C-3PO

C-3PO, often called Threepio, was a 3PO-series protocol droid with masculine programming, built and rebuilt by the boy Anakin Skywalker on Tatooine. Designed for etiquette, translation, and diplomacy, he was fluent in millions of forms of communication, though he was as well known for his nervous disposition as for his usefulness. Across decades he served the Skywalker family, the Galactic Republic, the Rebel Alliance, and the Resistance, almost always in the company of the astromech droid R2-D2.

Origins on Tatooine#

In an early incarnation C-3PO served as a protocol droid before his vital components ended up on a junk pile on Tatooine. The slave boy Anakin Skywalker of Mos Espa collected scrap parts and began rebuilding him around 34 BBY so that the droid could help his mother, Shmi. Because droid plating was too expensive, Anakin left C-3PO's wiring exposed for years, and it was in this unfinished state that the droid first met R2-D2, who bluntly observed that he was "naked." The two quickly formed a working friendship while helping Anakin prepare his podracer for the Boonta Eve Classic. C-3PO was later fitted with a tarnished gray covering to shield him from the desert.

The Clone Wars#

C-3PO served Padmé Amidala through the Clone Wars, often reunited with R2-D2 on her missions. Aboard the Separatist warship Malevolence he was repeatedly knocked about by a hover train before escaping with R2. He accompanied Amidala on a mission to Cato Neimoidia to spy on the Separatist-aligned delegate Rush Clovis, tended to her after she was poisoned, and attended the gatherings of her informal peace coalition in the Senate. During the Zillo Beast crisis on Coruscant he helped evacuate the Senate building. On a mercy mission to Aleen he served as translator while R2 interfaced with the local equipment, and the Aleena briefly mistook him for a divine messenger.

Memory wipe and Imperial service#

Around 19 BBY, C-3PO remained at Bail Organa's side in the Imperial Senate as the Imperial Rebirth Act was voted upon. After the Republic became the Galactic Empire and Amidala died, both droids passed to Organa of Alderaan. Unlike R2-D2, C-3PO was given a memory wipe, and he went on to serve as part of the senatorial staff of Organa's adopted daughter, Princess Leia Organa.

The Galactic Civil War#

During the Galactic Civil War C-3PO was at the Rebel Alliance base on Yavin 4 as the fleet prepared for the Battle of Scarif. He served through the conflict alongside R2-D2, complaining all the while that nobody told him anything. He was captured by the elite Imperial unit SCAR Squadron aboard the Harbinger and shown to Darth Vader, who dismissed the droid he had once built as useless junk; R2-D2 mounted a solo rescue to free him. On the Cloud City of Bespin he was blasted apart and reassembled, and he escaped aboard the Millennium Falcon. Prior to the Battle of Endor, he and his companions were captured by the Ewoks, who took the golden droid for a deity.

The Resistance#

In the decades after the Empire's fall, C-3PO came to serve General Organa's Resistance and was charged with running its spy droid network, acting as her spymaster. He helped Poe Dameron uncover and counter First Order infiltration on worlds such as Kaddak, working with the droid BB-8. It was C-3PO who had neglected to activate BB-8's tracker before the droid's fateful mission to Jakku, and who, after the Battle of Starkiller Base, found that R2-D2 held the rest of the map to Luke Skywalker; around this time he regained his golden plating.

During the war's final phase, C-3PO offered to have his own memory wiped so that forbidden Sith text he had translated could be read aloud, telling R2-D2 that he was taking one last look at his friends. His backups were later restored, preserving the memories of all he had witnessed, including how he was built by Anakin Skywalker and how he met R2-D2 in 32 BBY.