Star Wars TCW...why no Republic droids?

[Gotham Central]

While I enjoy Star Wars: The Clone Wars, i must admit that I'm at a loss to explain why the Republic uses clones instead of droids.

Relying on clones seems like a really inefficient way of waging war. Even if you accept that the Republic needed the Clones to serve as the backbone of the Grand Army of the Republic...it still does not explain why they are not supplemented with battle droids.

 

[6079SmithW]

It was explained on Kamino in AOTC. The Kamino guy was telling Obi that clones are far more effective then droids because they are sentient and can actually think as opposed to the programming of droids. In short, clones can come up with creative ways to win whereas droids only have linear logic programming.

 

[David cgc]

^Daniel Graystone could've made a killing in that war. Cylons were the best of both worlds, sentient robots.

Hm. Exactly how long a time ago was Star Wars, anyway?

Seriously, though, it doesn't explain why droids weren't used in support roles. Automated fighter back-up to the manned ships, or destroyer-droids used to soften up enemy emplacements or defend friendly ones. Still, I've grown tired of banging my head against the wall with a friend of mine who insists the gospel truth is that in four years of war and a hundred thousand light years of space, there wasn't a single fighter pilot in the Grand Army of the Republic who wasn't a clone or a jedi. I'll just accept that the TOE of both sides in the Clone Wars was rank, unworkable, doctrinaire idiocy because someone either in-universe or behind the scenes was worried people would get confused if one side wasn't all clones and the other side wasn't all droids, and never the twain shall meet.

 

[Christopher]

Speaking metatextually, partly it's the same old "Nature good, technology bad" mentality that defined the original trilogy, particularly ROTJ with the Ewoks defeating the Stormtroopers. Also, there was an element of making the enemy faceless and depersonalized so that the heroes could kill them in droves without it seeming morally problematical. In the OT this was done by putting Stormtroopers in face-concealing helmets and robotic uniforms, and in the PT it was taken to its logical extreme by having the bad-guy soldiers be literally robots, so that the heroes could mow them down with no ethical qualms. Conversely, however, the troops on the good guys' side had to be living beings so that the bad guys would seem more evil for killing them. It's a way to create the illusion of a moral difference between the two sides even though they're basically using the same methods.

Besides, the term "Clone Wars" has been around as part of the series' backstory since A New Hope, so Lucas had to work clones into the conflict somehow. But if there had been clone troopers on both sides, that might've gotten confusing.

 

[od0_ital]

^

A long, long time ago.

As for the clones vs droids argument, seems to me that the folks who were makin' the battle droids were on the side of the "bad guys."

 

[Mr Light]

Public opinion would be to hate and fear combat droids, so why are they going to trust their own army to be comprised of the "enemy"? Particularly when they clearly have no moral compunctions about the slavery and sacrifice of the clone troopers.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Droids in the SW universe are often portrayed so innocuously and cutely that I have a hard time seeing why they would be rejected in combat support roles by popular opinion. SW people simply live their lives with swarms of droids all over the place. It would be like us balking at the notion of the internal combustion engine being used in combat.

For me, the far bigger issue is how the Republic can rationalize breeding sentient beings for combat. It would be less unethical to use droids for that purpose, and if they're less effective, so what? It's okay to do immoral things just because they're more effective? Sounds like Sith philosophy to me.

 

[Whofan]

In the New Jedi Order, the Republic/Jedi do start using battle droids, although they're of a different type than the Trade Federation/Seperatist types. Also they look like Terminators, since they're suppossed to resemble the main enemy of the NJO series, who have a skeleton-like appearence.



There are some Republic Droids in the Clone Wars era...but of course they're mainly the 'background' droids we see everywhere..R2s, protocols, 'gonks' medical droids etc.

Some of the EU also state that the Empire dabbled in battle droids as well. IG-88 (ESB bounty hunter), before his model was retconned as part of the Clone Wars era, was said to be an Imperial experiment in battle droids. The original Dark Forces game deals with the Dark Troopers, hulking droid Stormtroopers (Which interestingly, in some ways resemble the Super Battle droids). Dark Empire II also deals with battle droids as part of it's storyline.


There was also a mention at the end of the TPM novel that the Trade Federation stuff was all handed over to the Republic. However this seems to have been retconned by the two prequels which still see plenty of TPM-type droids.