Ani & 3PO

Many of you out there don´t like the fact that ol´ golden rod was built by Anakin Skywalker. Thought that it was too much of a coincidence.
I think it´s all a matter of in which order you watch the films.

If you didn´t know anything about SW and sat down to watch them all, from epI-VI you would see this kid, Anakin Skywalker, he has built a droid which becomes one of the main characters, and, when Anakin grows up and becomes evil, ends up with his pal R2 on Alderaan.

That´s not really hard to buy, is it?

But since part IV-VI was our first introduction to this universe, it´s been there since childhood, we think, when the prequels arrived;"Hmm, what´s the origin of 3PO (for example)? What?! Vader built him!
C´mon..."

Get my point?



But, since

 

How does that change the fact that it is all one big coincidence?

Regardless of the order of the films, Anakin built the droid who is later owned by Luke and Leia, while his wife's droid is later owned by their son. All four of them fight to defeat their father, so no matter how you look at it, it is one big conicidence. . . or the will of the Force.

So a new viewer will watch TPM and see the kid with the droid, correct? Then in AOTC he will no longer have the droid, but will see it again. No big deal, the odds are high on that one, since he visited his home planet to find his mother, so where his mom is the droid will be there. So then in ANH the droid is owned by Luke who later finds out that Luke is Vader's heir. What are the odds that the droid could land in the lap (almost literally) of Vader's son, the son of his creator?

 

Agreed. The GFFA gets smaller with every movie. Now Boba is a clone like the Stormtroopers. Dooku was taughter by Yoda, and who, in turn taught Qui-Gon. Anakin's mum ended up marrying Owens father. Everything is so small now days. No one is this closely related in our world, let alone in a large galaxy.

 

Yeah, I'm still trying to figure out how and why a 10 year old slave kid would build a protocol droid who speaks 6,000,000 languages.

How about a battle droid to beat up Watto until he agrees to disable Ani and Shmi's slave transponders?

By the way, since it was mentioned how "small" the Star Wars universe seems to be, let me ask you a question. Do all roads lead to Tatooine? For a lawless, frontier world out on the edge of nowhere it sure gets a lot of traffic: a queen (later a senator), Jedi, bounty hunters, stormtroopers, Sith lords, rebels. Coruscant is rural Kansas compared to Tatooine.

 

It doesn't really bother me that Anakin built C3PO. I figure after Anakin's fall, Padme takes the droids with her to Alderaan, Leia inherits them, they escape to Tatooine looking for Obi-Wan and Luke buys them because he lives close by.
I don't care that the universe is "small." The story is about these characters and they're all connected in many ways.

 

I like that Anakin built C-3PO, it adds a whole new meaning to the scene in ESB where Vader stops Boba Fett from shooting Chewbacca when he has C-3PO on his back.

 

I think the only reason he stopped Boba from shooting Chewie was because Vader want him alive. Chewie would have been a nice catch for the Empire.

 

I don´t think the coincidence is that big.
The droids just stays within the family,
from Mom and Dad to their two children.

The droids will probably end up on Alderaan in epIII, and there they serve their masters,
like Captain Antilles and Leia, for example.
And when the time comes to go rebel against the empire, they just go along.

 

What's more worrying about the whole Anakin building C3PO idea is that a nine year old boy would give his droid the personality of a camp Englishman, but there we go!

 

I don't believe that C-3PO can speak 6,000,000 languages in TPM.

 

It's a good thing the Republic doesn't have any influence on Tatooine or Ani would get arrested for infringing on Cybot Galactica's droid design.

 

@ Oakessteve

 

>>> So a new viewer will watch TPM and see the kid with the droid, correct? Then in AOTC he will no longer have the droid, but will see it again. No big deal, the odds are high on that one, since he visited his home planet to find his mother, so where his mom is the droid will be there.

Right- no ?coincidences? so far?

>>>So then in ANH the droid is owned by Luke who later finds out that Luke is Vader's heir. What are the odds that the droid could land in the lap (almost literally) of Vader's son, the son of his creator?

