Burning Question about C3PO & R2
 

Hello all, I've been a lurker here forever, and love reading the forums. I have a question however that finally made me register an post...

OK...If C3PO was built by Anakin on Tattooine, and he lived in the underground house when Schmi married that guy, along with Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru...how come in ANH, he absolutely does not recognize anything? And R2 was there too in Episodes 1 and 2.

Now I remember that was mention of a memory wipe by Owen in ANH, but it would seem that would also erase their personalities too, wouldn't it? They seem to have the same personalities all the way through....

Of course there is also the question of R2 and his flying abilities, he never broke them out in Ep. 4,5, or 6.....

Don't get me wrong, I really do watch and enjoy them, and don't really get into the nit picking too much (well, I REALLY did hate the Greedo shoots first change, and while the new version is much better than the Spec. Ed. VHS...I still like the idea of Han just blasting him) but the droid question has been bothering me since Episode 1!

This question has been asked a lot, and presumably it'll be answered in Episode 3.

I think a memory wipe would remove whatever accumulated knowledge they've acquired, but keep intact their fundamental features. By Episode III, Threepio would know at least two very important things: Anakin has become Darth Vader and he has twin offspring.

I preferred the older version of Threepio's background (112 years old, multiple owners along the way). But Lucas decide to rewrite all that as a tie-in to Anakin's natural ability to make things.

You know, I just talked to an old friend of mine who is a real Star Wars buff....his explanation made a lot of sense.

Of course we know Luke and Leia are separated when they are born and sent to new "foster" parents to keep them a secret from Vader....Tony was saying that it should come out in Ep. III that there was a memory wipe to protect Luke and Leia...afterall if all the story through Ep. III is in their memory, it could come out and land in the wrong hands...

Like I said, it seems to make a lot of sense, I guess we'll see....

I still think R2 has kept his memories but C3PO had his erased because R2 seems to know a lot more C3PO in the original trilogy.

I agree with this. R2 seems to know a lot - even where the settlements on Tatooine are.

R2's Flying Ability
 

I had read somewhere (force.net?) a while back that the reason R2 doesn't fly in IV, V, and VI is that his little rockets are broken. Somewhere in the Star Wars universe, they came across warranty information for R2 units (not sure how many years) so it implied that his little flying rockets broke out of warranty and nobody ever bothered to get them fixed. I wonder what hourly labor was back then?!?

Sounds like a Steve Sansweet response. He has an answer for everything, regardless of how tough the question is. For instance, when asked about the "error" concerning Han's missing arm binders when he is thawed out in ROTJ, Sansweet says it is not a mistake. The binders just happened to be made out of carbonite, so when the unfreezing process began, it dissolved away, too.

How convenient.

I think Lucas said that they’re memories are erased. In the second half they have no recollection of the first half.

yes, they are gay lovers.


Wait, that wasn't the question? Memory wipe sounds like it is a must. Simple as that.

:lol: that wouldn't suprise me, have you heard 3PO's voice. Yeah probably a partial wipe will happen in Ep3

'human-cyborg relations' is the polite way of saying it. I wonder, does C-3P0 have a groinal attachment, and is its name Archie?

For the third, and hopefully final time, 3PO gets a total and complete memory wipe. That's why he doesn't recognize it.

is this the "attachment" you were looking for?

http://members.tripod.com/shpilz/c3p0obsenittya.jpg

face it, 3pO is a sister

then shouldn't Vader be all weepy when he sees the droids in the OT all those years later?

Luca$ and his re-writes. bah!

Ok, I can buy the memory wipe of C3PO and it's a toss up as to whether R2 had his memory wiped, but why does Obi-Wan not recognize R2 in ANH? I forget the exact wording, but it was something like "I don't ever remember having a droid"

Do you get all weapy for your old toaster or microwave after you see it years later shattered into tons of pieces?

Besides that, C3po seems like a generic human-relations driod when you look at the others in the star wars universe. His was just old and rusted till they gave him a shinny paint job.


as for obi's comments. It was "funny I don't remember owning a droid". And in reality he never did own a droid. Well he may have worked with R4-G9 as his droid for his star fighter, but other then that he never "OWNED" a droid. Another one of his half truths. And have you've seen those R2 units? They all look a like. Hard to tell the difference, especially after 10 years.

In ANH, the Uncle tells Luke to get Units memories erased. So it sounds like a normal procedure when people buy new robots.

When does Vader see the droids in the OT? On Bespin 3PO is in pieces and R2-D2 is pretty much like any other R2 unit. Vader is interested in Luke and commonplace hardware like droids is irrelevant.

Well I assume that Obi-Wan hasn't seen the droids in 20 years. With there being millions of R2 and 3PO robots around the galaxy that look the same it is pretty easy to not recognize them. His memory might not be as sharp as it was when he was young either. In Ep 1 & 2, Obiwan doesn't really spend a lot of time with the robots so he wouldn't be familiar with them as Padme would be. As far as 'owning a droid', Ben never actually owns them so the line is still true.

Owen probably has owned hundreds of droids over the years so he might not remember 3PO. Remember, 3PO was grey in AOTC but gold in ANH so Owen might not recognize him. With millions of 3POs in the galaxy, Owen might remember owning a 3PO robot but not a C-3PO.

Threepio could still have had many owners in the past. Anakin built him but they didn't say from scratch. 3PO does have parts that are definatly from a protocol droid so Anakin might have found protocol droid in parts in a junk yard and assembled him.

As far as we know R2 did have his memory wiped out as well. Leia might have programmed where Ben was and what Ben would look like (as well as the cover story of a previous owner). So R2 is just trying to complete his mission and does not recognize stuff in ANH. As shown in TPM & AOTC, R2 doen't really see much of Tatooine so he can't be running around just on memory.

Leia told Kenobi to get R2 to her father... so why didnt they just give R2 to Vader and be done with it? ;)

YES, IN THE RADIO DRAMA, IT'S MADE CLEAR THAT lEIA GIVES r2 THE MESSAGE AS WELL AS THE COORDINATES OF HIS WHEREABOUTS.

Edit, sorry about the caps lock, but I'm not retyping all that

That would make sense, cause how lucky would it be that they were caught right above Tatooine?

ROFL... My thoughts exactly.
Man Ep 3 is gonna have A LOT of gaps to fill. Is Ep 3 gonna be a 6 hour epic with an Intermission or maybe Kill Darth vol 1 and Kill Darth vol 2? Sheesh.