Dystopian themes in the Prequels

“Looking back is helpful in understanding his work. Lucas started out in the 1960’s as an experimental filmmaker heavily influenced by the avant-garde films of the San Francisco art scene. Initially interested in painting, he became an editor and visualist who made abstract tone poems. His first feature, THX 1138 (1971) was an experimental science fiction film that presented a surreal, underground world where a dictatorial state controls a docile population using drugs. Love and sex are outlawed, procreation is controlled through machines, and human beings shuffle meaninglessly around the system.”

—Anthony Parisi, 'Revisiting the Star Wars Prequels'

The bolded parts in this description correspond with the Coruscant Underworld, the Jedi Order’s code, and the creation of the clone troopers, respectively.

Notably, in THX 1138's setting, emotions such as love and the concept of family are taboo:

I’ve always found it so interesting that Lucas incorporated the dystopian elements of his earlier sci-fi into the Prequels, taking place as they do in the context of the final years of the Repubic, with all its colourful and sumptuous visual spendour. In comparison, the post-apocalyptic ‘Dark Times’ of the Original Trilogy would seem on the surface to be the more outwardly ‘dystopian’ setting of the two—however, the actual story of the OT is a mythic hero's journey and fairytale, complete with an uplifting and transcendent happy ending. The OT's setting may be drained of colour, and its characters may be living under the shadow of the Empire, but as a story it is far from bleak or dystopian in tone. Rather, fascinatingly, it is the pre-apocalyptic era of the Prequels that is presented as the more dystopian storyline:

“On the surface, [The Phantom Menace] is an optimistic, colorful fantasy of a couple of swashbuckling samurai rescuing a child Queen and meeting a gifted slave boy who can help save the galaxy from the slimy Trade Federation and its Sith leaders. But beneath that cheerful facade is a sweatshop of horrors.” —Michael O'Connor, 'Moral Ambiguity: Beyond Good and Evil in the Prequels'

This is referring to the state of the galaxy during the Prequels era, including the fact that slavery is known to exist, but is largely ignored by the Republic and the Jedi alike due to being too economically inconvenient to combat. It also refers to how the Jedi of the Old Order come across as cold and distant atop their ivory tower on the artificial world of Coruscant, far removed not only from the natural world but also from the true realities of the people they claim to serve. And then there is the additional revelation in Attack of the Clones that love and family are 'outlawed' within the Jedi Order, creating an environment in which their own 'Chosen One' is unable to flourish, leaving him vulnerable to the Dark Side. Finally, there's the fact that the characters end up so distracted by fighting a civil war (something that goes against their own principles and involves the use of a slave clone army in the process), that they are blinded to the entity of pure evil that is guiding their every move...until it is too late.

“Without a clear enemy, the Jedi Order, the Galactic Senate, the whole of the Star Wars galaxy bickers and backstabs and slides around the moral scales. But there is one benefit to Palpatine’s pure evil crashing down upon the galaxy; against its oppressive darkness, only the purest light can shine through.” —Michael O'Connor, 'Moral Ambiguity: Beyond Good and Evil in the Prequels'

If anything, the Dark Times allows for the OT generation's acts of courage and heroism to flourish and succeed, because they are not hampered by the Old Jedi Order's restrictive rules, nor by its servitude to the whims of an increasingly corrupt Republic—so corrupt, in fact, that by the time of RotS, it is practically the Empire in all but name. Indeed, one of the key features of the Prequels, and what makes them so tragic, is that the characters are already living in a dystopia...they just don't know it.

There is, paradoxically, a level of freedom to be found in the midst of the Dark Times which had not been possible during the Twilight era, which allows Original Trio to rise above the tragedy that befell their predecessors. They are able to act as free agents (not as slaves of a corrupt government), serving only the fight for the liberation of all the peoples of the galaxy (not just citizens of the Republic), and are likewise free to live (and love!) on their own terms. Free to act on their positive attachments to one another, without having to hide the truth of their feelings. It's particularly telling that *this* is, above all, what makes the Prequels era so dystopian—the characters' inability to freely and openly participate in normal familial human relationships.

Thank you so so so much to the always-delightful and supremely-talented @cadhla182 for this gorgeous commission of my OC Anara Len--after her defection from the Empire to the Rebellion in 11 BBY.

