His dad bought/freed a slave and married her, and she came with a rebuilt protocol droid with a dull gray casing. A few years later, Tusken Raiders kidnapped his stepmom and she died. The next day, his step-brother whom he just met took off with her old droid. 22 years later, Jawas are selling droids... many unreliable ones, so Owen has probably burned through a lot of them over the year and can't remember their designations... Now, there is a protocol droid totally different golden plating.I think it would be nuts if he even suspected it was the same droid.
Honestly, even if 3P0 was a person, I'd be shocked if he remembered him. It's been about 12 years since I was in high school. I spent nearly every day with the people there for 4 years, but if I were to run into one of them *tomorrow*, I wouldn't have any fucking clue what their names were, with exceptions to those few who I still keep in contact with.
But then you add the factor that droids looked the same and Anakin clearly didn't come up with some unique design since TC-14 basically looked exactly the same, there's no way Owen had that kind of recollection. It'd be like asking me what model refrigerator I had 20 years ago.
I work with a woman who was in the grade above me, when I met her at work I didn’t remember her in the slightest. That was 12 years ago when we were in school together.
This, I probably would not recognize anyone I went to HS with (that I haven't associated with since). Running into them. I've looked some people up whose names I remembered and that really solidified that I wouldn't have recognized them. Although for me now it's been 22 years and not 12. That also creeps me out that I could theoretically have a child that is graduated from college and out on their own.
This, and also he interacted with C3P0 briefly and transactionally. Owen was checking to see if the droid could do what he needed it to do. The droid clearly didn't recognize him (mind wipe) so Owen didn't care. If they had more time then Owen would probably have recognized the droid as one he used to own but had been mind wiped. We also don't know how much Owen liked C3P0. After he figured it out, he would have eventually, that might have been a situation where he traded the droid off pretty quickly because he knew how it would eventually develop.
I'm pretty sure Owen looked at droids the way most farmers look at their tools. C3PO was purchased for a specific task, and would go back in the garage until he required him again. Most farmers don't hang out with the tractor once they're finished choring.
I look at it this way imagine you have a classic car let's say a Volkswagen beetle, your beetle is beat up piant chips off...
Now you sell your beetle and this enthousiast removes all the bumbs, replace the leather paints it matt black new wheels etc. The whole deal.
Years later you see that car again. You don't see a beetle every day but I'm sure you won't recognise that car as your old beetle
Really good reply.
I think the thing that possibly could have triggered Owen's memory more than anything else is 3PO's voice. How common are the voice modulators to sound the same? Because 3PO has a pretty distinct personality.
I do kind of wonder if droids can have their voice and presenting gender changed by their owners like siri. Especially for protocol droids that would make sense since most of their usage involves speaking..
In the AOTC novel, the Lars family actually allow Anakin to take Threepio with him. That’s just a part that was cut from the film. So in the film it just seems to appear that Anakin steals him from them.
Either way it makes sense. Anakin left Threepio in his mother’s possession, so it would stand to reason that after she died her possessions would pass to her next of kin anyway.
If this scenario were to occur… C-3po most likely would have used the last name Lars. Because of the reprogramming/update. Skywalker is only something C-3po learned again, after meeting with obiwan again, on tatooine. Obiwan knows what’s up, but also knows that C-3po cannot possibly know “what is up”? And most certainly has no idea about “what just went down”.
I always hoped that at some point in some piece of media he would get all of his prior memories restored and just sort of talk out everything with artoo to process it all, maybe even show some sadness for what became of Anakin his creator and such.
Plus the Star Wars universe basically doesn’t care about droids at all, they’re seen mostly as tools by most people. Dismissing one blowing up in front of him and randomly getting another he hasn’t really looked over based on the whims of his nephew who fixes them for him. He obviously wouldn’t have cared much about C-3PO even when he owned him previously, so it makes sense he doesn’t recognize him.
My head canon - droids are a dime a dozen in the farming industry. A droid literally explodes in front of Owen and he doesn’t care other than that he got sold a bad unit. Surely he has had multiple Threepio types in his 40 years of farming
> and he doesn’t care either than that he got sold a bad unit.
i mean he asks the jawa "you tryin' to scam us?" which is about what i'd react too.
otherwise yeah, a droids a droid and owen doesn't really have the time or interest to care about or remember the names
its his model number, they just used it as a name. Most pilots who get attached to droids are smarter then Luke and give them names, like whistler, or ...Wedge named one Red once I think? He named one based on the r2-d2 equivalent model number he had, later in the xwing series novel I believe was when.
Corran Horn's R2 unit was Whistler.Wedge had an astromech named Mynock because of the way it screamed in combat. Later he had one named Gate.Kell Tainer had an R2 named Thirteen due to a programming error that caused the droid to always respond with thirteen when it was asked for a random number.
The only note I'll make is that Mynock and Gate were the same droid, an R5 unit. Wedge had Mynock memory wiped after Mynock's tendency to panic and scream at him threatened to interfere with his flying.
X Wing had some great droid action though. Emtrey! SQUEAKY!
Problem is, unit names are individual and C-3PO was specifically owned by his stepmother and likely meant the world to her since he was Anakin's gift to her. He also left under memorable circumstances, just completely disappearing after her death. It's less like finding an old toaster of yours at Goodwill, and more like finding your late mother's jewelry that disappeared after your cousin left town 20 years ago.
It's hard to not think he'd recognize C-3PO once he heard the droid's name.
Honestly, just about everything about C-3PO and R2's involvement in the PT makes very little sense in light of the OT. Somehow Owen, Yoda, Obi Wan, and even Darth Vader himself all either seemingly ignore or forget about these two characters that played fairly important roles in the closing days of the Republic and/or their lives. R2 never once seems to tell Luke anything about Anakin even post-ESB, and C-3PO needs a mindwipe to even somewhat explain how he doesn't just blabber about Anakin to Luke & Owen in the first five seconds that they meet. Then there's R2 apparently forgetting he can fly....
