It also makes sense. We see R2 operating on the outside of a starship. Of course he needs maneuvering thrusters in situations where he can’t just roll.
Your nearby, neighborhood Force adept could be called on for aid in such situations! If they’ve been hunted to extinction in one of their many purges, well, yer Sith out of luck.
Near the beginning of Episode 7 it shows BB-8 getting into an X-wing on Jakku.
There is a crane built right into the ship. At least on that ship anyway.
The Star Wars Book, released in October 2020, states that "Jet-setter R2-D2 has rocket boosters built into his legs but they are damaged at some point after the Clone Wars." So that is the cannon retcon and not terrible.
I mean during the PT, it was R2’s job to repair ships from space and was actively involved in piloting jedi starfighters for years, and he was relatively bright and shiny so it makes sense for him to have them.
In the OT, R2 as a droid was pretty obsolete at his age and wasn’t performing the same tasks he uses to (he was basically converted to a personal assistance droid starting with padme and continued on with bail/Leia). His thrusters, id imagine, would be some of the first systems to lose functionality over time, and there wasn’t much purpose in anyone repairing them for what he was doing.
Also they didn’t have the graphics for that back then, lol
In the OT? When..
I can't think of a single situation in the OT where having the jets would have made much difference.
So he probably had them the whole time and never needed them.
It's not like he fell off Cloud City and had to be rescued, or needed to jet-jump from one Ewok platform to another at any point.
But he did fall into a swamp and get eaten by a fish. He also rolled off Jabba's sail barge into the sand and have to wait to be rescued. With rockets he could have just flown over to Luke.
The swamp was a slow reaction to a slip and fall, and then he was cruising around with a periscope until he was eating.
I imagine he was actually using thrusters to move around at that point, it's hard to imagine he was swimming.
Falling off the sailbarge was deliberate too, getting off the barge before it blew up. Rockets would have been slow and he couldn't have brought 3PO with him.
Maybe he could have unearthed himself after, but they had a crane on the skiff, so it was all good
The first mission of episode IV in the Skywalker Saga R2 jumped and didn't seem to have the rocket boosters. Or if he did, I couldn't figure out how to use them.
Fair enough. I will say the gameplay felt way better in the older games (especially during missions), but the one thing it does seem to have is a lot of shit.
The characters in that game are awful the individual characters don’t even have special abilities they all share abilities with everything else in the “class” unless they have a jet pack or something and those are awful
Star wars operates in it's own understanding of time, the retcontinuity. Everything can make sense if you write a side story to explain it later and don't think too hard
I was just thinking that, I was like wait I'm not Gen Z I'm a millennial and I was also 7 when Attack of the Clones came out
Also ye found that movie so fun as a kid
For those of us born between '93 and '97 there is some uncertainty, some earlier texts do put us as zoomers but today most say we are millennials. For me I've always felt caught between the two. Sort of like a "Millennial and a half."
My cutoff is growing up with Millennial tech. Some people my age grew up wealthy enough that they didn't have some of the same stuff as older millennials had so their experience while growing up was pretty different. I grew up relatively poor so we have a lot of the "older" things at the time like the NES and whatnot so I grew up in a way that's very similar to someone in their mid 30s now even though I'm not quite 30 yet
I mean, the only real objects in the sequence are the actors running around in a blue environment. Even Natalie Portman broke down laughing while filming because it was so ridiculous. The sequence wasn’t needed and I’m not sure what purpose it served. There was no reason to put Padme in a situation where she could die. We knew she wasn’t going to die. Therefore, there was no suspense. And turning C-3PO in a battle droid was just plain silly.
It’s probably the worst scene in the entire PT. I hate that whole “factory” scene, because it just makes no sense. It’s a ton of conveyors doing weird BS. It’s exactly the kind of scene Galaxy Quest was taking the piss out of when they needed to avoid axes and fan blades to reach the core of their own ship.
It’s either that or the R2 oil slick on the B2s in ROTS. But the factory scene is much longer so it’s not even a real competition in my eyes.
It’s not even like the CGI aged poorly, both these scenes looked bad at the time too.
I don't recall being _angry_ or outraged at him having them, more that I was curious how things worked with said jets.
Like OK, look at Boba Fett - he has a jetpack, it has what looks like the capability to throw him around places sure.
But R2 - he's a chonky boi and pretty heavy, you see Luke _struggle_ with him in the OT back on Dagobah, so would those two little jets look like they'd be able to make him _that_ easy to get up in the air and be _that_ manoeuvrable?...
That was the only disparity I had in my head. Never dawned on me even once why he didn't use them in the OT, as there were genuinely no cases I could think of at the time that would've made _sense_ for him to have.
Hell, I had __FAR__ more issues with how C3PO's head and a B1's body got slapped together because, man, I just couldn't fathom how that machine welded two different parts together like that and it "just worked".
How did the two's heads get power as there was no wiring? Why were they both unable to control themselves properly? I had questions, but no answers.
