Look, there’s no way Kenobi recognizes R2-D2. It’s confirmation bias based on watching the prequels.
Lucas did this with a lot of his characters. Vader was the most popular character in the first movie. So, his role got expanded, even to the point of becoming Luke’s father. Boba Fett’s toy was ridiculously popular, so Fett got tons of love, especially in the prequels. Jar Jar is unpopular? Drastically reduce his screen time in the other movies.
There is no “moment of clarity”, except as a fanwank. It is Russian revisionism. Lucas needed to take advantage of Vader’s popularity, so he re-wrote the character’s backstory accordingly for ESB.
Lucas knew the droids (especially R2) were popular with the kids and hardcore fans, so he wrote them into the prequels, despite the fact it made almost no sense.
Not that he’s around anymore to answer the question (nor would he have wanted to), but I’d wager any amount of money at any odds that Alec Guinness had no idea, at the time of filming, that his character recognized R2 at all.
No one is stating that in the 1977 movie Alec Guinness was told “you know he is R2D2 because you spent 3 years fighting a galactic civil war alongside him”. It was more like " this is not the first time this droid has been used to send a message to you’’. Especially since said droid knew where to find him. I think it’s quite clear that the audience is supposed to think that Obi Wan knows more than he lets on.
BTW. The eye role seem to have been Sir Alec being annoyed at being in such a stupid movie.
He’s been hiding on a remote, desert planet for nearly 20 years to the point neither the princess nor the droid know his local alias (Ben vs Obi-Wan - a name he hasn’t used “oh since before you were born”). Sure, maybe he left a forwarding address when he went into hiding, but it doesn’t look like he’s been in contact with anybody important for a while.
Still seems like confirmation bias based on what fans saw in the prequels. Actually, it gives George Lucas too much credit for having planned all of it out. That’s almost certainly not the case.
Sure. But about galactic events and about Luke’s heritage and destiny. Not about some random droid he’s never seen before.
Maybe. He seemed to be ok with the movie until it came out and became ridiculously popular. He actually wanted to do a wise old wizard role and was generally favorable towards the production until screaming fans made it unpleasant for him. He just didn’t want his career to be defined by this one.
The only reason R2-D2 knew where to look for Ben was because he overheard Luke tell Threepio about the crazy old hermit who lives out in the sticks. There’s even a definite “Oh, yeah?” reaction on R2’s part when he hears this.
He strikes out to look for Ben in the middle of the night because he’s been programmed to, and he’s not going to stop until he finds him.
Land on the planet (Leia must have known he was hiding there, since that’s where her ship was heading when it was attacked) and hope for the proverbial “lucky break.” :rolleyes:
Near the beginning of “The Empire Strikes back”, Vader takes a video call from the Emperor:
Notice that the Emperor doesn’t even call Anakin “Anakin” to his face anymore. (I realise this was a story telling trick in order to facilitate springing the surprise later on.)
So, once you go Darth, you abandon your past… by prentending that pre-Darth “you” was a whole 'nother person?
That’s from one of the molested versions, not sure if it’s the older theatrical SE or the DVD SE or even the BR SE, but in the original versions, the name Anakin is never used until Jedi.
It’s possible it may have been used in scripts, novelizations, adaptations, spinoffs, whatnot, but it didn’t get used on screen at all in Star Wars or Empire.
(I realise this was a story telling trick in order to facilitate springing the surprise later on.)