This has always bothered me. In ANH why can't he recognize these things that were among his first memories as a droid. And Obi-Wan would undoubtedly be one of the more important memories of his...it just doesn't make sense...

great first post...

This was known a while ago...

Memory Wipe it is...

Welcome, newbie mundizzle. Soon you will learn the power of the MF.

i like this guy

I'm pretty sure Lucas stated in several recent interviews that it's Alzheimer’s disease. It turns out that 3PO's brain was salvaged from a 66 year old Jewish robot.

Only Jews get Alzheimers?

So where does 3PO's Brit accent come from?

PLOT HOLE OMFG!!!!!

You call this Straight?

well done, thanks for the help

I think the biggest plot hole is that we never find out why 3PO doesn't wear pants.

Actually I've always thought that ObiWan not recognizing the droids was the biggest plot hole. After all, in ROTS he certainly has enough interaction with R2. Mabe he had a memory swipe also.

Obi gives R2 a "knowing look" every now and then which tells you that he's not letting on to what he really knows

Dr.Sith,

It's because this isn't fucking Star Trek.

I never seen that but wouldn't R2 get a memory Wipe as well

What did you want him to say, "Well Luke, these two droids belong to your parents before your dad turned to the dark side, wiped out the jedi, tried to kill me, and killed your mother all because I wasn't able to train him the way I should have. But don't worry I'm sure I'll get it right this time, do you want your dad's old lightsaber? I swiped it as he almost burned to death. By the way, if you ever meet this girl named Leia, don't kiss her."

Yeah, sure. And of course Alec Guiness was the worst actor in the OT, right?

Not only that, but there is a droid that looks EXACTLY like R2 going outside the queens ship to repair the shield generator, right before R2 goes on out. Unless they F-ed up that scene and had R2 going up the chute twice, which actually wouldn't suprise me one bit.

Well the scene straight after that where R2 is introduced by name to the Queen of a whole planet sort of scuppers the droids=toasters thing. At the very least Ben should have been intrigued enough to ask if it was the same toaster. But you know, as Smith said, this is just one of many and it doesn't really matter all that much.

Aren't they reading R2's model number and such? So it'd be like reading the model and press number of a toaster.

Indeed, but if you're living in a society that will introduce a toaster personally to the Queen and that Queen asks its model and press number, it is safe to think that same society values toasters far above the level that we do.

True. But it's not like he'd just go up to every astromech that looks like one he once knew 20 years ago and read it's numbers.

To toast or not to toast. That is the question.

LOL, I'd love to see that dubbed into my ANH DVD!

Not at all, but continuity is a beautiful thing especially if you are writing characters into a film that preceeds a film where they appear to meet for the first time. For some reason I can't help thinking of Highlander 2 here even though I barely remember the film - was there a flashback in that where we see the main characters meet for the first time even though we saw a contradictory flashback in the first one? I don't know, I can't remember. Anyway, these are details that should never have arisen to begin with.

truly, one of the biggest pieces of shit to ever cross the screen.

i remember seeing this turdwagon and being amazed at how the original storyline went completely down the crapper w/ no regards to the audience. felt like the movie was saying "hey, you’re pretty retarded so were just gonna go with this. you won't know the difference."

incredible.

True. But where's the "incontinuity" here?

And the events, situations and severe trauma, both physically and emotionally, that Obi-Wan witnesses and or experiences in Episode 3 is "explanation" enough, for me anyway...

Oh I do see your point. That's why I put the word "appear" in italics because the door is very much open for them to have met. But something does not have to be contradictory to affect continuity. I actually don't know that West Wing example but, from the sounds of it, there is a clear subtext based around the denial. There's nothing to imply that in ANH. It feels that there is a historical connection (several actually) that is being ignored - but that isn't to say that the connections couldn't happen.

For example, if someone is holding a cup in one hand in a shot, then we cut away, then cut back and the cup is in another hand it feels like something is not quite right. It breaks continuity. Now there is nothing to say that the person couldn't have shifted hands during the cutaway but it still creates a feeling of 'hang on a sec, that cup was in the other hand!' Same with Obi-Wan and Artoo, or Owen and the Droids or Vader and C3PO. There are many, many good and valid reasons and explanations as to why these connections are not brought up in the OT and, yet, it still creates that sense that something is up, something has shifted and there is nothing to bridge the gap. Hence the amount of times since Ep1 that these questions are asked.

I totally agree that Obi-Wan showing little interest in Artoo does not contradict anything at all. In fact, from Artoo's perspective, I love the idea that he knows so much about what is going on. But it still affects continuity, otherwise we wouldn't keep hearing these questions. Know what I mean?

Nothing. I would do nothing. It's done now. The last thing I would advocate doing is tinkering with the OT to fit new ideas brought up in the PT, especially trying to add scenes that are nothing but exposition. That's how we end up with 'I've been wondering - what are midichlorians' and the like.

I think it would have been possible to structure the PT so these things never became issues but that's talking the entire fundamentals. But now that they're done, I wouldn't touch them. I'm not a pro-tinkering SW fan. I was simply trying to explain why, in spite of the validity of everything you wrote, that it is an issue that comes up time and time again.

I think the "issue" as it were simply comes up because Lucas made the last half first and the first half last. People have come to see the events of the OT a certain way, and now have a hard time unlearning what they've learned, or unperceiving what they've perceived for nearly 30 years.

Hell, I've even heard people at my local multiplex say things like "...well now they have to make another one..." or "...what happens to the babies..." blah blah blah.

I think this would be the case no matter how good or bad Episodes 1, 2 and 3 were.

No Kale I'm totally with you, honestly. You missed why I brought up that midichlorian example. It is not because I wanted a better explanation of it - it's that I could have done with less! I thought the exposition in that scene was clumsy. I was using it as an example of why I wouldn't add anything to the OT or whatever to explain past releationships. You know, like 'I've been wondering, Ben, do you know R2 or not? Well Luke, it's like this...' I can do without that. It wouldn't help.

What do I think would have made this a non-issue? Not having R2 and 3PO in the prequels. End of issue. End of questions.