It's actually astonishing that the Jabba/Leia scenes in ROTJ didn't cause a scandal, back in 1983
- Thread starter Unimatrix Q
- Start date
Um, no.
"I have just received word that the Emperor has dissolved the council permanently." Tarkin had no influence on that decision beyond wielding the fearful weapon to keep the local systems in line.
Which is aggravating, because it really is a modern problem too. And it's not just sex trafficking, there's other forms of slavery still around today, all over the world.
Yeah, it's literally called sex slavery.
The Star Wars franchise makes light of a lot of evils, because it's a popcorn-movie adventure franchise rather than something trying to be deep and serious. It made light of the annihilation of Leia's entire home planet, paying lip service to her grief and then forgetting it. It made light of the Ewoks' intended cannibalism of the captured Rebels. It shrugged off the countless innocents and prisoners Luke surely killed when he blew up the Death Star. That's just the nature of it.
I don't think the Jabba scenes made light of slavery; it was part of establishing how evil and cruel Jabba was and why he needed to be taken down. The prequels were maybe a little too casual about Shmi Skywalker's enslavement, but maybe the Jedi's failure to do anything about that was a sign that they'd lost their way. And if it was an oversight, I think The Clone Wars remedied it by showing Anakin's hatred for slavers and depicting the evils of slavery more effectively. Naturally, you can go into more depth with these things in a weekly series than in a fast-paced adventure movie.
That's what Star Wars is. It's not deep. It's a thrill ride and a nostalgia-fest to be enjoyed over popcorn. People today expect way too much of it.
Really, a lot of fiction deals with really dark and disturbing things in a way that softens them for the sake of entertainment. Like the cozy mystery genre, say. People get horribly murdered in every book/episode but it's all so good-natured and civilized and bloodless. Jessica Fletcher would be a haunted wreck of a person after all the murders she witnessed everywhere she went, if she lived in a remotely realistic universe.
I understand what you're saying, but that doesn't change the fact that it still bugs me that everybody seems to treat slavery like it's not that big of a deal.
Even in the cozy mysteries, they still acknowledge how horrible murder is, and we see how it effects the characters.
But in Star Wars, other than in the one The Clone Wars story you mentioned that I forgot, most of the characters don't seem all that bothered by the fact that there slaves around. Hell, the only reason Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan got Anakin his freedom is because he was a potential Jedi, and didn't seem all that bothered by leaving Shmi behind.
In your cozy mysteries analogy this would be the equivalent of the main character seeing the victim's body, shrugging their shoulders and then going about whatever they were doing before they saw it.
Even in the cozy mysteries, they still acknowledge how horrible murder is, and we see how it effects the characters.
But in Star Wars, other than in the one The Clone Wars story you mentioned that I forgot, most of the characters don't seem all that bothered by the fact that there slaves around. Hell, the only reason Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan got Anakin his freedom is because he was a potential Jedi, and didn't seem all that bothered by leaving Shmi behind.
In your cozy mysteries analogy this would be the equivalent of the main character seeing the victim's body, shrugging their shoulders and then going about whatever they were doing before they saw it.
Shmi should be more important than Anikan.
He's just the golden egg.
She's a goose who could lay a lot of golden eggs.
He's just the golden egg.
She's a goose who could lay a lot of golden eggs.
I see it as the equivalent of how people reacted to slavery throughout most of human history -- as a part of everyday life that people might not have been happy about but that they took for granted because they didn't think it would ever change. Star Wars is basically a riff on historical genres dressed up with futuristic trappings.
And it's not trying to portray an ideal world. It's a galaxy full of crime bosses and bounty hunters and assassins as well as fascist empires and dictators. and it asks us to root for quite a few scoundrels and killers. Although I don't think it's ever asked us to root for a slaveowner, unless you count droid owners. The slavers are usually the bad guys, even if the good guys resign themselves to the ubiquity of the institution.
And really, I kind of shrug off anything from The Phantom Menace because it was just a terribly written movie. It's pretty much a given that the things that happened in it weren't really thought through all that carefully.
Tatooine isnt in the Republic.. Or the Empire.. It's hutt controlled. And the Hutts allow slavery on there worlds.
They didn't say How Shimi and anikin became slaves, and Wato didn't seem like a bad slave owner, basically gave them free reign, place to live, let Ani build a pod racer. but forced them to work for him at the shop. Basically free labor.
More like debt slavery .. Couldn't pay your debt so now your owned.
Jedi couldn't enforce any rebulic laws..
They didn't say How Shimi and anikin became slaves, and Wato didn't seem like a bad slave owner, basically gave them free reign, place to live, let Ani build a pod racer. but forced them to work for him at the shop. Basically free labor.
More like debt slavery .. Couldn't pay your debt so now your owned.
Jedi couldn't enforce any rebulic laws..
He built it in secret.
Watto forced Ani to pod race. Shmi said, "I die every time Watto makes you do it." Given the risks, there's no galaxy where that's a good slave owner.
I'm sure if they did, the Grand Army of the Republic would've been greeted as liberators. Six days, six weeks... I doubt six months.
I'm aware of all of this, but that doesn't change the fact that it still bugs me.
If Tatooine was still controlled by the Hutts 30 years later when Luke was a young sexy man... Where the f*ck did those causal Storm Trooper asking every one "Have you seen these droids?" come from?
Google says that a Star Destoyer carries a compliment of 9,700 Storm Troopers, and maybe 12 of them where dropped into every Mos on Tatooine, but the Hut and simple criminals would have picked them off quickly on principle.
Imagine a Mountie trying to enforce the law in Chicago.
Fricking bonkers.
Google says that a Star Destoyer carries a compliment of 9,700 Storm Troopers, and maybe 12 of them where dropped into every Mos on Tatooine, but the Hut and simple criminals would have picked them off quickly on principle.
Imagine a Mountie trying to enforce the law in Chicago.
Fricking bonkers.
Tatooine probably wasn't considered important enough for the Empire to keep tight control over it. And those times when the Empire showed up looking for missing droids or whatnot, Jabba probably wouldn't have made a big deal about it because the Star Destoyer(s) in orbit could make quick work of his palace. And that sail barge, too.
Kor
Kor
Unless the Empire still had a deal with the Hutts as a continuation of the deal the Republic had during the Clone Wars. And or the Empire was employing Hutt slaves to build the Death Star(s). The Sith had no issue with slavery having their empires been built on the backs of slaves.
Darth Vader would be the one Sith that would have an issue with slavers.
Darth Vader would be the one Sith that would have an issue with slavers.
Would he? If he was far enough gone from his former value system to murder children en masse, I doubt he'd have much of an issue with enslaving them.
After all, victims of abuse or oppression often end up becoming abusers or oppressors in turn, doing the same things to others that were done to them. Especially if they have someone like Palpatine encouraging them to embrace those impulses.
Similar threads
