CT How did Owen and Beru Lars and Obi-Wan Kenobi not recognize C-3PO and R2-D2?

And some people disagree that it was a good call to put them in there. Or put it this way, I feel it would have been better to have them not interact so much with Obi Wan, Owen and Beru. Other than them being familiar characters their roles in the story could have been filled by different characters, it would have prevented the contradictions that I feel are there. Some of us can ignore it and some of us can’t. Some of us us see an issue some of us don’t.

 

Some people disagree and have explained in detail why they feel the way they do. What now?

 

I’ve no idea what you’re driving at. But welcome to the concept of forums where fans put their different views and opinions forward.

 

Not sure what that is supposed to mean since nothing is being pointed out that wasn't by others already but simply reinforcing it. How exactly saying the droids shouldn't have been in the prequels is constructive as a solution to a problem that I'd say at the very best barely exists which you also describe in a similar way:

"Reality is that R2 and 3PO are not needed for the PT, and these little contradictions were so easy to avoid with a bit of thought,"

The thought on how to avoid this was given by Lucas because the one scene that Owen shares with 3PO denotes his attitude to droids. If he was kind and thoughtful with droids asking their names and the like then it would have been implausible to place 3PO on the homestead for years even if he was mainly helping Shmi. I'd also point out that the annoying and complaining droid that we know 3PO as is greatly subdued in comparison in the prequels so even if he got to know his personality it wouldn't have been the same one.

I'd say that makes it the right call because it's his story and he's telling it. He said he was going to do it and did. If what he did made no sense at all and didn't work then he probably wouldn't have done it this way but found another.

The only issue at all was Owen recognizing 3PO. There are no others because he didn't know R2 and Obi-Wan obviously knows the droids but simply isn't saying so. R2 knows not to tell 3PO all that he knows. Lucas made a point that R2 remembers everything or at least has access to it in his memory banks.

I don't see how it makes the world smaller. I just don't get that point of view. Besides that pointing to the droids as being the primary case for this doesn't work. It's minor at best.

If that is the case then the worst offender of this is TESB with making Vader Luke's father. That's the movie that should draw all the ire. That is a total contradiction which could have been easily avoided. Lucas made a point of contradicting himself to the utmost on that one.

Never mind that in terms of making the world "smaller" in ANH it just so happens that of all the places in the whole wide galaxy to hide Obi-Wan chooses Tatooine. Right where the son of his great friend Anakin, who was betrayed and murdered by his pupil Darth Vader no less! Then he gets a message from Princess Leia the daughter of the man he served in the Clone Wars.

Personally I find it exceedingly odd that when it comes to talking about making the worlds of Star Wars "smaller" so much is made of the minor issues of the droids such as Anakin making 3PO or Owen not recognizing him that it's perplexing that those are issues at all in comparisons to the ones above. Why is it the son of a former Jedi that is the new hope at all? Why wasn't Luke just some completely random kid that had no connection whatsoever to Obi-Wan, Anakin or Vader in the first place? From that point of view making Vader the father was ludicrous. If someone wants to put forward the thesis that the galaxy shouldn't be so "small" that's fine but trying to drive the argument through the inclusion of the droids is one of if not the weakest place to start. The primary argument has to be about TESB and making Vader Luke's father. So if anyone wants to tear TESB a new one and make a point of how it undermines the saga then that is something they should do.

Besides that the easiest fix for the recognition (non)-issue would have been for 3PO to stay with Watto then Anakin takes him from Watto so Owen never knows him at all. At best he briefly sees some same as them all protocol droid.

 

Yes, I agree. That's what forums are for. Perhaps now the "usual suspects" can continue the conversation without being criticized simply for expressing their disagreement.

 

This issue isn't as bothersome as why nobody thought of changing the last name of Skywalker to something else or at least, you know...move area just in case.

 

You don't offer any constructive criticism, so spare me that nonsense about "the usual suspects", as that's just insulting. You are free to have an opinion, but you do not get to decide what the facts are. It's also rather weird to harp on about your opinion must be treated with respect, when you don't do that with the opinion of others, in fact, you insult people for disagreeing with you. That in itself is already bad enough, but it gets even worse when you ignore what is actually shown in the movies. You are basically putting your feelings above the actual facts.

