George has said before that R2-D2 is the one, true storyteller of Star Wars. He was there from Episode 1 right through the two trilogies, and 100 years after the end of Jedi he retells the story of Star Wars to an ancient race, who record this and write it down as The Journal of the Whills...
And this from the Flannelled One's own hairy lips...
So, given that R2 knows everything about Star Wars history does this or does this not, in many ways, make him the most important character in the entire saga?
I mean, who else apart from Chewie makes such a cool cookie jar?