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There are many tropes which run throughout the Star Wars films which glue them together. One of the most common of these, and most noticeable, is the amputation of limbs (often by lightsaber). This dismemberment theme I believe is a trope that Lucas derived from the Icelandic Sagas. Leaving aside the obvious ones for a moment, even C-3PO is often carrying a loose arm or leg around or being carried around in pieces as he was on Bespin. We see him literally detached from his body in Star Wars Episode II, and in The Force Awakens the red arm is a nod towards him having lost yet another arm some time since we last encountered him.

Our first taste of the amputation motif in fact happens in A New Hope with C-3PO's tragi-comic encounter with the Sand People or Tusken Raiders. This underpins and foreshadows the amputations which will later (and previously in the prequels) literally shape some of our main characters and our understanding of the films. C-3PO, I believe, provides some kind of anchor here, since all though his cycles of falling apart and being put back together his character is a constant and unchanging throughout Episodes I to VII. By contrast for the human characters such crisis moments come at times of trial, at character transforming moments when their decisions shape their fate and/or who they are to become (e.g. the look of stunned realisation on Dooku's face sat prostrate before Anakin at the end of the duel scene in Episode III).

C-3PO however, doesn't learn, develop, become either enlightened or corrupted, he is a fixed point. C-3PO was created incomplete and unfinished and he somehow becomes a vehicle for his creator Anakin's inner neuroses. A significant amount of any doubt or uncertainty that the Anakin character might have otherwise internalised is in some way displaced into C-3PO. As a fixed point he is the missing component of Anakin's single-minded personality which could have changed his course of action and his direction. He can be taken apart, assembled, re-assembled and even have his memory wiped but he remains his creator's thoughtful, cautious and indecisive alter-ego and a fixed point throughout the Star Wars canon. It is also notable that C-3PO is the only character from 1977 through to 1985 who had an action figure released without his limbs being soldered on to his body. The C-3PO with Removable Limbs figure gets right to the essence of the shiny neurotic humanoid.

It is of further note that C-3PO has his memory wiped at just around the same time as the mutilated Anakin takes the final step towards leaving his old self behind and becoming the mechanical man that we know as Darth Vader. We more readily notice the parallel between Vader being created and Padmé's death, both under the care of medical droids. The resonance between Vader’s conception and his first droid’s symbolic death through his memory wipe is more subtle, but nonetheless the personalities and destinies of the two are somehow inextricably linked. In an instant, both become transformed and yet somehow remain the same.

C-3PO as Battle Droid and the Significance of the Geonosian Body Switch Scene

In the pivotal battle of Episode II, when the tide starts turning against the Jedi and shortly after Anakin has taken a big leap towards the Dark Side, not only does everything hang in the balance, the lines between good and evil, between the Separatists and the Republic are also becoming blurred with the creation of the Clone Army. As such it is no accident that at this moment in the film C-3PO finds himself with a Battle Droid head on top of his body and a Battle Droid body beneath his head.

This is the moment (almost exactly half way through the Trilogy) where everything hangs in the balance and the distinction between goodies and baddies has started to become blurred, especially since it shortly follows Anakin's massacre of the Tusken Raiders. At this moment, when the scales are hung in the balance, the transitional moment is literally inscribed upon C-3PO's body as the blurred distinction between the power hungry Trade Federation and the sinister Republic Army is embodied in the body switch with C-3PO's head on a Battle Broid body, and a Battle Droid body with his head. C-3PO becomes a physical embodiment of the political, military and moral state of the Galaxy at this pivotal moment in time.

Other Articles on the Amputation Motif in the Star Wars Films

2) The Amputation Motif in The Cantina Scene, The Geonosian Hangar Duel and Anakin's Final Duel

3) Chewbacca and the Subversion of the Amputation Motif in the Star Wars Films

4) General Grievous and the Amputation Motif in the Star Wars Films

Other Star Wars Amputations

Jango Fett: The decapitation of Jango Fett by Mace Windu

Mace Windu: Mace Windu loses his forearm in the duel in Palpatine's chambers.

Battle Droids : The battle droids are almost continually being chopped up by light sabres. These droids don’t seem quite sentient. They are very basic, not very intelligent and don’t seem to fulfil the criteria for sentient life forms. They can be chopped up by the Jedi with impunity.

Count Dooku: Dooku loses both his hands and his head in the final duel with Anakin

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All Star Wars action figures, vehicles, collectibles and Star Wars toys shown on this website are the 3.75 inch scale and from my own private Star Wars collection unless otherwise stated. Where possible original vintage accessories have been used but in some instances I have placed Kenner Star Wars figures with either reproduction weapons and accessories or for Hasbro figures close approximations have been used. This is mostly the case for modern Star Wars lightsabers where the correct item can be very difficult to identify on some ocassions. Vintage Star Wars action figures are shown with their original weapon or accessory when I have them. When a vintage Kenner action figure is shown with an accessory which is not original I have tried to point this out where possible.

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