Pardon me for posting, but I hoped some of the more seasoned Star Wars fans here could give this hapless newbie a hand with something…
In the movies, and in the apparently semi-canon other works such as books, games, etc., what legal status do Droids have? If any? Most of the Droids that are seen seem to be intelligent, sentient, beings, and the organic characters seem to acknowledge them as such. But they usually seem to have that status of slaves, and are bought, sold, and destroyed at whim. And both the “good guys” and “Bad guys” seem to behave the same way!
I guess it’s just a little jarring for someone who was brought up on the “Star Trek” series’ to see such an apparently creepy undercurrent running through the Star Wars universe, but know that I could easily be misinterpreting things. So, can anyone fill me in on the whole “Droid Situation”?
Well, thanks for your time,
Ranchoth
I’m pretty sure that, under the Empire, at least, droids have no legal status. They’re machines…intelligent, useful machines, but still machines. It’s like asking what the legal status of your toaster is.
Of course, remember, under the empire, a lot of alien species are enslaved. So, if the Empire’s ethicists don’t have a problem with the enslavement of living sentient beings, they probably wouldn’t with the enslavement of artificial, created sentient beings.
They’re apparantly not considered old enough to drink.
In the Star Wars universe droids are Property. They have no individual rights. In the Empire or the Republic.
They may seem sentient but they aren’t supposed to be truly so. Its very rare for a droid to be without a “master” in the Books or Comics there really is only one famous example, that being the Bounty Hunter Droid IG-88. Who for all intents and purposes was sentient and without a master… but only because he was so bad-ass nobody could tame him.
Perhaps its just one of those “things”. No society is perfect. In any event, Droids do display personality, and supposedly even if memory-wiped (which is common among some groups just to keep the droids from driving you crazy) will eventually regain that personality. I guess it comes from tiny variations inherent in the droid’s central processor.
There is a New Jedi Order novel in which a bunch of droids lead a revolt against a planet’s government. It’s ok, though: the planet’s people were planning to sacrifice them to the Yuuzhan Vong, a nasty race of technophobes.
This is a universe where creating an army of clones as cannon fodder has no legal restrictions. Next to that, droids don’t stand a chance of legal recognition. They’re furniture.
Thanks for the replies, all.
Wow, so even under the Republic droids are only considered property? Man…I hate to ask, but is there any non-droid opposition to this in any of the stories?
Ranchoth
Most of the droids seem to be nothing but machines. R2-D2 and C-3PO appear to very exceptional.
I think that the lack of questions such as that of ‘droid rights’ is one of the more distinctive (and appealing) differences between Star Wars and Star Trek.
Droids, for the most part, are never allowed to develop any sort of personality. In fact, only higher end droids (ones who need to have powerful mental functions, like astromech or protocol droids) are even capable of it, as far as I know.