Yoda and R2D2

Yes, and until TCW resurrected him, there would be no reason to think he survived. Call me when a source, any source at all, mentions that Artoo had his memory wiped between Episodes III and IV.

I get that you can accept it, but you still seem to be arguing against the notion that the clear intent of the films is that he wasn't memory-wiped. I don't understand why you're still making arguments to that effect. The scene was written that way to show us that one droid's memory was wiped, and the other's wasn't. Why would they include a scene where only Threepio's memory is ordered to be wiped, and then leave it up to the audience to assume that Artoo's was also wiped off-screen? That doesn't make any sense.

I don't have definitive answers for you. You'd have to ask the filmmakers. The fact is Threepio's memory was erased and Artoo's wasn't. There's no getting around that fact. That's what the movies show, and no source of equivalent canonical weight, or any weight at all in fact, has deemed fit to change it.

 

Let it go already.