Why C-3PO Has One Red Arm

We got to see a few minutes of some old friends in The Force Awakens: R2D2 and C-3PO. But the golden droid had a red arm! What’s up with that? We were told the answer would be revealed in a Marvel comic book months ago, but it was delayed. The explanation came out today, a one-shot issue called Star Wars: C-3PO #1. If you want to go buy the comic, you’ll want to skip the rest of this post. Otherwise, here’s the reason that C-3PO has one red arm in the movie The Force Awakens.

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Spoilers ahead for Star Wars: C-3PO #1, by James Robinson, Tony Harris, and Joe Caramagna.

Actually, to be fair, we’ve actually known ever since the Force Awakens visual dictionary guide book came out why Threepio’s arm is red. (The book had some other interesting facts in it, too.) C-3PO wears it in memory of a droid that sacrificed itself to save him during a mission for the Resistance. Pretty boring, and yet, Robinson and Harris manage to weave a fascinating tale around this rather humdrum factoid.

You can read more about the story at Gizmodo. In fact, they tell the whole plot of the comic.