Disney's droid characters

[ChrisIII]

They may not be as iconic as R2-D2 and C-3PO and probably never will, but what are your thoughts/ratings on the droid characters in the films and shows that have been made under Disney (Clone Wars for example would not count except for the final season)?

Mainly:

BB8 (Sequel trilogy)
Chopper (Rebels)
AP-5 (The "Alan Rickman" droid from some episodes of Rebels)
K-2620 (Rogue One)
L3-37 (Solo)
D-O (Rise of Skywalker)
Triple Zero and BT-1 (Aphra comics, mostly)
B2EMO (Andor)
BD-1 (Jedi games)
RX-24 (I think he kind of counts as he was made as part of a Disney agreement although before the actual ownership)

Or any others (Sorry I didn't make a poll)

[Frontier]

I like most of them .

[Ascended]

I like the droids well enough. Mostly I like the sassy ones, like K2 and L3. And I'm interested in the social dynamics and AI parallels; droids are self-aware but are property, without rights. How does that square? I loved the Mando episode in season 3 that touched on the topic; it was interesting to see the perspective of 'typical' droids. The idea that they were afraid of being replaced....by humans!....was fascinating, and a fun twist on the real-world fears of automation replacing blue collar workers.

I hear the comics are doing some kind of big droid revolution story, or a droid civil war or something. If I were more interested in reading SW comics I'd be tempted to check that out.

[ChrisIII]

I think Luke kind of respects Threepio and R2 as friends rather than property at least; pretty much the first thing he asks 3PO to do is drop the formal talk, although 3PO still does it in the OT and ST anyway.

If anything he trusts R2 a bit too much right away as well, allowing him to do the bluff about the bolt and actually 'run away on him' anyway!

[thwhtGuardian]

I like the droids well enough. Mostly I like the sassy ones, like K2 and L3. And I'm interested in the social dynamics and AI parallels; droids are self-aware but are property, without rights. How does that square? I loved the Mando episode in season 3 that touched on the topic; it was interesting to see the perspective of 'typical' droids. The idea that they were afraid of being replaced....by humans!....was fascinating, and a fun twist on the real-world fears of automation replacing blue collar workers.

I hear the comics are doing some kind of big droid revolution story, or a droid civil war or something. If I were more interested in reading SW comics I'd be tempted to check that out.

Don't be tempted, Dark Droids is garbage.

[Ascended]

I think Luke kind of respects Threepio and R2 as friends rather than property at least; pretty much the first thing he asks 3PO to do is drop the formal talk, although 3PO still does it in the OT and ST anyway.

If anything he trusts R2 a bit too much right away as well, allowing him to do the bluff about the bolt and actually 'run away on him' anyway!

And Lando had a....special....relationship with L3 too. This is one of those things that interests me; some folks treat droids like people (Omega being another, and even Din, in his way), others treat them as tools, some people seem to slide back and forth on that scale depending on the moment. And that seems to be relatively consistent across planets regardless of local philosophies or culture. Given the rise of AI in the real world and the obvious parallels to slavery, it feels like a really interesting knot to pull at and I remain surprised so few have even acknowledged it, much less explored it.

Oh, another interesting person-droid dynamic is Andor and B. To me, B reads like a family member with a mental illness that the others take care of, more than anything else.

Don't be tempted, Dark Droids is garbage.

Advice taken!

I am thinking about grabbing the Aaron run from 2015. I think that's a series I've had recommended to me. Anyone got thoughts on that?

[ZeroBG82]

I am thinking about grabbing the Aaron run from 2015. I think that's a series I've had recommended to me. Anyone got thoughts on that?

Meh. The only SW comics I've enjoyed out of the new Marvel runs were Gillen's Darth Vader run and then Soule's Darth Vader run. Aaron's SW run starts out ok, but doesn't really have anything to add or say with any of the characters. I quit reading the line altogether, so I suppose I can't speak to the newer stuff. But I just don't think it's worth the energy, if I'm being honest.

[ChrisIII]

Yeah the problem with a lot of ANH-ESB stories is that there's not much you can do with some of the characters as their real growth happens in EMPIRE. At most with Luke there's him becoming more experienced as a Rebel commander, but even there we kind of see that in ANH where he's pretty much in charge of what's left of Red Squadron, and even Wedge, technically the more experienced pilot, calls him "Boss".

