Does C-3PO have feelings?

And other droids for that matter. I was just thinking about this watching other sci-fi stuff like the Logan’s run show for example, with the android character REM, who is shown to have some form of feeling despite being robotic. (Much like how Spock acts, though it makes sense for him, being half human)
Then I was thinking about how in Star Wars, Threepio worries and frets a lot. Fear is an emotion, something one has to have feelings to, well, feel. I know people will argue Star Wars is more fantasy than true science fiction, but I’ve always argued that point. Thoughts?

3PO in SW is a lot different than in the sequels. Much more sci-fi/robotic and more monotone. Later he became more approachable and human.

LexX said:

3PO in SW is a lot different than in the sequels. Much more sci-fi/robotic and more monotone. Later he became more approachable and human.

That’s an interesting point. Much of his emotion seems to come from past experiences, which would work for a droid. Like “I’ve forgotten how much I hate space travel” would come from having known it hasn’t been pleasant in the past.
However, hanging around humans so much would likely result in him potentially becoming more human, if that’s the way he was programmed. He still keeps a bit of a robotic nature though (In Empire he says Luke is clever “for a human being, that is”) and he really mainly cares about himself(see the whole third act of Empire, when he’s complaining about being on backwards as Han is being frozen alive)

I’d argue the more C3PO lives and learns, the more personable he becomes and develops what could be seen as emotions.

More or less his experiences are what influences his opinions on certain situations, and those opinions could be seen as him having emotions.

Don’t forget the droid being tortured with a hot iron in Jabba’s palace, in addition to human emotions the droids also can feel some degree of physical pain. R2 has a famous yell when he’s electrocuted, 3P0 is always complaining about his aching joints, his cowardice even to an extent is to avoid pain or destruction, so he also has a sense of mortality. Both even have private feelings about situations they’re in, while they’re always in servitude they can still feel affection for their owner but have a sense of autonomy, refuse commands or act stubborn. “We’ll be sent to the spice mines of Kessel” so even a robot can differentiate enslavement vs completing any other task like a real machine.

I also feel that the droids ability to feel sensations is neccessary for their ability to feel emotions, which is also connected to their ability to understand humans and required for their own sentience and sense of independence or personal identity.

And IG-88 seemingly was demolished on Cloud City, as you can see him in the incinerator when Chewie finds Threepio’s parts.

“Well, if droids could think, there’d be none of us here, would there?”

I’m sure some fanboys out there’ll try to say this is some genius bit of social commentary on bigotry towards robots in the SW Galaxy, but I’m really not inclined to believe Lucas is that deep. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if Lucas, at least during the production of the PT, genuinely considers droids mechanical zombies.

I remember George saying something about C-3PO like ‘he begins as a droid, he ends as a droid…he has a sad droid life in between’ I can’t find the exact quote though.

My impression is that he genuinely doesn’t think that the droids are sentient, and my theory that they gain sentience and true personhood with the passage of time is me giving the movies too much credit.

I won’t change my theory, though.

I love the idea that being around humans gave Threepio specifically and other droids theories, as it’s totally plausible they would be built like that in order to work more efficiently.
Now the real answer probably is the none of this was really thought about, but since I am a large science fiction fan, I wanted to come up with a true sci-fi explanation.

Pretty sure George’s favorite episode of TCW is the droids discussing existential questions about what is sentience while roaming the desert.

I know some would rather ignore prequel continuity; but in light of TPM where we see 3p0 switched on and react embarrassed to have his parts showing, leans more in the category of sentience fresh out of the box as opposed to learned behavior over time. Threepio honestly hasn’t changed very much his “arc” is mostly managing to survive with the group.