SWNN Review: C-3PO “Phantom Limb” – The Story Behind the Red Arm

IMG_0191We heard about it before The Force Awakens.  Fans poured over any images they could get their hands on before December 2015. Now that the Blu-Ray or digital copy of the first entry into the sequel trilogy plays on your television, many questions remain unanswered. Sure, we fans bounce theories of Rey’s parentage or where Snoke comes from around in our heads on a daily basis while smaller questions, like C-3PO’s red arm, take a way back seat to those questions of cosmic relevance. Nonetheless, the folks at Marvel and Lucasfilm’s Story Group thought we deserved an answer to one of the questions concerning the protocol droid’s appearance, and they put together a very touching story to give us one.

C-3PO:Phantom Limb is a very unique and thoughtful book. There are some SPOILERS ahead, but I will say the story is very much contained and has few implications to the larger Star Wars Universe.

 

52 C-3PO in CC

 

Let’s take a second to reflect on C-3PO, the droid himself. I apologize for assigning gender to where it may not be necessary, but I think 3PO deserves much more than me writing it.  Since the voice comes from a male actor I’m going to take the easy route and go with he. 3PO makes up a duo of droids that have seen the Skywalker saga from start to finish…so far. I think it’s safe to assume both C-3Po and R2-D2 will be along for the ride through Episode IX. Throughout both trilogies, we have seen little insight into what exactly a protocol droid navigating a turbulent galaxy and watching the battle between good and evil may be thinking along the way.

This comic lets us get a glimpse into the “souls” of not just 3PO, but droids in general. There’s some heavy stuff in this short story. It’s like Blade Runner’s Roy Batty meets Star Trek:  The Next Generation‘s Data, both asking the question of what it means to know your creator and how your consciousness may or may not exist to serve them. The story itself is a pretty generic one. 3PO is a passenger on a ship of droids who crash land on an environmentally hostile planet. The droids are carrying a prisoner, a droid called Omri, who has knowledge of the  whereabouts of some Resistance officers taken prisoner by the First Order.

 

marvelc3po- droid shot

 

3PO and the droid crew make it out of the crash unscathed, just before the remains of the ship explode, killing whatever sentient beings may have survived.  Quickly we learn that the protocol droid is Chief Communications Officer for the Resistance, leaving him in command. The crew of droids include a military/battle droid, a medical droid, a construction droid, and Omri, who seems to be the First Order equivalent of 3PO. 3PO doesn’t exactly take charge, he more or less states they are in a predicament and need to stick together to survive. 3PO states he has seen his fair share of battle to be a resource to the strengths of each droid.

 

Marvel3po- droid wanders

 

The dynamics between this reluctant group of droids is interesting. The medical droid is the most cynical of the bunch, hinting it has seen the most carnage through several wars and that sentient beings lose their courage once they are faced with the brutalities of war. The cynicism of the medical droid strikes me as something we haven’t seen much of in Star Wars droids. We have never been given much of a history on how the artificial intelligence of droids came to be and we don’t yet know how restricted droids are by their programming. It seems to vary droid to droid, but each one of this bunch have an underlying doubt about their fate on the planet they will try to survive, which tells me there is a sort-of existential protocol to their programming. I would love to get a backstory on how droids evolved throughout the SW Universe.

 

Marvel3po- ready for battle

 

Between blasting the indigenous, hungry creatures called spice spiders and building bridges, our team of droids pull through the obstacles of this foreboding planet. Again, the generic scenario of survival is not as interesting as the dialogue between the droids. They speak basic language, as opposed to communicating through more binary methods. Omri, the First Order droid, brings up how strange it is their programming intrinsically instills the nature to survive. This is the beginning of a bigger conversation that eventually dominates the story.

 

Marvel3po- mindful

 

The droid detail is eventually eaten away with only 3PO and Omri left. Thus, our droid discussions begin…

 

Marvel3po- preach

 

3PO launches into some pretty self-reflective thoughts.  The droid existence is one of servitude, but 3PO seems to have reconciled this truth. While Omri assumingly has much different experiences to draw from, 3PO expresses that his existence is not simply of servitude, but that he will ultimately make his master’s life a better one. 3PO also seems to know at one point his memory was erased. The droid recalls faint memories or “flashes” of things he experienced in the prequels. I had a thought while reading this frame that it could be argued R2-D2 is something of a steward of the Skywalker legacy. He knows where everyone began and will most likely see where they end.

