It’s literally the first thing they told us about, in the opening crawl:
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire.
During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire’s ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet.
Pursued by the Empire’s sinister agents, Princess Leia races home aboard her starship, custodian of the stolen plans that can save her people and restore freedom to the galaxy…
He dies at the end of Rogue One? And C-3PO is a totally different kind of droid, similar to other droids of his type. He’s a protocol droid, so there’s probably not much call for him to toss things about.
Asked and answered, thanks. It’s been quite some time since I saw that, and only playing around with my Raspberry Pi, connected it to the Disney Channel and flipped around SW1.
Nonetheless, if they somehow could not reproduce this kind of a droid who I reckon could also throw Chewbacca aside, that’s too bad. Yet if both sides had these kinds of droids it would have made for a less compelling first three.
And what argument could Randal and Dante had about blowing up the Death Star - presumed to have been mainly occupied by living contractors - in Clerks. The first time I considered that aspect.
I imagine that there is an undercurrent of Droid animosity considering they had just fought long war against them (kind of retroactively explains the bartender in Star War’s Droid racism. He was probably a Clone War Veteran).
And also, when we saw them in Andor, they seemed kind of, unhinged? Like even the Imperials were shocked that the Empire was turning them lose on the Ghormans. It felt like they were just barely under control, at best, like the only order you could give was “Commence killing”, and they’d just keep going until they ran out of targets.
Yeah, I think that’s a big part of the issue. Droids in Star Wars are sentient, even the tiny mouse robots you see running around or the cannon fodder battle droids. Making them TOO strong has probably not gone well.
I suppose I have to agree with da roofa. Personal politics or beliefs certainly figure into whom one works for.
In my case, either in the USA where I could have applied to Grumman (who were not building lunar modules anymore) or Raytheon who built (mostly) offensive missiles and their defensive shield which has at times operated to standards. Other times it has blown up army bases (oops!) and a friend of mine from High School was killed in one of them.
So I’ve steered clear of “defense” companies. As I lived in Ireland for two years, I don’t even think they have such a defense company. A nominal army, sure. Yet they are neutral (not in NATO and their defense spending is .02% of their GDP) and rely on the UK for protection. In the UK, where I’ve been for almost 9 years and have absolutely no intention of swearing fealty to the King so won’t be a citizen ever (even if that mattered) as a contractor when I get cold-called from an agent and some defense work comes up, I politely inform them I’m not a British subject - and even though I could in theory be an MP or even the Prime Minister - I could not work for a British defense company.
If I had some special skill that attracted Putin and the Evil Empire would throw zillions of rubles at me and I took on the position it would be entirely my fault if things went way south and I was blown up. As a non-combatant, okay then I’d be “collateral damage” yet just as dead.
This is not to say the Rebels were in any way “terrorists” and just like the roofer in Clerks said, these contractors knew what they were getting into.
As he does often, George Lucas can either re-edit footage (Han Solo and Greedo) or say whatever the heck he wants to. But if it’s not in the (original) movie, it’s immaterial. If he wants to say the living beings on Death Star 2 were some kind of sub-human “termites” or droids - it isn’t in the film.
Nor does he really need to explain. It was called a “Death Star” for a good reason and it had to be destroyed along with the Empire.
K-2SO was an Imperial combat droid, not the kind of thing a Senator from a peaceful planet with no weapons would have in her personal starship. An astromech and protocol droid make a lot more sense.
Go back and watch Season 1 Episode 7 when we first see one, it’s completely psychotic. The stormtrooper tells it to “hang onto this one”, so even though Cassian is doing nothing to resist or escape, it just keeps repeating “hang” as it picks up Cassian by the neck.
I suppose it’s a “Why can’t we have both” kind of thing. The Rebels already seem to have quite a number of capable tech people. Even the guy who pieced K-2SO back together probably needed more than a soldering iron so reverse-engineering them is certainly in their capabilities.
I don’t recall any other rebel droids like C-3PO in Andor. Essentially Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy started out with just the SW1 crawl that Horatius reminded me of, which in part
Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire’s ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR
left a lot of leverage for “Rogue One” and then “Andor” to tell the story of getting these plans. And they also end up with what I assume to be novel droid tech. Such a machine as K-2SO was essentially a creation by these guys and clearly was not in George Lucas’ mind. I’m no huge knowledgeable fan of the franchise, esp. outside of the original three and Andor/Rogue One, yet I can fan-wank that maybe K-2SO types can go nuts and into “Crush, Kill, Destroy” mode or Lucas can say “A wizard did it”.
As I said, if both sides had these machines it would have made the first three movies less compelling if it’s just a war comprised mostly of droid-v-droid (and almost certainly wouldn’t have been made by Hollywood) so I can understand the reasoning. And heck, if the Empire had lots of K-2SO’s they’d be churning out Death Star’s like Henry Ford Model-T’s.
The Rebels don’t want to have battle droids, even if they have the resources to build them. The prequel movies show why–they’re not something good guys have.
Cassian Andor is a special ops guy who gets some leeway to break the rules. And is soon dead, so the issue never comes to a head.
I’d forgotten two things: Alan Tudyk also voiced/motion-captured K-2SO in “Rogue One” and that C-3PO and R2-D2 both make cameos in that film.
So there goes my theory that the Rebellion didn’t have droids and created them by reverse-engineering K-2SO.
Tech guy one: Hey, what if instead of teaching these protocol droids six or seven million languages and etiquette we consider making them stronger and braver?
Tech guy two: Nah, we’re the good guys and don’t do battle droids. Obi-Wan will take out Palpatine and Darth Vader and round up some good pilots, blow up the Death Star and the Empire will give up on any notion of more Death Stars.
There’s nothing to indicate the rebels have a significant manufacturing base. They buy their ships, X-Wings from Incom for example. And they’re not particularly interested in ground combat, so diverting resources towards what’s essentially a heavy infantry and/or crowd control unit is pointless.
You might want to just go back and watch the original trilogy again. Droids are everywhere, and not even particularly expensive. No one has to reverse engineer them, you just wait for Jawas to show up and you can get a great deal on some gray market goods.
I reckon I just wasn’t considering how immediate Rogue One → Star Wars was, yet it makes sense that it would be urgent and ASAP. And to have six million (later seven million) languages is quite a feat.
I know nothing. Okay, so they have plenty of protocol droids already, and buy all their gear with Alec Guinness’ share of the profits (JK, yet I think Alec was even smarter and got a share of the gross)
But seriously, thanks for the infos. None of the trilogy films were that long (like the prequels) and it has been a long time. So after the re-watch of Rogue One I’ve put off for like four years.
And, aside from the Hero Droids we follow, they’re considered pretty much interchangeable by most people. Recall just before the Battle of Yavin, the tech guy remarking that Luke’s R2 unit is a bit beat up, and asking if he wants a new one. Literally just minutes before they launch for the big battle. Swapping out an R2 unit was considered to be about as important/difficult as wiping the windshield.