TT-8L-OT

TT-8L-OT was a gatekeeper droid employed by the Jedi Order to screen those who wished to enter the entrance to the Jedi temple on the planet Olega. In 132 BBY, a street urchin drew the droid out of the wall by throwing a rock and then drew TT-8L-OT's attention until the assassin Mae-ho Aniseya forced the gatekeeper to power down by throwing a magnetic restraining bolt at it. Aniseya then entered the temple to assassinate Jedi Master Torbin but was forced to flee before she succeeded.
==Biography==
===Distracted doorkeeper===
TT-8L-OT was a gatekeeper droid that the Jedi Order employed during the High Republic Era. Stationed in the wall by the entryway of the Jedi temple on the planet Olega, it was responsible for screening passersby who wished to enter the temple. In 132 BBY, the assassin Mae-ho Aniseya was tasked with killing Jedi Master Torbin within the temple and hired a local street urchin to aid her in bypassing TT-8L-OT.
Stealing a rock from the cart of a passing vendor at dusk, the urchin hurled it at the gatekeeper droid's head covering on the temple's wall, causing TT-8L-OT to pop its head out and blink its photoreceptors. Speaking in binary, it questioned who had thrown the rock before spotting the young urchin and warning him that the temple was no place for games. The urchin ignored TT-8L-OT's instruction to leave and waved his arms at the droid, calling out to it to draw the gatekeeper's attention.
===Powered down===
Focused on the urchin as it issued a final warning, TT-8L-OT did not see Aniseya emerge from a nearby alcove and hurl a magnetic restraining bolt, which attached to the top of TT-8L-OT's head. Frantically beeping, the droid's head juddered from side to side and then powered down before retracting into the wall. Aniseya then paid the urchin for the distraction and entered the temple unimpeded but was forced to flee before she could kill Torbin when her break-in was discovered.
When investigating the break-in, the temple's Jedi learned that TT-8L-OT had spotted the urchin before it failed, resulting in the capture and interrogation of Aniseya's accomplice. One of the temple's Padawans then mentioned the failure of the temple's gatekeeper droids when presenting the urchin to a group of Jedi led by Jedi Master Sol, who had arrived from offworld to investigate. Sol's Padawan, Jecki Lon, then questioned the urchin about why he had activated the droid, learning that Aniseya had paid the child.
==Characteristics==
TT-8L-OT had two extendable eyestalks with yellow sensors and a protective shield above its head that signaled approaching visitors. The droid's plating was brown, and it spoke in binary.
==Behind the scenes==
TT-8L-OT first appeared in "Revenge / Justice," the second episode of the live-action Disney+ series The Acolyte, which aired on June 4, 2024. The droid was first identified by name in its Databank entry on StarWars.com, which was posted by June 5 of the same year. Junior animatronic designer Matthew Hart and modeler Mitchell Chamberlain worked together to build the model around the droid's animatronic using model making and 3D printing, leaving access points to the mechanism in case anything went wrong. According to Chamberlain, the eyes were especially difficult to get right. Chamberlain applied some of the base coating to the model and believes that modelmaking supervisor Paul Szebesta then completed the rest of the painting and weathering.
Modeler Samuel Johnson created the disc on top of the model's head and the wall mount and animatronic designer Ashton McCarthy-Gould built the parts of the character's mechanism behind the set's wall, including the rail system it slid out of the wall on and the ability for TT-8L-OT's head to move up and down. Droid puppeteers Claire Roi Harvey, Colin Purves, and Mike Quinn did most of the puppeteering for the droid, with Quinn controlling the droid's entrance and exit from the wall and the movements of its head during close-ups. Chamberlain also did some puppeteering work for less important shots.
==Appearances==
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==Sources==
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==Notes and references==
Category:Droids of the Jedi Order
Category:Droids with it/its pronouns
Category:Droids with unspecified gender programming
Category:Gatekeeper droids