She might have ditched the uniform, but she's still got style!

putting anders and isabela and hawke together on a lazy susan so i can see them lovingly bicker around and around in a whirling dramatization of what it's like to watch them chase down a plot point in kirkwall for the nth time, only for hawke to brighten up and say OH, THAT'S RIGHT! ITS IN HIGHTOWN :DD

Here is TDT's second birthday piece of art separately! I made a poll to decide who to draw, and there was a tie between Ren and Shroud, so, according to @justagh0ul's suggestion, both it is. :)

Kinda want to make a crew of star wars ocs, set in the dark times, consisting of a few clone deserters stuck with some former sepratist rebels (not the corporate douches). With the war over, they now have to rely on each other to survive a system that has no place for any of them.

I understand that QLab feeling so damn well. I am an electrician but I took a job leading student crews at the local high schools, so I just have to know everything. It's fine 90% of the time and then someone hands me an mp3 where 30 seconds of the track is mono and they wanna know why it's so quiet 😭

Yes!!! I’m primarily a venue technician, which means doing All The Things (with lots of help when I need it) and so many times I’m like mmm k according to everything I know this should be working…but it’s not. So.

May you have cooperative mp3s!

Ok so like question before I continue pestering you with Homestuck:

Is it. Fine if I keep annoying you with Homestuck or would you rather me stop? Like I don't wanna overstep boundaries but soemtiems it's hard for me to tell if I am overstepping stuff sifhsjejjd

Its not that its annoying its just homestuck was something i was into a good while back.

Its like remembering a war lol

Dark Trooper Theory

In the Mandalorian s2e8, Pershing has this comment about the mark 3 Dark Troopers.

In the trailer for Jedi Survivor we see Cal Kestus fighting what is likely a mark 2 Dark Trooper in 9BBY. Presumably this model has a human core of some kind.

Since all the early models have some sort of human component, what if the clones that have been "disappearing" during Bad Batch season 2 weren't actually escaping but were being taken in for modification in 19 BBY?

It's the perfect start for a prototype phase. Half-droid troopers would be easier to control, the empire has all the specs from Echo modding a Reg, and the clones would make easier test subjects than normal citizens because they ALREADY have no legal rights.

We know it never works out, but if successful it could also have been a work around for the accelerated aging of the remaining clones. A brain in a jar with the right pickle juice can survive a lot longer than a normal body. (Just ask the B'omarr monks!) 😉

This is the 1976 Ford Falcon XC Concorde concept car.

Hasbro - Obi-Wan Kenobi by Darth Ray Via Flickr: Hasbro - Star Wars Vintage Collection Obi-Wan Kenobi Fgiures Darth Vader (The Dark Times), Reva (Third Sister), & Obi-Wan Kenobi (Wandering Jedi)

This is Ali Ondasa’jega, my Balosar Jedi rocking her new look courtesy of the ever-talented and utterly phenomenal @cadhla182 !

She’s been through one hell of a narrative arc, going from one of the earliest Jedi to voice concerns with the Clone Wars as a Padawan, and even trying to defect to the CIS when it wasn’t clear how dark they were as a form of protest, to the death of her adoptive father and imprisonment by the Republic, to her corruption by the Inquisition when she was made easy pickings during Order 66, having already been wracked with grief and anger, to finally meeting the love of her life, a Clawdite ex-Jedi as well who managed to bring her (mostly) back to the light by simply acting as a positive influence and effective counterbalance to the darker impulses she was grappling with. Back to the Light, though not exactly the picture-perfect image of a serene Jedi by any stretch, Ali is the Jedi Knight you call on when diplomacy has failed and you really need someone willing and able to ruin some jerk’s day.

But before they can rebuild the Order, they kinda need to tear down the Empire! Rebellion, ho~!

Happy Crowy Yule! It's a reall whose who of Yuletide.

can i say something. for years i thought the joke of the song short skirt/long jacket by cake was that he wanted a woman who was hung like a horse. like i thought when he says jacket it was a last-second fakeout because he very obviously meant to say cock. and the rest of the things in the song were just her personality and interests. which were secondary to her awesome penis

hear me out. Dark & Back to the Future represent exactly opposite ends of the Time Travel Media Spectrum.