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In Attack of the Clones, R2-D2 uses rocket thrusters to fly around the droid factory on Geonosis. To my knowledge, the droid never uses them to fly around in any of the other films (and it has already been asked Why did R2-D2 not fly in Return of the Jedi?).

Has there been any other work, in Disney Canon or in Legends, in which R2-D2 has used its rocket thrusters to fly? If not, has there ever been a reason given for why the droid has not used them since?

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He uses them again (very briefly) in the next film, Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith in the scene in the hangar:

Gif showing R2-D2 activating his thrusters over an oil spill with two battle droids on it; he flies away lighting the oil on fire and lands safely outside of it. The battle droids slip in the oil and burn.

and again later in the scene, to escape from a pile of debris:

Gif showing R2's periscope peering out of a pile of debris; he then activates his thrusters and flies out

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    What I don't get is why that burning oil slick trick worked - they're droids. They're designed for battle. Surely they could take a little fire for longer than the 2 seconds it took to knock them out. That whole scene exists just because somebody thought it'd be cool to let R2 have a fight scene for once.
    – Darrel Hoffman
    Jan 31, 2016 at 19:41
  • @DarrelHoffman Well, the fire was hot enough to visibly melt their bodies. This ain't no WD-40, this is some pretty serious "oil". And yet, the flames are quite reddish, hmm... are those battle droids built from cheap plastic?!
    – Luaan
    Jan 31, 2016 at 22:51
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Yes, several times in The Clone Wars cartoon. For example in S01E07, "Duel of the Droids", he uses them at the end of the episode to escape onto Anakin's ship.

R2 activates his thrusters to fly off of a platform and into the droid slot on Anakin's fighter which is hovering and waiting nearby

And a link to a high-quality webm of the scene and a smaller version of the same clip

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R2D2 uses his rockets quite a bit in The Clone Wars cartoon.

Ahsoka in red runs downa hallway with a green lightsaber in both hands ignited; besides her is R2 flying with his thrusters; two clone troopers leaping into the air are following behind with their weapons drawn

R2 flies in the sky with his thrusters following a Jedi on a four winged creature up towards a building on a tall thin rocky formation

At one point R2-D2 is part of a special droid task force and has his rockets upgraded for the mission. "Secret Weapons" The Clone Wars s5:e10.

As @Richard says he appears to have used them in Revenge of the Sith as well (although I had no memory of it).

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Early in Revenge of the Sith R2D2 briefly uses its thrusters to start a fire (after spraying some sort of black combustible liquid - possibly oil) to destroy 2 droids as Anakin and Obi-Wan are elsewhere attempting to save Palpatine, as shown in this clip:

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