Simply put, there is zero reason for Owen or Beru to recognize either droid. All these droids are common, and since they are mass-produced, the general shape is something that make them look all the same, not easily recognizeable. They are also tools, not people, and Owen doesn't give any indication at any point in time that he cares much about what his droids are like.

Beru doesn't meet the droids in ANH, therefore couldn't possibly have recognized them. That is a fact.
And when it comes to Owen, well, as has been stated numerous times by now, he doesn't have any reason to recognize them either. He only saw R2 in AOTC when R2 came out to tell Anakin about Obi Wan's message. Owen remembering a droid who he saw 20+ years ago for a few minutes at the most, and who he only gave a passing glance on in ANH, would be like you remembering a random and very common car that drove past you 20 years ago. It's virtually impossible.

3PO, meanwhile, not only never mentions his name, but has a completely different hull from when Owen last saw him. Why would the thought that this droid might be 3PO even cross Owen's mind, when he looks nothing like him? Do you just assume that someone must be a person you knew 20+ years ago, even though said person has a completely different skin-colour?
Stormtroopers look more similar to each other than 3PO from AOTC does to 3PO from ANH, so what exactly should lead Owen to believe that this completely different looking droid must be the droid his family held 20+ years ago?

There are plenty of discrepancies to be found in these movies. That is to be expected when there are so many of them. This issue however, is not one of them. There is no flaw to be found here, everything is perfectly logical and explained.

 

Get off your high horse, don't try to portray your opinions as the 'final word'.

As you say yourself, there are plenty of discrepancies in the movies than can be found. Owen, Beru and Obi Wan not recognising the droids is one of them IMO. Both were present at a fairly important point in their lifes in the otherwise boring world of moisture farming. I can't imagine there being a much bigger event than the son of Shmi turning up (a Jedi no less) with his 2 droids in their fancy silver starship, who they interact with in the day or 2 they were there whilst he goes off to find his mum, before he brings her dead body back to bury her there. All with the help of the droids.

Equally Obi-Wan spending all the Clone Wars with R2 and 3PO and the writers hoping him saying that he can't remember owning a droid is a choice of words which will pass as a get out of jail card for them isn't good enough IMO. There should be no excuse for these little discrepancies arising. The OT existed, it should be a simple exercise to not tread on its toes. As I said in an earlier post, some people can gloss over it, not be bothered to notice it, have their own head canon or whatever. Whilst some people are picky and it sticks as an issue to be questioned, and clearly some fans do think its an issue worth discussing.

 

My best answer to the name issue is, maybe Skywalker is like Smith or Jones in GFFA. After all, it was the name of a slave woman on Tatooine.

 

This is one of the few plot holes people complain about that's actually a plot hole. But it was already a problem when it was only the originals!

This was George's joke answer, but it's as good as any other!

e: Alternate joke answer: His name was actually Luke Starkiller when he was on Tatooine but he decided to start calling himself Luke Skywalker on the way to the Death Star.

 

The fact that the recognition of the droids can be easily explained away, is not the the issue. The issue is the prequels needlessly created a question that didn't need to be asked.

 

I kind of feel like Obi-Wan seemingly being oblivious to "another" hope in TESB, but then being the one to give an exposition dump about Leia in ROTJ is a bit of a hole as well.

 

If it can easily be explained away, who cares? Do you just hate R2-D2 and C-3PO or something? They're in the prequels because the droids were always envisioned as being in every episode, and it's fun to have them around. What exactly makes it an "issue" in the first place? That you had to think about it for three seconds? That sure seems worth not bringing Kenny Baker and Anthony Daniels back.

 

It's really the opposite. The prequels answered questions that had already been asked before they were made in the first place. That the droids were in them was already known. The question wasn't whether or not they were going to be in them, they were going to be, the question wasn't even what their parts would be because that had been answered already, they were going to be in witness positions again, the question was in the how were they going to be worked into those positions?