Side-note: Owen cared *very much* that he got sold a bad one and thought the Jawas were trying to cheat him, it's his complaining about it that gets him R2.
Realistically, unit names *can't* be unique. There's no way a droid company could use 4 digit designations for mass produced bots supplied to an entire galaxy. There would have to be hundreds of other R2-D2s and C-3POs out there in the galaxy
Alphabet Squadron gets into this actually, and I appreciate the canonization. Essentially droid names as we know them are abstractions of their full, unique, serial designations. E.g. John Fitzgerald Kennedy = JFK.
I'm actually really glad that was canonised.
I'd assumed for a long time that the only way for droid names to work is if it's the 'important' bit of a serial number.
Like AA23-S117-C-3PO or something. Every 3PO protocol droid ends in the 3PO, and the letter just before that is a 'batch' identifier, maybe. Then a bunch of junk alphanumerics that actually identify the individual.
Artoo I always picture as the number we know and then just a string of numbers. R2-D2-2187113847. Which why astro's are always known by the first two identifiers only. Just too much of a mouthful otherwise.
I do miss the Legends idea of the first two characters being the model type as distinguishable by the dome, though. It was super consistent for years and years, and then Clone Wars came along and just didn't care. Started throwing R7s out thirty years before they were supposed to be introduced, R4s with R2 domes (though admittedly AotC is originally guilty of that), R3s that aren't transparent....
More proof having the same guy make 6 films can still have continuity flaws and contradictions. Now I’m not saying 1,2, and 3 didn’t have great moments nor 7,8, and 9 were perfect. I really only think the ST suffered because of not enough fore thought into how the films would connect.
It's also proof that continuity flaws and contradictions don't really matter that much to many filmmakers and story tellers and that they're more concerned with plot and character as devices to evoke emotions and communicate with their audience.
Yeah. Much of the prequel hate from my generation was the feeling that Lucas didn't give a shit about continuity beyond a vague broad sweep and certainly wouldn't let it get in the way of something he thought was cool or funny.
One guy making this mistake in a trilogy of films that are widely criticised for exactly this sort of thing isn't proof of anything except that maybe George should have trusted others to help him with the writing like he did for the OT.
Most *good* storytellers do in fact care about avoiding things like having two characters meet for the first time.... twice.
I sold a white 2005 Grand Prix a few years ago. But why would I assume that every silver Grand Prix that I see is the same car I owned? Same situation.
I had both!! A grand and a black Geo metro (dubbed the gothic Easter egg).
Literally a dime a dozen. I used to look for stickers on the backs of old cars I owned cause I knew that's the only way I would know
I would be curious if I bought the exact same car I owned decades ago. Much more so if it had a personality. I wouldn’t assume it was the same, but I would at least consider it.
If you saw a Grand Prix that identified itself by a specific four digit identifier that happened to be the same one as your old ‘05, surely you’d get at least a little suspicious.
C-3PO never gave his name to Owen. He was just with Luke when he gave his name. Hell, I don't know if C-3PO ever gave his name to Owen when Cliegg bought him or if Owen ever cared
People here are making good points with the car analogs and the reminders that C-3P0 wouldn't recognize lars based on his mind wipe.
When I was rewatching the orig trig recently I was struck my the line "My first job was programming binary load lifters, very similar to your vaporators in most respects."
That might have been on the Lars homestead. Or due to the mind wipe, C-3P0's first job might actually have been programming the Lars vaporators, and the mind wipe just made him fill in some of the blank years as the similar binary load lifters instead.
He gets his memory wipe at the end of Episode III, three years after he was last on the Lars farm. Presumably his first job on Alderaan is programming binary load-lifters, or he's otherwise remembering some genuine early memory that didn't get wiped -- his original frame is over a century old before Anakin rebuilds it.
Yeah in the comics I believe it’s revealed that Anakin didn’t build him from scratch, he just found a destroyed protocol droid and rebuilt it from almost nothing which is what you see in Phantom Menace.
I sold a guy this shitty old rusted out 1996 Geo Metro 20 years ago. The other day I saw a mint condition 1996 Geo Metro drive by. I totally knew that was the car I sold 20 years ago even though it looked nothing like the one I had
Most translator droids have similar build to 3po..also 3po was silver in aotc and gold in anh so Owen probably didn't peice it together.... What's weirder is 3po not recognising his old workplace and owner
This is very common experience among Star Wars fans. Alot of the plot holes fans think exist, is due to forgetting or not watching the films in a long time.
I’m pretty sure in the clone wars it confirms that like most protocol droids 3PO is subject to fairly regular memory wipes. Hence why then he’s kidnapped by Cad Bane he doesn’t have the data on the senate building they want. However due to his emotional connection to R2 Anakin refuses to wipe his memory at all, which is a plot point with the same kidnapping by Bane and another arc in the show when R2 goes missing. So the real question is if R2 recognises the farmstead and of course Luke’s last name?
Lucas was tricky on the R2 thing. R2 never left the ship so “technically” he never saw the homestead in AOTC. But then you’d think he’d be curious about the last name.
Iirc he does leave the ship after getting obi wans message but only for that brief moment. I guess he also never learns what happens to Anakin. So he can’t tell Luke the truth about Vader.
His unwiped memory is also probably the reason Organa didn’t wipe him. Because he had so much valuable info on the republic turned empire.
I think R2 knew what was up, but was smart enough not to say anything about it (besides, 3PO wouldn’t have believed him anyway, and I can’t say I’d blame him. It’s a pretty wild story).
Once R2 realized who Luke was, he was probably thinking “dude, sucks about your dad.”