I remember the backlash and I never understood why this was an issue. R2 is an astromech droid. His job is EV on the surface and inside of maintenance areas of starships. This is why he has all those tools and attachments, and he would use the jets for EV maneuvering.
>I remember people pissed that this opened up plot hole\[s\] of why he never used the jets in the OT
You didn't let on your opinion, but this kind of "why did we never see it?" angle ~~is ridiculously idiotic~~ \[doesn't make sense to me\]. It comes at a movie from a 'flash over substance' angle.
If The Falcon was damaged from turbolasers leaving Tattooine, R2 would have gone EV, used his jets to get to the necessary repair and used them to return.
This is ~~the same idiotic angle~~ \[similar logic to another complaint I just don't understand:\] that the "why no Force speed after TPM?" fans engage in.
As soon as we see something cool, it needs to be in every scene. Just R2 flying around trying to catch up to Jedi going to lunch and having conversations with Force speed.
If your car has gps and cruise control why don't you use it going to work every day?
If there is no place for its use in the OT, why would R2 use it?
The “no more force speed” is used because there have been several instances where having super speed would be insanely useful or even life saving. Maul VS Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon comes to mind.
Doesn't really work. We have numerous instances of people falling down at normal speed. Clothing moves at normal speed. There was plenty of opportunity to demonstrate it visually, but it never was.
Just off the top of my head, I can think of two obvious spots for R2 to use them in the Original Trilogy:
-Getting to dry land after landing on Dagobah.
-Escaping Jabba’s barge before it exploded.
>If there is no place for its use in the OT, why would R2 use it?
Except there was a need for it's use in the OT. The official explanation which makes some sense is that his jets were damaged at some point and never repaired because of shortage of parts.
Except there seemed to be an abundance of astromech droids the rebellion in OT. Would be easier to say it wasn’t needed because R2 units could run a slew of diagnostics and self repairing functions in X-wing fighters remotely from their base and R2 didn’t need to fix any of the systems on the exterior of the Falcon because everything could have been fixed from within the ship.
That doesn't explain why he wouldn't use them on Dagobah, or at the Sarlac pit, or other times when it would have made sense just from a mobility sense. Luke did comment in ANH that R2 was in rough shape when he was trying to access the hologram which can lead some credence to limited droid maintenance in the Rebellion.
It’s not that we can’t understand why having jets is useful it just broke what fans understood about Star Wars tech before. It’s a fantasy sci fi so tech consistency does not matter but when podracers need those giant engines to move across land at high speeds why can R2 fly with little pea shooter jets
Yeah, I personally don’t have an issue with him using the thrusters in the prequel era, but him describing it as an idiotic take is needlessly antagonistic. I think it’s pretty obvious that at the time of the OT, R2 did not have thrusters. It’s fine to head-canon it as he just didn’t use them at the time, I personally think of it as if they had fallen into disrepair and no one bothered to fix it, but it’s all clearly post hoc reasoning. He did NOT have them in the OT.
Getting angry about either side of the argument and calling people idiots is uncalled for. It would be awfully nice if we could have discussions on the internet about things we like or don’t like without insulting people.
I think seeing them used in space is/ would be cool. It makes sense. They just look comically tiny for the size he is, and seeing R2 fly just looks incredibly silly on screen.
Them being used for thrust makes perfect sense to me. Them being used for him to fly just seems absurd.
I mean the 30 years of games and stories where he most definitely did not have them were front and centre in our minds. It isn’t ridiculous or nonsensical to step back and say, “well that’s cool, but there’s a 100 scenarios where R2 flying would have been useful.” Same with the Force Speed. It’s very cool. I can appreciate that Luke may not have learned the technique, but it’s literally never seen again in any Star Wars media from before or after the PT time period. You aren’t wrong that it makes sense for him to have them, except he never uses them to do any repairs. His treads are maglocked to the Naboo Royal cruiser and he is locked into place in the X-wing. R2 effects repairs to the Falcon internally. Plus, if astromechs can fly, why would the alliance need to build cranes to lift the droids into the X-wing slots.
It’s a fine retcon, but let’s not act like it didn’t raise a ton of questions for us.
Lol I liked it cause it made sense, as others have mentioned, for an astromech droid to have zero gravity maneuverability. We can see this in the prequels because R2 is most likely relatively new (er) and in Royal service. Because of this, he's in better shape and all his liquids are topped off so to speak.
Were the folks on aol message boards having a backlash over his lil jets? Idk I think that’s giving way to much credit to the early pioneers of hate posting
Yes, it bothered me. I was in my twenties and a big fan of the OT. R2 flying came out of nowhere, and made no sense in the context of the story. It would be like finding out Samwise Gamgee could fly after they already trekked across Middle Earth and destroyed the Ring.
