"Sorry, you may no longer play a droid. Your species choices are now Ewok or Ugnaught."

"What? That wasn't part of the deal!"

"I am altering the deal -- pray I do not alter it any further."

"This droid is getting worse all the time!"

A certain level of irony is present for, while no means real, the varied droids of "Star Wars" (until the prequels) were more realistic than most seen in fanciful science fiction films.

Eh, it wasnt just the prequels that did this. R2 pulls out a new gizmo every movie. We'll give the first one a pass since we're dealing with an unestablished character - but Empire he gets a parascope, lamp grabbing claw and a little sensor thingie and Jedi he shows off a launch lightsabers into the air device and a little buzz saw.

(which is why I discount all the prequel haters going "Wait! Why can he now fly? Where did the jets come from?" - since clearly they've never actually seen the other movies)

A certain level of irony is present for, while no means real, the varied droids of "Star Wars" (until the prequels) were more realistic than most seen in fanciful science fiction films.

Eh, it wasnt just the prequels that did this. R2 pulls out a new gizmo every movie. We'll give the first one a pass since we're dealing with an unestablished character - but Empire he gets a parascope, lamp grabbing claw and a little sensor thingie and Jedi he shows off a launch lightsabers into the air device and a little buzz saw.

(which is why I discount all the prequel haters going "Wait! Why can he now fly? Where did the jets come from?" - since clearly they've never actually seen the other movies)

It was mostly shock. Him pulling a buzzsaw or grabber claw out isn't a huge surprise. But little jets that allow him to fly around? Seems like the kinda thing he would have used on screen at some point in the later films.

I thought it was a little much, but didn't complain. The Radio Drama of ANH has him doing work outside the Tantive IV, and magnetic feet weren't a thing yet so I always assumed that astromechs had to have some kind of propulsion system to allow them to go EVA without floating off into the void.

The thing for me was less "Oh noes he can flys now!" and more "ok... I don't really think we needed to take it that far..."

A certain level of irony is present for, while no means real, the varied droids of "Star Wars" (until the prequels) were more realistic than most seen in fanciful science fiction films.

Eh, it wasnt just the prequels that did this. R2 pulls out a new gizmo every movie. We'll give the first one a pass since we're dealing with an unestablished character - but Empire he gets a parascope, lamp grabbing claw and a little sensor thingie and Jedi he shows off a launch lightsabers into the air device and a little buzz saw.

(which is why I discount all the prequel haters going "Wait! Why can he now fly? Where did the jets come from?" - since clearly they've never actually seen the other movies)

Oh, it's not prequel hate, by any means. Nor was I commenting on the rockets.

It was more an observation on practical effect droids and digital effect droids. The latter were able to come in somewhat more fanciful designs, is all.

As well as being an established character, R2 was the all-purpose "Swiss Army Knife" of droids, by design... Constructed as compact functional unit not the "put humandoids at some ease" humaniform of his counterpart. Most of his gadgets could be seen to have practical functions outside their adventure uses (the launcher could have been devised and added at Luke's request, for all we know, and was a surprise to the audience but part of an established plan).

If I had my say, way back when, I would have swapped the origins of R2 and 3P0. 3P0 at the young Queen's side and R2 the recipient of the imaginative tinkering of a semi-psychic child-genius mechanic.

Didn't The Clone Wars show his little jump jets as being added for that special mission he took part in?

Its also possible they were removed sometime between Episode III and IV.