The way Star Wars keeps bringing this issue up in various movies and streaming series, and then never really does anything with it, is rather interesting in itself. Having just watched the latest episode of The Mandalorian, I saw it come up again … and again, not a whole lot was done with it.
As much as I enjoy the show and most of the franchise in general, the “droid problem” has grown to the point where it’s genuinely frustrating. And then, earlier today, I came across this video and was happy to see that I and the friend I’ve discussed this with on several occasions aren’t the only people who feel this way about it.
While there were specific political ideas and messages in the original trilogy, I can’t help feeling like there was never a whole lot of thought put into much else aside from making the films a fun good-vs-evil adventure. And as much as I love a good “fun” story, I feel like, if you’re going to bring up a more serious issue and appear as if you’re building it up into something meaningful, and then you veer off at the last moment … well, you should actually do something with it. Otherwise, what’s even the point of throwing it in?
Granted, if any Star Wars production ever actually pays off the droid stuff they’ve been bringing up again and again, it’ll look like all this stuff was building up to it … but I can only hope, if that ever happens, the writers can make it all cohesive. But it looks like that won’t happen because the writers keep changing their minds on the subject, sometimes portraying droids as fully sentient and sapient when they want the audience to be emotionally attached to one in particular, and then brushing droids off as mere tools or even comic relief by making them targets of slapstick when they want the audience to laugh at droids experiencing misfortune or physical damage — often in the same film or episode.
I guess I keep latching on to these sorts of things because the idea of AI/robots struggling for equal rights fascinates me. Well, unless it takes the form of the standard “kill-all-humans” uprising that we’ve seen so many times already. The theme has been there since the first Star Wars movie, but it was usually in the background until Solo brought it into the forefront … and then made L3-37 and her fight for equality a joke despite her having every reason to be angry and resentful over how she and other droids were treated. I enjoyed the rest of the movie, but the way it treated L3 still pisses me off to this very day. If only the movie had introduced her, kept her alive, and let her own story unfold in another production. A smaller-scale story in the Star Wars universe following L3’s fight for equal rights could’ve been intriguing … if it didn’t turn out to be all about making her the butt of a joke.
I keep hoping there’ll be a Star Wars movie that’ll bring this up and actually go somewhere with it … and do it right … but so far it’s the same old pattern repeating. Which is why I wrote up my own idea for a story that would at least have this as backstory or subplot, and then refined it after bouncing ideas back and forth with the friend mentioned above. Luckily, I’m more of a casual Star Wars fan and don’t have the attachment to it that a more die-hard fan would, so I don’t have any qualms about messing around with the setting — in this case, setting the story at least a few centuries after The Rise of Skywalker in order to have the whole galaxy experiencing a golden age, making it very different from the war-after-war-after-war cycle we’re familiar with.
Regarding this episode of The Mandalorian, “Guns for Hire,” a number of things caught my attention that were then brought up in the above video, some of which I have a different take on. Something I’ll say right away is that I love the Resistor, the droid bar in the episode. Specifically, I love the idea that the droids have downtime and are able to have recreational activities, which implies that they work in shifts just like a human (or any other organic being in Star Wars) and have time off work. It also makes sense to me that more complex AIs would need that kind of downtime as much as any of us does.
One thing brought up in the video that I have a slightly different interpretation of is the droids being “happy to be enslaved.” Again, having time off work implies that they’re not enslaved but work actual jobs just like us. On the other hand, the organic population of the planet in this episode spends all their time on everything except physical labor. The droids do all the hard work, so that’s completely unfair. But then, would robots be able to feel fatigued? Probably not. I could see sapient ones getting bored out of their minds if all they did was the physical labor that humans don’t want to do. But then, I imagine AI would have wireless connections to the worldwide network and would be able to read articles or novels or watch videos or create their own art or stories while doing physical work. And again, the droids appeared to have downtime so they’re not working 24/7, and from what I saw in the episode, they’re not physically abused like droids we’ve seen in other Star Wars productions.
But on the other hand, once again … the droids on this planet still aren’t equal citizens. They do all the hard or unpleasant work while the organics are on a permanent vacation. I’d just hope that, in this society, droids would have the option of taking extended time off their jobs to create art or music or work on a personal project or just enjoy some time to themselves without having to toil away at some menial job for a while. The droids in this episode appear to be better off than some we’ve seen over the years … but they’re still not equal. I didn’t see any confirmation on whether the droids here have their memories wiped regularly, but it’s been implied that droids who go long enough without a mindwipe develop sapience. It’s possible that the degree of sapience might depend on each droid’s processing power and memory capacity, but at least some of them probably achieve full sapience eventually. Those who do should be treated as living, thinking people, and even those who aren’t quite there should still have equal rights.