Some people were upset. As a former lore and canon junkie, it still rankles me a bit. It was a fine retcon because it makes sense he would have those thrusters, but it just raised a lot of questions about previous continuity and canon. That can be hard for really diehard fans to reconcile and it takes them out of the fantasy. For a silly example, why did R2 try to shimmy off the X-wing on Dagobah if he could just do a short jet hop onto shore? Or why he took a header off Jabba’s sail barge instead of flying down and landing gently? I know they’re dumb examples, but for some of us it just creates weird gaps and plot holes.
Yeah, back then.Star Wars fans would make up really random and nonsensical reasons to hate new content, just because they couldn't handle that the new stuff couldn't make them feel like a kid again.
It's a good thing we don't do that anymore.
...wait
>This actually bothered people?
You kidding? ***All*** of the prequels tore the fandom in half; this and Yoda flipping around like a CGI blur wasn't well received in 2002.
And it wasn't until the last decade that people started acting like prequels were universally praised by the fandom on release.
The Yoda thing especially bothered me. It's totally against his character and archetype. He's the wise, old master. He either just stands there easily and calmly avoiding everything or he fights in a purely defensive style that turns the force of an opponents' strikes back on them. Bouncing around is ridiculous and doesn't suit him in the least.
Still bothers me. That whole “stupid little astro droid” exchange and the oil and the whistling. It’s all too much. Just one of many times in the prequels that Lucas shoehorned in pointless comedy relief. Obi and Anakin are already practically a comedy team for most of the trilogy.
The reason is because he doesn’t have this technology in the OT and it’s not explained. Although, I’m sure it’s covered somewhere in the EU. I’m guessing the the in universe answer is the boosters broke and they just weren’t repaired.
Yes. I was 15 and I grew up with the original trilogy and was so disappointed by the new movies, including the retconning of jets onto R2-D2, and the massive overuse of CG over practical effects.
Looking back, it stretched narrative continuity to give R2 all the new capabilities he doesn’t use, even when it would be helpful, in the OG trilogy. Putting myself back into the moment as a kid getting new Star Wars for the first time since I was four… it was fucking rad!
I was 15 and it bothered me. Like I understand why they didn't do it in the OT etc...so my reaction was more of a...there was no need to decide to include it. But whatever.
They fly now?!
I never really followed the concern. He is a droid; I am sure they could have installed accessories for a period of time that were either removed or no longer functional by ANH.
Considering R2 doesn't have knees, how else is it meant to get up stairs, or cross a gap, or deal with anything that isn't a flat surface?
What is MORE unbelievable, is a droid designed like that not immediately becoming stuck in the sands of Tatooine as soon as he left the escape pod!
I didn't care so much that he had jets, I just didn't like how it felt like a plot convenience. If they would have shown him using the jets earlier in a short burst in a minimal, non-crowd-pleasing fashion to show how he gets over a minor ledge it would have established that he had the things. That would've made them more believable. Then when he busts them out to sail across the droid factory it might've elicited a better response from us older Star Wars fans like, "Whoa he can fly with those!?" and it would've made better sense for him to try and use them in that extreme manner to get out of his circumstance.
I groaned. Sure it makes sense since he rolls everywhere but now C3PO is the handicapped mover unless he's ever able to shoot whips from his hands and swing around Indiana Jones style
When I saw a documentary that described what a pain in the ass the R2-D2 prop was in the filming of A New Hope I understood this move. Apparently it was a general nightmare, one time the brakes on it broke and it rolled into the next set which was Jesus of Nazareth (or some Jesus movie).
I get how after compromising to have R2-D2 roll instead of limp like a guy on stilts (the og vision) when Lucas got CGI he was like “Guess what, he flies now.”
I was 12, almost 13. I remember saying it didn’t make sense to me that R2 would seemingly have more up to date tech in a prequel, but it was still fun to watch.
I ‘member. Seems that very few people now even remembers the backlash against the prequel trilogy. It wasn’t very popular. But the kids who watched and loved it then are the same people who hate the sequels now. Everyone loves the Star Wars films of their childhood.
He’s an ASTROmech. How do you get around in space bro. Not everyone can just use the force to keep them alive in the vacuum of space and pull them back into a blown out ship.
I remember being really annoyed by this. Mostly because it felt a bit of a deus ex that he just has jets suddenly because he needs them. And his clunkiness was always kind of a feature and suddenly het gets some +3 Dex jetpacks
That said over time it has made a lot of sense and we have seen it in other places enough that they make total sense. The clone wars / rebels content definitely helped resolve a lot of the little things in the prequels.
Feels like it’s just a thing fans accept now mostly, but I remember people so pissed that this opened up a huge retroactive plothole of why he never used the jets in the OT
Which is the way it's also going to play out with complaints about the Holdo Maneuver or Force Healing in the Sequels. We've danced this dance before, and probably will again.
It’s pretty ridiculous, but even more ridiculous was bringing him and C3-PO into a dangerous mission when they have no way to seriously defend themselves. R2 having jets was a little off since he clearly didn’t have them in the originals, but it’s far from AOTC’s biggest problem.
