the base to detect intruders and evaluate their potential threat . Behind the scenes . Notable appearances . K - 3PO first appeared in the 1980 film during three scenes in the Echo Base command center as an unidentified droid extra , played by Chris Parsons , who also played the film ' s droid bounty hunter 4 - LOM . The July 1996 second edition of the West End Games sourcebook identified a coordinating droid appearing in the 1983 radio adaptation of " The Empire Strikes Back " as " K - 3PO , " a droid attached to Alliance High Command . While " Galaxy Guide 3 " did not necessarily identify K - 3PO as any droid appearing in the film , the November 1996 " Hoth Limited " expansion set of the " Star Wars " Customizable Card Game did identify K - 3PO as the white protocol droid from " The Empire Strikes Back " . Hasbro created a K - 3PO action figure for its 2000 " Power of the Jedi " toy line . The droid also appears in Wizards of the Coast ' s 2007 " " set and Hasbro ' s 2008 set of the ongoing " " line . Inconsistencies . The 1998 " Star Wars Encyclopedia " explains that the Alliance put K - 3PO in charge of Echo Base ' s droid pool following the death of Commander Narra at the Battle of Derra IV , which takes place just days before the Battle of Hoth . However , this seems inconsistent with " Galaxy Guide 3 " , which explains that K - 3PO served as the Alliance High Command coordinator droid since his time on Yavin 4 , a base last occupied by the Alliance in 0 ABY , three years prior to Narra ' s death . Given that K - 3PO ' s service at Yavin 4 is also referenced in the 2004 article " Who ' s Who in Echo Base " from " Star Wars Insider 74 " , this article assumes K - 3PO ' s position as Echo Base droid - pool coordinator predates Narra ' s death . The second edition of " Galaxy Guide 3 " , explaining C - 3PO and R2 - D2 ' s responsibilities while at Echo Base , states , " Threepio also had a role in the Alliance communications center , and Artoo helped with cavern drilling , " a direct reference to K - 3PO ' s reassignment orders from " The Empire Strikes Back " radio drama . However , in the radio drama , C - 3PO successfully convinces K - 3PO to retract the orders . The " Hoth Limited " " SWCCG " expansion set includes an alternate card for the protocol droid R - 3PO that mistakenly features an image of K - 3PO , seen , the same image that appears on the set ' s the K - 3PO card . Despite the image error , the alternate card lists information respective to R - 3PO . " Galaxy Guide 3 " and the K - 3PO Databank entry on StarWars . com list K - 3PO ' s height at 1 . 67 meters . However , K - 3PO ' s statistics from the " Power of the Jedi " toy line list the droid at 1 . 68 meters . Likewise , " Galaxy Guide 3 " identifies K - 3PO as being fluent in over six million forms of communication , while " Power of the Jedi " claims more than eight million .