These artificial beings, their consciousnesses being constructs of their creators, serve as reflections for what came before in the universe.   Omri ends up making a sacrifice of his own to save C-3PO. As soon as it is apparent both of them cannot survive the planet, Omri gives up his red limb to stop the fluid draining from the limb 3PO lost. Omri makes a choice to save someone who is, for a simplistic definition, his captor.  He had never been exposed to other truths of the universe and sees 3PO as some part of the greater good.

 

Brand_New_Arm

 

Comic fans will notice this issue is a reunion for writer James Robinson and artist Tony Harris. Robinson should be commended for making a fairly inconsequential detail a very moving story about the self-awareness of droids. It was also nice to see Poe Dameron and BB-8 pop up towards the end. I’m guessing Poe’s own comic may crossover this one, as we never get a resolution about Ackbar’s capture.

 

 

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Kyle Larson lives in Portland, Oregon. When he's not running trails, he's reading and writing.

Kyle Larson

Kyle Larson lives in Portland, Oregon. When he's not running trails, he's reading and writing.

46 thoughts on “SWNN Review: C-3PO “Phantom Limb” – The Story Behind the Red Arm

    • April 14, 2016 at 10:35 pm
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      If they are trying to say these Lego shows are canon, that’s pretty terrible. The one good things about Legends-izing the old EU was getting rid of the sillier comics, cartoons and kids books.

      • April 14, 2016 at 10:46 pm
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        All canon means, is that the writers are beholden to story plots and elements portrayed in the medium for futures stories. I don’t think that the actual dialogue actually is canon. But, rather the overall story points. I don’t think it’s ever been confirmed that the Lego shorts are canon either. It’s like Star Wars Rebels is canon, but the looks and art style are not. So, while the episodes depict the characters in certain events and whatnot. If the same episodes were Legofied then the episodes would still have the same outcome but just depicted differently and more humorous.

        I mean it’s Lego, they are basically a parodies of the actual events in the movies. I wouldn’t look too deeply into everything seen in the Lego games or shorts as being beholden to canon.

      • April 14, 2016 at 11:15 pm
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        All this means is that in canon, the rescue of Ackbar, that has so far only been depicted in the Lego shorts is an event that happened in the SW universe. The Lego show itself is not in any way canon. But it seems that the makers of the show have access to certain material that has not yet been depicted in other media.

        • April 16, 2016 at 4:10 am
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          I guess for now we can say that this LEGO short is a *parody depiction* of an event that happened in which Poe, C3PO and BB8 rescued Ackbar from the FO.

  • April 14, 2016 at 10:48 pm
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    This comic issue was incredibly well done, and much much better than I was expecting. It was one of the few comics that I actually got some sort of emotional response. The only others being the Lando, Darth Vader, Star Wars, and Kanan comics.

    • April 15, 2016 at 12:16 am
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      Same here!

  • April 15, 2016 at 12:23 am
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    Clearly C-3PO doesn’t care about those droids too much as his arm is back to being gold at the end of TFA.

    It was a nice change of pace for the character but the ending of TFA kind of ruined it for me.

    • April 15, 2016 at 12:32 am
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      Well, we don’t know how much time passed in between. I wouldn’t expect 3PO to keep that red arm forever. It also very well could still be the same arm just repainted in gold.

    • April 15, 2016 at 2:07 am
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      Maybe he just got the arm repainted.

      • April 16, 2016 at 4:05 am
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        Exactly. If Omri’s arm was perfectly compatible and functional, why replace it? Just paint it over. The comic revealed that the red was actually the primer coat beneath another color (black/dark silver).

        Besides, the Resistance probably runs on a tight budget! 🙂

    • April 15, 2016 at 3:16 am
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      I’m guessing the arm just got too damaged and R2 probably insisted he “get that smelly thing off”, but I’m sure C-3PO has the arm displayed, maybe over his droid-mantle piece.

  • April 15, 2016 at 1:12 am
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    Now that literally every member of the main OT cast has gotten their own comic. I’d like to see some set during the TFA era around characters that are sorely in need of a backstory.

    • April 15, 2016 at 12:55 pm
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      Need a Kylo Ren comic!!

      • April 15, 2016 at 12:58 pm
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        Exactly! Even if it’s just a story set days before VII.