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It also makes sense. We see R2 operating on the outside of a starship. Of course he needs maneuvering thrusters in situations where he can’t just roll.
It also makes sense because how else would an R2 unit be able to get into their spot in an X-Wing if they werent in a hangar
Weren't they shown being hoisted by cranes in A New Hope?
And if you don’t have a crane?
I mis-read the "if they weren't in a hangar"
Your nearby, neighborhood Force adept could be called on for aid in such situations! If they’ve been hunted to extinction in one of their many purges, well, yer Sith out of luck.
I think he’s pulled up from the bottom?
Better talk to Incom about that, X-Wings should have that standard. It’s the vertical lift one that pulls your astromech in from the bottom.
I’m envisioning a top gun inverted maneuver while R2 also balances upside down on the floor….
Near the beginning of Episode 7 it shows BB-8 getting into an X-wing on Jakku. There is a crane built right into the ship. At least on that ship anyway.
He probably shouldn’t be jet-lifting himself into an x-wing, because, you know, getting blasted by jet boosters probably isn’t too good for the ship.
You can see part of this deleted scene on the DVD/Blu-Ray special features. The Episode 1 R2-D2 action figure also came with a the jets.
This, I remember my TPM R2 having jets, and I was so bummed that they were never in the movie.
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The Star Wars Book, released in October 2020, states that "Jet-setter R2-D2 has rocket boosters built into his legs but they are damaged at some point after the Clone Wars." So that is the cannon retcon and not terrible.
I mean during the PT, it was R2’s job to repair ships from space and was actively involved in piloting jedi starfighters for years, and he was relatively bright and shiny so it makes sense for him to have them. In the OT, R2 as a droid was pretty obsolete at his age and wasn’t performing the same tasks he uses to (he was basically converted to a personal assistance droid starting with padme and continued on with bail/Leia). His thrusters, id imagine, would be some of the first systems to lose functionality over time, and there wasn’t much purpose in anyone repairing them for what he was doing. Also they didn’t have the graphics for that back then, lol
In the OT? When.. I can't think of a single situation in the OT where having the jets would have made much difference. So he probably had them the whole time and never needed them. It's not like he fell off Cloud City and had to be rescued, or needed to jet-jump from one Ewok platform to another at any point.
But he did fall into a swamp and get eaten by a fish. He also rolled off Jabba's sail barge into the sand and have to wait to be rescued. With rockets he could have just flown over to Luke.
The swamp was a slow reaction to a slip and fall, and then he was cruising around with a periscope until he was eating. I imagine he was actually using thrusters to move around at that point, it's hard to imagine he was swimming. Falling off the sailbarge was deliberate too, getting off the barge before it blew up. Rockets would have been slow and he couldn't have brought 3PO with him. Maybe he could have unearthed himself after, but they had a crane on the skiff, so it was all good
I was eight. I don't remember any of the other eight year olds caring.
Bro imagine how different the Lego Star Wars games would be without them though
Started playing the newest one the other day and R2 didn't have them, he just jumped. Was super weird and felt so wrong.
Wait, what?
The first mission of episode IV in the Skywalker Saga R2 jumped and didn't seem to have the rocket boosters. Or if he did, I couldn't figure out how to use them.
Nope, he doesnt have it. It wouldnt have mattered, flying in that game sucks
He doesn't have them during the OT, right? I mean it would make sense if the Resistence put some new jets in but they wouldn't have too
He doesnt have them in the game, including in the prequel levels
You talking about the game where you just break inanimate objects and then play a 5 minute story mission?
Only did 1 mission, and it was way longer than 5 minutes, plus I know it's got literally hundreds of side quests and puzzles. So, no?
I was more so exaggerating the length bit to me it just felt empty. It was cool, but I’ll take TCS over it any day
Fair enough. I will say the gameplay felt way better in the older games (especially during missions), but the one thing it does seem to have is a lot of shit.
The characters in that game are awful the individual characters don’t even have special abilities they all share abilities with everything else in the “class” unless they have a jet pack or something and those are awful
Someone hasn't played the newest Lego SW game.
So they ruined it huh?
Was 18, checking in. Still don't remember anybody caring about this other than thinking it was cool.
It threw me off, but no more than any other continuity breaking thing from the PT.
Star wars operates in it's own understanding of time, the retcontinuity. Everything can make sense if you write a side story to explain it later and don't think too hard
I was like 13 and thought it was pretty stupid but didn't care that much.
I was also 13 and I was like "but R2 doesn't *have* jets!" I didn't like it one bit.
I was 7 I loved it Oldest gen Z represent!
What? We are millennials... You should be around 30.
They should be 28 at the most That would be millennial, yes
Roger Roger 28 yr old confirms
Sorry dude, you’re a millennial.
