Anakin's slaughter of the Tusken Raiders

[Stravo]

A few questions and observations arose when I recently viewed this scene again.

One - Do you think Anakin's slaughter of the Tuskens made them hate the mositure farmers more and increased the animosity between the two? For instance, it seems fairly obvious that the Tuskens have been getting the better of the farmers for some time, stealing their folk and slaughtering any rescue party that comes after them (ie. Shmee and Cleeg's disastrous rescue possie) attacking podracers at will without represcussions (TPM) so along comes Anakin and wipes out an entire village, women, children, men. The Tuskens might have viewed this as an escalation of their strained cooexistence and began being more aggressive. By Luke's time the farmers don't venture out alone at night, have security fields in place and don't travel without weaposn (Luke's long blaster rifle when he goes to get R2) so is this partly a result of Anakin's actions?

Two - Wouldn't someone who stumbled across a camp full of dead Tuskens displaying obvious lightsaber wounds not make the conclusion that a Jedi had committed that attrocity and report it? Anakin was the only Jedi on Tatooine around that time frame that we know of and so would have fallen under suspicion.

Three - How exactly does Padme reconcile not turning Anakin in for what he did. If she is such an idealist and peace lover how could she possibly allow an act of mass murder go without being answered for?

Four - How does Anakin walk around the Jedi temple without someone like Yoda or Mace or fuck it Obi Wan not picking up that there was something really wrong with Anakin. Yoda constantly picks up people's feelings, he tells young Anakin that his thoughts dwell on his mother, Obi Wan cautions him that his thoughts betray him in regard to his feelings for Padme. So Anakin tends to boradcast his thoughts, and no one picked up on this. You can pick up the darkside in Dooku while standing across a hangar bay from him but you can hang with a mass murderer and never have a clue?

[spongyblue]

Well as far as scenario two goes, if majority of the people on Tatooine hat the tuskens, seeing a whole camp of them dead would probably get the response of "Good, less of them around to fuck with us" so why report it.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

1: I would think so, definately. Perhaps not a huge impact, given how relations already are, but it would have made things a bugaboo for probably at least a few seasons.

2: On Tatooine, nobody cares. Even in the chance that somebody would actually venture into Sandpeople territory and discovered the site (assuming the sands haven't swallowed it yet), and then recognised that it was from a lightsabre, I couldn't imagine that they'd actually care enough beyond telling others about it, let alone report it to the Republic.

[Illuminatus Primus]

Two - Wouldn't someone who stumbled across a camp full of dead Tuskens displaying obvious lightsaber wounds not make the conclusion that a Jedi had committed that attrocity and report it? Anakin was the only Jedi on Tatooine around that time frame that we know of and so would have fallen under suspicion.

How many people have ever seen a Jedi in action or seen a lightsaber wound? I think it'd be difficult even for a dedicated forensics team to recognize such a wound when you think of how rare lightsabers and their proficient users are in the galaxy.

Three - How exactly does Padme reconcile not turning Anakin in for what he did. If she is such an idealist and peace lover how could she possibly allow an act of mass murder go without being answered for?

Maybe she's a racist and doesn't consider the Tuskens quite people? The more mundane answer is she loves him and rationalizes it.

Four - How does Anakin walk around the Jedi temple without someone like Yoda or Mace or fuck it Obi Wan not picking up that there was something really wrong with Anakin. Yoda constantly picks up people's feelings, he tells young Anakin that his thoughts dwell on his mother, Obi Wan cautions him that his thoughts betray him in regard to his feelings for Padme. So Anakin tends to boradcast his thoughts, and no one picked up on this. You can pick up the darkside in Dooku while standing across a hangar bay from him but you can hang with a mass murderer and never have a clue?

Yoda felt it when it happened across the galaxy. Afterward he buried it deep and Force sensitives are quite adept at hiding themselves - Obi-Wan and Yoda in the OT, Palpatine in the PT. Not to mention in the Clone Wars comics one master does find out and keep his secret. I think there's a lot of institutional pressure to be lenient on Anakin because he is the Chose One by the Jedi Order.

