The Skywalkers and the Sand People
May. 2nd, 2006 12:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sunnyskywalkerI was once again grumbling to myself about things in the Prequels I'd found disappointing, particularly Padme's ineptly-handled pregnancy (she gives birth at just over five months along and no one freaks out about how premature the babies are and rushes them to incubators? sorry, George, no) so I started looking for something I did like about them.
One of the things that bothered me in A New Hope is that I could never think of a good reason why the Sand People didn't just kill Luke. They're known to be violent enough that when Luke sees a smoking sandcrawler and Jawas apparently slaughtered by Sand People, his reaction is that this is much bigger than their usual targets. That they would attack and slaughter at all is something he doesn't even think to question. The moisture farmers probably exaggerate the Sand People's brutality in scary stories for the kids, but there must have been enough actual slaughtering for the stories to get started, right? And the Sand People we do see have no problem knocking Luke out and stealing his stuff. It's not like they're nice. What reason do they have to leave him alive? So he can go back and raise up the moisture farmers against them? Maybe they think the farmers won't come after them if they let him live... but really, what are they going to do, drive him home? If they steal all the speeder's valuable parts, it probably won't work, and Luke will die in the desert anyway. Even if they just steal the stuff in the speeder and run off, Luke could die from lying unconsious under the suns. It seems that the logical thing to do would be to just kill him and be done with it. But for some reason, the Sand Person with the big stick only smacks Luke lightly enough to knock him out for a few minutes - there isn't even a wound. That seems awfully nice of him. And then they go the trouble of dragging him back to the speeder instead of just posting a guard to make sure he doesn't get up and fight. It's as if they are leaving him alive and healthy on purpose, but I never could figure out why, unless they just knew Luke had a Main Character Contract and couldn't be killed so early in the movie.
But then came Attack of the Clones. It turns out that torturing sentient beings is a Tusken hobby. I think the written sources say it's some sort of rite of passage. So they didn't kill Luke because they were saving him for later. It's a little weird, but it's an explanation, finally.
And it adds a little more scariness to the scene, now that I know what the Sand People have in mind for Luke. It also makes me feel even more for Owen and Beru. They probably worried every time Luke was late coming home that the Sand People had gotten him, and they were going to have to relive the days when Shmi was captive.
One of the things that bothered me in A New Hope is that I could never think of a good reason why the Sand People didn't just kill Luke. They're known to be violent enough that when Luke sees a smoking sandcrawler and Jawas apparently slaughtered by Sand People, his reaction is that this is much bigger than their usual targets. That they would attack and slaughter at all is something he doesn't even think to question. The moisture farmers probably exaggerate the Sand People's brutality in scary stories for the kids, but there must have been enough actual slaughtering for the stories to get started, right? And the Sand People we do see have no problem knocking Luke out and stealing his stuff. It's not like they're nice. What reason do they have to leave him alive? So he can go back and raise up the moisture farmers against them? Maybe they think the farmers won't come after them if they let him live... but really, what are they going to do, drive him home? If they steal all the speeder's valuable parts, it probably won't work, and Luke will die in the desert anyway. Even if they just steal the stuff in the speeder and run off, Luke could die from lying unconsious under the suns. It seems that the logical thing to do would be to just kill him and be done with it. But for some reason, the Sand Person with the big stick only smacks Luke lightly enough to knock him out for a few minutes - there isn't even a wound. That seems awfully nice of him. And then they go the trouble of dragging him back to the speeder instead of just posting a guard to make sure he doesn't get up and fight. It's as if they are leaving him alive and healthy on purpose, but I never could figure out why, unless they just knew Luke had a Main Character Contract and couldn't be killed so early in the movie.
But then came Attack of the Clones. It turns out that torturing sentient beings is a Tusken hobby. I think the written sources say it's some sort of rite of passage. So they didn't kill Luke because they were saving him for later. It's a little weird, but it's an explanation, finally.
And it adds a little more scariness to the scene, now that I know what the Sand People have in mind for Luke. It also makes me feel even more for Owen and Beru. They probably worried every time Luke was late coming home that the Sand People had gotten him, and they were going to have to relive the days when Shmi was captive.