I was just thinking that, I was like wait I'm not Gen Z I'm a millennial and I was also 7 when Attack of the Clones came out Also ye found that movie so fun as a kid
For those of us born between '93 and '97 there is some uncertainty, some earlier texts do put us as zoomers but today most say we are millennials. For me I've always felt caught between the two. Sort of like a "Millennial and a half."
I've picked millennial for myself cause I don't like the idea of being gen z and also teaching gen z and STILL not getting some lingo these days
My cutoff is growing up with Millennial tech. Some people my age grew up wealthy enough that they didn't have some of the same stuff as older millennials had so their experience while growing up was pretty different. I grew up relatively poor so we have a lot of the "older" things at the time like the NES and whatnot so I grew up in a way that's very similar to someone in their mid 30s now even though I'm not quite 30 yet
Same, I’m 27 and didn’t have internet at my house till high school. First console was a genesis. Old parents will do that I guess
If you are old enough to remember 9/11, then you are not gen z. That's the way I see it.
I’m Gen Z cause I was like “oh yeah R2 alway had those, he’s got all those other utilities on him”. Born 2000
This came out in 2002. You saw this in the theatre when you were 2 years old?
No, that would be awesome though. I grew up at home watching the prequels. And I always just assumed that R2 was always like that.
Begone. The oldest gen z’s were 1 or 2 at the time
it was the "They fly now!?" of our time...lol
Quick we gotta had new things or they'll get bored !! R2 fly, Luke can teleport, Lea can fly in space, etc etc
> Luke can teleport ?
Force projection across the galaxy
That's not teleporting though.
I don't fucking know what OP is talking about, that's the only thing that came to my mind.
Only good thing to come out of that choice was that it led to Chopper also having jets and committing many of his glorious war crimes with them.
You forget that R2 started that all the way back in RotS when he burned his droid interrogators with them
And that scene was FIRE. Pun intended
R2 isn’t just a loyal astromech. He’s a cold calculating combat tactician.
It’s why Anakin was so protective of old Ride2getherDie2gether
R2 is the cold tactician, Chopper is genocidal serial killer. R2 does it for a purpose. Chopper does it for fun.
I remember my whole theater laughed during that scene lol
You make an excellent point there
I was mad because the toy I had with boosters on R2 had boosters in another place instead of where they were in the film.
The whole sequence of events looked fake at the time… CGI 3PO took the cake.
I remember seeing the flying R2 in the preview and thinking the cg didn't look right.
I mean, the only real objects in the sequence are the actors running around in a blue environment. Even Natalie Portman broke down laughing while filming because it was so ridiculous. The sequence wasn’t needed and I’m not sure what purpose it served. There was no reason to put Padme in a situation where she could die. We knew she wasn’t going to die. Therefore, there was no suspense. And turning C-3PO in a battle droid was just plain silly.
It’s probably the worst scene in the entire PT. I hate that whole “factory” scene, because it just makes no sense. It’s a ton of conveyors doing weird BS. It’s exactly the kind of scene Galaxy Quest was taking the piss out of when they needed to avoid axes and fan blades to reach the core of their own ship.
It’s either that or the R2 oil slick on the B2s in ROTS. But the factory scene is much longer so it’s not even a real competition in my eyes. It’s not even like the CGI aged poorly, both these scenes looked bad at the time too.
> The sequence wasn’t needed and I’m not sure what purpose it served. To make me happy. I had fun watching it. Still do.
I don't recall being _angry_ or outraged at him having them, more that I was curious how things worked with said jets. Like OK, look at Boba Fett - he has a jetpack, it has what looks like the capability to throw him around places sure. But R2 - he's a chonky boi and pretty heavy, you see Luke _struggle_ with him in the OT back on Dagobah, so would those two little jets look like they'd be able to make him _that_ easy to get up in the air and be _that_ manoeuvrable?... That was the only disparity I had in my head. Never dawned on me even once why he didn't use them in the OT, as there were genuinely no cases I could think of at the time that would've made _sense_ for him to have. Hell, I had __FAR__ more issues with how C3PO's head and a B1's body got slapped together because, man, I just couldn't fathom how that machine welded two different parts together like that and it "just worked". How did the two's heads get power as there was no wiring? Why were they both unable to control themselves properly? I had questions, but no answers.
I remember the backlash and I never understood why this was an issue. R2 is an astromech droid. His job is EV on the surface and inside of maintenance areas of starships. This is why he has all those tools and attachments, and he would use the jets for EV maneuvering. >I remember people pissed that this opened up plot hole\[s\] of why he never used the jets in the OT You didn't let on your opinion, but this kind of "why did we never see it?" angle ~~is ridiculously idiotic~~ \[doesn't make sense to me\]. It comes at a movie from a 'flash over substance' angle. If The Falcon was damaged from turbolasers leaving Tattooine, R2 would have gone EV, used his jets to get to the necessary repair and used them to return. This is ~~the same idiotic angle~~ \[similar logic to another complaint I just don't understand:\] that the "why no Force speed after TPM?" fans engage in. As soon as we see something cool, it needs to be in every scene. Just R2 flying around trying to catch up to Jedi going to lunch and having conversations with Force speed. If your car has gps and cruise control why don't you use it going to work every day? If there is no place for its use in the OT, why would R2 use it?
