Interspecies relationships?

Well, whatever your opinions on interspecies relationships, you can't disagree with the appeal of a romantic/sexual relationship between a male human and a female Twi'lek. Being a human male myself, I can find no fault in it.

Hell, it's at times like this I really wish that Twi'leks actually existed!

 

He don't know Jello or Quiet_Mandalorian vewwy well, do he?

 

He don't know Jello or Quiet_Mandalorian vewwy well, do he?
Yeah, I do. I'm not sure about QM, but as for Jello, I just have this to say:
He's an Imperial, I'm a Rebel! So of course we're going to butt heads!

 

Aka Karen Traviss' favourite Penny Arcade strip ever. I'll look that up after coffee, as I'd be staggered if it wasn't easy to find. Traviss has been very vocal about that being the strip that made her fall in love with PA, and even mentions it in her intro to the new book collection of strips that came out last week.

Yeah, it's two clone troopers talking in the door of a Larty about the one's g/f leaving him for a wookie and the...*ahem*...reasons why he can't compete with a wookie in the equipment department.

 

Yet another reason I hate Wookies.

Have a care there, his head might just be harder than you think...

As for myself, I'm a merc, but I also have a conscience.

 

Seek and ye shall find, ner burc'ya.

 

Have a care there, his head might just be harder than you think...
Believe me, I am well aware of how hard his head can be.

 

Ahem, that was the cue for someone to link me to it so I wouldn't have to do the actual work of finding it myself.

 

Of course there are such adventurers. An entire species of them, as a matter of fact...Zeltrons.

But more to the point, we've already seen plenty of evidence that interspecies relationships do happen, and while they're not without certain inherent difficulties, the "general opinion" of such pairings within-universe varies according to the individual, and in some cases the societies that the members of such a couple are part of.

Humans that aren't brainwashed by Imperial racism generally seem to be fairly accepting. Zeltrons are at the extreme end of acceptance. On the opposite spectrum, Bothans generally seemed to have a problem with a human/Bothan pairing, and I'd imagine any of the more xenophobic societies would find such things distasteful in the extreme.

But "immoral" is an entirely subjective term to apply. The morals differ from society to society anyhow.

 

You mean, those brain-washed into thinking that race and species are the same thing.

 

Semantics, nothing more. If one is too anal to accept that the word "race" is generally used to describe differing alien species within the science-fiction milieu, that's their problem, not mine. General usage of words doesn't always end up technically correct, but it's also not likely to change anytime soon.

But fine, "brainwashed by Imperial speciesism" works just as well.

 

Here it is.

Not displayed due to TOS.

 

Sorry, I don't see the point in arguing real-world semantics with a message board persona that's arguing from an in-universe perspective.

But if restricting free will in a manner that's not curtailing an activity that's going to be actively harmful to the population at large (because there's no evidence whatsoever that the majority, or even a significant minority of any particular population (Zeltrons notwithstanding) is chomping at the bit to shack up with different species, so the "we're not breeding enough" argument is moot) isn't enough of an argument for you (and we know it's not), there's really nothing else to explain.

More pointedly, there are far, far more important things that an efficient and reasonable government should be worried about than who's engaging in sexual relations with who.

 

I won't argue the semantic portion of the discussion, no. Because it has little bearing on the rights or wrongs of interspecies relationships. The simple fact is that in the real world, the term "Alien Race" is commonly used to describe life forms that are in fact separate species from baseline humanity. As I said in my initial post, the usage may not be technically correct, but it exists and is generally accepted without comment by all but the most particular. It's even used in a wide variety of Star Wars literature, both in-universe and out. Hence, there is no point in arguing it further, particularly after I amended it to a more correct form.

I then provided a rebuttal on the topic of interspecies relationships, but for further clarification:

What point do such strictures serve other than to unnecessarily constrain a population from activities that aren't particularly harmful to the society or population as a whole?

Enacting and much moreso enforcing such laws are a drain on resources better spent elsewhere. And in a government where large masses of the population across several worlds are quite willing to throw celebratory riots upon news of your Emperor's death, you need all the favorably-inclined civilians you can get. Denying a relatively miniscule portion of the population their generally harmless sexual peculiarities serves no purpose than to antagonize said sentients.

