“Whos more foolish, the fool, or the fool who follows him?” -Obi WanLike many of us, I’ve always been irritated by C-3PO, dismissing him as nothing more than comic relief at best and another awful Lucas-era stereotype at worst. I’ve also found his personal introduction to make no sense: “I am C-3PO, human-cyborg relations”. When has he ever helped with that, he’s nothing more than a translator! But in the course of rewatching the saga movies for a completely different analysis, I started to notice some patterns around 3PO’s behavior. The more I watched the more his actions appeared deliberate rather than haphazard. Things that have long been viewed as inconsistencies or terrible dialogue or even minor plot holes made sense for the first time in light of the pattern.C-3PO isn’t simply a bumbling sidekick translator, he is a support operative designed to keep the team on track and manage the various personalities of the heroes to keep things moving in the right direction. Anyone who manages people knows that the more talented someone is, the larger their personality flaws and eccentricities tend to be. By observing and analyzing the behavior of the people around him and utilizing psychological algorithms, 3PO has all but mastered the art of injecting just the right line at the right time to achieve the optimal shift in mood, usually at his own expense. Combine that with the strategic expertise from years of involvement with Rebellion operations, and you have a perfect “secret coach” for the Rebellion’s A-team, who can direct their action and optimize their team dynamic while appearing harmless and insignificant.3PO uses several different tactics to achieve the result he wants while covering his tracks to remain in the background (examples of each are included further below):Straight up Lying - There are at least four clear cut examples of 3PO lying to humans in the OT, with many more implied.Interrupting “Obliviously” - When group emotions are going too far in any direction, 3PO cuts in loudly and enthusiastically to kill the emotional momentum and redirect it towards “Irritation with 3PO”Overreacting - If you make a mistake and you don’t want someone to be mad at you, just get overly mad at yourself, and they’ll talk you down and gain sympathy for you instead of being angry. 3PO does this when heroes make unpopular plans (that 3PO actually thinks are the best course of action), reacting so over the top that everyone else comes to that person’s defense and gets angry with 3PO instead of being angry at the plan.Overtalking - After making a suggestion, he continues talking until the target is annoyed and dismisses him. This makes both 3PO and his influence easily forgettable and overlooked.Incremental Responses and Waiting to Present Solutions - You can see 3PO experimenting with people’s moods and actions many many times. He’ll feed out a line, watch for an emotional shift or particular action, then depending on the response (or lack thereof) he’ll either feed out another line (if no reaction), backpedal (if the target overreacted) or go quiet (if he got the response he wanted). He also has a tendency to wait until absolutely no human is realizing the solution to the problem before he’ll direct them towards the solution.Presumption - “Selling past the sale” is when you start a statement with something unconfirmed that you’re presenting as accepted fact, then continue on with a question about that “fact”, which leads the target to accept the first statement as true because they’re focused on the question at the end. 3PO uses this to include or exclude himself from certain missions and groups.Reading the Room - Not an active tactic of manipulation, but a very clear pattern for 3PO. He is always studying the people around him, but particularly when there are either new people interacting with his crew or someone has done something unexpected (in which case 3PO is frantically trying to take in data on everyone’s responses so he can get better at predicting/manipulating human behavior in all situations). Whenever there is a surprise, watch 3PO go ballistic in the background, studying everyone frenetically.Almost every interaction from 3PO in the OT involves one of these tactics, and the sum total is a larger influence on the team’s actions than you might think, as well as a more cohesive team who are all irritated with 3PO instead of each other, despite all the Alpha personalities involved.Examples:Straight up LyingANH - 3PO claims not to know who Leia is when Luke sees the hologram, but earlier said "there'll be no escape for the princess this time". He's not revealing anything about the Princess until he gets a better read on this kid.ANH - Lies to stormtrooper to get them to go to detention level (feigns panic and basically says “they went thatta way!”)ANH - Lies to control room guard to get out of control room (R2 is busted, I'm taking him to maintenance)ESB - Why would a protocol droid know the odds of navigating an asteroid field? He’s making it up, and sure enough it motivates Han who says "never tell me the odds" and takes it as