Was the real "New Hope" ...a droid??

[dianeduane]

And not so much a new hope, but an old one? This essayist thinks so.

If we accept all the Star Wars films as the same canon, then a lot that happens in the original films has to be reinterpreted in the light of the prequels. As we now know, the rebel Alliance was founded by Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Bail Organa. What can readily be deduced is that their first recruit, who soon became their top field agent, was R2-D2.

Consider: at the end of RotS, Bail Organan orders 3PO's memory wiped but not R2's. He wouldn't make the distinction casually. Both droids know that Yoda and Obi-Wan are alive and are plotting sedition with the Senator from Alderaan. They know that Amidala survived long enough to have twins and could easily deduce where they went. However, R2 must make an impassioned speech to the effect that he is far more use to them with his mind intact: he has observed Palpatine and Anakin at close quarters for many years, knows much that is useful and is one of the galaxy's top experts at hacking into other people's systems. Also he can lie through his teeth with a straight face....

And there's more. Why did this never occur to me before?...

 

Comments

[barberio.livejournal.com]

Okay, I can just about buy the Fan-constructed continuity repair of R2D2 as a secret agent... But Chewie as interstellar super-spy?

[sharikkamur.livejournal.com]

He's big, hairy, stands out in a crowd... just the sort of person you wouldn't want as a secret agent. So by the power or reverse logic, he's perfect!

Well it made me laugh out loud. :)

[barberio.livejournal.com]

This was not helped by my mind automatically giving the essay the voice of Henchman 21 from 'The Venture Bros.'

[mithriltabby]

And wookiees probably all look alike to most other humanoids. How many people would be able to pick a particular one out of a lineup?

I’ve figured that R2D2 was the mastermind behind the rebellion ever since I rewatched the films as an adult. He’s a manipulative little hunk of metal... and I wouldn’t be surprised to find a force-sensitive crystal (normally used in lightsabers) wired into his processors, were someone to thoroughly disassemble him...

[ateji.livejournal.com]

I wouldn’t be surprised to find a force-sensitive crystal (normally used in lightsabers) wired into his processors

My inner geek just went "squee!" in amusement at that.

At least my bf isn't alone in his Galaxy's Only Force Sensitive Droid Theory.

[batyatoon]

I have to agree.

It's not just that it's implausible; it's that too much of the Chewbacca interpretation hangs on the sight of a ship that looks like the Falcon at the Senate building.

"If it's the same ship (which of course it is)," says the essayist. Nonsense. We see droids virtually identical to 3P0 and R2 all over the place; there's no reason to assume this is the same YT-1300 Corellian Transport we're familiar with, especially since it's twenty years earlier.



Ah, fanon, how we love you.

[lady-autumnstar.livejournal.com]

Well, in a strange way it does make sense...

[handworn.livejournal.com]

Well, it is fairly clear either way that many of the "special modifications" in the sense Han Solo meant it were done to R2-D2. Why pair such a high level of intelligence with such a low level of physical ability (i.e., can't communicate directly with organic beings, can't move well, can't grip much or defend himself much) in a 'droid, if what is intended is not a covert agent designed to be underestimated?

[occams_pyramid]

OK, so the under-cover secret agents who are really running everything are hiding themselves by pretending to be the comic relief.

So maybe they are doing this because it has worked before? Because a previous comic relief was actually the agent running things?

[orbzine.livejournal.com]

Nooo! That's not true! That's impossible!

[bibliotrope.livejournal.com]

At the end of the second (original) movie, I think it was, Obi-Wan says, "There is another." I told a couple of friends then that I thought it was R2. No one believed me; how can a droid have the Force? But the idea kept coming back to me. Uncanny little droid actually got himself -- and 3PO -- sold to Luke's uncle, though, among other clues.

Of course it turned out to be referring to Leia as Luke's twin. Supposedly.

But I've always been fond of R2 (my second favorite character in the whole mythos, after Han Solo, which is an *entirely* other thing!) and like this explanation.

[cee-m.livejournal.com]

I love that I'm nerdy enough to follow that. We rock!

[zellion.livejournal.com]

I read that essay a few weeks ago and really liked it. It sure explained a whole lot of plotholes.

[anamin.livejournal.com]

my inner geek is LOL!

[kradical.livejournal.com]

I don't buy the premise that Yoda and Obi-Wan started the rebellion. They hid the kids, but that was pretty much it. And when the rebellion was picking up steam, they were too busy hiding (on Tattooine and Dagobah) to actually participate. Given that the rebellion really could have used two Jedi Knights, I can't accept the notion that they were in any way involved with it.

