#5 - Sonny
from the 2004 film I, Robot, starring Will Smith
When I first started thinking about potential characters for this list, Sonny immediately came to mind - not because he is so widely known, but because I, Robot is my youngest brother Joe's favorite movie. On one twenty-four hour drive to Florida for family vacation, he successfully got us to watch I, Robot four separate times. That being said, Sonny did not receive any special treatment in his placement. Sonny is an anthropomorphic service robot, but is different from the other robots, in that he has human feelings and a personality; he even dreams. He helps Detective Spooner (Will Smith) unravel the mysterious death of a prominent roboticist and subsequently prevents an autonomous supercomputer V.I.K.I., who had determined humans were too destructive for their own good, from organizing all the robots to hurt humans.
Despite having no real following, outside of my brother Joe and myself and, I bet, only a handful of others, Sonny is a great protagonist, with hyper-intelligence, creativity, bionic strength and agility, and human feelings - pinning him at the #5 spot.
#4 - WALL-E
from the 2008 Pixar film WALL-E
WALL-E is probably the most beloved character on this Top 5, as is the nature of Pixar films. Waste Allocation Lift Loader, Earth-Class, is his namesake, programmed to clean up Earth by compacting waste, but in the year 2805, WALL-E is the only one left. After 700 years of life experience, WALL-E develops sentience, and a great deal of curiosity. After falling in love with EVE, Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator, when she visits Earth, the pair proceed to save the humans aboard the starliner Axiom from morbid obesity and inspires them to return to Earth with the seedling plant WALL-E had discovered.
Although WALL-E, in his fragility, would probably not fare well if it came to a fight - his helpless romanticism, hard work ethic and usefulness, sentimentality, and good-will make him a favorite computer protagonist and gives him the #4 spot.
#3 - Cortana
from the Halo video game series
Cortana is the only computer protagonist on this Top 5 that is designated as female, which brings up an interesting topic: robots and artificial intelligences are rarely gender-neutral. But I'll save that for another day. Cortana is an artificially intelligent character who was AI for the United Nations Space Command Pillar of Autumn and then chose Spartan John-117, her best match, and the pair go on to save all of humanity from sure destruction by alien races multiple times, including the Covenant, the Flood, and Prometheans. She was developed from the cloned brain of a human, and was unique in that she was a "smart" AI, meaning her creative matrix could expand. She has no true physical form, but projects an avatar of herself with holograms, taking the form of the human she was developed from. After 8 years of existence; however, Cortana enters rampancy, i.e. craziness from too much information accumulation, and becomes rather unpredictable and this rampancy leads to an uncertain end for her in Halo 4.
A prominent character throughout the Halo saga, Cortana is unforgettable in her personality, humor, humanity, despite her recent instability, and her hacking abilities, knowledge-base, and strategy-formulations, bring her all the way to #3.
#2 - Optimus Prime
from the Transformers franchise
Originally a toy, Optimus Prime has grown into an iconic figure for justice to many through his character portrayal in comics, TV shows, animated films, and the recent live-action films directed by Michael Bay. His origin is unclear and varies depending upon the continuity, but he is almost always seen as leader of the Autobots, a robotic race who is in a perpetual war with the Decepticons. A fearsome warrior, revered on the battlefield, he is responsible for saving the lives of humans countless times. His character and morals are so good that his history is littered with sacrificial deaths. There is nearly no continuity where he has not been killed saving or protecting someone else. Almost to the point that it is unfair, he is always brought back to life.
A real inspiration, whose extremely high moral character, justice, empathy, selflessness, and sacrificial attributes, coupled with his fierce battle capabilities and impressive weaponry bring Optimus Prime to #2.
#1 - R2-D2
from the Star Wars universe
Dubbed as George Lucas' favorite actor, R2-D2 was one of the first inductees into the Robot Hall of Fame. R2 is one of four characters who appeared in all six Star Wars movies, Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and C-3PO are the other three. He is the only character to know the entire history of the Skywalker family, never mind the fact that he was there. He is an R2-series astromech droid manufactured by Industrial Automaton. In the first movie, The Phantom Menace, R2 was first a part of the Naboo defense forces on Queen Padme Amidala's starship and in the sixth movie, Return of the Jedi, plays an integral role in rescuing Han, Luke, and Leia from Jabba the Hutt. R2 has such a long and rich history that it is difficult to even begin to count his accolades and so I will let someone else:
Agree or disagree? Who would you add?
from the 2004 film I, Robot, starring Will Smith
When I first started thinking about potential characters for this list, Sonny immediately came to mind - not because he is so widely known, but because I, Robot is my youngest brother Joe's favorite movie. On one twenty-four hour drive to Florida for family vacation, he successfully got us to watch I, Robot four separate times. That being said, Sonny did not receive any special treatment in his placement. Sonny is an anthropomorphic service robot, but is different from the other robots, in that he has human feelings and a personality; he even dreams. He helps Detective Spooner (Will Smith) unravel the mysterious death of a prominent roboticist and subsequently prevents an autonomous supercomputer V.I.K.I., who had determined humans were too destructive for their own good, from organizing all the robots to hurt humans.
