STAR WARS

Droid Considerations

Are droids in the Star Wars universe sentient? Only if you 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 bot talk to themselves. Weird shit, and amazing implications about the slaver character of Tatooine if the droids are actually sentient beings being bought and sold. yikes.

That being said, the Rebel Alliance seems to be really fond of their droids. Overly so, I should think for people governing the affairs of living beings. We see alot of droids with the Alliance, but relatively few with the Imperials. With the Imperials we see alot more people manning work stations. Hmmm... does the Empire create jobs for people, while the Old Republic favored droid slaves?

Now, in Phantom Menace, we learn that Anakin (Darth) actually made C-3P0. Very interesting. Calls into question the amazing coincidence of these two droids ending up back at the Lars family home two or three decades later...

So,the droids escape the space battle. We see a number of times in the movies that the Imperials let the Rebels go, knowing full well what their intent is. The Imperials are confident, quite rightly as it turns out almost every time, that they can let small quary go to lead them to bigger game. This may be one of those times, though the excuse we're shown is an officer commanding to hold fire because there are no life readings on the pod. By implication we're supposed to think that that did fire on pods with life readings - we just didn't get to see it, conveniently. Moments later Vader sorts out the incoming reports and deduces, incredibly accurately, that the plans are hidden on the pod.

Interesting to note here is that Vader issues this order: "Send a distress signal and then inform the Senate that all aboard were killed!" We're not shown executions, we're left with the suggestion that the Rebels are killed. This sounds more like he's trying to smoke out Rebel ties within the Senate. Later on it is NOT Vader who orders Leia's execution, either. Vader's hardcore, he was a major player in wresting power from the royals, and now he's busy thwarting a counter-revolutionary insurrection. But he doesn't seem to be dealing out death to prisoners. Just wanted to point that out :)

Upon landing, the droids take off. R2 knows where to go. Did Leia program him with Kenobi's location, or does he remember from the last time he was on Tattooine? I've heard it suggested that the droids memories are wiped at some point before this movie takes place. I'll dispute this based on Threepio's character remaining consistant. I don't know if a memory wipe would disrupt the personality of the droid or if you could simply wipe particular files. At this point I'll stand on the highly suspicious conincidence of the droids ending up at the Lars' and once again in Kenobi's presence. Perhaps built in homing units?

We begin to see R2's resourcefulness here. He looks like he's made for smooth hallways but he's not slowed down by sand or rock. Keep in mind he and Threepio both are outdated by decades. Imagine carrying around an Apple SE2 wherever you went. Do they build everything to last this long in the Star Wars universe?

Both droids are rounded up in short order. Is Tatooine such a galactic dumping ground that Jawas can make a living scouring the desert for lost robots? To quote Tom Servo, "What kind of shit-hole planet is this?"

Here's where we start getting into some odd territory, because we're about to see C-3P0 pull off Jedi mind tricks!