Greef Karga's Cape Droids Have Big Butter Robot Energy
This article contains spoilers for the season premiere of "The Mandalorian" season 3.
The droids in "Star Wars" are a fun feature, with all kinds of robotic characters rolling, flying, and scuttling about at any given moment. Their beep-boops and chirps are as important a part of the soundscape of the franchise as the pew of blaster fire or the vibrating hum of a lightsaber, and they help flesh out the worlds of "Star Wars" without actually being, well, flesh. There have been major droid characters in both speaking and beeping roles, like C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) and R2-D2 (Kenny Baker) in the original trilogy, BB-8 in the sequels, and IG-11 (Taika Waititi) in "The Mandalorian," and it's been made clear that most of the droids, from the more complex conversation android to the basic floor-sweeping robot, are sentient beings with personalities and hopes and dreams. That's what makes the appearance of Greef Karga (Carl Weathers) and his cape-bearers so freaking funny.
In the season 3 premiere, Grand Marshal Greef Karga has improved his status since we last saw him on "The Mandalorian," and Nevarro seems to be flourishing under his leadership. He's taken to enjoying the fringe benefits of being the boss, which includes having a pair of droids follow him around to help hold up the end of his long, flowing cape. As he approaches Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), he practically yanks the little guys down the stairs. A life revolving entirely around holding up a guy's cape doesn't sound particularly fulfilling, but it also sounds a whole lot like another pint-sized TV robot.
'What is my purpose?'
In the popular Adult Swim animated series "Rick and Morty," inter-dimensional alcoholic scientist Rick Sanchez creates a fully sentient, artificially intelligent little robot whose entire reason for being is to pass the butter. The boxy little dude asks his creator what his purpose is, and in response is only told "Pass the butter." The horrifying existential crisis faced by the butter bot is pretty awful and played for a quick laugh, much like the cape-bots in "The Mandalorian." While audiences are used to truly mean humor in something like "Rick and Morty," the trials of the cape-bots reveal a bit more in "The Mandalorian." We already know Rick is a heartless jerk, but we've mostly come to like Greef, not least of all because it's really hard not to like Carl Weathers. Seeing him treat his robots with such disregard lets us know that he's starting to care more about the position of his power than he is other people (or droids). He's still Djarin's ally, but shouldn't be trusted too easily.
When you compare the cape droids to the droids kept by Peli Motto (Amy Sedaris), you can really see the difference. Droids deserve love, darn it, and to have more purpose in life than to pass the butter or keep a cape from dragging in the dirt. Maybe the next war in "Star Wars" will be the robot uprising.
New episodes of "The Mandalorian" debut Wednesdays on Disney+.