Why Uncle Owen Forgot He Owned C-3PO #starwars

Why didn’t Uncle Owen recognize C-3PO when he purchased the droid from the Jawas? Didn’t he own Threepio for several years before the Clone Wars? I can think of several answers for this. First, C-3PO doesn’t introduce himself by name in the movie. He just confirms he is a protocol droid that can speak bocce. And Threepio isn’t a unique droid, that model was mass produced and seen throughout the galaxy. Owen probably remembers owning a protocol droid in the past, but he has no reason to think he’s about the buy the exact *same* one. Especially because the last time he saw C-3PO, the droid wasn’t covered in gold plating. Maybe he could have recognized Threepio’s voice, but Owen is very dismissive of the droid, telling him to shut up. He just wants the transaction to be over so he can pass the droids off to Luke. Owen isn’t actually listening to Threepio because he simply doesn’t care. It makes complete sense to me that he wouldn’t recognize the droid.

[oClock]

"Why didn’t you notice that you bought the exact same coffee maker you had years ago?"
"Bro, it's a coffee maker."

[ramsaysanders]

The junior novelization says he did vaguely recognize C-3PO's voice, but dismissed it since he assumed all protocol droids sound the same

[michaelkukula]

I wouldn't recognize the toaster that my family had 10 years ago.

[michaelkukula]

I sold my 1995 Honda Civic in 2019. I had it since 2002. It was quite distinctive, it acquired a lot of scratches, cracks, tiny dents. It never had hub caps. It hand a sticker from my college on the windshield as well as a tiny crack in the glass. If it was in a line up with other black 95 Honda civics without license plates, I’d know mine in a heartbeat.

Like i mentioned, I sold it in 2019, and everytime I saw a black mid 90s Honda civic my first thought was is it mine. Which I always quickly realized that it wasn’t. One night a couple years after i sold my car, I was in a parking lot and I saw a 95 Honda civic that clearly wasn’t mine. Because it hand a new paint job, there were no dents or scratches. It had a spotless dent free fender, bumper and hood. Plus hubcaps! But I only realized it was my actually my old car because of my license plate number.

So unless someone had spent a significant amount of time with their droid, they know every ding and scratch, it hasn’t gone through any significant restorations or modifications over the years, plus perhaps having a visible unique id number, I don’t think any one would recognize their droid just on sight alone.

[GingerPisces]

Owen last saw Threepio over twenty years ago before “A New Hope”, a lot can change in that timeframe

[mwytrykus]

Precisely. You can also read the later scene where Luke talks to Owen and Beru about Obi-Wan as them realizing just who the two droids they bought actually are and why he tells Luke to get their memories erased.

[StuartLugsden]

Owen sees droids as a tool he doesn't bond with them.

[Azure_Fire]

Owen was so traumatized by the singularity engine he subconsciously erased the memory.

[myriadmediamusings]

Yeah i remember an old issue of Star Wars Insider also had the same question and with a similar answer: In a world where robots are mass produced with specific models, are you really gonna remember one robot from another as the years progress?

[ShowInTheDark]

They did a great job casting the younger Owen

[reidhirsh]

Owen was strong and pragmatic, but he was also fearful of the past, especially when he didn't want Luke to be anything like his father as in his eyes being a Jedi Knight would eventually lead to his death. If he knew that he bought back the same droid built by his step brother, I wouldn't be surprised if he had him turned to scrap out of panic and fear.

[brianw]

Because we're making this up as we go!

[EricTheKartoonKing]

Yup this always made sense to me. He was never told 3PO’s name and he looked completely different, that’s all the reasoning you need.

[davido.]

Also, maybe he thinks all droids sound like C3P0 because he's met so few protocol droids.

[valthenvega]

Dude I barely recognize a comment I posted 3 to 5 years ago, I wouldn’t recognize a droid that got away twenty-two years ago in a rusted plating coming back as a scratched gold-plated droid who got casually retrofitted into my farmer lore

[bethanysmith]

Now you're reminding me of a sadly too short fanfic that was based on the idea of ' what if C3PO hadn't gotten a memory wipe.'

[daltysmilth]

It would have made even more sense still if they’d kept the original version of the Tatooine scenes in AOTC. As originally filmed, when Anakin and Padme first encounter 3PO, he still appears as he did in The Phantom Menace, all skeletal with no coverings. Then later, while Anakin is out searching for his mother, there’s a scene where Padme talks with 3PO about her concerns about Anakin, and 3PO expresses his regrets that he’s still “naked”, saying that Shmi had gotten some used protocol droid coverings and had always intended to put them on him, but never got around to it, so Padme puts them on herself. So if Owen was used to seeing 3PO as a skeletal droid and only briefly saw him covered up, it’s even less likely he’d recognize him over 20 years later.

[marcdoran]

"you probably don't recognise me because of the gold everything"

[Schindlerphoto]

The man owns a moisture farm on a very harsh planet. In all the years that he has ran that farm, he has owned countless droids, eventually they all pretty much became the same to him.

[bradj]

I had wondered before about why Vader didn’t recognize C-3PO as well….