Who built C-3PO?

The story behind the answer

In The Phantom Menace, a gifted Tatooine slave boy assembles a protocol droid from scavenged parts to help his mother, Shmi. That separates him from the distractors: Luke encounters the droid decades later when Jawas sell it on Tatooine; Obi-Wan is the Jedi mentor who travels with the droids but didn’t construct them; Padmé is a Naboo queen and senator, not a mechanic.

Initially “naked” without outer plating, the droid later receives coverings and the iconic gold finish. Designed for etiquette and translation—fluent in over six million forms of communication—he partners with astromech R2-D2 as a comedic, connective thread across the saga. His memory is wiped at the end of Episode III, smoothing continuity into the original trilogy.