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Star Words: Episode V, Part 3
Jan. 9th, 2020 02:30 pmEpisode V has a great efficiency in how it introduces the familiar characters that we came to love in the first film. There's not a great deal of unnecessary exposition to remind us who they are and what they're doing. We remember them, and we can be safely dropped into this new setting without being lost.
For the droids, a brief exchange assures us that they're the same lovable, bickering duo as ever. We meet them mid-conversation and get to fill in the blanks from context. Apparently there was a misunderstanding about the temperature, resulting in a minor disaster in Leia's chamber.
"How we're going to dry out all her clothes, I really don't know."
I just love these quick little glimpses into some mishap offscreen. Threepio's statement comes like the punchline of a sly little joke. We can easily imagine Artoo deciding to helpfully turn up the heat, resulting in a literal meltdown. And then blaming his counterpart for complaining about the cold. These two are priceless.
Also, envisioning the droids hanging out in Leia's chamber makes me wonder how the droids and/or the humans regard their ownership at this point. Luke is their technical owner, since his uncle bought them from the Jawas...but that's only if you consider the business transactions of scavengers to be legitimate. If not, then their last owner was the late Captain Antilles, and you could reasonably assign them to Leia as one of the few survivors from Alderaan. Or why not share them? That's what they end up doing in this film, one droid going with each of them.
Of course, we don't really see the droids as being owned by anyone, do we? They're too anthropomorphized to be considered as property; it reeks of slavery. They stay with their human companions not because of restraining bolts or programming, but because they see them as friends. Except that Threeipo continues to use terms like "Master" and "Mistress" and well, there's a whole mess of implications depending on how far you take the metaphor. I prefer to interpret it more optimistically: long ago, these droids were the loyal helpers of Anakin and Padmé. Now they have returned to serve their children.
Next, Luke's absence becomes more worrisome...
For the droids, a brief exchange assures us that they're the same lovable, bickering duo as ever. We meet them mid-conversation and get to fill in the blanks from context. Apparently there was a misunderstanding about the temperature, resulting in a minor disaster in Leia's chamber.
"How we're going to dry out all her clothes, I really don't know."
I just love these quick little glimpses into some mishap offscreen. Threepio's statement comes like the punchline of a sly little joke. We can easily imagine Artoo deciding to helpfully turn up the heat, resulting in a literal meltdown. And then blaming his counterpart for complaining about the cold. These two are priceless.
Also, envisioning the droids hanging out in Leia's chamber makes me wonder how the droids and/or the humans regard their ownership at this point. Luke is their technical owner, since his uncle bought them from the Jawas...but that's only if you consider the business transactions of scavengers to be legitimate. If not, then their last owner was the late Captain Antilles, and you could reasonably assign them to Leia as one of the few survivors from Alderaan. Or why not share them? That's what they end up doing in this film, one droid going with each of them.
Of course, we don't really see the droids as being owned by anyone, do we? They're too anthropomorphized to be considered as property; it reeks of slavery. They stay with their human companions not because of restraining bolts or programming, but because they see them as friends. Except that Threeipo continues to use terms like "Master" and "Mistress" and well, there's a whole mess of implications depending on how far you take the metaphor. I prefer to interpret it more optimistically: long ago, these droids were the loyal helpers of Anakin and Padmé. Now they have returned to serve their children.
Next, Luke's absence becomes more worrisome...
