Why didn't Owen recognise

Why didn't Owen recognise Threepio in ANH.

We saw in AOTC that Threepio was staying with Owen and his father.

Anyone know?

 

There is no 100% definite answer yet.
BUT

(1) Threepio never tells Owen his name in ANH.
(2) Threepio is gold in ANH, but not in AOTC.
(3) How 'friendly' were Owen and Threepio in AOTC? We don't know if Owen and Threepio were buddies who hung out together and went to movies on weekends, or if Threepio was just an appliance to him, like a toaster or something.



Rick McCallum loves you!

 

To Adam you listen...yeeees!


There are millions of protocol droids in the Galaxy, why would he make the connection between the beat up one he had in AOTC and the shinier, newer looking Threepio in ANH?

 

To elaborate, imagine you have a nice, dirty, red toaster. Then you get rid of it, say by giving it to a charity shop. Twenty years later, you go into a junkyard and see a shiny blue toaster of the same make as the one you had 20 years earlier and buy it. Would you automatically assume it's the same one?

 

ESPECIALLY if the new toaster doesn't tell you his name.

(Bad analogy, I know, but the fact that Threepio never says his name to Owen is, to me, the biggest plot-hole-filler-upper of them all.)


But frankly I take offense that I would not recognize my toaster. My beloved pet toaster Humphrey is a good friend to me.



Rick McCallum loves you!

 

The question I would think would bother more people is why didn't Threepio recognize Owen? He recognized Anakin, but not Owen.

I think the answer has to do with memory erasing...but I would think that would bother more people than the other way around.

 

I think it's pretty much a sure thing that Threepio and Artoo (CERTAINLY Threepio) are gonna get memory wipes in E3.


Rick McCallum loves you!

 

I agree, it just seems like more people would be complaining about that than about Owen not recognizing Threepio.

 

I think memory wipes are most likely, yes. But...possibly not.

"I'm not even sure which planet I'm on."
"Well, if there's a bright center to the universe, you're on the planet that it's farthest from."

Threepio is never told he's on Tatooine. He might not have recognized Owen because he's, well, all grown up an' junk.

The only stumbling block is that Threepio should have recognized the Lars homestead. *pshrug*

 

Truth be told, although 3PO seems like the most talkative droid we've ever seen, we don't really know if there are things that he knows that he never does say. I think most people are rather willing to accept that R2 is quiet enough to keep quiet even if he recognises things, so why not the same about 3PO? The conjecture at present is that 3PO will spit out anything that comes to mind, but that is not necessarily the case.

 

He might not have recognized Owen because he's, well, all grown up an' junk.

So was Anakin in AOTC. He recognized him. That's why the memory wipe is still my theory.

 

By the same token, Anakin was the first one to call Threepio by his name, and Threepio didn't recognize Anakin until that happened. I'm thinking it went something like this:

ACTIVE VISUAL RECOGNITION ROUTINE
If Approaching_Beings = Recognized THEN goto GREET_KNOWN_BEINGS;
If Approaching_Beings = Unrecognized THEN goto GREET_STRANGERS;

GREET_STRANGERS
Speak "Greetings. I am C-3PO, human/cyborg relations. How may I help you?";

*** Dialogue Interruption ***
Beings have interrupted and referred to this unit by name. Run VISUAL EXTRAPOLATION SYSTEMS against KNOWN BEINGS DATABASE and search for possible matches allowing for time differential...

*** Possible Match Found ***
Subject: Anakin Skywalker
Designation: The Maker


You get the idea. (And, yeah, my programming sucks. So sue me. I haven't programmed in nearly a decade, and then only in PASCAL and BASIC. Learn to cope. )

Point being, there could be a lot of explanations for any of these scenes that don't involve memory wiping...

 

RocketGirl, that computer programming post is quite possibly the geekiest thing I've ever seen on this whole message board...

...

...

...







Rick McCallum loves geeks!

 

Then my work here is done.

 

I understand that y'all are trying to explain this, but none of you have mentioned that the real reason is bece trying to make explanations and just accept the fact that it's just because George Lucas has grown into a complete idiot who was higher than Snoop Dog at a block party in Brooklyn and didn't have the slightest clue what he was doing when he wrote Episode 1.

 

What does Episode I have to do with Threepio meeting the Lars family?

And considering that we have provided perfectly logical explanations for why Owen doesn't recognize Threepio, and it is highly probable that Threepio will be memory-wiped in E3, I think your statement in general gets a as well.


Rick McCallum loves !

 

Simple answer: Uncle Owen is a moron.

 

Doggans, Lucas confirmed Artoo's and Threepio's memory wipe a two or three years ago.

The reason why Owen didn't regonize Threepio is because they both never introduced themselves. Threepio's memory was wiped, and Owen didn't regonized him because it has been 25 years since they have seen each other and Threepio had different coverings.

 

He doesn't remember because of the mental block he has in his head trying to forget Beru cheated on him with Threepio. Threepio was a love machine in his day!

 

Owen may have recognised C3PO, but never mentioned it - lets be honest it would have been a really **** scene Owen telling Luke, "Hmm, that tall shinny droid is the same one that passed my path some years before. It happened on the night of the 25th..."

****ing mint.

 

Why ? Think of it you live in a place where its only sand and you farm WATER. There was really nothing to do out there other than many catch a tan now and then. So Owen probably got really bored did some drugs and that damaged his memory. Also why didn't Owen and Beru have no kids ? you'd think two people living out in the middle of no where would be ya know all the time.

 

maybe Beru just wasn't able to have kids, or maybe it was owen, but who cares?

if owen recognized C-3PO, and said anything, luke may have gotten curious, and led to a discussion about where the droid came from, which would lead into another discussion about his father which owen would not want to get into.

he probably noticed that C-3PO did not recognize him (and thats assuming Owen recognized the droid at all) and figured he had his memory wiped.

personally I don't think it would make much sense for either of them to recognize each other, owen is old and C-3PO looks completely different
(and no he wouldn't recognize his voice, would you recognize someones voice after so many years when you have only met them ounce?)
and has had his memory wiped.

 

The most interesting question is WHY
C-3POs and R2-D2s memories
will be erased!
My guess is that it has to do with not
letting anyone (not even those two
droids) know the real identities
and the hiding out locations of
Luke and Leia.
Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi and
Bail Organa are most
likely the ones
behind this.
Or at least one or
two of them.
Any other thoughts?

 

3PO should have his memory wiped. It'd be more entertaining to know that R2 knew everything in ANH and just didn't say anything.

I think a more important question is why Obi-Wan doesn't recognize R2.