Editing C-3PO (section)

=== Prequel trilogy ===
{{Main article|Star Wars prequel trilogy}}
[[File:Star Wars. Where Science Meets Imagination, C-3PO 2007.jpg|thumb|right|C-3PO featured on a 2007 Star Wars poster]]
C-3PO returns in ''[[Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace|The Phantom Menace]]'' (1999), the first film of the prequel trilogy. The film reveals that C-3PO was built on Tatooine by the nine-year-old slave boy [[Anakin Skywalker]]. The protocol droid meets his future companion, R2-D2, along with [[Jedi Master]] [[Qui-Gon Jinn]], Queen [[Padmé Amidala]] of [[Naboo]] and the [[Gungan]] [[Jar Jar Binks]]. C-3PO and R2-D2 help improve Anakin's podracer for the [[Boonta Eve Classic]] race, and C-3PO becomes part of Anakin's pit crew. C-3PO and Anakin part ways when Qui-Gon frees the boy from slavery and takes him off-planet. Before leaving, Anakin assures the droid that his mother Shmi will not sell him.

''[[Episode II – Attack of the Clones|Attack of the Clones]]'' (2002) is set ten years after ''The Phantom Menace''. Shmi is kidnapped by a group of [[Tusken Raiders]]. Sensing that his mother is in danger, Anakin travels with Padmé to Tatooine, where they reunite with C-3PO. He presents Anakin and Padmé to Anakin's stepfamily: [[Owen Lars]], [[Cliegg Lars]] and [[Beru Whitesun]]. When Anakin returns with his mother's body, C-3PO attends her funeral. When Anakin and Padmé depart Tatooine, C-3PO accompanies them to the planet [[Geonosis]] to rescue Obi-Wan from the [[Sith|Sith Lord]] [[Count Dooku]]. Shortly afterward, he follows R2-D2 into a droid-construction factory, where his head is exchanged with that of a [[battle droid]]. Influenced by the battle droid's programming, C-3PO reluctantly participates in the film's climactic battle scene. After being restored by R2-D2, he leaves Geonosis with his companions. At the end of the film, he is a witness to Padmé and Anakin's marriage on Naboo.

In ''[[Episode III – Revenge of the Sith|Revenge of the Sith]]'' (2005), C-3PO is aware of Padmé's pregnancy. After Anakin falls to the dark side of the Force and becomes the Sith Lord Darth Vader, he takes C-3PO and R2-D2 with him as he massacres the Jedi. C-3PO rationalizes Vader's behavior by saying he has been under a great deal of stress. The protocol droid accompanies Padmé to [[Mustafar]], where he witnesses Vader strangle her into unconsciousness. C-3PO and R2-D2 then take her to safety. When Obi-Wan returns to their spaceship following his duel with Vader, C-3PO pilots it to [[Polis Massa]] and witnesses Padmé give birth to the Skywalker twins, Luke and Leia. C-3PO and R2-D2 become the property of Captain [[Raymus Antilles]], who orders C-3PO's memory erased to protect the Skywalker children from their father and the newly created [[Galactic Empire (Star Wars)|Galactic Empire]].