{"id":41,"date":"2017-11-16T10:56:32","date_gmt":"2017-11-16T15:56:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/postcolonialstarwars\/?page_id=41"},"modified":"2017-12-12T16:07:25","modified_gmt":"2017-12-12T21:07:25","slug":"rachel-sipress","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/postcolonialstarwars\/anthology\/fall-2017\/rachel-sipress\/","title":{"rendered":"Rachel Sipress"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Rebellion and Violence in the Star Wars Original Trilogy<\/h1>\n<\/header>\n
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\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 In the original\u00a0<\/span>Star Wars<\/i><\/span>\u00a0trilogy, there is a<\/span>\u00a0Manichean moral dichotomy between the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire. The Galactic Empire is seen as completely evil, destroying entire planets mercilessly, while the Rebel Alliance is presented as morally superior: celebrating after the destruction of both Death Stars with no thought given to the many souls who died in both these attacks. The rebels take lives but they are the lives of faceless stormtroopers or the hundreds of thousands who die anonymously on the Death Star.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Frantz Fanon opens\u00a0<\/span>Wretched of the Earth<\/i><\/span>\u00a0with a declaration of violence:<\/span>\u00a0\u201c<\/span>National Liberation, national reawakening, restoration of the nation to the people or Commonwealth, whatever the name used, whatever the latest expression, decolonization is always a violent event\u201d<\/span>\u00a0(<\/span>Fanon 1.) Fanon argues that decolonization cannot come without violence, and while violence is shown in\u00a0<\/span>Star Wars,<\/i><\/span>\u00a0it is violence without consequence. The only blood that is shown in all three movies in the original trilogy is during the cantina scene in\u00a0<\/span>A New Ho<\/i><\/span>pe\u00a0<\/i>when Obi-Wan\u00a0Kenobi slices off the arm of an alien\u00a0who is bothering Luke.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=g6PDcBhODqo&t=2s<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Star Wars<\/i><\/span>\u00a0repeatedly takes complex topics and reduces them to black and white questions of morality. Yet, the act of rebellion is not so simple. Those rebelling must use violence and this violence is what makes that act so difficult. The choice for freedom comes at a moral cost.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Frantz Fanon was an Afro-Caribbean revolutionary who became involved with the Algerian National Liberation Front and the Algerian War of Independence. By studying his treatise on decolonization,\u00a0<\/span>Wretched of the Earth,\u00a0<\/i><\/span>and Algerian writer Albert Camus\u2019\u00a0<\/span>The Rebel\u00a0<\/i><\/span>along with the historical events of the Algerian revolution, the ways that Star Wars succeeds and fails to present an accurate representation of revolution can be seen.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0In order to understand decolonization, Fanon first sets up the dichotomy between the colonist and the colonized. It is a<\/span>\u00a0<\/b>\u201c<\/span>compartmentalized world, this world divided in two, is inhabited by different species\u2026Looking at the immediacies of the colonial context, it is clear that what divides this world is first and foremost, what species, what race one belongs to\u201d<\/span>\u00a0(<\/span>Fanon 5). Race and colonization are intrinsically linked, and yet in Star Wars, this link is partially ignored.\u00a0The Star Wars series does set up a divide between humans and aliens that seems to mirror the race relations of colonization, yet the Rebellion is overarchingly comprised of humans, particularly in positions of power.<\/span><\/div>\n
In fact, in both\u00a0A New Hope<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0The Empire Strikes Back<\/em>, there are almost no aliens shown as part of the Rebellion.<\/div>\n
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https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=33vAARXby6s<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It is not until\u00a0Return of the Jedi<\/em>\u00a0that aliens are shown to be a large part of the Rebel Alliance and then only Admiral Ackbar is depicted as being a leader.<\/div>\n
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https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=uQR6r6uRA9k<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The outskirt planets, such as Tatooine, are the colonized sectors as Fanon describes:<\/span><\/div>\n
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The colonized\u2019s sector is a famished sector, hungry for bread, meat, shoes, coal and light. The colonized\u2019s sector is a sector that crouches and cowers, a sector on its knees, a sector that is prostate. It\u2019s a sector of niggers, a sector of towelheads. The gaze that the colonized subject casts at the colonist\u2019s sector is a look of lust, a look of envy. Dreams of possession.<\/span>\u00a0(<\/span>Fanon 4)<\/span><\/em><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Tatooine is depicted throughout the entire series to be a place on the outskirts of society. It is a planet with scorching suns and little water or vegetation. It is inhabited by moisture farmers, criminals, and aliens, all ruled over by the gang-like Hutts. One of the only instances in the original trilogy where the Empire is shown to be a subjugative force, outside of military engagements with the Rebellion, is on Tattooine when stormtroopers are shown patrolling Mos Eisley and questioning civilians.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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