Hello, new user at the forums: I recently resaw the original trilogy for the first time in a long time (together with my daughter - nice experience to share with her). One thing that I noticed, and it might have been discussed before to greath lenghts, was if C3PO is aware of the identity of Leia or not. Right at the beginning in ANH he says "there is no escape for the princess this time" - where the words "this time" implies that it might have been close before, but this time really is bad. However a bit later, he claims only to be aware of her being some passanger of a certain importance on their last trip. C3PO seems as a character a bit to naive to actually lie - so what is the meaning of this?
The novel makes a point of saying that, when he's being bought - the answer to the question about speaking Bocce was one of the few completely honest things he'd said in that scene. I could see Threepio being cagey about how much he reveals to Luke. He is, after all, from a Rebel ship.
Hello, and thank you for your reply. It might be possible that he is holding back some information, but generally I tend to think of him as someone that really could not lie and rather be quite forwardspeaking even at inproper times. Something that maybe R2D2 is aware of and does not seems to involve C3PO in any detail at all about "the mission". 3CPO does also seems to be quite mad at R2 for not playing back the whole message when Luke is in fact his new master, so why should C3PO at the same time lie about princess Leia?
That's an interesting question. Later in the movie - he says to the stormtroopers "They're madmen! They're heading for the prison level. If you hurry, you might catch them." before they even ask any questions. Would this be another example of "forward speaking at improper times"?
I have never understood why he is actually telling them the correct location of the others, and not just gave any other random direction to get the stormtroopers away?
I wondered that myself. Maybe he figured that Luke & company were already there - so by the time the stormtroopers got there - Luke & company would have left.
A factor to consider is that he's a protocol droid. I don't think lying would be standard protocol. Yes, I think C£PO knew Leia before.
Threepio said that because he's trying to act as if he belongs to the Empire and didn't come in on the Falcon.
Possible, but in reality there was not many ways out of the prison blocks and getting more stormtroopers to that specific area might have totally been the end for the others. As the Death Star was a quite large facility it does seems more rational to just gave away any other location but the real one.
But if he is not lying (which I do not really think "fits" him) then why does he claim not to know any more of her than being an important passenger? And meanwhile getting mad at R2 for not playing out the whole message to their "new master" - implying that he has not specific localty to Leia. But they did not come in on the Falcon and he did speak (a bit vaguely) about being in battles because of the rebellion? I do not get any impression that he tries to act as if he belongs to the Empire.
I've always been under the impression that by this point 3PO and R2 knew that the stormtroopers had already discovered the rebels were on the detention block so he wasn't telling them anything they didn't already know - and he knew he wasn't telling them anything they didn't already know.
That is possible the most likely answer. Anyway, back to the original question: how come C3PO can first talk about "the princess" not being able to escape this time and then a bit later not knowing who Leia is? It can't be that he has any specific loyality to Leia, since even when he and R2D2 are alone he tries to get him to replay the whole message and reminds R2 of Luke being their new master.
But they did not come in on the Falcon and he did speak (a bit vaguely) about being in battles because of the rebellion? I do not get any impression that he tries to act as if he belongs to the Empire.[/quote] The shootout in the detention center has already happened. The Death Star is on alert and there are Stormtroopers on the other side of the door. The Empire knows that there are intruders aboard and from the Millennium Falcon. Hence Threepio acts as if he's Imperial property with what he says. This presumes that he's spent time with Leia and knows what she looks like. He knows that the Tantive IV belongs to the House of Organa, but that doesn't mean that at this point in time, he's spent years around her.
That I do agree with you on. I thought your original message was about the sitation at Luke's place and not the later scene on the Death Star. Yes, we do not know that at all. However, he does say: "there is no escape for the princess this time", implying that he does know about the princess being onboard, and this time it does look really bad. He also later claims to only being aware of her as someone important, but that many either women or princesses could not have been on this very specific ship.
Right. But being a passenger and aware of the comings and goings of Princess and serving as her direct Protocol droid are two different things.
Agree, he does not at all have to been serving her as a protocol droid or anything. I just find it very strange that he does not recognize the hologram version displayed by R2D2.
I know this may stir some stuff up, but I know that I read somewhere that Lucas said that droid memory wipes in the SW universe were far from a sure thing. There would always be bits and pieces of memories left intact and others floating around like dreams, so 3PO may have known a lot more than we thought. Some people think this was the reason he shut down at Obi-Wan's place. When Obi started talking about Anakin 3PO shut down, I can't remember if it was before or after Obi pulled the Lightsaber out? Either way the timing was strange, and I think it was the only time in the entire saga that he voluntarily shut down. So yes C3PO knew who the princess was. He remembered her and Luke being born, and he also knew who Darth Vader really was. H*** he may have known who killed Kennedy. Really though it's interesting to think about what, if anything, 3PO may have remembered.
I believe the radio drama has a scene shortly prior to the Empire's attack on Leia's ship, in which Captain Antilles programs Artoo and Threepio with a voice protocol requiring them to disavow all knowledge of the princess being on the Tantive IV. The protocol appears to have remained in effect, if in weakened form, even after Threepio's ownership was transferred from Raymus Antilles to Luke Skywalker, which explains why he was only able to obliquely recall Leia's identity to Luke. It also appears Threepio himself was less than fully aware of what was going on with the voice protocol, judging by his angry berating of Artoo for concealing the hologram from Luke. None of this is evident in the film itself, though. Who knows what we were supposed to think.