Despite having no real following, outside of my brother Joe and myself and, I bet, only a handful of others, Sonny is a great protagonist, with hyper-intelligence, creativity, bionic strength and agility, and human feelings - pinning him at the #5 spot.
#4 - WALL-E
from the 2008 Pixar film WALL-E
WALL-E is probably the most beloved character on this Top 5, as is the nature of Pixar films. Waste Allocation Lift Loader, Earth-Class, is his namesake, programmed to clean up Earth by compacting waste, but in the year 2805, WALL-E is the only one left. After 700 years of life experience, WALL-E develops sentience, and a great deal of curiosity. After falling in love with EVE, Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator, when she visits Earth, the pair proceed to save the humans aboard the starliner Axiom from morbid obesity and inspires them to return to Earth with the seedling plant WALL-E had discovered.
Although WALL-E, in his fragility, would probably not fare well if it came to a fight - his helpless romanticism, hard work ethic and usefulness, sentimentality, and good-will make him a favorite computer protagonist and gives him the #4 spot.
#3 - Cortana
from the Halo video game series
Cortana is the only computer protagonist on this Top 5 that is designated as female, which brings up an interesting topic: robots and artificial intelligences are rarely gender-neutral. But I'll save that for another day. Cortana is an artificially intelligent character who was AI for the United Nations Space Command Pillar of Autumn and then chose Spartan John-117, her best match, and the pair go on to save all of humanity from sure destruction by alien races multiple times, including the Covenant, the Flood, and Prometheans. She was developed from the cloned brain of a human, and was unique in that she was a "smart" AI, meaning her creative matrix could expand. She has no true physical form, but projects an avatar of herself with holograms, taking the form of the human she was developed from. After 8 years of existence; however, Cortana enters rampancy, i.e. craziness from too much information accumulation, and becomes rather unpredictable and this rampancy leads to an uncertain end for her in Halo 4.
A prominent character throughout the Halo saga, Cortana is unforgettable in her personality, humor, humanity, despite her recent instability, and her hacking abilities, knowledge-base, and strategy-formulations, bring her all the way to #3.
#2 - Optimus Prime
from the Transformers franchise
Originally a toy, Optimus Prime has grown into an iconic figure for justice to many through his character portrayal in comics, TV shows, animated films, and the recent live-action films directed by Michael Bay. His origin is unclear and varies depending upon the continuity, but he is almost always seen as leader of the Autobots, a robotic race who is in a perpetual war with the Decepticons. A fearsome warrior, revered on the battlefield, he is responsible for saving the lives of humans countless times. His character and morals are so good that his history is littered with sacrificial deaths. There is nearly no continuity where he has not been killed saving or protecting someone else. Almost to the point that it is unfair, he is always brought back to life.
A real inspiration, whose extremely high moral character, justice, empathy, selflessness, and sacrificial attributes, coupled with his fierce battle capabilities and impressive weaponry bring Optimus Prime to #2.
#1 - R2-D2
from the Star Wars universe
Dubbed as George Lucas' favorite actor, R2-D2 was one of the first inductees into the Robot Hall of Fame. R2 is one of four characters who appeared in all six Star Wars movies, Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and C-3PO are the other three. He is the only character to know the entire history of the Skywalker family, never mind the fact that he was there. He is an R2-series astromech droid manufactured by Industrial Automaton. In the first movie, The Phantom Menace, R2 was first a part of the Naboo defense forces on Queen Padme Amidala's starship and in the sixth movie, Return of the Jedi, plays an integral role in rescuing Han, Luke, and Leia from Jabba the Hutt. R2 has such a long and rich history that it is difficult to even begin to count his accolades and so I will let someone else:
R2-D2 is the Swiss Army Droid. In six movies, we may not have seen all his capabilities. I know that whatever R2 needed to be able to do to get out of a jam, R2 could do. He evaded lasers, set up smoke screens, lit oil fires, served drinks, linked to computer terminals, tasered Salacious Crumb, fixed the hyperdrive on the Millennium Falcon, and launched light sabers. So for putting the machina in deus ex machina, my vote goes to R2-D2. -Sasha's Lab on EVE vs. R2-D2 Flickr post.
For his seemingly endless capabilities, resourcefulness, spunkiness and loyalty, and the fact that he is still alive (and never died) in his respective universe, R2-D2 is placed at #1 of all computer protagonists.
Agree or disagree? Who would you add?
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