Here’s Why C-3PO Has A Red Arm In Star Wars: The Force Awakens

It’s one of the biggest secrets of ‘Star Wars 7’ – why does C-3PO have a red arm?

It’s no surprise that things have changed a bit in the galaxy far, far away. After all, it’s been thirty years since we last caught up with Han, Luke and Leia. But while the human heroes of ‘Star Wars’ grew older and wiser, protocol droid C-3PO was seen to have changed, too.

But why a red arm? It seems there’s actually a rather poignant reason…

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Although C-3PO’s adventures were left out of ‘The Force Awakens’, it looks as though Disney and Lucasfilm are happy to fill in the gaps… with a rather cool new comic book from Marvel – ‘Star Wars: C-3PO’ #1, by James Robinson, Tony Harris, and Joe Caramagna.

And it reveals exactly what happened to everyone’s favourite protocol droid.

“C-3PO wears it in memory of a droid that sacrificed itself to save him during a mission for the Resistance,” explains io9. And this was already revealed in the official Force Awakens visual guide book.

But the actual story behind the droid is far more interesting than it sounds.

“The premise is relatively simple,” they explain. “C-3PO and a rag tag group of Resistance droids, as well as their captive, a First Order RA-7 protocol droid named Omri, crash land on an unidentified planet, their human crew wiped out.”

“Omri has information on where the First Order are keeping a captured Admiral Ackbar, information the Resistance needs to save the venerable Mon Calamari from execution. (But it’s… wait for it… a trap!) After locating a working distress beacon on the planet from a downed TIE fighter, C-3PO and his motley crew trek their way over the planet in a race against time.”

In fact, ‘Star Wars C-3PO’ #1 becomes more poignant the further you get into the story… and it becomes clear that the story attempts to tackle the nature of what makes these droids tick.

Eventually, the pack of droids is thinned out one-by-one until only C-3PO and Omri remain… and after discussing the nature of their own existence, the First Order droid makes a noble sacrifice to save his new friend.

“Sheltering from acid rain that will soon destroy both of them, Omri chooses to give the data that he’s been storing to Threepio and walk out into the rain to activate the distress beacon, knowing it’ll destroy him, but save Threepio. And as it does, the acid peels away his shiny exterior, literally revealing a past life where he was painted red.”

And from that point on, C-3PO wears his arm as a reminder – a tribute to a friend.

It’s certainly an interesting twist on why C-3PO has that mismatched arm… but it doesn’t quite explain why he’s ditched it in favour of a gold one by the end of ‘The Force Awakens’.

‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ is out on DVD and Blu-ray from 18 April 2016.

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Picture Credit: Lucasfilm, Marvel