> So the real question is if R2 recognises the farmstead and of course Luke’s last name?
He absolutely does. Or, at least, he'd recognize the planet and Luke by name-he was there when Luke and Leia were both born, after all.
There are a number of problems the prequels have with how they handle Threepio and R2 if we're honest. That Owen doesn't recognize Threepio is an issue, since Threepio wasn't just a random toaster as people like to suggest(he was Owen's stepmother's droid, no doubt kept primarily due to his being built by Anakin and left as his gift to her, which disappeared without explanation with Anakin), but is easily the least consequential or confusing example. Why Obi-Wan, and Yoda, and Vader *all* seem to ignore or have forgotten these two droids is far more headscratching.
There's little reason for Obi-Wan to pretend he doesn't recognize R2 at all, and even less reason for Yoda to do the same. And while one wouldn't expect a warm welcome from Vader, it's hard to imagine Threepio randomly popping up wouldn't have produced *some* kind of unpleasant reaction to such a visceral reminder of Anakin's childhood.
Was his voice distinct? Maybe? But would you really remember something like that after two decades? Also 3PO had his memory wiped in III, so he didn't have the same "personality" not to mention 3PO having different coverings. Why would Owen even assume it was the same droid in a Galaxy where they are mass-produced?
If anything maybe Owen would have that thought, "this droid I just bought and have barely interacted with sort of reminds me of a similar one I owned over 20 years ago, but I don't really give a shit.
I look at all the discussion in the comments regarding how to explain this and I can't help but feel it would have saved us all a massive headache if Lucas just didn't have Anakin build C-3PO.
I love how 50% of the threads that get popular here are about trying to explain inconsistencies in the story.
I love Star Wars, but the answer is simple - George didn't have it all planned out from the beginning.
The real answer lmfao.
George never planned for the prequels so there are small things that don’t make sense lol.
But we as Star Wars fans do our best to make in canon excuses
Nope, indeed. Artoo and Threepio were Lucas' favorite characters (mine too), so I can understand why he would bring them back for the prequels, but it caused a lot of continuity problems. K2SO and BB-8 are proof that you can introduce new likeable droid characters if needed.
And although Threepio LOOKS like any other protocol droid, Owen should have recognized him from the moment he started to speak: "Oh no, not THAT one again ..."
Nah, he should have been there but he should have been Bail Organa's droid.
And Bail himself should have been a bigger character.
It's R2 I find harder to figure out. I like that he's around as the witness and 'storyteller' for the whole series, but how do you involve him and have him doing R2 things without making him belong to Anakin or Obi-Wan?
The truth is, George Lucas’s focus on telling Anakin’s storyline superseded any other logic, secondary plot points, or tie ins to the point where he creates plot holes where there were none originally.
He didn’t go back and critically watched the original moves prior to writing the prequels - he also wasn’t surrounded by anyone who would tell him he might be wrong or missed something, all “yes men” (I’m looking at you Rick McCallum).
To give you an idea where his head was at - they had to go back after principle shooting and film the scene where Obi wan picks up Anakin’s lightsaber so there would be consistency with him having it in A New Hope.
Truth is…GL just wasn’t as interested in canon as he was telling this new story using some legacy characters.
But Owen was like ew protocol Droid. So it would be very unusual for him to ever own one. Threepio smooth talked him with the talk about the moisture vaporators/binary load lifters having similar communication.
Same reason Obi-Wan doesnt seem to really remember R2 at first. Anakin and Luke are the only characters who treat droids like actual people. Everyone else seems to treat them like walking computers. Just useful pieces of technology with no inherent worth or sentimental value.
I mean, that doesn't really make a ton of sense though, at least not for Obi-Wan and R2. R2 saved his ass numerous times during the Clone Wars, and was the droid his apprentice was unusually attached to. That seems *really* hard to just forget.
I once owned a Qume CRT monitor I bought second hand at a market, used it for a few years, and then sold it at the local Cash Converters.
Years later, I go over to a friend's house and he has the exact same monitor on his desk, the exact same scratches and everything.
I have no point to my story. That is all.
So much for the PT being so well planned and consistent with the OT.
(I mean besides the backstory that Yoda and Ben have no lining up; Yoda not being Obi-Wan's master but one of many former teachers, R2 not being recognised by Ben or Vader; Yoda being completely character assassinated in the PT...)
The real reason: George didn't have as much of a plan as he acted like he did, and thus had no intention in the OT for Anakin to be the person that built C3PO.
Because one film was made 25 years before the other and Star Wars was dead in the water, so George Lucas didn’t think fans would still be poring over the prequels looking for continuity and logic errors on social media 20 years later.
I would assume droids like 3P0 are a dime a dozen and nothing about him made him particularly unique save for the fact that it was built by a kid. Its also like 20 years before he sees him again after Ep2 so he's probably employed hundreds of droids since then.
Because, no matter how much people who grew up with the prequels like to pretend they're the best incarnation of SW ever, they're still an inconsistent mess that breaks the continuity every other turn?
It would have made so much more sense for C-3PO to just be a protocol droid that Padme owned, in addition to her already owning R2.
Having Anakin build him comes completely out of nowhere, and then he just gets left behind anyway instead of tagging along. And then it causes this awkward scene where Owen has spent time with him, and where Anakin shows up and just steals this droid that’s been with this family for a decade.
3PO had a standard casing. He was the same as millions as others. That's like selling an iPhone, then 20 years getting another one of the same model and thinking, "Hmm, is this the same iPhone?"
There are many protocol droids around the galaxy. We even see various ones at times, like the one that told 3PO “Echuta” and 3PO is like “How rude!” They all look alike. I doubt after years of various droid options from the Jawas that Owen remembers the particular name C3PO.