[Solauren]

The net answer is;
Temporary force powered insanity.

Hey, if it works in our legal system, it might work in the GFFA.

Also, given the political situtation at the time, how would it look to have a Jedi on trial for mass murder?

[nesaminos]

One - Do you think Anakin's slaughter of the Tuskens made them hate the mositure farmers more and increased the animosity between the two? For instance, it seems fairly obvious that the Tuskens have been getting the better of the farmers for some time, stealing their folk and slaughtering any rescue party that comes after them (ie. Shmee and Cleeg's disastrous rescue possie) attacking podracers at will without represcussions (TPM) so along comes Anakin and wipes out an entire village, women, children, men. The Tuskens might have viewed this as an escalation of their strained cooexistence and began being more aggressive. By Luke's time the farmers don't venture out alone at night, have security fields in place and don't travel without weaposn (Luke's long blaster rifle when he goes to get R2) so is this partly a result of Anakin's actions?

Well, we don't see anything that points to the situation in ANH being any different from the prequel. The Tuskens seem to be equally agressive in all three movies they're in. Also, I think I read somewhere that Tusken tribes often fought with one another, so I would think that all the other tribes would be happy.

Two - Wouldn't someone who stumbled across a camp full of dead Tuskens displaying obvious lightsaber wounds not make the conclusion that a Jedi had committed that attrocity and report it? Anakin was the only Jedi on Tatooine around that time frame that we know of and so would have fallen under suspicion.

There really aren't that many people on tatooine, so I doubt anybody would stumble across the camp since it seemed reasonably distant in the movie. Also there really isn't anybody to report that kind of thing to, and the only people who would care if a bunch of sand people died would be other sandpeople.

Three - How exactly does Padme reconcile not turning Anakin in for what he did. If she is such an idealist and peace lover how could she possibly allow an act of mass murder go without being answered for?

I don't recall Anakin telling Padme exactly what happened. Maybe, due to wishful thinking, she assumed that the fight started out of self-defense and he got carried away and ended up killing all of them.

Four - How does Anakin walk around the Jedi temple without someone like Yoda or Mace or fuck it Obi Wan not picking up that there was something really wrong with Anakin. Yoda constantly picks up people's feelings, he tells young Anakin that his thoughts dwell on his mother, Obi Wan cautions him that his thoughts betray him in regard to his feelings for Padme. So Anakin tends to boradcast his thoughts, and no one picked up on this. You can pick up the darkside in Dooku while standing across a hangar bay from him but you can hang with a mass murderer and never have a clue?

Maybe they did pick up on it, but because they needed all the capable jedi they could get for the war, they just said screw it and kept Anakin around.

[NeoGoomba]

I don't recall Anakin telling Padme exactly what happened. Maybe, due to wishful thinking, she assumed that the fight started out of self-defense and he got carried away and ended up killing all of them.

Even the children? I wish I could be Padme's neighbor in the suburb of Stupidville in Denial, USA

[Spanky The Dolphin]

Anakin told Padme that he slaughtered them all: the men, the women, the children.

[Jadeite]

I'd think it'd be more likely for Anakin to be rewarded by the people of Tatooine for the massacre then punished. Tuskens are vicious bandits and murderers, and good riddance to them.

[Master of Ossus]

A few questions and observations arose when I recently viewed this scene again.

One - Do you think Anakin's slaughter of the Tuskens made them hate the mositure farmers more and increased the animosity between the two? For instance, it seems fairly obvious that the Tuskens have been getting the better of the farmers for some time, stealing their folk and slaughtering any rescue party that comes after them (ie. Shmee and Cleeg's disastrous rescue possie) attacking podracers at will without represcussions (TPM) so along comes Anakin and wipes out an entire village, women, children, men. The Tuskens might have viewed this as an escalation of their strained cooexistence and began being more aggressive. By Luke's time the farmers don't venture out alone at night, have security fields in place and don't travel without weaposn (Luke's long blaster rifle when he goes to get R2) so is this partly a result of Anakin's actions?

I kind of doubt that Anakin's attack had much of anything to do with it. Those relations sucked, already--these groups were at war.

