So, one thing about the Prequel Trilogy is that the enemy armies were droids. There is no evident moral dilemma in blowing up droids, at least no dilemma that carries over into the real world, because machines aren't people. That's obviously not the case when fighting armies of conscripts or volunteers.
One of the things I notice right off the bat here is that helmeted troopers are getting mowed down, but the uniformed officers, who are arguably more evil but whose faces we can see, aren't. That doesn't bode well with respect to my moral compass, as if this trend continues the effective implication is that it's OK (if not fun) to kill enemy troops provided you can't see their faces. I'd at least feel better about it, if the show made a point to remind us out loud that there are people behind the masks.
Now, a couple of criticisms on plausibility issues.
Where are the officers' sidearms (or other weapons)? If a cliché is in operation here, it would be that the officers are presented as the equivalent of noncombatants, in order for the narrative to account for why the rebels don't need to shoot at them too (the problem being that we can see their faces). That reinforces unrealistically skewed expectations of how such things operate in the real world.
Second, and more serious, I don't believe for a microsecond that that poor street vendor who was getting taken away on a trumped-up charge of treason was savable. The officer would have ordered at least one trooper to continue taking him in. Treason is a capital offense, and you'd have more than sufficient cause not to drop bringing in someone branded a traitor, of all things. I also have to wonder whether letting a traitor go is also treason. The imminent loss of an innocent would have given better moral context for the actions that followed. In contrast, the way it was actually handled contributes to the false impression that arrest on serious charges is easily resolvable, which bothers me in the context of a show aimed at children.
I won't jump to final judgment based on only seven minutes, but I have problems and concerns here that the tone is not striking the most appropriate balance between subject matter and audience, in how to present war to young people.
One of the things I notice right off the bat here is that helmeted troopers are getting mowed down, but the uniformed officers, who are arguably more evil but whose faces we can see, aren't. That doesn't bode well with respect to my moral compass, as if this trend continues the effective implication is that it's OK (if not fun) to kill enemy troops provided you can't see their faces. I'd at least feel better about it, if the show made a point to remind us out loud that there are people behind the masks.
Now, a couple of criticisms on plausibility issues.
Where are the officers' sidearms (or other weapons)? If a cliché is in operation here, it would be that the officers are presented as the equivalent of noncombatants, in order for the narrative to account for why the rebels don't need to shoot at them too (the problem being that we can see their faces). That reinforces unrealistically skewed expectations of how such things operate in the real world.
Second, and more serious, I don't believe for a microsecond that that poor street vendor who was getting taken away on a trumped-up charge of treason was savable. The officer would have ordered at least one trooper to continue taking him in. Treason is a capital offense, and you'd have more than sufficient cause not to drop bringing in someone branded a traitor, of all things. I also have to wonder whether letting a traitor go is also treason. The imminent loss of an innocent would have given better moral context for the actions that followed. In contrast, the way it was actually handled contributes to the false impression that arrest on serious charges is easily resolvable, which bothers me in the context of a show aimed at children.
I won't jump to final judgment based on only seven minutes, but I have problems and concerns here that the tone is not striking the most appropriate balance between subject matter and audience, in how to present war to young people.
