In the years before the Clone Wars, R2-D2 served the Royal House of Naboo. He was aboard Queen Amidala's royal starship when she tried to run the Trade Federation's blockade. Artoo repaired the ship's damaged shields under heavy fire, allowing it to escape into hyperspace.

A grateful Amidala acknowledged R2-D2's bravery, and ordered her handmaiden Padmé' to clean up the battered droid by way of thanks. With its hyperdrive damaged, the royal starship landed on Tatooine.

Artoo accompanied Qui-Gon Jinn, Padmé and Jar Jar Binks into Mos Espa to look for parts to repair the royal starship's hyperdrive. At Watto's junk shop, the little droid encountered Anakin Skywalker, who would later become his master.

Another significant meeting followed: At Anakin's house, Artoo was introduced to C-3PO, a protocol droid built by Anakin out of scavenged parts as a helper for his mother Shmi.

Artoo accompanied Amidala when she returned to Naboo to fight the Trade Federation, taking a spot in the droid socket of a Naboo N-1 starfighter. When Anakin unwittingly launched the fighter into space, Artoo helped the precocious young pilot, who blew up the Droid Control Ship, shutting down the Trade Federation's droid army and saving Naboo.

Artoo continued to serve Padmé when she gave up her royal title and became Naboo's Senator. When assassins stalked her on Coruscant, he stayed at her bedside, scanning her bedroom for intruders.

Artoo accompanied Anakin and Padmé to Naboo, but Anakin's fears for his mother led him back to Tatooine. There, Artoo was reunited with Threepio, now serving the Lars family on their moisture farm.

In Geonosis's droid factory, Artoo saved Padmé from immolation in a crucible, jetting to a computer terminal and shutting down the assembly line before the Naboo Senator was bathed in molten metal.

Artoo was separated from Threepio, who was himself separated from his head. As droids and Jedi battled all around them, Artoo rescued Threepio and restored him to working order.

After she secretly married Anakin, Padmé gave her husband Artoo as a wedding present. He accompanied the Jedi Knight and his Padawan Ahsoka Tano to the jungle world of Teth, assisting the Jedi in their hunt for Rotta the Huttlet and doing away with a couple of unwary battle droids.

Artoo faced many perils during the Clone Wars. He was lost at the Battle of Bothawui and salvaged by the Trandoshan scavenger Gha Nachkt, who dismantled him in an effort to extract valuable Republic military secrets from his memory.

Rescued by Anakin from the Separatists, Artoo battled R3-S6. Goldie, as the black and gold astromech was known, had been secretly reprogrammed as a double agent and sought to prevent Anakin, Ahsoka and their clone squad from escaping Skytop Station.

On Vanqor, Artoo saved Anakin and Mace Windu after they were pinned by falling debris on the bridge of a downed Jedi cruiser. The little droid defeated Gundarks and evaded Boba Fett's Slave I to fetch help from the Jedi on Coruscant.

At the Battle of Coruscant, Artoo flew as Anakin's astromech, defeating buzz droids that tried to destroy Anakin's Jedi starfighter. He accompanied Anakin and Obi-Wan aboard General Grievous's flagship, the Invisible Hand, as the two sought to rescue Supreme Chancellor Palpatine.

Despite Obi-Wan's doubts about Artoo's usefulness in battle, the little astromech defeated several Super Battle Droids that tried to capture him, and helped the Jedi make their way to where Count Dooku was holding Palpatine.

Artoo continued to serve Anakin even as his master turned to the dark side, swearing allegiance to the Sith and becoming Darth Vader. Artoo accompanied Vader to Mustafar after Darth Sidious told him to wipe out the Separatist leaders, ending the Clone Wars.

Artoo watched helplessly as Vader strangled Padmé with the Force. While his master locked sabers with Obi-Wan, the astromech helped Threepio bring Padmé aboard her skiff and tend to her injuries.

With Padmé dead, Vader in service to Darth Sidious, and Obi-Wan in exile on Tatooine, Artoo and Threepio became the property of the Royal House of Alderaan. Bail Organa ordered the chatty Threepio's memory erased, but Artoo's records of the momentous events he'd witnessed remained intact.

Nearly two decades later, Artoo was once again a key player in a galactic drama. Knowing she was about to be captured by Darth Vader, Princess Leia Organa hid the plans to the Death Star in Artoo's memory banks and ordered him to bring a message to Obi-Wan Kenobi on Tatooine.

A reluctant Threepio went with Artoo to the surface of Tatooine, where Jawas captured them and sold them to Owen Lars -- Luke Skywalker's stepfather. Artoo allowed Luke to see a fragment of Leia's message, tricking the youth into removing his restraining bolt.

Freed of the bolt, Artoo escaped the farm and delivered his message to Obi-Wan. When Luke's step-parents were killed, he and the droids went with Obi-Wan to Mos Eisley, where they arranged passage to Alderaan with Han Solo and Chewbacca. When they were captured by the Death Star, Artoo helped discover how to disable the tractor beam, found Princess Leia's cell, and saved Han, Luke, Leia and Chewie from being crushed in a garbage masher.

