The evocation of negative ethnic and cultural stereotypes also (jar) jars. It sort of starts with ROTJ with the Ewoks falling into some of tropes used in Travelogue serials like Tarzan when depicting tribal people eating the civilised. Then you have a mash up of Asian yellow peril tropes used for the trade federation. The Mandarin robes, the slit eyes and big gappy teeth, the faux Japanese accents, the cowardice, the obsession with robots. Watto was apparently based on Alec Guinness’ very problematic depiction of Fagin and Jar-Jar intentionally or not evokes Stepin Fetchit. The Tusken people and the way they are described reference the same John Ford westerns that the charred corpses of Owen and Beru reference but does transposing that sort of language to an extraterrestrial culture cleanse it from it’s prior use to demonise the victims of genocide? You know…for kids
Post #1677397
- Author
- Bingowings
- Parent topic
- The Many Tonal Whiplashes of Star Wars
- Link to post in topic
- https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1677397/action/topic#1677397
- Date created
- 11-Feb-2026, 4:35 PM