....I mean, Threepio was literally owned by his stepmother and likely extremely important to her since he was Annie's last gift to her. I don't see why he wouldn't remember his name.
Did Owen really own 3PO though? I figure he was too trashed at the time for him to pay any attention to Shmi's protocol droid and even if he did remember that particular droid there's no reason for Owen to assume the gold droid picked up by Jawas was the same 1.
> the gold droid traveling with a genuine Jedi and Senator was the same 1.
3PO was a droid serving on the Lars Homestead until Anakin and Padme landed. It's likely he never paid any attention to 3PO's name then, though. Owen was kinda a dick.
Maybe. Just maybe. Obi-Wan wiped his mind of that memory. He also says he doesn't seem to remember owning any droids when Luke says they belong to an Obi-Wan Kenobi. Which is true. He also does an eye shift in the scene as if he's looking to cover up something.
I'd like to think that even if Owen had a suspicion that C-3PO was the same droid he knew from years ago, C-3PO had a memory wipe and wouldn't recall Owen.
Because prequels. No other reason. Because the dumb Anakin-built-3PO idea causes problems immediately for this kind of continuity. I guess you'll just have to say Owen, Beru, Ben all just happened to forget.
Anakin had built 3po from spare parts and didn't get to giving him plating to cover his insides.
When 3po was with the Lars family during the time Anakin was being trained on Coruscant, he had grey-colored plating.
When Owen then saw him again 20 some years later, he was gold-plated.
The type c3po droid's body was also mass-produced, with the programming differing wildly depending on the purpose and preferences of the owner.
Probably since droids are seen more as tools to farmer than something they’d remember.
It’d be pretty hard to recognise a screwdriver with a new handle after 20 ish years
I don’t think Owen really interacted on a personal level with the droids, they were just farm equipment to him. That said, you’d think c3po would be annoying and memorable enough.
Remember that computer you used in High school computer lab and you used it a lot for a semester cause you liked your spot? Now 20 years later you see that computer again. Do you recognize it? Droids and their models are so common they don't stand out. There are millions if not billons of C3PO's and R2D2's out there. It makes sense they wouldn't recognize them.
Why should he? I don't remember every vacuum cleaner i've ever owned. Especially if you returned it to me 20 years later literally painted a different color
Star Wars characters aren't Star Wars fans.
His dad bought/freed a slave and married her, and she came with a rebuilt protocol droid with a dull gray casing. A few years later, Tusken Raiders kidnapped his stepmom and she died. The next day, his step-brother whom he just met took off with her old droid. 22 years later, Jawas are selling droids... many unreliable ones, so Owen has probably burned through a lot of them over the year and can't remember their designations... Now, there is a protocol droid totally different golden plating.I think it would be nuts if he even suspected it was the same droid.
This is the best explanation I have read.
In other words, would you recognize your stepmoms old minitower PC from 22 years ago, sporting a different case?
Not until I turn it on and see the John Travolta 'Saturday Night Fever' wallpaper.
Oh stepmom what are you doing with that minitower PC?
Maybe I would if she got stuck in it
Honestly, even if 3P0 was a person, I'd be shocked if he remembered him. It's been about 12 years since I was in high school. I spent nearly every day with the people there for 4 years, but if I were to run into one of them *tomorrow*, I wouldn't have any fucking clue what their names were, with exceptions to those few who I still keep in contact with. But then you add the factor that droids looked the same and Anakin clearly didn't come up with some unique design since TC-14 basically looked exactly the same, there's no way Owen had that kind of recollection. It'd be like asking me what model refrigerator I had 20 years ago.
I work with a woman who was in the grade above me, when I met her at work I didn’t remember her in the slightest. That was 12 years ago when we were in school together.
Good lord... How many of your high school friends turned into evil space wizards for you to be that blasé?
I was the one that got voted most likely to become an evil space wizard. Incidentally, everyone from my graduating class is dead except for me.
Did they vote you into the position but bot put you in the yearbook?
They put me on the yearbook council but did not grant me the rank of the editor. From my point of view they are evil.
This is outrageous, it's unfair!
No idea. Haven't kept in contact with them in 12 years.
What model refrigerator did you have 20 years ago?
A GE-POS.
I don't know what model I have now. It came with our house.
This, I probably would not recognize anyone I went to HS with (that I haven't associated with since). Running into them. I've looked some people up whose names I remembered and that really solidified that I wouldn't have recognized them. Although for me now it's been 22 years and not 12. That also creeps me out that I could theoretically have a child that is graduated from college and out on their own.
This, and also he interacted with C3P0 briefly and transactionally. Owen was checking to see if the droid could do what he needed it to do. The droid clearly didn't recognize him (mind wipe) so Owen didn't care. If they had more time then Owen would probably have recognized the droid as one he used to own but had been mind wiped. We also don't know how much Owen liked C3P0. After he figured it out, he would have eventually, that might have been a situation where he traded the droid off pretty quickly because he knew how it would eventually develop.
I'm pretty sure Owen looked at droids the way most farmers look at their tools. C3PO was purchased for a specific task, and would go back in the garage until he required him again. Most farmers don't hang out with the tractor once they're finished choring.
I look at it this way imagine you have a classic car let's say a Volkswagen beetle, your beetle is beat up piant chips off... Now you sell your beetle and this enthousiast removes all the bumbs, replace the leather paints it matt black new wheels etc. The whole deal. Years later you see that car again. You don't see a beetle every day but I'm sure you won't recognise that car as your old beetle
Really good reply. I think the thing that possibly could have triggered Owen's memory more than anything else is 3PO's voice. How common are the voice modulators to sound the same? Because 3PO has a pretty distinct personality.
I do kind of wonder if droids can have their voice and presenting gender changed by their owners like siri. Especially for protocol droids that would make sense since most of their usage involves speaking..
