The Star Wars franchise is much more science fantasy than science fiction. Despite being packed with all sorts of futuristic technology, deep space travel, alien societies, sapient robots, and cybernetic enhancement, the films are much more concerned with the more fanciful elements.
There's been a droid or two in the main cast of almost every major work of the Star Wars franchise, across both the heroic and villainous factions. Luke, Anakin, Grievous, Darth Maul, and many more mainstays of the ongoing storyline use cybernetic limbs to replace or enhance their bodies. These elements go largely unmentioned in a way that raises more questions than answers.
The droids who fill the villainous army in the Clone Wars, robotic bounty hunters like IG-88, and friendly machines like service droids are fully sapient and capable of independent thought. Though they are all crafted by the hands of organic beings, they have free will, experience real emotions, and act essentially identical to any other person. C-3PO, the most commonly present droid in the franchise, was created by Anakin when he was a kid. This is a universe in which a ten-year-old slave on a desert planet with little more than discarded scraps can create sapient machinery, and very few people see that as odd. Anakin's work on the protocol droid is comparable in this universe to a winning science fair project. Familiarity breeds disinterest, so of course, people aren't marveling at the technology they see every day, but the franchise never delves into any philosophical aspect of droid intelligence.
Robots and AI are mainstays of science fiction, as are human beings outfitting themselves with cybernetics. The Star Wars universe recently delved a little deeper into the idea of cybernetics in The Book of Boba Fett. While Luke or Anakin use cybernetic limbs to replace their severed hands, the new series introduces a biker gang of cyborg delinquent teens. Most of the show doesn't work, and there has been a ton of well-earned derision, but this aspect seemed to be a particular target of fan outrage. Of course, most of that hate was directed towards the colors of their speeder bikes or the flashy moves used in combat, but the cyborgs were disliked nonetheless. This is unfortunate because the idea of characters using the technology of the time to make themselves more effective or deadly is hugely underused.
Star Wars' relationship with technology is tenuous and largely disinterested. The characters have access to spectacular future science, none of which the franchise ever feels the need to discuss. There's a fair amount of time spent in a few pieces on how the Jedi construct their lightsaber, but another tech that might be more interesting is swiftly moved past. There has never been a Star Wars project about a droid, and the main characters who possess cyborg parts aren't interested in unique enhancements. But, if the series would delve into these aspects of lore that they've already spent ages setting up, they could find new and interesting stories in. Star Wars has had a hugely difficult road when it comes to crafting original stories. The narrative always seems to fall back on the same concepts, but even those could weave into questions of AI or cybernetics.
So much of the Star Wars narrative is about a spiritual conflict between the Jedi and the Sith. Extremely esoteric concepts, involving very real embodiments of good and evil and a theoretically infinite duel for the fate of the universe. The Force is akin to an omnipresent deity, which controls and links all things, and its existence is not arguable. In this reality, how do artificial beings interact with the spiritual realm? Can droids experience the force in the way that organic beings can? How do they fit into the battle for the soul of the galaxy? Can they pledge their allegiance to the Jedi or the Sith? If their relationship to the Force is different from that of organic beings, how do cybernetics affect that bond? There are so many interesting questions about artificially constructed life in a universe with an inarguably present spiritual authority that the franchise has never really delved into.
The bad guys of the prequel trilogy featured seemingly endless armies of droids that did battle with the Jedi, but their personalities were largely played for laughs or nonexistent. There's no story about their feelings on their place in the armies of pure evil. Star Wars is a franchise in which artificial life is exactly as valid as organic life, one in which the good guys state that belief explicitly, but droids are rarely given a chance to tell their stories. The idea of artificial intelligence navigating a galaxy like Star Wars is one that the series should be able to explore. Droids are sapient, they may know their purpose, but they have free will. A Star Wars story about the droids and their journey could be one of the most thought-provoking pieces of the canon.
