10 Things You Didn't Know About C-3PO

C-3PO has been in the Skywalker Saga since the very beginning. He and R2-D2 have been a cornerstone of the franchise since 1977. Despite this, there are still some things you might not know about him. Here are 10 things you didn't know about C-3PO:

10. He is actually now fluent in over seven million forms of communication

C-3PO is a protocol droid designed for communication and negotiation. As such, during the original trilogy, he often proudly boasts he is fluent in six million forms of communication. Between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, however, it appears that the droid's skills have been upgraded. Now, C-3PO is fluent in seven million forms of communication. This is due to the upgrade of his TrangLangIII by the time of the Cold War between the Resistance and the First Order.

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9. He was once the protocol droid to the chief negotiator for the Manakron system

Though known as a creation of Anakin Skywalker, it is more accurate to say that C-3PO was repaired by him. Young Skywalker found the droid at some point during his youth, and he started working on him in 34 BBY. In addition, one of his other pre-Skywalker tasks was programming binary loadlifters, which, according to the droid, are similar to moisture vaporators in most respects.

8. The actor for the droid, Anthony Daniels, broke the costume the day before shooting

Anthony Daniels, the actor for the droid since the beginning, has had an interesting history with the character and the costume. He has been on record talking about how uncomfortable he found it in the early days of the franchise. However, it is perhaps the first C-3PO costume that has the most interesting story. Daniels did not try on the costume until the day before filming A New Hope, and this proved to be a huge mistake. The left leg shattered and stabbed him in his leg as he walked. Thankfully, future costumes were much better in terms of comfort.

7. Though C-3PO doesn't remember Vader, Vader remembers him

At the end of Revenge of the Sith, C-3PO has his memory wiped. Thus, he does not remember the events of the prequels, including the facts that Anakin Skywalker re-built him and that the Jedi turned to the dark side. Vader, however, remembers his old, faithful droid. In the short story, Thank The Maker from Issue 6 of the comic series Star Wars Tales, the Dark Lord encounters the protocol droid after he was disassembled at Cloud City. Vader is handed Threepio's head, and the Dark Lord of the Sith remembers his experience with the droid as a child. He lifted the droid's head to his face in a shocking moment of humanization from the Dark Lord.

6. C-3PO is a master pilot

Though he rarely gets an opportunity to show off this skill, the protocol droid is apparently a skilled pilot. He only flies a few times during the films, but it is heavily implied that he is programmed to be a skilled pilot. It is speculated that Anakin was even the one who taught him to fly.

5. C-3PO was originally not his name

Many characters go through various changes throughout their development, and C-3PO is no exception. His name was originally simply C3. R2-D2 was similarly originally just A2. While these names might have worked, they ultimately chose the longer name of C-3PO, and it stuck ever since.

4. C-3PO's arms caused a feud between director JJ Abrams and actor Anthony Daniels

In A New Hope, C-3PO sports a silver leg. This is to show a bit of the history of the droid. In The Force Awakens, C-3PO once again sports a discolored limb. However, it is in the form of a red arm this time, and much more obvious. This caused tension between Abrams and Daniels. Abrams decided to make the arm red because the original silver shin was too subtle to notice, but Daniels thought the red arm was "too big, too overt, too clumsy a gesture.” The actor would reportedly tell the director "no forgiveness, ever" during the production of the film. However, the arm was changed back to gold in post-production during the scene in which the Millennium Falcon flew off as a gesture to Daniels.

3. The in-canon reason for the red arm

The red arm is meant to signify the history contained with the protocol droid, but what exactly is this history? This new appendage is actually a tribute to a droid who sacrificed himself to save Threepio. This droid, called Omri, was originally a protocol droid who served the First Order. Threepio encountered this droid during a mission to rescue Admiral Ackbar. Though the two droids were on opposite sides, they befriended each other. Omri sacrificed himself and got destroyed by the acidic rain of Taul. Threepio kept his left arm in memory of the droid.

2. Daniels initially did not want to play C-3PO

When Lucas approached Daniels about playing C-3PO, the actor was not initially interested in playing a robot. However, it was only after seeing the concept painting made by Ralph McQuarrie when Daniels became interested. He found the painting beautiful and found a sense of vulnerability in the character. This is what made Daniels want to portray C-3PO.

1. C-3PO is one of two characters to appear in every mainline Star Wars film

The character of C-3PO appears in the original trilogy, the prequels, and the sequels. Furthermore, in every one of these trilogies, Anthony Daniels is the one to play him in both body and voice, the lone exception being in The Phantom Menace, in which he only portrayed him in voice as the robot was mostly just exposed wiring. During production of The Force Awakens, Abrams initially only wanted Daniels to come back for a voice-over role for C-3PO, but Daniels declined and offered to come back only if he was able to don the suit again.

What do you think about our list? Was there anything you think we missed? Regardless, C-3PO is most certainly an interesting character who has a rich and varied history.

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Written by Connor Terell

Source(s): Cheat Sheet, Wookiepedia, ScreenRant, The Facts Site

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