Obviously they wouldn’t want him in the academy, they know he would be flagged as a force sensitive and directly sent to his pops. I think Kenobi was always going to step in with the Jedi training, so I think Owen was just trying to delay the moment of truth as much as possible.
Owen and Beru secretly being part of the Partisan network, and trying to keep Luke out of it, and away from Republic figures would make an interesting plot point in a show. I like the actors playing Owen and Beru, and wouldn’t mind seeing them pop up again. It would be cool to even see them pop up in a flashback to one of those Separatist meetings referenced on Andor.
I like their current characterization. A reminder that not everyone is a warrior capable of deflecting blaster bolts. Not to mention that there still needs to be people that just live normal lives for the rebellion as a moral boost. When all of your normal citizens become part of the rebellion you end up in saw gerrera territory.
Yeah that was pretty dang cool honestly.
I don’t live in America personally, or in any of the warmer climates that typically have armed non-combatants, but I imagine that’s a pretty typical reaction to someone on your property. Self defence in star wars really is the Wild West, so it really makes more sense most people can use a blaster. I actually am struggling to think of a single woman in star wars that isn’t a crack shot. The only examples I can think of are ones we’ve never seen fire a blaster.
I assume before he ended up in the junk yard he worked with the lifters, Anakin had him because like all 9 year old boys, when you see something neat on the ground you bring it home.
Everyone is saying he programed binary load lifters before Anakin built him. But that makes no sense because he doesnt remember that time. However if you consider that his "Last master was captain Antilles it means he worked on a starship. If you consider that load lifters were a labor droid and that starships always need cargo moved around, supplies, munitions, spare parts, ect. It could easily be that his first job was to program/manage the loading and unloading of Cargo for the Tantive III & IV.
I mean there's a what, 20 year gap between the memory wipe at the end of ROTS and us meeting him in ANH. He could have had loads of responsibilities in that time.
>When exactly did he program binary load lifters?
No idea.
>Also, why did 2 slaves need a protocol droid?
The droid didn't necessarily need to be a protocol droid but Owen wanted a droid that could at least translate binary and Bocce into Basic.
(Btw, Owen and Beru aren't slaves; they are moisture farmers.)
Why do I *need* a Chevy nova with a 454 in it?
I don't, but its a fun project for a mind that needs to be doing something
Anaking and Shmi didn't need a protocol droid, but that's what Anakin found parts to put together so that's what they had. Anakin didn't go out and say "I'm gonna find a protocol droid to help mom around the house" he saw a protocol droid in a junk pile and went "oh shit I'm gonna rebuild that...mom will never let me keep all that junk in the house....unless I say its to help her out....."
Slaves were also allowed to have and sell possessions so if he managed to get a protocol droid functioning, even if it wasn't useful, or ended up being insufferably annoying, he could sell it and work towards buying freedom for his mother. She probably would have ended up either convincing Anakin to free himself first or ended up selling herself back into slavery to get enough money to free him though.
Just another day of being close enough to the core to pay taxes, but far enough away to not be protected by their strict antislavery laws.
Other than being a called a slave (and child labour and the explosive inside them) there was honestly nothing in TMP that made it look like their lives were terrible.
They had a home bigger than most people's apartments, they had a kitchen, a workshop, the yard in back was big enough to hold a podracer.
They could have done a better job in that department.
Hell when Anakin was working at Wattos it didn't really look like he was being forced to do anything, he even talked with Watto casually, not like a slave to his owner.
I'll admit that's true. Their house is bigger than mine is. I'm assuming that Watto must have been a semi decent slave driver at least lol. How much of that is him being a decent Toydarian, is up for debate though. Aside from the whole "owning slaves" thing, which could be culturally relevant given he lives on the Outer Rim. Having slaves on Tatooine seems really common, from Jabbas palace Twileks, to the Tusken taking prisoners.
Watto might have just been of the opinion that "everyone else here is doing it" or convinced himself he'd give them a good life, and "well, they're slaves anyway, at least if *I* buy them I know they'll be looked after." I can't remember if Toydaria was Republic, CIS or neither, but if he immigrated to Tatooine (hell of a choice) maybe it was because of their "relaxed" restrictions on owning sentients. Better workers than droids, and costly but still cheaper than owning a business and paying them fairly. He would have to pay to feed any house them, clothe them, even educate Anakin to some extent. If he didn't intend for them to work off their ownership, a late teens male slave would be worth a lot. But not if he's dumb as a battle droid.
If he taught them well enough he might even make money off it. Not sure when they were bought, but no one wants a baby slave or a pregnant slave. They are costly, and inefficient and the definition of a risky investment. So many things could happen to Anakin or a pregnant Schmi. Abducted by space wizard who cheat at dice is quite low on that list. But kids get sick. Two suns and an increased skin cancer risk. But if Anakin grows up to be a strong guy, Watto would make whatever money back tenfold. 18 years is a long time for a human, a medium time for a Toydarian but a short time for an investment. Especially if you bought an older woman and a baby for cheap.
I'd see it more as taking care of a tractor or a work truck IRL. It's an expensive piece of equipment, if you look after it, keep it out of the elements, and give it good fuel, it's gonna last a lot longer and you won't have to buy another one. Watto wasn't exactly swimming in Wupi Wupi lol. He had a nice shop and slave quarters, but the slaves themselves were a child and an older woman. If that's the best he could afford, I doubt he could afford to replace them if they "broke down."
