commission for @levi-venn!

Throughout the show we’ve seen that 33 is not just thematically pirate-coded, but he’s also often been bound by rules in a way that is fairly common for robots in media. He doesn’t remember “no At Attin”, he attacks the kids when reminded of his orders, etc. While this is behaviour that is normal for a typical robot, 33 isn’t just a robot— he’s specifically a Star Wars droid, and Star Wars has always shown droids to be sentient beings capable of “emotional” attachments.

So of course 33 accepted that claimsies was close enough, because fundamentally he wanted to be on the kids side. He’s been waiting the whole show for viable reasons to attack Jod because despite being constrained to his programming, he still has his own personality and opinions.

He's been salty and hostile to everyone except the kids. Yes, this could be programmed loyalty to the crew, but he's been at odds with Jod even though he joined the crew, despite Jod saving him and the kids at the spaceport.

The biggest thing was at the end of the last episode when Jod told SM-33 to take the kids prisoner. Instead of the kind of mean-spirited comments and manhandling he'd been giving Jod, he approached with a reluctant "I'm sorry, kids. Captain's orders." At that point they were prisoners, not crew, so that wasn't just programmed loyalty to his crew.

Plus, you can't tell me he didn't love it when they were all huddled around him listening as he told the story.