Ever since his first look in Andor, B2EMO (voiced by Dave Chapman) has received our hearts. Our new favourite droid is fiercely loyal to his household, is sincere when giving recommendation and isn’t afraid of voicing his emotions — proving that one can by no means truly be too emo (sorry, I simply needed to). In the present’s newest episode, “Daughter of Ferrix“, he almost made us all cry with the way in which he’s coping with Maarva Andor’s (Fiona Shaw) demise, precisely like a younger baby would. Which raised the inevitable query: how do droids take care of the inevitable demise of these round them?
B2EMO’s story with the Andor household shouldn’t be not like the one many different droids have with their respective homeowners. They are usually not natural beings, so they do not normally expertise existence the identical method people, for instance, do. For one, the idea of dying is an alien one to them, despite the fact that they see it occurring on a regular basis. Generally talking, droids do not normally get to die, so seeing an individual develop outdated, their well being decay and finally move is understandably troublesome for a droid like B2EMO, particularly given his attachment to Maarva and the Andors.
Droids Experience a Whole Different Reality
By now, now we have seen numerous droids in Star Wars. In truth, the very first characters we meet within the franchise are C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) and R2-D2 (Kenny Baker) in A New Hope, they usually stick with us all through the 67 years that make the Skywalker Saga, from The Phantom Menace all the way in which to The Rise of Skywalker. That implies that these two fellas have seen a whole lot of stuff, been with lots of people, misplaced lots of people, too, and belonged to a whole lot of completely different individuals within the course of.
Everything that B2EMO is experiencing now? They’ve been there. In truth, not solely have Threepio and Artoo been there, they keep in mind most of it, too — I imply, aside from when the protocol droid had his reminiscence wiped in Revenge of the Sith, after all. When speaking about droids, it is necessary to keep in mind that, from their perspective, time is an entire completely different idea, as is life itself.
Droids are made (or produced), turned on and do not face the potential for ceasing to function except thrust upon a harmful state of affairs (operating out of battery shouldn’t be typically an issue, no less than less than this level within the franchise). They do not face the consequences of the relentless passage of time in their very own our bodies, they only have the damaged elements modified. They do expertise bodily ache, as most of them have sensors and receptors for that objective, and they’re able to studying and evolving in time.
For droids with a persona matrix (that means those that are self-aware and sentient), it is common to be connected to an proprietor for a lot, if not all, of that individual’s life. Many examples come to thoughts, like C-3PO and R2-D2 with the Skywalker household, L3-37 (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) and Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover), BB-8 and Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), and even Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) himself and Okay-2SO (Alan Tudyk).
So, since they aren’t technically alive, they do not technically die, both. And, after they do, it is normally an especially unhappy state of affairs exactly due to how unnatural it’s for them. Fortunately, it does not seem like B2EMO is going through any form of menace like that, however now we have examples of droids who had been misplaced, equivalent to L3-37 herself in Solo: A Star Wars Story, IG-11 (Taika Waititi) in The Mandalorian, Okay-2SO in Rogue One and, extra just lately, silent load lifter NED-B in Obi-Wan Kenobi.
B2EMO and the Andors
Despite being a droid, B2EMO was a part of the Andor household as a lot as Maarva, Clem (Gary Beadle) and Cassian. We do not know but how he got here into their midst, however the flashbacks within the first arc of the collection present that he was already a part of the band after they took younger Kassa from his homeworld of Kenari. Whatever they did earlier than that, they finally settled on Ferrix as a correct household, and B2EMO was handled as a part of it even by their pals, like Brasso (Joplin Sibtain) and Bix Calleen (Adria Arjona).
When B2EMO first seems in “Daughter of Ferrix,” we see solely his photoreceptor, in a shot that just about emulates how Stanley Kubrick confirmed HAL-9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Weirdly sufficient, these two robots couldn’t be additional aside, because the latter was targeted solely by itself survival, and the previous was probably internet hosting a torrent of tension inside its circuits. Droids are usually not used to dropping individuals, they usually could develop trauma as a lot as common beings. Just take a look at Chopper in Star Wars Rebels, and the way he nonetheless mourns his days as a Clone Wars veteran. The state of affairs is particularly dire as, apparently, the entire home during which B2EMO and Maarva lived needs to be emptied, that means that the droid can be about to lose his own residence.
So dropping Maarva means dropping every little thing for B2EMO. It’s a lifetime of attachment that appears to have vanished earlier than his photoreceptors. For us, dying is part of life, one thing as pure as being born. For droids, not essentially, and for B2EMO that is clearly not the case.
Which does not essentially imply an existence of unhappiness for B2EMO in his future, he simply does not comprehend it. He first seems in Andor making an attempt to knock some sense into Cassian and telling him precisely what Maarva thinks of all of the schemes Cassian pulls across the Morlana system looking for his misplaced sister, and it is not possible that the primary season of the collection will finish with out the duo reuniting. And even when they do not, the sympathy and understanding Brasso reveals in direction of him is greater than most individuals appear to reveal in direction of droids, too. As the present builds in direction of its ultimate showdown in Ferrix within the first season finale, we positive hope for our candy emo droid to make it unscathed — and with a brand new house.