PT Defending Anakin and the Tusken

Does anyone not know why he did that? I mean, it's literally spelled out:

- I HATE THEM!!

and

- Just help me save Padmé's life. I can't live without her.
-----------------------------------------
- Do not hesitate. Show no mercy. Only then will you be strong enough with the dark side to save Padmé.

 

Fair enough. OK, we have discussed the whys and evils of his deeds in pretty much detail throughout this thread. I have nothing much to add at this point.
How about execution? How would you rate that? To me the Tatooine sequence is one of the most powerful in the entire saga. That talk with Cliegg in the house, Anakin's absolute determination "to find my mother", his and Padmé's shadows hugging, parting, the search, music, landscapes and sandcrawler looming at twilight, and finally him returning with his mother's body the next day.... I think that sequence was superbly done by Lucas. Thoughts?

 

I agree! It's a beautifully depicted tragedy. In hindsight (2021), I would've preferred a more nuanced portrayal of the Tusken Raiders (showing a bit more of them to really get the point across that as a people, they are in fact not mindless monsters but a society of families and individuals with feelings), but it is a powerful sequence. It's the centerpiece of the trilogy and presents Anakin's fundamental problem in a riveting way.

 

I haven't watched the film in a while, but don't they show kids and dog like things playing? That kind of humanizes them. You wouldn't see xenomorphs with doggies, unless they facehug them.

 

They do, but it's too brief. The women and children are just shown for a split second, when they react to Anakin's attack.
I wouldn't ask for an in-depth documentation of their everyday life, but to see some of it while Anakin approaches the camp, to see adults running for their lives with children in their arms when he attacks and to hear someone talk about the Tusken Raiders as people (to balance out Cliegg's little monologue) would've made a big difference.
As it stands, their portrayal is pretty flat. It's not until Anakin mentions the men, women and children that they're given some real nuance - and I don't think it's enough.
This is especially troubling when you consider who their real-life equivalents are.

I understand that there is a certain style to these films, that virtually all minor characters are painted in one dimension, but some things are too important to sacrifice for the sake of style or pacing.
Also, GL obviously wanted us to understand that the Tusken Raiders weren't monsters, to sympathize with the innocent victims of Anakin's blind rage, so why didn't he put in more of an effort to build up the tragedy?
Maybe he felt it was enough and liked the idea that you start out thinking of them as monsters and then gradually begin to see them in a different light. It's an idea that has merit, but I don't think the point came across clearly enough.

 

OK

 

I think it's a showcase of his darkness consuming him in his feelings of anger, pain, guilt and powerlessness. He lashes out at anything that he could, in theory, blame for it. I think he does something similar with Obi-Wan at the end of ROTS. He turns his anger on Obi-Wan, blaming him for what's happened. He even blames Obi-Wan for the loss of his mom, as well.

 

I agree. Lucas did not intend for the audience to see the Sand People as nothing but monsters but people. Hence why he used the term men, women and children. And that this was indeed a very dark act by Anakin. There were mitigating factors, he had worried and missed his mother for ten years, he had been plagued by bad dreams and he failed to save her and she died in a horrible way. This Sand People that were responsible for that did a terrible and awful thing. But that does not excuse or justify the atrocity that Anakin carries out. Two wrongs do not make a right.
And I think Lucas was clear about that as well, this was not right by any stretch.

Since I have seen quite a few that liken Sand People to orcs, demons or ISIS and feel that what Anakin was no big deal or even a good thing, then yes, Lucas could have done a little more to flesh them out.

Bye for now.
The Guarding Dark

 

I don't think it would've changed much.

 

Well Tuskans have been shown in a fairly vicious way in Star Wars. i think its the Mandalorian that tried to give them some depth. otherwise really they were just those aliens that attacked Luke for no reason. were shooting at racers during the pod race and took Anakins mother and didn't exactly treat her very well. to say the least.

 

That doesn't change the fact that we're clearly supposed to view Anakin's revenge as an act of evil.
GL tried to give the Tusken Raiders a somewhat more nuanced portrayal in AOTC to allow us to empathize with them - especially the women and children, since Anakin makes a distinction between them and the men, the implication being that the men were the perpetrators.

 

I think he(Lucas) chose the Tuskens because it is a bit of a grey area. Of course what Anakin did was wrong but it was his first step to the dark side, and he had reason. But he went too far, and wiped out the whole tribe.

 

Yeah, absolutely. We're supposed to understand his hatred and see that it was wrong of him to act on it.

 

If anything, the execution of it was poorly done. Let me use an example that’s slightly related to this.

