The world of George Lucas’ Star Wars is full of some amazing and intriguing characters. Some of them are known and extremely popular, while others are not, despite having awesome backgrounds and a great story behind them. In this article, we have decided to introduce one such character to you, so that you can get a wider perspective on things. This article is going to tell you everything you need to know about Huyang, including who he is and what happened to him in the world of Star Wars.
Huyang is a supporting character from the Star Wars franchise. He was actually a Mark IV architect droid professor based aboard the Jedi vessel Crucible who, for a thousand generations at least, taught various Jedi younglings, including some famous names like Grand Master Yoda and Jedi Master Mace Windu, how to construct their lightsabers following the Gathering.
The rest of this article is going to further introduce Huyang, the architect droid, to you. You are going to find out some details about him, his story, and his importance to the world of Star Wars. We are going to give you some known biographical details about him, and we are going to answer some questions relating to his role in the story.
Who is Huyang in Star Wars?
Huyang was a droid specially made to perform multiple tasks simultaneously. He was in the service of the Jedi Order and was stationed on the training ship Crucible. As an architect, designer, and archivist of lightsabers, he believed that this weapon represented the Jedi’s only ally, having supported and empowered the Order since historic events such as the Battles of Rashfond and the Peacekeeping of Parliock.
Therefore, Huyang tutored Younglings who passed the Gathering and found their lightsaber crystal and helped them construct the lightsabers, providing them with the necessary knowledge and components. The professor also supervised the children as they assembled the pieces using the Force with their crystals.
Over time, he collected a variety of materials, such as Brylark Tree Wood, Cartusionian Whale Bones, Pastillionian Ore, and Black Onk. Although Huyang spent several millennia on the ship without losing a battle, he knew he would continue to do so, and kept in his memory banks a record of every lightsaber ever made and wielded by Jedi.
As he came into contact with over 1,000 generations of young men, he found that the aspirants who visited him for the baptism of fire became younger and younger as time went by. Huyang also accompanied Yoda, later Grand Master of the Jedi Order, in the search for his crystal. In retrospect, he described this mission as one of the most exciting.
He also supervised the later master Mace Windu in the construction of his weapon. When the young human doubted that he would ever be able to successfully construct his lightsaber, Huyang urged him to be patient. The droid served as a reminder that the individual parts of the sword did not need to be assembled, but rather the Force linked them through their wielder, making the Jedi a weapon himself. Windu managed to complete the sword with Huyang’s help, and he remembers this lesson as the first he learned as a padawan.
During the Clone Wars, a group of six youths, led by the Padawan Ahsoka Tano, traveled back to Coruscant after completing the Gathering on Ilum. These included the human pretender Petro, the Tholothian Katooni, the Ithorian Byph, the Rodian Ganodi, the Wookiee youth Gungi, and the Nautolan Zatt.
When Ahsoka introduced the professor to the children, Ganodi openly questioned whether the droid was qualified to teach them how to construct the lightsaber. However, Huyang relied on his experience and the extensive contents of his memory banks, which he had accumulated through the training of numerous generations of aspirants.
Instead, he showed the aspirants what hilts they could use for their future weapons and examined their crystals. Not knowing how to connect their stones to their lightsaber, he told them to listen first and not question his competence until they could ask him a question he couldn’t answer. He then encouraged the younglings to feel their lightsaber in their hands so he could provide them with the parts they needed.
However, he instructed her to trust her sense of the Force and not just imagine the weapon. First, Wookiee candidate Gungi was asked to describe his future lightsaber, which due to his connection to the Force chose a wooden hilt. Huyang knew that only the material from the Brylark tree was strong enough to be used as part of a lightsaber.
He found a box of components in his inventory, which also contained the wood he was looking for, and showed it to the children. He explained to them that his job was to provide them with all the necessary materials and knowledge to construct their lightsaber true to the ancient Jedi traditions. After finding the parts for the other younglings as well, he supervised them along with Ahsoka as they attempted to put the components together.
In doing so, he pointed out to Petro, who thought he had completed his weapon first, that he had used his impulse matrix incorrectly and that his lightsaber would explode if he activated it. While he was watching the trainees crafting their lightsabers, the ship came under fire and was boarded by a pirate ship commanded by Weequay pirate Hondo Ohnaka.
