Droids

Droids are sentient automatons designed to carry out a number of different tasks on behalf of or in service to organic life-forms. Their use is extremely common across the Star Wars galaxy. Droids appear in most Star Wars properties, including all nine films in the Skywalker Saga, animated and live-action shows, novels, comic books, and video games.

Droids perform a wide array of functions, ranging from simple tasks such as hauling cargo to extremely complex tasks such as surgery or hyperdrive repair. Their ability to carry out their tasks is dependent upon their programming as well as their construction. They are distinguished from robots by their self-consciousness; however, their sentience is not treated as equivalent to the sentience of organic life-forms, and they therefore have not been universally granted rights and are frequently subjected to memory wipes.

Many droids have unique personalities. They have been both protagonists and antagonists in Star Wars media. Prominent droid protagonists include R2-D2, C-3PO, and BB-8, while droid antagonists include BB-9E, B1 Battle Droids, and 8-D8.

The go-to book for overall droid info is Daniel Wallace's The New Essential Guide to Droids.

History

Droids have been manufactured since approximately 30,000 BBY; their manufacture therefore predates both the Republic and spaceflight. The earliest droids were used for manual tasks and possessed rudimentary behavioural circuitry. Droids developed for military/combat use quickly followed. Computing capacity in droid brains increased over the course of millennia, leading to the development of droids able to perform complex mathematics and science. Social programming such as personality and communication abilities was slowest to develop due to the challenge these tasks presented to the field of artificial intelligence.

Classification of droids

Based on their function(s), droids are grouped into five classes:

• Class one droids perform extremely complex high-level tasks; this class includes most scientist and mathematician droids, as well as medical droids.
• Class two droids, such as astromechs, generally perform tasks in the realm of "engineering and technical sciences".
• Class three droids are designed to interact closely with organic beings, and therefore possess advanced artificial intelligence and designs which often mimic the appearance of their owners' species; this class includes protocol droids.
• Class four droids are weaponized automatons; this class includes droids designed primarily for defence or primarily for offence.
• Class five droids perform menial labour.

Manufacturers

The two main droid manufacturers in Star Wars Legends, the "Big Two", are Cybot Galactica and Industrial Automaton. However, there are dozens of smaller manufacturers; some attempt to compete with the "Big Two", while others make a select number of highly-specialized droids, sometimes exclusively for in-house use in a different area of production. Additionally, droids can be built by individual amateurs, hobbyists, and/or engineers; for example, a young Anakin Skywalker built the protocol droid C-3PO out of spare parts while enslaved on Tatooine.

Droid sentience

Droids are capable of achieving varying levels of sentience, although some level of sentience is required for a machine to be considered a droid. Class three droids possess advanced artificial intelligence and have heightened self-awareness as a result, whereas a class five binary loadlifter is made for repetitive hard labour and therefore has been designed with limited intelligence.

Despite their sentience, it is rare for droids to develop their own unique personalities. This is because most droids are subjected to frequent memory wipes, which prevents their cumulative experiences from shaping their programming and restores the droid to factory settings. Memory wipes are mandatory in most droid resale markets, and many planets have made regular memory wipes a legal requirement for droid owners to comply with. Droids which are subjected to memory wipes are more docile and easier to control. However, evidence suggests that droids with well-rounded personalities (i.e. droids who have not been repeatedly subjected to memory wipes) are more creative, brave, and loyal than wiped droids.

Organic-Droid relations

Relations between organics and droids are complex.

Anti-droid prejudice

Multiple pieces of Star Wars media, including the Original Trilogy, depict anti-droid prejudice. It is widespread across the galaxy and comes in many different forms. Some organic beings are dismissive or mistrusting of droids while others are outright hostile, such as establishments that refuse to serve or entertain droids. Anti-droid prejudice can be driven by many different causes, ranging from economic anxiety to misconceptions to trauma.

At the very beginning of the franchise, the cantina on Mos Eisley refusing to "serve their kind" when C-3PO and R2-D2 accompanied Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Several episodes of the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars depict anti-droid prejudice, with some episodes explicitly tackling the question. In a multi-episode arc in season 5 known as the D-squad arc, commanding officer Colonel Meebur Gascon is openly doubtful of and disparaging about the abilities of the droids which make up his team.

The movie Solo: A Star Wars Story deals with the questions of anti-droid prejudice and droid rights explicitly, as the character L3-37, a droid who serves as Lando Calrissian's co-pilot, is shown to be a droid rights activist. The writers of Solo were criticized by some, including YouTuber Jenny Nicholson, for appearing to make light of the question of droid rights and playing L3-37's activism for comedy.