Either 3PO or R2 had to be with Anakin because the other was going to be with the Jedi and Padme. The amusing thing is that one might expect 3PO to be from Naboo's royal society and R2 from the junky Tatooine one but Lucas reversed it against expectations. Then R2 stays a hero with the Jedi while 3PO had to work his way up on the farm. He finally gets to the highs of Coruscant but then society falls apart so he ends up stuck on a transport ship position...with R2!

He isn't though. He knows and believes in Luke. He doesn't know Leia at all so what she can and can't do is unknown to him.

Besides that in the story proper now we know about Leia from Episode III so as with Vader the suspense is when is Luke going to find out what we already know.

 

Oh yeah, you got me. I hate R2 and 3PO. And I despise Anthony Daniels and Kenny Baker so much that I posted a comment about how Lucas created a continuity error. (personal attack removed. /heels)

 

It's a plot complication, as even Lucas acknowledged (with some more of his trademark humor) in the story conference for ROTJ:

Lucas: The “other” could be explained by Yoda or described by Ben. We could save that for Ben.

Kasdan: Ben doesn’t even know about it.

Lucas: Ben knows about it.

Kasdan: How come in Empire he says, “He is our last hope” and Yoda says, “No there is another.”

Lucas: He discounts women because he is a male chauvinist pig.

Kazanjian: Well, he forgot.

Kasdan: Wouldn’t that be weird that Ben has forgotten?

Lucas: She isn’t trained, she isn’t ready and Ben wasn’t thinking. Let’s assume that Ben knows there is the other.

Kazanjian: He has to.

But yes, just like the Artoo/Threepio issue, it was something that could easily be explained away, and wasn't worth jettisoning a good idea over.

 

Why Owen Lars and Beru knew much about Anakin when they only meet him for like one day?

 

Bigger issue seems to be that neither Yoda or Obi-Wan seem overly concerned that, once Luke reaches Bespin, BOTH of Anakin's kids will be in danger... and yet Yoda says there is another hope... but that other hope is already being held captive.

 

Because Yoda's whole point is that none of them can know what will happen to Leia and the others. Yoda knows that they are no more likely to die than to survive. But they do know that it is overwhelmingly likely that Luke will be lost to them if he leaves right then. So Yoda is reminding Ben that though Luke may have been a dead end, there is still another chance.

Because they lived with Anakin's mother for years, and literally witnessed him leaving her funeral to go fight in the Clone Wars after receiving a message from Obi-Wan Kenobi, never to return again.

 

Yeah, ANH makes it seem like there was much more of a relationship going on in the PT concerning Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Owen.

 

Lucas should make Owen appear in Episode 1 being Anakin friend

 

That's because there was. Lucas' ideas indicate that Owen could be Obi-Wan's brother in one way or another. Not that close a one because he was more upset at Anakin going to be a Jedi Knight than Obi-Wan!

Yet look how afterwards those scenes were interpreted to possibly be that they know that Anakin became Darth Vader which really doesn't work because then staying in the same place that Anakin knows so well along with Obi-Wan "hiding" there really makes no sense. Even in the context of "Star Wars" alone that is kinda dubious...until you add in that Vader wasn't Anakin yet so then it all works. The worst you can say is why didn't Vader search Kenobi's home planet presuming he even knew about it.

That could have been plausible but overall it's better that Anakin have as less a tie as possible to the Lars' homestead. They know about him through Shmi.

 

Yes! This is my one big issue with ESB, my favorite movie ever. If Leia is the other hope, why on earth wouldn't they want Luke to save her? No complete your training, take your time, while our other hope dies. They also don't tell Luke that Leia is his sister, which is probably why he has visions of her.

 

To be fair, potentially needlessly sacrificing your plan A (whom you’ve already poured time/resources/training into) just to save your plan B (whom you haven’t spent any time developing) is a rather terrible plan.

 

What doesn't make sense to me is these two Jedi standing there, knowing full well that their plan A has already left, their plan B is already being held captive by a Sith Lord, and stating that there's no reason to worry too much about plan A because they still got plan B.

I don't agree that they should want Luke to go rescue Leia, but acting like they still have a plan B when they in fact don't doesn't make any sense.