Ooooh - good point! They never really took responsibility for this did they? Maybe the Sith were actually the good guys?
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For a series that touches on slavery so often Star Wars never really knew what to do with the topic.
For example, when L3-37 talks about freeing her fellow droids from slavery it’s treated like a joke that just gets eye-rolls from everyone else.
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I think the Sith were known for subjugation and enslaving whole star systems.
So maybe by comparison the Jedi were like, “We are only using clones, who aren’t even real people, as conscripts. After the war they can retire and live out the rest of their age accelerated lives.”
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In all fairness it is in every modern war novel and movie in the last century or so as well. Especially those dealing with World War 1. The most “cannon foddery” of modern conflicts.
They had an arc where the clones were mutinying over a Jedi who was wasting their lives needlessly.
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Yeah that… still sounds like slavery to me.
Especially since there was never any indication that the Jedi or the Republic had any plans to grant clones their freedom after the war.
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Jar Jar actually does have major plot significance.
In Ep 2, Padme is indisposed on Geonosis. She’d been spending the previous 5 years fighting the military creation act in the senate along with Mon Mothma and Bail Organa.
Jar Jar is manipulated into introducing the motion to give palpatine special emergency powers, and to ratify the military creation act.
At that point, the senator from Naboo was the only person who could have prevented that, and Jar Jar failed in his last onscreen blunder.
Jar Jar is the one who initiated the clone wars proper.
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Turns out the Republic designed them to go into a murderous rage and kill everyone and themselves.
Jar Jar’s character was entirely unnecessary for that plot development. Palpatine was able to carry out his political machinations in the Senate just fine without Jar Jar’s help in Episodes I and III.
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No. Jar Jar disposed Padme, and used that power to install his apprentice as emperor.
If you accept the Sith JarJar premise, the original trilogy makes a lot more sense… and all of the signs are there.
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And likewise Rey could have been replaced by any other poorly charaterized force user.
How about Coleman Trebor?
I feel that the blase way clones were treated as expendable and how droids are mistreated speaks to how white the writers for Star Wars have been. There’s loads of problematic themes that are not just glossed over but actually dealt with tacit approval.
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Rey’s character could have been changed to a different force user, but her character was still central to the plot. Change Rey and you change the entire trilogy.
Jar Jar could have been written out entirely without any major changes to the plot.
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I’ve heard a rumor that there was a chunk of the storyline cut out about how Palpatine was sucking out Amidala’s life force using the Dark Side to extend his life or something. I understand that the runtime on that movie was already quite long and some things had to go, but “she died of sadness” is not an acceptable replacement.
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I quite enjoyed all the movies. And I refuse to let anyone’s “hot takes” take that away from me.
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To be fair, it seems like the council wasn’t aware that the army was commissioned.
They were also between a rock and a hard place. Their position as peacekeepers wasn’t tenable once some asshole brought in his enormous droid army, and having a clone army basically fall in their laps gave them an out. That said, shouldn’t the Republic been in charge of the clone army? Jedi are space wizards, not generals. Their training is all about swinging laser swords and telekinesis, not logistics and strategy. Just because you test positive for Jedi doesn’t mean you have any business leading hundreds of thousands of people (or aliens, or robots) into battle.
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When one comes into possession of slave army—whether through their own actions or someone else’s—the only morally justifiable thing to do is to at least OFFER those slaves their freedom before sending them to die for your cause.
Any cause that depends on slavery to succeed isn’t a cause that deserves to succeed.
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AHEM
Mr. Roddenberry would like a word:
The UFO (Enterprise) was in low enough for visual contact by a fighter pilot…
Per Spock, they were too low in orbit to maintain it, but impulse would allow travel in the atmosphere.
Please turn in your Nerd Card immediately…
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“Sir, the slaves all did the sensible thing and left, because they aren’t going to die just for plot convenience.”
“Well, at least I’ll die with dignity then.”
I’m going to disagree, and say that The Last Jedi is the best Star Wars movie since Empire, that Force Awakens is a real love letter to SW, and that Return of Skywalker, for all its flaws, still manages to both be enjoyable, and actually pull its twists off, serving as a solid finish to the sequel trilogy.
All in all, as a whole I’d rank them above the prequel trilogy, easily.
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Emulation is no excuse for terrible storytelling. For comparison, consider the ST films of Nicholas “King of Pastiche” Meyer.
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