Every story has a perspective. A Narrator, or a point of view from which the story itself is told. According to Lucas in an interview some time ago, the 'Narrator' for the entire Star Wars saga, is none other than...
R2D2.
He's the only character that is there from the beginning of every episode. Even C3P0 is in the process of being built in EP1.
According to Lucas, the entire story is being related by the Droid sometime after it all happens.
I thought it was an interesting perspective.
“According to Lucas, the entire story is being related by the Droid sometime after it all happens.’
You’re right! After the first Star Wars came out, before “Empire,” Lucas appeared in a documentary. He said that after the saga was over that the very last movie would cut to R2-D2 and C-3PO telling a group of children the story.
There are clues in the original trilogy that this was his plan. When Luke asks C-3PO if he knows of the rebellion against the Empire, C-3PO says he is “not very good at telling stories.” But after his encounter with the Ewoks, when Luke levitates him, he ends up giving an animated story of the war against the Empire. He can tell stories after all!
Now that Disney is in charge and Lucas is out of the picture, this may not play out. But the people in charge of the franchise know the original plan. It is very possible we will someday see C-3PO and R2 with a bunch of kids on the big screen.
Found this:
“Saw a commentor on the front page saying that R2 and C3PO didn’t need to be in the prequels. But iirc, Lucas was influenced by Kurosawa’s Hidden Fortress, which saw big events from the point of view of 2 slaves, or in this case, droids, insignificant to be noticed, but clever enough to record the historical events as it happens.”