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In the Star Wars prequels, there is a somewhat-important character introduced named "General Grievous". Being lord of a large droid army and having some number of sophisticated manufacturing plants at his disposal, I immediately assumed he was a droid himself, albeit a sophisticated one with odd idiosyncrasies (such as coughing).

However it becomes clear that he has at least some biological components, which are focused on in the movie, and don't seem to do him any good at all. Why does he have these biological components? What is he, actually?

Null
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Glen Wheeler
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    Dead. A pile of scrap coupled with some tiny number of decayed biological parts. – Jeff May 13 '11 at 17:54
  • He's a Android? I think it is an Android, half-machine, half-human. Unfortunately I forgot the exact word. – Joe the Person Jun 24 '11 at 21:39
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    @fireDude67: 'cyborg' – Jeff Aug 01 '11 at 16:37
  • @Jeff, Yes, Cyborg. – Joe the Person Aug 01 '11 at 22:45
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    Actually Grievous was the best lightsaber duelist in his time. He beat Mace Windu (who was the best jedi duelist) in pure lightsaber combat, so hard that Windu used the force to destroy Grievous's lung. That is why he is coughing. –  Aug 21 '13 at 19:10
  • really ?! he wasnt that good in revenge of the sith , even with his lightsaber trophies , obi wan out "sabered" him quite easily – howler Aug 22 '13 at 11:42
  • As I watch Clone Wars, I keep wondering if he is (or was) force-sensitive. I always equated lightsabers to force-sensitive people, but in his case maybe not? – Raven13 Aug 22 '13 at 21:56
  • No, he was revived with Sifo Dias's (spelling?) blood, and hoped that his medichlorians transferred to make him force sensitive, but that did not happen, which made him very angry... Also, he 'wasn't that good' in the prequels and clone wars era because his lungs were crushed. Windu reduced his fighting ability (and also scared him), which made him run away if he even felt overwhelmed. – Tyler Dahle Dec 19 '17 at 22:38

2 Answers2

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From The New Essential Guide to Droids:

"I am Grievous, warlord of the Kaleesh and Supreme Commander of the armies of the Confederacy. And I am not a droid!"

The details of what Grievous is and how he came to be:

From https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Grievous:

Grievous, born as Qymaen jai Sheelal, was the cyborg Supreme Commander of the Droid Army of the Confederacy of Independent Systems for most of the Clone Wars. Grievous was originally a reptilian Kaleesh from the planet Kalee, where he lived his early life.

...

After consulting with his ally, Confederate Head of State Count Dooku, IGBC Chairman San Hill arranged for a bomb to be placed on Grievous's shuttle, Martyr. The Kaleesh was critically injured, but lived, and Hill arranged for the final stage of his plan. Grievous was reconstructed as a cyborg and was presented to Dooku as a potential weapon to be used in the upcoming war that the count had planned against the Republic.

Somewhat less on-topic, Wookieepedia adds (sourced from Star Wars Galaxies: Rage of the Wookiees):

At some point after Grievous's death, his body was used to create the droid warrior N-K Necrosis, who considered himself to be the reincarnation of Grievous.

DavidW
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DVK-on-Ahch-To
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    "Mortally wounded in the line of duty, officer Kaleesh is outfitted by IGBC with bulletproof titanium robotic parts and computer enhanced mobile sensory capabilities. He has become the ultimate super cop, Robo..." owait. – HNL Mar 16 '12 at 11:16
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    "Qymaen jai Sheelal, a Kaleesh barely alive. Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world’s first cyborg Kaleesh..." – Mr Lister Mar 05 '13 at 22:14
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    N-K Necrosis... anyone else think he sounds like a rapper? – Daft Apr 22 '15 at 15:28
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I guess you could think of him as "Vader 1.0"... The story as I recall is that he was a biological being that was severely injured, and repaired with mechanical parts (and not especially well either). Over time so many mechanical parts were installed that there's very little biological left.

Brian Knoblauch
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