Two - Wouldn't someone who stumbled across a camp full of dead Tuskens displaying obvious lightsaber wounds not make the conclusion that a Jedi had committed that attrocity and report it? Anakin was the only Jedi on Tatooine around that time frame that we know of and so would have fallen under suspicion.

I'm not sure that they were ever found, but even if they were the lightsaber wound is a very unusual injury.

Three - How exactly does Padme reconcile not turning Anakin in for what he did. If she is such an idealist and peace lover how could she possibly allow an act of mass murder go without being answered for?

Padme was in love with him. I'm sure she rationalized it, particularly since the Tuskens are primitive and violent and started the fight, anyway.

Four - How does Anakin walk around the Jedi temple without someone like Yoda or Mace or fuck it Obi Wan not picking up that there was something really wrong with Anakin. Yoda constantly picks up people's feelings, he tells young Anakin that his thoughts dwell on his mother, Obi Wan cautions him that his thoughts betray him in regard to his feelings for Padme. So Anakin tends to boradcast his thoughts, and no one picked up on this. You can pick up the darkside in Dooku while standing across a hangar bay from him but you can hang with a mass murderer and never have a clue?

Yoda knew what happened but didn't do anything about it. It's likely that the Jedi are willing to give Anakin some slack because he's so good, and because the Clone Wars started immediately afterwards and they needed him and his abilities so badly.

[JME2]

From the POV of everyone's favorite man of mystery...

One -- Yes; it certainly ties in with the themes of the films that even the smallest actions can have repercussions both large and small. On the big scale, it set Anakin on his dark path with destiny and on the small scale, made things worse for the locals. Great observation, btw Stravo.

Two -- It's possible that if there was a report, it got lost in the conflagaration that hit the galaxy after Geonosis.

Three -- Having interacted with Shimi in TPM, she may have felt the Tuskens had what they had coming or was simply clouded by blind love; I'm for a combination of both of them.

Four -- It could be argued that the Jedi were more focused on the Clone Wars and didn't notice it. It's also possible, as Kamino and the Clone Army showed, that the Force was blidning them so as to allow events to play out and have Anakin sieze his destiny.

[Darth Fanboy]

One - Do you think Anakin's slaughter of the Tuskens made them hate the mositure farmers more and increased the animosity between the two? For instance, it seems fairly obvious that the Tuskens have been getting the better of the farmers for some time, stealing their folk and slaughtering any rescue party that comes after them (ie. Shmee and Cleeg's disastrous rescue possie) attacking podracers at will without represcussions (TPM) so along comes Anakin and wipes out an entire village, women, children, men. The Tuskens might have viewed this as an escalation of their strained cooexistence and began being more aggressive. By Luke's time the farmers don't venture out alone at night, have security fields in place and don't travel without weaposn (Luke's long blaster rifle when he goes to get R2) so is this partly a result of Anakin's actions?

The tuskens have been going after anyone who tries to infringe on their territory, and if KoTOR is to be believed they have been doing it for thousands of years. One might consider them similar in situation to that of the native americans back in the colnial days.

Two - Wouldn't someone who stumbled across a camp full of dead Tuskens displaying obvious lightsaber wounds not make the conclusion that a Jedi had committed that attrocity and report it? Anakin was the only Jedi on Tatooine around that time frame that we know of and so would have fallen under suspicion.

Agreeing with previous posters that nobody would care, and that anyone who did stumble across it wouldn't know what to look for. Also, I would venture a guess that other Tusken tribes that possibly are in competition with the slain one might not care much either.

Three - How exactly does Padme reconcile not turning Anakin in for what he did. If she is such an idealist and peace lover how could she possibly allow an act of mass murder go without being answered for?

Anakin killed the aliens responsible for kidnapping, torturing, and killing his mother. That i'm sure she could shrug off with no problem. As for the women and the children, well if they attacked him too (wishful thinking on her part) then perhaps she could justify it.

