In honor of Luke Week that my friend, Nob01 has begun this week, I am finally writing this entry that I began thinking about awhile back.

When Luke was cleaning R2-D2 in the Lars' garage when they first encoutered each other in ANH and R2 "accidentally" began playing Leia's recording, R2 displayed some interesting behavior that I would like to explore here (along with Luke's reactions ~ or lack thereof...).

First, there was the displaying of the recording. I think R2 intentionally began playing the recording to see if he could either get Luke's help to find Obi-wan or to see if Luke knew of him and where he might be. I really don't think R2 accidentally began playing the recording at all, although it kind of seems that way. When I was a child, I naturally assumed Luke had triggered the recording by pulling on the chip (or whatever it was) while he was cleaning R2, but I believe differently these days. We all know just how smart that little droid is...

Luke's reaction ~ Surprise! Beautiful girl! He looks like he's never seen anyone so gorgeous in his life! He's enamoured ~ yadda, yadda, yadda

Second, when Luke initially asks about the recording, R2 indicates that it is a "malfunction" and that it is "old data. Pay it no mind." This would seem to be telling us that he is hiding completely everything about the message from Luke, right?

Luke's reaction ~ Gotta have more info! Who is she? I'm not gonna stop at that! Googly eyes going big time!!!

Third, and here's where I'm wondering what was going on with R2, all of a sudden R2 changes his tune and instead of sticking to his story that the recording was "old data" and a "malfunction", he starts saying that it's a private message for Obi-Wan Kenobi (which would indicate that it is a perfectly GOOD message) and furthermore that he is the property of Kenobi.

Luke's reaction ~ Nothing! He doesn't seem to even notice that R2 all of a sudden changed his tune!! "Hello, McFly!!"

Now, Luke does, of course, put 2 + 2 together and come up with 4 and figure out that Ben and Obi-Wan are the same person. Hooray for Luke! But, why didn't he notice the discrepancy between what R2 said within a matter of about 2 minutes??!!!!?!?! Was he that wrapped up in a holorecording of Leia so small that he could really hardly see what she looked like? Huh?!?! Ok, I know, she was beautiful and "a person of some importance" and for a young farmboy must have held a lot of intrigue!

In any case, R2 got what he was after; he found out that Obi-Wan was, indeed, on Tatooine for certain. Luke also disclosed that he believed Kenobi lived our beyond the Dune Sea, so R2 had some idea of where to begin looking for him. He was quite the little detective, huh?

It's a good thing, though, that Luke decided to go after the little droid or the rest of his fate would have fallen a bit short, don't you think?