R2D2 – The Solitary Protocol – Ryan K Lindsay

PAGE 15 - 3 PANELS

1. R2-D2 is in a storage room with a bounty hunter, there’s boxes and not much else around. R2 used a projection of Han Solo to lure this foolish rogue into the room. This is a long shot, establishing the parameters.

Caption: The R2 unit scans the room to ensure they are alone. Not even a wamp rat is within hearing distance.
Caption: The Solitary Protocol initialises.

2. R2’s eye turns blood red.

Caption: Only one will see it.

3. The bounty hunter shows fear as he fumbles for his gun, too late. A red glow is upon him, we can't see R2-D2.

Caption: And not for very long.

R2-D2 - Words Between Friends - Grant McLaughlin

1 – The common area of the Millennium Falcon (where they played that hologram game in A New Hope). Chewbacca is sitting in the “booth” area. R2-D2 is across from him. They appear to be in conversation. The game table is between the two, but it is off.

R2-D2: Doot do ba weeeooo woop?

2 – The conversation becomes more heated. Chewbacca is howling mad, banging on the table with his hands in frustration.

CHEWBACCA: HURRRGHH! RWHHOWR TH'OHWRR?!

3 – R2-D2 is nonplussed (as much as an astromech droid can be nonplussed).

R2-D2: Fleep beep bloop deep bop.

4 – Chewbacca is much calmer. He has one hand under his chin, considering the matter (think Rodin's “The Thinker”). He looks thoughtful and pleased. No dialogue.

5 – Pull back the frame to show that Han Solo, C-3P0, and company have been watching this exchange. They are confused.

HAN SOLO: What just happened here?

C-3P0: I'm afraid that some things are beyond even my advanced abilities of understanding...

R2-D2 - Learnt From The Best - Matt Duarte

R2D2 in “Learnt From The Best” by Matt Duarte

Panel 1

Description: Obi-Wan, Anakin Skywalker, R2D2 and C3PO are aboard a ship. R2D2 is connected to a wall outlet, in the background we can see a big door. The characters look sort of like they did around The Clone Wars, as this takes place shortly before those events. (Look, I'm a fan of Star Wars, but not a HUGE one, so this might not exactly fit in with the canon, bear with it). They look slightly worried about their situation.

ANAKIN: Hurry, R2, reinforcements could be here soon.

OBI-WAN: Patience, Anakin. I am confident we will avoid a confrontation.

Panel 2

Description: Same as before, except the door has opened to reveal a huge battalion of droids waiting on the other side. They haven't reacted to the intruders yet, but Anakin and Obi-Wan are reaching for their lightsabers.

ANAKIN: So much for that.

R2D2: Bee Bee Bop Beep

C3PO: Oh dear, he says wait! Wait!

Panel 3

Description: Same as before, except the droids have turned around and kept marching in a different direction. Obi-Wan and Anakin have relaxed their stance.

R2D2: Beep Beep Bop Bop

OBI-WAN: See? It all worked out.

ANAKIN: Well done, R2. What did you do?

Panel 4

Description: A close up on R2, still working connected to the wall.

C3PO: Master Anakin, I do believe he told them: “These are not the Jedis you are looking for”.

The End.

R2-D2 - Street Fighting Droid - Rol Hirst

The story so far…

Luke Skywalker has crash-landed on a strange planet with only R2-D2 and C-3PO for company. They’ve arrived in a strange city that has been ravaged by a plague of marauding creatures who hide their faces under hoods and communicate only via handheld portable computers. These strange, violent humanoid aliens are known as “The Y’Oof”. They have looted, pillaged and burned the city to the ground, killing everyone who opposed them. And now, they’re face-to-face with an unarmed Luke Skywalker. Well, not entirely unarmed…


Panel One.

Facing the oncoming horde of Y’Oof, Luke calls back to R2-D2 for his lightsaber, holding out his hand ready to catch the weapon when R2 fires it at him.

Luke: R2…?

Panel Two.

Close on R2-D2. The lightsaber ejects from its storage place in the top of R2’s dome…

R2D2: Squee boop whoop wheee---!

Panel Three.

…but the saber doesn’t launch towards Luke. It remains sticking out of R2. C-3PO approaches, looking panicked. The Y’Oof swarm towards Luke.

Luke: Hurry up, R2…!

R2-D2: Widdle boop b-doop beeep!

C-3PO: What do you mean, it’s stuck?

R2-D2: Squiddle bee-boop bing bwooooop!

C-3PO: Well, unstick it, you wretched watering can! Master Luke needs his---

Panel Four.

The Y’Oof fall upon Luke – he’s swamped by their locust-like attack. C-3PO throws his arms up in panic while R2-D2 hops from one foot to the other in frustration.

C-3PO: Master Luke! Oh, look what you’ve done, you binary-spewing bucket of diodes! They’re killing him! They’re killing him!

R2-D2: Ping bweedle boopledee--!

Panel Five.