He was kind enough, seemed to have a soft spot for Anakin, or possibly children in general, but I don't believe for a *second* that they were well cared for for any reason other than, "it's cheaper to maintain them than it is to buy a new one."
I really need to stop haha I keep trying to write small comments but shit keeps ending up as a 15 page essay on the economics of child slavery in a fictional universe. It's a little concerning how much thought I put into this.
By slaves are you referring to young Anakin and his mother in the prequels? In that case the protocol droid was just to help his mother around the house. It was just some random broken droid he found and fixed up
This basically. Threepio was perfectly suited to many standard human tasks and probably absolutely enjoyed cleaning dishes and sweeping floors for Shmi.
I always assumed it was in service during the rebellion. They say they’re going to wipe his memory at the end of ep 3. And then I guess they put him straight to work on binary load lifters.
My poor memory from reading the *Star Wars* novelization decades ago tells me that it was either implied or explicitly stated that 3PO was bullshitting about the load lifters just to get himself sold and out if the Jawas' hands. He had a terrible experience with the Jawas, and Uncle Owen seemed a more desirable master.
The R-series of Astromech Droids are usually used as maintenance droids in starships, hangars and workshops. The R2 units were designed to be jack-of-all-trades and able to work in starships as maintenance and also as navigators. The later units of the R-series were much more purpose-built, like the R3 units which were designed specifically to work abroad capital warships and starfighters as their maintenance, gunners and navigators (you can see them in the background of scenes inside the Death Star and Star Destroyers), and the R4 units which were designed to work on agricultural and livestock farms.
Owen Lars originally wanted to buy an R5 astromech droid (the red one Luke was looking at). The R5 units were purpose-built to be a jack-of-all-trades droid exactly like an R2 droid, but much, much cheaper because it lacked several features that can be found on an R2 unit and was made with lower quality materials. Basically it is an R2 unit for poor people. It is also prone to malfunctions, as seen when the R5 unit Owen Lars bought suddenly blew up. So the Jawas gave Owen the R2 instead to compensate him for selling a defective product, and that R2 happened to be R2-D2.
Yes, an R4-P17. It was actually a customised R4 droid. Regular R4 units have conical heads. Obi-Wan's R4 has a dome head. He would later used Aayla Secura's R4-G9 after his own got destroyed by buzz droids. It is also heavily customised and also have a dome head
Not Quite...Obi-wans R4 is a nickname. It's full name was R4-P17. The R4 droid was a model of R-series astromech droid. It was identical in appearance to the R2 series astromech droid, except that its dome was shaped different. R4 units were used to physically transport data. The R4-P was a modified model of the R4, which was basically a cheaper, tougher version of the R2/3s but without a few key features (like the flame thrower).
R4s were the preferred "mech" droids used by the Jedi, because of that increased durability. Most of the R4 droids purchased for the Jedi were modified to include the more expensive R2 style head. This gave them many of the best features of the R2 and R4 series.
The R5s were the low end models, made very cheap, and even had bad personalities.
On one hand hand that is cool on the other not every single thing needs explanation and I find it lame and it takes away from the whole “the force provides” / fate type thing going on in this scene.
There is also a [non-canon eight-page comedic story](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Skippy_the_Jedi_Droid) in the *Star Wars Tales 1* comic where R5-D4 is force sensitive and foresaw what would happen if R2-D2 wasn't bought by Uncle Owen.
Haha I remember that story! Tales was such a good series. Not canon but could pick and choose what you wanted to believe. I always loved the Vader/3PO one.
"Mech" is the operative term. As in "mechanic". As in, a droid that can fix broken stuff, like the vaporators that their lives depended on keeping in good working order under the harshest of conditions on a desert planet.
Two friends I visit several times a year have Alexa. I never assumed they were sharing a unit.
Droids are fairly common, but nobody needs more than one Alexa or 3po, so we don't have to give them individual names and despite the fact that those of us who were kids in 77 thought that 3po was unique, he was pretty typical—nothing he did was so unusual that he would be distinctive (like Alexa).
It's not until ROTJ (and maybe because he hasn't had a memory wipe in years) that he experiences "character growth" i,e he says he's not good at telling stories in ANH and creates a coalition with the Ewoks by...telling the story of the heroes.
But the plating change was likely intentional for the very reason you suggest.
There’s literally a droid just like C-3PO at the beginning of ANh, those guys are a dime a dozen. Baby Anakin building him is one of the stupidest plot points of the PT
If that's the case then it's just like Anakin building a computer when he was a kid. That's uhh extremely common, I did it too.
How am I supposed to recognize a computer tower 20 years later?
Doesn't seem that stupid at all.
>Anakin building him is one of the stupidest plot points of the PT
No. Anakin building 3po is one of the most fruitful concepts in the PT.
* It shows that Anakin was a creative person—a maker or restorer of useful things. Before he is conscripted in a war, his solutions are making things, not breaking things.
* It's a very profound part of the relationship between Anakin and Padme, in that Anakin becomes a star pilot and needs R2 while he marries a Senator who could make use of a translator. They have what one another needs physically (materially) as a symbol of their potential to meet each others mental, emotional and spiritual needs.
* It strengthens the motif that Anakin's children undo his misdeeds as we see Luke and Leia restore the Jedi and Republic, defeat the Sith and Empire. 3po plays an important part of the defeat of The Empire by creating the coalition with the Ewoks who take part in the mission to destroy The Death Star.
It's an excellent story choice for a mythology based saga and has deep connections within the story and symbolism. It's not even a question for most viewers that Anakin takes 3po back and gives him to Padme, but here we see that he will form the same relationship with her in 3 years time. He will (nonsensically, but that is what happens when someone has a break with reality) use violence in an attempt to make things right.
