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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Clint_L" data-source="post: 8987285" data-attributes="member: 7035894">It is absolutely clear from watching Star Wars content that droids are sentient. They reason, they feel emotions including pain and fear, and they act independently, which is why restraining bolts were a plot device in the very first film. They are bought and sold in markets that are very reminiscent of the worst scene from our history. In a recent episode of Mandalorian, he purchases a droid and forces it into danger in spire of its clearly communicated terror. And he's the hero!The comparison to pets voting is bizarre to me. Pets are not sentient beings - they can't reason or use language at anything like a human level, let alone exceed it. Absolutely sentient droids should be free and have the right to vote. If someone is using a program to force them to vote a certain way, then they aren't free and, if they are sentient, they are being assaulted the same way any other person would be in those circumstances.R2D2 is not exceptional - there are many examples of droids clearly demonstrating their sentience and independence throughout Star Wars. Virtually every property has such a character - Andor, Rogue 1, Solo, the sequels.And that's only one of the many slave narratives in Star Wars! The entire franchise has slavery as a frequent reference, yet seldom as anything more than background plot. The Republic was fine with slavery happening, to the extent that two Jedi took a child from his mother while leaving her enslaved!You mention Star Trek, but the question of whether androids like Data, or later holograms like the Doctor, can be owned or should have rights like any other sentient being is explored at length in that franchise (and in both cases, decided in favour of the AIs being people). Terminator similarly explores questions of free will and AI. Battlestar Galactica, Westworld, and most other franchises that heavily feature AIs pay serious attention to this problem. Star Wars just hand waves it.To enjoy Star Wars, I basically just try not to think about the slavery subtexts. I am well aware that the franchise often has minor characters offer up justifications to try to argue that the obvious slavery isn't really a problem. These are not convincing arguments.</blockquote>

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