I’m trying to think of all the questions that REVENGE OF THE SITH must answer in order to provide good continuity between episodes 3 and 4. The main one that’s plagued me has been the droid factor, which will hopefully be at least partly explained:
1- Why C3PO has no memory of ever having been on Tattooine (or, for that matter, having actually lived on the Lars moisture farm before)
2- More puzzling (because droid’s memories can be erased)- why Owen Lars has no memory of C3PO when he buys him from the Jawa (or of R2 for that matter, which may not be as surprising since supposedly R2s were mass produced and he had never actually lived with R2)
3- Why Obi Wan Kenobi denies ever having had an R2 unit in Episode IV (Jedi Alzheimers? “Oh yes… now that I recall we did have a few major campaigns together in the first two movies…”)
Other questions:
Why on Earth in a galaxy of millions of populated systems Kenobi hides Luke in Annakin’s birthplace, and why he goes into hiding by changing his name from Obi Wan Kenobi to Ben Kenobi-
Why Leia can remember her mother but Luke cannot-
Feel free to comment on these or post your own continuity questions. Presumably at least some of these will be answered (as well as how C3PO comes to be brass plated)
Protocol droids are ubiquitous, apparently. We’ve certainly seen enough of them – on the Death Star, on Bespin, all over the place. I guess the fussy englishman personality kit must have been a pretty strong seller, too.
As for Ben, that one’s easy. Everyone habitually lied to Luke about anything connected to his father. They’re not real subtle about it, either. Luke says he thinks Artoo might mean “Old Ben Kenobi” by “Obi Wan Kenobi.” “No no no no no. That old man’s just a crazy wizard. And this Obi Wan fellow that I’ve never heard of won’t be nosing around here – he’s dead. Yup. Died around the same time as your father. That’s the ticket.”
Nobody gives Luke credit for being able to see through any of that stuff. (And why should they? Wormy clearly took the short transport to school all his life.)
Obi Wan is positively nuanced, compared to Owen. He just says that he doesn’t recall owning a droid. No lie there. They just hung out together.
I’ve never really bought the “protocol droids are common” argument, because from what we know, each individual droid, ubiquitous type or not, does have a unique alphanumeric designation. Given that he basically grew up around C-3PO, I can’t imagine Owen not at least doing a double-take at hearing that familiar designation (“I am See-Threepio, human-cyborg relations”) come out of another protocol unit.
I always presumed that Anakin was building a C-3PO (or C protocol droid, or whatever its model is supposed to be) out of spare and scavanged parts. I didn’t take it to mean that Anakin was designing and programming a droid from scratch.
I’m going to assume that, at some point, the droids’ memories will be wiped. Given C-3PO’s predeliction for bumbling, this seems like a good thing.
I don’t mind Kenobi’s statement regarding R2. At the time he said that, Luke hadn’t identified him as R2-D2 - merely as an R2 unit, of which we know there many. Secondly, I could see Ben being cautious as to exactly how much he revealed to Luke. And, he was being truthful - he never owned R2.
I, too, am bothered by hiding Luke on Tatooine. It would have made more sense if Tatooine was Kenobi’s home world, and Anakin was from elsewhere. In fact, I thought that in the novelization of ROTJ, Owen Lars was identified as a relative of Obi-Wan’s (brother, or brother-in-law as I recall).
But, yeah, C-3PO bothers me. He’s too distinctive for people to not remember him. BTW, his gold plating happens during one of the “Clone Wars Vol. II” cartoons. Something about neding to look the part of a protocol droid belonging to a Senator.
As for Leia remembering her mother - it’s just a big, gaping hole in the continuity.
I wish I’d gotten a chance to see Vol.2 of the Clone Wars shorts. Sigh.
Anyways, keep in mind that we see Protocol Droids more than ANY other droid in the series. Plus, if you assume we’re looking at letter-number-letter-number that only gives us 67,600 droids in the whole galaxy. I think it’s safe to assume that C3P0 is a model number.
Why? The kids had to be seperated. Padme can’t go to two places at once, it doesn’t mean that she can’t go with one of the kids. Or, considering how willing you are to believe that Luke was lied to on things what makes you think that Leia didn’t have some nice lady (Mrs. Organa?) who helped raise her but then died early?
My problem with Leia remembering someone other than Padme is that Luke specifically asks Leia about her real mother, and Leia seems to understand the distinction. I suppose it could still be someone that Leia was told was her real mother.
I don’t want to say any more for fear of spoiling things.
Droids are zero-status. They are not people in the SW Universe, they are talking appliances, & justly so.
The moisture farm may have had dozens, or even hundreds, of droids, particularly over the years. That’s why in Ep IV, there were repair/maintenance facilities for R2 & 3PO. The farm had droid repair facilities, because they were financially justified. So, they had lots & lots of droids, & needed them.
Given the years, the relative unimportance of individual droids, & the sheer number of droids, it’s unlikely most characters would remember them. After all, the only reason we find them memorable is because they’re characters in the plot. To another character, they’d be no more memorable than a particular Volkswagen. Seen one, seen em all.
BTW–Leia may have watched video diaries of her mother, or even own an AI Sim based on her personality. Why not? After all, the Droids are AI.
… Does this make R2 the equivalent of Herbie, the Love Bug? Actually, I think 3PO may be rebuilt-from-scrap, not a new robot. As in, Anakin found enough of the suckers broken to build a new one out of. Still a heck of a feat.
I think when Obi Wan says, “I don’t seem to recall ever owning a droid,” he’s kind of joking around with R2. R2 used that as a story only so he could find him. I don’t think he ever thought he was owned by Obi Wan.
And why go through all the trouble of giving Leia false parents and renaming her Princess Leia Organa in order to hide her from her father
and then go and take Luke back to Anakins home planet, give him to his Aunt and Uncle, tell him it’s his Aunt and Uncle instead of his parents, and DON’T EVEN CHANGE HIS LAST NAME???
Maybe because Anakin knew that Padme was preggers, but didn’t know they were going to be twins. So let Vader know that there is a son, hide him in plain sight, but in a non-threatening position (farm boy under the care of non-Jedi-loving foster parents/aunt & uncle who will in no way encourage the kid to do more than run the moisture farm.) Considering how much paperwork Vader would now have to do as Vice President in Charge of Nasty Things in the Empire, he wouldn’t have enough time to go hunting for someone that isn’t posing a threat to him.
Yodas the little non-violent green guy who preaches about not giving into anger, hate, aggression “Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”
“Anger, fear, aggression, the dark side of the force they are.”
But he looked pretty angry, hateful, and aggressive when he fought Dooku.