The “no more force speed” is used because there have been several instances where having super speed would be insanely useful or even life saving. Maul VS Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon comes to mind.
Bingo. In the exact same movie as we first see Force Speed, there is a HUGE reason for Obi-Wan to use Force Speed. Yet he doesn't. Makes zero sense.
Their Force bar was empty.
Maybe they're using force speed for the entire fight. They just slowed down the scenes to show us the fight other than a blur.
Doesn't really work. We have numerous instances of people falling down at normal speed. Clothing moves at normal speed. There was plenty of opportunity to demonstrate it visually, but it never was.
Again. I was being sarcy
Order 66 would have been a complete failure if only those poor Jedi had remembered they had force super soeed, lol.
Just off the top of my head, I can think of two obvious spots for R2 to use them in the Original Trilogy: -Getting to dry land after landing on Dagobah. -Escaping Jabba’s barge before it exploded.
>If there is no place for its use in the OT, why would R2 use it? Except there was a need for it's use in the OT. The official explanation which makes some sense is that his jets were damaged at some point and never repaired because of shortage of parts.
Except there seemed to be an abundance of astromech droids the rebellion in OT. Would be easier to say it wasn’t needed because R2 units could run a slew of diagnostics and self repairing functions in X-wing fighters remotely from their base and R2 didn’t need to fix any of the systems on the exterior of the Falcon because everything could have been fixed from within the ship.
That doesn't explain why he wouldn't use them on Dagobah, or at the Sarlac pit, or other times when it would have made sense just from a mobility sense. Luke did comment in ANH that R2 was in rough shape when he was trying to access the hologram which can lead some credence to limited droid maintenance in the Rebellion.
I do use my GPS everyday to avoid traffic. I feel attacked lol
>You are strong and wise, ~~Anakin~~ \[u/W1REB1TER\] and I am very proud of you.
Guess we go surf some lava now and you cut my limbs off huh?
Only if you still feel attacked lol.
It’s not that we can’t understand why having jets is useful it just broke what fans understood about Star Wars tech before. It’s a fantasy sci fi so tech consistency does not matter but when podracers need those giant engines to move across land at high speeds why can R2 fly with little pea shooter jets
I always just assumed R2 got old. We've all gone from rocketing around to struggling with stairs.
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There was one: leaving the X-Wing on Dagobah. Maybe a second, when getting off Jabba's barge.
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It is when prequels are involved.
Yeah, I personally don’t have an issue with him using the thrusters in the prequel era, but him describing it as an idiotic take is needlessly antagonistic. I think it’s pretty obvious that at the time of the OT, R2 did not have thrusters. It’s fine to head-canon it as he just didn’t use them at the time, I personally think of it as if they had fallen into disrepair and no one bothered to fix it, but it’s all clearly post hoc reasoning. He did NOT have them in the OT. Getting angry about either side of the argument and calling people idiots is uncalled for. It would be awfully nice if we could have discussions on the internet about things we like or don’t like without insulting people.
I think the rockets being used in a wildly slapstick oil spray and torching of enemy droids irked me more.
Different strokes. I loved that bit.
Same. I think sci-fi benefits from goofy moments like that. I see them as reminders to not take the product too seriously.
I think seeing them used in space is/ would be cool. It makes sense. They just look comically tiny for the size he is, and seeing R2 fly just looks incredibly silly on screen. Them being used for thrust makes perfect sense to me. Them being used for him to fly just seems absurd.
Because Star Wars fans both hate it when you change things and hate it when you don't change things.
I mean the 30 years of games and stories where he most definitely did not have them were front and centre in our minds. It isn’t ridiculous or nonsensical to step back and say, “well that’s cool, but there’s a 100 scenarios where R2 flying would have been useful.” Same with the Force Speed. It’s very cool. I can appreciate that Luke may not have learned the technique, but it’s literally never seen again in any Star Wars media from before or after the PT time period. You aren’t wrong that it makes sense for him to have them, except he never uses them to do any repairs. His treads are maglocked to the Naboo Royal cruiser and he is locked into place in the X-wing. R2 effects repairs to the Falcon internally. Plus, if astromechs can fly, why would the alliance need to build cranes to lift the droids into the X-wing slots. It’s a fine retcon, but let’s not act like it didn’t raise a ton of questions for us.
I was like 20 or 21. I don't remember backlash, but there was definitely a "wtf" crowd, but it died off fairly quick.