Well, you?ve skipped the fact that in AOTC, 3P0 apparently pairs up with R2D2, then whatever happens in Ep III happens (presumably Leia and the Droids end up on Alderaan), and then in ANH 3P0 is still tagging along with R2D2 (who now belongs to Princess Leia, apparently) and goes with him down to Tatooine (sent to find Obi Wan, who is there because of Luke, who is presumably there because that?s where his gran lived), where they split up, and *then*, in the only true ?coincidence? in their paths, both end up in the possession of the Lars homestead.

Then in ESB they are split up, but happen to bump into each other in Cloud City.

So the only real ?coincidences? are when they are reunited in the original Star Wars film, and Empire Strikes Back, which as we all know are above criticism.

 

stories are ABOUT coincidences and contrivances and how they all mesh together and how themes contrast with/complement each other. If they weren't stories wouldn't make any sense.

THIS is why Ani builds 3PO:

He is introduced to us as a gifted child with amazing abilities in terms of putting things together, creating a droid that could communicate fluently with everyone in the galaxy. He can fix anything

This is designed to create the largest possible contrast between the helpful innocent young boy and Vader, communication skills amount to 'follow my orders or die'. He destroys all before him

so, it's a coincidence, but one that creates a start point for his character arc. Thematically it makes total sense. As an event, it's up to you whether you buy it or not.

 

Trouble is, George had Anakin building C-3PO because he thought it was funny, and probably not for the reasons you stated. At least, not at first.

 

But I'm sure if you asked George, he had it planned that way since the 70's

 

Couldn't the protocol droid that we all know and love simply have been placed on Queen Amidala's ship? Where does it seem more likely to find a droid programmed for etiquette and protocol: on board the royal flagship of a planetary ruler...or under construction in the abode of a 10 year old slave living in a ghetto?

3PO could have been introduced into the story in a way that makes much more sense.

 

He is introduced to us as a gifted child with amazing abilities in terms of putting things together, creating a droid that could communicate fluently with everyone in the galaxy. He can fix anything

This is designed to create the largest possible contrast between the helpful innocent young boy and Vader, communication skills amount to 'follow my orders or die'. He destroys all before him

so, it's a coincidence, but one that creates a start point for his character arc.

Very interesting, I like that explanation.

 

But I'm sure if you asked George, he had it planned that way since the 70's

ROFL!

Yea it's cheezy. But, hasn't it started to become that way since Return? I mean the tiwn sun set was awesome.. "Luke, I am your father" was great...

Ewicks, err works, or is that walks? <g> Now we are getting down right rude. Poor Ewan having a Jar-jar AND 3-PO. Then again, the bugger got a light sabre as well... (grumbles cause she wants one)

 

Lucas may have originally come up with the idea of Anakin building 3po as a joke, but the writing process is a strange process, sometimes an idea can come to you for one reason yet subsequently have a broader meaning for the story as a whole. The subconscious never, ever, stops working on the things that matter most to you and sometimes ideas that seem unrelated at first have actually, literally been formed out of what you are trying to convey with the story.

This is what writers are referring to when they say they don't know where ideas come from. They come from the same place as dreams (but let's not get onto that).

 

I think it's worth mentioning the fact that C3P0 spends the OT looking down his nose at R2D2- while C3P0 being from a royal background would have provided an explanation for that, I think it's far more interesting to have the roles reversed and have the one with the royal pedigree be the "overweight glob of grease", and the stuffy english droid being made from scrap parts. Especially as they most likely get their memories wiped before the OT starts. I just like the irony...

Also- has everyone overlooked the foreshadowing (is that the right word?) in having the young Darth Vader building a "human-cyborg relations" droid?

 

yup, it's the right word, and the right idea.

 

Wouldn't Anakin have to know a lot of languages to program C3PO?

 

Unless he downloaded them from Kazaa. Seriously though, I would assume that the 6 million languages would come as software. Anakin would just have to find it.

 

Maybe Threepio was given his language skill's when he was working for Bail Organa!