5 Reasons Why It Doesn't Matter How C-3PO Got His Red Arm In Star Wars: The Force Awakens

1. It's Another Echo Of The Original

The dominant takeaway from The Force Awakens was that it was a beat-for-beat parallel to A New Hope. But it goes beyond such broad sweeps as a future Jedi hiding out on a desert planet and a villain decked in black; there's lots of minor call-backs to the original films hidden in there because, like George Lucas said, it rhymes.

And C-3PO's red arm is one of these; across the first trilogy, the golden droid had a conspicuous silver leg, a visual shorthand used to further how Star Wars was just another chapter of a story set in a lived-in universe. At the time no explanation was forthcoming, because it didn't matter, and while it was eventually explained in a 1995 comic, it was never that big a deal - to the point few (if any) pieces on the red arm have remarked on the parallel (and Disney haven't addressed it in their new-canon either).

The red arm could have nicely echoed this contextual element by just being there, a sign of the multitude of adventures between Episodes VI and VII and a subtle throwback for observant Star Wars fans. Instead its just another minor

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