We had not one, but two droids working as bounty hunters in ESB. Their clients must consider them sentient, or else why pay a droid to do your dirty work?
Why would you need to consider something sentient to make it do your dirty work?
(I’m not necessarily disagreeing, but I thought that was a weird statement.)
I’m more intrigued by the Empire being willing to actually pay a droid money to kills someone. I guess they have their own assassin droids, but apparently IG-88 and 4LOM must have quite a reputation. (Is 4LOM Zuckuss’ property? Or is their entire backstory in the EU only?).
The again the Imperial didn’t seem to like bounty hunters in general, so it might have something to do with Vader. He is half-droid after all. And if you’re willing to retcon he’s had droid friends before.
As for IG-88’s non Imperial clients, I haven’t a clue. Come to think of it, why does a killing-machine need money in the first place?
I think I’m over-thinking this.
A connected question about the SWU:
Do droids dream of electric sheep?
Well R2 does sleep in ANH.
SilverWook said:
As for feeling pain, Artoo screams when he’s hurt. And then there’s the infamous droid torture scene in ROTJ.
R2 and 3PO, being the two droids we have to relate to the most, does have the most human-like qualities among the droids in the SWU. The same goes for him “screaming” in pain, it’s meant to make the audience worry about his safety by humanizing him, I doubt it has some big in-universe explanation.
This film analysis video brings up a lot of these subjects, including slavery, and greatly emphasizes their “human” qualities and its relation to the overall plot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9KPXRcfeaw