A new Star Wars comic has revealed that BB-8, the beloved ball-droid that proved to be the breakout star of The Force Awakens, at one point had a girlfriend. This isn’t the first time that an important piece of droid-based information has been spilled in a comic: after all, the truth about C-3PO’s red arm was unveiled in a similar fashion.
As BB-8's big screen return in The Last Jedi races ever closer, fans have had plenty to talk about. As well as the fervent speculation about Snoke and Rey, there has also been lots of news: Mark Hamill compared Episode VIII's shoot to that of A New Hope; a new image emerged of Laura Dern’s Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo; and, it was announced that Benicio del Toro’s DJ character will be getting his own comic book spin-off.
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Now comes this slightly surreal story to report: BB-8 has a love life, and at one point it was going quite well. The latest issue of the on-going Poe Dameron comic introduced a new droid character called Ivee. This new droid comes looking for BB-8, and explains to Poe that she repaired his X-Wing “for Beebee”. The pair of droids then saunter off together, leaving Poe to put two and two together and say, “Huh. Good for you, pal”:
PSA: BB-8 canonically has a girlfriend named Ivee, so start yer fanfics pic.twitter.com/PGjvWplT4y— Alex Zalben (@azalben) October 20, 2017
The comic’s writer Charles Soule responded to this Tweet by Alex Zalben. He further teased the bond between Ivee and Beebee by tweeting the words, “Relationship status: It’s complicated.” Speaking of complicated things, there has been some discussion already about whether it’s actually right to call BB-8 a boy and Ivee a girl, since neither of their genders has been explicitly stated in the canon. Fans with good memories will remember the rumor that BB-8 is actually a female droid, which appeared online in 2015.
Regardless of how their genders actually align (or whether droids without humanoid voices even have genders), it’s nice to know that BB-8 had a little love in his heart at one point. However, since this comic takes place prior to the events of The Force Awakens, there’s every chance that Ivee will meet her maker before Soule’s story is finished, explaining why she’s nowhere to be seen in the movie that follows. Perhaps a tragic droid death is on the cards, providing BB-8 with his own dark backstory. Readers will just have to keep picking up new issues to find out.
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Poe Dameron #20: Legend Found, Part 1 is out now.
Source: Alex Zalben, Charles Soule
