#artoo

[twinterrors29]

Owen Lars died a few days before the end of Revenge of the Sith

so when a bedraggled, light-haired and light-skinned man showed up on her doorstep carrying a child, Beru Whitesun saw a solution to all her problems: identity fraud to get out of paying death taxes to the Hutts and ensure she had enough help running the farm

she even got a free baby out of the deal, and was able to convince her totally-not-new 'husband' that this would keep him safe from the new Empire as well!

this does, of course, add an additional layer of awkwardness to the arrival of Artoo and Threepio at the start of A New Hope

--

Luke: hey Uncle Owen, these droids we bought say that they belong someone named Obi-Wan Kenobi who they claim lives near here, do you know who that could be?

'Owen,' sweating: he, uh, died

Luke: oh, did you know him then?

'Owen,' sweating harder: how about we just wipe these droids' memories in the morning and forget this whole conversation, how does that sound son??

[swartists4palestine]

Thank you for your donation 🇵🇸

Art by the wonderful @stealingpotatoes

[waldeinsamkeit-feeling]

still thinking about artoo telling anakin to look for a datajack in his ass

[gameraboy2]

Star Wars for the Nintendo Entertainment System, 1986

[the-force-awakens]

#don't need to know binary to understand that attitude

[star-wars-forever]

[marvelstars]

Artoo knowing everything is one of the greastest creative decisions Lucas made because it connects the PT very neatly with the OT.

How did Artoo know the place of Luke´s home? He has been there before.

How did he know Obi-Wan´s name and why he and old Ben saw each other so suspiciously? ObiWan is trying to order Artoo not to tell Luke anything about his Dad and Artoo isn´t having anything of it but he will let Luke discorver for himself what´s up.

Why was artoo so easy going inside the death star ? he is used to work on military stations just like that one.

Why he decided to take Yoda´s food? Because he knew exactly who this guy was and didn´t like him trying to hide himself from Luke?

Why is he so attached to Luke and Leia? They are his bro and his lady little kids, they are all he has left of them and he will protect them even if it destroys him. Same reason why he protects Threepio so much.

Artoo may not recognize or consider Vader Anakin but he will protect his kids in his memory, he got attached to Anakin and Padme since they were wee 14 and 9 years olds, he is way too invested in this family to let go of them now.

Artoo and Chewie are the war veterans of their group and it amuses them greatly to see the younger ones shenanigans, especially because they don´t realise how much more they know than them about everything.

Anakin´s force ghost said goodbye to artoo and nobody can take this from me :D

[phoenixyfriend]

Why is it admirable for the twins to treat R2 like a real person and recognize his apparent sentience, but Anakin doing the same is him "not valuing the lives of clones"

Why is it a negative trait for ANAKIN to respect that R2 is a person too

Like, fuck it, I could draw parallels of "sacrifice human lives to save the droid that has the sensitive information" between That Episode of tcw and the ending of Rogue One/opening of ANH. Is it the same? No, Leia planned hers, while Anakin just didn't want to brainwash his friend into non-personhood, but in both cases, human lives are sacrificed for a droid that the main characters believe to be just as much of a person as any human.

Do we look at R2 in RotS, full of initiative and imagination and setting fires to save Anakin, and say "that's not a person?" Do we look at R2 in ANH, actively tricking a psychic human person (Luke) to go off and find Obi-Wan on his own, and think that's not a person? Do we nearly cry at finding and waking R2, old and tired and depressed on Takodana, and not think that's a person with feelings and memory and a sense of love?

We can talk about Anakin valuing R2 over clones, but let's not make it out to be Anakin valuing "a droid" over humans when we know that droid is a person.

(This is not an invitation for discourse. I know the arguments. I dislike them. The question is rhetorical. Do not clown on this post.)

[plattenbauprinz]

Love you more than planets!

Artoo version for tumblr only because reasons :^)

[mk-otro]

We got Day 9 - FROZEN

When you think you had secured all of the pizza boxes frozen rations in the back and find out that you didn't. (It could have happened!)

[twinterrors29]

Threepio, setting up for Padme and Anakin's wedding: oh my, this is all so exciting! Oh, the scandal if this wedding were to come to light! Artoo, aren't you worried about what would happen if this illegal marriage were discovered? Artoo: (censored for extreme language) are you kidding, I can't wait to see the trainwreck!

[tatooineknights]

Day Six: Not Realizing They're Injured

Luke Skywalker cursed under his breath as a plasma canon shot through the side of his X-wing, sending the ship on a spiraling downturn. This was just supposed to be an ordinary patrol – Imperial presence was supposed to be their main concern, so of course, the area happened to be a hotbed for pirates and mercenaries instead. “We’ve got to stabilize! Artoo, see what you can do, I’ll try to keep us in one piece!” He shouted, trying to compensate for the incredible turbulence as the ship spun out of control.