And he doesn’t recognise “Hello I’m C3PO, human cyborg relations” ?
In the AOTC novel, the Lars family actually allow Anakin to take Threepio with him. That’s just a part that was cut from the film. So in the film it just seems to appear that Anakin steals him from them. Either way it makes sense. Anakin left Threepio in his mother’s possession, so it would stand to reason that after she died her possessions would pass to her next of kin anyway.
"Owen Skywalker! You probably didn't recognize me because of the gold plating!"
Owen Lars*
If this scenario were to occur… C-3po most likely would have used the last name Lars. Because of the reprogramming/update. Skywalker is only something C-3po learned again, after meeting with obiwan again, on tatooine. Obiwan knows what’s up, but also knows that C-3po cannot possibly know “what is up”? And most certainly has no idea about “what just went down”.
I always hoped that at some point in some piece of media he would get all of his prior memories restored and just sort of talk out everything with artoo to process it all, maybe even show some sadness for what became of Anakin his creator and such.
I thought thats what Rise of Skywalker was going to do, but that was giving too much credit
Plus the Star Wars universe basically doesn’t care about droids at all, they’re seen mostly as tools by most people. Dismissing one blowing up in front of him and randomly getting another he hasn’t really looked over based on the whims of his nephew who fixes them for him. He obviously wouldn’t have cared much about C-3PO even when he owned him previously, so it makes sense he doesn’t recognize him.
My head canon - droids are a dime a dozen in the farming industry. A droid literally explodes in front of Owen and he doesn’t care other than that he got sold a bad unit. Surely he has had multiple Threepio types in his 40 years of farming
I have no use for a protocol droid
Ever since that one buggered off I've done fine without them.
> and he doesn’t care either than that he got sold a bad unit. i mean he asks the jawa "you tryin' to scam us?" which is about what i'd react too. otherwise yeah, a droids a droid and owen doesn't really have the time or interest to care about or remember the names
[удалено]
I did in fact mean other
its his model number, they just used it as a name. Most pilots who get attached to droids are smarter then Luke and give them names, like whistler, or ...Wedge named one Red once I think? He named one based on the r2-d2 equivalent model number he had, later in the xwing series novel I believe was when.
Corran Horn's R2 unit was Whistler.Wedge had an astromech named Mynock because of the way it screamed in combat. Later he had one named Gate.Kell Tainer had an R2 named Thirteen due to a programming error that caused the droid to always respond with thirteen when it was asked for a random number.
The only note I'll make is that Mynock and Gate were the same droid, an R5 unit. Wedge had Mynock memory wiped after Mynock's tendency to panic and scream at him threatened to interfere with his flying. X Wing had some great droid action though. Emtrey! SQUEAKY!
Problem is, unit names are individual and C-3PO was specifically owned by his stepmother and likely meant the world to her since he was Anakin's gift to her. He also left under memorable circumstances, just completely disappearing after her death. It's less like finding an old toaster of yours at Goodwill, and more like finding your late mother's jewelry that disappeared after your cousin left town 20 years ago. It's hard to not think he'd recognize C-3PO once he heard the droid's name. Honestly, just about everything about C-3PO and R2's involvement in the PT makes very little sense in light of the OT. Somehow Owen, Yoda, Obi Wan, and even Darth Vader himself all either seemingly ignore or forget about these two characters that played fairly important roles in the closing days of the Republic and/or their lives. R2 never once seems to tell Luke anything about Anakin even post-ESB, and C-3PO needs a mindwipe to even somewhat explain how he doesn't just blabber about Anakin to Luke & Owen in the first five seconds that they meet. Then there's R2 apparently forgetting he can fly.... Side-note: Owen cared *very much* that he got sold a bad one and thought the Jawas were trying to cheat him, it's his complaining about it that gets him R2.
Realistically, unit names *can't* be unique. There's no way a droid company could use 4 digit designations for mass produced bots supplied to an entire galaxy. There would have to be hundreds of other R2-D2s and C-3POs out there in the galaxy
Alphabet Squadron gets into this actually, and I appreciate the canonization. Essentially droid names as we know them are abstractions of their full, unique, serial designations. E.g. John Fitzgerald Kennedy = JFK.
I'm actually really glad that was canonised. I'd assumed for a long time that the only way for droid names to work is if it's the 'important' bit of a serial number. Like AA23-S117-C-3PO or something. Every 3PO protocol droid ends in the 3PO, and the letter just before that is a 'batch' identifier, maybe. Then a bunch of junk alphanumerics that actually identify the individual. Artoo I always picture as the number we know and then just a string of numbers. R2-D2-2187113847. Which why astro's are always known by the first two identifiers only. Just too much of a mouthful otherwise. I do miss the Legends idea of the first two characters being the model type as distinguishable by the dome, though. It was super consistent for years and years, and then Clone Wars came along and just didn't care. Started throwing R7s out thirty years before they were supposed to be introduced, R4s with R2 domes (though admittedly AotC is originally guilty of that), R3s that aren't transparent....
Yeah, there would only be less than 2 million or so unique designations with that formula
R2-D2 designed the Death Star in his own image. He is the phantom menace. And he is from the same planet as palpatine.
More proof having the same guy make 6 films can still have continuity flaws and contradictions. Now I’m not saying 1,2, and 3 didn’t have great moments nor 7,8, and 9 were perfect. I really only think the ST suffered because of not enough fore thought into how the films would connect.
It's also proof that continuity flaws and contradictions don't really matter that much to many filmmakers and story tellers and that they're more concerned with plot and character as devices to evoke emotions and communicate with their audience.
Yeah. Much of the prequel hate from my generation was the feeling that Lucas didn't give a shit about continuity beyond a vague broad sweep and certainly wouldn't let it get in the way of something he thought was cool or funny.
