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Thursday, August 07, 2003

R2-D2, intellectual and super-genius

This week's poll at starwars.com asks what would you like to see R2 do in Ep III, the results are:
In Ep III, I would like to see R2-D2...
Poll Dates: 8/5/03 - 8/12/03
Fly 4%
Torment C-3PO 30%
Save the day 16%
Get a droid girlfriend 26%
Transmit an important message 24%

I think the evidence is pretty strong that R2-D2 is in fact the smartest, and indeed most consistently heroic, character in Star Wars. Hence the correct answer is "save the day". Starwars.com does not tell us the total number of voters. R2, is a cunning judge of situations and gives a great deal of evidence that he has never had a memory wipe. Only Obi-wan has as much collective memory of the events of Ep I-VI, subject to the failings of human memory. We know that Obi-wan does not recognize R2, but it is unclear whether R2 recognizes Obi-wan or not. There is a great deal more, as any avid student of the corpus will attest, but perhaps the most telling is the manner of speach of the intellectual driod. R2 is incomprehensible to non-intellectuals or droids programed for ettiquet and protocal.

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