Star wars: The portrayal of minority and female characters

[Aractus]

I was working in order of canon not release.

Even young what's-it knows better than that!

Now I will say a few things, that will likely offend your sensibilities. Star Wars is a visual medium, and the thought at the time (and in fact a long time before that) is that Beauty = Good and Ugliness = Bad. You can see this is many old films - Wizard of Oz for example. Good Witch = the beautiful one, Evil Witch = the ugly one. It's not until more recently that this old age-old adage has been challenged. Indeed Disney's Beauty and the Beast wouldn't have been a success if not for the existence of this very adage. In Beauty and the Beast, the "Beast" is cursed to be an ugly monster because that is what's inside of him, and it's not until the end of the film when his inner ugliness has gone that his outward appearance also changes back to loveliness.

In Star Wars, George Lucas takes this even further. He uses the Yin and Yang colours of Black and White to depict Good and Evil. This can be seen in both the original trilogy, and in the prequel trilogy. In the fourth film, the Phantom Menace, both Darth Maul and Palatine wear dark outfits throughout, and Darth Maul's face is black-and-red, with horns.

The Jedi do wear dark brown robes, however underneath they have pale, tan-coloured garments. Anakin wears the same colours, and R2D2 is white as well. Move on to the Fifth film - Attack of the Clones - again, the Jedi are in the same light-coloured tan clothing, and all the Evil characters are in dark/black outfits including Count Dooku and even Jango Fett. But there's a difference. While all the other Jedi wear outfits consisting of brown, white and tan, Anakin is wearing brown, tan and black. Notice though that Padme is in light coloured outfits, and a white outfit throughout the third act.

In the Sixth film, we see Anakin in predominantly black & dark outfits, thus showing us visually his fall from the "light side" of the force. You will notice, even at the beginning of the film, where Obi Wan wears the same white, tan & brown outfit, anakin is in black, black, and darker brown (yes the brownness of the outer robe itself is visually darker than Obi Wan's, for the first time in the PT saga).

The same thing can be seen throughout the original trilogy as well, and the most blatantly obvious part is when Luke removes Vader's Black mask in the third film to reveal a White face, which is the visual cue to the audience that this person, Anakin, has shifted from the Dark side back to the Light side of the force. And if you think that's racist, perhaps think about how the only "morally ambiguous" Jedi is Samuel L Jackson with his black face and purple lightsaber. He is clearly morally ambiguous by the fact that he wants to kill the chancellor in cold blood, despite having him at his whim.

[ApeNotKillApe]

Mace Windu is morally ambiguous the same way a houseplant is morally ambiguous.

[downbeatplumb]

The Star Wars movies are f'ed up.  When has any republic on Earth ever had a monarchy?  It seems like Lucas missed out on civic classes.  The Republic characters were insurrectionists and terrorists. The Jedi are evil guys, like ISIS. The movies are perfect examples of brainwashing, where you cheer for the bad guys (the Jedi) and condemn the good guys who want to restore law and tranquility to the galaxy (the empire, which only has one royal member, the emperor).

And Parsec is a unit of distance not time.

[Brian37]

When you consider the scale of the galaxy and all of the inhabited worlds if you could stop an insurrection by destroying one planet wouldn't you do it?  Did the empire have unlimited resources to occupy hundreds of millions of planets?  How many life forms would die in a protracted galactic war?

You realize you are talking about a movie, right?

Don't underestimate delusion in mass, there are people attempting to turn Star Wars into a religion. If L Ron Hubbard a si fi writer can start a religion, don't be surprised if some delusional fans turn it into one. Legends and myth are how all religions start.

http://www.jedichurch.org/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jediism

Now I am sure the current crop think it is all in fun and harmless, but this is also why I don't like atheists forming "churches". Harmless now does not insure harmless forever for future generations.

[Lemonvariable72]

I was working in order of canon not release.

Even young what's-it knows better than that!

Now I will say a few things, that will likely offend your sensibilities. Star Wars is a visual medium, and the thought at the time (and in fact a long time before that) is that Beauty = Good and Ugliness = Bad. You can see this is many old films - Wizard of Oz for example. Good Witch = the beautiful one, Evil Witch = the ugly one. It's not until more recently that this old age-old adage has been challenged. Indeed Disney's Beauty and the Beast wouldn't have been a success if not for the existence of this very adage. In Beauty and the Beast, the "Beast" is cursed to be an ugly monster because that is what's inside of him, and it's not until the end of the film when his inner ugliness has gone that his outward appearance also changes back to loveliness.

Yes that is true. And in truth still very commonly used.