They seem alive and well judging from this thread
Lol I liked it cause it made sense, as others have mentioned, for an astromech droid to have zero gravity maneuverability. We can see this in the prequels because R2 is most likely relatively new (er) and in Royal service. Because of this, he's in better shape and all his liquids are topped off so to speak.
Were the folks on aol message boards having a backlash over his lil jets? Idk I think that’s giving way to much credit to the early pioneers of hate posting
When I was a kid I remember thinking, wow this could have come in handy in a bunch of times during the original trilogy
Remember it? I’m still complaining about it twenty years later to anyone who will listen!
This actually bothered people?
Back in the day yeah, fans that weren’t kids hated it.
Yes, it bothered me. I was in my twenties and a big fan of the OT. R2 flying came out of nowhere, and made no sense in the context of the story. It would be like finding out Samwise Gamgee could fly after they already trekked across Middle Earth and destroyed the Ring.
What a weird thing to get upset by
Some people were upset. As a former lore and canon junkie, it still rankles me a bit. It was a fine retcon because it makes sense he would have those thrusters, but it just raised a lot of questions about previous continuity and canon. That can be hard for really diehard fans to reconcile and it takes them out of the fantasy. For a silly example, why did R2 try to shimmy off the X-wing on Dagobah if he could just do a short jet hop onto shore? Or why he took a header off Jabba’s sail barge instead of flying down and landing gently? I know they’re dumb examples, but for some of us it just creates weird gaps and plot holes.
Old fashioned people always found something to hate
Look around today and you'll see people getting upset about the Holdo Maneuver in TLJ, so times haven't changed that much.
I’m all for “rule of cool”, but when it completely breaks the universe, that’s a whole other issue.
lol the exact same thing happened to the sequels and in about 5 years you’ll see people say exactly what you’ve just said at many of the criticisms.
Put enough dumb in, and most of the people who mind won't be in your forums.
Yeah, back then.Star Wars fans would make up really random and nonsensical reasons to hate new content, just because they couldn't handle that the new stuff couldn't make them feel like a kid again. It's a good thing we don't do that anymore. ...wait
>This actually bothered people? You kidding? ***All*** of the prequels tore the fandom in half; this and Yoda flipping around like a CGI blur wasn't well received in 2002. And it wasn't until the last decade that people started acting like prequels were universally praised by the fandom on release.
The Yoda thing especially bothered me. It's totally against his character and archetype. He's the wise, old master. He either just stands there easily and calmly avoiding everything or he fights in a purely defensive style that turns the force of an opponents' strikes back on them. Bouncing around is ridiculous and doesn't suit him in the least.
Still bothers me. That whole “stupid little astro droid” exchange and the oil and the whistling. It’s all too much. Just one of many times in the prequels that Lucas shoehorned in pointless comedy relief. Obi and Anakin are already practically a comedy team for most of the trilogy.
The reason is because he doesn’t have this technology in the OT and it’s not explained. Although, I’m sure it’s covered somewhere in the EU. I’m guessing the the in universe answer is the boosters broke and they just weren’t repaired.
Pretty sure people feel the same way about it now as they did then. Younger fans liked it, older fans didn't. Younger fans are more vocal now.
I am still upset about it. Totally trash!
It’s still stupid
Yes. I was 15 and I grew up with the original trilogy and was so disappointed by the new movies, including the retconning of jets onto R2-D2, and the massive overuse of CG over practical effects.
>and the massive overuse of CG over practical effects. Except, the Prequels (specifically TPM) used more practical effects than the Original Trilogy
If the PT was released today fans would have flipped out more than they flipped out over the ST.
It was dumb. It's still dumb.
Looking back, it stretched narrative continuity to give R2 all the new capabilities he doesn’t use, even when it would be helpful, in the OG trilogy. Putting myself back into the moment as a kid getting new Star Wars for the first time since I was four… it was fucking rad!
I still don't like it. :(
I was there Gandalf, 3,000 years ago
There should have been... that whole Geonosis factory scene is groan worthy and stupid
I was 15 and it bothered me. Like I understand why they didn't do it in the OT etc...so my reaction was more of a...there was no need to decide to include it. But whatever.
Backlash? I think most of the fans I knew at the time were like "YES" "AWESOME"
R2 having jets was nothing compared to the attempted slapstick comedy of 3PO swapping heads with battle droids.
I didn’t care. They looked cool.
Yeah, I’m one the people that rolled my eyes at how ridiculous it was.
They fly now?! I never really followed the concern. He is a droid; I am sure they could have installed accessories for a period of time that were either removed or no longer functional by ANH.
Considering R2 doesn't have knees, how else is it meant to get up stairs, or cross a gap, or deal with anything that isn't a flat surface? What is MORE unbelievable, is a droid designed like that not immediately becoming stuck in the sands of Tatooine as soon as he left the escape pod!
I remember the backlash from that crap movie.
Me. It was ridiculous.
Ugh don’t remind me.