And considering that the Jedi Knights spent the entire prequel trilogy being stupid and useless, I don't have any problem believing that they were do-nothings while the rebellion built up....

[katerinfg.livejournal.com]

Tangentially, if you *really* want to bend your mind, see the musical "Wicked" and then watch "Wizard of Oz" again, this time with the knowledge that one of Dorothy's three companions was really a double agent . . . .

[ladytalon.livejournal.com]

What the... Obi-Wan would not have preemptively killed Luke or Leia. That kind of goes against the whole light side thing.

[batyatoon]

That part I don't think I buy either. Keep 'em in obscurity, that's the ticket.

[dorianegray.livejournal.com]

Nonsense. You may be - or claim to be - on the Light Side, but if someone on your side doesn't have a good grasp of practical politics (especially if it's a revolution you're planning) you're liable to end up as part of a Romantic and Tragically Doomed failure.

[batyatoon]

Why do you think the revolution took them twenty-odd years?

[dduane.livejournal.com]

Hormones! That's why.

(sigh) You'd think the bloody midichlorians, or whatever they are, could do something about hormones, for Pete's sake.

Feh.

[ladytalon.livejournal.com]

Ye-es, but that doesn't give you license to kill someone who's completely innocent just because they display dangerous tendencies.

[jennielf.livejournal.com]

now, im not saying i agree with all his arguments, but... R2 has always been my favorite character, _and_ this theory does explain quite a few plotholes that always niggled at me, but that I never really worried about. because I figured that i didnt get something somewhere...
Hm....Does explain quite a bit tho. And he's right, you can't ignore the incongruity of what Chewie was in Ep 3 with what he was doing in Ep 4... Unless his planet was blown up by the empire and he was _way_ down on his luck...

[batyatoon]

There's no incongruity at all. The Empire hit Kashyyyk pretty hard during the Rebellion, and sold a lot of the Wookiee prisoners (including Chewbacca) as slaves. Chewie's hanging around with Han twenty years later because Han freed him, thus incurring a Wookiee life-debt.

[orbzine.livejournal.com]

What really shocks me is that this article is dated 2005. It must have been written about the time ROTS came out.

I haven't obsessed about Star Wars in 18 months?!

[madwriter.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of a moment in the novelization of Ep3 that, like many other such moments, I wish could have been in the movie. In the movie, as you'll recall, Bail Organa gives the order to wipe C-3PO's mind from out of the blue. In the book, however, you hear 3PO start babbling about how Luke and Leia will be so proud to know that their parents are Anakin and Padme Skywalker, and then Bail gives the order. R2, meanwhile, is obviously smart enough to know when to keep his virtual mouth shut. :)

[edgar.livejournal.com]

That thought occured to me during RotS (as well as silly things like R2 can fly? Does he simply get sick of it?) and convinced me that R2D2 is really the sekrit hero of the series.

[dershem.livejournal.com]

R2 has teeth???

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

and now I have a mental image of R2-D2 in tux paint job saying [sorta]
"The names R2, R2-D2!"

and I'm at work, and don't have access to my art tools.. arrgh!

[odette-river.livejournal.com]

But wait...it gets better.

In RotJ, Leia claims that she remembers her real mother as "kind, but sad." However, considering Padme died almost immediately after giving birth to the twins, there is no way that Leia could remember her. Who, then, is this woman that Leia remembers? Frankly, it seems like an alternate universe Padme to me, who lived for some time after Anakin fell to the Dark Side and became Darth Vader. But how does Leia remember her? Perhaps this question will never be answered...

Hi! I'm Odette...or whatever you want to call me, and I recently stumbled upon this journal. I'm a fan of your Young Wizards books, if that puts things in more context for you.

[ateji.livejournal.com]

I had always assumed she was talking about Bail Organa's wife, even before the prequels. It's possible her adoptive mother died not long after RotS, whether by assassin or the Empire or something. It also makes it more difficult for the Empire to discern whether Leia is genetically related to the Organas.

[odette-river.livejournal.com]

Except that he asks if she remembers her "real mother." ...I always thought that meant the mother she shares with Luke. Otherwise, why would he be asking?

[ateji.livejournal.com]

Sure, but if she doesn't remember any other mother and the Organas didn't tell her she was adopted, she wouldn't have any reason to see another meaning in his words. And he didn't say anything about them being siblings until after asking her that question, if I recall correctly.