Droids had a perfect memory. Untouched by time. Whatever they saw, they remembered. And recorded.
He could remember the Queen of Naboo. She had always tried her hardest to do her best to serve those she was elected to serve. Like him.
Except they remembered her. But they only remembered the persona of Queen, not who she was under the big dresses and make-up.
He remembered the boy. Always trying to fix things. Like him.
But the boy was forgotten, in the wake of who he became.
He remembered the Padawan. He had always done his best, but when the boy came, the Padawan was shoved aside. Ignored. Again, like him. But when the Padawan killed the Sith, he was noticed.
He was forgotten many years later, when the Jedi were all called traitors, when the true traitor sat on a black throne.
Nobody noticed a droid, much less an astromech.
The Padawan became a Knight, and took the boy as his Padawan. They bickered, but they were close. Like the R2 unit and his golden counterpart.
The relationship of the two Jedi was forgotten when brother fought brother.
And the droid stayed with the Queen, who then became the Senator of Naboo. When he saw the boy again, he had changed. There was anger.
The anger was forgotten, in the wake of The Hero With No Fear.
The boy still fixed things, like him. But he wanted more. The R2 unit was fine where he was.
And still more forgot the boy's hunger for power, in the wake of Vader.
But the boy was unshakably loyal. When the R2 unit was taken, the boy didn't stop trying to find him. He had gotten a new droid, but R2 forgave the boy. Because the R2 was also unshakably loyal.
People forgot the boy's loyalty, choosing to remember what he did as the Hero, or as Vader.
They served together. The R2 got dirtier, and a couple adjustments and repairs were made. The boy changed, too. He became fiercer, and he was knighted.
R2-D2 followed Anakin, and trusted him.
But his perfect memory saw all of Mustafar. He got into the Temple's recordings, and he saw the slaughter. Some of the men, the clones, he remembered fighting with. The one with the pauldron and the kama refused.
People forgot that the clones had been human, too, and that many refused to kill their Generals and Commanders. They saw them as droids, too.
Artoo remembered how Anakin had laughed with the Captain, and how they were friends.
That was also forgotten.
Artoo's perfect memory also remembered how this new person, this Vader, who looked like Skywalker, had stabbed the captain through his heart.
Artoo remembered the togruta padawan. He also remembered how the remaining ARC had refused to kill her, along with some of the men in blue. One had helped clean out his servos as a favor to Skywalker. He could remember them all. Jesse. Kix. Tup. Chopper.
No one remembered their kindness. Not after Order 37.
Artoo remembered how the togruta died defending her men from Vader, while they escaped.
They forgot that Ahsoka had been loyal to her men, more than her Master, and that she was Torrent's little sister.
When he met Luke, no one knew what he had seen. The Federation Blockade over Naboo, the start of the Clone Wars, the Hero With No Fear, the Negotiator, the Malevolence, Grievous, and Dooku.
The rise of the Empire.
The fall of Skywalker and the 501st.
The rise of Vader, and Vader's Fist.
The birth of the Rebellion.
The end of the Empire.
And they roamed the galaxy, trying to find Luke and Leia's mother.
But no one thought to ask Artoo.
Because he was just a droid.
They didn't listen when he tried to tell them that he knew her. That she had been a widely respected senator, who always tried to do the right thing. Who really cared.
Artoo wished his memory wasn't so perfect.
Because his memory was no use to those who needed it.
But Artoo, like the Skywalkers, was loyal, so he served them for as long as he could.
He was the only one who truly remembered Padmé, Ahsoka, Rex and his brothers, or Anakin. Who they were was truly forgotten.
Except by him.
Because a droid's memory is not corroded by time.