a dare. 3PO knew the asteroid field was their only viable option so he supported it in his unique reverse psychology way.ROTJ - “Its against my programming to impersonate a deity” (immediately impersonates a deity)Interrupting and RedirectingESB - Han starts fighting with Chewie about taking the Falcon apart and 3PO comes in hot to diffuse, then does it again with the deck officer (getting Han to focus anger on him rather than the subordinate), then calls Han an impossible man (because the smuggler is unpredictable and harder for 3PO to analyze and manipulate than the Alliance servicemen he’s used to)ESB - Right before the base tech says "theres nothing else we can do, we have to close the doors", 3PO sets expectations with, "Mistress Leia, R2 says he's been quite unable to pick up any signals, although he does admit that his own range is far too weak to abandon all hope."ESB - Leia and Han start fighting as they prep the Falcon to escape Echo Base and 3PO jumps in ESB - Cuts in at the right romantic moment to disrupt the chemistry after Han and Leia kiss. If Han and Leia are all couple-y this early, they'll be irrational, unfocused and less likely to survive. Perfect example further down. You can actually tell this is BS from him because earlier he said the issue was the “negative power coupling” and here he says it's the “reverse power coupling”. Similar, but different.ESB - Tries to get Chewie to restrain himself when Han is being frozen (“you have a responsibility to me, don't do anything stupid, I'm not ready to die”) in order to keep Chewie from being blasted by Imperials.ESB - Cuts off Chewie's angst at losing Han with irritation (“Turn around I can't see”)OverreactingANH - Gets overly mad at R2 when he and Luke catch him, precipitating a sympathetic/forgiving responses from Luke instead of angerANH - Begs not to be deactivated (and talks about doom and being melted or blasted) then after losing an arm says Luke should leave him to die. Overreacting to endear himself to LukeESB - Uses another fake statistic about the odds of surviving to get Leia to stop questioning Han’s “direct assault on the star destroyer” plan and focus on 3PO instead.ESB - “Captain Solo you’ve gone too far this time!” to get Leia and Chewie to focus on him instead of questioning Han's landing claw plan. 3PO knows this is a great plan, he’s deflecting criticism away from Han.Overtalking ANH - Talks Luke into suggesting R2 to Owen after R5 blows, then actually gets a “that enough, shut up” hand from LukeIncremental Responses and Waiting to Present SolutionsANH - 3PO: Is there anything I might do to help?Luke: No not unless you can alter time, speed up the harvest or teleport me off this rock.3PO: I don't think so sir, I'm only a droid and not very knowledgeable about such things. Not on this planet, anyway. (First of all, how would he know about any of these things in any context on any planet? BS. He’s fishing for a segue into discussing adventure/rebellion so he can gauge where his new master stands politically. It doesn’t go anywhere, so he resorts to bluntly saying "what with the rebellion and all")Luke gets SUPER interested, and 3PO backpedals to adjust (he’s used to jaded soldiers, not enthusiastic 17 year olds):“I'm not much more than an interpreter and not very good at telling stories.”ESB - “R2 says the chances of survival are 725 to 1” (literally the best odds anyone states in the whole series)Doors close and Chewie cries“Actually, R2 has been known to make mistakes…”Leia doesn't move or react“...from time to time.”ESB - Listening to the Probe droid audio, no one says anything until 3PO gently suggests,”it's not Rebel, could be imperial", then he looks back at them waiting for someone to take action until Han volunteers to go check it out and 3PO turns around.ESB - Points out the issue "hyperdrive motivator damaged" only once Han has given up hope of escaping. Revealing this earlier would’ve been more practical but he waits in hopes of someone else figuring it out and getting credit.ESB - 3PO spends 2 seconds hitting a switch or two on a panel and knows exactly how to fix the ship, and allows Han to take credit from Chewie for it.ESB - In the space worm belly, "Sir if I may venture an opinion" trying to influence or suggest something, probably "hey this could be a giant space worm" or "check the transfer circuits if you want to fix the hyperdrive"PresumptionANH- 3PO presumes that he and R2 are staying in the DS control room instead of joining the team, likely so they can download everything they can from the entire Imperial Network.ROTJ - Presumes his way onto the hero team when they split up to look for Leia. Luke says, “Come on R2 we'll need your scanners” and 3PO cuts in with “Don't worry master Luke, WE know what to do”.Reading the RoomANH - After the DS briefing the pilot says to Luke "thats impossible" and 3PO tunes in, getting ready to interject something to make the conversation more optimistic until Luke says, "No, I used to target womp rats", at which point 3PO realizes an adjustment isn’t required and he looks awayESB - After Leia