Unfortunately, I never watched Droids as a kid, I was a little bit too young at the time of the release and I never came across any re-runs later on.
So while I've heard of the cartoon in the years since, I only watched it when it hit Disney+. And I have to say, my inner child loved it. I know that I would have been all over it as a kid.
As an adult, it's a bit more of a mixed bag. The writing is a bit campy and very typical for the time. The ways in which the plot unfolds is always very convenient and the villains always cookie-cutter characters who are equally evil and incompetent.
The story arc was probably a bit special for the time. While each episode tells a self contained story, Droids features story arcs that span 4 to 5 episodes. At the end of each story arc, R2-D2 and C-3PO are transplanted into a completely new setting with a new master and new surroundings.
Personally, I think that may have been a bit too much variation. I would have preferred it for the Droids being in a more stable environment from where they launch into their adventures. That way, it would have been possible to establish the characters some more, have them grow over time, etc.
But since there only was one full season, that probably wasn't in the cards anyway, so I guess it's all right.
I do love the animation however. The backgrounds are often really well done, there's a lot of details with all the technology and widgets and I generally love that 1980s style of animation of which Droids is actually one of the better ones.
The writers often had interesting ideas and concepts that would make their way into other Star War vehicles later on: Jann Tosh's Wheel Bike looks a lot like the vehicle of General Grievous in Revenge of the Sith, the Landspeeder Race in episode 4 seems to have inspired the Pod Race in The Phantom Menace, the Rebel Spy Kea Moll from the first story arc feels a lot like Rey and we have an evil crime lord called Kybo-Ren.
Too bad that there is only one season and a 1 hour special. Apparently it was really expensive back in the day to produce one of these episodes. Maybe with the Streaming war going on, there's a possibility of reviving it again, given that compared to other content, this would probably be a relatively cheap way to bolster your content. But then kids these days seem to prefer the 3D animated stuff, so it will probably never happen. Very unfortunate.
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