Should killing droids be murder?

Should it be hippocritical that it isn't dark side to kill a sentient droid, alive and aware? Or is this a blindspot that's not noticed? What does the RPG tome have to say about that? Not that I'm curious, but perhaps I am.

Where does the line get drawn over the Imperial infested waters with this subject? Are droids real things? Hamil translated Artoo "by power of the Force" in Courtship of Princess Leia. The silly energy field binds all life, as that puppet said. Not to be confused with the sentient droid thread, please, only if murder is viewed diferently in this matter, perhaps then Joiner King's dark side is more grey.

 

Excellent point. I do so love a debate about drawing lines between the us and not us...

I'll go out on a limb and say yes. "The question is not whether they can think, but whether they can feel." (Can't recall whose definition of animal rights that was, but it seemed pertinent to this issue.)

And as we have at least a couple of instances where droids show that they dread destruction, I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and say they feel by any definition and they are self-aware. I'm not even sure they need to be part of the Force to acquire the right not to be killed/murdered/terminated.

 

Indeed, there are some books that are mentioning that something as minor as a freight lift (Isard's Revenge) or automated fire hydrant (Dark Rendezvous) has actual droid-awareness. Or are droids just talking furniture?

 

From an RPG standpoint, droids do not exist within the Force (other than being metal and can be affected by it), but Force powers which affect mental faculties (Affect Mind, Drain Knowledge, Telepathy, etc.) are considered to be 100% ineffective.

Hence, sentient yet non-living.

 

Non-living in the sense that they don?t create and affect the Force like biological life. But why would that be the only valid definition? Why would one consider that a valid definition in the first place? It certainly has no bearing on the definitions in our world.

By the majority of the definitions in our world, it would be easy to claim that droids are life forms.

Even within the SW universe, it?s easy to claim that the actions of droids affect the flow of the Force just as much as the actions of bio-life. R2 has certainly aided the flow of the Force by saving innumerable lives of his own will. And though I?m not fully up of his story, I?m sure IG-88 has negatively affected the flow of the Force quite a number of times.

 

Droids actually have to exist within the force, jedi are able to lift and throw droids (Luke ESB, Obi-Wan TPM, etc) The vong who are stripped of the force cannot be sensed and hence manipulated are the counterpoint.

Because the parts of a droid must exist in the force, the whole must also. Droids can be sentient as well, as evidenced by R2 and the droids in MBS.

In short you should be tried for murder if you destroy a droid. If a droid murders a human it would face the same sort of justice.

 

At which point is a droid 'killed' though?

 

Fidelis (or was it Solis?)' "death" in Dark Rendezvous gave me shivers. It was slickly written, full of horror, revulsion and a sickening lilt.

 

I was asked for an RPG answer and I gave it.

Droids do not exist within the Force.

You can MOVE their metal parts and destroy them with the Force.
You cannot SEE them in the Force.
You cannot FEEL them in the Force.
You cannot COMMUNICATE with them using the Force.

Hence, sentient but non-living.

 

Droids are more alive to me than a lot of the flesh and blood characters.

Killing them be murder? Yes!

 

What about Skippy?

 

No. Killing Gunguns and younglings should not be considered murder either.

 

Ahem... The force is everything and everything is the force.

The 7th(?) NJO novel describes a small but interesting scene, which could be an excellent (sorry) contribution to this thread.

A Jedi Knight defended a bunch of droids from a frightened mob, scared of the YV. Some droid asked the Jedi why he risked his life for them and he told him (it?) they do not deserve destruction.

So, I guess the Jedi believe killing a droid is some kind of murder. On the other hand you can say that the Jedi weren't exactly united at this time. Oh, well...

 

IIRC, Luke could sense 3PO in Truce At Bakura.

Since Vong do not exist in the force, does that mean that killing one is not murder?
What about trees?

 

Being felt in the Force isn't the be-all, end-all of life. Vong and Ysalamiri really can't be felt. Why are droids the exception?

Is it because they're metal? We have iron in our blood, calcium in our bones and magnesium in our... what does magnesium do, anyway?

 

I recall that in the original Jedi Knight, destroying a droid is considered to be equivalent to killing an innocent bystander in the sense that you drift ever closer to the dark side each time that you do that.

 

Thank you! Wait, a cofactor? Oh, I'll look it up myself.

 

Thank you again.

And to stay on topic... I believe droids are an invisible slave class.

 

I'd have liked to have seen their behaviour in The Sith Lords, alas . . .

 

I don't remember which book i read that 3PO was quite worried about droids being destroyed and i thought that droids in a way are like slaves and there is some animosity in the galaxy towards them so destroying them would be like murder. Most droids help civilization in the galaxy and are in a position were people are really dependant on them. Destroying them is murder and by doing that may cripple the ones who depend on their services.

 

Unless a droid has emotions or sentaince (which only only the smartest out of five intelligence catagories have) then they are objects and property. They were created to obey and serve and that is what they shall do.

Vong Side rant
If the Vong are outside the force, then can't the Jedi feel the gaping wholes in the force where the vong are? And why don't force powers work? If the force pushes on them, they should still be pushed. Besides if that doesn't work, push the air around them to send them flying. Force lightning is 100% internal from what I can tell, so shouldn't the VOng still get zapped?

Pointless side rant: The force, despite being called "energy, acts more like an universal force, along the lines of gravity and magnetism.

 

Perhaps Kyle Katarn's MSE massacres are what drove him to the Dark Side? He didn't really need all those batteries...