In Star Wars, George Lucas takes this even further. He uses the Yin and Yang colours of Black and White to depict Good and Evil. This can be seen in both the original trilogy, and in the prequel trilogy. In the fourth film, the Phantom Menace, both Darth Maul and Palatine wear dark outfits throughout, and Darth Maul's face is black-and-red, with horns.

Yes and his work here is very skillful. You reference darth maul, well the make-up and visual effects for his character were spot on, create a menacing bad guy that will kick your ass. He follows through on that in probably the best fight scene with a light saber in all of them. But for the most part that is true, lucas leverages the natural association with light as good and dark as bad because he is using a visual medium. Two notable exceptions to this are han solo (wearing a mix) and luke in the return of the jedi(where luke is in all black for most of the movie). Aslo you have the storm troopers in all white.

 
The Jedi do wear dark brown robes, however underneath they have pale, tan-coloured garments. Anakin wears the same colours, and R2D2 is white as well. Move on to the Fifth film - Attack of the Clones - again, the Jedi are in the same light-coloured tan clothing, and all the Evil characters are in dark/black outfits including Count Dooku and even Jango Fett. But there's a difference. While all the other Jedi wear outfits consisting of brown, white and tan, Anakin is wearing brown, tan and black. Notice though that Padme is in light coloured outfits, and a white outfit throughout the third act.

In the Sixth film, we see Anakin in predominantly black & dark outfits, thus showing us visually his fall from the "light side" of the force. You will notice, even at the beginning of the film, where Obi Wan wears the same white, tan & brown outfit, anakin is in black, black, and darker brown (yes the brownness of the outer robe itself is visually darker than Obi Wan's, for the first time in the PT saga).



The same thing can be seen throughout the original trilogy as well, and the most blatantly obvious part is when Luke removes Vader's Black mask in the third film to reveal a White face, which is the visual cue to the audience that this person, Anakin, has shifted from the Dark side back to the Light side of the force. And if you think that's racist, perhaps think about how the only "morally ambiguous" Jedi is Samuel L Jackson with his black face and purple lightsaber. He is clearly morally ambiguous by the fact that he wants to kill the chancellor in cold blood, despite having him at his whim.

First off, what does sameul jacksons skin color really have to do with anything? Also, darth vaders skin color has nothing to do with his alignment, its because he has 2 pasty white kids. Black parent != White kids, not how gentetics work. Also that particular moment to which you refer hardly makes mace windu morally ambigious because he knew that to put the emperor on trial would mean the death of the republic.[/quote]

[Aractus]

First off, what does sameul jacksons skin color really have to do with anything? Also, darth vaders skin color has nothing to do with his alignment, its because he has 2 pasty white kids. Black parent != White kids, not how gentetics work. Also that particular moment to which you refer hardly makes mace windu morally ambigious because he knew that to put the emperor on trial would mean the death of the republic.

Okay, I'm just going to answer the Darth Vader question. In the first two movies he's evil, and he's black, and voiced by a black man. In Return of the Jedi he's still evil, and still black, and still voiced by a black guy. But when he is redeemed and comes back to the light side, his son removes his mask to reveal a white face. When he was on the dark side everything about him was black, when came back to the light side suddenly he's white. And for the first, and only time, in the original trilogy, he's also voiced by a white guy instead of a black guy. Given that this colour theme runs out throughout the entire trilogy - even in terms of the spaceship interior colours (black & battleship grey for bad, white for good), I conclude this was an intentional doing by George Lucas.

This leads us nicely back to Samuel L Jackson - he's the black speck in the white section (the Yang) of the Yin and Yang. And so, for that matter, is Lando. He is the black speck of Yin in the white Yang.

[Tiberius]

And Parsec is a unit of distance not time.

To Lucas' credit, he explained this one in commentary. In the Star Wars universe, ships can't travel through hyperspace in straight lines because they have to avoid collisions with objects (planets, moons, stars, etc). The Millennium Falcon's navigation computer was superior to other ships of its class, and could plot shorter routes between the same two points via hyperspace. So the boast that the ship can make the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs is basically a boast that the ship can get through hyperspace faster than most ships because it can calculate shorter routes. The Kessel Run isn't a set route via hyperspace, and presumably most ships have to fly more than 12 parsecs in order to complete the run.

There's an alternative explanation in the expanded universe which states that the Kessel Run is a popular route for smuggling operations, and is usually 18 parsecs long, because you have to navigate around a cluster of black holes and pilots don't want to fly too close to them. Solo's boast is a way of telling people that he is such a daring (and skilled) pilot that he managed to shave over 6 parsecs off the route by flying dangerously close to black holes.

[Wyrd of Gawd]

And Parsec is a unit of distance not time.

