Droids are robotic beings usually having Artificial Intelligence, used for a variety of different jobs and suited for different environments. Most of the jobs the droids do are either simple and time consuming or too dangerous for humans or other sentient life, or certain fields that need a mastery and specialization of the topic at hand, liked Medic Droids and small Astromech’s.

Depending on the type of Droid, they were obedient, loyal, durable, usually were experts with mathematics and had excellent memory. These personality traits made them great for many jobs, though some weren’t independent and you had to watch over them to make sure they didn’t mess up.

Droid designers did face a small problem, the question of how far to take the droids intelligence. Make them too intelligent, and they become self aware, not intelligent enough and they don’t have a high degree of Artificial Intelligence.

There are 5 degrees of Droids.

1st Degree Droid: Droids capable of being independent and could think on their own. Usually used for Medics, and some advanced, expensive Assassin Droids. Droids that were made to torture people also fell under this category, and droids that were designed for someone that had a high degree of artifical intelligence did as well.

2nd Degree: Usually engineering or technical droids, this degree consisted of Astromech and utility droids. Pilot Droids, Scout Droids, and Probe droids fit under this category as well.

3rd Degree: Protocol Droids, policital, social, or scholarly droids fall in this Degree.
4th Degree: Security or Military Droids, the Trade Federation used many 4th Degree droids during the Clone Wars.

5th Degree: Simple labor droids, like Binary Load Lifters. Usually used for mining, cleaning, and other labor tasks.

As with different degrees, there are also different types. Usually model, personality, and job make up the type of droid it is. Some droids can’t fit under one type, because they do many different jobs, or they were custom built, like HRD’s (Human Replica Droids) Also, what droids did under different owners may change their type, but this was not always the case.

Assassin Droids: Used to kill, like their name suggests. Often employed when other means haven’t worked, also employed when a bounty hunter didn’t want to die, like a suicide mission. These droids could be programmed with advanced protocols and algorithm’s making them better then some human or other life forms at fighting. These types were most often to rebel.

Notable Assassin Droids: C-3PX, 4-LOM, Guri, IG-88, and HK-47

Astromech Droids: These droids were used to repair starships and other mechanical objects. They also could break into security, access computer panels, navigate a ship through hyperspace, store data, and check for damages. These droids were loaded with things that would be very useful to pilots, supplementing the ships own computer and helping the pilot with navigation and repair. Advanced models could actually fly their own starships for periods of time. The main drawback to these droids is the lack of a vocabulator unit, thus having to use a series of beeps to communicate.

Notable Astromechs: R2-D2, Fiver, R4-P17, R5-D4, T3-M4, Whistler, and Shaker.

Battle Droids: These were used as Soldiers during the Clone War for the CIS, they had many advantages over sentient life in battle. Droids could carry heavy weaponry, could carry shielding, move quickly without gaining fatigue, analyze targeting and determine the path of their shots (AKA increased accuracy), calculate chances of winning a battle instantly. Droids would follow orders without question, even if the Order was flawed, taking risks that would scare most humans and other species away, and the droids were expendable, the time it took to actually make a droid army was a shadow of the time it took to raise a Human army. These droids were usually made in bulk, and made on assembly lines, cutting the cost of them even further. The major drawback of Battle droids were, they only worked with a good strategy, they had horrible artificial intelligence.

Interrogation/Torture Droids: These droids were surprisingly meant to save humans. Save them from having to torture another human and possibly scarring themselves. It was practical in many ways, it increased the targets fear, increasing the possibility of a confession, Droids could tell if they were telling the truth, and usually had a complete set of pressure points and painful spots downloaded into it’s system. They also had truth serum on hand, and knew correct doses to get the information they wanted. Later on, a friendly captor would come by, offering sadness and promise to make the pain stop for the information they sought. The plan was genius.

Medical Droids: These droids were meant to heal, they were often better then the Human or Sentient counterpart because they would never forget their Medical Programming, therefore usually never prescribing something wrong. They could also store information on numerous patients, saving money on Computer Database Files. Med Droids wouldn’t let emotion get in the way of their tasks, but at the same time couldn’t sympathize with their patients at all, therefore sometimes making the patient feel worse.