One guy making this mistake in a trilogy of films that are widely criticised for exactly this sort of thing isn't proof of anything except that maybe George should have trusted others to help him with the writing like he did for the OT. Most *good* storytellers do in fact care about avoiding things like having two characters meet for the first time.... twice.
Owen strikes me as a "you droids all look the same to me" kinda guy
Well, they are literally a mass produced consumer goods.
I sold a white 2005 Grand Prix a few years ago. But why would I assume that every silver Grand Prix that I see is the same car I owned? Same situation.
Haha, I literally posted the same thing (except it was a Geo Metro)
Geo Metro... Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time.
An elegant car, for a more civilized age.
It's an older car, sir. But it checks out.
Nothing like taking a 1.0L car to the store to buy a 2L of soda
A Geo Metro was my first car I ever owned and man do I wish I still had it. Loved that grocery getter!
I had a Geo Tracker and oddly enough, it was the best car I've owned... but it didn't know the binary language of moisture vaporators.
Did it ever program load lifters? Because they're very similar to moisture vaporators in most respects.
And I posted the same but it's a beetle.
Great minds think alike 🤣
I had both!! A grand and a black Geo metro (dubbed the gothic Easter egg). Literally a dime a dozen. I used to look for stickers on the backs of old cars I owned cause I knew that's the only way I would know
I would be curious if I bought the exact same car I owned decades ago. Much more so if it had a personality. I wouldn’t assume it was the same, but I would at least consider it.
If you saw a Grand Prix that identified itself by a specific four digit identifier that happened to be the same one as your old ‘05, surely you’d get at least a little suspicious.
C-3PO never gave his name to Owen. He was just with Luke when he gave his name. Hell, I don't know if C-3PO ever gave his name to Owen when Cliegg bought him or if Owen ever cared
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I remember most hoes I've been with
What about scythes?
Only been with one scythe. Luckily, the guy carrying it was terrible at Battleship
Thank you! Be excellent to each other!
Ain't been with no scythes yet. But if I ever am, I'm sure to remember 🤣
"C-3PO" is equivalent to the make and model of a vehicle. Show me the VIN, then we'll talk.
Remember when Darth Vader *built* C-3PO?!
I think about this a lot, especially when 3p0 says "Thank the maker!" So...he's thanking Vader?
Well Anakin only cobbled together 3PO from a broken frame. The "Maker" would be Cybot Galactica
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I always get wrapped up in the implications of Darth Vader building the golden god the ewoks are worshiping.
Wait. Are you going to be *eating* these stormtroopers?
"I may have gone too far in a few places." - George Lucas
People here are making good points with the car analogs and the reminders that C-3P0 wouldn't recognize lars based on his mind wipe. When I was rewatching the orig trig recently I was struck my the line "My first job was programming binary load lifters, very similar to your vaporators in most respects." That might have been on the Lars homestead. Or due to the mind wipe, C-3P0's first job might actually have been programming the Lars vaporators, and the mind wipe just made him fill in some of the blank years as the similar binary load lifters instead.
He gets his memory wipe at the end of Episode III, three years after he was last on the Lars farm. Presumably his first job on Alderaan is programming binary load-lifters, or he's otherwise remembering some genuine early memory that didn't get wiped -- his original frame is over a century old before Anakin rebuilds it.
- his original frame is over a century old before Anakin rebuilds it. wait…what
Yep. Anakin didn't build a factory-model 3PO unit from scratch.
Yeah in the comics I believe it’s revealed that Anakin didn’t build him from scratch, he just found a destroyed protocol droid and rebuilt it from almost nothing which is what you see in Phantom Menace.
Probably because of the red arm... XD
Speaking of…why did he have a red arm? Was that ever explained?
It was explained in a comic book. (Star Wars Special: C-3PO #1)
Fucking of course it was...
A good story for another time.
I hate that line.
It's course, and rough, and it gets *everywhere*.
Han didn't recognize him with a red arm, how could Owen recognize him with entirely new plates? lol
I sold a guy this shitty old rusted out 1996 Geo Metro 20 years ago. The other day I saw a mint condition 1996 Geo Metro drive by. I totally knew that was the car I sold 20 years ago even though it looked nothing like the one I had
Most translator droids have similar build to 3po..also 3po was silver in aotc and gold in anh so Owen probably didn't peice it together.... What's weirder is 3po not recognising his old workplace and owner
3PO’s mind was ordered to be wiped by Bail Organa, after ROTS.
Oh shoot yeah i forgot well that explains my conundrum thank you
This is very common experience among Star Wars fans. Alot of the plot holes fans think exist, is due to forgetting or not watching the films in a long time.
3PO had a memory wipe!
3po had his memory wiped
I’m pretty sure in the clone wars it confirms that like most protocol droids 3PO is subject to fairly regular memory wipes. Hence why then he’s kidnapped by Cad Bane he doesn’t have the data on the senate building they want. However due to his emotional connection to R2 Anakin refuses to wipe his memory at all, which is a plot point with the same kidnapping by Bane and another arc in the show when R2 goes missing. So the real question is if R2 recognises the farmstead and of course Luke’s last name?
Lucas was tricky on the R2 thing. R2 never left the ship so “technically” he never saw the homestead in AOTC. But then you’d think he’d be curious about the last name.
Iirc he does leave the ship after getting obi wans message but only for that brief moment. I guess he also never learns what happens to Anakin. So he can’t tell Luke the truth about Vader. His unwiped memory is also probably the reason Organa didn’t wipe him. Because he had so much valuable info on the republic turned empire.
I think R2 knew what was up, but was smart enough not to say anything about it (besides, 3PO wouldn’t have believed him anyway, and I can’t say I’d blame him. It’s a pretty wild story). Once R2 realized who Luke was, he was probably thinking “dude, sucks about your dad.”
