Why did Obi-Wan didn't seem to recognize the droids

It´s easy. He never owned R2 D2 as a Droid or Droids generally. A Jedi has no possessions in that sense...So he is right.

"So what I told you was true... from a certain point of view."

 

Maybe because he'd spent the last 20 years in hiding and maybe he'd essentially been dreading the day that someone (Bail Organa) would finally come calling for him to help. Sure, he'd witnessed the terror of the Empire on some Outer Rim planet but maybe he was hoping nothing would come of him watching over Luke and that Leia would just grow up as normal offspring of Organa and he could be left alone after the horrors of the Clone Wars and the eradication of the Jedi Order.

 

The "behind the curtain" reason was that the prequels weren't even a sparkle in Lucas's eye, so there was no reason he would. But with hindsight, there's probably millions of R2s and Threepios around and all droids look alike (amiright?) Joking or perhaps, if he acknowledged that he knew them, it would show his hand before he was ready to explain the whole story vis a vis Luke's dad.

 

Obi Wan's observation means something else with the PT as context. I view it now as Obi Wan being somewhat sarcastic... As if saying to Artoo "we agreed we wouldn't try to find each other."

 

Um, because Obi-Wan was so confused by all of the Prequels' continuity holes that he completely forgot about the droids after 19 years in hiding.

 

If I had to apologize for this, I'd say that droids escape Obi-Wan's notice. I get that feeling when he told Dex "well if droids could think, there would be none of us here" as if he doesn't have a high opinion of droids as anything but tools or servants "flying is for droids". But, then again, he did make "loose wire" jokes about R2 at some point, so R2 must have been somewhat noteworthy. Maybe we should think of droids more as pets. If my friend from 20 years ago had a German Shepherd, I wouldn't recognize it if I saw it today; even if back then I knew it's name and made fun of it because it acted funny.

 

That might be the case at the beginning, when only R2 appears (3PO is broken on the floor, nowhere to be seen at that moment) and he says "I don't remember owning any droid", which is true... from a certain point of view. But then he makes a gesture, as if he just realised, and he says something like "How strange, that's interesting". After that, he meets 3PO, and he should be really stupid if he don't put two and two together. But he didn't say anything because he thinks it's better for Luke's spiritual journey.

 

I'll have to re-watch that scene in ANH. I do like your idea that we could interpret that pause after saying "I don't ever remember owning a droid" as "oh I remember now"..."very interesting". I always love it when a moment can be seen in a different light (it's like making something old feel like new). As far as 3PO goes, I don't Obi-Wan had any real interaction with him in the PT. 3PO spent most of his time with Padme, and so I don't think 3PO would be as familiar to Obi-Wan. But I will admit that I haven't yet seen all of the Clone Wars so it could have happened there. Otherwise, I see no reason that it would be necessary for Obi-Wan to remember 3PO.

 

ROTS has a very important Obi-Wan/C-3PO interaction: On Mustafar, just after Obi-Wan left Anakin for dead, he returns to Padme's ship where 3PO has carried Padme's inert body. I think it's an event important enough for Obi-Wan to remember

 

I see your point there, and it's a good point. I thought about that scene, and it's a powerful defeated moment for Obi-Won. And you could certainly imagine that Obi-Wan interacted in some way with 3PO on that trip from Mustafar to the blockade runner (he did I think put his hand on 3PO's shoulder at one point). But the way I saw that scenario play out, 3PO was simply there as a tool (not in the derogatory sense of course). I didn't see 3PO making much of an impression on him, as it appeared as though this was going to be a quiet and somber trip. I just think it's feasible that Obi-Wan wouldn't recognize him later since we never see them getting to know each other.

 

I see your point, too. But there's a combination of circumstances: He knows R2, which were Anakin's droid, and, even if he didn't pay much attention to 3PO, he should know that C-3PO usually wandered near R2-D2. Old canon used to explain Obi-Wan's forget by saying than the combination protocol droid + astromech is a common configuration. But the C-3PO always presents himself and R2-D2 saying their names, and even if the names/serial numbers are not unique to those two droids in particular, having the two of them TOGETHER (what the odds could be?) should be enough to ring a bell.

 

But on the flip side, Obi-Wan does show courtesy and compassion to droids, and perhaps doesn't treat them as tools as I previously said. He says "thank you" to the diner waitress droid in ATOC, calls R2 "my little friend" in, and puts R2's mind at ease by saying "oh don't worry, he'll be alright" in ANH. That quote cracks me up though as it's inconsistent with Obi-Wan's previously belief that "if droids could think there would be none of us here" Here is acknowledging R2's "worry" over Luke. lol I think the "if droids could think" line was just hastily written banter that aught to amount to something in the Star Wars universe, but doesn't.

--- Double Post Merged, Jul 16, 2015, Original Post Date: Jul 16, 2015 ---

But did 3PO wander near R2 in the PT enough for Obi-Wan to notice? It didn't seam that they were officially paired up until the end of ROTS.

 

Droid factory/battle of Geonosis, but Obi-Wan had other things in mind at that time...
The C-3PO/R2-D2 pairing is more evident on TCW, and I think Obi-Wan is well aware of it

 

And on that, I will gladly concede. It makes perfect sense that Obi-Wan would know about the two of them together in TCW. I really hope to try and watch the rest of that before TFA!

 

It's quite simple. Because he never owned them and Anakin didn't build them. LoL
They are an odd couple who's story begins on the deck of a rebel ship in Ep. IV

It's the inconsistent storytelling from Mr. Lucas who decided to re-write key plot points
hoping the audience wouldn't notice.

 

I watched the scene in ANH again and Alec Guinness' facial expressions can be interpreted that he definitely recognised R2 - although at the time this was presumably him acting as if Kenobi was curious. I'm sure him not being completely open with Luke was also in character - revealing everything to Luke straight away would have been too mindblowing.

 

Paul, I think all of us draw some of our conclusions from trying to piece together the two trilogies despite some blatant inconsistencies. I cast minute analysis of actors performances aside, and even stopped trying to rationalize how the events of PT mesh with OT. If we go to the origin point of the story Ep. IV the two droids become a vital piece of the plot after R2 gets the Death Star schematics. Before that they're not very relevant and revealing their ownership would serve no purpose.