I recently read an interesting theory that posits that the entire ‘Star Wars’ saga is a story being told by R2-D2 to person or machines unknown, explaining not only his premise as central to every episode to date, but various continuity glitches and storytelling eccentricities. Certain things, he didn’t care about; others, he didn’t know. And the treatment of his pal C-3PO as butt monkey? Well, that just cracks him up. It’s an interesting theory, if only because R2 gets to play big ol’ heroic robot cavalry in nearly every SW flick, leading to today’s clockwork query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) would still put my money on B-9, the environmental control robot from ‘Lost In Space’, who was not only heroic but possessed of a spectacularly dry wit, asking: Which automaton is the most heroic robot of all?
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Ever since I read that ages ago in some old Star Wars magazine, I’ve been hoping that is how the main series would end. Not the franchise, of course, just the end of the main series (because as much as I love Star Wars, I’d love to see them making more spin-offs and stand-alone films rather than just focusing on the Skywalker story).
I tried hard to think of a reason to say Tom Servo or Crow, but I just couldn’t. I love ’em, I just cannot think of them in any heroic capacity (although they DID sit through some of the worst movies ever). So I have to go with good old R2-D2.
Excluding androids and cyborgs, I got to go with R2-D2. He’s always there when most needed like an armless cavalry.
I’d put the Iron Giant above Artoo, he’s just got more of the classic “Hero’s Journey” to his story. Artoo’s always just there, doing his thing; no real heroic arc.
I’d considered Wall-E, but the Iron Giant wins for his triumph being a tale both of overcoming external opposition and of overcoming his own inner demons/programming.
I’m going to go with K-9, always there to help the Doctor and Sarah-Jane. And like any hero, he was willing to sacrifice himself to save the planet and his friends. (Even if the Doctor just repaired him at the end of the episode)
I was really torn between Artoo and K-9. I wasn’t sure, though, if my choice of K-9 had actual merit, or if I was only going his way because of how much I love the setting of Doctor Who (and, gods help me, I even enjoyed the kinda dull K-9 spinoff).
I am going to have to go deep on this one:
Dinobot, from Transformers: Beast Wars.” The episode “Code of Hero” is an excellent summary of the hero’s journey, and Dinobot played the role well.