Pilot Droids: Droids were used to fly starships and other crafts. These were the pilots for the CIS during the Clone Wars, they were also used to drive crafts on planets, like Shuttles and other things. Droids were great as pilots because they would know their ship, wouldn’t panic in the middle of a dog fight, could maintain close formations and execute attack plans perfectly, and would know the computer of the ship as well.

Protocol Droids: These droids were meant to aid with politics and other social affairs, as well as translate any language needed. They were programmed with enhanced aural sensors, so they could analyze and describe and use the information that was needed in certain situations. Because Sentient life interacted with these types of Droids, they were often given personalities so they weren’t as boring as some other droids.

Scout Droids: Droids were used in exploration or for hunting a target. They were cheap and expendable, like most droids. These droids were usually dropped in bulk, ranging any where from a hundred to a thousand, and would use do a survey of the area and report back on their findings.

Droids are seen as property, but the more advanced a droid you are, the more respect you would get by Sentients. Some think Droids are a legal way for slavery, but usually this argument is put down by stating that no droid is sentient. The Naboo think of Droids with a high enough Artificial Intelligence to be, in fact, citizens.

What’s better? Anime or the wonderfully epic story that George Lucas has given us all? Each has it’s perks and for some there’s no question about having to ask such a thing. However, let us compare them and see…

Anime originated from Japan as many have known. Anime started back in the twentieth century but didn’t really hit the United States until 1980’s when the Gundam series hit. Other shows soon followed such as Dragon Ball Z and Sailor moon. Now today more and more shows are more like the Japan animation. With shows such as Pokemon, and Inu Yasha as many people’s favorites. There’s a never ending stream of merchandise to be bought over many stores and even online.

http://www.animenation.com/

AnimeNation is the best and leading source to get anything a person could want in the Anime World. T-shirts, key chains, snacks, drinks exc… The list goes on. Manga is available as well and you can even find items that you couldn’t’t get in a store. If it’s information your after.. other then using the on-line Wiki there is the Anime News Network.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/

There are hundreds of sites linking to different Anime talks, chats, and even conventions. On more then one occasion I’m sure someone has seen someone dressed up in some sort of costume from a favorite series. Going to a convention is one good way to see them. Not only would you find Anime costumers but others as well from a vast sea of fantasy and Sci-fi. Anime has taken such a foothold that it has been expanded to draw up favorite characters to see what they would look like if they were anime. Such as the Futurerama gang and Star wars.

       

Which now comes to the next section and another popular part of the World. Star Wars! Who would have imagined that back when the first movie came out that it would explode to become such apart of the American culture and the culture of many around the world. Video games, TV shows, Conventions, toys and clubs. Heck former President Ronald Reagan had used the name Star Wars for the Strategic Defense Initiative until the name was changed in 1993 by Former President Bill Clinton. Just like the anime, there is as much to buy out on the market for Star wars as anything else. With mass roll playing forums and even on-line games such as Galaxies’s and Empire at War.

Back in 1997 Albin Johnson started the now world wide costume fan group known as the 501st Legion or Vader’s Fist. What started out as a small group became so large that it expands in countries such as Japan and Asia. Members of the 501st Legion often make appearances at casual, promotional, and charitable events. A non-profit group the 501st also has close ties with the Lucas film.

     

 

The Legion itself also has it’s territory assigned. The united States for instance has the states assigned in groups to for a Garrison. Each Garrison has a name and their own set of on line boards to communicate. A few examples are Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas. They are grouped together to form Star Garrison. Florida is known as Florida Garrison but has several squads due to how large/long of a state it is. The main on-line source for the 501st is :

www.501st.com

From that site there is access to find the links to each Garrison. The Legion is well known and has been around now for ten years and is still growing. Recently, Two new Garrisons were formed in the United States. Alabama broke off to become their own Garrison and Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi became MidSouth Garrison. The Legion has also helped influence the Star wars universe as the name was taken to be added to the Clone group in Revenge of the Sith and in the Battlefront II game. Because of the what Star Wars has done for the world and the impact of this group there has also been done a special documentary about them. Called Heart of an Empire it has shown in film festivals across the United states and was aired at the last years Star Wars convention.

http://www.heartofanempire.com/

Anime or Star Wars? Both are great and have lots of world influence. Both have impacted peoples lives in either small or great doses. There is much more information then can be put into words on how a person feels about each. Some like one or the other. What is decided is based off each person. Anime junkie, Star wars geek, or both. This isn’t even half the information that could be found, as to place it all would be a very large book indeed.