Four - How does Anakin walk around the Jedi temple without someone like Yoda or Mace or fuck it Obi Wan not picking up that there was something really wrong with Anakin. Yoda constantly picks up people's feelings, he tells young Anakin that his thoughts dwell on his mother, Obi Wan cautions him that his thoughts betray him in regard to his feelings for Padme. So Anakin tends to boradcast his thoughts, and no one picked up on this. You can pick up the darkside in Dooku while standing across a hangar bay from him but you can hang with a mass murderer and never have a clue?

Didn't Yoda pick up on it? Not knowing exactly what it was but knowing that something bad was happening? Its not like Anakin is going to volunteer the information readily and I don't know how many of the Jedi would try and force their way into his mind to try and find out the details. (I thought somewhere that another Jedi did find out, but since I can't remember what the source was, a comic maybe, I'm not going to present it.)

[Elfdart]

This has made me think.

In ANH, the Sandpeople scurry when they see Obi-Wan Kenobi in his brown robe. Luke says they don't attack Jawas, who wear the same type of clothes. In AOTC, Anakin massacres an entire village of Sandpeople while wearing a brown robe. Could it be that after Anakin killed that village, that Tuskens were scared of anything in dark brown burlap? Maybe they thought Ben was Anakin back for Round Two. Maybe they thought the Jawas were little Anakin Skywalkers who would kill them all if they provoked them.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

The EU says that Tuskin Raiders often attack Jawas.

[Master of Ossus]

This has made me think.

In ANH, the Sandpeople scurry when they see Obi-Wan Kenobi in his brown robe. Luke says they don't attack Jawas, who wear the same type of clothes. In AOTC, Anakin massacres an entire village of Sandpeople while wearing a brown robe. Could it be that after Anakin killed that village, that Tuskens were scared of anything in dark brown burlap? Maybe they thought Ben was Anakin back for Round Two. Maybe they thought the Jawas were little Anakin Skywalkers who would kill them all if they provoked them.

Was he dressed in burlap when he killed them, though? I thought it was more of a leather type garb.

http://gwiezdne-wojny.pl/grafika/lut200 ... llpic.jpeg

Is that really the dark robe thing?

[GeneralTacticus]

Besides, weren't all the Tuskens attacked by Anakin killed? How are they supposed to talk about what the guy that slaughtered them was wearing if they're dead?

[Chmee]

Three - How exactly does Padme reconcile not turning Anakin in for what he did. If she is such an idealist and peace lover how could she possibly allow an act of mass murder go without being answered for?

Padme was in love with him. I'm sure she rationalized it, particularly since the Tuskens are primitive and violent and started the fight, anyway.

Definitely ... never underestimate the dark side of infatuation. 'Oh, he's not an evil mass-murdering son-of-a-sith .... he's just misunderstood! And ... his eyes are so dreamy!'

[Icehawk]

One - Do you think Anakin's slaughter of the Tuskens made them hate the mositure farmers more and increased the animosity between the two? For instance, it seems fairly obvious that the Tuskens have been getting the better of the farmers for some time, stealing their folk and slaughtering any rescue party that comes after them (ie. Shmee and Cleeg's disastrous rescue possie) attacking podracers at will without represcussions (TPM) so along comes Anakin and wipes out an entire village, women, children, men. The Tuskens might have viewed this as an escalation of their strained cooexistence and began being more aggressive. By Luke's time the farmers don't venture out alone at night, have security fields in place and don't travel without weaposn (Luke's long blaster rifle when he goes to get R2) so is this partly a result of Anakin's actions?

Not necessarily, they may actually be more cautious now after having so many easy victories and then getting the asses handed to them like that. Not all groups may be as cautious and some may have gotten more aggressive, but I say some groups may have at least been a bit less willing to go around attacking and kidnapping people.

Two - Wouldn't someone who stumbled across a camp full of dead Tuskens displaying obvious lightsaber wounds not make the conclusion that a Jedi had committed that attrocity and report it? Anakin was the only Jedi on Tatooine around that time frame that we know of and so would have fallen under suspicion.

The camp could have easily been cleaned up in the coming days by another Sandpeople group and all the bodies gotten rid of in whatever burial or cremation rituals they do. The huts they were in didnt look that well built and they could have easily been dismantled or just blown away eventually in the sandstorms.

