How does Rey understand BB-8?

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Bashar Teg
in the OT, c3p0's whole purpose in life was to interpret R2 and other foreign/droid languages. yet bb-8 goes around whistling and beeping, and everyone understands him. i accept that poe may have learned to interpret the language of his own droid (not really, but it's at least plausible), but how does rey know his language?

at first i though maybe those lights inside bb's eye were actually a text message window like in luke's xwing, but half the time rey replies to him, she's not even looking at him.

unless they've standardized droid language, how is this even possible?

did jj abrams get confused and take universal translators from the star trek universe? is this just a gaping plot hole? help me.

ares834
I was always under the impression that Luke and Anakin could understand him.

Bashar Teg
in ESB we see luke reading r2's messages in text form via his xwing's dashboard. when out of his ship, and lacking the assistance of c3p0, luke only has one-way conversations with r2, like one might have with a cat or dog. i dont recall anakin ever understanding r2's language. then again i dont recall much from the PT.

Ushgarak
I guess they have canonised that it is possible for an organic to learn droid beepy-speak.

juggernaut74
Rey was also able to understand Chewie as well.

Bardock42
Perhaps BB uses a different form of beep speech that humans can understand.

Rey does seem extremely gifted with languages generally though, perhaps force related, though would make more sense with living things rather than droids.

Bashar Teg
Originally posted by juggernaut74
Rey was also able to understand Chewie as well.

i didnt notice that. if you're correct that would just be awful, lacking a future explanation.

Originally posted by Ushgarak
I guess they have canonised that it is possible for an organic to learn droid beepy-speak.

i could accept it in the case of pilot and bb unit, since it could stand to reason that they made a new astromech droid language which pilots could understand, for safety's sake, since reading texts while driving is dangerous. no but seriously it would just be more efficient if they didnt have to rely on text like with r2/luke, especially in an intense situation.

that aside, rey had no reason to ever study bb'ese so how could she just happen to know it? all i can guess is that she's like rain man and just spent all those years in her AT-AT-hut studying weird languages she'd likely never need to speak.

juggernaut74
Originally posted by Bashar Teg
i didnt notice that. if you're correct that would just be awful, lacking a future explanation.

When Finn and Han rescued Rey, Chewie mumbled something, Finn asks what Chewie said and Rey stated that Chewie said it was his idea. Or something close to that.

NewLanceWindu
Originally posted by Bashar Teg
i didnt notice that. if you're correct that would just be awful, lacking a future explanation.

How is it awful? Han can understand Chewie no problem and that never needed an explanation.

Rey has been bored on Jakku while waiting for her parents, maybe she taught herself a ton of seemingly useless skills.

Bashar Teg
Originally posted by NewLanceWindu
How is it awful? Han can understand Chewie no problem and that never needed an explanation.

i don't know, maybe han understood chewie because he lived with him all his life, and rey likely never even met a wookie before. am i grasping for straws?

Originally posted by NewLanceWindu
Rey has been bored on Jakku while waiting for her parents, maybe she taught herself a ton of seemingly useless skills.

this is the only thing that makes sense to me. but i just said pretty much exactly that. however if rey has this ability of "i know as many languages as c3p0", imho it's very significant and should have been referenced in the film. i hope it's addressed later, at least in some minor way.

Lord Lucien
Originally posted by Bashar Teg
in the OT, c3p0's whole purpose in life was to interpret R2 and other foreign/droid languages. yet bb-8 goes around whistling and beeping, and everyone understands him. i accept that poe may have learned to interpret the language of his own droid (not really, but it's at least plausible), but how does rey know his language?

at first i though maybe those lights inside bb's eye were actually a text message window like in luke's xwing, but half the time rey replies to him, she's not even looking at him.

unless they've standardized droid language, how is this even possible?

did jj abrams get confused and take universal translators from the star trek universe? is this just a gaping plot hole? help me. http://www.martinelli.co.uk/images/babelfish.jpg

Bentley
Didn't Rey understood two other non-standard languages during the film (other than BB-8's beeping and Chewie's growls)?

Bashar Teg
Originally posted by Lord Lucien
http://www.martinelli.co.uk/images/babelfish.jpg

babelfish. of course. why didn't i see it sooner.

queeq
You should have. But now you have taken your first step in a larger universe.

JediRobin23
Being a scavenger trading on jakuu with many aliens and probably droids, she picked up a few things while see was there....

I wonder if Luke could understand R2 fully now????although, not much is said on how much time r2 had with Luke in the past 30 years. Just a vision of them together

Bashar Teg
i guess it's possible, but i dont like the idea of disney messing with that. of course it never made much sense that an astromech droid isn't able to speak other languages. of course it also doesnt make a lot of sense that they had to make a whole other type of droid, the size of a human, to do nothing more than interpret and shuffle about awkwardly and slowly. if they go too far and try to make sense of it, it's going to be shitty. i just hope they dont continue tinkering with that whole dynamic.

Galan007
Originally posted by NewLanceWindu
Rey has been bored on Jakku while waiting for her parents, maybe she taught herself a ton of seemingly useless skills. Jakku also seemed to be a hub for several different types of alien races/species. I'd imagine Rey's linguistics would become rather diverse simply by virtue of living in that sort of environment by herself for yearS.

chilled monkey
Originally posted by Bashar Teg
in the OT, c3p0's whole purpose in life was to interpret R2 and other foreign/droid languages. yet bb-8 goes around whistling and beeping, and everyone understands him. i accept that poe may have learned to interpret the language of his own droid (not really, but it's at least plausible), but how does rey know his language?

at first i though maybe those lights inside bb's eye were actually a text message window like in luke's xwing, but half the time rey replies to him, she's not even looking at him.

unless they've standardized droid language, how is this even possible?

did jj abrams get confused and take universal translators from the star trek universe? is this just a gaping plot hole? help me.

