The Fall Of Skywaker - Why 1 Character's Story Underscores the Problems with the Sequel Trilogy
18In this video, we discuss why C-3PO's story arc undermines a lot of the issues many people, including myself, have with the Disney Star Wars sequel trilogy.
See our Rise of Skywalker reaction video at https://youtu.be/mW2vzByAJEw
C-3PO and R2-D2 are two of the most iconic characters in any film franchise anywhere. They are meant to serve as the eyes and ears of the audience through the first three movies, or middle 3 movies, 4, 5, and 6, you know what I mean. As such, I connected to these characters at a young age. That's why I to see what happened to them as their stories concluded in the Disney trilogy really disappointed me.
For those who have not seen the movie, be warned at this point that there will be spoilers moving forward. With that out of the way, one of the major plot points of Rise of Skywalker is that C-3PO was able to read and translate a Sith dagger, which included coordinates on where to find the Wayfinder. Yes you have to find a device to find another device. But that's a video for another time. C-3PO successfully translates the dagger, however, his programming prohibits him from sharing the information. This means they have to find a master droid hacker to allow him to release the data, Babu Frick
When they get to Babu Frick, he tells the team that of course he can do the data extraction. He can bypass the programming. But there is a risk to C3PO, he may lose all of his memories. This would essentially make C-3PO a blank slate once again, with him having no memories after Revenge of the Sith until this movie. Now, I know some people would rather forget Revenge of the Sith and the two movies preceding this one, seeing C-3PO possibly lose his personality provided a lot of weight.
Finn actually asks C-3PO, "Doesn't Artoo creates backups of your memory files", which C-3PO instantly dismisses that you cannot trust Artoo-Detoo's fault data files for memory backup. With all of tis information, the procedure is done by Babu Frick, the translation with the coordinates is provided, and as feared C-3PO lost all of his memories.
As we return to the resistance base, C-3PO runs into Artoo-Detoo and introduces himself, just as he did when they first met in the Phantom Menace. R2 tries to remind him that he is his best friend, to which C-3PO mentions that he would remember if you had a best friend. Pissed off, Artoo-Detoo connects to C3PO on the top of the head with some appendage, and begins to upload all of his memories. C-3PO reactivates, and bam, he's back to his old self. This essentially negates any and all risk to C-3PO.
To me, this no risk-risk takes me out of the movie. Since C-3pos memories were never really in any danger, the sacrifice that he offered doesn't mean much. It shows that he has, if a Droid can have one, a good soul, but in the end there was nothing at risk. Without risk you can't have a real reward, which seems to be an underlying theme in this entire trilogy. The risks are false, rewards come easy, and writers get out of sitcky situations through plot armor and lazy story writing.
#RiseOfSkywalker #C3PO #StarWars
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