I was watching a bunch of Star Wars this weekend. I have a couple of questions/debate topics re: droids.
Why are droids so hated? Is it a simple case of discrimination? (Is Lucas trying to make a comment on racism, etc.?) We all remember the famous Mos Eisley cantina entrance, where the bartender tells Luke, “We don’t serve their kind here! … Your droids. They’ll have to wait outside. We don’t want them here.” Likewise in Attack of the Clones, a bartender yells at Artoo when he, Anakin, and Padme are slumming it aboard that refugee ship.
Whence the hate? For the Luke-era stuff, I can see people being a bit pissy over memories of the Separatist droid armies that, I’m sure, did a lot of damage. But in AotC?
What does(n’t) C-3PO know about Princess Leia in Star Wars (Ep.IV)? I know he had his mind wiped at the end of Ep.III, but I can’t tell if, when he sees the hologram Artoo starts playing, he honestly doesn’t know who she is, or if he’s playing dumb. It kind of seems like the latter, but if that’s the case, why bother telling Luke that they were aboard a Rebel ship in the first place?
I think Lucas just wanted to have a downtrodden minority to show how his heroes were more enlightened than the common herd. But he didn’t want to use some human group or other group that was too close for comfort. He wanted his audience to feel admiration for his heroes without being distracted by sympathy for the victims.
During the battle on the blockade runner, didn’t C3PO say something to the effect of “there’ll be no escape for the princess this time”, which would indicate he DID know who she was (but maybe not what she looked like)?
Lucas likes to rewrite history, and I have read in a puff piece (it might have even been in the Star Wars Insider) that he put that droid detector in the cantina to show racism…I tend to think that’s not true and that it’s a tacked on explanation…the calls of racism were big enough for him to add Lando at the time, and I don’t remember him pointing to the droid situation to show he’s an enlightened, hip dude. By the time of Ep 2, it’s canon, though.
In the EU, there’s a lot of talk about the general preudice towards non-humans, however.
As far as 3PO, I always figured she was in tight spots before, that’s all.
I think they’re looked on as an inferior class of pseudo-people. Artificial beings that are academically and physically superior to real people? Bastards, the lot of 'em!
Jesus. I’ve watched Star Wars probably a hundred times, and I never realized that was supposed to be a “droid detector!” I thought it was just coincidental that it started making noises when the droids walked by.
“Droid Detector?” Really? I will have to watch my DVDs again, but I’ve seen that film hundreds of times and never noticed a “Droid Detector.” My guess is that there was some random background noise that happened to occur when the droids walked in, and some fan along the way decided to give it significance, as when an epic, heroic back-story is given to an extra in the corner wearing a rubber mask.
It’s not like the bartender needed a detector, all the droids in the Star Wars universe seem pretty obviously mechanical.
Customers generally look pretty customer-y, and yet stores will sometimes put a bell on the door (a customer detector) just to know that someone they need to deal with came in the door.
One rationalization for the “no droids in the cantina” policy would be due to the place being such a frequent venue for mayhem and shady goings-on. If your customer base needs to do such things as:
[ul][li]arranging the smuggling of goods or passengers in dark corners[/li][li]point and fire blasters at people for bounty (or to avoid capture for bounty)[/li][li]Slash someone’s arm off with a lightsaber, fer Chrissakes, not only committing aggravated assault but announcing to all that you’re a Jedi outlawed these past 20+ years[/ul][/li]then having droids around would be a Bad Thing, as they can record and play back holos of events for Johnny Stormtrooper, not to mention the possibility of the total wreckage of the place that could ensue if a fight that starts with shoving and one-on-one blaster fire escalates into full-on melees of combat droid bodyguards.
There is a machine on the entrance wall. It flashes blue and gives off a noise when the droids pass, and then the bartender says his line. If it was intended to be a droid detector I don’t know. I’d give even money either way.
I can’t remember where the scene took place, but I remember a little droid having heat applied to its feet and it was pretty obviously painful, and it was pretty obviously torture.
There is actually a serious answer to the question. The flippant asnwer, of course, being that it’s a sight gag. It could be frightening or serious, but in this particularly case it was a joke. They’re “torturing” the robot’s feet, like he had nerves down there or something.
The serious answer is that the “torturer-bot” apparently had some kind of droid-brain malfunction back in the day. So she (having a female persona) started to enjoy causing pain. She particularly liked screwing with otherdroids, and applied her droid abilities to the art and science of torture. Eventually Jabba picked her up as a torturer, and the rest is history.
They’ve got control chip/collar/thingies. Why torture something unless you hate it? Who cares if the torture-bot is programmed to torture? Why waste the time and energy that way?
My point is R2D2 & C3PO weren’t welcome or served in the cantina not because the bar didn’t happen to have oil-bath facilities, but because they were hated.