kisses Luke (and everyone is surprised), C3PO's head is on a swivel, feverishly analyzing everyone's reactionsESB - Leia shouts "Saw what?!" as they’re evading star destroyers and 3PO rushes in to intercede, but it wasn't actually a fight so he just looks bumbling.ESB - For strictly an etiquette and protocol droid, he seems to lag behind and look around a lot in Cloud City, which seems like the absolute perfect time for him to serve his primary function (etiquette and protocol when a princess is meeting with a bigwig administrator for the first time). Just as we have, he's gotten a solid read on the type of person Lando is just by watching the first minute with him, and is more concerned about the strategic situation they're in.ROTS - "Hush, not so loud" 3PO says to R2 when Anakin comes back to Padme after becoming killing younglings. "Well he is under a lot of stress" about Anakin to R2. Thats obvious to us, but it does represent emotional analysis and intuition on the part of an etiquette droid.Clues that he is more than he seems: The entire saga - Why would he be included on any mission if he was only what we see him as? He’s just short of completely useless, and far more irritating than productive… at least on the surface. Leia sees his value, as does Obi Wan.ANH - Obi Wan says "They must be delivered safely or other star systems will suffer the same fate as Alderaan”. Not just R2 with the DS plans, but 3PO as well? Why?ANH - During their DS escape: "Come on R2, we're going." Authoritative and confident when its only R2 around. His prissy cowardice is an act meant to influence and disarm humansANH - He’s the only droid standing at the Yavin central command console during the DS trench run, alongside top Rebellion leadership. Must be important.ESB - Sees a 3PO unit (who says something rude, why would a strict etiquette droid do that?) and then hears an R2 unit. Are these pairs a common thing in the galaxy and/or the Rebellion, and R2/3PO are simply the best pair that the Alliance has?ROTJ - There is no indication that Han’s plan involved Ewok backup (since he had no idea it was a trap), but the Ewoks have several constructed defenses in place already (catapults, log traps, etc), so it's likely that their new “god” arranged for all of this preparation and kept it a secret so it would only be used as a last resort (and he still didn’t take credit for it).AOTC - "I am programmed to understand Humans!" to R2, who replies with "what does that mean?" "It means that I am in charge here". We’re meant to think he means “I’m in charge of you, R2”, but it's more accurately 3PO implying that he is directing the action behind the scenes.ROTS - Padme says to her assistant/security when she's leaving for Mustafar "Besides, 3PO will look after me". Uh, a simple protocol droid?What happens when 3PO isn’t able to help?Just as illustrative as the examples of when 3PO does help is when is doesn’t or can’t help. He is powered off three times in the OT, and during each of those times something terrible could have been avoided:ANH - Tatooine - If he hadn’t been powered down at Obi Wan’s hut, he would’ve been able to help Obi Wan convince Luke to go with him to Alderaan, avoiding the whole “seeing the charred bones of your family” business.ESB - Post Asteroid Field - If he hadn't been powered down during the landing claw plan, he probably would have done something irritating to diffuse the warm fuzzies Han had after Leia kisses him and says he does have his moments. If Han had been more focused instead of goo goo eyed, he would've had the common sense to look for pursuers as he flew away from the junk pile, and would've noticed Boba Fett LESS THAN A MILE BEHIND HIM. How do you miss that?? 3PO's mood management would've literally prevented Han's capture and Hutt imprisonment.ESB - Cloud City - If he hadn't been powered down in Cloud City, he'd have picked up quicker than any human that Lando was setting a trap, based on his body language and roundabout explanation, as well as the body language of the guards they pass. Chewie starts to pick up on it but it's too late. Again, a chance to avoid capture and carbonite.I could go on about how the prequels comfortably fit into this theory and give some potential explanations of how C-3PO came to be this way, but this has already dragged on longer than I’d hoped, so I’ll end with a summary in the TL:DR. Thanks for reading and I hope this gives you a different perspective the next time you watch the OT.TL:DR: C-3PO isn’t irritating and bumbling, he is a precise psychological operative designed to optimize team performance by redirecting negative feelings away from teammates and onto himself. He maximizes team cohesion and balances all of the big personalities of the heroes while gently guiding them to solutions and letting them take credit. R2 is in on the game, and Alliance leadership likely are as well (including Leia, probably). He’s not the hero of the saga by any means, but he is much more heroic than we thought. via /r/StarWars http://ift.tt/2BMq8K4
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