While The Book of Boba Fett season 1 finale featured numerous instances of fanservice, it missed an opportunity for a hilarious moment between R2-D2 and R5-D4. A minor droid character from A New Hope, R5-D4 was nearly purchased by Owen Lars instead of R2-D2, but he malfunctioned due to a bad motivator, leading to R2-D2 being chosen instead and ensuring the completion of Leia Organa’s mission. The two astromech droids’ interactions were delved into in-depth via canon non-movie material, and The Book of Boba Fett should have had the two acknowledge each other at the end of its first season.
R5 astromech droids were notorious for being prone to errors and other functionality issues, though R5-D4 was a hard-working unit, albeit with low confidence. According to the Legends-era Star Wars radio drama, R2-D2, hoping to be sold by his Jawa captors so that he could continue his mission for Leia, sabotaged R5’s motivator, leading it to malfunction and R2 to reunite with C-3PO. According to Legends lore, R5 was stolen and repaired before the Jawas were massacred by Imperial Stormtroopers, and the droid eventually joined the Rebel Alliance as a spy, serving them faithfully and efficiently.
The canon version of R5-D4 retains much of his Legends-era history, including his survival of the Imperial forces in A New Hope and service in the Rebel Alliance afterward. One major difference is that R2 didn’t properly sabotage him, so R5 blew his own motivator to assist R2 and thus the Rebellion, as revealed in From a Certain Point of View. As shown in The Mandalorian, R5 served Peli Motto after the Empire fell, and his dome retained scorch marks from his blown motivator. R5-D4 and R2-D2 were in the same place at the same time in The Book of Boba Fett “Chapter 7: In the Name of Honor,” yet the episode didn’t have the two droids acknowledge their past interactions, unfortunately.
Although R2-D2 thanked R5-D4 for his sacrifice in From a Certain Point of View, The Book of Boba Fett should have poked fun at the two droids seeing each other for the first time since A New Hope. The episode should have had Peli Motto translate some sudden droidspeak between the two, doubting that R2 damaged R5’s motivator years ago or R5’s claim that he helped save the galaxy by popping a plate off of his dome. A simple inquisitive “do you two know each other” with the two droids beeping at each other would have been sufficient as well.
The Book of Boba Fett and The Mandalorian don’t often pass up opportunities to poke fun at the Star Wars franchise’s often-mocked qualities. The Mandalorian acknowledges the complaint about Stormtrooper marksmanship to the point that the Imperial soldiers are bumbling fools rather than the threat they were depicted as in A New Hope. The shows also highlight the lack of guard rails over precarious drops in Imperial installations and the silliness of General Grievous’ spinning lightsabers, so it’s odd that such an easy “bad motivator” joke was missed.
From a Certain Point of View and Legends-era material lent a great deal of sympathy to a simple background character from A New Hope, with R5-D4 finding his purpose and helping the Rebellion even further after his bad motivator ensured R2-D2’s sale. While an opportunity for humor, a reunion between the two astromechs could have been one of mutual respect, as the two did their parts in toppling the oppressive Galactic Empire in multiple ways. Given its irreverent attitude towards other aspects of the Star Wars franchise, The Book of Boba Fett should have taken the opportunity to humorously acknowledge R2-D2 and R5-D4’s shared history.