To Lucas' credit, he explained this one in commentary. In the Star Wars universe, ships can't travel through hyperspace in straight lines because they have to avoid collisions with objects (planets, moons, stars, etc). The Millennium Falcon's navigation computer was superior to other ships of its class, and could plot shorter routes between the same two points via hyperspace. So the boast that the ship can make the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs is basically a boast that the ship can get through hyperspace faster than most ships because it can calculate shorter routes. The Kessel Run isn't a set route via hyperspace, and presumably most ships have to fly more than 12 parsecs in order to complete the run.

There's an alternative explanation in the expanded universe which states that the Kessel Run is a popular route for smuggling operations, and is usually 18 parsecs long, because you have to navigate around a cluster of black holes and pilots don't want to fly too close to them. Solo's boast is a way of telling people that he is such a daring (and skilled) pilot that he managed to shave over 6 parsecs off the route by flying dangerously close to black holes.

I wonder what kind of go-juice you have to have in your tank to zoom through hyperspace?  I doubt if it would be cheap.  

The Milky Way's diameter is about 100,000 light years or 30,660.139 parsecs.

12 parsecs is about 39.12 light years. So even if he was scooting along at 20 times light speed it would still take him almost 2 years elapsed Earth time to cover that distance one way.

[Anomalocaris]

The law appearently doesn't even apply here.  See democratic people's Republic of Korea, ruled by three generation of Royal kims, nor the Roman republic, whose last 400 years were ruled by a secession of monarchs, some hereditary, some not.

Learn history before commenting on it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Republic
"The Roman Republic (Latin: Res publica Romana; Classical Latin: [ˈreːs ˈpuːb.lɪ.ka roːˈmaː.na]) was the period of ancient Roman civilization beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom, traditionally dated to 509 BC, and ending in 27 BC with the establishment of the Roman Empire."

Learn the difference between convenient ex post catagorization and contemporary official positions before attempting to rebut.

The form and facade of the Roman republic was maintained during all of the early and middle empire.  The republic was never dissolved, and no transition from the republic ever acknowledged by the Roman state. Formally Roman republic continued to exist until well after the western empire is generally acknowledged to have fallen in 476 AD. The notion that the republic ended with the foundation of Augustinian principate is an ex post catagorization by near contemporary malcontents and later historians.

[I_am_not_mafia]

I was working in order of canon not release.

Even young what's-it knows better than that!

Now I will say a few things, that will likely offend your sensibilities. Star Wars is a visual medium, and the thought at the time (and in fact a long time before that) is that Beauty = Good and Ugliness = Bad. You can see this is many old films - Wizard of Oz for example. Good Witch = the beautiful one, Evil Witch = the ugly one. It's not until more recently that this old age-old adage has been challenged. Indeed Disney's Beauty and the Beast wouldn't have been a success if not for the existence of this very adage. In Beauty and the Beast, the "Beast" is cursed to be an ugly monster because that is what's inside of him, and it's not until the end of the film when his inner ugliness has gone that his outward appearance also changes back to loveliness.

In Star Wars, George Lucas takes this even further. He uses the Yin and Yang colours of Black and White to depict Good and Evil. This can be seen in both the original trilogy, and in the prequel trilogy. In the fourth film, the Phantom Menace, both Darth Maul and Palatine wear dark outfits throughout, and Darth Maul's face is black-and-red, with horns.

The Jedi do wear dark brown robes, however underneath they have pale, tan-coloured garments. Anakin wears the same colours, and R2D2 is white as well. Move on to the Fifth film - Attack of the Clones - again, the Jedi are in the same light-coloured tan clothing, and all the Evil characters are in dark/black outfits including Count Dooku and even Jango Fett. But there's a difference. While all the other Jedi wear outfits consisting of brown, white and tan, Anakin is wearing brown, tan and black. Notice though that Padme is in light coloured outfits, and a white outfit throughout the third act.

In the Sixth film, we see Anakin in predominantly black & dark outfits, thus showing us visually his fall from the "light side" of the force. You will notice, even at the beginning of the film, where Obi Wan wears the same white, tan & brown outfit, anakin is in black, black, and darker brown (yes the brownness of the outer robe itself is visually darker than Obi Wan's, for the first time in the PT saga).

The same thing can be seen throughout the original trilogy as well, and the most blatantly obvious part is when Luke removes Vader's Black mask in the third film to reveal a White face, which is the visual cue to the audience that this person, Anakin, has shifted from the Dark side back to the Light side of the force. And if you think that's racist, perhaps think about how the only "morally ambiguous" Jedi is Samuel L Jackson with his black face and purple lightsaber. He is clearly morally ambiguous by the fact that he wants to kill the chancellor in cold blood, despite having him at his whim.

Any thoughts as to why Luke wears black when he confronts Vader? I noticed that even as a child. I put it down to him coordinating his wardrobe on the off chance that he ends up turning to the dark side.