Please no more Boba Fett

I'll be honest. My toes curled with absolute dread and horror that it looked like this show was going to pull the Man Called Horse/Dances With Wolves conceit of the "pioneer" (usually a white guy) learning how to live like the natives and then surpassing them and showing them a thing or two about how to be better at their own culture. But maybe because it was Temuera, and maybe because it's Star Wars. And because they made it clear that Boba's tribe actually suffered because of him, they manage to negotiate that trope rather tastefully.

 

I think that's a good point. There is definitelly an element of colonialistic legecy in such stories, and, of course, cultural appropriation, too. However, in TBoBF I found that they pulled the alien culture off pretty well, and it didn't, to me, feel overtly like they reskinned a few human "primitive" cultures to create the Sand People. No, I thought the Sand People culture came off as pretty unique and interesting, and a great expansion of the SW lore (which also brought back in some fascinating Legends elements).

Off the top of my noggin, the only cultural element that was obviously inspired directly by a human culture, was the Maori war-dance thing (although there might be others that I don't recall off the bat). Still, with Temuera Morrison handling that stuff (and bringing it to the table in the first place, I believe?), that cultural facet seemed very respectul and empowering, I though.

But yes, you are right, we always run the risk of badly copying a colonially supressed culture when we invent these "primitive" peoples in fiction, but... I don't think Star Wars does this badly, to be honest (at least not in live action)? The Sand People, Aki Aki, Ewoks, Wookiees, and Gunguns all seemed pretty well and respectfully designed to me.

 

I can see it! I like JFO as a video game as I truly get to feel like Cal and the dread that an Inquisitor should bring a Jedi Padawan or a Jedi on the run, something that I haven't felt since Rebels Season 1. But I see your JFO tv series and raise you a KOTOR TV series! ...mostly for the exact reasons you describe and feel, but for a game that needs a bit more polish. (It's nearly 20 years old though, so I don't fault the game.)

 

Personally, I'm tired of Disney's obsession with featuring humble village tribes in every single piece of Star Wars entertainmeny since 2015. More often than necessary, they are shown to be brutally killed or mistreated by Imperials or the First Order. It's such a cheap way of forcing empathy upon the viewer.

I also don't get why all of these village tribes in Disney's Star Wars are so damn primitive. As far as I can remember, the only primitive tribe we saw in Lucas's films were the Ewoks, and that was because they had NO contact with the outside world. Comparingly, look at the gungans for example, they were a tribe but they still had access to amazing underwater technology because they were not isolated from the outside world.

But if you look at the Mandalorian for example, the planet of Sorgan is shown to have this primitive tribe living there even though it's frequently visited by bounty hunters and mercanaries. So if the planet is not isolated from the galaxy, why do they live like in the middle ages? And also, why are there so many human-only primitive tribes in the galaxy? Why do so many weird alien species now suddenly speak with human accents? It's so stupid.

I'm not against featuring a primitive tribe now and then, but it's literaly the only thing we get nowadays. It's always the same thing, and it's getting tiredsome.

 

You are certainly entitled to your opinions.

 

So, too many indigenous people, too many poor people, and too many weird accents...

How's the weather down there at Mar-a-Lago today?

 

I agree that it'd be a problem if all we got were less technologically advanced tribes being exterminated, but... is that what's happening?

Like, let's look at Andor, for instance:

We have two "primitive" groups, in the Kenari and the highland-inspired Aldhani. Then we have Ferrix (not super futuristic, but hardly primitive), Morlana I (more cyberpunk than anything), Niamos (a gosh-danged Star Wars resort planet), and Coruscant. It's pretty inaccurate to say that all we got were "primitive" tribes, when that's clearly not true. And even then... neither was really killed by the Empire. Mistreated, sure, but of course the Empire is going to be depicted as a negative force in these people's lives. That's what colonists do.

 

You're exactly correct.

I think the insinuation is that Disney is forcing an agenda of empathy for impoverished, indigenous, refugee and forcibly migrated peoples. The poster has also in previous postings, suggested that Disney has done wrong by pushing non-traditional gender roles on certain characters. I'm not "flaming" anyone, however, I also think it's everyone's responsibility to "if you see something, say something." I'll gladly take the reprimand if that's what it takes to stand up and call out toxicity.

 

These are the hallmarks of Imperialism. You can't have a series set in and about a totalitarian Empire and not show these things. That is the context and the setting as much as Coruscant, Alderann and so on and so on.

These anachronisms have been a major and consistent part of Star Wars since 1977.

 

It is true that we're also seeing more industrialized civilizations such as Ferrix, but they are not exactly "tribes" but rather just that - civilizations. My point was to emphasize the village tribes and Ferrix is hardly an example of that.

The likes of Ferrix also raises another issue - the fact that all of the more industrialized planets are nothing more than "Tatooine clones" with very little innovation to set them aside from each other. Frankly I can't see that much difference between Ferrix and Nevarro from the Mandalorian, or Jabiim from Obi-Wan Kenobi. Just a few examples.

Coruscant is an already established planet so it doesn't count. But, noone can deny that there are too few aliens in these new Star Wars projects. Of course this might have to do with the limited budget of TV shows compared to movies, but in that case - don't do it if you can't realize the vision of the Star Wars universe.

It is flaming though, because I wasn't talking about any agenda. You've brought up a lot of unrelated issues.

I think it's because of a lack of creativity and failure to understand what has come before. But mostly a rather uninspiring way of looking at society and warefare.

I do think they did an acceptable job with Mon Mothma's story in Andor, however. Perhaps they should've just called the show "Mothma" instead.

 

You can hate Ben Solo, or love him, but I still find it hard to believe DLF not only killed him off, but have done their best to act as if he never existed. Yet Boba Fett, a minor character in both the OT and the PT, got his own series...when Ben Solo was the last of the heroes' bloodline.

 

The wife and I rewatched Avatar last night in preparation for the new film coming out this weekend. Coincidently, this came on the heels of a visit to the Heard (Native American) Museum earlier this week.

It's impossible to watch Avatar and not reflect upon the real-life traumas Native Americans felt as much of their way-of-life and culture was destroyed as United States expansion swept across the continent. You might think the villains in Avatar were 'over-the-top' in their callousness and cruelty. In actuality, we treated Native Americans a hell of a lot worse.

One particular exhibit detailed our attempt to 'solve the Indian problem' by re-educating 'the savages.' Indian children were taken from their parents and sent to reindoctrination camps. So, if Disney is 'obsessed' with showing how so-called civilized humans can treat other peoples they view as inferior, I say more power to them. Maybe our generation will finally learn something.

 

Just imagine that it's called Mothma then. You have the power.

Problem solved.

 

I'm British, and we have our own 'sins' of history, but I vividly remember watching a documentary about those children years ago...I cried when I saw the little graves of many of the children who had quietly died of broken hearts after being stripped of their homes, culture and families. A friend and former colleague of mine told me the following day, that she had too.
'Man's inhumanity to man'....terrible.

 

This discussion was about lack of creativity yet people like you are turning it into a political discussion for no reason whatsoever.

George Lucas always had political understones and statements in his Star Wars films, but they were always very, very subtle. They were there, and Lucas always wanted to make a point, but he understood the importance of telling original, escapist fantasy stories that didn't take you out of the movie.

Also, I'm not American so I can't really relate to anything that you're saying. But seriously, even if something is informative for the public that is no excuse for reusing the same trope over and over again. This is about a lack of creativity, make no mistake. I'd appreciate if we could keep it this way instead of deluding into unrelated issues.

 

I don't think they meant any harm, Boss.