BB-8 has a shock prod.
BB-8's gesture to Finn
- Thread starter Matthew Raymond
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BB-8 also has a holographic projector. He could have just projected a thumbs up emoji.
"Thumbs up emoji? What are the two of you plotting?!!
Never been to a rock concert when people wave their lit lighters in the air as a symbol of their approval, I take it?
That custom didn't start until Woodstock, whereas The Force Awakens happened long long ago, in a galaxy far far away.
Where humans have evolved and English is a spoken language along with many regional accents found in English-speaking areas on Earth. Is it not possible people there have waved lighters in the air as a symbol of their approval at some point?
And.."long long ago, in a galaxy far far away," relative to whom? 
But it is made by people living here, today.
It could be as simple as mimicry, with BB-8 imitating Finn's gesture as a sign of camaraderie.
They're obviously channeling past lives. (That, and the fact that the interior of the Millennium Falcon in no way resembles a rock concert, so the custom of holding up a lighter makes no sense in that context.)
Nyet. BB-8 was visibly distressed at discovering that Finn was not in the Resistance, and he hesitated to tell Rey and Finn the location of the Resistance base. Clearly, he was pressured into doing something he didn't necessarily want to do. In that context, an expression of friendship makes little sense. Conversely, "If you cross me I will BURN YOU!" makes a lot of sense, especially from a sassy droid.
I think that's reading too much in to it.
Perhaps. It may also be that I subconsciously find it creepy that BB-8 would give up classified information to Rey and Finn and keep Finn's secret to help him score points with her. That's taking the term "wingman" way too non-literally.
One would actually think that BB-8 would have a more significant emotional bond with Rey, who first saved him, then refused to sell him, then protected him again. At the point of the "thumbs up" in the film, Rey had basically already proven her trustworthiness and loyalty, whereas Finn just admitted to lying about being a Resistance fighter a moment before. For all BB-8 knows at that point, Finn may have killed Poe and taken the jacket off of his dead corpse.
I think that's putting too much thought process in to BB-8's reaction. I think BB-8 was weighing the importance of getting the information to the Resistance and trusting Finn.
It was. It painfully was. And it was confirmed by the people responsible for it, too. No matter how much a small number of people want to believe otherwise.
I took it as him returning the thumbs up, people who saw it as a bird-flip given the context of the scene have some issues. I mean, who even says that flipping the bird is a gesture in the Star Wars universe? (Please, please, PLEASE don't bring up EU stuff.)
But in the scene, he was returning Finn's thumb's up. (Which I guess, is also why is that a gesture there too, but one could argue there's more "logic" in that gesture given the importance of thumbs, and the origins of how "flipping the bird" came to be.) BB-8 is a "kid's character" and thus has that child/pet-like innocence to him, him flipping the bird is "out of character" for him in th role he serves, we're not shown/told he has quite the "attitude" and snark it's implied R2 has. If it was R2? I could certainly see it being a bird-flip. But BB's "personality" was clearly more clean and innocent. It was a thumbs up.
Better question, why did BB-8 have a lighter in him? What possible use could it have? Yeah there's "death sticks" but it seems to me there'd be more convenient ways to ignite it than to have to crouch down to your knees to light it on the appendage of a two-foot tall droid ona crude blue flame no-less. Certainly there's "light-saber"-style cigarette lighters.
But in the scene, he was returning Finn's thumb's up. (Which I guess, is also why is that a gesture there too, but one could argue there's more "logic" in that gesture given the importance of thumbs, and the origins of how "flipping the bird" came to be.) BB-8 is a "kid's character" and thus has that child/pet-like innocence to him, him flipping the bird is "out of character" for him in th role he serves, we're not shown/told he has quite the "attitude" and snark it's implied R2 has. If it was R2? I could certainly see it being a bird-flip. But BB's "personality" was clearly more clean and innocent. It was a thumbs up.
Better question, why did BB-8 have a lighter in him? What possible use could it have? Yeah there's "death sticks" but it seems to me there'd be more convenient ways to ignite it than to have to crouch down to your knees to light it on the appendage of a two-foot tall droid ona crude blue flame no-less. Certainly there's "light-saber"-style cigarette lighters.
Butane torch makes as much sense as a cigarette lighter. I doubt on space ships they do much welding/burning/soldering with butane when they have freakin laser-swords that can melt dense metals.
