Skippy the Jedi Droid Skippy the Jedi Droid is an eight - page comic story featured in " Star Wars Tales " # 1 " , written by Peter David . It takes place shortly before and during , and features R5 - D4 as " Skippy " . Plot summary . Obi - Wan Kenobi leaves a cantina , sensing the Force in someone . But no matter how hard he looked , he wasn ' t able to find anyone , despite his great ability in the Force . Suddenly , unbeknownst to Obi - Wan , an astromech droid serving drinks at Jabba ' s Palace is bumped into by Boba Fett , spilling one of the drinks from his tray . But before it can hit the ground , the droid , named R5 - D4 , is able to reach out with his mind and turn the drink back in its upright position and serve it to Jabba the Hutt ; thankfully nobody had noticed what had just happened , as it had gone by so fast . One day , R5 removed his restraining bolt with the Force , and Force persuaded the Gamorrean guards to let him leave . Skippy wandered the desert for days in search of his destiny , until finally he was picked up by a Jawa sandcrawler . There he had visions of Darth Vader and Princess Leia , and met R2 - D2 and C - 3PO . Eventually the Sandcrawler stopped , took all the droids out , and lined them up side by side in front of Owen Lars and Luke Skywalker . Skippy immediately sensed the Force in Luke , and persuaded Owen to choose him . Skippy was ecstatic at the undoubtable destiny that lay before him and Luke . However , R5 soon envisioned that , without Luke , stormtroopers would come and take R2 back to Vader , where he would be destroyed and Leia would be killed , leading to a chain reaction of horror that will include the Rebellion being destroyed , R5 ' s memory being wiped after 3PO refuses to translate his ' rubbish ' , and Luke dying on Tatooine without ever fulfilling his destiny . R5 knew what he had to do , and suddenly set off a mild explosion inside himself , leading Luke to believe that he had a busted motivator . Skippy then used the Force on 3PO , telling Luke to buy R2 instead . Owen did so , leaving R5 to be destroyed by a stray stormtrooper blast during the later raid , with nobody ever knowing the great deed that R5 had just done . Behind the scenes . In the in - universe article " " , the legend of Skippy the Jedi Droid is mentioned . This means that while this Tales story is not wholly canon , the legend of Skippy does exist . Skippy also appears as a mascot for teaching Padawans , much like a cartoon character would impart important life lessons , in the also non - canonical story " " . Droids bearing resemblance to and of " " and of " " make appearances among the droids who make fun of Skippy . ( If his appearance in the fan film " TROOPS " , and Star Wars : Chewbacca are counted , this is Tom Servo ' s third " Star Wars " appearance ; they both also re - appear , with Skippy , in " " ) The Robinsons ' robot from the series " " also makes an appearance later on ( he previously appeared in " Zorba the Hutt ' s Revenge " ) . A tribute to " " is given when the narration states , " All of the other droids used to laugh and call him names . They never let poor Skippy join in any droid - type games . " Skippy also used the phrase " I ' m not the droid you ' re looking for , " a tribute to Obi - Wan Kenobi ' s line in ANH . Mistakes . In one scene it shows an IG - series droid with different hands . Tusken Raiders are referred to as the sand people from Tusken , but Tusken Raiders are really named after Fort Tusken which they invaded , not for their point of origin .