5-L

"Excuse me, could you upgrade the system later? I'm in the middle of something."
[5-L chirping]

―Tamara Ryvora and 5-L^[1]

5-L was a MSE-6 series repair droid who served the First Order during its war against the Resistance. When the TIE pilot Tamara Ryvora wished to leave the First Order, she reprogrammed 5-L to assist her.

Biography[]

"You are doing me a huge service, 5-L."
[5-L chirping]
"See? That didn't hurt at all, did it?"
[5-L chirping]
"Now, you're gonna help me get out of here."

―Tamara Ryvora and 5-L^[1]

Reprogram5-L — Tamara Ryvora reprogrammed 5-L.

In 34 ABY,^[3] 5-L served the First Order aboard the Thunderer. Shortly after the suppression of the Aeos system, 5-L entered First Order pilot Tamara Ryvora's quarters aboard the Thunderer to perform system updates. Ryvora requested the droid perform the upgrades at another time but the droid continued their objective. When Ryvora encouraged the droid to continue upgrading and began approaching the droid, 5-L attempted to flee from the pilot. Ryvora shut the door which trapped 5-L and allowed Ryvora to scoop up the mouse droid. After carrying 5-L to a bunk, Ryvora opened up the droid's interior and reprogrammed the droid to assist her. Ryvora comforted 5-L after the reprogramming and informed 5-L that the droid would insist her with escaping.^[1]

Later, as Commander Pyre and agent Tierny departed Tierny's office, 5-L placed their body in the doorframe of Tierny's office, partially holding the door open. Ryvora followed behind and removed 5-L from the door. Ryvora thanked 5-L before searching Tierny's desk. Ryvora retrieved her comlink from the locked drawer before hearing Tierny returning. She commanded 5-L to hide as she took her own spot next to the door. 5-L failed to hide before Tierny entered her office. Tienry was reading a datapad, allowing the pilot to slip out unnoticed. Tierny took notice of 5-L in the middle of her office and inquired if the system upgrade had been completed. 5-L chirped in response before departing the office and meeting up with Ryvora in the hall.^[1]

Ryvora carried 5-L back to her quarters and opened the droid's interior again. She connected her comlink with one of 5-L's inner wires and transmitted a message to Resistance member Kazuda Xiono's comlink–to meet her on Castilon in three cycles. The message was transmitted in a mechanic's code developed by her and Neeku Vozo.^[1]

Characteristics[]

5-L was a MSE series droid that stood at 0.25 meters high^[2] with black plating.^[1]

Behind the scenes[]

"But this episode gives us our first look at their inner parts. While this little droid didn't seem to mind, C-3PO would probably feel differently."

―Bucket's List^[4]

5-LInterior — 5-L interior by concept artist Aaron Pham.

5-L first appeared in part one of the two-part episode "The Escape,"^[1] the finale of the second season of the animated television series Star Wars Resistance, which aired on January 26, 2020.^[5] Concept arts for 5-L were designed by Lucasfilm Animation artist Aaron Pham on August 21, 2018.^[6]^[7] The droid's designation is a tribute to Fievel Mousekewitz, the main character of the 1986 animated movie An American Tail, produced by Amblin Entertainment.^[8]