Second Death

FIRST LIFE

 

 

Although C-3PO achieved consciousness in a Mos Espa slave hovel, his frame is actually quite old, and some of his components date back a century, forged on the mechanized world of Affa. 

– StarWars.com Databank

SECOND LIFE

 

 

Young Anakin Skywalker cobbled together enough pieces to give Threepio new life. He was more than a run-of-mill Cybot Galactica 3PO-unit. His salvaged nature imbued in him special qualities that set him a brand apart from his droid cousins.

– StarWars.com Databank

 

Memory Loss...

Writer: Christopher Cooper

Penciler: Andres Ponce
Medium: Comic

Publication date: December 2014 in Star Wars Comic #13

Timeline placement: 19 BBY

 

At the end of Revenge of the Sith, C-3PO is being led away to be mind-wiped aboard the Tantive IV Sundered Heart Bail Organa's Starship by Raymus Antilles Colton Antilles Jeremoch Colton the captain. The captain is called away to the bridge and assigns R2-D2 the task of murdering his friend. As Threepio is marched to his execution, he laments that they were unable to save Padmé, and recalls how happy he was assisting her on diplomatic missions, mentioning how valuable the secret information in his memory banks is. 

I fully expected that Artoo would try to help Threepio avoid his fate but instead he cheerfully puts him into the brain drain machine and is about to throw the switch when he gets blasted. A bounty hunter droid has infiltrated the ship looking for information to sell to the new Empire, and after overhearing their conversation he's set his sights on C-3PO's memory banks. 

 

Threepio realizes that his knowledge could lead the Empire to baby Luke and Leia. He knows he must protect the children, but he's too clumsy, awkward, and useless to do anything. Plus his arms don't even bend. He wishes Artoo would wake up and save the day like he always does. "He'd do something silly and brave and selfless, like... Oh, of course."

 

Threepio wrestles the bounty hunter's vibroblade away from him, then pushes the two of them into the memory-wiping machine. Knowing the twins will be in danger as long as he remembers them, C-3PO activates the machine, erasing his own memory and finally getting the heroic moment Anthony Daniels always wanted, five years before J. J. Abrams had him do the same exact thing in The Rise of Skywalker. 

As his memory banks are deleted, Threepio's life flashes before his photoreceptors, culminating with his earliest memory:

 

 

Then nothing.

THIRD LIFE