STAR WARS

The droids get shipped to Vader's step-brother's house

If we were watching the movie, this is the point where we'd have lots and lots of time to kill.
Make a snack, call our parents to apologise, take out the trash, cook some rice.
It's gonna be a while.
So, let's talk about a few things...

Where are we and why are we here?
This is Tatooine, which happens to be where Luke Skywalker, son of Anakin Skywalker lives.
It's no accident that Leia is here, this was where she was headed as her message makes clear later.
She was headed here because Obi Wan Kenobi is here (who seems to be here because Luke is here).

Before Phantom Menace came out there was already enough linking Leia and Vader.
Since she's the Princess and he's Lord Vader, it still seems obvious that we're supposed to be dealing with a royal family.
If we include the barest story elements from the new trilogy we find George Lucas himself has gone out of his way to compound the coincidences, as if he were frustrated that everybody was missing the whole point of the story.

So,
as it turns out...
not only is Tatooine (where Leia was travelling to meet Kenobi) where Luke (who turns out to be her brother) lives, it's also the homeworld of his father, Anakin Skywalker.
And as it turns out...
Owen Lars is the step-brother of Anakin Skywalker.
As well it turns out...
R2-D2 has been in battle with Anakin and was his WIFE'S droid!
It also turns out...
that Anakin Skywalker BUILT AND PROGRAMMED C-3PO!!
These aren't ill-concieved contrivances, you're being shown step-by-step the intricate strategems and machinations of a galactic hero.
That hero is not the whiny, tow-headed farm kid

Upon landing, the droids take off.
R2 knows just where to go.
Did Leia program him with Kenobi's location, or does he remember from the last time he was on Tatooine?
Perhaps built-in homing units?

Soon, the droids get picked up by the Jawas.
The amazing ascertion that we have been led to accept is that the Jawas are a people and a culture that make their living scavenging the trackless desert in search of high-end droids to trade in town.
Utter nonsense.
What's the suggestion, that Tatooine is some kind of garbage planet? or a great droid war was fought and there's still a very active trade for the wreckage going on?
Far more likely, the Empire sent a message to the local municipality to jolly well go retrieve them, and gave them the coordinates as to where to start looking.
The Sand Crawler is some kind of public works crew or sub-contractors assigned a contract for retrieval.
That's why they pick them up so quickly, why they know what kind of force to use with R2, and why they deliver them to the ranch where Vader's only known family lives - minor social flubs and misunderstandings on their part notwithstanding, as there does seem to be some difficulties communicating with em.

During this excruciatingly detailed travelouge of the droids journey we are treated to THIRTEEN SECONDS showing us what the Imperials are doing at the same time!
Talk about selective editing!
All we get to see is the competently progressing search for the droids with doomsday weapon plans.

Are droids in the Star Wars universe sentient?
I suppose if we count current and near-future level computing machines as sentient.
They may be for all I know, but the concensus is that they aren't self-directed entities, just a collection of programming and data storage.
Now, that sounds no different to me than what I generally consider sentient life, but I'll leave that bit of philosophy behind for the moment.
Most agree that computers are not sentient, but I see a few things about the robots of Star Wars to indicate that they are sentient.
While C-3P0's histrionics seem emotive, he is clearly programmed for self preservation, while R2-D2 is programmed for dedicated repair and assistance.
But Threepio does quit the mission once on the planet, a strong indication of self direction, and both bots talk to themselves.
Threepio even blames R2 for his predicament and bitterly hopes the little droid suffers - that's kinda dark.
And there are at least 2 moments in the movies that seem to indicate that droids feel pain!
Weird shit, and amazing implications about the slaver character of Tatooine if the droids are actually sentient beings being bought and sold.
yikes.

The Jawas slap devices called 'restraining bolts' to the droids.
As a child watching these movies this was so confusing I blanked it for many years.
It's used to shut down a droid or maybe stun it, and it's used to jolt Threepio once.
Perhaps it's a strange implication that the droids are more than what they seem.
And if they are indeed alive and thinking beings, what does it mean that they are being bought and sold?
In Phantom Menace we see there had been a culture of slavery (Anakin having been born a slave).
In A New Hope, we don't see any biological slaves but droids bought and sold and in Jedi we see droid indentured servitude.
These bastards on Tatooine are a pack of filthy slavers still, just now with electronic entities.
More proof that Anakin did indeed return to free the slaves of Tatooine.
We never get that closure in the new trilogy but there is aproximately twenty years between trilogies, lots of time for stuff to happen.
I like to think it was Darth Vader who went back to Tatooine - born a slave, returning as king.
And facing down the Great and Mighty Jabba the Hutt

Speaking of returning home, let's check out the Skywalker family reunion happening at the Lars Ranch...