Unable to detach the lightsaber from his dome, R2 does the only thing he can… activating the lightsaber and launching himself into battle to save his master.

SFX (saber): Neeeeoooooowm!

C3PO: R2 – no, what are you doing? Come back – R2D2, no!!

R2-D2 – His Only Hope - Ben Rosenthal

1. R2D2 is taking up most of the panel, shown from half way up. There are two people with him, however we cannot see who they are as they are out of panel. One of these people is currently trying to ‘fine tune’ a message that R2D2 is playing back (you know, the blue hologram thing). Show this by having a pair of hands doing ‘tuning’ things to R2 I guess. Not like that though. Sicko.

The blue hologram is scrambled. We can see that it is of a humanoid figure, but cannot make out who it is.

VOICE ONE (off panel)

Wait, wait. Something is playing.

SCRAMBLED HOLOGRAM

-ksssst- ...how long I’ve been here. I don’t kn – kssst- ..at Fox.

2. Same as Panel 1, but the hologram is scrambled beyond recognition.

VOICE TWO (off panel)

Get it back!

VOICE ONE

I’m working on it I’m working on it.

3. Same as Panel 1.

SCRAMBLED HOLOGRAM

-kssssssst - ...things he has done in my name. My clone is evil and must be stopped!

VOICE ONE (off panel)

Wait, I think I’ve got it.

4. Same as Panel 1, however the hologram has been unscrambled. We can now see that the person giving the holographic message is George Lucas. His hands are chained and has obviously been held prisoner for at least the last fifteen years.

GEORGE LUCAS HOLOGRAM

Help me internet community. You’re my only hope!

R2-D2 – Loyal to the End - MK Stangeland Jr.

(7 Panels)

Panel 1: A thin panel that stretches across the top of the page. All that can be see is space, though a slight tint or pattern to the image should suggest it is being looked at through some form of shielding.

Panel 2: Panel, stretched across the page like panel 1, pulls backwards to show R2-D2 sitting in the astromic droid slot of an XJ model X-Wing, looking out into space.

Panel 3: Panel is tilted to show C-3PO standing next to the X-Wing looking up at R2-D2.

C-3PO: Artoo, you really should come down.

Panel 4: JAGGED FEL walks up next to C-3PO.

C-3PO: There’s nothing you can accomplish up there.

JAGGED FEL: How long has he been up there?

C-3PO: Oh! Hello, Jagged.

Panel 5: C-3PO turns to JAGGED FEL. JAGGED looks like he’s really thinking about the situation.

C-3PO: He went up there as soon as he heard about Master Luke. He hasn’t come down since. I don’t know what to do!

JAGGED FEL (1): Maybe…

JAGGED FEL (2): Maybe he just needs time.

C-3PO: Time? Time for what?

Panel 6: C-3PO looks as surprised as one can when they’re a droid with an unmoving face. JAGGED continues to talk to him.

JAGGED FEL: To mourn.

C-3PO: To mourn? But certainly you don’t think that’s possible for a droid, do you?

JAGGED FEL: Normally I might agree with you, but with what I’ve heard about your friend…

Panel 7: Close up on R2-D2’s dome as it sticks up out of the astromic slot.

JAGGED FEL: (Off-Panel) …I might make an exception.

(END PAGE)

Why R2-D2?

Short Answer? Because the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were already picked.

Long Answer?

I probably took a little too much time thinking about who I wanted for my first thought balloons character choice. Ultimately, I wanted to pick something that had some kind of personal importance, and Star Wars fit that bill pretty easily.

So why pick R2-D2 specifically? Because even amongst the main characters, Artoo has a rather unique role, one that makes him arguably as centric to the story as Darth Vader. He’s only one of four major players that show up in all six movies, and of those four, he’s the only one to do it without dying (as with Obi-Wan and Anakin/Vader) or getting his memory wiped clean (as with his good pal C-3PO). Sure, he gets shot up a few times, but one of the advantages of being a Droid is that can take it.

It goes even further once you bring the comics into the equation, since apparently he’s still alive and ticking in Dark Horse’s Legacy series, set well over a century after the end of Return of the Jedi. Well put together little droid indeed.

The other major reason is that while R2-D2 been compared to “the family dog” by CGI Clone Wars director Dave Filoni, he’s much more than that. The loyalty is certainly there, but unlike most families that go through more than one dog over the course of time, Artoo is conversely the dog that goes through several families. And while no offense to Lassie or Scooby Doo, but I wouldn’t put my money on either of them figuring out how to get the Falcon’s hyperdrive working while there’s a Super Star Destroyer breathing down their necks.

Though to be fair, Krypto could probably put a few dozen holes in said Star Destroyer by flying through it several times and make the point mute.

So that’s why R2-D2. Not only does he probably offer one of the widest variety of options when it comes to his native setting, but he’s also a fun, lovable, iconic character in spite of never once saying a single line of intelligible dialogue. So go have some fun with him, and may The Force Be With You.