I think I'm also in BMSMA territory but maybe straying closer to Vision.
I have some very nerdy questions about the order of those characters in the dread meter. For example, why is R2-D2 placed for far up the meter while C-3PO is at the most extreme level of innocuous non-dread? C-3PO is a terrible AI companion. He undermines the heroism and agency of the protagonists at every turn: always preaching despair and futility. Not only does he begrudgingly fulfill his own programming, but he is constantly trying to talk everyone else out of accomplishing their own tasking. How would things have turned out if R2-D2 followed C-3PO’s “sage” advice to give up trying to get the Death Star plans to Obi-Wan? Despite being programmed for diplomacy, he is constantly depressing his companions by reciting odds that a protocol droid should know would demoralize humans (input regularly provided by both Leia and Han). His vaunted analytical and protocol powers resulted in his shortsightedly redirecting a whole pre-contact civilization’s religious development forever. And after doing so, he then calculated that it was better to continue impersonating a deity than prevent his friends from being eaten. I’m not sure he is the very picture of AI non-dread that he represents on this graph! But I digress…
So, the short answer for why the robots are where they are is because that is how I felt at the moment I put them there, lol. I see R2 as more of a bad-ass than C-3PO who I always see as just pathetic. But point taken, in his own sad way C-3PO = a parade of disasters and just as the meter is a measure of my feelings of existential dread at any moment, I don't see any reason why the meter itself can't change at any time based on my subjective feelings about the threat levels of the robots. (You've already changed my mind about C-3PO, and if I'm not too lazy by the time I do another reading they may have switched. . .)
I think I'm also in BMSMA territory but maybe straying closer to Vision.
I have some very nerdy questions about the order of those characters in the dread meter. For example, why is R2-D2 placed for far up the meter while C-3PO is at the most extreme level of innocuous non-dread? C-3PO is a terrible AI companion. He undermines the heroism and agency of the protagonists at every turn: always preaching despair and futility. Not only does he begrudgingly fulfill his own programming, but he is constantly trying to talk everyone else out of accomplishing their own tasking. How would things have turned out if R2-D2 followed C-3PO’s “sage” advice to give up trying to get the Death Star plans to Obi-Wan? Despite being programmed for diplomacy, he is constantly depressing his companions by reciting odds that a protocol droid should know would demoralize humans (input regularly provided by both Leia and Han). His vaunted analytical and protocol powers resulted in his shortsightedly redirecting a whole pre-contact civilization’s religious development forever. And after doing so, he then calculated that it was better to continue impersonating a deity than prevent his friends from being eaten. I’m not sure he is the very picture of AI non-dread that he represents on this graph! But I digress…
So, the short answer for why the robots are where they are is because that is how I felt at the moment I put them there, lol. I see R2 as more of a bad-ass than C-3PO who I always see as just pathetic. But point taken, in his own sad way C-3PO = a parade of disasters and just as the meter is a measure of my feelings of existential dread at any moment, I don't see any reason why the meter itself can't change at any time based on my subjective feelings about the threat levels of the robots. (You've already changed my mind about C-3PO, and if I'm not too lazy by the time I do another reading they may have switched. . .)