Just wondering following from this and this question, do we actually ever see (or have evidence of) Jedi successfully (or even attempting) to use their 'mind tricks' on Droids?
asked May 10, 2015 at 5:04
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5 Answers
In the Star Wars novel The Truce at Bakura, Luke Skywalker is able to extract a deadly parasite he was poisoned with with from his lungs using the Force. In the Clone Wars cartoon series, several of the Jedi Masters are able to dismantle droids and use their nuts and bolts to rip through them.
A Jedi cannot manipulate an android's mind per se, but if you follow the canon of story where they are insanely powerful and able to manipulate things on a small scale using the Force, then it could be reasoned that a Jedi with the knowledge of building and programming droids (e.g. Anakin Skywalker), could reprogram a droid using the Force; effectively altering/controlling its mind.
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1What you reason towards is called Machine Empathy in certain settings. While all mutations are treasonous, having the Machine Empathy mutation is highly treasonous. Are you feeling okay, Djs-R-DOG? Do you need some more Wakey-Wakey pills, or perhaps some time in an HPD&MC correctional spa? Dec 17, 2015 at 14:34
Yes. In the (canon) junior novelisation for Return of the Jedi, we see Luke tricking the TT-8L gate guard droid with mind powers.
The way in turns out to be easy enough. An electronic eyeball barely has time to pop out before Luke has said, “You will open the door.”
Yes, this is a Jedi mind trick and it works easily. Inside, the simpleminded guard who operates the door unthinkingly obeys.
answered Apr 25, 2022 at 22:04
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10I'm not convinced this says what you think it says. The electronic eyeball is clearly the guard droid you reference, and he is explicitly outside. But the text mentions a (simpleminded) guard inside being the one who opens the door. Why both would be involved is a bit curious, so maybe they're the same? Or is there a meatbag there just in case the droid malfunctions? Is the door itself not actually something the droid can manipulate? But evidently the meatbag can override the droid, and stop it from sounding any sort of alarm over this weird situation? Apr 26, 2022 at 11:03
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2The text seems quite clear, really. It explicitly states that the simpleminded guard opens the door, so there is no mind trick on a droid here. The link you gave also mentions that these droids "also functioned as holocams", which lends further credence to the idea that it was the organic guard who was mind-tricked and not the droid.– terdonApr 26, 2022 at 12:20
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That's one possible interpretation, yes. To me, the wording suggests it isn't the guard though, especially knowing that the droid functions as a camera which is only useful if someone is looking at the image, and considering that the guard is referred to as simpleminded.– terdonApr 26, 2022 at 12:31
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@terdon - I'm planning to ask this as a new question, but I'm 99% certain that there's no-one there except the droid built into the door and the Gamorrean guards guarding the entrance from the inside, neither of whom operate the door. - "Probably the most infamous and annoying TT-8L/Y7 in use was the one who kept out visitors out of Jabba’s Palace."– ValorumApr 26, 2022 at 13:22
Droids can be Jedi as seen in the comic Skippy the Jedi Droid, therefore, that makes droids one with the force just as all living things. So I think a Jedi mind trick could work on a droid
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That's rather interesting. The fandom wiki page suggests this may not be canon (but also suggests that a legend of a force wielding droid is canon; just whether it was based on a real such droid is another matter). Still, +1. Apr 26, 2022 at 11:07
Legends: Yes, by another name
In Legends, a Force ability was known by the name of "mechu-deru" that allowed the user to not only influence droids, but to control or reprogram them entirely. From a now-deleted Hyperspace article on starwars.com:
It is believed that through their bizarre alchemies, the Sith somehow stumbled upon the ability to manipulate mechanicals of complex nature through the Force: ships, computers, and, indeed, even droids.
(source: Droids, Technology and the Force: A Clash of Phenomena, via Wookieepedia)
There seems to be a range of ways that mechu-deru could interface with droids and mechanical objects, from simply allowing the user to understand mechanical systems better (as described in The Jedi Path) to turning living beings into cyborgs called "technobeasts" (known as mechu-deru vitae). However, the ability definitely included control over droids:
Because droids are not organic beings, they were a subject few Jedi bothered to understand. Jedi powers that had a technical influence were usually crude, such as the Force ability mechu macture, or, "destroy droid." The Sith went farther than the Jedi ever did, developing the ability mechu-deru to allow for Force control over mechanical systems. In true Sith fashion, the power stressed absolute control, turning droids into puppets.
(source: The New Essential Guide to Droids (2006), page 195)
Droids dont have a conscious mind. I think its common knowledge that robots have computers, not brains. It is shown throught the series that ind tricks only work on the weak MINDED. This is shown when Luke attempts a mind trick on Jabba The Hut. You could see an example prooving this too when Ben Kenobi tricked the Stormtrooper using the old favorite quote: "These are not the droids you are looking for."
In summary: Mind tricks only work on weak minded, droids do not have inds therefore a mind trick would be useless against a droid.
answered May 10, 2015 at 13:19
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1Do you have a reference for that? I don't think droid brain technology has come up in canon. Certainly in other franchises e.g. Asimov and Star Trek androids have "positronic brains".– GaiusMay 10, 2015 at 15:45
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Here is a link answering your question. I have combed the wikis but I cant find references to what im saying. Here is the link:reddit.com/r/AskScienceFiction/comments/31xei7/… May 10, 2015 at 17:24