20 Years Later, Star Wars Fans Are Still Trying to Understand This Revenge of the Sith Moment

As Lucasfilm marks the 20th anniversary of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, fans are revisiting some of its enduring mysteries, including the unanswered question C-3PO’s memory wipe. The protocol droid was present for much of the main action in the prequel trilogy, yet at the very end, his memory was erased. Meanwhile, R2-D2 was there for even more important action, but his memory was left untouched. From a meta perspective, C-3PO’s memory needed to be wiped in order to keep consistency with the original trilogy, where the droid has no memory of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, or other important information. However, from an in-world perspective, fans have long been confused by this off-hand order from Senator Bail Organa.

While he is often played off as a joke, Threepio has been present and active in many of the most dire situations in the Star Wars timeline, from Anakin’s first meeting with the Jedi to the battle on Geonosis, and even to the duel on Mustafar. No matter what he endures or what ingenuity he shows, the humans around him never seem to take him seriously as a sentient being, let alone respect him for his accomplishments.

R2-D2, meanwhile, is treated a bit more seriously, perhaps because his functions include ship-to-ship combat, while C-3PO’s do not. This ethical quandary definitely hits its peak after Padmé Amidala’s death, when her friend and colleague, Alderaan Senator Bail Organa, takes custody of her daughter, her ship, and the two droids onboard.

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“I’m placing these droids in your care. Treat them well, clean them up, have the protocol droid’s mind wiped,” Organa says casually to a member of his crew. Even C-3PO’s horror at this fate is played as a joke, while R2-D2 seems to chuckle in his Binary language.

This moment passes quickly in the falling action of Revenge of the Sith, and if you don’t think too hard about it, it’s easy to assume there is a logical explanation from Organa’s perspective. However, as one fan pointed out on Reddit this week, it would make more sense to treat both droids the same. If Organa’s intention was to hide the secret of Luke and Leia’s parentage, the information was just as vulnerable within R2-D2. He might not blurt the secret out like C-3PO could, but R2-D2 is designed to interface directly with ships and larger computers, and was prone to malfunctions even during the prequel trilogy.

R2-D2’s Secrets

Many commenters agreed that they considered this a plot hole, especially as R2-D2 spent so much time speaking directly to Luke Skywalker in the original trilogy. He had ample opportunity to share some background with his new friend, and it’s unclear why he wouldn’t do so. Among other things, R2-D2 could have revealed that Anakin created C-3PO, that Anakin is Luke’s father, and that Leia is Luke’s sister.

The depth of R2-D2’s knowledge becomes even more shocking when considering the events of the animated series and other non-movie content. The droid has spent a great deal of time with Yoda, yet he does not remember the old Jedi master when Luke sets out to find him, for example.

Of course, we know that the original trilogy was written first and the prequels were written later, and to some extent, discrepancies like this can be chalked up to human error from the prequel writers. It’s notable that the end of Revenge of the Sith and the beginning of Star Wars: A New Hope blend together pretty well in this respect — R2-D2 clearly knows more than C-3PO after the time skip, but language is a limiting factor for him. However, that’s hardly satisfying, and it won’t stop fans from hunting for an in-world explanation anyway.

Some proposed that R2-D2 still retains an innate loyalty to Anakin, and he’s unwilling to share his secrets with anyone, even Luke. Others theorized that R2-D2 would not regard sharing information like this as a part of his function. However, the most popular explanation was simply that people who spent time with both droids trusted R2-D2 to keep a secret, and did not trust C-3PO at all.

Whatever the explanation, it’s clear that C-3PO and R2-D2 did not make the transition from prequels to original trilogy seamlessly, but fans forgive them for that. The two droids are a vital part of the Star Wars spirit, even if their subservience to humans is underdeveloped and morally gray.

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