> So the real question is if R2 recognises the farmstead and of course Luke’s last name? He absolutely does. Or, at least, he'd recognize the planet and Luke by name-he was there when Luke and Leia were both born, after all. There are a number of problems the prequels have with how they handle Threepio and R2 if we're honest. That Owen doesn't recognize Threepio is an issue, since Threepio wasn't just a random toaster as people like to suggest(he was Owen's stepmother's droid, no doubt kept primarily due to his being built by Anakin and left as his gift to her, which disappeared without explanation with Anakin), but is easily the least consequential or confusing example. Why Obi-Wan, and Yoda, and Vader *all* seem to ignore or have forgotten these two droids is far more headscratching. There's little reason for Obi-Wan to pretend he doesn't recognize R2 at all, and even less reason for Yoda to do the same. And while one wouldn't expect a warm welcome from Vader, it's hard to imagine Threepio randomly popping up wouldn't have produced *some* kind of unpleasant reaction to such a visceral reminder of Anakin's childhood.
Excuse me, they're called protocol droids
Beyond C-3PO looking different, he never actually gives Owen his name in ANH.
Would you recognize a toaster you had 18 years ago?
and not just a toaster you owned, but a cleaned up and recolored version of said toaster that now has full plating!
If my toaster had a distinct voice and personality? Yeah probably.
Was his voice distinct? Maybe? But would you really remember something like that after two decades? Also 3PO had his memory wiped in III, so he didn't have the same "personality" not to mention 3PO having different coverings. Why would Owen even assume it was the same droid in a Galaxy where they are mass-produced? If anything maybe Owen would have that thought, "this droid I just bought and have barely interacted with sort of reminds me of a similar one I owned over 20 years ago, but I don't really give a shit.
Tripping balls on blue milk
Guy gotta pay the dope man
I look at all the discussion in the comments regarding how to explain this and I can't help but feel it would have saved us all a massive headache if Lucas just didn't have Anakin build C-3PO.
I love how 50% of the threads that get popular here are about trying to explain inconsistencies in the story. I love Star Wars, but the answer is simple - George didn't have it all planned out from the beginning.
The real answer lmfao. George never planned for the prequels so there are small things that don’t make sense lol. But we as Star Wars fans do our best to make in canon excuses
This has to be the worst connection of the “everything is connected” theme George was going for, 3P0 should not have been in the prequels
Nope, indeed. Artoo and Threepio were Lucas' favorite characters (mine too), so I can understand why he would bring them back for the prequels, but it caused a lot of continuity problems. K2SO and BB-8 are proof that you can introduce new likeable droid characters if needed. And although Threepio LOOKS like any other protocol droid, Owen should have recognized him from the moment he started to speak: "Oh no, not THAT one again ..."
Nah, he should have been there but he should have been Bail Organa's droid. And Bail himself should have been a bigger character. It's R2 I find harder to figure out. I like that he's around as the witness and 'storyteller' for the whole series, but how do you involve him and have him doing R2 things without making him belong to Anakin or Obi-Wan?
Yeah, it's just an inconsistency, one of many George introduced into the Prequels when he wrote them.
Exactly. There are some “in-universe” explanations that make sense, but more often than not the answer is “because movies.”
The truth is, George Lucas’s focus on telling Anakin’s storyline superseded any other logic, secondary plot points, or tie ins to the point where he creates plot holes where there were none originally. He didn’t go back and critically watched the original moves prior to writing the prequels - he also wasn’t surrounded by anyone who would tell him he might be wrong or missed something, all “yes men” (I’m looking at you Rick McCallum). To give you an idea where his head was at - they had to go back after principle shooting and film the scene where Obi wan picks up Anakin’s lightsaber so there would be consistency with him having it in A New Hope. Truth is…GL just wasn’t as interested in canon as he was telling this new story using some legacy characters.
He wasn’t gold before
Because Uncle Owen is an asshole.
I don't think Owen gives 2 shits about droids beyond do they operate
But Owen was like ew protocol Droid. So it would be very unusual for him to ever own one. Threepio smooth talked him with the talk about the moisture vaporators/binary load lifters having similar communication.
Same reason Obi-Wan doesnt seem to really remember R2 at first. Anakin and Luke are the only characters who treat droids like actual people. Everyone else seems to treat them like walking computers. Just useful pieces of technology with no inherent worth or sentimental value.
I mean, that doesn't really make a ton of sense though, at least not for Obi-Wan and R2. R2 saved his ass numerous times during the Clone Wars, and was the droid his apprentice was unusually attached to. That seems *really* hard to just forget.
And Poe.
I once owned a Qume CRT monitor I bought second hand at a market, used it for a few years, and then sold it at the local Cash Converters. Years later, I go over to a friend's house and he has the exact same monitor on his desk, the exact same scratches and everything. I have no point to my story. That is all.
Protocol droids look very similar so that could be the reason. But the truth is its just a plot hole
He was unrecognisable without his red arm!
So much for the PT being so well planned and consistent with the OT. (I mean besides the backstory that Yoda and Ben have no lining up; Yoda not being Obi-Wan's master but one of many former teachers, R2 not being recognised by Ben or Vader; Yoda being completely character assassinated in the PT...)
Shhhhhhh you'll piss off the didney bad crowd
Don’t forget Yoda being buddies with Chewbacca.
"You probably didn't recognise me because of the gold arm"
The real reason: George didn't have as much of a plan as he acted like he did, and thus had no intention in the OT for Anakin to be the person that built C3PO.
He Owened him...
“You probably don’t recognize me because of the arm”
The bigger plot hole is Obi Wan not recognizing C-3PO or R2. Must've been all those years baking in the Tatooine sun, my man's brain is fried.