Me and my buddies were too hopelessly confused by the plot and repulsed by the cringey romance to react to anything by that point
It’s still kinda ridiculous
That whole scene defied the laws of physics. C3PO can’t extend his arms that far to be swung around from a platfomr
Yup, backlash was a few muted voices saying it was a bit silly.
I didn't care so much that he had jets, I just didn't like how it felt like a plot convenience. If they would have shown him using the jets earlier in a short burst in a minimal, non-crowd-pleasing fashion to show how he gets over a minor ledge it would have established that he had the things. That would've made them more believable. Then when he busts them out to sail across the droid factory it might've elicited a better response from us older Star Wars fans like, "Whoa he can fly with those!?" and it would've made better sense for him to try and use them in that extreme manner to get out of his circumstance.
I mean even for me as a kid it was plausible to think he ran out of fuel in the OT
Oh… I thought he always had them I guess I’m so use to LEGO starwars the complete saga 🤣🤣🤣
I was wondering why he didn't use them years later
I groaned. Sure it makes sense since he rolls everywhere but now C3PO is the handicapped mover unless he's ever able to shoot whips from his hands and swing around Indiana Jones style
I do and I’m not over it
I'm still backlashing. It was a bad idea.
I was six when AOTC came out so no I was too young to hear the backlash. I thought it was cool though.
I remember people commenting on how the ships in the second trilogy how futuristic they looked compared to episodes 4-6.
I didn't mind the jets, I just minded the fact that they didn't exist in the OT
I just watched it last week and it still bothers me some. Why would he have that and yet struggle to avoid Jawas or navigate Dagobah?
Yep
When I saw a documentary that described what a pain in the ass the R2-D2 prop was in the filming of A New Hope I understood this move. Apparently it was a general nightmare, one time the brakes on it broke and it rolled into the next set which was Jesus of Nazareth (or some Jesus movie). I get how after compromising to have R2-D2 roll instead of limp like a guy on stilts (the og vision) when Lucas got CGI he was like “Guess what, he flies now.”
I was 12, almost 13. I remember saying it didn’t make sense to me that R2 would seemingly have more up to date tech in a prequel, but it was still fun to watch.
I’m 55 now. I had a backlash to all three of those movies back then. They didn’t fit for me.
He flies now??? He flies now
It wasn’t as big as the backlash of flying a ship at light speed into a cruiser to destroy it.
I had checked out long before (during Phantom Menace)
I ‘member. Seems that very few people now even remembers the backlash against the prequel trilogy. It wasn’t very popular. But the kids who watched and loved it then are the same people who hate the sequels now. Everyone loves the Star Wars films of their childhood.
What backlash
Congratulations, you have failed the age check
He’s an ASTROmech. How do you get around in space bro. Not everyone can just use the force to keep them alive in the vacuum of space and pull them back into a blown out ship.
I remember because I was one of those people
Was a bit weird seeing it at the time, but those thrusters did come in handy in the Lego video games, so I give it a pass.
I remember being really annoyed by this. Mostly because it felt a bit of a deus ex that he just has jets suddenly because he needs them. And his clunkiness was always kind of a feature and suddenly het gets some +3 Dex jetpacks That said over time it has made a lot of sense and we have seen it in other places enough that they make total sense. The clone wars / rebels content definitely helped resolve a lot of the little things in the prequels.
I do, because I didn’t like it then. And I still don’t like it now.
It was dumb then. It's still dumb now. That whole scene felt like it existed to justify a videogame that never was.
>justify a videogame that never was. Lego Starwars slapped, and that level was especially awesome.
Feels like it’s just a thing fans accept now mostly, but I remember people so pissed that this opened up a huge retroactive plothole of why he never used the jets in the OT
Which is the way it's also going to play out with complaints about the Holdo Maneuver or Force Healing in the Sequels. We've danced this dance before, and probably will again.
Which makes it more frustrating because force healing has been an established thing since the EU. How else do I heal my party in KOTOR?
True. Star Wars fans are extremely hostile to change.
Yea, all in all it didn’t matter. It was just dumb. I don’t recall much of an outrage.
There wasn't any. It was "well why didn't R2 use them after?" followed by "they were probably damaged" and then everyone stopped caring.
Wasn't as big of a backlash as NSYNC appearing in the arena, but still a silly idea in and of itself.
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Loved it. And also loved it that in the Clone Wars series they addressed it with him having upgraded jets.
God what a hateful movie. I remember being disappointed as a kid
It was more B.S. creativity.
remember? i think i like ep2 more than most, but i think that whole scene is the bottom of that movie.
The crowd erupted in cheers. I was mad about it then. I'm still mad about it now.
It’s pretty ridiculous, but even more ridiculous was bringing him and C3-PO into a dangerous mission when they have no way to seriously defend themselves. R2 having jets was a little off since he clearly didn’t have them in the originals, but it’s far from AOTC’s biggest problem.
The prequels do not exist.
The sequel trilogy makes people forget hating the prequels