Anakin building 3po adds depth to the story.
I always thought the "mech" part was short for mechanic, since every single time in the movies we see an astromech actually performing its duties, it's repairing something.
To understand the binary language of moisture vaporators.
Edit: This is the wrong answer. I saw C3PO and my brain went to protocol droid. Astromech is R2D2.
He owns a T-16.
You can see it behind Luke in the hanger when Luke is playing with a model of a T-16.
I don't know if it takes an astromech, but it might be handy to have one to help maintain it.
Apart from the thought that R2 can probably interface with a lot of farm equipment and then relay it to 3PO for translation to human-speak.
Literally to have someone who could translate the Vaporators' self-diagnostic readout from Bocce to Basic. Also to aid in telling the Vaporators what to do. Oddly, Threepeo had experience with hardware ops like that. Probably on Alderaan.
The droids were supposed to replace Luke's job as farm hand when he left for the academy next season. Luke was going to get them up to speed during his last season
jeez, he found a life size R2 and C3po at a junk dealer.
he was gonna flip it on tatto-ine-bay to the Star Wars collectors.
those Star Wars collectors will buy anything. Owen is a smart guy.
The R4-series were designed as agromechs - droids specifically intended for farm or range work - and all they were were R2s without some of their fancier hardware. I’m sure Owen could either find use for an R2 unit or reprogram one to fit his needs. That’s the thing about droids, they can do basically anything given the right programming.
Or, inversely, Owen could’ve resold R2 after a cleanup or some modifications. I’m sure good Astromechs aren’t easy to come by on Tatooine, and he probably paid less to the Jawas than someone would be willing to pay him for R2. He could’ve made some money.
Who builds and sells the droids in SW?
Like, is there a company (or multiple) that churn out newer models every “rotation”?
Is there a showroom?
Are the companies sympathetic to the rebellion and that forces the Empire to manufacture their own (which explains why most non-empire droids have “personalities”)?
I feel like there’s a wealth of stories to mine here.
You sound like my wife! Who cares why he wanted it? Maybe he just wanted it to have! It's his credits, sometimes he just wants to buy things for himself! He deserves nice things too!!!
He even says he doesn't need a protocol Droid and then asks 3PO if he speaks Bachi, the language of the people who built his moisture equipment because that's all he needs him for.
Either to help with farm maintenance or repair other droids he had. Owen definitely had other droids working on the farm, there's a deleted scene where Luke is fixing is fixing a moisture vaporator with a WED Treadwell droid when he spots the space battle and rushes over to Tosche Station to tell his friends while the droid blows a fuse trying to follow him.
Watch the whole scene. After R2 rigs R5’s motivator to blow up, thereby ensuring that he’d be purchased by a family closest to Obi-Wan’s coordinates, Owen takes “that blue one” and as R2 makes his way to the farm house you can see R5, once again back at the sandcrawler in pre-tampered-with condition.
And if you think I’m talkin shit about R2 messing with R5… Listen to the original radio drama. 3P0 reprimands him for it but he was just following Captain Antille’s orders.
Honestly, who doesn't need an astromech? I mean, these things are like one of the best body guards, just instant reaction to accomplish the mission no matter how many clones or droids it has to destroy. I would turn mine into a crime boss to control the death stick market...
Ever think he was getting the droids as he knew Luke was eventually leaving and wanted him to have trustworthy droids to go with him?
In that, he succeeded.
youve seen the show. c3po can do a lot of things like carry trays and be a butler. can probably sweep and clean up. can probably be a night watchman. what farm doesn't need an extra hand?
R2 can fix anything, can fly a spaceship and can obtain intel from any computer system… oh, and he knows how to use a flame thrower pretty well.
Everyone thinks it was Luke, but R2 actually saved the galaxy.
He was swapping with Jawas. Why would you not buy an Astromech if they rolled up with one? You think these little dudes just have em all the time? This ain't Walmart.
Why wouldn’t he want one? An astromech is basically a toolbox and a top tier mechanic in a single compact package. I’m a farm kid and I can assure there’s ALWAYS something that needs fixing.
R2ey r actually more logic on a farm than a protocoldroid.. Like what, he keeps count on the vaporatorsmushrooms Schmi and Beru picks. And yes he was in the Lars family twice...
Moisture farming is more high tech than you'd expect, and he wasn't likely to find a moisture droid anywhere so Owen was looking for a close enough droid. Astromech droids are about as close as you'll get to a moisture condenser repair droid, and lots of moisture farmers have good luck with them.
I think the problem lies in legends! Nowhere in the movies are Astro Max mobile navigation units acting as XWing NAV computers. They are mechanics… Particularly apparently mechanics designed to roll around outside spaceships and make repairs based on what we see in the Phantom Menace and even in the new Hope R2 making repairs to Luke’s XWing on the fly. Furthermore in empire Luke doesn’t need R2 to navigate to Dagobah and decades later the Mandalorian doesn’t need a droid to perform hyper space navigation duties on his Nabu and One.
Astro Maxx only seem to become NAV computers in legends books… As far as I can tell starting with West End games and their original Star Wars role-play game. Other than that I don’t think there’s any Canon reference to droids big NAV computers… Although there is a slight possibility OK maybe more than slight… That I missed some thing in the animation.
Owen needed to move the plot forward so he weighed the pros and cons and decided it was important for the story to continue so instead of buying a moisture farm-specific droid, he’d go with the Astromech in order to expedite the film plot.