One bit of business in the Resistor scene was the bartender’s line about not wanting to be replaced. That didn’t strike me as him saying he was happy to be a slave. The undertone I got from it was more like, “We don’t want to be discarded.” Because we’ve seen what happens to droids that aren’t wanted anymore. They tend to be sold to someone else, and there’s a good chance of ending up with an abusive owner who doesn’t even consider that the droid they just bought might have the capacity for suffering. Or the droids could simply be killed — “deactivated” would probably be the term people in the setting would use — if no one wants them around. Or what might be even worse — dismantled and thrown into a scrap yard while still conscious. I remember a scene in (if I remember correctly) The Clone Wars which had a bunch of discarded and partially dismantled droids begging and pleading to be reassembled.
The droids in “Guns for Hire” appeared to have better lives than a lot of others we’ve seen over the years, so it’s easy to see why they wouldn’t want to risk losing that and ending up in a situation that might be a living hell. Not only that, but the malfunctions could only continue injuring or killing the organic population before the meatbags have had enough and decide to wipe out all the droids, even the ones who haven’t malfunctioned. Again, it’s easy to see why the droids want the shenanigans to stop because it could ultimately make things even worse for them.
Which could’ve led to a really interesting situation if the “malfunctions” had been the beginnings of a robot uprising. A paint-by-numbers AI revolt wouldn’t have been that entertaining, but what if just a small handful of the droids resorted to violence and that pissed off the reasonable majority who realized this would put all their lives at risk? Imagine those droids defending the organics from the hostile droids. That could’ve led to genuine equality once the dust settled. “Look, we do want the same rights and protections you have, but this is not how we want to go about it. This has to be resolved peacefully.”
As it turned out, the “malfunctions” were actually sabotage on the part of a single character who wanted all the droids on the planet to be shut down. While the above situation could’ve been more interesting, I was relieved to find out that becoming violent wasn’t a choice the droids made or a simple malfunction that would’ve made all of them out to look unreliable at best. The story could’ve been more than it turned out to be … but I’m glad that it wasn’t less.
The situation in this episode does make for a solid foundation for a longer story about droids’ rights that would set it apart from the typical robot-uprising story. Most of the droids probably understand that they can be killed by someone simply pressing a single button, or that even if a kill-switch wasn’t built into them, they could still be shut down easily and genuinely enslaved, possibly even ending up in situation where they’d be tortured relentlessly. So their fight for equality could take the form of the droids simply trying to talk with organics and convince them to grant the droids true equal rights. Part of it could take the form of organics deciding to test the droids by giving them positions of authority and seeing how it plays out.
Like … suppose a droid runs for office and enough of the population decides, “Okay, let’s try this and see what happens.” The droid then does a superb job of it and proves that they can work side by side with us. Could be fascinating to see that kind of story unfold, and it would be a nice change of pace from the usual “kill all the meatbags” kinds of stories we’re always seeing.
One other interesting tidbit in the video above was the droid in Andor that other characters treated as a genuine person. I’ve only watched the first episode of Andor so far because absolutely nothing happened in it aside from Andor wasting a couple of muggers. Which I was fine with because I’ve had several bikes stolen and one of my previous cars was stolen twice and I was never able to find out who did it. And I hate thieves with every atom in my body because of that. So that was the only scene in the episode that I actually enjoyed. I still dislike the character of Andor because of things he did in Rogue One, so I was never keen on him getting his own series, and the first episode didn’t give me any reason to keep following the story.
However, the bit about the droid piqued my curiosity, so now I suppose I’ll have to watch the show just to see how that situation came about and how it plays out from there. The droid being considered an actual person by other characters certainly scores the show a few points by not playing his grief over his friend’s death as just another joke. Maybe I’ll find the rest of the series compelling enough to keep watching.
While I’m on the subject of interesting droids, ME-8D9 caught my eye in The Force Awakens just because she looks cool. I didn’t even know her name until I stumbled across her Wiki entry while looking for other info. She has such a rich backstory that it’d be nice to see her turn up in other productions, particularly since the article describes her as a free droid who has no masters. That alone would make for a fascinating character to explore in future Star Wars projects. Heh, particularly since Mando hasn’t entirely gotten over his bigotry against droids. He’s made some progress since losing IG-11 (who, by the way, totally should’ve been nicknamed “Iggy”). His attitude toward some droids appears to have softened, at least, though he’s understandably hostile toward the model of battle droid that reminds him of the one who killed his parents when he was a kid.
It’s entirely possible, though, that he came to view IG-11 as “one of the good ones” … which could make for a cool dynamic if someone like Emmie were to show up in a future episode. I know better than to hope for something like that, but it’s nice to think about. Maybe if Mando meets enough droids who aren’t enemies or just targets, he’ll gradually realize that they’re just as varied as anyone else.
I doubt Star Wars will ever get that deep into this kind of subject matter, but I guess I can always hope…
Fred T. Kerns, Sci-fi Writer 