R2-D2's player, Pete, is what's known as a min-max gamer. The art of min-maxing is to create your character in such a way that you get the best and most useful abilities at the best levels possible, by trading them up at the expense of character traits that are less important, less useful, or will only come up rarely in play. Character concept, background, and story are entirely secondary to a true min-maxer.

Often the characteristics that are sacrificed involve physical appearance and social graces, which are usually deemed less important than the ability to put an arrow into the eye of an orc at a thousand paces, or to be a genius capable of restructuring the universe with the power of thought.

This shows the difference between Hollywood fiction and gaming fiction. If movies were made by gamers, all the heroes would be short, overweight guys with physical disabilities.

Transcript

Panaka: Queen Amidala, this party of Jedi knights has saved us and the ship.
Qui-Gon: Of course we saved our ship.
R2-D2: Ahem. You mean I saved the ship.
Qui-Gon: It was a team effort.
R2-D2: What? You were going to toss her clothes out the window. I was the one who fixed the shields.
Panaka: An extremely skilled little droid.
Amidala: It is to be commended.
Obi-Wan: Is this really a first-level character? How did you get such a high Repair rank?
R2-D2: I took Short. And Mute. 8 extra skill points.
GM: Speaking of which, you should really only be beeping and whistling right now.
R2-D2: Don't be stupid; it only applies when I'm talking in character.
GM: But you guys never talk in character!
{beat}
GM: Oh.
R2-D2: You are enlightened.