Star Wars’ best droids, from C3PO and R2D2 to R-3X

No matter what you want out of Star Wars, we can all agree on one thing: It wouldn’t be the same without the droids.

Big droids, little droids, talkative droids, quiet droids — they’re all (mostly) good, in one way or another. Which are the most effective? That’s what we’re here to determine today.

We’ve surveyed the esteemed staff of Polygon, mining through the depths of Star Wars droid-dom to find the best and the brightest of our mechanical friends.

EG-series power droid

Lucasfilm

George Lucas and his team of art school hippies dreamt up the EG-series power droid before anything in Star Wars was really “toyetic.” Instead, the “gonk” droid was introduced in Star Wars as a mess of screws and metal sheeting, bumbling around the Jawas’ Sandcrawler and later the Lars moisture farm. (But, obviously, EG-6 did receive a Kenner action figure — a plastic box with feet.)

This robot is both a tragic and a wonderful machine. Its in-world purpose, it is said, is to provide energy for various machines and vehicles. The EG models, in Star Wars movies were the droid equivalent to a background actor. They walked about and made low-toned honks. EG-6 is Star Wars’ Eeyore, and I wish to give him a hug. —Matt Patches

R-3X

Image: Getty

Rex, also known as. R-3X (aka RX-24), aka Star Tours’ original droid. Rex drove the intergalactic version of the bus crosstown. Rex was forced to abandon his dream of a long and successful career when he took a tour bus into battle with the Rebel Alliance. Rex kept everyone alive (multiple times a day at Disney theme parks), so you’d think the droid would be rewarded. No. But no. —Chris Plante

B2EMO

Image: Lucasfilm/Disney

From the jump, B2EMO is living up to the name: If you want a vaguely emo robot, this is the droid you’re looking for. And though B2 is only around sparingly (or at least, far less than I’d care for) in the first few episodes of AndorThis makes a great impression. Perhaps its standout moment is when it offers to lie for Cassian — “I have the adequate power reserves!” — and then drooping upon hearing the lie involves both saying it doesn’t know where Cassian is or when he was seen (“That’s two lies,” B2EMO wilts.) Like many of Star Wars’ droids, B2EMO’s magic comes from its ability to emote with just a few whirs of its gears and compressions of its hardware. It speaks with the monotone sound of text-to speech software. The droid is not as helpful as it should. That’s all it could do. AndorIt would suffice. Let’s hear it for the little boxy red guy! —Zosha Millman

R2-D2

Lucasfilm

R2-D2 was my favorite Star Wars character. R2-D2 is a veteran. It is clear that he has seen it all and it makes it obvious to other characters that his way of thinking is most likely the best. This is made all the more funny by the fact he can only communicate in beeps, so we only get the reaction of how sarcastic he’s being. Also, R2-D2 can be a bit shit. It is amazing how shitty this droid can be. He laughs at his closest friends. He hurls his entire body at them to get their attention. Because he loves them, he irritates them. His love language, being annoying, is my understanding. This scene sums up my love for R2-D2 best. Return of the Jedi, when C-3PO runs into him at Jabba’s palace and is completely shocked to See also: him. 3PO asks R2 what he’s doing there, to which R2 replies in a series of beeps (of course). “Well, I can see you’re serving drinks,” snaps C-3PO. —Petrana Radulovic

C-3PO

Image: Lucasfilm/Disney

His love of languages is infectious and he is a natural fluent speaker. He is also a persistent pester for trivia and facts. You can relate. —Pete Volk

HK-47

Image: Bioware

Statement: HK47 can’t be included on any list of Star Wars droids that isn’t complete with HK-47. First introduced in 2003’s Star Wars: Knights of the Old RepublicHK-47, an assassin droid, becomes a member of a party after the main character buys him on Tatooine. Personality-wise, HK-47 can be best described as a trigger-happy android with an affinity for unadulterated violence and calling humans “meatbags.” In short, he’s like if Bender from FuturamaStar Wars was a universe that existed. Isn’t that amazing? That’s because he is. —Toussaint Égan

K-2SO

Image: Lucasfilm/Disney

Alan Tudyk speaks out about the inprogrammed Imperial Droid. Rogue OneHe is the movie’s most iconic character, and arguably his best. The sassy droid became an instant fan favorite, and managed to avoid the easy pitfall of a talkative droid being obnoxious, thanks to Tudyk’s hilarious voice performance and the strong ensemble cast surrounding him. —PV

L3-37

Image: Lucasfilm/Disney

The time Rogue One Solo rolled around, Star Wars creators seemed to be actively looking for ways to give droids more personality, and to break them out of the “cute comic-relief characters and all-purpose problem-solving plot devices” mode that R2-D2 and C-3PO established in the original trilogy. Solo’s L3-37 (voiced, acted, and often scripted by FleabagPhoebe Waller Bridge (creator and star) was more adventurous than others. Self-built from a combination of protocol droid and astromech parts, with a lot of revolutionary ideas and aggressive goals about how droids should be freed from human control, she had a greater personal agenda than other droids.

The effects designers extended that to her design: Her visibly scrapped-together body moves and walks in a janky, junky, hipshot way that’s entertaining all on its own, even leaving aside her endlessly confrontational one-liners and enjoyably terse relationship with her partner, Lando Calrissian. The tragic end of her story — turned into a silent spaceship mod — is one of the worst and most frustrating “deaths” in Star Wars history, but it’s pretty par for the course in a franchise that’s always been pretty cavalier about what happens to its sentient mechanical people. —Tasha Robinson

2-1B

Lucasfilm

First, he was the coolest Star Wars action figure. With that near-death’s head face, he could be a bounty hunter. With that… microphone-looking thing attached to the hose on his side, he could open for the Max Rebo band or the Creature Cantina, like a cyborg Harry Connick Jr. 2-1B launched in 1981, part of the third wave of figures. This powerful message sent to second-graders like me that Kenner was going to give us all what we saw the previous summer. Even massive head-wound Dengar (part of 2-1B’s class).

But he’s a consequential, if minor, character in the films, too. He supervises Luke’s bacta bath after the Wampa attack, and bacta has since become an important concept in video games and TV shows. He sews up Luke’s scars — but not perfectly, because they were written in after Mark Hamill was in a (nearly fatal) car accident in early 1977. He then fits Luke with his new right-hand (in an extremely cool effect scene), after Dad has it removed in Cloud City.

Mostly, he’s my favorite because of that cool action figure. —Owen S. Good

ME-8D9

Lucasfilm

I don’t have a choice when it comes to which droid is my favorite because one of them is named after my sister, so the decision was pretty much made for me. But beyond her name’s origins, I can’t tell you much about ME-8D9. According to my trusted sources (the internet), she worked at Maz Kanata’s castle and used to be an assassin, which seems pretty cool. Also, my sister is cool so it all works out. —Sadie Gennis