Star Wars: Clone Wars - The flashing neon orange elephant in the room
Clones are freaking slaves!!! How do you write multiple seasons of a show and somehow never quite notice this!? How!?
I just don't even... *splutters*
There are several episodes that deal with the clone troopers, some of which touch on how their lives are not their own, and some that seem to treat them as any other soldiers (both of which manage to raise terribly uncomfortable questions without seeming to realize it), but that last step of recognition is never reached. This must be by LucasArts orders, but... Holy freaking hell!
Clones are very, very clearly people. They have no choice but to be soldiers - that's what they're made for. (Though some apparently wash out and become regular slaves, not that it is called this. We meet one either wash out or intentionally crippled clone who works as a janitor. The episode he was introduced in both seemed to imply that some clones are made as servants and that wash outs become them. It also mentioned that the DNA was getting weaker and that they might have to seek out a suitable donor for more. I am completely fucking creeped out by the whole thing.)
The show asks us to cheer for and be on the side of a government that uses slave soldiers. Yes, their enemies manage to be more monstrously evil, but I simply cannot get past this. I think it's the fact that the "good" guys don't appear to credit that clones are people, even as they treat them semi-decently. I realize this problem has always existed in Star Wars, what with the apparently sapient, yet owned droids, but this takes it a step farther. And leaves me watching in a kind of fascinated horror.
For all I complain about the Republic of SW:TOR not being good enough, it is puppies and roses by comparison. Hell, the Sith Empire of SW:TOR is marginally less evil. I think my friend's theory that the Old Republic falls and the Sith Empire eventually becomes a democracy of sorts would explain a lot.
I am so disturbed. Why am I watching this? O_o
This entry was originally posted at http://smurasaki.dreamwidth.org/114114.html.
I just don't even... *splutters*
There are several episodes that deal with the clone troopers, some of which touch on how their lives are not their own, and some that seem to treat them as any other soldiers (both of which manage to raise terribly uncomfortable questions without seeming to realize it), but that last step of recognition is never reached. This must be by LucasArts orders, but... Holy freaking hell!
Clones are very, very clearly people. They have no choice but to be soldiers - that's what they're made for. (Though some apparently wash out and become regular slaves, not that it is called this. We meet one either wash out or intentionally crippled clone who works as a janitor. The episode he was introduced in both seemed to imply that some clones are made as servants and that wash outs become them. It also mentioned that the DNA was getting weaker and that they might have to seek out a suitable donor for more. I am completely fucking creeped out by the whole thing.)
The show asks us to cheer for and be on the side of a government that uses slave soldiers. Yes, their enemies manage to be more monstrously evil, but I simply cannot get past this. I think it's the fact that the "good" guys don't appear to credit that clones are people, even as they treat them semi-decently. I realize this problem has always existed in Star Wars, what with the apparently sapient, yet owned droids, but this takes it a step farther. And leaves me watching in a kind of fascinated horror.
For all I complain about the Republic of SW:TOR not being good enough, it is puppies and roses by comparison. Hell, the Sith Empire of SW:TOR is marginally less evil. I think my friend's theory that the Old Republic falls and the Sith Empire eventually becomes a democracy of sorts would explain a lot.
I am so disturbed. Why am I watching this? O_o
This entry was originally posted at http://smurasaki.dreamwidth.org/114114.html.