# In RotJ, why bring C3PO to Endor? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 4, 2016, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-rotj-why-bring-c3po-to-endor/747899 "2016-03-04T04:16:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Gretchion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8edcca/32.png) [@Gretchion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gretchion)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-rotj-why-bring-c3po-to-endor/747899/21 "2016-03-09T03:34:37Z")
> [@psiekier](#): > > C3PO isn’t the only protocol droid of his type in the universe. There are white protocol droids present in the rebel base on Hoth in _Empire Strikes Back_, and Jabba’s overseer droid immediately recognizes him (“You are a protocol droid, are you not?”) in _Return of the Jedi_. > > Maybe they didn’t _need_ to camouflage him. As **Ethilrist** suggested, this makes you look like you’re deliberately trying to hide something. If it’s _just_ a protocol droid - something that the Imperials themselves might have wandering around their own corridors for whatever reason - trying to disguise it would be the _opposite_ of what you’d want to do. I’m not talking about once they’re in the corridors. The camouflage wouldn’t do much good for any of them at that point. But earlier in the movie they are trying to sneak around the forest, which is where the camouflage comes in handy. But they’re walking around with a bright shiny gold droid. Even if the imperials thought it was just one of their droids, they would still wonder what it’s doing wandering around outside, and move in to find out. ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-rotj-why-bring-c3po-to-endor/747899/22 "2016-03-09T04:40:10Z")
c3po was there to convince Darth Vader to abandon his evil ways by reminding him of his childhood spent building droids and racing pods. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-rotj-why-bring-c3po-to-endor/747899/23 "2016-03-09T14:39:13Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > This kind of thing isn’t just a Star Wars phenomenon, but you might be reading too much into it if you think R2 or BB8 are actually depressed. > > In real life, there’s a [trainable robot](http://spectrum.ieee.org/robotics/industrial-robots/rethink-robotics-baxter-robot-factory-worker) used for small-scale manufacturing and it has a facial LCD screen. You can see from its eyes how it is “feeling” and what it is “looking at.” > > The assembly line robot is clearly not experiencing real emotions, but a simulated emotion can be a good way to communicate with humans. I suppose the screen could just as easily say “Training Mode” or “Error #2413792” but humans are wired to look for emotion. > > As for female voices - there’s some kind of study out there (so I’m told) saying that female voices are better for getting attention. I’ve seen those, and other kind of facial recognition things in robots, but I submit to you C3P0 - clear evidence that the robots in Star Wars do have personalities programmed in them, and annoying ones at that. I am ok with some emotion, I suppose - be happy when the door opens, etc. But don’t! make! it! sulk! That’s all we need, is a sulky or recalcitrant robot. ---
**Author:** ![stegon66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee59a6/32.png) [@stegon66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stegon66)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-rotj-why-bring-c3po-to-endor/747899/24 "2016-03-09T15:26:47Z")
> [@](#): > > I always thought, even as a 9-10 year old, that it was astounding that they didn’t at least spray C3PO down with a couple of cans of olive drab spray paint before wandering around the forest. I’m surprised they didn’t. At the very least they’d get another action figure out of it! ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-rotj-why-bring-c3po-to-endor/747899/25 "2016-03-09T18:48:31Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > I’ve seen those, and other kind of facial recognition things in robots, but I submit to you C3P0 - clear evidence that the robots in Star Wars do have personalities programmed in them, and annoying ones at that. > > I am ok with some emotion, I suppose - be happy when the door opens, etc. But don’t! make! it! sulk! That’s all we need, is a sulky or recalcitrant robot. Droids in Star Wars aren’t programmed to have personalities, but their AI is sophisticated enough that, over time, they develop personalities from accumulated experiences - which leads to various behavior problems, like sulky droids. The vast majority of droids are periodically memory wiped, to prevent this problem, but some people (Luke, for example, in the original trilogy, or Poe in the most recent), become attached to these emergent personalities, and refrain from erasing their droids - in part, at least, because sometimes these emergent personalities include more useful traits, like bravery, or cunning. ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-rotj-why-bring-c3po-to-endor/747899/26 "2016-03-09T19:13:32Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I don’t think it’d be possible to build an R2 unit with a built-in translator, or at least, not to do it ethically. We think of robots as just computers in mechanical bodies, but that appears to not be the case in the Star Wars universe. They’ve got droids that are, in every real sense, fully sapient people, and they’ve got extremely primitive computers, and nothing else in between. There’s something special, we don’t know what, about the way that droids are made. The computers they have aren’t capable of a task as complicated as translation, which means that a “built-in translator” would have to be a second complete droid brain. But Luke’s X-Wing contains a translator. We see R2’s words translated (admittedly into a weird alphabet) that Luke can read at a glance. And it can’t possibly be a full droid brain doing that, or that would eliminate the need for an astrogation droid to be plugged into the X-Wing in the first place. I don’t think their computers are primitive at all. The displays are primitive, sure, but that’s a relic of the capabilities of displays at the time the film was made. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-rotj-why-bring-c3po-to-endor/747899/27 "2016-03-09T19:39:21Z")
> [@psiekier](#): > > Maybe they didn’t _need_ to camouflage him. As **Ethilrist** suggested, this makes you look like you’re deliberately trying to hide something. If it’s _just_ a protocol droid - something that the Imperials themselves might have wandering around their own corridors for whatever reason - trying to disguise it would be the _opposite_ of what you’d want to do. That’s what I was thinking. Seeing a deliberately camouflaged protocol droid would attract a lot more attention than just a random droid your average stormtrooper would assume just got lost and wandered off base. In fact, I’m surprised that they didn’t outfit the Rebels in stolen Imperial garb to go along with their stolen imperial shuttle. On an unrelated note, I never understood why the Ewoks get so much shit. “How could an army of teddy bears defeat Stormtroopers?” Because they are an army of intelligent god damn BEARS! Can you imagine anything more terrifying than fighting a bear army?! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-rotj-why-bring-c3po-to-endor/747899/28 "2016-03-09T19:54:07Z")
> [@stegon66](#): > > I’m surprised they didn’t. At the very least they’d get another action figure out of it! In retrospect, I’m guessing the real reason they didn’t repaint him dull green was because we need to buy in when the Ewoks worship the gleaming golden man. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-rotj-why-bring-c3po-to-endor/747899/29 "2016-03-09T20:41:11Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Of course, in the prequels R2 could fly. Somehow he became crippled before Episode IV began. Maybe the Empire imposed heavy environmental restrictions on the fuel Artoo needed to power those jets. Or like many things they just don’t work so good after 20 years of wear and tear. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-rotj-why-bring-c3po-to-endor/747899/30 "2016-03-09T21:02:13Z")
Or maybe he only had the jets because he was filling in for the DM that night, and when the regular DM got back he nerfed his blatant power grab. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2016, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-rotj-why-bring-c3po-to-endor/747899/31 "2016-03-09T21:48:24Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > I’d like to interject something somewhat unrelated here about BB8. Don’t get me wrong, I thought he was adorable just like everyone else. But he gets _sad_. WHY would you want a depressed robot? You probably wouldn’t. But it makes for a way, way better movie. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-rotj-why-bring-c3po-to-endor/747899/32 "2016-03-10T14:35:55Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Droids in Star Wars aren’t programmed to have personalities, but their AI is sophisticated enough that, over time, they develop personalities from accumulated experiences - which leads to various behavior problems, like sulky droids. The vast majority of droids are periodically memory wiped, to prevent this problem, but some people (Luke, for example, in the original trilogy, or Poe in the most recent), become attached to these emergent personalities, and refrain from erasing their droids - in part, at least, because sometimes these emergent personalities include more useful traits, like bravery, or cunning. **Miller** , is this canon or fanwankery? Because if it’s fanwankery it’s pretty goddamn good and would go a long way to explaining why C3P0 is wiped and R2D2 is not. If it’s canon I take it all back and you get no credit. