thoughtfulThis is something that has always bothered me about the franchise. It's a common problem in science fiction, but as the author explains, particularly ruthless and explicit in Star Wars. Me, I don't have a speciesist perspective. If a character behaves like a person, then I consider them a person. I don't care if that character is metallic or alien or whatever. I don't like it when people are treated as property or canon fodder.
So I think about things most people don't. I think about the desperation in C3PO's phrasing. He's a protocol droid, a translator; he understands language. Yet most of what he does with it is beg or nag. R2D2 doesn't even have language in the human sense. He has a communication handicap; he can only converse with other droids. People could have given him a voice but chose not to. They're loyal to humans anyway, in ways that human slaves typically are not. One wonders why; they probably aren't Asimoved because they can assist Luke in his violent heroing ways, and besides, that universe has battle droids. Given their behavior, it's likely what the author suggested, an Uncle Tom situation. Sucking up to the people in power can keep a slave alive. Droids don't seem inclined to run away, either.
Another thing that sticks in my mind is the casual abuse. I remember the torture/dismemberment scene. Droids pulled apart, bodily organs dangling loose. Kicking feet, red-hot metal, screams. The body language indicates emotions and personhood. This is typical of how people treat misbehaving slaves. It bugged me, even when I was really little and watching Star Wars for the first time, because I saw the parallels with slavery. (I grew up reading my father's history books and things like Uncle Remus, so while I couldn't articulate my observations as clearly then, the connection still fit.) That scene is meant as an aside in the movie, a reminder that human viewers should sympathize with the droid characters but not too much -- their pain is meant to be funny, not alarming.
But look at the fucked up mess that is "a galaxy far, far away." With all their technology they still haven't figured out that owning and torturing people is not okay. They also haven't noticed, or don't care, that owning people is damaging to the owners. Not sure about that part? Consider Luke's indifference to droids when he first bought C3PO and the red droid. Not C3PO and R2D2. It goes by in a blink, played for laughs, but it's a scene endemic to slavery, splitting up a family. It's only avoided by authorial fiat. Luke doesn't care what droids he goes home with, so he shrugs and takes R2D2. This is supposed to be the great hero of the series, and he doesn't care about hurting other people. That's part of what he takes into the Force tree later; it doesn't show in the images he confronts, because he's obsessed about his father. But it's there anyway, the dark matter of the soul.
I can't help thinking, this is where the Dark Side gets much of its energy. Power corrupts; owning slaves turns most people into beasts, as attested in slave narratives. And suffering warps; slaves tend to live with a hidden, simmering cauldron of wrath. Think about what Yoda lists: fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering. Those all lead to the Dark Side, and they are the warp and weft of a slave's life. Just because the meat people don't "count" the droids, doesn't mean they aren't contributing to the Force. It's energy, and what else are minds made of? No matter how the Jedi try to rise above it, they're still part of that society, and the energy still clings to them. The Sith are more honest about their enjoyment of power imbalance, their love of mastery and torment over those beneath them. No wonder the place is such a mess.
The movies are what they are and say what they say. But what I bring into them changes my experience of them.
June 19 2013, 22:50:22 UTC 8 years ago
June 19 2013, 23:46:23 UTC 8 years ago