My son loves the animated Clone Wars series. He knows way more about the characters of that world than he does about Luke Skywalker, Han Solo or any of the Star Wars characters I grew up with. And the show is actually pretty entertaining, especially when compared to those last three films. But as an old-school Star Wars fan I just find it weird that I'm now supposed to be cheering for Stormtroopers, knowing full-well that they're eventually going to wind up as the shocktroops of a ruthless Nazi-like empire. I mean, even the name "Stormtrooper" is derived from German assault troops in World War I. Yet to my son, Stormtroopers are now cool. They're one of the coolest parts of the Clone Wars series. So basically George Lucas has given us a show set in pre-World War II Germany where you find out Goebbels and Himmler were actually pretty cool dudes. Almost as cool as Anakin Skywalker, the other big hero of the series. Who we all know eventually turns out to be Hitler!
Is George Lucas crazy-genius or just flat-out fucking crazy? I can't tell anymore.
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5 comments :
George Lucas has lost his mind. Fascism has been creeping into our country for quite some time now and the new star wars Clone War saga is only a mirror image of what we are experienceing at the moment. That, or perhaps, I am losing my own mind. But good observation though.
I so completely agree with your thoughts, though... While there is debate over this, I always loved the idea that Storm Troopers were in fact Canadians:
The term "storm trooper" was first used by the Germans in the First World War to describe the Canadian troops that they had to fight against. Canadian troops were most feared by the Germans during the First World War, and the German army always prepared for the worst when an attack was spearheaded by the Canadian army.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_a_stormtrooper
Or maybe replace "cr" with "l": he's a lazy genius who lost track of his own continuity a long, long time ago in a place that may or may not be far away depending on your proximity to California.
I call Godwin's Law.
Other than "storm trooper," there's no real connection to National Socialism. The Empire didn't appear to have a program of racial purity, neither Anakin nor Vader were Hitler (wouldn't this be the Emperor?), and I'm not sure what the reference to Goebbels and Himmler means. In short, military dictatorship isn't the same thing as fascism (just ask Franco.
And it's obvious that Lucas wants us to like Anakin and value the Clones. That's kind of the point. It makes their fall all the greater (remember your Aristotle, kids).
I know it's hip to piss on Lucas now, but that's no excuse for shoddy criticism.
Actually, Daniel Shea, I think there was an intended species purity propagated by The Galactic Empire. In the original films, while there are aliens galore, The empire only has humans members of the military.
It's implied that the empire only used aliens as bounty hunters. And the back story for Han and Chewie was that Han freed him from some type of imperial bondage/slavery - if I remember correctly.
I believe Timothy Zahn's books (the first real expanded universe books) make this a bit more convoluted. Thrawn is obviously an alien.
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