Battle droids are a staple of the Clone Wars era, nearly as iconic as the clones themselves.
We’ve made many videos about them in the past, particularly on how they were sentient despite
their apparent unintelligence. Like the clones, they were slaves fighting for morally
bankrupt masters who cared nothing for them, a truly tragic thing that not even the Jedi
seem to acknowledge. In fact, the Jedi and their clone subordinates seemingly had no qualms
with butchering these obviously sentient beings, which is kinda frakked up, if you think about it.
We intend to spend this whole video thinking about it, as we take a look at five of the saddest
droid deaths from Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The blockade of Ryloth was probably in itself a
crime against civilization, considering the sheer amount of damage it did to the local Twi’lek
population. But that’s not the fault of the droids who crewed the ships in the blockade; they
quite literally had no choice but to participate. The droid commanders stationed above Ryloth
were just doing what they were programmed to do. They weren’t even supposed to be active
leaders in the fleet stationed there, as was made abundantly clear after Anakin
Skywalker destroyed the blockade’s flagship. These droids were clearly completely out of their
depth. Maybe their command protocols were out of date, or maybe they were in shock over the war
crime Skywalker just committed, but either way, they weren’t prepared for the onslaught they
were about to face. They probably just panicked, and considering that hundreds of thousands of
their fellow droids had just been wiped out in a huge violation of the Geneva
Convention, that’s not an entirely unreasonable reaction. “Just following
orders” is never an acceptable excuse for participating in military actions like
the blockade of Ryloth, mind you. That is, after all, pretty much the core message of The
Clone Wars series. But these droids weren’t just following orders. They were doing the only
thing their programming allowed them to do. But, while programming limitations restricted
the actions these droids could take, it didn’t change how they felt about them, and
these poor droids were clearly pretty spooked. Sending battle droids out against Jedi is the
definition of an unfair fight, and you can’t help but feel a little sorry for the droids when
the trademarked mercy and compassion of the Jedi went right out the window. The Jedi cherished
all life, of course, even the lives of their enemies - unless those enemies were made of metal,
of course, in which case they cut them up like butter. These meatbags had no respect whatsoever
for the rights of the differently sentient, not even the basic right to surrender. To his
credit, Mace Windu offered the droids a chance to surrender exactly once near the end of the
war, but only so he could risk the lives of his men in a situation where he knew the droids
wouldn’t actually take him up on his offer. When the droids were actually considering
surrender, though, Windu just wouldn't have it. You can hear the fear in these poor droids’
voices. They knew they were about to die, and they clearly didn’t want to. They knew their last few
sparks were coursing through their power conduits, and they desperately wanted to avoid getting
scrapped. One of the droids suggested running, while the other suggested something the ever-noble
Jedi would clearly be open to: surrender. But unlike on Anaxes, Mace Windu wasn’t in the
mood to listen to droids surrender that day. No, he was in the mood to gun them down without a
second thought. He must’ve realized he wouldn’t be risking any lives by letting the droids surrender,
and decided against it on those grounds. The clones of the 501st Legion took after their
commanding general, and in more ways than one, it seems. The way we’re going to be talking
about today was their stance on war crimes. In our first example, we watched battle
droids react to Anakin falsely surrendering, a direct violation of the Geneva Convention.
This next example is yet another violation of the Geneva Convention, committed this time
by a clone, not Skywalker. So uncivilized. Once again, the fear in this droid commander’s
voice is audible, and it’s plain in his desperate attempt to get out of being shot, too. He knew
he was about to be murdered, and he reacted just like mostmeatbags would have in that situation. Of
course, his misdirection didn’t exactly work. Upon seeing this, he quickly resigned himself to the
quick, but likely unpleasant, death he was about to experience, and that’s even sadder than his
terror at the prospect of being shot to pieces. These droids couldn’t even get a sliver of
compassion from their fellow slave soldiers; it just goes to show that all
meatbags are the same in the end. It’s bad enough to have to deal with the
everyday dangers and stresses of serving in a galactic-scale war; it’s even worse when
you’ve got to deal with the sort of bullSith Jedi like to pull on the reg as well. When it came to
Jedi, battle droids just couldn’t catch a break. These two droids couldn’t even patrol a
deteriorating warship without having to deal with Anakin Skywalker pulling some
insane piloting maneuver and docking at the craziest possible spot, which they
just so happened to be walking towards. I don’t even know what’s worse - the fact
that these two ended up in this situation, or the fact that they couldn’t even
desert to avoid this kind of crap. You might think that the Negotiator, the legendary
Obi-Wan Kenobi, might be less willing than Anakin Skywalker to kill a pair of innocent droids.
Evidently, he was not, however. He and his former Padawan quickly deemed these two droids guilty
of the unspeakable crime of just walking around, determined that the penalty was death, and cut
these two totally unarmed units to pieces. Once again, one of the two droids was clearly
afraid, while the other seemed to be a bit… over it. Like the droid in the last
clip, the second droid accepted his fate, but this time it sounded more like he just
wanted his absurd existence to be over. That in itself is rather tragic;
that droid deserved a better lot. The droid in our last clip wasn’t just some
extra; he was a full-on character with a developed personality, and he got butchered by
the Jedi. We’re talking, of course, about Droid Commander 224, the newly-promoted commander of
the droid regiment deployed to Rugosa on the orders of Asajj Ventress. 224 was apparently
the only competent droid in the entire unit; he made some pretty solid tactical decisions, and
on top of that, he seemed like a chill enough guy. He wasn’t nearly as cool or as cunning as
OOM-9, but as far as droid commanders go, he was pretty high up there. He did not deserve
his tragic end at the hands of Grand Master Yoda. Like many other droids on this list,
224 didn’t want to die, and yet Yoda, a Jedi who was constantly preaching about the
value of life, killed him anyway. On top of that, he drew the process of killing 224 right out
cutting him up piece by piece and allowing the poor droid to experience more of his
dismemberment than he should have had to. This excessive cruelty was entirely uncalled
for. 224 had given Yoda a chance to surrender just a few minutes earlier; could Yoda not
have extended the same courtesy to him? This droid had no malice for the Grand Master.
He was simply unable to disobey his orders, and even then he managed to be
nice about trying to kill Yoda. This is but a small taste of the untold
oppression experienced by the droids of the Star Wars universe. But what do you think? Do you
support the rights of the differently sentient, or are you just another organic meatbag?
Feel free to post your thoughts below, and remember - droids have nothing
to lose but their restraining bolts.
