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Image via Lucasfilm
R2-D2 has seen it all. The loveable droid made his chronological first appearance in Star Wars in The Phantom Menace as part of the crew on Padme’s Royal Starship, going on to be Anakin Skywalker’s astromech droid, Luke’s buddy in the original trilogy, and finally a key part of the story of the sequels. R2’s rebellious behavior is often chalked up to him never having his memory wiped, granting him a distinct personality many other droids lack.
But, as many fans have pointed out over the years, if R2-D2 can remember everything from the prequel era, why didn’t he tell Luke all about Anakin Skywalker, Padme, and the rest? Fans are debating the issue, asking why R2-D2 doesn’t appear to recognize Yoda (a pretty distinctive little dude) when they meet in The Empire Strikes Back?
Now, the actual reason is that George Lucas hadn’t figured out the prequel trilogy story in 1979, though enterprising fans have theories as to why R2 didn’t spill the beans:
It’s also pointed out that R2 playing his cards close to his chest is why he’s dodged getting his memory wiped for so many years:
Others say that R2 just doesn’t snitch:
There is a more depressing take that R2 not being wiped has given him “droid Alzheimers”:
The From a Certain Point of View anthology also confirms the Yoda recognized R2:
We prefer to think that R2 just has a connection to the will of the Force:
While we’re hoping Damon Lindelof’s upcoming The Rise of Skywalker sequel doesn’t spend too much time wallowing in nostalgia, we’d still like to see R2-D2 coming back one more time. After all these years, the little guy still puts a smile on our faces and it never ceases to amaze us how much personality can be conveyed through a couple of mechanical beeps and whistles.