When the Rebels attacked the Death Star in their starfighters, Artoo served as Luke's astromech, just as he'd aided his father above Naboo many years before. But he was damaged by a laser blast from Darth Vader's TIE fighter, forcing Luke to maintain his fighter and line up his shot without assistance.

Artoo was badly damaged, but the Rebels repaired him in time for him to assume his place alongside C-3PO as the heroes of Yavin celebrated their victory over the Empire.

Later, Artoo continued to serve Luke on the ice planet Hoth. When his master was lost in a blizzard, the little droid could do little but stand outside of Echo Base's massive hangar doors, searching in vain for some trace of Luke.

Artoo accompanied Luke to Dagobah, where he ran afoul of a hungry dragonsnake -- who found him inedible and spat him out, much to the astromech's displeasure.

While Artoo had many talents, the Force was a mystery to him, and he could do little but sit idly by as Luke learned the ways of the Jedi from Yoda, the exiled Jedi Master.

Artoo was separated from Luke in Cloud City, but reunited with Leia, Chewbacca and Threepio, whom he wasn't surprised to see badly needed repairs without him. As Darth Vader closed in on the Millennium Falcon, Artoo reactivated the freighter's hyperdrive, allowing its crew to escape Vader and saving the Rebel cause.

Artoo returned to Tatooine as part of Luke's plan to save Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt, a ruse that included Luke giving the droids to Jabba as a gift. Despite Threepio's protests, Artoo rolled confidently into the crimelord's palace, ready to pursue his mission.

Jabba's droid overseer assigned Artoo to serve drinks on the Hutt's sail barge, allowing the droid to pursue his secret mission: He made his way to the top deck and fired Luke's lightsaber -- which the Jedi had concealed inside his dome -- just in time for Luke to snatch it out of the air.

Artoo accompanied the Rebel strike team to the Endor moon, where he was hit by a laser blast while trying to open the doors to the bunker housing the second Death Star's shield generator. After the battle, he was once again repaired and awaited new adventures.

After the Battle of Endor, R2-D2 was Luke’s companion on many explorations of the galaxy in search of lost Jedi wisdom. The pair had many adventures as Luke tried to rebuild the Jedi – an effort that ended in tragedy, with Luke seeking solace in exile.

A seemingly despondent R2-D2 sought an exile of his own, entering self-imposed low-power mode and all but ignoring his surroundings. His long years of service kept him from being recycled, and he spent most of his days under a tarp on D’Qar, occasionally visited by his old friend C-3PO.

R2-D2 came back to life when BB-8 brought the Resistance a scrap of a star chart offering a clue to Luke’s whereabouts. BB-8’s information was useless without complementary data from the Imperial archives – data R2-D2 had downloaded long ago from the first Death Star. Together, R2-D2 and BB-8 were able to determine Luke’s planet of exile.

Revived, R2-D2 accompanied Rey and Chewbacca to Ahch-To. The astromech remained with the Millennium Falcon as Rey sought his old master – with his booster rockets long gone, the sacred island’s dizzying stairs proved an impossible obstacle.

When Luke slipped aboard the Falcon, droid and master were reunited. R2-D2 castigated Luke for abandoning him, and implored the Jedi to return and help the Resistance. When Luke refused, R2-D2 reached into his memory banks to play the message from Leia that had altered Luke’s destiny so many years before.

R2-D2 accompanied Rey and Chewbacca when they left Ahch-To. On Crait, the astromech helped locate the beacon carried by Leia, enabling the surviving Resistance members to escape the First Order’s assault.

The remnants of the Resistance sped away from Crait aboard the Falcon, with R2-D2 reuniting with C-3PO. The Resistance’s fight would continue, and the two old friends had many new adventures to discuss.

After the Battle of Crait, R2-D2 continued to assist the Resistance. He accompanied Poe Dameron and Finn on a dangerous mission to the Sinta Glacier Colony to take possession of intel leaked to a Resistance sympathizer by a spy within the First Order.

R2-D2 remained on Ajan Kloss while BB-8 and C-3PO traveled with Rey to Kijimi. He was with Leia Organa when the great rebel leader died – just as he’d been present for her birth on Polis Massa after the Republic’s fall.

C-3PO returned from the Pasaana mission without his memories, which had been erased to bypass restrictions in his programming. Fortunately, R2-D2 had a backup of his memory modules. His friend was soon back to his old self.

R2-D2 also received a transmission from Luke’s X-wing – it was Rey, broadcasting course markers from the starfighter on her way to Exegol. The Resistance now had a way of reaching the Sith redoubt, and a chance to stop Palpatine before the launch of his Sith armada.

R2-D2 flew into battle as Poe’s astromech, much as he had accompanied Luke years before in attacking the first Death Star. During the battle, his systems were briefly scrambled by a blast of Force lightning from Exegol’s surface.

The Resistance won a great victory at Exegol, and R2-D2 returned to Ajan Kloss to celebrate with his friends – and to look forward to a more peaceful era for the galaxy.