Since the early days when the original trilogy came out, Star Wars has become a massive franchise with different media and merchandise, so some confusion or discontinuity here and there, is not unimaginable. A seemingly unimportant but really old question in the Star Wars fandom concerns Obi-Wan's relationship with R2-D2. Why doesn't Obi-Wan remember R2-D2 after all their many adventures together?
Why Does Obi-Wan Not Remember R2-D2 in Star Wars?
In Star Wars Episode IV; A New Hope, Obi-Wan sees R2-D2 and says he does not remember ever owning a droid, seemingly having forgotten his previous contact with both R2-D2 and C-3PO. Given Obi-Wan's personality, previous traumatic experiences, and future goals, it's possible that he is just choosing his words very carefully.
At the time when Obi-Wan told Luke Skywalker that he did not remember owning a droid, Luke knew very little about his mentor's past and his own destiny.
Having failed to save his former apprentice, Obi-Wan had, at that point, dedicated himself to training Luke, whom he viewed as the galaxy's new hope.
Throughout his journey helping Luke, Obi-Wan has proven himself to suffer from the tendency that, from there on, became a common trope with old mentor figures; a very selective revelation of information that, while not entirely unfounded, can be a bit annoying for the viewer and very annoying for the chosen one.
After all, pretending not to remember R2-D2 isn't the most inaccurate thing Obi-Wan has ever said. Early on, he tells Luke that Darth Vader betrayed and killed his father, Anakin Skywalker, failing to mention that the two are the same person. Later on, he responds to Luke's anger by claiming that what he said is true from a certain point of view.
If he was able to be so inaccurate for something so big in order to avoid scaring Luke off, it's possible that he similarly pretended not to know R2-D2 for similar reasons.
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After all, Obi-Wan tells Luke that he doesn't remember owning a droid rather than knowing a droid. R2-D2 was never exactly his, so one could argue that this is not a lie, nor a full claim that he has no recollections of the robot.
The reason why he decided not to elaborate on his previous adventures with R2-D2 might be similar to the reason why he was cryptic about Darth Vader's identity; he wanted to introduce Luke to the conflict at hand in as smooth a way as possible. Did it work? Not exactly, but it did establish a mentor trope we love to hate.
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