C-3PO's Timeline | Star Wars Guide

C-3PO

C-3PO, also spelled See-Threepio and usually called simply Threepio, is a 3PO-series protocol droid of Cybot Galactica design, programmed for etiquette and protocol and fluent in over six million forms of communication. Unusually among droids, he was not factory-built but assembled from salvaged scrap by the enslaved boy Anakin Skywalker in Mos Espa on Tatooine, and was operational — though still stripped of his outer plating — by 32 BBY. Fussy, anxious and endlessly voluble, he became the inseparable and perpetually exasperated counterpart of the astromech R2-D2, and the pair drifted through nearly every hinge point of galactic history: the Naboo crisis, the Battle of Geonosis and the Clone Wars, the secret marriage of Anakin and Padmé Amidala, the birth of the Skywalker twins, and a memory wipe that erased all of it before he passed into the service of Senator Bail Organa on Alderaan. Serving the Organa family and then the Rebel Alliance, he carried the stolen Death Star plans aboard the Tantive IV, was worshipped as a deity by the Ewoks of Endor, and later served the New Republic and General Leia Organa. In 35 ABY he sacrificed his own memory to translate forbidden Sith text and set the path to Exegol, a loss R2-D2 later undid. He is never destroyed in canon and survives the fall of the Final Order.

Homeworld: Tatooine

Species: Droid

Creator: Anakin Skywalker

Force Sensitive: No

~32 BBY - Assembled on Tatooine

Built from scavenged parts by the enslaved boy Anakin Skywalker in the family hovel in Mos Espa, C-3PO is operational but unfinished, lacking his outer plating. Anakin presents him to Padmé Amidala and intends him to help his mother Shmi.

32 BBY - Left behind on Tatooine

When Anakin wins his freedom and departs with Qui-Gon Jinn to become a Jedi, C-3PO remains on Tatooine in Shmi Skywalker's care.

22 BBY - Reunion and plating

Anakin returns to Tatooine searching for his mother and finds C-3PO in the service of the Lars homestead, now fitted with metal coverings. The droid joins Anakin, Padmé and R2-D2 on their journey to Geonosis.

22 BBY - Battle of Geonosis

Caught in a Geonosian droid factory, C-3PO's head is knocked onto a battle droid body and a battle droid head onto his, leaving him charging into battle shouting "die, Jedi dogs" before R2-D2 restores him. He afterwards witnesses the secret wedding of Anakin and Padmé on Naboo.

22 BBY - 19 BBY - The Clone Wars

Attached to Senator Amidala's household on Coruscant, C-3PO is repeatedly swept into the war alongside R2-D2 — abducted, marooned, mistaken for a spy and pressed into diplomatic missions across the galaxy.

19 BBY - Fall of the Republic and memory wipe

C-3PO is present at Padmé's death on Polis Massa and the birth of Luke and Leia. To protect the twins' secret, Bail Organa orders the protocol droid's memory erased, and C-3PO enters the service of House Organa on Alderaan with his past wiped clean.

9 BBY - Service on Alderaan

Now a fixture of the Organa royal household, C-3PO attends a formal reception at the palace during the years Bail and Breha are raising the young Princess Leia.

~5 BBY - Droids in distress

Sent by Senator Bail Organa on a covert errand involving stolen weapons, C-3PO and R2-D2 cross paths with the crew of the Ghost, unwittingly aiding the early rebellion.

1 BBY - Yavin 4

C-3PO is present at the Rebel Alliance's Massassi base as Jyn Erso's team departs for Scarif to steal the Death Star plans.

0 BBY - Capture of the Tantive IV

Aboard Leia's corvette when Darth Vader seizes it, C-3PO follows R2-D2 into an escape pod carrying the Death Star plans and crashes on Tatooine.

0 BBY - Sold to the Lars homestead

Captured by Jawas and sold to Owen Lars, C-3PO meets Luke Skywalker and helps set in motion the delivery of Leia's message to Obi-Wan Kenobi.

0 BBY - Battle of Yavin

C-3PO waits out the assault on the Death Star at the Yavin base and offers his own circuits to repair a badly damaged R2-D2 after the victory.

3 ABY - Hoth and Bespin

Serving the Alliance on Echo Base, C-3PO flees with Han, Leia and Chewbacca aboard the Millennium Falcon. On Cloud City he is blasted apart by stormtroopers and carried out in pieces on Chewbacca's back, then reassembled.

4 ABY - Tatooine and Endor

Offered to Jabba the Hutt as part of Luke's rescue plan, C-3PO serves as the Hutt's interpreter before escaping. On the forest moon of Endor the Ewoks take him for a golden deity, and his storytelling wins their alliance for the strike on the shield generator.

5 ABY - 34 ABY - New Republic service

C-3PO remains with Leia Organa through the founding of the New Republic and into the Resistance, eventually overseeing its droid network, and takes on a mismatched red arm for a period before restoring his gold plating.

9 ABY - New Republic Senate errand

Acting on Leia's authority, C-3PO delivers her intervention to a Senate committee on Hera Syndulla's behalf during the hearing over her unsanctioned mission.

34 ABY - The search for Luke Skywalker

C-3PO reunites with Han Solo and helps the Resistance assemble the map to Luke Skywalker's exile, then witnesses the destruction of the Hosnian system and the assault on Starkiller Base.

34 ABY - Crait

He survives the collapse of the Resistance fleet and the last stand on Crait among the handful of survivors aboard the Millennium Falcon.

35 ABY - Sacrifice of memory

To translate a Sith inscription pointing to Exegol, C-3PO permits a forbidden override that erases his memory entirely, taking one last look at his friends before the wipe.

35 ABY - Restoration and victory

R2-D2 restores C-3PO's memory from backup. He survives the Battle of Exegol and the fall of the Final Order, and celebrates with the victorious Resistance.

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⚡ C-3PO's Timeline

Key Events in C-3PO's Star Wars Story