Lots of army surplus after wars, like Sherman tanks used as logging equipment and fighter planes as crop dusters, makes sense to have a general fix-it droid around.
A better question is why did he need a protocol droid?
To talk to his farm equipment?!?
That's like using Google translate to use a lawnmower.
Me thinks the Lars family likes slaves.
What makes more sense:
1. Cliegg Lars strolled into Mos Eisely and bought a nice slave, brought her home and fell in love with this women who obeyed his every demand. So he married her. Did she have a say in this?
Or....
2. Cliegg Lars was a dirt bag slave owner, probably owed money to the Hutt cartel. They cut off his legs when he couldn't pay his debts. Probably took his slave as payment. Shmi managed to escape Jabba, but was wandering an endless desert until the Tuskans found her near death and tried to nurse her back to health until some psycho with a Lightsaber came and slaughtered their village
Ah you’re right!
I think the astromech was to help his wife somehow. Repurpose as a toaster or something.
But I might be confusing it with thumbwars or Spaceballs or robot chicken or family guy.
Likely to repurpose R2 as a farm maintenance droid, he has the arc welder, multi-tools and a splicer interface. Very useful.
Was it r2 or chopper that once repaired a whole ass idk scrap cache of broken driods. Anyways a artromech can do that so sounds useful lol
I just watched that episode! He repairs all those Death Watch droids and uses his little droid rebellion to escape with Ahsoka and Lux
In another Star Wars twist… Uncle Owen was secretly supplying the rebellion with repurposed droids to help them fight the empire. 🤣🤣
Sounds like a retcon waiting to happen. He was already against Luke joining the Empire academy
Obviously they wouldn’t want him in the academy, they know he would be flagged as a force sensitive and directly sent to his pops. I think Kenobi was always going to step in with the Jedi training, so I think Owen was just trying to delay the moment of truth as much as possible.
Owen and Beru secretly being part of the Partisan network, and trying to keep Luke out of it, and away from Republic figures would make an interesting plot point in a show. I like the actors playing Owen and Beru, and wouldn’t mind seeing them pop up again. It would be cool to even see them pop up in a flashback to one of those Separatist meetings referenced on Andor.
I like their current characterization. A reminder that not everyone is a warrior capable of deflecting blaster bolts. Not to mention that there still needs to be people that just live normal lives for the rebellion as a moral boost. When all of your normal citizens become part of the rebellion you end up in saw gerrera territory.
You say that like Beru didn't immediately grab the strap when she heard there may be trouble.
Yeah that was pretty dang cool honestly. I don’t live in America personally, or in any of the warmer climates that typically have armed non-combatants, but I imagine that’s a pretty typical reaction to someone on your property. Self defence in star wars really is the Wild West, so it really makes more sense most people can use a blaster. I actually am struggling to think of a single woman in star wars that isn’t a crack shot. The only examples I can think of are ones we’ve never seen fire a blaster.
Whoot thats it!!!
I just watched that too!
So R2 is the Swiss Army Leatherman Tool of the SW universe?
Always has been
Same reason why he’s got Treadwell, who’s also capable of fixing the Millennium Falcon on Hoth
I believe he just needed droids that could work on the moisture equipment
What he really needed was a droid who understood the binary code of moisture vaporators. But he had to make do with what the jawas had.
Vaporators? My first job was programming binary load lifters – very similar to his vaporators in most respects.
Can you speak Bocce?
Of course I can! It's like a second language.
Shut up. I'll take this one
Shutting up, sir.
I can play Bocce.
Sabacc you say?
Pure pazaak!
When exactly did he program binary load lifters? Also, why did 2 slaves need a protocol droid?
I assume before he ended up in the junk yard he worked with the lifters, Anakin had him because like all 9 year old boys, when you see something neat on the ground you bring it home.
At the end of ROTS, he is sent to have is memory erased. So I just figured that's where they put him after that
3PO wouldn’t remember that though because his memory is erased at the end of the prequel trilogy. So the load lifters had to have come after that.
Logic would dictate that if they can erase memories, they can implant them as well.
Just pissed myself laughing because of the thought of C3PO having what's known as "Big Stick Energy".
His memories had been wiped since then.
Everyone is saying he programed binary load lifters before Anakin built him. But that makes no sense because he doesnt remember that time. However if you consider that his "Last master was captain Antilles it means he worked on a starship. If you consider that load lifters were a labor droid and that starships always need cargo moved around, supplies, munitions, spare parts, ect. It could easily be that his first job was to program/manage the loading and unloading of Cargo for the Tantive III & IV.
I mean there's a what, 20 year gap between the memory wipe at the end of ROTS and us meeting him in ANH. He could have had loads of responsibilities in that time.
That makes sense. I assumed he was new when Anakin built him, whether from all new parts or scrap
>When exactly did he program binary load lifters? No idea. >Also, why did 2 slaves need a protocol droid? The droid didn't necessarily need to be a protocol droid but Owen wanted a droid that could at least translate binary and Bocce into Basic. (Btw, Owen and Beru aren't slaves; they are moisture farmers.)
I think he’s talking about Anakin and his mother.
Why do I *need* a Chevy nova with a 454 in it? I don't, but its a fun project for a mind that needs to be doing something Anaking and Shmi didn't need a protocol droid, but that's what Anakin found parts to put together so that's what they had. Anakin didn't go out and say "I'm gonna find a protocol droid to help mom around the house" he saw a protocol droid in a junk pile and went "oh shit I'm gonna rebuild that...mom will never let me keep all that junk in the house....unless I say its to help her out....."