At least with ESB/ROTJ Luke there seems to have been major changes between movies as Luke is largely demoralized at the end of that movie but becomes more mature and assured by the time of ROTJ.

Vader at least there was story potential with him trying to redeem himself to the Emperor after failing to defend the Death Star and of course discovering who the pilot was.

With the Gilleon run that followed there's some improvement with the storylines although he kind of shoe-horned some of the then-new Disney material in there at times and Larocca very obviously is using or tracing movie stills in a lot of his art, especially the Jedha arc.

[thwhtGuardian]

And Lando had a....special....relationship with L3 too. This is one of those things that interests me; some folks treat droids like people (Omega being another, and even Din, in his way), others treat them as tools, some people seem to slide back and forth on that scale depending on the moment. And that seems to be relatively consistent across planets regardless of local philosophies or culture. Given the rise of AI in the real world and the obvious parallels to slavery, it feels like a really interesting knot to pull at and I remain surprised so few have even acknowledged it, much less explored it.

Oh, another interesting person-droid dynamic is Andor and B. To me, B reads like a family member with a mental illness that the others take care of, more than anything else.



Advice taken!

I am thinking about grabbing the Aaron run from 2015. I think that's a series I've had recommended to me. Anyone got thoughts on that?

Pretty much all the Vader books are good, as is Doctor Aphra and I really liked Aaron's Star Wars run especially the Obi Wan and Yoda flash backs he did.

[Ascended]

So between you two, I take it the Aaron stuff is fine, but not adding a ton to the overall narrative? Is that about right?

I think I'm okay with that. I'll take a well told story that doesn't shift the mythos over a bad one that tries to "change everything forever and nothing will ever be the same!"

Vader sounds like it's worth grabbing. I dunno about Aphra. I've heard good things but I'm looking for some familiar comfort food with the OT more than anything else here.

Which Vader should I grab? Start with Gillien and then go from there? Or is there a better run that serves as a good jumping on point?

[babyblob]

I really loved the Vader comics. There were some really good ones. I saw they are all worth a read.

As far as the Disney Droids Chopper has them all beat.

[ZeroBG82]

Vader sounds like it's worth grabbing. I dunno about Aphra. I've heard good things but I'm looking for some familiar comfort food with the OT more than anything else here.

Which Vader should I grab? Start with Gillien and then go from there? Or is there a better run that serves as a good jumping on point?

If you read Gillen's Vader, you'll get a good taste of Aphra and can decide if you like her enough to read her solo.

Gillen's Vader run is concurrent with Aaron's SW run, both set between ANH and ESB. There is some minor crossover, but nothing too drastic. It's basically 'How Vader Got His Groove Back' following the failure at Yavin. Good stuff, and some fantastic work on both Vader and Aphra's characters. The two series launched the new Marvel line, so this is ground floor for the comics.

Soule's Vader is set just after RotS, with the newly cybernetic Vader and a newborn Empire. It focuses on the transition from the hot headed and rash Anakin to the more cold blooded and patient Vader of the OT. With a dash of Inquisitorious thrown in for good measure.

You don't need either run to understand the other.

[Jokerz79]

BB8, Chopper, and K2SO are my 3 favs of the Disney Era with K2SO being my favorite of all time. The only pre-Disney Droids I liked were Huyang who was only introduced a month before the buying of Lucasfilm and R2. Yeah, I never cared for C3PO.

[BeastieRunner]

Observation: with HKs canon, my favorite droid better make a cameo at least, meatbags.

I'd be down with a droid revolution movie trilogy.

It would've been a good chance to move around some heroes and villains. Star Wars and Disney do not do gray areas well and I think something like that on the big screen could be a home run. I think SW and Disney need something like that. It would be a great monkey wrench. You could have people like Rey and Finn on opposite sides even. And it would be a great way to reset the tech or advance it a bunch. And you could have a mecha gorefest!

Then when the droids are free, bring in something esoteric to unite the galaxy in peace so we can sleep the property for some time and (hopefully) bring it back waaaay in the future.

[ChrisIII]

The current Pak Vader is OK but has an extremely long storyline about Padme's decoy Sabe from Phantom Menace and the other handmaidens from the prequels, and it seems to strongly implied that she helped Vader's redemption by reminding him of Padme.


It also ties in with Rise of Skywalker by having Ochii, the guy who messed up Rey's life, tag around as a bumbling henchman, and also Vader finding out about Exegol.