I see you’ve noticed the red eyes! C-3PO has traded his red arm in The Force Awakens for glowing red eyes in The Rise of Skywalker. It may not seem like a big deal, but what if it is? Could C-3PO be a Sith sleeper agent? And if so, for how long?
On Monday, Lucasfilm released a new “special look” trailer for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and in addition to the bombshell revelation of Dark Rey wielding a red lightsaber, we also got a shot of C-3PO with glowing red eyes. Even C-3PO actor Anthony Daniels thought this was significant enough for us to think about, tweeting “Red is not just for arms…Red is not just for Christmas…Red is for…” But what does it mean? If you think about, it’s entirely possible that C-3PO is a sleeper agent for Palpatine and has been for quite some time.
See also: Could Palpatine Be Redeemed Like Vader?
Look, clearly, the red eyes in the trailer indicate C-3PO’s program has been changed. That much is clear. There’s literally no reason why this would be shown in the trailer unless it was significant. One easy theory would suggest that this is a new “battle mode” for C-3PO, which is why we all that saw leaked fan-art featuring him carrying Chewie’s bowcaster. The Resistance needs C-3PO to fight, so he’s been reprogrammed.
Unless of course, the Resistance didn’t give C-3PO the red-eye upgrade. But if C-3PO had a Sith program planted deep in his memory back during the prequels? Think about it, C-3PO was built by freaking Anakin Skywalker and present at Anakin’s wedding. At some point, Anakin could have embedded a sleeper program deep inside C-3PO, just in case he needed the droid to do his dirty work.
Anakin went through a pretty paranoid phase in Revenge of the Sith, so you can see this happening pretty easily. Sure, C-3PO’s memory was supposedly erased at the end of Revenge of the Sith, but what if one program survived?
On huge fan theory about Palpatine’s return is connected to the idea that maybe the baddest Sith of them all coming back through interconnected technology. Could C-3PO be a piece of that puzzle? The red eyes are certainly don’t make him seem innocent. — The Rise of Skywalker is out everywhere on December 20, 2019.
