R2-D2 is an astromech droid, 1.09 metres tall, blue and white, first assigned to Queen Padmé Amidala's royal starship on Naboo. He was introduced in Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope (1977), operated by Kenny Baker, and the StarWars.com Databank calls him "a reliable and versatile astromech droid" who has served Jedi across generations.
He starts the plot. Every time.
The Death Star plans are in him. The message that brings Obi-Wan out of exile is in him. He repairs the shield generator that lets the Naboo cruiser run the blockade, flies with Anakin through the Clone Wars, hides on Dagobah, opens the Endor bunker, and carries the missing piece of the map to Luke through two sequel films. Remove him from any given film and the film stops.
The saga's memory
He is never mind-wiped. C-3PO is, twice. The implication — that a droid nobody thought to erase watched the entire fall and rise of the Jedi and simply carried on working — is one of the quietly best ideas in the whole continuity, and the films have never once made a speech about it.
Translation is refused
Like Chewbacca, he has no translated dialogue, and this encyclopedia therefore carries no quotes for him. The performance is Ben Burtt's synthesiser and Kenny Baker's timing inside the shell, and the comedy works because the audience is always allowed to infer more than the scene states.
Astromech, not sidekick
The Databank stresses the job: starship mechanic, pilot's assistant, navigator. The Naboo sequence in The Phantom Menace establishes the whole class of character — droids as skilled labour that keeps ships flying — and R2 is the one the saga promotes from equipment to person without ever announcing it.
In print and in comics
He co-headlined Star Comics' Droids (1986) with Threepio and has appeared throughout Marvel's original run and the 2015 relaunch. Legends spent decades filling in his service record; canon has largely left him alone, which suits him.
Continuity
Canon and Legends both, with no substantive divergence.