 

Does that mean there's an Imperial Anti-Xenophilia Department?

 

Other factors come into play when regulating prostitution, chiefly economic ones. Nonetheless, I do believe in the repeal of laws criminalizing prostitution, so long as laws regulating economic factors such as working conditions are in place.

The former is not true; any empire that's finite in scope (e.g. a merely *Galactic* Empire) is by definition limited in its resources. As to the latter, what reasons?

I believe we are meant to extrapolate far, far more widespread rioting from the few scenes shown in the films. Regardless, I suspect the number of individuals actually visible reveling on Coruscant, Naboo, Tatooine, Bespin, and Endor well exceeds ten thousand.

Well, I have yet to see a prima facie case that they *are* harmful. Anyway, it's not begging the question, since the assumption that they are unharmful is one of his premises, not his conclusion. To make it a bit more clear:

"Denying a relatively miniscule portion of the population their generally harmless sexual peculiarities serves no purpose [other] than to antagonize said sentients."

The population of those interested in interspecies relationships is relatively miniscule.

Interspecies relationships are a generally hamless sexual peculiarity.

Therefore, denying those interested in interspecies relationships from engaging in those relationships serves no purpose other than to antagonize said sentients.

 

(note: there's actually an honest question about Imperial moral codes a little further down, so stay with me if you read this Jello)

What is wrong with sexual gratification?

Since we're talking about alien who are sentient, the law must recognize that it is not simply a case of bestiality, which I would understand laws being enacted for the moral fiber of society.

However, I fail to see what the Imperial Empire's source for prohibition of sexual liasons between sentient beings. Especially when some of these races are very anatomically close to the point that sexual gratification would not be harmful.

If there were a chance of something akin to what happened to the ummm...unnamed gentleman from Seattle who died of a perforated colon after performing an act with a horse, then yeah, protection from dangers of intercourse with species may require legal action.

However, from all appearences, Twi'leks seem to have all the right parts, so if a human and a Twi'lek want to engage in mutual sexual gratification...why not?

Which actually brings me to a serious question that has bugged me for a while, and since we've seen many portrayals of the Empire and the soldiers over the years, from the annoyingly brainwashed and near-robotic slaves as presented in Bantam era books (especially from KJA) to the morally grey to the outright honorable, I have to ask where the Empire draws their morality from?

What's their moral compass? Humanism? Sithism? Because the latter would seem to embrace hedonism. "Do as thou will shall be the whole of the law", unless the Emperor wanted to stop people from having fun.

The one thing I wish was clearer in the SWU is what the Empire, and I don't mean just the Emperor here, based their moral statues on. Of course, I also wonder the same thing about the Old Republic.

Part of the problem is that many people, on either side, import their own moral system into the universe, so it'd be interesting to see a more in depth look at the Imperial way of life on a day to day basis. Because I have a feeling it wasn't all reeducation centers, but as Ben asked; what was life like for the majority of people? And most likely, the majority of people just lived happily and worked and hoped a rebel X-Wing wouldn't bomb them when they took that contractor's job on the Death Star after their corporation won a no-bid to work on it.

The dangers of importing own or real world moral systems lead to things like the assumption that the Mandalorians, as a warrior culture, must automatically follow a right-wing moral code, when instead their culture allows for a very loose social system that is okay with infidelity, homosexuality, and relationships with other species, and a governmental system that allows nationalization of industry, and free immigration with some rules based more on a social network than a legal one.

 

It's the whole "Tell me what you crave, that I might deny you" thing. By clamping down on people beneath their power, they offer them a stark choice: give up on what you want or become strong enough to take it. "Whatever it is that you want, I'm going to make you fight for it, because that will make you strong*."

It's like the Rule of Two or any other Sith rule: the guy at the top of the pyramid lays down the law, and in so doing provides obstacles against which people down below him test themselves and develop their strength, until they can overthrow him. The rules are there to make you strong enough to break them.

The Empire was based in that idea of repression in the service of the cultivation of strength, but those Imperials who were never really indoctrinated into the true Sith teachings basically took it at face value, and started venerating repression for its own sake, as opposed to a means to an end.

* Strong defined here as crazed, passionate, monomaniacal, etc.