“This is Red Five, I’ve been hit,” he stammered, feeling the shockwave of an explosion behind him. The shower of sparks illuminated his cockpit, forcing him to look back with a gasp. Luke let out an exhale when he realized it was the ship that had attacked him, and not one of his own. Artoo beeped and whistled tirelessly from above, causing Luke to look down at the communicator. “The moon? Artoo, that isn’t an option, I can’t land in this condition! I don’t care if it is habitable, see what else you can—”

But the inertia of the moon’s gravity began to sink the X-wing down into the atmosphere, causing the damaged ship to zoom straight down by the nose. Guess we’re doing this, Luke thought to himself, licking his lips as he tried to maneuver the ship upwards to the best of his ability.

“I know, Artoo! I know! Let me concentrate!”

Luke braced for impact as he saw the chalky grey texture of the wasteland below, hoping that he could save the two of them from an imminent explosion. Keep pulling up; pull up! Don’t let the nose go straight down! Just as the ship began to recover, the damaged wing struck the side of a large rock formation, separating it from the cockpit, and spinning it horizontally instead of vertically.

The force of the impact was so great that Luke’s head slammed into the side panel of the cockpit; the helmet took the brunt of the hit, shattering the glass of his vizor, slightly cutting into the area below his eye. Luke’s vision glazed as he rocked back, a loud white noise filling his ears as he uselessly watched the X-wing dwindle down to the surface, unable to react as the other wing was soon torn to shreds – if it weren’t for the constant ringing in his ears, Luke would have noticed the loud wind that he was now exposed to as the hull began to shutter, as well as the exasperated cries of Artoo.

Images of his own death flashed before his eyes, his blue eyes staring straight ahead in a stupor, blinking autonomously. This was it; this was how Luke Skywalker, the last of the Jedi, would end. As he took one last breath, he found himself ejected from the cockpit, tearing into a dislodged panel, and flying out into open air. A stabilizing pack strapped to his uniform allowed him to avoid death, looking up as Artoo flew into the air himself; the droid must have saved them both.

As Luke raised his hand to his friend, looking on with a smile at their miraculous survival, his head crashed into the side of a rock, where everything soon went dark.

Beep.

Oh, his head.

Beep, boop-boop. Beep?

What… where was he? What happened? Luke grimaced as his eyes opened, looking up at his companion right at his side, rocking back and forth in jubilation. “I’m alright, Artoo,” he said, wiping off some dried blood from where the glass met his face earlier. “I think so, anyways.”

Everything around him felt so blurred, almost unreal. Cold and warm, equally, as his vision slowly came back to him. “I feel like I’m not even here,” he said to the droid, though almost as much to himself. The smoke of his former ship rose in the atmosphere, the husk of it’s remains ablaze across the ashen wasteland. “Good thing it was a spare and not our usual one, huh, buddy?”

Artoo whistled as Luke sat up.

“You alright? Yeah? That’s good. Next time, let’s try something other than landing on a moon,” Luke said with a sarcastic edge, though obviously thankful at his small friend for saving their lives. He nodded to Artoo, putting a hand on his chassis, as he used the weight to hoist himself up and—

“Aah!”

A blinding pain in his leg shot out from nowhere, sending him falling back down and bumping his head against the same rock. His friend worriedly beeped and whistled at his response, shaking over to his side. Biting down on his lip, Luke looked down at his leg: kriff, was all he could muster inside that head of his.

A piece of the panel had cut through the orange flightsuit and into the upper part of his thigh. The tanned pink of his skin and the white fabric of his underclothes were stained with a crimson red, adorned by a narrow line of a wound that made it difficult to walk. “I didn’t even notice,” Luke said, exasperated as that mixture of warm and cold seemed to seep all around him. “I don’t think I can stand.”

The wounded Jedi unzipped the top of his flight suit, taking out a small knife from one of the pouches of his belt. He sliced through it and tore a few strands off the sleeve, wrapping them in a circle over the wound. “That’ll help,” Luke winced, his heartbeat erratic and all over the place. “Did they get our message, Artoo? When we got hit? Did they see us coming down?”

The droid comfortingly let out a low chirp, easing his fears, before going as close to Luke’s side as he could. Luke’s hand clung to him, an incredulous smile on his face. Another X-wing began to form through the clouds of the moon’s atmosphere, causing Luke to let out an exhale of relief.

“I owe you one, buddy,” Luke said, looking at his small friend, patting him as he tried to fight off the pain. The ship was heading downward now, a beacon in the barren landscape. The duo would live to see another day; funny how such an ordinary patrol could end in such an extraordinary way.

[david-talks-sw]

What "The Hidden Fortress" (1958) tells us about the Jedi's status in the Prequels.

In 1999, George Lucas had this to say on BBC Omnibus: A Long Time Ago: The Story of "Star Wars" and then The Phantom Menace's director's commentary.

“I greatly admired Kurosawa, especially the film Hidden Fortress, which told a story from the point of view of two serfs, two slaves...

... peasants who tag along with this famous general and a princess-- y'know, royalty. And the whole story is told from their point of view. And I like that idea. I like the idea of telling a story from the lowest person's point of view, uh, in the food chain, and that's how the story got to be told by Artoo and Threepio.”

