• he/him

cohost's first star wars fanblog, official "Big Name Fan".

 

in my "bad batch s3" era currently



bb8
@bb8

i really likes this comment from @andrewjplant so i popped it out so i could reply in a post.

the comparison to cars is really apt— in star wars, there’s two competing models of technology. the first is technology as the corruption of nature (“he’s more machine now than man”); and the second is… hot rods. much like how hayao miyazaki can’t quite square his knowledge that human progress is inherently destructive but also planes go vrrooom and swooooosh and nyeeeeow, george lucas has a childlike love of the creation and modification of objects. the milleniumm falcon is easily the main expression of this- like the hot rods of American Graffiti, the Falcon is a moving work of art, a mechanical expression of freedom that can always beat the cops in a chase. How many scenes do we see our heroes fixing, modifying, even cooing and whispering to her? the best episode of the book of boba fett isn’t about boba fett or even the mandalorian, but about the loving restoration and improvement of an old n1 starfighter.

I think droids are meant to fall on the hotrod side of the technology divide- in a real way, astromech units are visually meant to be hot rod engines that pop out of your vehicle and follow you after the driving is done. “This R2 unit of your seems a bit beat up. Do you want a new one?” a technician says to Luke as the flight crews race to their X-Wings. Luke responds, “Not on your life! That little droid and I have been through a lot together.” in the visual language of star wars, in cultures that maintain balance with nature, droids are almost always still present. even the scale and shape of droids changes depending on faction: rebels have human-like droids that emote and speak and literally are played by actors in suits; the empire has floating orbs with knives and tiny skittering mice droids that run around their feet. you can feel the subjugation just from their scale to the humans around them!

In that way, restraining bolts are the device that transforms the hot rod back into the automobile; it robs the essential freedom of the droid and forces it back into the role of mechanical disruption. R2D2 with a restraining bolt is not the roaring heart of the fastest starship in the galaxy; he holds the drinks.

ack, its late and i’m rambling a little, i hope the idea that’s somewhere in there finds its way out.


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in reply to @bb8's post:

god I need more droidposting in my life so bad; theyre like the one essential element of star wars that everyone takes for granted because they assume its like the robots in other scifi and not.... this really weird reflection of technology and spirit and slavery?