CT Uncle Owen would have damned the galaxy!

He wanted Luke to memory wipe R2 which would have erased the plans and thus the revels would never have found the weakness. This is even more abhorrent after Rogue One. All Jyn and Cassian and the crew accomplished and sacrificed for would have been completely undone. Good thing R2 tricked Luke into removing his restraining bolt.

Uncle Owen would have doomed the galaxy into eternal submission and oppression by the Empire....

 

This is something I've never thought about but once you pointed it out becomes obvious.
I never considered that the memory wipe could also likely wipe the DS plans. Though to play devil's advocate, Leia inserted some type of floppy disk into R2. The data contained both her holographic message and the technical readout of the station. Because the data is on this device, I'm guessing it is possible that while his memories were wiped, that data would still exist. Of course, if the memory were wiped, R2 would not urgently seek out Obi-Wan to advance his mission and thus the effect would be the same.

 

Are the DS plans included in R2's memory core, though? I would think it'd be in his system, but not his memory, though he would forget to find Obi-Wan for sure

Lol just what Seldon said basically

 

In Owen’s defense, he couldn’t have known. I mean, what are the odds that the droid he bought would be the exact droid carrying sensitive information that could bring the Empire down on its knees? Most people aren’t that lucky, not even Han Solo.

 

This is a good point. In her message Leia says she placed the plans on R2's "memory systems". It's likely they would've been lost if Luke had erased those systems. Certainly knowledge of his mission would be gone. It's very cool that the galaxy came that close to its doom just based on Owen's casual instructions over dinner.

 

I believe the plans were transferred from that data carrier into Artoo's system. Upon their arrival on Yavin IV the Alliance techs don't extract a data carrier from him but plug Artoo straight into one of their computers.

 

He knew! Owen was in fact a possible Sith apprentice at the time between TPM and AOTC. Eventually he was replaced by Dooku, but Owen still followed Sidious and the dark side. It was Sidious who arranged for Shmi to be freed and given over to the Lars family. Of course Sidious was also behind the Tusken kidnapping. That was the perfect opportunity for his new apprentice Anakin to become a believer in the dark side. Owen was kept as a backup, not good enough to be a real Sith, but someone who might sooner or later prove to be useful. When he failed of course he and his wife were executed by the stormtroopers. It's all pretty obvious.
I mean really! Was anybody fooled by Owen's talk of farm work and fake interest in the farm? He wanted to keep Luke from getting into the Rebellion and ultimately being responsible for its victory over the Sith and Empire. He sensed his Jedi abilities right at the end of ROTS when Obi-Wan gave him the baby. He knew Obi-Wan lived nearby, so he was careful not to let Luke have an "accident". He knew OW to be a powerful Jedi, and was afraid of him all the time. After all Owen was a coward so he never made it to Sith.

 

Interesting, I never really thought about it till now, Of course Our beloved little droid dodged a memory wipe at the end of ROTS. Even if Leia had used R2 to carry the plans for the Death Star he would not have fought so hard to complete his mission without his memories of Anakin, Padme and Obi Wan.

 

Uncle Owen is the Force.


Seriously, thought, people need to read the Old Wounds comic to conceptualize Owen's way of thinking. He's not completely wrong. I, for one, think Leia could have done what Luke did, albeit in a different way.

 

Rogue One was an epic film!

But Uncle Owen wouldn't necessarily be aware of the details of such events, if at all. All he recognised was Luke telling him about an Obi Wan Kenobi. And his fear was that Luke would get mixed up in this mess. He had already told Obi Wan he didn't want Luke involved in some damn foolish quest that could put his nephew's life in danger.

He didn't really hear any other details of R2D2's message. Luke only mentioned about the droid possibly having Obi Wan as its previous owner, or stolen.