“[The Phantom Menace] is told primarily from the Jedi's point of view, but the story that's being told is essentially the story of Queen Amidala and her plight of having her planet blockaded. As in, say, Episode IV, where the story is told through the eyes of the droids, in this one, it's told through the eyes of the Jedi.”

“But [from the moment we get to Coruscant, Anakin and Jar Jar] are standing on the sidelines. It's a little bit a riff on the very first film where the story is told through the point of view of the droids, who were sort of the lowliest characters.”

“And in [Phantom Menace], I'm doing it through - primarily - the two Jedi, but then the secondary characters are also carrying a lot of the weight when the Jedi aren't around.”

George Lucas draws a comparison between lowly characters like Hidden Fortress' peasants Matashichi and Tahei, the droids in A New Hope, as well as the Jedi in The Phantom Menace.

What do they all have in common? They are all the lowest-ranking characters in their respective films. Repeat: the movie frames the Jedi as almost at the bottom of the food chain.

Because of course they are. Functionally, they're just diplomats. They hold no political power whatsoever and barely have any authority .

What little authority the Jedi do have in TPM comes from the Queen's young age, which allows them to ease into a more advisory position, and Qui-Gon's rebellious streak. And even he's explicit about the fact that his mandate has limitations.

The only characters "below" them in status are Jar Jar, an exiled Gungan, and Anakin, who just yesterday was still a slave kid, Artoo the literal object and that's it!

Also the other Prequel films are consistent with this portrayal. Who do we see lower in status than the Jedi? Dexxter Jettster and the clones. Everyone else is pretty much above them.

Yes, the Jedi are part of the system, but they're not as high-ranking as you'd think. Yes, they have Force Powers, but that means squat when put against political power. So, like, to expect the Jedi to...

influence the decisions of the Senate,

wage a war against the Outer Rim to end slavery,

or blatantly refuse an order to join the war effort,

... is incredibly unreasonable.

They're not meant to be seen as "the elite, peering down upon the people from their ivory tower".

They're the servants! Servants of the Republic.

And they're seeing their higher-ups destroy what they should all stand for, but are unable to stop them.

Later on, with The Clone Wars, we are introduced to civilian characters and from their point of view, the Jedi are ultra powerful and are highly placed and "should do more but don't".

It makes sense that these characters would see the Jedi as 'the elite'. But they don't have the full picture.

We, as the audience, do.

So we know that the reality is more along the lines of the Jedi "should do more but can't".

After all, we are made privy many instances of the Jedi speaking up and trying to change politicians' minds, only to be dismissed and overruled at every turn.

↑ these aren't even all the times we see it happen, btw, there's more examples...

So at some point, if you - as an audience member - see all this and are still saying "the Jedi should've done more!" I really need to know... what more could they have done?

Take control of the Senate?

That'll result in a dictatorship, there's a reason they waited as much as they did before trying to take down Palpatine.

Power corrupts and they're wise enough to know it.

Don't join the Republic in the first place?

George Lucas never frames the Jedi's involvement with the Republic as a bad thing. In the foreword to Shatterpoint (2004), he says their being part of the Republic led to 1,000 years of prosperity.

Where's the issue, then? Well, it's a two-man job and the Jedi's bosses, the Senate, grew corrupt and stopped doing their part. They stopped carrying their end of the couch.

But “no Jedi in the Republic from the get-go” means the Sith will rise to power even faster. Fun!

Stay neutral in the war?

The Separatists were killing civilians and testing weapons on neutral systems, or enslaving them.

The choice put before the Jedi was "do what we tell you and fight, or let people die".

But also, out-of-universe... do you really think Palpatine, genius politician, master of spin, can't re-frame the Jedi staying neutral in a negative light?

When they joined the war, he unleashed propaganda that either directly (on the Separatist side) or indirectly (on the Republic side) framed them as "warmongers who corrupted their values". If they don't join, they're "apathetic cowards who care more about their own values than the lives of the people they're supposed to protect".

So either way, Order 66 comes around, wipes them out and the Republic goes "good riddance".

So what else could they do?

The answer is "not much".

Because the whole point of the narrative is that Palpatine checkmated them by taking the fight to a field the Jedi had no experience in or right to meddle with: politics.

So if you look at these characters who are nowhere near the top of the food chain, and say "well, why didn't they fix things?" I'm sorry to say you're missing the point of the narrative.

Or maybe you do get the point of the narrative and just aren't trying to be fair...

... in which case, at least be consistent and also argue:

"Why didn't Threepio & Artoo do more to save the Rebel crew of the Tantive IV from the stormtrooopers?!"

"Why didn't Matashichi & Tahei do more to save the Akizuki clan?!"

[gameraboy2]

Ralph McQuarrie's concept art for R2-D2 and C-3P0

[gil-estel]

golden resolve (or lack thereof….)

(drawtober 2023 day 6 - golden/resolve)

[star-wars-forever]