"I don't seem to remember ever owning a droid."

I do not believe, given the high number of astromech droids in the galaxy, that Kenobi would have recognized his padawan's robot -- which looks pretty much like every other "R2" model -- twenty years later.

From the ROTS novel by Matt Stover:
"Obi-Wan could not avoid a second of disbelief at the bewildering variety of auxiliary tools and aftermarket behaviors Anakin had tinkered onto his starfighter's astromech, even beyond the sophisticated upgrades performed by the Royal Engineers of Naboo. The little device was virtually a partner in its own right."

Yes, Obi-Wan may have had little respect or regard for droids, but even for him, R2-D2 was special, and I think he would have remembered that 20 years down the line.

 

many of which have a similar voice as 3PO (TC-14. e.g.).

While I dont discount that 3CPO may be gay, TC-14s voice is a female, American accent versus 3CPOs over the top male British butler accent.

 

Obi Wan has been known to lie i.e. "certain point of view".

 

He may or may not have known at first, but by the time they got to his home, and the message was played, he had to realize R2 and C3PO were indeed the droids Anakin and Padme had.

 

^ ^ That I can certainly agree with, in-universe.

 

yep..

 

But that would also lend credence to the "he recognised R2 straight away" side.

One of the reasons given for him not recognising R2 is that he said he didn't. So why wouldn't he tell Luke when he DID realise? He's already telling him his Father was a Jedi and gave him his lightsaber. Why not say that R2 was also his? He must have his reasons, so those reasons would be also be valid when R2 and Ben first met up.

 

He never said he didn't recognize R2.

 

I think this is one of those things that has no definite answer. Maybe GL has an answer in his head that would end this discussion, but I like that we can all have our own opinions about the situation.

My theory: Obi-Wan recognizes R2 immediately. He doesn't want to jump right into his history or Anakin's history with Luke, so he keeps quiet about it.

 

^^ Yep. I also think that when he first saw R2, he realized that something important must be going on, for R2 to even be there. But he didnt want to spill the beans to Luke or anyone else until he knew for sure what was going on.

 

I know that, but the debate has turned into whether or not he recognised him

 

Well he never said he didn't recognize R2, he said he didn't remember ever owning a droid. Of course, he actually never did own R2. I just don't think it was real important at that time for him to tell Luke R2 was owned by his father. Then again he may not have known for sure they were the same droids, but the way he looked at droids, they were just machines.

 

^ ^ That about sums up my position as well.

 

Obi-Wan didn't seem all that fond of R2D2 back in the day - it could be he was a little jealous because Anakin seemed to love the droid as much as his friend. Perhaps he was holding a grudge against R2D2 and trying to insult the little varmit by pretending not to recognize him.

 

Haha! Yeah, that's the answer!

 

Well if the films had been shot in order I'm sure he'd say something that acknowledges that he knows R2 and 3PO. But since one came almost 30-years before the others... we've got what we've got and I think the best "explanation" is that Obi Wan by that time plays pretty loosely with the truth/facts.

That we know from the PT that Obi Wan and the droids had many many many interactions... it's just hard to fathom that there's no acknowledgement of that in the OT. However that's just something we have to live with since the PT came so much earlier and GL clearly hadn't laid out all the details of the entire story. He seems to try and cover it with the "Have the protocol droid's mind wiped" comment... but what about R2? I'd expect R2 to be telling 3PO to translate for Obi Wan how good it is to see him again after 20-years... how he's been close to Leia all that time, etc.

It's just one of those "issues" that's hard to resolve except to say that it is what it is.

 

I don't think we need to see Kenobi in this light. In-universe, he obscures Vader's true origins for a reason: to protect Luke from the burden of the truth. (Whether you agree with his decision or not, that is his motivation.) There would be no need to keep silent on the identity of the droids. He might say simply "that one was your father's, and that one your mother's" and leave it at that.

Kenobi, as we know from AOTC, believes that droids can't think. In the PT he doesn't acknowledge them as fellow "beings" or "creatures", the way Luke does in the OT. I believe Kenobi sees them as machines and just doesn't recognize them as being anything other than utilitarian robots that look and sound like the many others he's encountered... at least at first. By the time he does recognize them (if he does at all), he would dismiss this connection as unessential. It's not like he's trying to hide the former ownership of the droids.

I've always got the sense that R2 is in the know, but he's canny enough to keep his "mouth" shut until the Jedi deem the time is right to tell Luke and Leia about their true origins. R2 is in on all the secrets, he just knows that silence is the better part of wisdom, unlike 3PO.

But all this is just one fan's opinion. I don't mean to quash anyone's own ideas about why Kenobi acts the way he does.

 

Except that he obviously doesn't acknowledge ever having known R2 or 3PO. Again... it's clearly b/c GL didn't have everything mapped all the way out back in the shooting days of ANH. So all we're left with today is to try and "create" explanations for certain things. In this case - Obi Wan had known R2 for years and had been around 3PO for sometime as well (at some point after the events of AOTC).

I'd disagree slightly based on how Obi Wan acts towards 3PO near the end of ROTS - the way he puts his hand on him when 3PO is commenting about leaving Mustafar. I also think some of his dialogue about R2 earlier shows at least a good sense of humor towards droids as he and Anakin banter about (Anakin's "no lose wire jokes").

