SPECULATION Why doesn't Owen recognize C-3PO on Tatooine?

Why Obi Wan didn't recognize R2 is a big mistery too.

 

As I described in the other thread, I think it's quite feasible that Owen doesn't recognize Threepio. But since typing on my iPad is an enormous pain, I'll leave those thoughts in that other thread.

So I disagree with each of those poll options. I think George purposefully set that scene up so that the audience can have a bit of a knowing glance at each each other while Owen and Threepio talk in ANH.

There's a whole thread about your question, @Bandini. Spoiler alert - I think Obi-Wan does recognize him.

 

Well, he didn`t know that their minds had been erased and as he says in the film, he does not want Luke to travel the same journey as Anakin. C3P0 and R2 are both a way for Luke to find out the truth about his father. Owen is just scared and wants to keep Luke safe. But we Beru has a better understanding for the situation. Sooner or later Luke will leave Tattoine and in some way the force will guide him.
Can`t blame him though. If my stepbrother was a cop who worked so undercover he turned into a big time gangsta, I wouldn`t want my stepson to even get close to cops nor criminal syndicates....

 

If he was worried about Luke learning about his father from 3PO, why buy him in the first place?

 

Yeah, that makes sense.. But you know, they needed someone who spoke Bacchi (how do you spell that?).

 

Because is a plothole.

 

Most likely, yes. But it`s much funnier too argue this way!

 

There are many protocol droids throughout the galaxy, the odds of him recognising Threepio were probably 3,720-1

 

Right! As well many of `em have the complete same design and circuits. So that`s makes a lot of sense!

 

For me personally, the issue is not so much that Owen didn't appear to recognise C-3PO (I *presume* giving him no coverings/different coloured coverings while he was around Owen was Lucas' attempt to navigate this problem), it is more the fact that young Anakin actually built the exact same translator droid that was mass-produced Cybot Galactica to "help his mum" that seems to stick in the craw a bit...

 

Actually it does make a lot of sence cause protocol droids are indeed almost identical to one another save for color and wear. Take the outer coverings off and you have basically the same droid. Even 4-LOM looks the same his only diference being his head and that his chest circuits have a covering.

 

Yep. Our dear 3P0 is not the only golden shining protocol droid in the universe.
As well something came to mind. In Episode 2 I'm pretty sure 3P0 is wearing silver covering and leaves Tatooine in the same covering. As far as canon goes, 3P0 doesn't meet Owen nor Beru until episode 4. I'm not quite sure about this, but pretty sure at least.

--- Double Post Merged, Sep 29, 2015, Original Post Date: Sep 29, 2015 ---

Right on spot!

 

Remember that Anakin used to work for Watto in his junk shop and it would be reasonable to think that apart from the protocol droid parts we can see in the movie, Watto must have droid blueprints in his shop as well. Anakin would use parts from here and there and build upon this using the blueprints as a guide. A good point to back this up is the fact that Anakin was good at fixing things and not building them from scratch. He had a talent to improve things that he had already seen or used. We can see this in various ways such as the fact that Anakin had been driving Watto's pod racer for quite some time before he built his own. We also saw this happen on his Jedi Starfighter when he added the huge turbines. Even as Vader he didn't build his own ship but took the already existing Tie Fighter and modified it to his liking. Another thing is that when R2-D2 was blown up in Clone Wars S05E13, Anakin did not repair R2 but had to wait till the machines rebulit him. If Anakin had built C3PO just using his machine aptitude, then it would be really easy for him to fix R2 and not depend on other droids to fix him. Here's a pic of the protocol droid in Watto's shop:

 

People generally don't remember things that aren't important. 3PO probably wasn't important to Owen before ANH.

 

That's another possibility. Perhaps he just saw him as just another droid. Nothing important 'bout him....

 

If Owen didn't recognize him by sight, then I'd think as soon as 3PO started talking in his annoying voice that would have tipped him off. They may all have a similar design but they sure don't sound alike. Might have a one of a kind voice?

 

The easiest answer would be that there are so many protocol droids around and it seemed like Threepio was a replacement .

 

Out-of-universe: Minor plotholes. There is a large number of similar plotholes and errors of this sort with the prequels. Stuff like 1,000 years (PT) vs 1,000 generation (OT), Leia remembering her birth mother, Obi-Wan taking it upon himself to train Anakin (OT) vs promising his dying master to do so (PT) and so on.
Honestly, it's stuff like this that shows why 3PO should have just been left out until the ending of Revenge of the Sith and have R2 meet him for the first time there. It's not like he did anything in the trilogy.

Sorry about that, that went on longer than I intended.

In-Universe:
1) Owen just didn't care about 3PO, so he just forgot.
2) Owen just didn't care that it was the droid he last saw 22 years prior.
3) He probably didn't recognize him because of the red arm gold covering. The last time he saw him, he was covered in dull, rusty gray covering.
4) He drank a lot of blue milk (read: alcohol) to get him through the last 20 years.
5) Well, there is a phenomenon called face blindness (you can't recognize faces). Maybe Owen has "voice blindness".