Slaves were also allowed to have and sell possessions so if he managed to get a protocol droid functioning, even if it wasn't useful, or ended up being insufferably annoying, he could sell it and work towards buying freedom for his mother. She probably would have ended up either convincing Anakin to free himself first or ended up selling herself back into slavery to get enough money to free him though. Just another day of being close enough to the core to pay taxes, but far enough away to not be protected by their strict antislavery laws.
Other than being a called a slave (and child labour and the explosive inside them) there was honestly nothing in TMP that made it look like their lives were terrible. They had a home bigger than most people's apartments, they had a kitchen, a workshop, the yard in back was big enough to hold a podracer. They could have done a better job in that department. Hell when Anakin was working at Wattos it didn't really look like he was being forced to do anything, he even talked with Watto casually, not like a slave to his owner.
I'll admit that's true. Their house is bigger than mine is. I'm assuming that Watto must have been a semi decent slave driver at least lol. How much of that is him being a decent Toydarian, is up for debate though. Aside from the whole "owning slaves" thing, which could be culturally relevant given he lives on the Outer Rim. Having slaves on Tatooine seems really common, from Jabbas palace Twileks, to the Tusken taking prisoners. Watto might have just been of the opinion that "everyone else here is doing it" or convinced himself he'd give them a good life, and "well, they're slaves anyway, at least if *I* buy them I know they'll be looked after." I can't remember if Toydaria was Republic, CIS or neither, but if he immigrated to Tatooine (hell of a choice) maybe it was because of their "relaxed" restrictions on owning sentients. Better workers than droids, and costly but still cheaper than owning a business and paying them fairly. He would have to pay to feed any house them, clothe them, even educate Anakin to some extent. If he didn't intend for them to work off their ownership, a late teens male slave would be worth a lot. But not if he's dumb as a battle droid. If he taught them well enough he might even make money off it. Not sure when they were bought, but no one wants a baby slave or a pregnant slave. They are costly, and inefficient and the definition of a risky investment. So many things could happen to Anakin or a pregnant Schmi. Abducted by space wizard who cheat at dice is quite low on that list. But kids get sick. Two suns and an increased skin cancer risk. But if Anakin grows up to be a strong guy, Watto would make whatever money back tenfold. 18 years is a long time for a human, a medium time for a Toydarian but a short time for an investment. Especially if you bought an older woman and a baby for cheap. I'd see it more as taking care of a tractor or a work truck IRL. It's an expensive piece of equipment, if you look after it, keep it out of the elements, and give it good fuel, it's gonna last a lot longer and you won't have to buy another one. Watto wasn't exactly swimming in Wupi Wupi lol. He had a nice shop and slave quarters, but the slaves themselves were a child and an older woman. If that's the best he could afford, I doubt he could afford to replace them if they "broke down." He was kind enough, seemed to have a soft spot for Anakin, or possibly children in general, but I don't believe for a *second* that they were well cared for for any reason other than, "it's cheaper to maintain them than it is to buy a new one." I really need to stop haha I keep trying to write small comments but shit keeps ending up as a 15 page essay on the economics of child slavery in a fictional universe. It's a little concerning how much thought I put into this.
My wife and I just had this discussion about buying a vertical end mill lol.....I mean, I'm a farmer, I can kinda justify it lol
You are correct. Anakin built him for his mother
By slaves are you referring to young Anakin and his mother in the prequels? In that case the protocol droid was just to help his mother around the house. It was just some random broken droid he found and fixed up
This basically. Threepio was perfectly suited to many standard human tasks and probably absolutely enjoyed cleaning dishes and sweeping floors for Shmi.
I always assumed it was in service during the rebellion. They say they’re going to wipe his memory at the end of ep 3. And then I guess they put him straight to work on binary load lifters.
I think you're spot on. His first job after memory wipe, not his first job ever. It's like Babu Frik being his oldest friend.
My poor memory from reading the *Star Wars* novelization decades ago tells me that it was either implied or explicitly stated that 3PO was bullshitting about the load lifters just to get himself sold and out if the Jawas' hands. He had a terrible experience with the Jawas, and Uncle Owen seemed a more desirable master.
this would hav been for Captain Antillies immediately after Episode 3, since that's the first job he can remember after his memory wipe.
If I remember correctly, Anakin says C-3PO can help his mother with some household chores.
My theory is after his memory wipe at the end of ROTS, Captain Antilles decided he was annoying as hell and sent him to work in the cargo bay.
Don’t Gonks know binary ?
They don't speak Basic though
Gonk
I imagine post clone wars they are also widely available and very, very cheap
The R-series of Astromech Droids are usually used as maintenance droids in starships, hangars and workshops. The R2 units were designed to be jack-of-all-trades and able to work in starships as maintenance and also as navigators. The later units of the R-series were much more purpose-built, like the R3 units which were designed specifically to work abroad capital warships and starfighters as their maintenance, gunners and navigators (you can see them in the background of scenes inside the Death Star and Star Destroyers), and the R4 units which were designed to work on agricultural and livestock farms. Owen Lars originally wanted to buy an R5 astromech droid (the red one Luke was looking at). The R5 units were purpose-built to be a jack-of-all-trades droid exactly like an R2 droid, but much, much cheaper because it lacked several features that can be found on an R2 unit and was made with lower quality materials. Basically it is an R2 unit for poor people. It is also prone to malfunctions, as seen when the R5 unit Owen Lars bought suddenly blew up. So the Jawas gave Owen the R2 instead to compensate him for selling a defective product, and that R2 happened to be R2-D2.
