Proof that the Tuskens are evil:
1. They kidnapped an innocent woman who was doing nothing more than picking mushrooms off vaporators on her own property.
2. They took her back to their encampment, where they strung her up to a post crucifixion-style.
3. They took turns beating her with gaffi sticks, leaving her with broken bones and internal hemorrhaging.
4. They did this, day in and day out, for a period of a month.
5. A search party went after them, a search party of 30 people--the Tuskens killed 26 of those 30, and chopped Cliegg's leg off.

The Tusken Raiders were brutal savages and probably did the same to others. Anakin did everyone a favor by wiping them out.

 

1. Did all the Tuskens do that collectively so they all deserved to die? Even the dog and children?
5. They could have been defending their territory. And in a life or death situation, would the search party have possibly killed the entire encampment like Anakin would do? In other words they would be justified in their violent response because the humans did eventually treat them brutally.

 

I'm gonna do everyone a favor by going back in time and wiping out our brutal savage ancestors.

By why bother going back in time? Kidnapping, torture, territorial war? Let's do everyone a favor and wipe ourselves out.

 

I think I'll bring the old phrase two wrongs don't make a right into this. Yes, the actions of the Tuskens were deplorable. No, Anakin should not have unilaterally and indiscriminately killed them all. The correct thing to have done would have been to report the incident to the relevant authority.

 

I agree with you that Anakin shouldn't have killed the Tuskens.

However, I don't think he had the option to report the incicent to the relevant authority. Tatooine is a lawless planet, there is no legal judicial system. It's law of the jungle, pure anarchy. Even if there was some kind of law, there is still no authority to enforce it. Law that can't be enfored is useless, think about "international law". There was no chance for Anakin to bring them to justice in a lawful way. Just like Jabba the Hutt couldn't ask "Tatooine police" to confiscate Han Solo's assets. It's a "system" where the stronger individual wins. The Tuskens were stronger than Shmi and her people, Anakin was stronger than the Tuskens. Han Solo was stronger than Greedo.

Of course, Anakin shouldn't have killed them from our moral system's POV.
That said, for better or worse and emotions aside, he "only" followed the planet's barbarous "rules".

 

"And not just the men. But the women and the children too."

Even Anakin knows he killed innocent beings, hence the differentiation. I'm not sure what's left to defend.

Not to mention that he's a Jedi.

 

In a perfect scenario, Anakin would retrieve his mother and defend himself against any Tusken aggression. The only thing is, the sight of his dying mother made him lose his mind; he was no longer acting in self-defense, but revenge and aggression (definitely not the Jedi way). While many were murderers, Lucas put in the 'women and children' part to make the distinction that Anakin was not justified in the massacre. We can understand his motivations, but that doesn't make it acceptable.

 

It reminded me a little of the David Gemmell novel The Sword in The Storm, when the hero pretty much does the same thing - to the home village of the people who killed his wife. It was published a bit before AoTC as I recall.

And a point is made of how child-killing is never acceptable - and that those killings will haunt him forever.

 

I agree with SlashMan , even if the tuskens were murders, Anakin took revenge on the tuskens including women and children which is certainly not the Jedi way.

 

Which is one of the things Palpatine takes advantage of, when he's gotten Anakin to kill Dooku - comparing the killing of Dooku to the killing of the Tuskens:

"It's only natural - he cut off your arm, and you wanted revenge. It wasn't the first time, after all..."

Or, as the novel puts it "Have you ever thought that the Jedi way might not be the right way?"

 

I disagree with you Anakin should kill the tuskens they are animals, they cant bring shmi back to life so why not kill them???
If that was your mother would you just forgive them or slaughter them for what they did.

Remember everyone lives once, anakin can never speak to his mother again the person he loved and missed for all them years.

 

Why is no one allowed to hate the tuskens? I would defend the women and children but there is no reason to they all grow up to be vicious monsters.

1. They sacrifice each other to the sarlacc (their god in the EU)

2. They snipe innocent podracers

3. They kidnap Shmi for no apparent reasons and torture and do unspeakable things to her.

4.They attack Luke and 3-P0 for no reason.

5. countless other EU atrocities.

 

Ok, I'll bite:

Even if that was true (which it isn't), what kind of logic is that? Are you implying that animals should be killed because of their nature?

Seriously? Ethics aside, does killing them bring Shmi back to life? No.

Neither. Who's even asking for forgiveness?

So...?

 

*Bitting my tounge so hard its bleeding*

 

Hate leads to suffering, bro.

Do you even Star Wars?

 

Thank you, I don't understand why some people back up the tuskens for when they done nothing good but torture and kill innocents for no reason.

 

Bad acts don't justify equal bad acts. Mercy is powerful. What Anakin did isn't just.

 

Why do the majority seem to assume that the Tusken women are innocent? In some tribal cultures, torture of prisoners is specifically a female responsibility.

I'm never comfortable with Anakin's line, because a Jedi should know better than to assign people to different categories of compassion/worth/responsibility based on biology. Now, it's possible what Anakin meant was that the male Tuskans attacked him directly because in their culture it's their job to engage enemies and the females do not; therefore, he was drawing a distinction between those he killed in defence/combat and those he just attacked even if they weren't fighting him - still potentially problematic in terms of his ethical evaluation but fair enough - but still, the "women and children" line is not one I like. Not in reality and not from a Jedi.

 

Anakin hates sand, it gets everywhere.

 

So its okay for the tuskens to kill everyone else on Tatooine. But not for the tatooine settlers or hell even the native jawas to kill tuskens? In addition to them murdering and torturing Anakins mother, people on tatooine generally despise the tuskens anyways (RAIDERS RAIDERS RAIDERS.) They murder, pilage, salvage, and possibly do something inappropriate to mention on this site to female tatooine settlers. (But that's a discussion for another time) I never see anyone crying for Jango, jabbas henchmen, the sepratist leaders, or the innocent imperial personel on both death stars... so yea I'm not crying for these nasty salvages or their women and children.