I got both "The Force Awakens: The Visual Dictionary" and "Rey's Survival Guide" for Christmas so I can answer this.

No, he did not get confused and no, this is not a plot hole. In both books it is explained that Rey learned non-human languages, including Wookie and astromech binary, from her interactions with off-worlders. Also she herself notes in her survival guide that she managed to get a computer working at her wrecked AT-AT. She used it to study droid-speak and alien languages so that she could better communicate with people in Niima.

You should check them out. They're great books.

Galan007
^ That's what I was thinking/hoping would be the case, so cool. thumb up

juggernaut74
Originally posted by chilled monkey
I got both "The Force Awakens: The Visual Dictionary" and "Rey's Survival Guide" for Christmas so I can answer this.

I heard the Visual Dictionary says the reason for Kylo Ren's flickering saber is that the crystal that it's made from is cracked.

Is this true?

Galan007
Originally posted by juggernaut74
I heard the Visual Dictionary says the reason for Kylo Ren's flickering saber is that the crystal that it's made from is cracked.

Is this true? Yes:
http://i.imgur.com/sdFdmwD.png

Bashar Teg
Originally posted by chilled monkey
I got both "The Force Awakens: The Visual Dictionary" and "Rey's Survival Guide" for Christmas so I can answer this.

No, he did not get confused and no, this is not a plot hole. In both books it is explained that Rey learned non-human languages, including Wookie and astromech binary, from her interactions with off-worlders. Also she herself notes in her survival guide that she managed to get a computer working at her wrecked AT-AT. She used it to study droid-speak and alien languages so that she could better communicate with people in Niima.

You should check them out. They're great books.

i can believe that, and like the idea as well. however i dont like having to read some book in order to detail an important bit of character info that should have been part of the movie. i dont mind it as much here, since it's not a major plot point. i also read second hand accounts that rey spent a lot of time on ship combat sims, which explains why she can fly the falcon and presumably many other ships. again though, i should not have to find this out from something other than the film.

DarthAnt66
Originally posted by Ushgarak
I guess they have canonised that it is possible for an organic to learn droid beepy-speak.
I assume someone else already mentioned this down below in the thread but if not I'll just comment that Finn didn't understand BB-8.

Bashar Teg
while that's true, it has nothing to do with the post you quoted.

in the OT and PT, the audience was left to infer that r2 units cannot be understood without text or protocol droid assistance. the 2-way voice communication between rey and bb8 is truly a first.

Galan007
Originally posted by Bashar Teg
while that's true, it has nothing to do with the post you quoted.

in the OT and PT, the audience was left to infer that r2 units cannot be understood without text or protocol droid assistance. the 2-way voice communication between rey and bb8 is truly a first. It's funny because I was literally just watching ESB, and happened upon this scene:
http://i.imgur.com/7ulROvO.png
http://i.imgur.com/TRFcuNp.png
http://i.imgur.com/ZsyFMMA.png

This tells us that Luke(at least) was unable to decipher R2's bleepy-bleep w/o some form of third party translation.

Bashar Teg
ah well there you go.

Raptor22
Originally posted by Galan007
Jakku also seemed to be a hub for several different types of alien races/species. I'd imagine Rey's linguistics would become rather diverse simply by virtue of living in that sort of environment by herself for yearS. yeah i assumed it was something like this myself. Where they have picked up sort of an ear for a bunch of languages by being around them so much. Kind of like how Han can understand chewie, and had no problem understanding greedo's Rodian in ANH, or jabbas hutt speak in ANH and RotJ.

joscev13
So after a long discussion with the airmen at my squadron about how does ray and a select few people understand the droids we narrowed it down to binary. In a New Hope, Owen asks if C-3PO understands the binary language of moisture evaporators as well as Bachi..........so if Rey understands the language of binary (since she is a mechanic) then she could understand BB-8 to an extent. BB-8 would be using an updated version of binary/code that can explain why Rey doesn't understand R2-D2, and C-3PO interprets for him. Now luke does understand R2-D2 to a certain extent, as seen on Empire strikes back when they are on Degobah. Just a thought.

queeq
Originally posted by Galan007
It's funny because I was literally just watching ESB, and happened upon this scene:
http://i.imgur.com/7ulROvO.png
http://i.imgur.com/TRFcuNp.png
http://i.imgur.com/ZsyFMMA.png

This tells us that Luke(at least) was unable to decipher R2's bleepy-bleep w/o some form of third party translation.

To be honest I don't care how Rey understands BB-8. Or Poe for that matter.

However comparing that with Luke and R2 on Dagobah is silly. Luke's more talking to himself than R2.

Lord Lucien
R2 is the movie's way of physically manifesting Luke's inner monologue. And penchant for beeps.


Also, does anybody else think Luke looks like William Macy in the middle panel?

queeq
laughing out loud

Good one.

Bashar Teg
Originally posted by queeq
To be honest I don't care how Rey understands BB-8. Or Poe for that matter.

However comparing that with Luke and R2 on Dagobah is silly. Luke's more talking to himself than R2.

the point was to show that luke did not understand R2's language.

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