Darth Vader's true identity as Anakin Skywalker was a highly guarded secret, known only to a select few individuals including Palpatine, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke, Han, Leia, R2-D2, C-3PO, Master Yoda, Bail Organa, Ahsoka Tano, Darth Maul, Grand Moff Tarkin, Grand Admiral Thrawn, Jocasta Nu, Ferren Barr, Verla, Reva, ...
Very few people knew that Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker were the same person up to his death in 5 ABY. Imperials who knew in the current canon: Sidious (emperor), Grand Moff Tarkin, all or most of the Inquisitors, Grand Admiral Thrawn, various clones in the early empire.
The sequence calls back to a similar scene in Revenge of the Sith, when Bail Organa orders Threepio's memory be erased to prevent him from sharing information about Anakin Skywalker's fall to the dark side.
R2-D2 witnessed some of Anakin's best moments and knew him when he was an innocent boy on Tatooine; it might have been healing for Luke to hear these stories. Perhaps, like the stories about Padmé, they were simply too painful to share.
Darth Vader acts like he doesn't even know C-3PO or R2D2. They were with him since he was a child. He did everything he could to forget his past. Also, his plating had been replaced many times, and protocol droids all look very similar.
What's going on: Anthony Daniels, who plays the C-3PO role in all of the nine Skywalker saga films, recently told HuffPost that he wasn't sure why Obi-Wan Kenobi didn't know C-3PO. He said it's possible Obi-Wan knew too many droids.
She senses Anakin when she reaches out to the pilot — and Vader realizes that Ahsoka, his former Padawan, lives on. In Season 2, Episode 18, “Shroud of Darkness,” Ahsoka's guilt manifests as a vision of Anakin, who's angry with her for leaving him all those years ago.
And while his warnings don't work, at the very least, it shows that Maul became aware of Anakin and what he would soon become. With the rise of the Empire, it's likely Maul caught on to Vader's existence pretty quickly.
Leia's Force abilities and her lack of awareness of her true identity also contributed to Vader's inability to sense their familial connection. Vader's denial of Anakin Skywalker's legacy and his fear of getting hurt again prevented him from realizing the truth about his children until later in the original trilogy.
Since Obi-Wan and Anakin often fought together, Obi-Wan was friends with R2-D2 as well. This means that although R2-D2 might not have immediately recognized Obi-Wan on Tatooine due to his age, Obi-Wan should have recognized the droid.
Summary. A disturbing theory suggests that Darth Vader kept one of Ahsoka Tano's lightsabers for a darker reason, potentially using its kyber crystal to improve his own blade.
This isn't the first time Ahsoka has studied one of these recordings, as she viewed one used by Ezra Bridger in Star Wars Rebels season 2 through a holocron. Ahsoka choosing to remember Anakin as he was before he fell to the dark side reaffirms that Darth Vader is dead in Ahsoka.
How did Ahsoka know about Anakin and Padmé are having secret marriage in their relationship? Ahsoka is often seen accompanying Anakin interacting with Padmé, so it's evident that she would know of it. She also reaffirmed this during the scene she left the Jedi Order.
He didn't recognize him because again, they all look the same & it was decades until he saw him again. There was no reason to believe he or R2 even existed anymore.
in the Dark Horse comic series star Wars Tales, which is now part of legends, it's revealed that Darth Vader did recognize C. 3PO on Cloud City. when 3PO was shot by Stormtroopers, his parts were brought before Vader.
"Memory Loss" is a comic story featured in the thirteenth issue of the Star Wars Comic UK magazine, released in December of 2014. The story centers around C-3PO getting his memory wipe, as ordered by Bail Prestor Organa in Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith.
Because he never owned a droid. R2-D2 was owned by Padme and later Anakin, and after that Bail Organa. R4-P17 was assigned to him to assist, not given to him to own. So he really never owned one.
