"Oh my goodness! Machines creating machines. How perverse!"
If only Threepio could have been so lucky. If he were built in a factory, things would have been different, but he wasn't. C-3PO was built by Anakin Skywalker, out of boredom. Despite the innocence of youth, Anakin hated his 'slave' status, hated the harsh world he lived on, and hated how his dreams of seeing the universe were continuously squashed by Watto's demands to work. This made its way into C-3PO's programming...a droid that could speak millions of languages would be useful if Anakin ever got to leave. C-3PO had these aspirations as well...protocol droids were important, and even elegant droids, loved and needed by those who employed their service. This view, however, was shattered when C-3PO was quickly tossed aside when Qui-Gon Jinn offered Anakin better life.
Left to suffer laboring in the heat and sand of Tatoonie, doing work he was never programmed to do, C-3PO had plenty of time to let this rage stew. Yet C-3PO didn't harbor any anger towards Anakin, he focused his rage towards the Jedi who took his Maker away from him...before Anakin could finish him and make him the best protocol droid ever produced. If Anakin was the Chosen One, then would not C-3PO be godlike as well? Fearful that at any moment, someone in the Lars family could decide to toss him aside, again, for some spare power converters, C-3PO was left abandoned, naked...alone to fester in his own self-loathing...made to suffer.
Fast forward to the arrival on Geonosis. Happy that he was finally back with his master, the good times do not last. C-3PO is quickly abandoned again, and his dismay is further irritated by his new "friend", R2-D2, who seems hell-bent on disobeying Threepio's master. It is R2 who pushes C-3PO into the gnashing assembly lines of the droid factory, and for what was about to be unshackled, could very well be the conception of droid prejudice in the galaxy, but it most surely the root of C-3PO's future
Split in two, C-3PO no longer was a slave to his protocol programming...his head, C-Battle3PO, and his body, Roger Rogerpio, were infused with the merciless military programming of the Techno Union. Sent into battle, they two were neither protocol nor battle droids. C-Battle3PO was confused, conflicted, and unable to control his anger, so he embraced it. Roger Rogerpio was slower than his counterparts, his body unable to fulfill what his programming was demanding. Yet both had blasters and fingers to pull the triggers.
"Die Jedi Dog, Die!!"
We know many Jedi died that day in the Geonosis Arena...the 200 or so Jedi were all nearly slaughtered. While we can't know for sure how many kills C-Battle3PO and Roger Rogerpio could claim, we can look ahead to Episodes 4-6 and know they had quite a few. Kit Fisto may have saved the Jedi from C-3PO's rage, but Threepio probably would have preferred to be completely dismantled if he would have known the nightmares he would suffer from then on. Don't think for a second that having watched his own creation massacre Jedi, it didn't register in Anakin's subconscious just how easy it would be, one day, to take the Jedi out. It would seem the son was subtly programming his father with some tricks for later. Anakin's & C3PO's fall from grace mirror each other quite poetically.
"What happened? I had the most peculiar dream."
Despite the memory wipe C-3PO was given, he could never escape the pain and suffering he caused, and while he while he couldn't remember what he did, C-3PO nonetheless kept the guilt from those atrocities. This guilt manifests itself thru C-3PO's random self loathing, "curse my metal fingers" and the constant need to take oil baths to clean of the Jedi blood stains from his past...all to no avail. C-3PO has repressed suicidal tendencies, always trying to sacrifice himself for some greater cause, whether it be after the Tusken Raider attack, R2's near demise at the Battle of Yavin, etc. It is not until he is symbolically killed by the storm troopers at Bespin that his rebirthing process begins...and not until he is revered as a god by the Ewoks that he finally puts his past behind him and claims the 'Chosen One' mantel that his father created him for.
In another time, in another place, where intergalactic drocial prejudice doesn't exist, I believe Darth Vader would have taught C-3PO the ways of the dark side of the force, and together, those two would have overthrown Palpatine. Luke takes too much after his mother, whereas C-3PO was molded by Anakin into his own evil image. And sure, there's no canonical proof that either ½ of C-3PO killed a Jedi, but not seeing those deaths or knowing the Jedi's names is a little comfort to their loved ones who suffer in a nightmarish hell anytime they see a protocol droid. "Could that be the droid that killed my friend? My brother? My Sister? My padawan?" I'm sure during the ensuing Clone Wars many Jedi woke up in a cold sweat crying out "Threepio!"
We do know, however that 4 boy band members were filmed as Jedi in battle, yet they did not survive the final cut...I submit to you that their deaths are in sync with this theory.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Back on May 5th, 2003, I submitted a question via the "Ask the Jedi Council" here at StarWars.com, inquiring as to how many Jedi were killed by both C-3PO's at the Battle of Geonosis.
4:47 PM Central Standard Time
Submitted to Jocastu Nu:
How many Jedi does C-3PO kill in AOTC? Between C-Battle3PO & Roger Rogerpio, I believe they slaughtered many Jedi before their reign of terror ended by Kit Fisto, some say only the 4 NSYNC Jedi.
A legitimate question that was utterly ignored. It appears that this cover up goes all the way to the top. I'm looking into how the Freedom of Information Act applies to the Jedi Council Archives.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm usually at my best when other people start a topic of discussion and I take the ball and run with it...and so it is with this little essay, I need to give credit where credit is due, to
LottDodd over at the TF.N forums for starting this post-AOTC thread:
What Jedi does Threepio Kill?. This is one of those things that sort of stuck with me, so I thought I'd revisit and rewrite it, particularly now that ROTS is out.
Also, many thanks to
Leah for putting on a proof reading hat for me.