Given that it's near impossible to create a prequel 20+ years after an original without having written everything at the start - it's probably surprising that there aren't a lot more head-scratching moments trying to connect small details between the OT and the PT. In this case - it's up to each viewer to decipher why Obi Wan doesn't acknowledge R2 and 3PO right from the start (maybe to provide more cover for Anakin's identity - fearing that if he acknowledged the droids Luke might ask more questions than he already does).

 

I also think some of his dialogue about R2 earlier shows at least a good sense of humor towards droids as he and Anakin banter about (Anakin's "no lose wire jokes").


heh, yeah. When 3CPO got his arm torn off by the Sandpeople in ANH, there was a perfect opportunity for Obi-Wan to make a loose wire joke.

 

Certainly, and I've addressed this point in earlier posts. That's why I try to specify "in-universe" when I'm putting forth possible explanations of Kenobi's behavior in 'ANH'. In the real world, Lucas had a few pages of backstory notes that don't mention the droids at all, so it's up to the fans (and/or the EU authors) to explain what's going on "in-universe".

Good humor perhaps, but recognition of individuality is a different thing. 3PO looks and sounds similar to TC-14, and for that matter to the "Ee chuta" droid on Bespin. R2 looks and sounds like every other astromech in the Galaxy. I remain unconvinced that someone like Kenobi, who doesn't believe droids can think, would see anything unique about Luke's robots.

That's certainly one possible reading, and it seems to be more popular than my own interpretation. But I still think Kenboi could, if pressed, have simply said "that one was your mother's, that one was your father's", and left it at that. I can even imagine a "deleted" or unscripted scene in which that very conversation takes place, possibly in transit in the landspeeder on the way to Mos Eisley. For Kenobi this would provide an opportunity to talk about the destiny laid out by the Force (and the free will that exists within that overarching destiny), rather than another uncomfortable moment in which he has to invent another story told from a "certain POV".

 

This essay by Keith Martin should give you all the answers you need:

A New Sith, or Revenge of the Hope
Reconsidering Star Wars IV in the light of I-III

If we accept all the Star Wars films as the same canon, then a lot that happens in the original films has to be reinterpreted in the light of the prequels. As we now know, the rebel Alliance was founded by Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Bail Organa. What can readily be deduced is that their first recruit, who soon became their top field agent, was R2-D2.

Consider: at the end of RotS, Bail Organan orders 3PO's memory wiped but not R2's. He wouldn't make the distinction casually. Both droids know that Yoda and Obi-Wan are alive and are plotting sedition with the Senator from Alderaan. They know that Amidala survived long enough to have twins and could easily deduce where they went. However, R2 must make an impassioned speech to the effect that he is far more use to them with his mind intact: he has observed Palpatine and Anakin at close quarters for many years, knows much that is useful and is one of the galaxy's top experts at hacking into other people's systems. Also he can lie through his teeth with a straight face. Organa, in immediate need of espionage resources, agrees.

For the next 20 years, as far as 3PO knows, he is the property of Captain Antilles, doing protocol duties on a diplomatic transport. He is vaguely aware of the existence of the princess but doesn't know much about her. Wherever 3PO goes, being as loud and obvious as he always is, his unobtrusive little counterpart goes with him. 3PO is R2's front man. Wherever they land, R2 is passing messages between rebel sympathisers and sizing up governments as potential rebel recruits - both by personal contact and by hacking into their networks. He passes his recommendations on to Organa.

Yoda is out of the picture by this stage, using the Force-infused swamps of Dagobah to hide himself from Vader and the Emperor. Or something. He is meditating on the future and keeping in touch with Obi-Wan via the ghost of Qui-Gon Jin, which as comm systems go has the virtue of being untappable. Obi-Wan, on Tattoine, keeps in touch with Bail Organa and the other Rebel leaders by courier, of which more later.

As Star Wars opens, R2 is rushing the Death Star plans to the Rebellion. R2, not Leia. The plans are always in R2. What Leia puts into him in the early scene is only her own holographic message to Kenobi. Leia's own mission, as she says in the holographic message, is to pick up Obi-Wan and take him to Alderaan - or so she thinks. Actually, her father just wants her to meet Kenobi, which up to this point she never has. There's a reason for that.

Obi-Wan has spent the last 20 years in the Tattoine desert, keeping watch over Luke Skywalker and trying to decide on one of the three available options: A) If Luke shows no significant access to the Force, then leave him alone in obscurity B) If Luke shows real Force ability, then consider recruiting him as a Jedi. The rebellion needs Jedi. Now. But, if Luke shows any signs of turning out like his father, then C) sneak into his house one fine night and chop his head off. With great regret but it'll save a lot of trouble later on. Knowing this to be the case, Bail Organa (perhaps at the insistence of his wife) has found excuses not to send Leia to Ben for assessment of Jedi potential, largely for fear of option C.

To be fair to all concerned, Leia has shown no overt signs of a link to the Force. Luke on the other hand has. In his home-built hotrod aircraft, with no formal fighter pilot training and no decent instrumentation, Luke can regularly score centre-hits on 2-metre targets in complicated zero-altitude maneouvres. Until he attends the briefing on Yavin, Luke has no way of knowing that hardened combat pilots would consider that nearly impossible. To him it's easy. Obi-Wan, who saw Anakin's performance in the Pod Race, is nervous.

Much of Obi-Wan's behaviour in this film, and Yoda's in the next, can best be understood

 

^ ^ ^ I buy about 20% of that. Chewie a Rebel spy? Come on.

 

Yeah, I thought the same way. But it was funny to read

 

Interesting read. There are a few flaws and errors, but a fine read none the less.