    • April 15, 2016 at 2:48 pm
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      This one is set in the Sequel era, and we just started the Poe Dameron comic a little over a week ago. That’s exactly what is happening.

      • April 16, 2016 at 2:18 pm
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        That is true but they should have done it closer to the film’s release like they did with the OT/PT and they haven’t announced any more titles yet in the ST.

        • April 16, 2016 at 3:34 pm
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          How much do you expect them to release at once? My wallet can only take so much at a time! The pacing is perfectly fine, imho. We are only 1/3 of the way through a trilogy that will take 6 years to complete. There’s plenty of time for what you want, and you can probably bet a healthy sum you’ll see that stuff.

          • April 16, 2016 at 4:02 pm
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            Simple. They should have done an ongoing monthly series like they did with the other trilogies rather than more OT ones. That would have been more than enough and maybe the odd miniseries here and there. It’s better done with other film series.

        • April 16, 2016 at 3:36 pm
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          I foresee you complaining about over-saturation, really..

          • April 16, 2016 at 4:03 pm
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            They should have started before TFA was even out actually. Though to be fair they dropped the ball on the book front as well. Casual fans will lose interest in between films, Especially with so many franchise films it has to compete with now.

  • April 15, 2016 at 1:47 am
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    Red arm = silver leg…Jakku = Tatooine

    • April 15, 2016 at 2:49 pm
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      What connection are you making here?

      • April 15, 2016 at 3:30 pm
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        That decent as TFA is in terms of script, acting and effects it is equally as disappointing in it’s startling lack of originality. It just lifts most things directly from the other movies.

        Another Cantina, another Yoda, another Death Star , another Desert Planet, another Emperor..etc..etc…Oh he had a silver leg in the first one, I know we’ll make his arm red this time.

        • April 15, 2016 at 6:23 pm
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          Oh here we go again..

          Deja Vu incoming.

          • April 15, 2016 at 6:34 pm
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            My exact thoughts when I saw the 3rd Death Star

          • April 15, 2016 at 6:50 pm
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            Yeah, because if a movie isn’t completely original it’s a bad movie.

            What’s funny is that while I was enjoying the movie, I didn’t think any of the thoughts that you were thinking. You were probably over-analyzing everything to where you couldn’t enjoy it. Which is fine, if you don’t like to have fun because you’ll find that every movie is based off something older. There’s nothing truly original anymore.

            Uh here we go, Another Die Hard movie, oh here we go another Harry Potter movie, oh here we go another Marvel movie.

            Good luck enjoying movies with that mentality. It’s STAR WARS! It’s not The Godfather, or Citizen Kane. Star Wars was never meant to be a thought provoking make you think about your existence type of movie. It’s pure fun and adventure.

          • April 15, 2016 at 8:07 pm
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            I didn’t say it wasn’t any good, ..I enjoyed the characters and perforances…and it’s true there are no original stories..see Hidden Fortress…but …the reboot-quel of all reboots and that was the best story they could come up with? Again? Seriously there are so many things copy & pasted from the OT it’s ridiculous. I recently saw Creed and that 7th movie seemed much fresher even though it’s essentialy the same story

          • April 15, 2016 at 8:30 pm
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            Creed was fine too.

            It’s because Star Wars is so ingrained in our culture that it almost seems unforgivable that the sequel 30 years later should be too similar to the OT.
            It was more a matter of what people were expecting and what they got than the film’s actual issues itself.

            People expect that a spin off of Rocky might be very similar to the original, I mean what else can they really do. The whole story revolves around boxing. That story has been done a million times more recently than the story shown in Star Wars.

            So with TFA, I think why it hits people as hard as it did, was because they weren’t expecting the movie to be so similar to the OT so therefore they kind of felt cheated and upset that Kasdan and Abrams made a movie just like ANH and ESB.

            Fans who were following the production closely were forewarned that TFA might be very similar to the older movies story wise so I believe they were expecting it more than the casual Star Wars fan or regular audience members. Most people who saw TFA, still loved it regardless of what they thought of the similarities. I kind of liked the similarities because that means it echoes the past. History repeats itself in real life too, and since Star Wars is pure fantasy anyway, it doesn’t really matter in the end how similar they were.

            TPM was just as similar to ANH and ROTJ as TFA was to ANH and ESB, but people seem to forget that when they are criticising TFA. All of it similar to The Hidden Fortress like you said, so logically they all are copied. It’s people’s emotional responses that seem to be the problem.

