A boatman droid was stationed on the planet Hy Izlan for the purposing of ferrying organic beings. Old, slow, and cantankerous, the boatman greatly preferred sipping warm fluid on the icy planet as opposed to doing its job. One day, however, after outlasting all the other droids of its model at its station, it reluctantly agreed to fly a desperate young girl named Lah Kara to the Aerial Temple in the atmosphere above Hy Izlan. At the temple, the unconcerned droid watched as Kara dueled alongside Jedi Juro and Ethan against a number of Sith acolytes.
Stationed on the planet Hy Izlan many generations after the disappearance of the Jedi Order, the boatman droid was one of several designed to ferry the inhabitants of the frigid world. Eventually, however, all of the other droids fell into disrepair, leaving the single boatman to grow old alone. One snowy day, it sat outside its station sipping warm fluid when a breathless young girl named Lah Kara approached aboard a speeder bike. She desperately requested that it take both her and her droid Four-Nines to the Aerial Temple of Hy Izlan, but the boatman, content with itself, informed her that it was on a break and that she should find another pilot. Still Kara insisted and offered the boatman a golden coin, prompting it to reluctantly agree to the girl's request.
Aboard a starship, the boatman flew through the atmosphere of Hy Izlan, soaring past asteroids made up of kyber crystals. After arriving at the temple and thanking the droid for his assistance, Kara departed the ship and delivered a set of lightsabers constructed by her father to a group of six individuals who claimed to be Jedi. In reality, the sextet were actually Sith, acolytes of the dark side of the Force determined to snuff out the light of the Jedi. Now armed with lightsabers, they dueled with Kara, as well as a Jedi aspirant named Ethan and the Margrave Juro, the ruler of Hy Izlan. The boatman droid calmly watched all of this unfurl, sipping its fluid and taking in the action. Eventually, the Sith were defeated, and the Jedi victors departed the temple abaord Juro's starship.
A red-plated boatman droid with a gray sensor, it became old and abrasive on Hy Izlan. The boatman had a fondness for quietly sipping fluid and operated on its own time, valuing its own comfort over the needs of its customers. Nevertheless, when offered the choice of sitting alone on the planet or earning a coin from Lah Kara, the droid chose to take the money. At the Aerial Temple, the droid politely refused Kara's thanks for the flight, and watched in quiet admiration as she fought against the Sith. Physically, it was a slow and clunky walker, but the boatman possessed enough skill as a pilot to fly through the rocky atmosphere of Hy Izlan.
The boatman droid was introduced in "The Ninth Jedi," a short film created by Production IG for the Disney+ anthology anime series Star Wars: Visions, released on September 22, 2021. The boatman was voiced by Chō in the original Japanese cast and JP Karliak in the English dub. In the original audio, the droid cackles during its bumpy flight toward the Aerial Temple, whereas in the dub, it instead grunts with exertion.