"Poor little R2"....

Hey all...
am watching AOTC as i type this (geonosis battle just starting)
A little while ago while in the factory 3po says something rather odd:

"I wonder what happened to poor little R2? He's ALWAYS getting himself into trouble"....
ok HOW can 3po KNOW this if they have only been together a few times since TPM and they just left Tatooine? Could R2 have gotten into that much trouble in such a short time?

Again a blatant reference to the OT in my opinion knowing their "relationship" is in the OT
Still a nice paring of two memorable and loveable characters!!

just my 2 republic credits worth....

 

R2 always causes or gets into trouble. You only have to know him for a few minutes to know that.
Besides in just the few minutes they did see each other in AOTC....

1. R2 demanded to go into the factory, causing trouble
2. Pushed 3P0 into the factory which caused trouble

See there was trouble.

 

not only that, but in the time 3PO has known R2 up to that point, R2 had never gotten into trouble at all. just bad screen writing in my opinion.


1. R2 demanded to go into the factory, causing trouble
2. Pushed 3P0 into the factory which caused trouble

mere ambition. besides, you cant say that someone is always getting into trouble, when you base that accusation on a couple of things that person did 10 minutes ago.

you have to know someone and their habits to characterize someone as a person who always gets into trouble.

 

just my 2 republics credit worth....


hmmmm yeah...that is odd. Well they probably did spend some time together in TPM, but you're right they didn't know each other well enough to say something like that...

 

If you have only known each other for a few hours and in those hours there have been trouble you can easily make a generalization about it.

After all 3P0 is only a droid.

 

I always assumed 3PO was referring to R2's past adventures. In The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, R2 and 3PO spend a good amount of time together. I would imagine R2 told 3PO about his adventures and the things he had done. 3PO probally drew his own conclusions from there.

C-3PO: "Why, that R2-D2. What a crazy little *******"

 

Threepio is friendly like that due to his programming.

 

I really think that it was just a poorly thought out piece of dialouge.

sure it can be explained away, but then again, almost anything can.

 

I agree with ST-TPM-ASF-TNE, C3PO would have just based it off the conversations they'd of had up to that point.

C3PO: Oh my! Space travel sounds rather perilous. I can assure you they will never get me onto one of those dreadful starships!

 

agree with sp too! and in that kind of situation, always remember it's a movie, you can imagine what you want to explain minor details!

 

The strictly technical function of the dialogue was to prime the viewer for the appearance R2 would soon make, a trick of the screenwriting trade.

On the other hand the dialogue is a little illogical given their relationship at the time and the same trick could have been achieved by having threepio say 'I hope he doesn't get into trouble' or, more pertinently for what was about to transpire, 'I hope he doesn't get me into trouble'.

Simple little changes like that make the difference betweeen clunky dialogue and relevant points made within the bounds of character and within the functional need to convey exposition. Of course, as GL says, dialogue isn't his primary concern, which is a shame, since once a first draft has been written, dialogue can be very easily reworded to make the point without making it so explicitly that it seems unnatural.

For example, how much more powerful would the romance scenes if there had actually been a lot less dialogue from Anakin, him struggling to find words to express himself and failing to do so most of the time (making the 'I can't breathe' stuff stand out more) and having Padme read the signs and tell him what she thinks.

'Anakin, we can't do this'
'Why not? What harm could it do?'

Lines like that would have been gentler on the audience, and far less clunky a la the 'You are a jedi I am a senator it wuld destroy us' stuff, plus laying things on the line a little less and leaving it at the 'what harm could it do' would make the line incredibly powerful when the saga is complete and such an innocent question has a darker context.

Anyway, blah blah blah, it can't be changed now so what the hey>

 

Awww Anthony Daniels himself answered this question at his site AnthonyDaniels.com

Q In AOTC when you are on the conveyor belt you mention that you are worried about R2 D2 as the little fellow is always getting in to trouble. How do you know this? You've only met him briefly in Episode I and slightly more in Episode II but you've shared no adventures. Or have I missed something?
Brenda Clark

Anthony Daniels:Yes you have! You must realise that, though George Lucas occasionally removes the camera from the seminal exploits of the two droids to watch what some of the other characters are up to, nevertheless the two machines continue to have a life of their own, well, perhaps existence of their own. For instance, the long flight involved in Ep II meant that once lunch had been served, the movie (Indiana Jones -XIV) finished and after a short nap, R2 passed the time by chattering to C-3PO. The latter having lead a rather sheltered life on Tatooine where, apart from the odd marauding Sandperson, the only potential danger was having his parts painfully sandblasted by the desert wind, was naturally astounded at the elaborate tales of heroism that R2 claims in his autobiographies. Since modesty is not a word in R2's memory bank, the stories took on a rather dramatic quality featuring him in the lead role. This caused Threepio to take a couple of Anadin. He is now resting before the rigours of Ep III.

 

Anthony Daniels is the man!




Mace Windy,
five years of windiness!

 

R2 and 3PO had been together for the time when anakin was off killing the tuskens. R2 could have told Threepio about all of his adventures and then Threepio could say that.

 

darthoffski-

a good post. Ultimatly, I think that Lucas is constantly searching for ways to develop things as quickily as possible in a little time as possible. so the audience hears "hes always getting himself into trouble" and immediatly the bond between those characters grows a little stronger. Hes so strapped for time, he must resort to stuff like this. however, as your post demonstrated, only a little bit of analysis reveals the weaknesses of such writing. to be honest though, I doubt the average movie goer would see anything wrong with it.

 

Thanks Jariten!

I realise the 'average' filmgoer isn't going to be so analytical, but I'm a writer myself, so when such lines as the 'always getting himself into trouble' crop up, the fact it's unmotivated by what we've seen of the characters reaches out and slaps me across the face. Gentle bickering would have been enough by itself to establish their relationship, expecially since that is basically the entire dynamic of their friendship right through the OT.

But, as I implied already, I'm kinda wasting my time debating something that can't be changed (well, if anyone is ever likely to revise a film, it's lucas, but that's by the by) and so, when things like this crop up and seem clunky to me, I guess I should just keep shtum and basically take the 'lesson' learned and not do the same with my own writing.

 

" when things like this crop up and seem clunky to me, I guess I should just keep shtum "

dont do that!! if youve got an opinion or an idea, get it out there and share it. thats what these boards are for!

 

Clunky or not, do some people think C3PO is rather eccentric at times? Not only that, but has a bit of a superiority complex, trying to "demean" R2 . "For a mechanic...."

When adding all these character traits, also the previous situations, with R2 questioning C3PO to what he meant by Anakin and Padme asking if they needed help they would have asked; Yet, R2 going ahead into the unknown. C3PO did then tell him "you don't know what's out there" and "idiot".

So, when R2 is missing, and for that everything that has happened so far, 3PO assumes that R2 probably got himself into trouble. Typical of him really. Also it then makes sense with the usual complaints, it is the next moment 3PO is the one really in trouble! Deserving of this pompous droid!

 

I think almost all of 3PO's dialogue in AOTC is shamefully bad

"this is such a drag" being one of the worse

WAY too many corny one liners

 

actually, i laughed out loud at that bit.

and how about-

"die jedi dogs!...oh, what did i say?!"
"whats all this noise? oh, a battle!!"
"im programmed for ettiqete not destruction!"
"shut me down, machines making machines. how perverse"
"for a mechanic you do an excessive amount of thinking"

etc. etc.

 

whats all this noise? oh, a battle!!

One of my favs. Especially the first part.

You missed (although etc probably covers it ): "Im terribly sorry about all this"

 

- I'm quite beside myself!

 

oh yeah, id forgotten about those!