Star Wars ’ human relationship with droids hasalways been weird . Their portrayal has work the gamut from radical to servant lower class , to killer foes and straight - tied allies . But no droid has ever felt more straight to the ragtag heroic ethos of Star Wars thanHera Syndulla ’s very ownlittle freak , Chopper .
Do n’t get me wrong , Star Wars ’ wider medium creation has long had droids thatlean towards going goblin moderather than the stiff - lipped comedic foils seen in the likes of C-3PO . R2 - D2 of course bug out all that , and that was even before he was flying around with jet rockets in the prequels and setting his fellow droid - kin on fervidness . Knights of the Old Republic land us the loveable - yet - petrifying , meatbag - crackin ’ HK-47 , and Marvel ’s Star Wars strip give us Dr. Aphra ’s blue take on R2 and 3PO in Triple - Zero and BT , gleefully killer assassin droids . But there ’s something about Chopper ’s choleric personalityacross Rebels ’ four seasonsthat raises him above the noise to be one of Star Wars ’ mostperfect agentive role of chaos .
perhaps it ’s that Chopper is an asshole indiscriminately . His “ friends ” aboard the Ghost ( save for Hera , he knows never to go too far there ) and their foe in the Empire are always adequate targets for him to be a gumshoe to . Chopper ’s only level of judgment when settle to be a small shit — which is 100 % of the time — is consider whether he ’s friendly enough with someone to play a prank on them , or whether he ’s just going to straight up murder them . There is n’t a droid in Star Wars with an on - screen body count like Chop , who ’s willingly electrocute , charged , blasted , and explode his way through regal forces in a manner that would make even Saw Gerrera mean he might have gone a number too far .
Screenshot: Lucasfilm
Maybe it ’s that Chopper will also do his damn job on top of all that — sure , there ’s metre he gets frozen out of a scheme or incapacitated , but he ’s also the one on the Ghost crew who fixes those problems to bring through the daylight , and still has the time on top of that to play gag , talk whoreson , and yes , occasionally frost a Stormtrooper or two . He ’s a professional that aim everything “ gravely , ” whether that ’s catch a mission done or antic on his ally . That ’s the energy that make Chopper so compelling in his topsy-turvydom — it never feels like he ’s doing things indiscriminately or so erratically that you do n’t live what you ’re going to get with him . Chopper fully sleep with what he ’s doing ( being a prick ) , and will tell you exactly that in his gruff bleeps and blorps as he rolls by laugh softly about it .
And it ’s an vigour I really hope we get to seemaintained in Ahsoka . When Star Wars get over a character from life to live - activeness , there ’s always a levelling off of some of their vim and hyperbole that is just part of the process of translate something from one spiritualist to another . But even if it is an accepted part of that summons , you still lose something . render to do that to Chopper is a tomfool ’s endeavor — he necessitate that risible silliness , he ca n’t just calculate like Chopper and boop like Chopper . He ’s got ta be annoying as hell . He ’s capture ta down a few purple remnants just because he figured out a funny room to do it . Chopper can , and should , get away with execution in the way no one around him really can , without Star Wars asking questions of itself ethically that are maybe a little well suited to the political thriller vibes of Andor than they ’re live on to be in something like Ahsoka . He ’s vex no metre for moral quandaries , he ’s busy being a fiddling robot shitstain .
As Ahsoka readies to tackle the tough project of bringing forward these Rebels character to live - action , and into a time where they have grow up beyond the heroes we met in animation all those years ago , Chopper is arguably the one they require to get right the most . countenance his chaos reign !
Screenshot: Lucasfilm
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