Our Conflicted Feelings For R2-D2

I am your father.” The iconic line from Star Wars, in which Luke Skywalker discovers the real identity of Darth Vader, marks the point in the series when two polar opposites that had been cleanly divided—the Jedi and the Dark Side—are suddenly mixed together in the most personal of ways.

This ambiguity of opposition, which is part of what makes the series so compelling, is well known. There is another example of this opposition, though, that is easier to overlook: Star Wars both humanizes machines, so that we can like them, and dehumanizes them, so we can accept their slaughter.

By the conclusion of the series,