How R2 and Chewbacca Secretly Ran the Show

The following is a post I wrote a year ago, sometime in 2010, on my Posterous blog. I decided to post it here for posterity. (Posterousterity?) It’s one of things that could be fun to think about but is probably not possible based on info from canonical Star Wars books. Anyway, enjoy.

I stumbled upon this post about how if you look at Star Wars IV: A New Hope through the eyes of R2 and Chewie, based on what we learned about them in episodes I, II and III, it actually turns out that they might have been the ones behind the scenes running the whole show. Actually if you google “R2 and Chewie,” that article is the top hit.

Let’s break it down. I’ll try to summarize as much about R2/Chewie as possible.

R2 manages to not have his memory deleted (like C3PO does) at the end of Episode III and becomes the perfect poker-faced spy. When Episode IV starts, Leia doesn’t have the secret plans, R2 does. She just sends along a message to Obi Wan.

Things go awry when the Empire gets in the way, so R2 gets in the escape pod knowing he can get down to Tatooine and Obi Wan. Originally the plan was to pick him up on the way to Alderaan, possibly with Luke in tow, who Obi Wan has been watching over for 20 years – it’s in the book, folks. 3PO is the one hesitating to get into the escape pod, but R2 knows they’ve gotta do it to get to Obi Wan.

They land, and R2 purposefully gets captured by the Jawas and negotiates with them to take them to Obi Wan. The Jawas only agree to take them to the Skywalker farm because there’s Sandpeople near Kenobi. R2/3PO are purchased by Luke & Owen/Beru Lars, and as soon as he can, R2 heads off toward Kenobi’s. Upon discovering R2/3PO/Luke being attacked, Kenobi calls R2 “my little friend”, which he is, they’ve known eachother since Episode I. He says “I don’t seem to remember ever owning any droid” as a signal to R2 to shut up around Luke.

Before bailing to Tatooine, but after being intercepted by the Empire, R2 dispatched a signal to his fellow super spy Chewbacca that said something along the lines of “Uhh, we might need a ride to Alderaan, can you pick us up at Mos Eisley?” Meanwhile, Chewbacca gets the message and makes a “mistake” forcing Han to dump his cargo and high-tail it to Tatooine, which gets them there on time to pickup R2/3PO/ObiWan/Luke.

Chewbacca really runs the whole smuggling thing, not Han. Han’s just a pilot, and in fact the Falcon’s not his ship, it’s really Chewies (that’s why it makes the cameo in Episode III). Chewie sets up the deals and Han haggles the price, giving Chewie free reign to pick where they go, which lets him deliver Rebellion intelligence anywhere in the galaxy at ease under his cover. This is exactly what happens in Mos Eisley, Chewie and R2 and Obi Wan know what’s going on, but Han, Luke and 3PO are along for the ride.

Think about that scene in Mos Eisley. Obi Wan walks right up to Chewbacca before 3PO and R2 are even thrown out of the cantina. That was fast, eh?

So they all head to Alderaan, it’s not there, they sneak onto the Death Star, and when R2 finds out Leia is there Chewie helps convince Han to go along with Luke’s rescue plan. Then, as they escape, Obi Wan is forced to sacrifice himself as a distraction, leaving Chewie and R2 (and Yoda) as the only characters alive that know about Luke, Leia and Vader’s family tree. Chewie sees Luke and Leia feel drawn to each other, and realizes that’s just wrong, so he plays incest-cop and shoves Han at Leia.

When they get to Yavin, Chewie agrees to bail with Han because if Yavin is destroyed he’d be the only one who could try to salvage the Rebellion and find Yoda. Apparently Yoda has been communicating with Obi Wan through the ghost of Qui Gon Jin, but since Obi Wan is dead now, their only link to Yoda is Luke (who Ben can ghost-chat with). And since Bail Organa got blown up by the Death Star on Alderaan, things are looking pretty grim. R2 has the Death Star plans they need to take thing down, not Leia. Then Han changes his mind, Chewie is thrilled to go back and fight, and they save the day.

If you notice in the medal scene, Chewie is not medaled. He turned it down because he got one from Yoda like 20 years ago, but he can’t really mention that, now can he? So now the leaders are all gone or out of contact (Yoda) and Leia, the daughter of Vader, is in charge.

Pretty cool huh?

Who knew R2 and Chewie were such BAMFs. And that was the short version. Read the whole thing here.

UPDATE: After digging around on the Internet some more on this subject, I have discovered that if you include the canonical Star Wars books, the Chewbacca theory doesn’t hold up. According to a novel in the Star Wars canon, in the 20 years between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, Chewie was enslaved with other Wookies, only to be saved by then Imperial Lieutenant Han Solo (yeah, HAN was in the Empire! He flew Tie Fighters!). Thats the origin of his Wookie life debt to Han, which was eventually passed on to Leia when Han was frozen, hence the “You have to take care of the Princess now,” line in Empire Strikes Back.

BUT, the R2 hypothesis could still be true. And the Chewie stuff COULD be if you only include info from the actual movies. Chewie was a close personal friend of Yoda, as seen in Episode III, so its not hard to believe he could become Yoda’s eyes and ears while Yoda hides in the Degobah swamps. You can read more about all of this stuff at the Star Wars Wiki.