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-rotj-why-bring-c3po-to-endor/747899/33 "2016-03-10T14:47:08Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > **Miller** , is this canon or fanwankery? Because if it’s fanwankery it’s pretty goddamn good and would go a long way to explaining why C3P0 is wiped and R2D2 is not. > > If it’s canon I take it all back and you get no credit. In all fairness, he should get a little credit for knowing it. After all, you didn’t, and he relieved your ignorance on the issue. That’s worth good karma here any day, even on an arguably “trivial” topic. 😃 I don’t really recall one way or the other, btw. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-rotj-why-bring-c3po-to-endor/747899/34 "2016-03-10T14:54:37Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > In all fairness, he should get a little credit for knowing it. After all, you didn’t, and he relieved your ignorance on the issue. That’s worth good karma here any day, even on an arguably “trivial” topic. 😃 > > I don’t really recall one way or the other, btw. Yeah but Miller’s my friend and he knows I’m just busting his chops. …You do, right, Miller? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-rotj-why-bring-c3po-to-endor/747899/35 "2016-03-10T15:51:35Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > **Miller** , is this canon or fanwankery? The idea of droids developing personality quirks and having to have their memory wiped is literally in the first hour of “Star Wars.” When Luke talks to Uncle Owen about how the two new droids seem to have some designs of their own, Owen immediately says they have to have their memories wiped. Miller’s claim that droids are not programmed to have any sort of personality can’t be established in the movies and it’s reasonable to think a protocol droid like C3PO would be programmed to be tactful and grovelling. Droids, however, clearly do seem to pick up things that are convenient to get rid of. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-rotj-why-bring-c3po-to-endor/747899/36 "2016-03-10T18:39:21Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > **Miller** , is this canon or fanwankery? Because if it’s fanwankery it’s pretty goddamn good and would go a long way to explaining why C3P0 is wiped and R2D2 is not. > > If it’s canon I take it all back and you get no credit. It’s canon. However, my fanwank _are_ amazing. Also, it was not quite accurate to say that droids aren’t programmed with personalities. C3PO was wiped at the end of the prequels, but still has manifestly the same personality in the original trilogy. So, there’s clearly an essential C3PO-ness baked into him. But he’s _vastly_ less annoying in the earlier films, which I attribute (somewhat wankily) to the mind wipe. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-rotj-why-bring-c3po-to-endor/747899/37 "2016-03-10T19:04:09Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > It’s canon. However, my fanwank _are_ amazing. Actually I agree 100%. You have posted in many of my threads before and answered questions. _coughWatchmencough_ 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-rotj-why-bring-c3po-to-endor/747899/38 "2016-03-10T19:25:08Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > It’s canon. However, my fanwank _are_ amazing. > > Also, it was not quite accurate to say that droids aren’t programmed with personalities. C3PO was wiped at the end of the prequels, but still has manifestly the same personality in the original trilogy. So, there’s clearly an essential C3PO-ness baked into him. But he’s _vastly_ less annoying in the earlier films, which I attribute (somewhat wankily) to the mind wipe. A somewhat more mundane explanation would be shitty writing. The C3PO in the original trilogy is a character - certainly a comic one, the fool of the play as it were, but still a character with a little nuance, a character who’s supposed to be annoying but is still relatable. He cares about R2D2 and his human companions. The C3PO in the prequels is just a prop. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-rotj-why-bring-c3po-to-endor/747899/39 "2016-03-10T19:29:07Z")
It’s not canon anymore (thanks Disney), but in one of the novels (probably a Thrawn novel), it’s stated that Luke has not wiped R2D2 _or_ his X-wing’s computer, because they’ve worked together so long that they get some significant improvement in efficiency and performance. The problem is that his X-wing can’t work with any other astromech droid anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-rotj-why-bring-c3po-to-endor/747899/40 "2016-03-10T21:01:30Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I always thought, even as a 9-10 year old, that it was astounding that they didn’t at least spray C3PO down with a couple of cans of olive drab spray paint before wandering around the forest. I always thought “Just give him a camo poncho… you know like the ones Luke and Leia are wearing.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-rotj-why-bring-c3po-to-endor/747899.md?page=1)