ESB question

One detail in ESB has always perplexed me - maybe the more learned SW scholars here can help...

When Han et al land on cloud city, C3PO has a run-in with someone in a room, and gets blasted to pieces.  What is the significance of that scene?  Who blasted him and why?  What is it supposed to portend?  About all I get out of it is that the city is more dangerous than it looks... I always assumed that he must have gotten blasted by a storm trooper or something - but why would the storm trooper blast 3PO and just leave his bits lying around?  Wouldn't that raise suspicions?

Think you answered it yourself ;-)...

"I always assumed that he must have gotten blasted by a storm trooper or something"

In answer to...

"Why would the storm trooper blast 3PO and just leave his bits lying around?  Wouldn't that raise suspicions?"

He doesn't, they throw Threepio into the trash where nobody should find him.

A more pertinent question would be: How did Chewie possibly find Threepio in the trash, in a vast place like Bespin???

So he was blasted so he couldn't reveal that he saw a stormtrooper?

The room where Chewie finds Threepio is probably the central location from which trash is sent from all over Cloud City to be sorted out, recycled or disintegrated.

I think the confusion over who shoots Threepio stems from the voice who asks "Who are you?". It sounds nothing like a stormtrooper, (I think it's Frank Oz in the original) to avoid tipping off the audience that the Empire is already there, potentially spoiling the big reveal of Vader in the dining room later. All we know at this point in the film is something smells in Cloud City, and it's not the Ugnaughts.

Doesn't Threepio say something about stormtroopers when Chewie reactivates him?

And it's a little spooky this question comes up as I'm trying to clean a "dismembered" Threepio action figure that had spent several years lost in a darker crevice of my house this evening. ;)

Jaitea said:

I always had it in my head that the 'Who are you?' voice was of either an Imperial officer or a Stormtrooper with his helmet off......maybe eating sandwiches

J

This all the way! When 3PO says "No, please don't get up.." I can see a trooper standing, dropping his meatball sub and grabbing his blaster.

love the mace windu poster LOL

DuracellEnergizer said:

Threepio walked in on a pair of Kryptonians having sex. Startled by the unexpected intrusion, the man pulled out while climaxing, firing off a load that hit Threepio and blasted him to pieces.

THREEPIO: Oh, no! I've been shot!

This is a very dramatic moment. We laugh because it's 3CPO, he's a robot. Yet think of a human in a similar situation: imagine a corpse of a soldier (torso, head, one hand) resurrected from the dead, recalling that moment. "So we were assaulting that position, I threw a grenade towards that MG nest and... wait, that's when I took the bullet!?!?"

Creepy. That's why ESB is so grand.

RRS-1980 said:

THREEPIO: Oh, no! I've been shot!

This is a very dramatic moment. We laugh because it's 3CPO, he's a robot. Yet think of a human in a similar situation: imagine a soldier resurrected from the dead, recalling that moment. "So we were assaulting that position, I threw a grenade towards that MG nest and... wait, that's when I took the bullet!?!?"

Creepy. That's why ESB is so grand.

Yes the whole Droid/humanity thing is quite vague in SW (OT and PT). The Droids appear to have human emotions, feelings and frailties. But all the "good" characters are perfectly fine with...

- Kidnapping, keeping and trading them as slaves. Especially in ANH with things like "restraing bolts".

- Wiping their memories and personalities.

- Sometimes not giving a sh*t when they die. Like Ben's "Friend" of 3 or 4 years, R4.

- Abusing and torturing them, verbally and physically. They feel pain, but who cares.

- Massacring them in huge numbers in the PT.

- *

- Generally treating them as beneath second-class beings. But still quite happy to have them as bounty-hunters or generals if they have need of it.

- Using them for situations too dangerous for precious humans. Like repairing Naboo royal starship engines, scouting Jabba's palace or serving drinks to irritable Jedi.

A lot of other classic Sci-Fi Film and TV has central themes of Robotic-Humanity e.g. BSG, Blade Runner, A.I., Aliens, TNG etc etc but Star Wars has ignored it.

Thoughts?

* Forgetting they even owned Droids... but I'll put that down to GL's bad writing in the PT, rather than old Ben being a douche ;-)

That's what he said.

Ryan McAvoy said:

 

Thoughts?

I hate that robots face. Like a sad, fat, bald man. Also hate the scene he appears in. Rubbish all around.

Story-telling wise, 3PO getting blasted is so they don't have to figure out "but what is 3PO going to say about this without ruining the dramatic tension?" Notice how 3PO isn't around or is shut down for nearly every dramatic scene in the OT. Obi-Wan tells Luke about his father, 3PO is shut down. Han and Leia discuss where to hide, 3PO is shut down. The gang is captured by Vader, 3PO is in pieces. Think of his dialog during the carbonite scene, its expository and kind of goofy. It would be really hard to have him being quiet unless he was shut down/not present.

Hey, it's me. said:

I don't think you can really describe robots as slaves. They were built for their specific duty. They weren't kidnapped from a planet where robots of all kinds roam free and do as they wish and forced into a life of servitude. :-D