C-3PO Stone Cold Liar!

At the beginning of ANH C-3PO tells R2-D2... "There'll be no escape for the Princess this time." Yet, later on while Luke is cleaning R2 and he stumbles upon the message, C-3PO play dumb about who she is. Luke states, "Who is she? She's beautiful." 3PO retorts with "I'm afraid I'm not quite sure, sir." and continues... "I think she was a passenger on our last voyage. A person of some importance."

3PO you liar, you know damn well who she is. Anyone have any thoughts besides the obvious on why he would keep up this charade with Luke. Because, what does he care now, he belongs to Owen & Beru. And he keeps trying to thwart R2's plans of delivering the message to Obi-Wan anyways.

 

He might not have known what Leia looked like.

 

Saying "This time..." indicates that he has been on a spaceship with her before, thus he more than likely has seen her.

 

The jawas that captured him and r2 put restraining bolts on them so that probably would have affected his memory. When jawas steal droids they probably wouldn't want said droids speaking about or looking for their original masters. which is exactly what r2 does.

 

So what if he says "This time..." ?

Just because he's been on the same ship doesn't mean that 3PO has seen her. He's just a protocol droid, no one special.

 

All 3PO knows is that there is a princess important to the rebellion who has had a few close calls.

 

At the beginning of ANH C-3PO tells R2-D2... "There'll be no escape for the Princess this time." Yet, later on while Luke is cleaning R2 and he stumbles upon the message, C-3PO play dumb about who she is. Luke states, "Who is she? She's beautiful." 3PO retorts with "I'm afraid I'm not quite sure, sir." and continues... "I think she was a passenger on our last voyage. A person of some importance."

That is so weird, because I watched Star Wars last night and I noticed the exact same thing. Weird that it took me 26 years to see that. I actually noticed 2 things- this, and the fact that Princess Leia was actually flying to Tatooine to pick up Obi Wan herself. I already started a thread on that one.

 

In the ANH radio drama, there's a scene where both Artoo and Threepio are put under a security protocol, so they cannot reveal anything that might put the Princess' mission in danger.

 

Well, first off, C-3P0 DID see Leia; remember, it's after he goes "R2-D2, where are you?" He see Leia, then peeks closer.

Second, there's a part where 3po whispers "be careful R2, you're going to get us into trouble", which I conceive as 3P0 trying to hide the fact that he knew who she was.

 

Great, another reason for me to hate 3PO.

 

He see Leia, then peeks closer.

But he still has no idea who she is. The novelization even suggests that Threepio thought he was experiencing the droid equivalent of a hallucination because of damage he suffered in the battle.

 

What's the problem with Threepio lying?

He's a protocol droid - meant to help manage diplomatic meetings, etc. As such, makes sense that he is programmed to lie when necessary - sometimes it's the diplomatic thing to do, and sometimes vital for security interests.

Threepio was being true to his programming in that he was dissembling - notice he does admit that he "thinks" she was a passenger on board, and of "some importance" - in order to help protect the Alliance. He would do this as long as it doesn't conflict with his duty to Luke, his new owner (as you hear from his argument with Artoo - no telling secrets, but no running off on a "mission", either).

Then, there's that scene from the radio drama.

 

Forget it non-believers. 3PO is a STONE, STONE COLD LIAR! Look at ROTJ when he won't even impersonate royalty to help set free Luke, Han, Chewie, etc. and these are folks that he knows. If what you are saying is true... "C-3PO doesn't have the faintest clue who the Princess is." than why would he go through such great trouble to cover for her. Has anyone here ever lied for someone that we had no idea who they were? I don't think so.

Plus the hole Uncle Owen/3PO debacle is still out with the jury. Hopefuly it will become more clear what's going on there. Personally I feel Lucas has painted himself into a corner with some of this stuff from the OT. I understand that at the time he never knew that it would catch on like this...

 

I believe that 3PO's protocol skills help him to be economical with the truth. According to the radio play he does know Princess Leia, but has been told to restrict all references to her, so I think that makes sense.

But maybe he can lie, is this a lie?:

"All this excitement has overrun the circuits in my counterpart here."

which he says in ANH to the trooper on the DS.

g

 

Suineme,
Just as a correction to your previous statement, The Tantive IV's mission was to deliver the Death Star plans to the base at Yavin IV. Leia couldn't have travelled to Tatooine to find Obi-Wan, because she didn't know that he was there! After the two baby twins (Luke and Leia) are delivered to their foster parents, Obi-Wan, without anyone's knowledge (except for Owen and Beru, perhaps) begins to live as a hermit there. So, I don't have any idea why the Tantive IV is above Tatooine...there's no evidence anywhere to support that the Devastator had an Interdictor with it.

 

thoughtbomb-
The Tantive IV's mission was to deliver the Death Star plans to the base at Yavin IV. Leia couldn't have travelled to Tatooine to find Obi-Wan, because she didn't know that he was there!

But if she didn't know he was there how did she expect R2 to find him?

And remember in the hologram message she says to Ben "...my mission to bring you to Alderaan has failed..." etc.

g

 

Leia was actually there to pick up Obi-Wan, she says so in her message, "My attempt to bring you to Alderaan has failed". Leia knew Obi-Wan was on Tatooine. In the ROTJ novel, Obi-Wan tells Luke that Bail Organa knew where he was and that he was informed to tell Leia where to find him if she ever needed help. Leia flying over Tatooine in ANH was no coincidence. She was there to get Obi-Wan to help defeat the Death Star.

 

Yeah I started a thread on that topic, but I think it's pretty much dead. There were a couple of people who posted though, and you can read it here

 

The question is who is the bigger liar, C3PO or Obi-Wan. They both have they share of multiple lies, I think it's some kind of a post clone war syndrome

Now blame the real liar, the one behind the script, who changed a lot of things that impact on the OT for the PT's sake.

 

I have a small paper that I'm writing on Star Wars and Lying. Its really interesting. Coming Soon To A Thread Near You!