          • April 15, 2016 at 11:51 pm
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            I didn’t feel TPM was the same story ..it had more imagination , underwater cities, interesting new ships, alien races we’d never seen before that got speaking parts and introduced us to podracing …but I’d take TFA over any of the prequels for sheer acting & great dialogue.

          • April 16, 2016 at 12:35 am
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            Depends on what you consider imagination I suppose. The prequels take place during a time pre Galactic Civil War so it makes sense that some of the civilizations would be quite different from what we see during the OT. TFA is a sequel after all so it has to reflect it’s source of the OT more than the prequels. The OT had a very rundown look like everything was dirty and used due to the Empire’s oppression and the years of war from The Clone Wars and Rebellion. While the prequels reflected an age of peace and prosperity for more than a thousand years.

            It takes a lot of imagination to create all of the creatures we saw in TFA too which kind of get glossed over. We got a new lightsaber which was different, but some people didn’t like it because it was too different from the regular lightsabers. We got believeable extensions of the ships that we saw at the end of RoTJ. A complaint I’ve consistently seen about the prequels is that it doesn’t make sense that some of their technology seems more advanced than that seen in the OT. Like the heat sinking missiles that the CIS uses in AoTC. I’m sure the Rebels wish they could have had those when they were battling the TIEs above the Death Star.

            We got a villain who was conflicted and basically flipped the idea of the dark pulling at him where in this case it was the light instead (Kylo), a hero who was conflicted because he was raised to be a stormtrooper but he realized during his first battle that he wasn’t meant to be one (Finn) Some people have related this idea being similar to what Transgender and homosexuals go through. Then most of the other characters we’ve already seen before in different form. I too prefer TFA over TPM and AoTC at least.

          • April 16, 2016 at 11:29 am
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            It’s just that with so many stories they could tell they went back to the well for a 3rd time. If there was never a 2nd Death Star then I could have swallowed it..and also the fact it got blown up so easily, like a whole planet..just blown up

        • April 16, 2016 at 7:07 am
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          The acting in TFA is the best of all 7 SW movies, so….

  • April 15, 2016 at 6:18 am
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    Totally off topic:

    Can somebody help me to understand the geography of The Force Awakens? When the First Order blows up the Republic, is it just coincidence that Takodana(baba) was close by? It just all seem too close…

    I wish the Resistance had the big bad weapon in the movie rather than the “villains.” I think a drunk Leia in charge of the nukes might be interesting..

    Also, why the hell would Han bring a BB unit into Maz’s bar when he knows that the First Order is specifically looking for a BB unit that is “one of a kind.”

    • April 15, 2016 at 10:20 am
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      You should go to the Cantina forums. Good place for stuff like this.

  • April 15, 2016 at 2:30 pm
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    Well, I’m frankly disappointed: I thought they were talking about 3PO’s REAL ‘phantom limb’ *snicker*

    http://www.snopes.com/movies/graphics/c-3p0.jpg

    (I actually have a ‘boner’ Topps card in my collection – great stuff from the pre-Photoshop era…)

    • April 15, 2016 at 5:54 pm
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      I’ve always wondered if the story behind this card, “underpaid, disgruntled prop guys” is true. Anyone know?

      • April 15, 2016 at 6:09 pm
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        I don’t if the story’s true, but the Topps card I’ve had for YEARS is real enough!

        (Now we know what Anakin meant by ‘helping Mom around the house’…Thank the Maker, indeed!)

    • April 17, 2016 at 6:41 am
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      Only in the 80s.

  • April 15, 2016 at 4:09 pm
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    Did they ever explain his silver leg?

    • April 15, 2016 at 4:41 pm
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      No I don’t think so

    • April 16, 2016 at 7:05 am
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      Not in canon, I don’t think.

  • April 17, 2016 at 1:34 am
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    I just finished reading the comic. There are some interesting quotes, however i just can’t stand the drawings. They are just too simple and coarse, poorly colored. They would be, in my opinion better if the comics images were computer generated.

    • April 17, 2016 at 6:42 am
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      That’s weird. I think that the drawing are extremely expressive and beautiful.

  • April 17, 2016 at 1:38 am
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    I like the phrase “Im not choosing sides, I´m choosing friendship”

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