In Fallout: New Vegas, there’s this horrible massacre everyone talks about called ‘The Massacre of Bitter Springs’ wherein NCR soldiers essentially did complete, whole-sale slaughter on the Khans (think that universe’s version of the Tuskens) including the women and children. To my memory, it wasn’t anything to do with revenge (though it might have been) but the point is:

We saw both sides of the conflict. Some (including the survivors and members of the NCR) condemned the massacre while others cheered it saying more of that needs to happen. It wasn’t just one scene of an irate soldier screaming ‘I kill them all! The men…women…and children! I HATE THEM!” Time was given to expand on the massacre, see both sides of the issue, and an attempt at humanizing them was made.

If we had scenes of, say, Tuskens engaging in trade with the Jawas or maybe suggesting that another Tusken Tribe actually sympathized with the farmers, maybe even tried protecting the Lars, it would’ve humanized them to something more than just basically space orcs.

 

I see it like this. Sharks are dangerous animals. They kill people and eat them. You don't mess with sharks. But obviously you wouldn't feel a baby shark doesn't deserve to grow up and live because of that. no matter how vicious they are. They are still living creatures.

Now obviously if your mother was just eaten by a shark and then 5 minutes later you found a baby one laying on the beach trying to get back into the sea... you ain't exactly gonna be supportive of this baby shark getting to live.

Now it could be argued a shark is a slightly more helpless example due to the fact they have have very little way to self-defend. but i think its round about the same idea in terms of how something can be dangerous but doesn't deserve to die.

 

I dunno, the Baby Shark song makes me want to eat all the sharks violently.

 

Has anyone considered that Anakin actually HAD to kill at least the armed Tusken, if Shmi had lived? How would he have gotten her to his speeder bike, which was parked on top of a cliff, unnoticed, when she couldn't even walk. Carrying her all the way to the speeder would have slowed him down a lot, giving the Tusken time to attack. Shmi may even have moaned in pain, which would also have alerted someone. With his very sick mother in his arms he might not have had time to put her down and draw his lightsaber. The Tusken could just have shot him in the back. So he may have been forced to kill some of them beforehand, not out of revenge but to defend himself and be able to get away with his mother. He couldn't have gone to his speeder alone and come back for Shmi. The noise of the engine would definitely have been heard.

 

Yes but he went too far with the women and the children. Of course he would have been justified in defending himself.

 

A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, NEVER for attack.

 

I know that. That's why I specifically thought of a scenario where he would have had to kill in order to defend himself and his mother, and to escape.

 

Anakin is becoming a villain.

 

The scene was too vague to give a clear indication of what actually happened.

'I killed them...every single one of them'

in what way? did he hunt down an entire camp looking under tables? checking locked closets like Michael Myers in Halloween? how big was the camp? are we talking 5 tents and a camp fire or 5 acres? or did men, women and children run at him with pikes and other weapons? did they beg for mercy? did they do a Regan special and shout expletives at him telling him how much they enjoyed torturing his mother?

These things are mitigating circumstances that are never addressed.

 

The novelisation does address what's meant:


That disembodied familiar voice hung profoundly in Yoda's thoughts. For if it was true, if he had heard what he was sure he had heard…
Anakin, too, had heard the voice of Qui-Gon, imploring him to restrain himself, to deny the rage. He hadn't recognized it, though, for he was too full of pain and anger. He spotted a Tusken woman to the side, in front of another of the tents, carrying a pail of dirty water, and saw a Tusken child in the shadows of another nearby hut, staring at him with an incredulous expression.
Then he was moving, though he was hardly aware of his actions. His blade flashed and he ran on. The Tusken woman screamed, and was impaled.
Now all the camp seemed in motion, Tuskens rushing out of every hut, many with weapons in hand. But Anakin was into the dance of death then, into the energy of the Force. He leapt far and long, clearing one hut and coming down before another, his blade flashing even before he landed, even before the two Tuskens recognized that he had jumped between them.
A third came at him, thrusting forth a spear, but Anakin lifted an empty hand and set up a wall of Force energy as solid as stone. Then he shoved out with that hand, and the Tusken spearman flew away, fully thirty meters, smashing through the wall of yet another hut.
Anakin was off and running, off and leaping, his blade spinning left and right in a blur, every stab taking a Tusken down, writhing to the ground, every slash putting a piece of a Tusken on the ground.
Soon none were standing against him, all trying to flee, but Anakin would have none of that. He saw one group rush into a hut and reached out across the way, to a large boulder in the distance. It flew to his call, soaring across the sand, smashing one fleeing Tusken down and flying on.
Anakin dropped it on the hut full of Tuskens, crushing them all.
And then he was running, his strides enhanced by the Force, overcoming the fleeing creatures, slaughtering them, every one.
He didn't feel empty any longer. He felt a surge of energy and strength beyond anything he had ever known, felt full of the Force, full of power, full of life.
And then it was over, suddenly, it seemed, and Anakin stood among the ruins of the encampment, dozens and dozens of dead Tusken Raiders all about him, and only a single hut still standing.

 

heh... well that clears that up.
From the novel's take anyway.