Coppertop

Coppertop was the name assumed by a B1-series battle droid who served in the Droid Army of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. During the Clone Wars, the battle droid participated in a battle on the planet Bogoa against the forces of the Galactic Republic, a rival state to the Confederacy. There, the droid was selected as the subject for an experiment enacted by the Confederate leader Count Dooku, to test the willingness of a programmed being to disregard its primary protocols. As the droid marched into battle, the directive Order 99 was issued to the mechanical soldier, which compelled the droid to ignore its orders to kill as a part of the Confederate war machine.
The droid subsequently sought to be a free individual, and he took to administering medical assistance to the wounded of both the Confederacy and the Republic. While bandaging up the injured Republic trooper Gunner, Coppertop encountered Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi and Clone Commander CC-2224, and the droid explained to them his origins. However, shortly afterward, Kenobi and the clones were attacked by the Dark Jedi Asajj Ventress and the bounty hunter Cyreltov, who sought to recover the droid on Dooku's behalf. Not wanting to be the cause of any further violence, Coppertop surrendered to Ventress, then disabled himself using Cyreltov's deactivator pistol.
==Biography==
A B1-series battle droid with a masculine personality served in the Droid Army of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. The droid fought during the Clone Wars, a conflict waged between the CIS and the Galactic Republic. In about 21 BBY, the battle droid was deployed during an engagement against the Republic on the planet Bogoa. Elsewhere in the galaxy, the Dark Lord Darth Sidious— a Banite Sith who had plans to order the Republic's clone troopers to eliminate the Jedi Order as part of the Sith Grand Plan—Darth Plagueis instructed his apprentice, the Confederate leader Count Dooku, to perform an experiment to test how well a droid could disregard its primary orders, because he considered droids to be similar in nature to clones. The battle droid was selected as Dooku's intended test subject, and on the second day of the struggle on Bogoa, the droid was sent into combat alongside ranks of other B1 battle droids, during a Confederate attack on the Republic's rearguard forces. However, as the droid advanced into battle, a voice whispered the words "Order 99" over the droid's comm unit, which triggered a shutdown of the droid's primary systems.
The issuing of the order caused the droid to disregard his primary programming, overriding his desire to fight and granting him a new sense of individuality. Sometime later, the droid reactivated and found himself abandoned on the battlefield. Rather than rejoin the Confederate Droid Army, he decided to remain behind and provide medical assistance to both Confederate and Republic casualties of the fighting. He took to calling himself "Coppertop" and also customized his physical appearance, donning a cape and gaining a gold-colored crest on the top of his head. Count Dooku ordered his Dark Acolyte Asajj Ventress to recover Coppertop, so that he could examine and dismantle the droid, and she set out in pursuit of the errant battle droid, accompanied by the renowned Chiss bounty hunter Cyreltov.
Republic troops ultimately broke through the Confederacy's stronghold on Bogoa, and in the aftermath of the engagement, Coppertop came across the stricken clone trooper Gunner and bandaged up the clone's torso. However, unbeknownst to the droid, he was sighted by Ventress and Cyreltov, and the pair observed his actions from afar. During an effort by the Republic forces to roundup their missing comrades, Clone Commander CC-2224—nicknamed "Cody"—also came across Coppertop, and he immediately assumed that the droid had hostile intentions toward Gunner, so he pointed his blaster at the droid and ordered Coppertop to put his hands up. Before Cody could destroy the droid, his superior, Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi, intervened and ordered Cody to hold back, because he could sense that Coppertop was different than other battle droids. When challenged by Kenobi to explain why he was helping Gunner, Coppertop introduced himself and told the Jedi that he had overcome his primary protocols. Suspicious of Coppertop's motives, Kenobi asked the droid to accompany him back to the Republic encampment.
As Coppertop, Kenobi, and the clone troopers moved off, the droid told Kenobi the story of how his programming had been overridden as a result of the issuance of Order 99. Just as he completed his tale, they were confronted by Ventress and Cyreltov, and the Dark Jedi demanded that Kenobi hand the droid over to them. The pair then proceeded to attack Kenobi and the troopers, and the Jedi ordered Coppertop to stay down, so as to avoid coming to harm. Not wanting to be the cause of any more violence, Coppertop ignored Kenobi's instruction and surrendered, handing himself over to Ventress. Determined to not be used by the Confederacy to cause any further loss of life, Coppertop decided to choose his own fate. As he was escorted away, he grabbed Cyreltov's deactivator pistol from the bounty hunter's belt and used it to disable himself.
While Ventress had not been able to recover Coppertop intact, Dooku considered the experiment a success, and he reported his findings to Darth Sidious. Coppertop's example demonstrated that a conditioned individual could, when prompted, engage in a course of action that conflicted with its primary programming. As a result, in 19 BBY, Sidious issued the directive Order 66 to all clone troops, instructing them to turn against their Jedi commanders.The New Essential Chronology
==Characteristics==
Coppertop entered service with the Confederate Droid Army as a standard, bipedal B-series battle droid, standing at 1.91 meters in height, with black sensors and tan-colored plating. As a class four droid, Coppertop was designed for fighting,Scavenger's Guide to Droids his primary aim being to kill the enemies of the Confederacy. To that end, he wielded an E-5 blaster rifle.
As a consequence of the activation of Order 99 during his service on Bogoa, Coppertop underwent a major personality change, and his primary aim became to ignore his old, combat-oriented programming and to come to the aid of weak and wounded beings instead. He believed that helping injured clone troopers—his former enemies—was the right thing to to, because the Humans were treated as expendable in the same way that battle droids like himself were, and he gained an aversion to fighting and sought to resolve conflict through peaceful means.
The change in his programming caused Coppertop to gain a greater degree of individuality. He sought to live as a free droid rather than to serve the Droid Army, and felt that conviction to such an extent that he would rather deactivate himself than return to the Confederacy. In addition, he customized his appearance, gaining mandibles on the side of his face and a gold-colored crest atop his head. He also took to wearing a cape, and he marked his torso with an inverted red stripe.
==Behind the scenes==
Coppertop made his first and only appearance in Star Wars Legends in The Only Good Clanker, a comic strip written by Robin Etherington and illustrated by artist Will Sliney, which was included in the October 2011 magazine Star Wars: The Clone Wars Comic UK 6.26. The comic was later reprinted in the publication Star Wars: The Clone Wars Magazine 9.
==Appearances==
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==Notes and references==
Category:B1-series battle droids
Category:Droids of the Confederacy of Independent Systems
Category:Healers and doctors
Category:Repurposed droids