Star Wars 7: This Is How C-3PO Got His Red Arm

Star Wars: The Force Awakens contained many unanswered questions. From the identity of Rey's parents to what Luke has been doing for 30 years, fans have been speculating on these mysteries since the day the film was released. But one of these questions has now been answered--why exactly does C-3PO have a red arm?

To date we have known, via The Force Awakens Visual Dictionary, that the faithful protocol droid wears the strangely coloured appendage as a tribute to another droid who lost his life on a mission. But a new Marvel comic book by James Robinson, Tony Harris, and Joe Caramagna, tells the whole story.

Star Wars: C-3PO #1 focuses on a mission to help rescue Admiral Ackbar, who has been captured by the First Order. A resistance ship crashes on a unnamed planet, killing the human crew, leaving only a small group of droids, and their prisoner, a First Order protocol droid named Omri.

Much of the comic is a fight for survival, as C-3PO and his metal pals attempt to cross the hostile terrain of this strange world to find a distress beacon they have identified as belonging to a crashed TIE fighter. The hapless robots encounter deadly spiders, murky swampland, giant flying bugs, and strange tentacled beasts, which pick them off one by one.

In the end only C-3PO and Omri remain, and they form an alliance. Our golden hero loses an arm to a tentacled creature, and the pair look set to expire when acid rain begin to fall form the sky.

However, Omri decides he values his new friendship more than his own life, and after providing the information needed to rescue Admiral Ackbar, steps out from their shelter to activate the homing beacon so C-3PO can be saved. The downpour reveals a red undercoat, and upon returning to the shelter, Omri collapses into a pile of melted metal. C-3PO takes what remains of him--his arm.

Safely back at the rebel base, the issue finishes with C-3PO telling BB-8 that despite offending his "aesthetic sensibilities", he will wear the arm for a while longer, "to remember".

So now you know!