something i always wondered about c3po and Rd-D2

ok so these are seen all the way through the trilogy from Ep1 right through to EPVI but one thing that was a bit strange was, in EPIII when Luke buys the droids off the jawas and when the message is left on R2-D2 and she says "help me ob1 kenobi" and then luke asks who he is,C3PO doesnt have a clue about who he is

now you can always assume that there memory got erased or something but does anyone have any ideas to why he doesnt remember ben?

 

as you said; their memories get erased

 

also i have another question

i dont remember any time of the film Darth vader and C3PO sharing any screen time, i wonder if he did see C3PO would he recognise him as the droid he built before he left Tatooine!?
also he should remember R2-D2 as he was in the fighter jet with him the TPM?

 

R2-D2 is a blue R2 unit and surely out of the thousands (millions?) of R2 units produced there are tons of blue R2 units. In the trilogy we see lots of R2 units, of course they are different colors but that I think is just so the audience doesn't confuse then with R2. I would think Vader runs across Blue R2 units all the time, but never gives it a second thought.

 

as for 3PO and Vader, I can only remember them being in the same room on Cloud city. In the carbon feezing chamber.

Most protocol droids and R2 droids look a LOT alike. Some people would like it if Vader recognized one of them. Some would hate it. Personally I dont think its a big deal either way. He may recognize them in the OT, he may not. We'll never know.

 

I know the memories get erased but also we have yet to see Obi Wan and Threepio interact in the PT. So far they have shared no screen time.

 

they are probably keeping it that way. if i remember right...i dont think obi-wan has any direct contact with R2 either in the PT

 

of course vader didn't recognise either one of them because the idea of anakin buiding 3po is some thought lucas no doubt had while coming up with TPM. i think it's a rediculous idea, and it was the only way they could bring 3PO into the new movies. too coincidental for me.

 

Jedi_John
Obi wan did have direct contact w/R2 in TPM. Not much, and he really doesn't pay much attention to him but they are together in several scenes. It doesn't mean he would remember him some 20 + yrs later though.

 

Haven't we done this before?


Yes, they do get their memories wiped. Lucas has confirmed it. And for the characters not recognizing them, think of it this way: would you be able to recognize a toaster you had twenty years ago? Droids in Star Wars are little more than appliances that talk for most people. There are thousands of protocol droids and astromechs that look identical to Threepio and Artoo. Why would Obi-Wan or even Vader care if this are the same ones they met before?

 

I must admit I have a bit of a problem with some peole not recognising C-3PO. Unlike a toaster C-3PO has a name and a distinct peronality and voice. I personally think you would remebr something so distinctive....

 

yeah when i seen the films in my younger years i always remember ThreePio to be most anoying!

 

It would seem that C-3PO's memory was erased of any knowledge of Obi-Wan's existence or identity. Whether or not R2 retained any knowledge from the prequel days remains to be seen. He obviously was programmed by Leia in the beginning of ANH to find Kenobi on Tatooine, but of course we have no direct way of knowing what he said apart from what 3PO tells us. It appears that R2 doesn't recognize Obi-Wan when he first sees him, but this is also hard to tell.

Another point is that 3PO was programmed to deliberately conceal information that was confidential. When Luke asks him who the girl in the message is, he says "I'm afraid I'm not quite sure, sir ... a passanger on our last voyage ... a person of some importances, I believe" -- he's deliberately obfuscating, because he's been programmed to conceal the information about her identity.

In light of this fact, it is conceivable that 3PO might know more about Obi-Wan and the plans than he lets on. True, when they're getting in the escape pod he knows nothing, but it's possible that R2 told him more later, while they were in the sandcrawler perhaps. This could explain 3-PO's actions in suggesting to Luke that they buy R2 instead of R5-D4, and in suggesting "couldn't we go after him" that night when R2 runs off. All of his verbal hints of exasperation with R2 could be just for show, to keep anyone from suspecting they're in league.

 

****SPOILER ALERT!! SPOILER ALERT!!!***

Okay, I promised that I wouldn't reveal this but here's a MAJOR EIII scoop!!!

The Droids in the OT are two COMPLETELY DIFFERENT robots who happen to be named R2-D2 & C3PO!!! Which explains Everything!!!

*** SPOILER OVER!!! SPOILER OVER!!!****

 

Isn't there like a comic strip or something where Darth V recongnizes C3PO is is about to have him destroyed, but then sends him to Chewie's cell?

 

it's bothered me since it happened and that is that anakin built threepio. he had to have copied the blueprints for another robot. if you remember in ESB threepio runs into a protocol droid that looks exactly like him, except this one is silver. so either anakin copied someone, or someone copied anakin. the latter of which seems impossible.

 

"it's bothered me since it happened and that is that anakin built threepio. he had to have copied the blueprints for another robot."

Anakin didn't build him from scratch. He found a broken protocol droid in the wastes on Tatooine and repaired him to functionality. At least that's what the TPM novelazation says. There was also a little scene where Anakin helped a Tusken. Interesting,,,

 

Here's a couple of thoughts about the droids.
1- Weird that (I heard this somewhere before the PT came out) the OT revolves around C3PO & R2D2. It's not about the rise, fall, and redemption of Anakin. It's about them and everyone else AROUND THEM.

2- Luke asks old Ben if he remembered owning a droid. Remember, Ben uses the "Point of View" theory for everything. Besides the not spending screen time with them, he never OWNED a droid.

Food for thought, you could say.

 

StormtrooperJay,
This is one point where we can be certian Obi Wan was telling the truth. Padme owned Artoo, Shmi than Anakin owned Threepio and since Padme and Anakin got married I'm pretty certian there will be a custody battle over him in Ep III

 

Isn't there like a comic strip or something where Darth V recongnizes C3PO is is about to have him destroyed, but then sends him to Chewie's cell?

Yes, there is. It's in Dark Horse's Star Wars Tales, although I don't recall the issue number. However, all the stories in SW Tales carry the Infinities logo, which means that it doesn't necessarily happen in the EU continuity.

Then again, here on the film boards, none of the EU necessarily happens, so there you go.

 

cooker,
Well according to some poster the EU counts, even the infinities stuff. But I don't want to start a canon debate. I'll leave that to the SW fanboys.

 

i wondered about that too, especially with 3po's line "there will be no escape for the princess this time".

 

Well, how many other Threepio units have we seen-quite a few. Threepio was built by Anakin scavenging parts from the dump-possibly out of old droid parts.

So all droids DO look alike-the 3PO series seems to be a very common one.

 

Threepio is hardly a unique droid.

 

One thing to remember-- Anakin DOES recognize Threepio as his droid when he goes back to rescue his mother in AOTC. It could be context-- he knew this was where his mother was supposed to have gone, and he left Threepio in her care. Also it seems like Threepio has a distinct voice out of all the protocol droids we've seen, and he'd been talking before Anakin recognized him-- it took a minute. This, of course, still says nothing about whether Obi-Wan should recognize Threepio.