We’ve seen plenty of Star Wars characters become bona fide heroes. Luke and Han rescued Princess Leia from the Death Star, Ahsoka Tano saved the Ghost crew from the wrath of Darth Vader, even Kylo Ren had his moment after turning against the Dark Side.
However, there’s one character in the Star Wars movies who’s never really been as heroic as the rest. The Star Wars droid C-3PO, the gold protocol droid, has always been something of a fuddy-duddy — we’d say he had a rod up his ass, but we’re pretty sure Anakin put that there deliberately when he built him. It’s not his fault, though; C-3PO was built for diplomacy, not for blasting stormtroopers.
It turns out, though, that we’ve been underestimating poor C-3PO. He actually is quite heroic; it’s just that the scene of his bravery ended up on the cutting room floor.
The scene in question was cut from The Empire Strikes Back (one of the best science fiction movies ever made) during the Imperial’s attack on the Rebel’s Hoth base. In the original script the Wampas — those yeti-like monsters, one of whom tried to eat Luke Skywalker — also attacked the base just before the Empire.
Scenes of the Wampa attack were actually filmed, including one in which C-3PO played a nasty trick on the invading stormtroopers. You see, with the base infested with Wampas, the Rebels put up warning signs so their agents wouldn’t wander into danger.
During his hero moment, C-3PO tore down one of these signs, so the stormtroopers were unaware of the danger and wandered into a death trap. It’s fine. They were agents of a tyrannical government, so we don’t have to worry about the sanctity of their lives.
Anyway, if you love Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars, and why wouldn’t you? They’re some of the best movies ever made; you’ll love our list of the best sci-fi series, or if you’ve been wondering what the Star Wars cast has been up to, we have a piece on that as well.