I remember when Star Wars wasn't political. It was a time known as "the movie didn't even exist back then".
this post was submitted on 04 May 2026
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At least Star Trek remains unsullied by politics
Yeah. There's no need for politics anymore when you already have an intergalactic socialist utopia.
I'm a completely apolitical trans socialist in a queerplatonic relationship with a robotic hivemind, and I am OUTRAGED that some people these days are trying to politicise the prime directive and use it to force us to accept genetically engineered people!
- Average Federation citizen
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Ah yes, war. My favorite apolitical pass time
Pastime?
My guess is that makeshiftreaper's first language is a romance language where it's usually something like passatempo, pasatiempo or passe-temps.
Romance language is a correct term, but it always sounds to me like ‘my first language is the language of love 🎸’
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Pastme?
Padme?
Paddle you?
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Don't make Star Wars political... Except the rebels want to restore a democracy in the Original Trilogy...
And in the prequels we have literal political scenes, as written and directed by Lucas himself.
And the Andor series is literally a class on fascism. Things presented there are inspired by real world events. The second season in particular makes it REALLY clear. You literally have the Empire conspiring with media to produce propaganda to undermine the Ghorman people so the Empire can come in and steal the planet's resources and kill the people. Then the Empire stages a massacre and uses it as further propaganda
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Except the rebels want to restore a democracy in the Original Trilogy.
Technically, it's never stated which form of government (if any) the rebellion wants to create after the empire is gone.
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Clearly it was a Star Special Military Operation, the emperor wouldn't just go around starting wars
I know bigots will be bigots but it really annoys me that they blindly think being queer is political but need proof that war is political.
Wait you're telling me the gays aren't just doing gay to upset the illiterate bible thumpers?
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Star Wars: From the adventures of Luke Skywalker which came out before the first movie. Literally describes Emperor Palpatine as Richard Nixon.
Once secure in office he declared himself Emperor, shutting himself away from the populace. Soon he was controlled by the very assistants and boot-lickers he had appointed to high office, and the cries of the people for justice did not reach his ears.
sounds way too familiar 😭
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It also just boils down to “stop showing me how what I want is what the bad guys always want.” People on the right side of history love “political” things.
i mean, he's not wrong
I don't know if George Lucas was meaning to tap into parallelisms with the Vietnam War with the original Star Wars movie.
I mean, the plot follows the Campbellian "Hero with 1000 faces" storyline to a T.
But I also acknowledge that the Vietnam War was a major event that was going on when he was writing it and filming it, so it most likely had influence at the very least, but I believe it can be argued that Lucas was not attempting to insinuate the Empire was the United States at that time.
At the same time, though, I can see a very clear slant in the storyline that an independent society has every right to consider themselves heroes when going up against a larger, seemingly indomitable force that is doing evil while proclaiming themselves to be the good.
He did intend it to be a Vietnam allegory, with the Rebels as the Viet Cong. He was explicit about it, but for obvious reasons Disney doesn't make a huge deal out of that. But you're also right that the Campbell stuff was intentional, too.
I stand corrected then!
I have a new-found respect for Mr Lucas
You must not have seen the Andor series. Fascism is upfront and center.
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He’s mentioned it in interviews, it was intentional.
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Wow. I had to go verify this and sure enough, I found a video from 7 years ago where Lucas said this and much more including comparing the American Empire to the Galactic Empire. Wow. I missed that reference as a child.
Even if you missed that, you probably picked up that it is against war and imperialism.
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Ewoks were definitely a nod to the Viet Cong
I think George Lucas has a tendency to make shit up as time goes on and gets high on his own supply.
That said, the prequels started with a literal trade embargo and there are several genocides in the series.
Star Wars is not exactly subtle or full of nuance. It's pulp, and it wears that badge with unironic, cinematic pride.
It is the spiritual successor to the 1930s Saturday morning serials of bold archetypes, primary-colored morality, and breakneck pacing where the stakes are always "the fate of the galaxy" and the villains wear literal black masks. It doesn't ask you to deconstruct the socioeconomic subtext of a spice mine.
George Lucas literally compared the Rebel Alliance in Star Wars to the Viet Cong in an interview back in the day.
/r/selfAwareWolves or whatever the lemmy thing is
I think some of these commenters who want to stop media being political are bots. The elites want to suppress free thinking and freedom of expression.
Dude, war is "politics through other means". So technically the franchise could be renamed "Star Politics Through Other Means". It just wouldn't fit on the promotional materials.
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Look at you, figuring things out!
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