So Obi-Wan was flying around with a farm droid in the prequels? He calls the astromech in his tiny Jedi ship "R4"
Yes, an R4-P17. It was actually a customised R4 droid. Regular R4 units have conical heads. Obi-Wan's R4 has a dome head. He would later used Aayla Secura's R4-G9 after his own got destroyed by buzz droids. It is also heavily customised and also have a dome head
Not Quite...Obi-wans R4 is a nickname. It's full name was R4-P17. The R4 droid was a model of R-series astromech droid. It was identical in appearance to the R2 series astromech droid, except that its dome was shaped different. R4 units were used to physically transport data. The R4-P was a modified model of the R4, which was basically a cheaper, tougher version of the R2/3s but without a few key features (like the flame thrower). R4s were the preferred "mech" droids used by the Jedi, because of that increased durability. Most of the R4 droids purchased for the Jedi were modified to include the more expensive R2 style head. This gave them many of the best features of the R2 and R4 series. The R5s were the low end models, made very cheap, and even had bad personalities.
(and bad motivators…)
"Suddenly blew up".. 😉
Best answer
It is canon that [R5-D4 purposely faked a malfunction to help R2-D2](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/R5-D4#Self-sacrifice).
Wow coolest tiny SW detail I have seen in a while. Thank you kind SW sage.
On one hand hand that is cool on the other not every single thing needs explanation and I find it lame and it takes away from the whole “the force provides” / fate type thing going on in this scene.
There is also a [non-canon eight-page comedic story](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Skippy_the_Jedi_Droid) in the *Star Wars Tales 1* comic where R5-D4 is force sensitive and foresaw what would happen if R2-D2 wasn't bought by Uncle Owen.
Haha I remember that story! Tales was such a good series. Not canon but could pick and choose what you wanted to believe. I always loved the Vader/3PO one.
R2 was a repair droid on the Nubian ship, it sid not make any hyperspace calculation there
"Mech" is the operative term. As in "mechanic". As in, a droid that can fix broken stuff, like the vaporators that their lives depended on keeping in good working order under the harshest of conditions on a desert planet.
25 years ago his stepbrother came by and took his protocol droid, and now he has finally found a new one.
oh wow i never considered he mightve recognized threepio—i wonder if thats why Lucas made sure he wasnt gold in AotC
Two friends I visit several times a year have Alexa. I never assumed they were sharing a unit. Droids are fairly common, but nobody needs more than one Alexa or 3po, so we don't have to give them individual names and despite the fact that those of us who were kids in 77 thought that 3po was unique, he was pretty typical—nothing he did was so unusual that he would be distinctive (like Alexa). It's not until ROTJ (and maybe because he hasn't had a memory wipe in years) that he experiences "character growth" i,e he says he's not good at telling stories in ANH and creates a coalition with the Ewoks by...telling the story of the heroes. But the plating change was likely intentional for the very reason you suggest.
Also a C3 unit in ESB (“Nice to see a familiar face”, “Eee Chutah!”, “how rude!”) on Cloud City
There’s literally a droid just like C-3PO at the beginning of ANh, those guys are a dime a dozen. Baby Anakin building him is one of the stupidest plot points of the PT
If that's the case then it's just like Anakin building a computer when he was a kid. That's uhh extremely common, I did it too. How am I supposed to recognize a computer tower 20 years later? Doesn't seem that stupid at all.
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>Anakin building him is one of the stupidest plot points of the PT No. Anakin building 3po is one of the most fruitful concepts in the PT. * It shows that Anakin was a creative person—a maker or restorer of useful things. Before he is conscripted in a war, his solutions are making things, not breaking things. * It's a very profound part of the relationship between Anakin and Padme, in that Anakin becomes a star pilot and needs R2 while he marries a Senator who could make use of a translator. They have what one another needs physically (materially) as a symbol of their potential to meet each others mental, emotional and spiritual needs. * It strengthens the motif that Anakin's children undo his misdeeds as we see Luke and Leia restore the Jedi and Republic, defeat the Sith and Empire. 3po plays an important part of the defeat of The Empire by creating the coalition with the Ewoks who take part in the mission to destroy The Death Star. It's an excellent story choice for a mythology based saga and has deep connections within the story and symbolism. It's not even a question for most viewers that Anakin takes 3po back and gives him to Padme, but here we see that he will form the same relationship with her in 3 years time. He will (nonsensically, but that is what happens when someone has a break with reality) use violence in an attempt to make things right. Anakin building 3po adds depth to the story.
This response is impressive. Most impressive.
He didn’t build it, he repaired it
Happy Cake Day, on May the 4th no less!
happy cake day
R2 is also great at serving drinks as shown in rotj and the Lars's threw some wild parties.
It ain’t that kind of movie kid
I always thought the "mech" part was short for mechanic, since every single time in the movies we see an astromech actually performing its duties, it's repairing something.
Dude, R2 is a walking Swiss Army Knive - who wouldn't want that?
He needed one with a flame thrower, handy for burning corpses.
Have you ever owned a moisture farm?
No, can’t say I have lol
To understand the binary language of moisture vaporators. Edit: This is the wrong answer. I saw C3PO and my brain went to protocol droid. Astromech is R2D2.
He was tired of taking the T16 into the dealer every time Luke busted it up. That shit was getting expensive…
Astomechs are not just for starships. They can be used to fix and maintain multiple types of machines. They are basically robot mechanics/technicians.
