The Confederacy had liberated droid leaders sure, but the Trade Federation were real fuckin goons about it.
I think someone came up with that line as a way to metasplain the change in demeanor of the battle droids between film I and II, which was really done to sneak in jokes and sell toys.
You could argue that as the war heated up and with such short life expectancy it probably wasn't a priority blah blah, but this isn't supported by the films anywhere and keep in mind Federation droids were soulless automatons juxtaposed against the Naboo's disposable astromech droids and Anikin's homebrew threepio that are definitely portrayed to have some kind of personality or soul in the film.
E: also IIRC there are throwaway goofs in the films where battle droids mention turning themselves in for a memory wipe
The Confederacy had liberated droid leaders sure, but the Trade Federation were real fuckin goons about it.
I think someone came up with that line as a way to metasplain the change in demeanor of the battle droids between film I and II, which was really done to sneak in jokes and sell toys.
You could argue that as the war heated up and with such short life expectancy it probably wasn't a priority blah blah, but this isn't supported by the films anywhere and keep in mind Federation droids were soulless automatons juxtaposed against the Naboo's disposable astromech droids and Anikin's homebrew threepio that are definitely portrayed to have some kind of personality or soul in the film.
E: also IIRC there are throwaway goofs in the films where battle droids mention turning themselves in for a memory wipe