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[+] 14 points 2 years ago (15 children)
  • [–] [S] 20 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Star Wars is often "Schrödinger's Political Allegory" - the Empire is British/Roman/German but also American (if Endor = Vietnam, and Jedha = the Middle East), but the Rebels are somehow American too. Whatever side you're on, you can use Star Wars to cast yourself as the good guy, and the other side as the baddies.

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  • [+] 6 points 2 years ago* (3 children)
  • [–] [S] 12 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I realise that Lucas has said that the ewoks in Return of the Jedi were representations of the North Vietnamese. If you look at Rogue One, though, Saw's men are called terrorists, they use IEDs, it's a desert environment ... so the Rebels are, um, ISIS? Who do we want to win again?

    Star Wars has always been too flakey to say Rebels are definitely this, or the the Empire are definitely that. It's popularity, and it's use by people on any part of the political spectrum as a a recruitment tool, depends on the fact that the US is magically both.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    You're overthinking things again.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Nah, Lucas confirmed it.

    While interviewing Lucas on AMC in 2018, James Cameron said, "The good guys are the rebels. They're using asymmetric warfare against a highly organized empire. I think we call those guys 'terrorists' today. We call them 'mujahideen.' We call them Al-Qaeda."

    Lucas agreed with Cameron, adding, "When I did it, they were Viet Cong." He explained that the Vietnam allegory was front and center in his mind when making the original "Star Wars" in the mid-1970s, as was the American Revolution.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (2 children)

    Again, shows you how much Lucas knows about history. The Mujahideen were allied with the US during the Soviet-Afghan war.

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