The World of Star Wars

Let's talk about Star Wars, one of my favorite franchises.

While there are so many aspects of this film franchise I could write about, there is one aspect of it that popped into my head today, which I thought was worth exploring in a concise way.

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The World

I'm only going to talk about the original trilogy of films in this post, but maybe down the line, I'll discuss the world of the prequels.

The world of Star Wars opens up quickly, and we're thrust into a power struggle between rebel troops and an imperial regime.

Instantly, we're shown that the Imperials have the power, conveyed by their Star Destroyer, that engulfs the screen, displaying its magnitude. This isn't an accident. It's by design. It's supposed to be cold, imposing, and powerful. By comparison, the Tentive IV is smaller, but it still packs a bunch as it attempts to fend off the Star Destroyer with return fire.

It can't hold its own, however, so it is attempting to flee. That's where we find them.

We meet Darth Vader and his battalion of faceless soldiers. We hear of plans for something known as the Death Star, another imposing technological terror as it's referred to.

War and civil unrest are clear in this world, and the more time we spend here, the more we discover that this authoritarian regime has taken power, only to oppress the galaxy as a whole. While they struggle, in a way, to maintain order, they're willing to execute anyone who stands in their way. Including, but not limited to, incinorating moisture farmers, slaughtering Jawas and rven oblitorating an entire planet just to test their weapon and to demostrate their power. Not only this, we also see that the leadership of this regime very quickly kill eachother for simple failings, meaning that joining them doesn't guarantee your safety.

If you really think about it, it's a fairly dark world being painted here. But, opposing that darkness, there is hope. The ill equiped and much smaller Rebellion aims and succeeds in taking down this regime.

But, the the war isn't just between armies. There is a spiritual battle being waged, too, between the Jedi and the Sith. Good and Evil. Also, there is inner turmoil in the characters that populate this world.

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The Planets We See

From what we're introduced to in these three movies, there are no bastions of light.

We see Tattoinee, a world ravaged by Tusken Raiders; tribes who assualt anyone who gets lost. Stealing from and killing them if given the chance.

A world where Jawa's steal anything not nailed down, only to sell this stolen property to moisture farmers who reward this behavior by knowingly purchasing stolen goods. Also, these goods are basically sentiant droids who not only have minds, but - for some reason - also feel pain and fear. That, in and of itself, is fairly dark.

Mos Eisley is a crime riddled hell hole, and basically everyone there is willing to rip off, double cross each other if it means making a few credits. They'll also kill or harm others, just for not liking the look of them.

Lawless, and yet, even though there are Stormtroopers stationed here, people are still allowed to do whatever they want. So, the regime isn't bringing order. Instead, it seems very much like they're porpetuating chaos, so long as it doesn't affect their rule, it's fair game.

The Death Star shows us order, but that is to be expected of military personnel.

Bespin is the only other civilized place we see in the whole franchise. People seem happy there. Things are orderly and calm. But, it's a gas mining facility disguised as a city, ruled by someone who refers to himself as an admistrater, who comes across as a ruler rather than a businessman. He's the kind of person who gets what he wants and who has his own private army.

His right-hand man is a mute with cybernetic enhancements who is essentially plugged into the city. This job could have been given to a droid, but instead, this persons humanity is stripped away, so he can carry out numerous tasks for Lando.

When Han first arrives and tries to land, he is fired upon by the Cloud Car, and if he was flying a smaller vessel, he could have been blown out of the sky just for visiting.

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The other place we hear of is Anderon, Leigha's, home world, which we can only assume is a nice place, but it's destroyed before we ever get to see it.

These examples I used are the only places we see, and when you scratch the surface a bit you start to realise that just about everywhere in this Galaxy is horrible.

A place where crime lords rule, bounty hunters roam freely, people live lifes under the boot of a militaristic regime, where they toil away in the desert, or live in crime ridden lawless townships surrounded by barron wastes.

Your other option is to work dangerous gas mining jobs for an egotistical king who can basically do as he likes, backed by his own private security.