Three - How exactly does Padme reconcile not turning Anakin in for what he did. If she is such an idealist and peace lover how could she possibly allow an act of mass murder go without being answered for?

Who the hell is she going to turn him in too? Tatooine is ruled by the Hutts and the Sandpeople are primitive tribesmen who cannot even be reasoned with or communicated too in any rational manner, its not like they could have a trial with Sandpeople actually showing up to prosecute him or anything like that. If it were on a civilized and properly governed world things may be different though, but on a place like Tatooine and with beasts like the Sandpeople their is nothing much you can really do or at least its not even remotly worth pursuing unless it was an act of genocide or something more largescale than what Anakin did.

She was clearly unsettled by what Anakin revealed but she also understood his reasons and saw that Anakin was also in pain over what happened, especially after he said: "Im a Jedi, I KNOW Im better than this..." Plus she was also in love with him as well, or at least had strong enough feelings for him to let it go. If it were anybody else or someone she didnt know well she likely would have done something about it when she go back to Coruscant.

Four - How does Anakin walk around the Jedi temple without someone like Yoda or Mace or fuck it Obi Wan not picking up that there was something really wrong with Anakin. Yoda constantly picks up people's feelings, he tells young Anakin that his thoughts dwell on his mother, Obi Wan cautions him that his thoughts betray him in regard to his feelings for Padme. So Anakin tends to boradcast his thoughts, and no one picked up on this. You can pick up the darkside in Dooku while standing across a hangar bay from him but you can hang with a mass murderer and never have a clue?

He supposed to be the Chosen One, so they are probably more lenient in regards to whatever feelings they do pick up from him. Plus by the time Anakin is knighted and such the Clone Wars and the Dark Side are continuously growing stronger and blinding the Jedi from sensing things. By the time Anakin attacks the temple and the Clones are ordered to turn on the Jedi in Ep 3, the Jedi's ability to sense danger is likely muted to the point of being useless by the Dark Side.

[Chris OFarrell]

I think this is actualy dealt with somewhat it Tattoine Ghost. It DID have an effect on their culture and it IS an event they remember with fear...

[Shroom Man 777]

ONE - If in the PT the Tuskens were going about stealing and killing and pillaging, I'm sure back then it wasn't safe to go around alone at night too. And that you had to bring a blaster with you.

[Kurgan]

Not that it matters much here, but I seem to recall the ANH novelisation said the Jawas and Tuskens were genetically related somehow.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

I don't recall that.

[Civil War Man]

Luke says they don't attack Jawas

That's not entirely true, IIRC. Luke said, in reference to the destroyed sandcrawler, "I've never heard of them hitting something this big before."

Which makes sense. A sandcrawler is a huge piece of machinery, and though the Jawas aren't hearty warriors, they'd be smart enough to have a few surprises for anyone who tries to take one on.

Strangely enough, though, Tuskens seem to go up against sandcrawlers a lot in low-level canon (KOTOR and Dark Forces: Jedi Academy come to mind). KOTOR even has Sand people kidnapping Jawas for use as slave labor (for some reason I can't guess. Maintain any guns they have, perhaps?).

[Oberleutnant]

Strangely enough, though, Tuskens seem to go up against sandcrawlers a lot in low-level canon (KOTOR and Dark Forces: Jedi Academy come to mind). KOTOR even has Sand people kidnapping Jawas for use as slave labor (for some reason I can't guess. Maintain any guns they have, perhaps?).

Remember that presence of offworlders on Tatooine was very limited during KOTOR. Anchorhead was the only settlement on the planet and it was on brink of collapse, suffering from a weak economy. Everything was very different from the movie time period, when the non-indigenous people on Tatooine numbered at least hundreds of thousands (?). During KOTOR, the colonists were severely threatened by a single Tusken camp, whose people seemed to be aware that they could force the interlopers to leave the planet if they only pushed hard enough.

[HemlockGrey]

I thought Obi Wan scared away the sandpeople by making some sort of animal call.