Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker providing some of the most memorable and emotional moments in the movie saga. At the same time, droids are very often treated the same way as any other machine, being bought, traded, or abandoned. With droids treated like disposable objects, it's easy to sympathize with L3-37's opinions.
The theme of freedom is central to Solo. L3-37's beliefs tie into this, even though they're not treated with the same gravity as that afforded to her biological counterparts — a fact which would frustrate her deeply. Her personal goal is quite obviously to be free and remain that way, reinforcing the movie's core message. The question is left open, however, as to whether becoming part of the Millennium Falcon at her story's conclusion is a fitting end for her character. On the one hand, becoming a starship and traveling across the galaxy could be seen as the ultimate expression of freedom. On the other hand, only ever being able to do as instructed and go only to the places you're told to seems like the very definition of servitude. Viewed in the latter light, many have criticized L3-37's fate as not only horrifying for her personally, but as contrary to the movie's core idea.
L3-37 inadvertently raises questions about Star Wars more generally. If droids have the capacity to become fully sentient, it's worth examining whether or not they should be allowed to. Questions of whether or not all Star Wars droids are capable of the same literal self-improvement, and what constitutes self-awareness, are interesting ones. However, this carries uncomfortable implications if it turns out that the most beloved characters in Star Wars have been owning sentient beings all along. While largely absent from Star Wars, similar ideas about AI have been explored deeply by other stories, such as The Animatrix, Ex Machina, and the Mass Effect games.
How Droids Are Often Treated In Star Wars
The general attitude towards droids in Star Wars is summed up neatly by one line in Star Wars: A New Hope, he doesn't seem to R2-D2 at all.
Obi-Wan probably feels this way because of the way droids are treated in-universe. Star Wars media shows that droids typically follow the same pattern. While newly manufactured, like the Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith — something which he seems clearly upset about. Alongside memory wipes, droids are often fitted with a restraining bolt. These small devices restrict what a droid is able to do, prohibiting them from taking autonomous actions. While considered perfectly normal by organic beings, droids in Star Wars often show unease, disgust, or even horror at the idea of being fitted with one.
Not all Star Wars characters share Obi-Wan's dismissiveness about droids, however. Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Having been raised as a slave himself, it makes sense for Anakin to have greater sympathy for droids than Obi-Wan. Judging by how frequently R2-D2 uses his own initiative, disobeys instructions, and shows complex emotions, it's likely that he's never had his memory wiped at all, allowing him to develop a far deeper personality than his hapless companion C-3PO.
L3-37 Proved Droids Can Better Themselves
Solo's L3-37 is a fascinating character, proving Obi-Wan wrong and showing that droids in Star Wars can not only think, but they can improve themselves beyond what organic beings are capable of. Canonically, she started life as an unassuming astromech droid much like R2-D2. She eventually used a workshop full of spare droid parts to upgrade herself considerably, with a humanoid form and a vastly expanded memory. During her appearance in Solo, L3-37 is likely one of the most autonomous and self-aware droids in the entire galaxy.
There are other droids in Star Wars who show similar levels of sentience to L3-37. The assassin droid IG-88 was one of the The Mandalorian's planet Nevarro. It's unclear whether the droid was modified by an owner or if it made the changes itself.
The potential for droids to upgrade themselves beyond what organic beings are capable of is never explored fully in Star Wars, but it's worth noting that several main characters in the series are cyborgs, being a mixture of living and machine parts. Two extreme examples are Darth Vader and General Grievous. Following his defeat by Obi-Wan during Revenge of the Sith, Anakin Skywalker is rescued by Emperor Palpatine and given an upgraded body which significantly increases his height and strength. As Obi-Wan notes during A New Hope, "He's more machine than man now." Star Wars' lightsaber-wielding General Grievous is also made significantly more fearsome through artificial enhancements, after canonically making the choice himself. By the time he faces Obi-Wan during Revenge of the Sith, his only remaining organic parts are his brain, eyes, and a few internal organs.
Droids Blur The Line Between Living And Non-Living
As Star Wars' prominent cyborg characters add uncertainty to the distinction between organic and artificial beings, so the droids do the same from the other direction. Several droids show both intelligence and emotion, from the fear showed by D-0 during The Rise of Skywalker to the stubborn single-mindedness of R2-D2 during A New Hope, to the joy shown by BB-8 on realizing that Poe survived the crash during Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Whether or not they can be considered truly alive is a fascinating question which Star Wars has yet to fully address, probably because it comes with the far deeper philosophical question of what it even means to be alive.
The droid soldiers in the prequel trilogy are likely to be little more than the bland machines most people believe them to be, being manufactured specifically for war and with little experience or time to develop into fully sentient beings. R2-D2, on the other hand, has seemingly never been memory wiped throughout the entire core saga of movies, allowing him to develop a full and unique personality. This raises the question of what point exactly a droid might be considered sentient in their own right. Similar ideas were raised in Starfleet to take harsh action, banning synthetics. A similar question is, at what point might a cyborg no longer be considered alive. If General Grievous had replaced his organic brain with a synthetic one while keeping his personality and memories fully intact, would that render him no longer alive? If so, would people then be able to buy and sell him or wipe his memories like any other droid?
This question is raised most poignantly by IG-11 during The Mandalorian. Initially an assassin droid sent to kill baby Grogu, he's defeated and then reprogrammed with the complete opposite of his original purpose. His self-professed base function becomes "to nurse and protect." While it's not clear whether or not this includes a memory wipe, his newfound companions have time to emotionally bond with him as a result. IG-11's final moment in The Mandalorian is a heroic sacrifice to save Grogu, with the line: “There is nothing to be sad about. I was never alive." Nevarro City is later shown to have erected a statue of IG-11 to honor him, which is very much not the kind of respect afforded to a simple machine.
It would be interesting to see future canon Star Wars stories spend more time exploring the question of whether droids deserve better treatment by their organic companions. While Solo: A Star Wars Story painted L3-37 as a caricature of activism and a subject of ridicule, her point remains an extremely valid one, especially considering the recurring themes of slavery and servitude in Star Wars. Perhaps it'll never be addressed whether or not droids can truly count as living sentient beings. Perhaps that doesn't really matter. If they have all the traits of sentience, maybe that's all they need to deserve a better lot in life.