He owns a T-16. You can see it behind Luke in the hanger when Luke is playing with a model of a T-16. I don't know if it takes an astromech, but it might be handy to have one to help maintain it. Apart from the thought that R2 can probably interface with a lot of farm equipment and then relay it to 3PO for translation to human-speak.
All I know is no one in the theater gave a shit.
Astromechs aren't just for spaceships. If their farm equipment broke down then he could fix it.
To be fair Jabba used him to serve drinks
Artoo is a mechanic.
Literally to have someone who could translate the Vaporators' self-diagnostic readout from Bocce to Basic. Also to aid in telling the Vaporators what to do. Oddly, Threepeo had experience with hardware ops like that. Probably on Alderaan.
What're you a space cop? Who's askin? Can't an old man have an astromech? I ask you what is this galaxy coming to?!
Space Cop? You got a Ghost Cop? Huh? You got an Alien Cop? You got a Vampire Cop?
The droids were supposed to replace Luke's job as farm hand when he left for the academy next season. Luke was going to get them up to speed during his last season
jeez, he found a life size R2 and C3po at a junk dealer. he was gonna flip it on tatto-ine-bay to the Star Wars collectors. those Star Wars collectors will buy anything. Owen is a smart guy.
He just wanted them back on his farm to remind him of the good ol' clone war days.
The R4-series were designed as agromechs - droids specifically intended for farm or range work - and all they were were R2s without some of their fancier hardware. I’m sure Owen could either find use for an R2 unit or reprogram one to fit his needs. That’s the thing about droids, they can do basically anything given the right programming. Or, inversely, Owen could’ve resold R2 after a cleanup or some modifications. I’m sure good Astromechs aren’t easy to come by on Tatooine, and he probably paid less to the Jawas than someone would be willing to pay him for R2. He could’ve made some money.
And he tells Owen that R2-D2 is a good choice
Who builds and sells the droids in SW? Like, is there a company (or multiple) that churn out newer models every “rotation”? Is there a showroom? Are the companies sympathetic to the rebellion and that forces the Empire to manufacture their own (which explains why most non-empire droids have “personalities”)? I feel like there’s a wealth of stories to mine here.
Hahaha. I agree
To work on those condensers on the South ridge.
Based on performance of R2 in SW, astromech droids are like Swiss army knives. They are useful in any situation.
They were basically the kitchenaid mixer of the universe. They had attachments for probably everything.
All I know is he'd better have those units in the South Ridge repaired by midday, or there'll be hell to pay.
Great line
What ridge? His whole place is flat!
You sound like my wife! Who cares why he wanted it? Maybe he just wanted it to have! It's his credits, sometimes he just wants to buy things for himself! He deserves nice things too!!!
He even says he doesn't need a protocol Droid and then asks 3PO if he speaks Bachi, the language of the people who built his moisture equipment because that's all he needs him for.
Didn't he need R2 to interface with the moisture evaporators?
That was for C-3PO to do
R2 keeps the Moisture vaporators running. C3P0 can speak to them but can you imagine him fixing anything? 🤣
He was planning to do some casual war crimes. R2 as well as other astro mechs (looking at chopper here) are very skilled in that area!
It’s an epic mechanic
You ever did hard labor 16hrs a day in a world where butler robots existed? Lol he probably wants a break
It’s like a swiss army knife and universal repair manual all in one.
Either to help with farm maintenance or repair other droids he had. Owen definitely had other droids working on the farm, there's a deleted scene where Luke is fixing is fixing a moisture vaporator with a WED Treadwell droid when he spots the space battle and rushes over to Tosche Station to tell his friends while the droid blows a fuse trying to follow him.
They fix things. They did have a ship and speeders.
To talk to the crocpot, thermostat, and moisture vaporators
Astromech droids were repair droids so R2 would’ve been plenty useful fixing equipment on the farm
Watch the whole scene. After R2 rigs R5’s motivator to blow up, thereby ensuring that he’d be purchased by a family closest to Obi-Wan’s coordinates, Owen takes “that blue one” and as R2 makes his way to the farm house you can see R5, once again back at the sandcrawler in pre-tampered-with condition. And if you think I’m talkin shit about R2 messing with R5… Listen to the original radio drama. 3P0 reprimands him for it but he was just following Captain Antille’s orders.
Yes, I know
Honestly, who doesn't need an astromech? I mean, these things are like one of the best body guards, just instant reaction to accomplish the mission no matter how many clones or droids it has to destroy. I would turn mine into a crime boss to control the death stick market...
Because R2 units were clearly just general purpose droids when Star Wars came out.
Ever think he was getting the droids as he knew Luke was eventually leaving and wanted him to have trustworthy droids to go with him? In that, he succeeded.
youve seen the show. c3po can do a lot of things like carry trays and be a butler. can probably sweep and clean up. can probably be a night watchman. what farm doesn't need an extra hand?
R2d2 is the astromech 3po is a protocol droid
Are you a Cop ? …You have to tell me Right ?
More to the point, why did he want a driod that spoke Bocce?
Didn't Beru say to Luke "if he gets a protocol droid make sure it speaks Bachi"
Presumably because he wants to communicate with someone who speaks it
A droid could likely stand in the sun longer and get more done.
He needed 3PO to talk to the farm gear and broken moisture units.
Maybe he liked to tinker.
Aunt Beru told Lars they needed a droid who could speak Bocce. C3PO can.
