Star Wars: C-3PO's Weirdest Trait Foreshadows Anakin's Dark Side Turn

The iconic droid was built by young Anakin Skywalker, but a certain aspect of C-3PO seems to hint at the boy's villainous fate as Darth Vader.

One of the strangest aspects of C-3PO actually teases Anakin Skywalker’s fall to the dark side in Star Wars. The Star Wars franchise is full of various colorful and intriguing characters, and some of its most important faces have been a key part of the franchise since its very beginning in 1977. One such character is C-3PO, the perpetually anxious protocol droid who is most commonly seen with the astromech droid R2-D2.

Though C-3PO was first introduced in 1977’s Star Wars, it wasn’t until 1999, in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, that his origins were revealed. Fleeing the villainous Trade Federation and seeking repairs for their ship on Tatooine, Jedi master Qui-Gon Jinn encounters a boy that he believes to be the prophecized Chosen One who will bring balance to the Force. Anakin possesses many extraordinary qualities, including an impressive command of technology, something which led him to create and program C-3PO by himself using spare parts.

However, the fact that Anakin himself created C-3PO makes his most recognizable character trait all the more troubling. As C-3PO is a droid, his personality was programmed into him by his creator, meaning that Anakin deliberately made C-3PO so anxious. The fact that young Anakin chose to imbue his droid with such a powerful sense of worry speaks to the boy’s emotional nature, thereby foreshadowing his later fall to the dark side due to his own fear and anger.

C-3PO’s Characteristic Anxiety Hides A Dark Anakin Truth

As C-3PO is one of Star Wars‘ original trilogy heroes, it’s easy to overlook the implications of Anakin being his creator. However, as the young boy was solely responsible for his creation on Tatooine, it’s Anakin who can be credited with the droid’s characteristic anxiety. Considering that Anakin later becomes the iconic villain Darth Vader, C-3PO’s anxiety is much darker than it may seem.

Programming his droid with such intense anxiety is a strange choice and may well have been Anakin’s way of exploring his own emotions. Yet regardless of his intent, the fact that he programmed C-3PO to feel strong emotions seemingly evidences the strength of his own, often uncontrollable feelings, which eventually led to Anakin becoming Darth Vader after falling to the dark side. Programming a droid to feel anxiety speaks to how innately emotional Anakin was as a child and Yoda’s reservations about training him back this up.

C-3PO’s strange behavior is most often played for laughs, but the simple fact is that the droid appears to feel fear in a way that many other droids do not. The knowledge that Anakin is responsible for this is only really established in passing to touch on C-3PO’s origins, but it reinforces the character’s most dangerous trait. Whether programming C-3PO to feel such a strong and broadly negative emotion was deliberate or not dictates just how concerning young Anakin’s behavior really was, but ultimately, it foreshadows his role as Star Wars‘ most iconic villain.