#end racism against muuns

[darth-jess]

Really?

Just cause you see a Muun doesn’t mean it’s Darth Plagueis🤦🏻‍♀️

Far as I'm concerned this is proof that Plagueis is alive in current canon and just big chilling. The Stranger took after Plagueis way more than crusty no fun Sheev ever did.

[padawanlost]

@professorerudite​ replied:

I would love to read a meta about how the Star Wars series views people with artificial limbs/prosthetics as being less-than-human. There's already discrimination in the Empire against non-human species.

We don’t have a lot of detail on all the Empire’s ableist methods and beliefs but we got a glimpse of it from Dooku. As someone who embodied the GFFA’s elitism, racism and ableism we could say a look into Dooku’s mind and what he hoped for the empire is also a look into the Empire itself.

A government clean, pure, direct: none of the messy scramble for the favor of ignorant rabble and subhuman creatures that made up the Republic he so despised. The government he would serve would be Authority personified. Human authority. It was no accident that the primary powers of the Confederacy of Independent Systems were Neimoidian, Skakoan, Quarren and Aqualish, Muun and Gossam, Sy Myrthian and Koorivar and Geonosian. At war’s end the aliens would be crushed, stripped of all they possessed, and their systems and their wealth would be given into the hands of the only beings who could be trusted with them. Human beings. Dooku would serve an Empire of Man. [Matthew Stover’s Revenge of the Sith]

“But I must ask, my Master: is Skywalker truly the man we want?” “He is powerful. Potentially more powerful than even myself.” “Which is precisely,” Dooku said meditatively, “why it might be best if I were to kill him, instead.” “Are you so certain that you can?” “Please. Of what use is power unstructured by discipline? The boy is as much a danger to himself as he is to his enemies. And that mechanical arm—”Dooku’s lip curled with cultivated distaste. “Revolting.” “Then perhaps you should have spared his real arm.” “Hmp. A gentleman would have learned to fight one-handed.” Dooku flicked a dismissive wave. “He’s no longer even entirely human. With Grievous, the use of these bio-droid devices is almost forgivable; he was such a disgusting creature already that his mechanical parts are clearly an improvement. But a blend of droid and human? Appalling. The depths of bad taste. How are we to justify associating with him?” [Matthew Stover’s Revenge of the Sith]

If the idea that loss of limb = loss of humanity wasn’t ableist enough, we have evidence the Jedi Order had a similar mentality.

So even if members of the Jedi Council were prejudiced against people with prosthetics, it’s not a huge leap to assume the general population had similar views. I mean, if people were already so openly prejudiced during the Republic years, I’d say it’s safe to assume that shit was taken to the next level during the Empire.

Palpatine saw beings like Grievous and Vader as nothing but tools to be explored so I doubt he’d have any kind of sympathy for anyone in similar situation. Not like he had any sympathy for anyone anyway :/

We do have the evidence the racist and elitist agenda were certainly enough (with great brutality). And if we look at our own world and how the rise of racist, prejudiced and ignorant leader seem to embolden people into proudly express their own ignorance and use the situation to enforce discriminatory agendas, it’s not that far-fetched to assume the same happened in the GFFA.

Is there anything official on whether prosthetic limbs affected Vader's (or anyone for that matter) skills with a light saber or the force?

Yes! The EU is filled with moments that show how hard it was for Anakin to adapt to the suit and how it affected his body, his skills and his ability to connect to the force.

Anakin, as Skywalker, as a human being, was going to be extremely powerful, but he ended up losing his arms and a leg and became partly a robot. So a lot of his ability to use the Force, a lot of his powers, are curbed at this point, because, as a living form, there’s not that much of him left. So his ability to be twice as good as the Emperor disappeared, and now he’s maybe 20 percent less than the Emperor. So that isn’t what the Emperor had in mind. He wanted this really super guy, but that got derailed by Obi-Wan. So he finds that, with Luke, he can get a more primo version if he can turn Luke to the Dark Side. You’ll see, as this goes on, Luke is faced with the same issues and practically the same scenes that Anakin is faced with. Anakin says yes and Luke says no. - George Lucas for Vanity Fair, February, 2005.

James Luceno writes a particularly long and haunting portrayal of what the suit meant for Vader in the novel Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader. It explains in painful detail how much damage he suffered and how he adapted to it.

[…] Already he had experienced moments of claustrophobia—moments of desperation to be rid of the suit, to emerge from the shell. He needed to build, or have built, a chamber in which he could feel human again … If possible. All in all, he thought: This is not living. This was solitary confinement. Prison of the worst sort. Continual torture. He was nothing more than wreckage. Power without clear purpose … A melancholy sigh escaped the mouth grille. Collecting himself, he stepped through the hatch. [James Luceno. Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader]

As for his skills, he had to adapt his fighting style to be able to keep up with faster (and healthier) enemies. There’s a lot of this in the darth vader comics and (if I’m not mistaken) the games.