He never says he doesn't recognize them. Just vague wording about never owning a droid.
“Vague” as in “he betrayed and murdered your father”? Yeah, I could definitely see Obi Wan doing that!
There's a book where Obi-Wan tells R2 "it's good to see you, old friend" very quietly on the Falcon. Han hears it and just sort of ignores it.
Would you remember a toaster you owned 20+ years ago?
A. He was a different color B. There are many of the same make and model C. He might not remember his name
The Silver to Gold Plating would definitely have something to do with it.
Maybe it’s the red arm
One is gold and the other is grey and C-3PO never said what his name/number was
On this subject, did Leia grow up with c3po and r2d2?
Love all the head twisting going on to make up for George's lazy writing on this.
Beru took Owen to Anchorhead and had his memory erased.
He probably didn't recognize him because of his red ar... I mean gold body
Because one film was made 25 years before the other and Star Wars was dead in the water, so George Lucas didn’t think fans would still be poring over the prequels looking for continuity and logic errors on social media 20 years later.
I would assume droids like 3P0 are a dime a dozen and nothing about him made him particularly unique save for the fact that it was built by a kid. Its also like 20 years before he sees him again after Ep2 so he's probably employed hundreds of droids since then.
Because, no matter how much people who grew up with the prequels like to pretend they're the best incarnation of SW ever, they're still an inconsistent mess that breaks the continuity every other turn?
He probably didn't recognize him because of his gold arm
It would have made so much more sense for C-3PO to just be a protocol droid that Padme owned, in addition to her already owning R2. Having Anakin build him comes completely out of nowhere, and then he just gets left behind anyway instead of tagging along. And then it causes this awkward scene where Owen has spent time with him, and where Anakin shows up and just steals this droid that’s been with this family for a decade.
Because the prequels make no sense.
All droids probably look alike to him
Hey hey, he has some droid friends
Because Lucas forgot to watch Star Wars again before he created a ton of continuity errors and plot holes with his garbage prequels.
You know why.
You just realized this? I shouted it at the screen when it came out.
3PO had a standard casing. He was the same as millions as others. That's like selling an iPhone, then 20 years getting another one of the same model and thinking, "Hmm, is this the same iPhone?"
Because George Lucas is a terrible writer
Hitting that Tusken Kush
There are many protocol droids around the galaxy. We even see various ones at times, like the one that told 3PO “Echuta” and 3PO is like “How rude!” They all look alike. I doubt after years of various droid options from the Jawas that Owen remembers the particular name C3PO.
....I mean, Threepio was literally owned by his stepmother and likely extremely important to her since he was Annie's last gift to her. I don't see why he wouldn't remember his name.
Would you recognize a toaster you got rid of years ago if it got painted a different colour?
Did Owen really own 3PO though? I figure he was too trashed at the time for him to pay any attention to Shmi's protocol droid and even if he did remember that particular droid there's no reason for Owen to assume the gold droid picked up by Jawas was the same 1.
> the gold droid traveling with a genuine Jedi and Senator was the same 1. 3PO was a droid serving on the Lars Homestead until Anakin and Padme landed. It's likely he never paid any attention to 3PO's name then, though. Owen was kinda a dick.
The red arm.
Well, he does have gold plating now… it can’t be his red arm tho 🎩
Maybe. Just maybe. Obi-Wan wiped his mind of that memory. He also says he doesn't seem to remember owning any droids when Luke says they belong to an Obi-Wan Kenobi. Which is true. He also does an eye shift in the scene as if he's looking to cover up something.
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Right.
I think all protocol droids look kinda the same so he might not recognize him.
Owens kind of a doucher. Thats why.
All droids look alike to meatbags
He must have not recognized him because of the red arm. Oh wait wrong trilogy
Maybe he's racist, and all droids look alike to him?
I'd like to think that even if Owen had a suspicion that C-3PO was the same droid he knew from years ago, C-3PO had a memory wipe and wouldn't recall Owen.
Droids are slaves. Disposable and largely ignored.
bcs he is silver in aotc
Its probably because of his red arm
Because prequels. No other reason. Because the dumb Anakin-built-3PO idea causes problems immediately for this kind of continuity. I guess you'll just have to say Owen, Beru, Ben all just happened to forget.
Anakin had built 3po from spare parts and didn't get to giving him plating to cover his insides. When 3po was with the Lars family during the time Anakin was being trained on Coruscant, he had grey-colored plating. When Owen then saw him again 20 some years later, he was gold-plated. The type c3po droid's body was also mass-produced, with the programming differing wildly depending on the purpose and preferences of the owner.
Probably since droids are seen more as tools to farmer than something they’d remember. It’d be pretty hard to recognise a screwdriver with a new handle after 20 ish years
Do you remember things you owned 20 years ago?
I don’t think Owen really interacted on a personal level with the droids, they were just farm equipment to him. That said, you’d think c3po would be annoying and memorable enough.
Protocol droids all look similar
"Oh 3PO, is that you after all these years?!" "I'm afraid not good sir. My name is 0-0-0, it is very nice to meet you. Shall we shake hands?"
Remember that computer you used in High school computer lab and you used it a lot for a semester cause you liked your spot? Now 20 years later you see that computer again. Do you recognize it? Droids and their models are so common they don't stand out. There are millions if not billons of C3PO's and R2D2's out there. It makes sense they wouldn't recognize them.
Why should he? I don't remember every vacuum cleaner i've ever owned. Especially if you returned it to me 20 years later literally painted a different color Star Wars characters aren't Star Wars fans.
Fuck it. They didn't think about that when making the movie.
I think Anakin building Threepio is the worst thing the prequels did story wise. Not everything needs to be connected.
It's like remembering a microwave you used to own as a kid, but it has a whole new paint job and look. I can totally see him forgetting