Ohnaka wanted to steal the younglings’ crystals and get rich from selling them. Realizing that the baptism of fire was under attack, Huyang demanded that the children give him their crystals for him to keep for safekeeping. However, Petro secretly kept his crystal to himself. Afterward, the group joined forces with Ahsoka and, at Huyang’s suggestion, hid in the ventilation shaft under the corridors to be safe for the time being.
Ahsoka gave instructions for Zatt and Ganodi to take the astromech droid R2-D2, who was piloting the ship from the cockpit, to safety while she herself prepared the drive for her escape and the other younglings hid in the cargo hold with Huyang. However, the pirates threw smoke grenades into the ventilation system, forcing Huyang and the younglings to surrender.
However, Petro activated his unfinished lightsaber and its detonation briefly knocked out the pirates, allowing the group to escape. In the process, Huyang was damaged and found himself unable to support the contenders in battle. Although the droid insisted that the children proceed to the cargo hold to hide out, the younglings chose to take action against the attackers and knocked out two Weequays with a trap in the training room.
Shortly thereafter, the group was surrounded by several pirates. While Huyang blocked the door behind them with his tools, Ahsoka distracted the pirate leader in a duel to allow the children and their companion to escape. A Weequay managed to sever Huyang’s head and his army with her blaster, but the droid disabled its opponent with its legs and retreated into the cockpit with the children while Petro and Gungi collected its severed parts.
Though Ahsoka was still fighting the pirates, the younglings activated the engines at her command and fled into hyperspace. There, Zatt agreed to repair Huyang. Shortly before their separation, however, Ahsoka had stumbled onto the pirates’ frigate. Since the ship’s drive threatened to overheat after the battle, the youths decided to follow the pirates to Florrum and free Ahsoka.
While trying to find Ohnaka’s base, they left Huyang’s remains in the ship with Ganodi so R2-D2 could repair the droid again. The astromech droid managed to reattach the droid’s head, but not its arms.
What happened to Huyang in Star Wars?
When Huyang returned to the Baptism of Fire cockpit along with Ganodi, they learned that the younglings had freed Ahsoka, but now needed the ship’s help. R2-D2 then steered the ship over the tank the Jedi were fleeing on and, at Huyang’s command, opened the loading ramp so he and Ganodi could help get the others on board.
However, the ship was damaged after a short time, so that the Rodian and the two droids had to jump onto the tank. The vehicle was also damaged, so the group was captured by the pirates. However, while Ohnaka’s base was being attacked by a Separatist droid army under the command of General Grievous, Ahsoka joined forces with the pirates led by Gwarm to free Ohnaka and escape from Florrum with his secret fleet.
Through a distraction from R2-D2, they entered the prison block and reached his cell. As the leader of the pirates was initially critical of their plan, Huyang tried to convince him that the younglings were among the best he had ever trained. In doing so, he assisted Katooni in finishing the construction of her lightsaber.
He instructed them to trust in the knowledge that the components of their weapon should belong together through the Force. Convinced by the successful completion of the lightsaber, the Weequay freed the other prisoners and attacked the battle droids that had gathered outside the base. They were able to advance to a tank, with which they pursued Ohnaka and his pirates, who used several gliders together with Katooni, to its hangar.
However, Grievous gave chase to the Jedi and attacked their tank after parting ways with the pirates in a maze of tunnels. Then, at Huyang’s direction, R2-D2 deviated the vehicle from its path. Although the group was soon attacked by Grievous again, Ahsoka, the younglings, and the droids managed to escape to Katooni and the pirates aboard the Slave I. After leaving Florrum, they joined a Galactic Republic fleet under Kenobi’s command.
There, Huyang received new arms. When the Jedi Master inquired about the children’s mission, Huyang mentioned that it had been his most eventful mission since Yoda found his lightsaber crystal. However, Kenobi interrupted the droid before he could tell the story and greeted the younglings as young Jedi.
This is as far as Huyang’s story goes in the canon. He was disassembled and reassembled several times during the series, and – as far as we know – he is still alive somewhere; he is just not present. The same goes for the Legends universe.