'Star Wars' Finally Explains One Of The Greatest Mysteries From The Prequel Trilogy

The Star Wars prequel trilogy made some interesting choices, whether they be choices that people loved or choices that made people think, "Well that was certainly a choice." One of the things that it introduced which may fall in either camp depending on your opinion is the idea that Anakin Skywalker, a slave boy at age nine, builds C-3PO, as presented in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. Within the film itself, we do get a little bit of an idea that Anakin builds C-3PO to help his mother Shmi. And this idea seems to also be there to illustrate that Anakin has a knack for working with machinery.

However, another layer to all this has been brought up thanks to a new book titled Skywalker: A Family at War. This is an in-universe biography telling the story of the Skywalker family as we have seen it throughout the saga. The following is a little tidbit from the book related to the Threepio matter:

"The boy longed for a life far from Tatooine, free to explore the galaxy and fulfill his dreams of becoming something far greater than a Toydarian's property. The droid he constructed was capable of millions of forms of communication. Anakin dreamed that, one day, with C-3PO as his faithful traveling companion, he and his mother would be able to venture anywhere in the galaxy and be understood and be able to understand the natives, whatever their language."

In hindsight, it actually makes so much sense that Anakin would build Threepio with the intention that he could translate at a time when he and his mother could someday be free and travel to various planets where aliens would speak different languages. In The Phantom Menace, we have a scene of Qui-Gon and Anakin looking up at the stars, and Anakin says that he wants to be the first one to see all the star systems. With these dreams, it is no wonder that he imagines how useful Threepio can be on potential travels on which he and his mother can embark.

Just the image of young Anakin Skywalker and his mother traveling freely around the galaxy with Threepio aiding them in communication is such a sweet "What if?" to think about, and also a sad one given what ends up actually happening. Threepio stays with Shmi for ten years until she is taken by Tusken Raiders around the time of Attack of the Clones, and then he is with Padme for most of the Clone Wars, seeing Anakin every now and then. After that, the rest is history, and we all know the role that he plays with the Rebellion and eventually the Resistance. And all along the way, Threepio is useful in translating between the heroes and their potential allies. It just goes to show that young Anakin sees the potential in Threepio, and even though Anakin does not stick with him for long, Threepio fulfills that potential in ways Anakin probably does not anticipate.

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Written By Steven Shinder

Source(s): Screen Rant

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