Natalie Portman in "Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones"

As a Star Trek and Star Wars lover since my childhood, I've been trying to explain plot holes since I was old enough to be eating in lunch rooms at school. I'm used to it by now. It can be pretty fun, though.

 

I meant that as a disclaimer, if what I said didn't make a damn bit of sense.

 

It's the Lucas universe. "Sense" is often a relative thing, so don't worry. We do the best we can.

 

Yes, he would. He would. He'd have to make sure he hadn't lost his investment. Shmi was basically like a Mail-Order-Bride, as far as their relationship went. He even looks desperate ...

 

Theoretically. Maybe. But he was her husband, and he did say he loved her dearly and they had a good life together. I'm going with love and affection on this one.

 

Oh, I'm sure he believed that. And I'm sure that we're meant to, as well. That's the real problem with the prequels, though - this revolving door of characters who are on for 3 minutes and we have no way to know, much less care, about them. And there's absolutely no shading to anyone, whomsoever. But buying a slave, just to marry her ... that's just too suspicious to simply "accept." There's something going on, there. Some psychological impedimentia is at work ... not too unlike a teenaged Padme taking to the awkward flirtations of a 9 year old slaveboy. This whole family's screwed up. They say alcoholics are drawn and attracted to eachother, without even realizing it. I suspect this is a variant on that theme.

 

Mudball?

SANDball.

 

Guy, I'm pretty sure Tatooine was NOT a part of the Empire. It wasn't part of the Republic. That's part of the reason why they hid Luke there. And in New Hope, Vader has to land a group of Stormtroopers to look for them. There didn't appear to be a pre-existing Imperial presence there. And the novels further establish how Hutt Space is not a part of the Empire and they work very hard to keep it that way. Han Solo actually commanded a Hutt fleet to repel an Imperial attempt to conquer Nar Shadda.

 

From what I can glean Tatooine and the Outer Rim were under partial Imperial military occupation and "protection" but were never formally incorporated into the Empire itself as a province or district. The Hutts - Jabba specifically - retained their authority over the planet as a commerce and smuggling hub with the Empire providing muscle if necessary. Luke was safer on Tatooine than in any of the central systems in the galaxy because most Imperials considered the planet a lump of hot sand off on the outskirts of known space and it had little or nothing to offer.

 

Wookiepedia:

Although the planet was thereafter considered technically part of the Republic's Arkanis sector, the Hutts became its de facto rulers when they arrived in 65 BBY using the planet as an important transfer point between the Triellus and the Corellian Run.



At the time of the early Galactic Empire, the planet's population was estimated to be roughly 200,000, excluding the inhabitants of the indigenous tribes. Jabba's Empire resumed its alliance with the larger galaxy via the Galactic Empire.[29] In 18 BBY the Empire stationed several battalions of stormtroopers on the world to be picked up by the Eye of Palpatine, which never arrived.[30] It also had a small garrison in Mos Eisley, although the troops stationed there paid little heed to the crime infesting the spaceport.

 

It technically being part of the Republic is consistent with Qui-Gon's frustration in not being able to spend his credits. Not to mention Padmé's astonishment that the laws against slavery don't apply there.

 

She can't explain what happened.

It helps to be able to hover in midair.

 

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Quai Gon said that Tatooine was not part of the Republic, and the republic does not allow slavery.

20 years later, those storm troopers seemed to me like beat cops enforcing Imperial law that were garrisoned on tatooine. Of course now I know that there is an Imperial Army, and that Storm Troopers were (cough) the elite, even if they were by that point possibly no longer clones.

But here's a no brainer, how could a non Imperial Citizen apply to the Imperial Academy without jumping through a shit load of hoops? Why would a non Imperial Citizen want to fight for the Empire? Surely that's treason to whoever Owen pays his taxes to... The Hutt? I can see the Hutt collecting protection, but actual taxes just seems too dogmatic for those thugs.

Once you remember that Beru and Owen knew that Luke was not allowed into the hub of the Empire, they seem a lot less like selfish asshholes after cheap labour on their farm.

If Owen wanted cheap farm labour, why didn't he have slaves if they were still legal? Droids are cheaper than slaves?

 

Droids sure seemed to do more of the manual labor on the farm by the time of the OT. Part of Luke's reasoning to go ahead and submit his application to the Imperial Academy was because his aunt and uncle had "more than enough droids" to handle the next harvest. That said, we were never told exactly why Cliegg bought Shmi in the first place unless the reason was to free her all along. Who knows, he might have become smitten with her during landspeeder trips into Mos Espa to pick up parts and supplies and decided he'd brought in enough from the previous harvest to be able to give Watto an offer he couldn't resist?

 

Droids probably are cheeper than slaves - you don't have to feed them, house them, clothe them. Stick 'em in a corner of the garage and switch them off when you're done with them. Shove them in a trunk, just like I do with my....


Um. Never mind.

 

^ So you do have the droids I'm looking for.

I knew it!

 

Droids with usable levels of intelligence (yes, for thousands of years Droids have been at the same level of tech if we look at the superretroprequel novels and games set in the old republic.) have made slaves redundant for just about any service job or commercial enterprise you would consider fit for disposable labour.

Of course if there is no functionality to slaves, what about collectability?

Slaves could be a boutique novelty item of the idle rich?

Hell, they could even be a unit of currency for storing wealth.

Certainly if slaves were so expensive, you wouldn't want to do anything to them to devalue them or damage them, which means you would wind up losing a small fortune if you set your slave off to do anything more intrepid than light dusting.

(Who just imagined a cross between a feather duster and a light sabre? Good. You're just odd enough.)

 

It's all the CGI. The British Actors are used to saying silly things to paper dragons with all seriousness. Theater background is good for something.

You'd be surprised how quickly intelligent people change their minds about selling to you when your put a blaster to their heads.

Actually, I'm completely dumbstruck by the fact that no one considered just killing Watto and taking the parts they needed, which would have been both faster and safer than entering the pod race.