 

Pictures were taken off my computer and found off of google images. The actual real pictures are from actual charity events that I attended.

This squad of Clone Troopers consisted of four clone troopers, RC-1138, RC-1140, RC-1207, RC-1262, their base of operations was on Kamino, and they were instrumental in numerous battles, mostly Battle of Genosis and Battle of Kashyyyk.

Each one of these troopers had a nickname:

RC-1138 was Boss, the Leader of the Sqaud
RC-1140 was Fixer, The Slicer of the squad
RC-1207 was Sev, The Sniper of the Squad
RC-1262 was Scorch, and the Demolition Man of the Squad
Their training was hard, because they were trained by a Mandalorian named Vau, who thought the only way to be trained was hard, so he broke their backs, figuratively, everyday. Whenever Vau thought a trooper wasn’t as fierce or hard as they could be, he made them fight another squad mate or himself. The only commando to ever chose Vau was Boss. Vau’s training worked, even though he was a vicious and ruthless leader.
Their first mission ever was in the Battle of Genosis. They were all flown in separately, and each squad had to team up before they completed their main objective, kill Sun Fac, the Genosian leader. Boss and Scorch teamed up first, and decided to go into a Hive that was supposed to house Sun Fac. They had to blow up a vent to get into the hive, and as the did they found another of their squad, Fixer, who was rampaging and was killing numerous droids. They fought their way to a balcony in the complex, and after fighting, they climbed down the balcony, finding their team mate Sev, who was killing enemy soldiers, something he excelled at.
They killed all resistance, and entered a room that was directly next to way they were. Sun Fac saw them enter, and fled to his ship. The Delta Squad began to fire at many droids in the room, when done with them, they began to shoot down Sun Fac’s ship, killing him when it came down. After that, they had to clean up another squad’s mess since they failed at blowing up a droid facility. After blowing up the facility, they stole launch codes and stopped a lot of CIS ships (Confederacy of Independent Systems) from leaving.

Their next mission was to investigate a mysterious ship that had disappeared and then reappeared into known space. The ship in question was the Prosecutor, an Acclamator-Class ship of the Republic. They were once again dropped off individually so they could cover a larger area. They quickly discovered that the ship had been taking over by Trandoshans (reptilian species that is now in the Slave business) Two of the 4 squad members were captured, but saved by Boss and Fixer quickly. They destroyed the Trandoshan resistance, and prevented CIS members to board the ship. Later on, they would discover that the Trandoshans were going to sell the ship to the CIS to get Battle Droids.

A later mission was the Battle of Coruscant, this mission wasn’t actually authorized, and were put into Omega Squad, a less competitive squad, and Delta Squad had trouble adapting to the atmosphere. The mission was successful and the Terrorist attack was unsuccessful. Another mission was an easy dismantle mission, no big deal for a squad such as Delta.

Their last known mission was the Battle of Kashyyyk. The squad was supposed to gather intelligence on the area and for enemy activity. Once again, Trandoshans were helping CIS members, so they had to destroy them, and free any wookiee they found. They found many wookiees, including Tarrful, the Wookiee Leader. The CIS had reinforcements come, and it took 4 turrets to take the ship down. This mission was the same mission where Sev was attacked, and captured. The squad wasn’t sure whether to save their squad mate and brother or follow orders, they picked following orders, since brotherhood came second, Duty came first. After leaving the planet, they were told the real reason of their mission, it was to find a way to invade a planet.

This is a brief history of the squad.