mrbenja: I agree with you on the point of 3p0. It's just too early for him to be in this film IMHO. Maybe keep him silent, or redub his voice to indicate that he's a different protocol droid might work.

***

I would love if we could eliminate 3p0, and that was the original hope. He has been successfully reduced and it really helps. The hope was also that the entire notion of Anakin building 3p0 could be cut out -- something to come in a later TM/Starkiller Ranch ep1 edit.

But if we change 3p0 into some other protocol droid, the problem remains that Anakin shows up on Tatooine without one and leaves with one. Why? What reason could he have, that we can demonstrate on screen, for taking that droid from Owen?

That is the problem to solve if we are to retain the non-Anakin built 3p0.

However, as time goes by, a TM cut Ep1 becomes less likely. He's got bigger and better things to do. So if a small compromise could be made, one solution would be to keep the Anakin-built 3p0 notion and tweak it so it fits this leaner and meaner edit.

I think Anakin looks so much better now, coming off his threat to rip off Watto's wings, that the "reunion" with 3p0 doesn't feel as awful as it used to. I personally wouldn't change much of what's there except to remove the lines that reinforce Owen's notion of paying Anakin to take the droid.