Talk:Astromech droid

I'd like to know where this information came from. The R5 series replaces R2 units in the EU as far as I'm aware, unless the pilot of a starfighter already owned an R2 unit or only R2's were available. Also, R2 units develop personality traits and get named (Artoo, Whistler, Shiner, Jawaswag etc), as do R5's (Mynock), and yet Wedge Antillies R5-G8 (Gate) unit seems to develop no personality even after years of service.
 * Some of this information appears to come from the various role playing game sourcebooks. -- saberwyn 22:08, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

Cannot speak
One bizarre feature of R2-D2 in the Star-Wars film is that he cannot speak, but rather "speaks" in beeps which can only be understood by C3PO. This never made any sense to me - I guess it looked cute to Lucas, but it doesn't make any engineering sense. Obviously, contemporary technology does allow droids to speak, so why not R2? The reason given in this article "The likely reason is to conserve space that would be used, speakers for example are useless in a vacuum." Is quite unlikely. First of all, the hardware involved would not take up a lot of space (I didn't see C3PO have any problems in that area). Second, R2 already *can* speak, with beeps, so apparently he must have some speakers already! All that's missing is a speech generation chip or software or whatever - something which obviously exists in the Star Wars fictional universe. 84.108.167.132 (talk) 07:53, 8 October 2008 (UTC)
 * If everything was suppose to make sense, then people might start asking why all the aliens usually humanoid in shape and size, and everyone can breath the same air wherever they go. Or if you could make droids that smart, why need human labor for anything at all?  Don't expect everything to make sense.  Its just entertainment.   D r e a m Focus  12:33, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Infantile Quirks
R2D2 clearly is more then a simple droid; his constant zany (for lack of a better word) behaviour, in the films, leads me to believe that he isn't really a robot, but a diminutive half-human warrior with a funny grin, with a robotic shell for show!

...seriously though, is R2 sentient? Perhaps in a similar way to an infant child?-- CaptainSurrey talk

Sort of... You see, RD-D2 is a royal Naboo astromech (they make the best kind) and he has never had his memory wiped, ever. So it's possible Artoo is semi-sentient. Superstarwarsfan 16:50, 25 August 2006 (UTC)
 * He had his memory wiped at the end of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Maybe be of royal design, they added in more chips or whatnot, allowing him to be far more than any other.   D r e a m Focus  12:36, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

T3-M4
T3-M4 (from the Knights of the Old Republic series) is not, in point of fact, an astromech droid, but a 'utility droid', and a custom built one at that. Wannablessedbe 11:43, 6 February 2007 (UTC)