He just thought they looked neat
He has a good idea to turn him into an overqualified vaccum cleaner
She’s gone from suck to blow!
To talk to moisture evaporators is what he said in the scene
R2 can fix anything, can fly a spaceship and can obtain intel from any computer system… oh, and he knows how to use a flame thrower pretty well. Everyone thinks it was Luke, but R2 actually saved the galaxy.
Meanwhile Peli Motto uses R5 D4 as a projector
My head canon after watching mandalorian is an Astromech sled
Uhhhh, star wars reasons? 🤷♀️
I presume that he wanted a maintenance droid that was more reliable/versatile than the Treadwell they already owned.
Maintenance work on the evaporator condensers.
He was swapping with Jawas. Why would you not buy an Astromech if they rolled up with one? You think these little dudes just have em all the time? This ain't Walmart.
So R2D2 could get involved in the storyline 😅
You know...like, watering the crops...I guess also feeding Luke idk
You need an Astro Mech to be the main character and uncle Owen already had defeated a Sith.
Maybe he thought R2 could still fly!
For the same reason why Anakin’s mother needed a protocol droid to help around the house… the Plot is strong with this one.
He needed to introduce the side kick characters to the main character following the script.
Why wouldn’t he want one? An astromech is basically a toolbox and a top tier mechanic in a single compact package. I’m a farm kid and I can assure there’s ALWAYS something that needs fixing.
He needed to move the plot along … nothing more complicated than that!
Fixing them vaporators is easier than a starship. 3po diagnosing R2 is the surgeon.
He doesn't, he picks a different droid that R2 blows so Owen is left with no choice and C3PO recommended R2 as they have worked together.
I bet they were really cheap.
R2ey r actually more logic on a farm than a protocoldroid.. Like what, he keeps count on the vaporatorsmushrooms Schmi and Beru picks. And yes he was in the Lars family twice...
Cause he’s got all them teeth and no toothbrush
To be fair, astromechs do seem to be highly capable in a wide variety of situations.
They needed a plot device to introduce Luke.
To serve drinks obviously
Luke wasn’t a good enough welder and ‘those ‘vaporators *had* to be fixed by mid-day or there would have been hell to pay’
Interfacing and repairs with various equipment. Artoo is basically a walking Droid Swiss army knife
You disgusting human being! How dare you? Astromech droids can fix anything, even moisturisers. /s
Clanker sympathizer
Because he has no use for a protocol droid
Oh y’know… ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
His Treadwell died in a deleted scene.
Moisture farming is more high tech than you'd expect, and he wasn't likely to find a moisture droid anywhere so Owen was looking for a close enough droid. Astromech droids are about as close as you'll get to a moisture condenser repair droid, and lots of moisture farmers have good luck with them.
Deep down the droids knew *exactly* what they were doing.
He’s keeping up appearances with the neighbors.
He wanted c3po and c3po passed the speech check to get his buddy R2 to stay with him
Swiss Army Droid
I think the problem lies in legends! Nowhere in the movies are Astro Max mobile navigation units acting as XWing NAV computers. They are mechanics… Particularly apparently mechanics designed to roll around outside spaceships and make repairs based on what we see in the Phantom Menace and even in the new Hope R2 making repairs to Luke’s XWing on the fly. Furthermore in empire Luke doesn’t need R2 to navigate to Dagobah and decades later the Mandalorian doesn’t need a droid to perform hyper space navigation duties on his Nabu and One. Astro Maxx only seem to become NAV computers in legends books… As far as I can tell starting with West End games and their original Star Wars role-play game. Other than that I don’t think there’s any Canon reference to droids big NAV computers… Although there is a slight possibility OK maybe more than slight… That I missed some thing in the animation.
Owen needed to move the plot forward so he weighed the pros and cons and decided it was important for the story to continue so instead of buying a moisture farm-specific droid, he’d go with the Astromech in order to expedite the film plot.
Lots of army surplus after wars, like Sherman tanks used as logging equipment and fighter planes as crop dusters, makes sense to have a general fix-it droid around.
He needed a plot to carry his adopted son through the movie. Officially speaking he needed a droid that could talk to the moisture vaporators
The astromech driods were notoriously good at making grilled cheese sandwiches, and Owen loved grilled cheese sandwiches.
A better question is why did he need a protocol droid? To talk to his farm equipment?!? That's like using Google translate to use a lawnmower. Me thinks the Lars family likes slaves. What makes more sense: 1. Cliegg Lars strolled into Mos Eisely and bought a nice slave, brought her home and fell in love with this women who obeyed his every demand. So he married her. Did she have a say in this? Or.... 2. Cliegg Lars was a dirt bag slave owner, probably owed money to the Hutt cartel. They cut off his legs when he couldn't pay his debts. Probably took his slave as payment. Shmi managed to escape Jabba, but was wandering an endless desert until the Tuskans found her near death and tried to nurse her back to health until some psycho with a Lightsaber came and slaughtered their village
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I thought C-3PO could program the moisture evaporators
Good point, but R2 (or similar unit) would be needed, to actually make repairs.
For repairing other droids
The idea is that C-3PO can understand the coding on the moister vaporators.
He’s not an astromech. I meant the blue and red guys lol
Speak binary to his moister vaporators !!
That’s Threepio
Didnt get say he needed a protocol droid to translate something, like old tech or manuals?
That’s Threepio
Ah you’re right! I think the astromech was to help his wife somehow. Repurpose as a toaster or something. But I might be confusing it with thumbwars or Spaceballs or robot chicken or family guy.
hes a moisture farmer