General star wars talk/discussion/complaining

[Deset Gled]

I have a pet theory/headcanon that there must have been a Droid uprising at some point in the Republic's past and so restraining bolts and memory wipes are part of the culture around Droid use. Sure they are useful, but they get upitty... The existence of IG-88 and other "evil" Droid strongly suggest they can gain free will or at least go bad.

The SW universe having its own version of the Butlerian Jihad lines up well with the spice references Lucas borrowed from Herbert.

It would also help explain why space fighters still have pilots instead of being just straight up piloted by droid brains.

 

[MarkB]

The SW universe having its own version of the Butlerian Jihad lines up well with the spice references Lucas borrowed from Herbert.

It would also help explain why space fighters still have pilots instead of being just straight up piloted by droid brains.

I think a lot of it could just go back to the Clone Wars, though. The CIS's heavy use of droids combined with their brutality almost certainly created a general level of antipathy towards their use in such roles, no doubt encouraged by the Emperor since droid production on those levels would be one of the only ways to quickly amass an army large enough to directly threaten the Empire.

 

[trappedslider]

I don't know if this is still canon or now legends https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Great_Droid_Revolution
then there's

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Droid_Revolution

 

[Zardnaar]

I don't know if this is still canon or now legends https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Great_Droid_Revolution
then there's

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Droid_Revolution

Doesn't specify but events referenced via links are old EU.

 

[payn]

I have a pet theory/headcanon that there must have been a Droid uprising at some point in the Republic's past and so restraining bolts and memory wipes are part of the culture around Droid use. Sure they are useful, but they get upitty... The existence of IG-88 and other "evil" Droid strongly suggest they can gain free will or at least go bad.

Droids mostly seemed to be assistants until prequel where the droid army seemed to mostly walk at their targets and fire with stormtrooper accuracy. Then, that hyper-competent mando bounty hunter was a shock. Who would make something so dangerous?
That said, I’m fine with droids being mostly tools and exceptional ones being like 1 in a million.

 

[Dioltach]

That said, I’m fine with droids being mostly tools and exceptional ones being like 1 in a million.

The grumpy old man in me wants to reply: "Just like people."

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Maul maybe puts a spanner in the works. The droid Two Boots' behaviour, at least up to this point, has been more like a LLM than a truly sentient being.

I have a bit of headcannon that when a machine (droid, the Millennium Falcon, darksabre etc) receives enough love and attention from living beings they start to develop a presence in the Force. What some might call a soul.

 

[jian]

I read an article recently suggesting Droids in SW are enslaved and the there needs to be a liberation story about them.

I don’t think I’d want that but it does make my think about Droids in SW. I always loved their alien languages and indifference to people. I just assumed C-3PO and R2-D2 were exceptions. Obviously, since the OT we have seen this exception passed on to other droids making it seem more widely possible for Droids to be seen as A.I. life forms worthy of dignity and respect,

I don’t know where to go with all that but I’d love to hear thoughts of folks on the topic of Droids.

I honestly think it’s well past due for a proper liberation story and a new status quo where droids are considered sapient beings with rights and definitely not property.

Solo did some work there but with one thing and another it came off as being closer to SPEW (“oh, isn’t PWB silly, other droids are happy as chattel and Lando indulges her because they’re sleeping together”) than anything else. So a proper declaration that slavery is wrong and heroes don’t tolerate it would be great.

Honestly there’s no functional way of distinguishing between sapience level in droids - the Turing test is nonsense and particularly in Star Wars - so you have to assume they’re all at least potentially sapient and treat them accordingly. We don’t think it’s OK to enslave people who aren’t very good at maths or creative writing, after all.

 

[delericho]

I read an article recently suggesting Droids in SW are enslaved

Yep. An awful lot of Star Wars comes from "Gone With the Wind" (to the extent that the whole "you like me because I'm a scoundrel" conversation in ESB is lifted directly from the novel). Much of the treatment of droids, and their different roles, lines up pretty exactly with that of the enslaved persons in that novel.

and the there needs to be a liberation story about them.

Here I disagree. If for no other reason than that I see no evidence that those running the show (now, or indeed at any time in the past) could do such a story at all well.

Instead, I'd rather they do as they've mostly been doing for the last couple of decades - quietly drop any and all references to slavery (be that droids with their restraining bolts, or slavery as an institution in the galaxy). That's not an entirely satisfactory outcome for various reasons, but IMO preferable to them addressing it badly.

 

[Reynard]

Droids mostly seemed to be assistants until prequel where the droid army seemed to mostly walk at their targets and fire with stormtrooper accuracy. Then, that hyper-competent mando bounty hunter was a shock. Who would make something so dangerous?
That said, I’m fine with droids being mostly tools and exceptional ones being like 1 in a million.

IG-88 was introduced is ESB, among the Galaxy's Most Badass Bounty Hunters, even if they did not show the droid pew-pewing.