I couldn't say it could be considered "bunk" now, for the sole purpose that Lucas never made use of that story device. I agree with greencapt, though. I've always thought that if the droids had to be in the prequels, they should be in the background and have no relation to the main characters (of the prequels) at all. They could just happen to be on a planet as a battle relative to the main story is going on, and there could be a scene where they wonder what in the world is happening. And if you want to take it farther, have them get mixed up in it from behind the scenes. Through their own bumbling (not with super duper magical rocket jets and whatnot), they do something that just happens to save the day for the good guys, while the good guys don't know how they were saved, and the droids have no idea they did anything at all. That would have been an interesting way to include them, through indirect contact, rather than them always just happening to be in the center of the action throughout every important event in the galaxy. And Anakin building 3PO... just crap. Any other explanation would have been better. "I built him to help out Mom." What the hell? Why would a slave woman need a protocol droid? Does she really expect to come into contact with people who can speak 6 million languages?