C-3PO's symbolism in Attack of the Clones

Recently, I watched the movie Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. I am aware that George Lucas has admitted to using C-3PO as a metaphor before. In Empire Strikes Back, he compares C-3PO's being pieced back together again as a reference to Darth Vader's being pieced back together. Vader is ultimately broken by the fact that his own son has rejected to join him and overthrow the Emperor. Luke Skywalker has emerged triumphant over Darth Vader's attempt to turn him to the Dark Side of the Force, but Darth Vader is crippled by the fact that his son has rejected him. In the meanwhile, C-3PO is blasted at by a stormtrooper and ends up in pieces. We see Chewbacca struggling to put his robot friend back together and our heart breaks for Chewbacca. After the duel on Bespin, Darth Vader is seen for the first time in Empire Strikes Back no longer punishing his subordinates for their failures. An Imperial Officer says directly to Lord Vader that the Millennium Falcon's hyperdrive has been disabled, only for the Falcon to blast away right before Vader's eyes into hyperspace. Darth Vader does nothing. He has been defeated by Luke Skywalker's refusal to join him. Darth Vader has been blasted apart. He is starting to be pieced back together, but Luke Skywalker is now going to be just as frustrated, near despairing, as Chewbacca was when he pieced C-3PO back together.

Flash back nearly 25 years before the events of Empire Strikes Back and we've reached the tides of war in the galaxy. Once you understand the main plot-line behind Attack of the Clones, it becomes one of the most interesting of the prequel trilogy. Palpatine is slowly beginning to coagulate power as the Supreme Chancellor of the Galaxy. Right now, he is operating in the context of a democratically elected parliamentary republic. But there are rules he sees he can bend in order to accumulate much greater power. He has split the galaxy into two factions that don't even realize that they are both fighting for him and against each other at the same time. He has done so through his apprentice Darth Tyrannus - Count Dooku - as we will come to learn at the end of the movie. Count Dooku refuses to use his Sith name in front of the Jedi for he wants the Jedi to think of himself as the Sith Master and Maul as the Sith Apprentice whom he trained. He desires the Jedi to believe he is Lord Sidious while Maul is actually Lord Tyrannus. The Jedi are aware of both, but have not identified the Master. They won't until the end of the Clone Wars.

The Jedi, in speaking with Palpatine regarding the assassination attempt on Senator Padme Amidala view themselves as keepers of the peace. Historically, the Jedi have always maintained peace in the galaxy. But Count Dooku became more and more disillusioned with the Jedi. He came to see them as political agents for the Galactic Republic. The Separatists are disillusioned with the direction of the Galactic Republic so they form a faction with the Trade Federation and begin to declare their secession from the Republic. Senator Padme Amidala is revealed to be a dove who was going to vote on the subject of the creation of the grand army of the Republic. But the assassination attempt will drive her away and create a scenario where she and Anakin will become involved in a relationship with each other. Senator Amidala was Queen of Naboo when the Trade Federation attacked her planet and the Viceroy Nute Gunray is furious for the punishments he suffered. He was also involved in her assassination attempt. Nevertheless, Senator Amidala takes a view of not wanting conflict with the Separatists. She is not an ideologue in that matter and it infuriates both sides of the political aisle, the Loyalists to the Chancellor and the Anti-War faction. Senator Jar Jar Binks takes a Loyalist position and hands all power over to the Chancellor.

In the meanwhile, Senator Amidala and Anakin Skywalker end up on Geonosis where Obi Wan Kenobi has been taken prisoner by the Separatist Faction. Along with R2-D2 and C-3PO, Senator Amidala and Anakin Skywalker end up in a droid factory. Inside the factory, C-3PO ends up losing his head on the assembly line and it gets pieced back together onto the body of a B1 Battle Droid. A B1 Battle Droid head gets pieced onto his body. The rest is pure comedy. C-3PO ends up shooting at Jedi on the battlefield of Geonosis where he shouts, "Die Jedi! Die!" He corrects himself as soon as he says this, but the point is made. He is confused. What are his ideals? The Jedi, who were keepers of the peace, are all of a sudden becoming armed combatants of the Republic while the clone troopers show up to save them all. It is a confusing position for the Jedi. Once peace-keepers, now they will begin to be turned into soldiers. This justifies the disillusionment of Count Dooku and the Separatists with the Jedi and the Republic.

In the meanwhile, the B1 Battle Droid, who's head is on C-3PO's body, is frustrated. Not being able to move. He doesn't realize the master he serves is actually in fact the Chancellor of the Galactic Republic that he fights against. Nobody realizes this at this moment. But Count Dooku is aware of this. Count Dooku is the only one who knows all of the mystery at this point. He and Chancellor Palpatine both know the grand conspiracy. And you can hear it when you look at the formation of the clone troopers before Senator Bail Organa and Chancellor Palpatine and the rest of the Loyalists. You can see budding concern on Bail Organa's face as he looks on at the grand army and he starts to question his Loyalist commitment to Palpatine. A commitment that will erode as Palpatine disrupts the Galactic Republic and founds the First Galactic Empire in the midst of the collapsing government. Bail Organa is the B1 Battle Droid, wondering why his body isn't moving. The Jedi are C-3PO who have lost their way. C-3PO is the Galactic Republic, governed by Darth Sidious. The B1 Battle Droid is the Separatists, governed by Chancellor Palpatine. George Lucas, in this brief comedic moment in Attack of the Clones has placed in all of the symbolism that the viewer needs to see in order to know all of Darth Sidious's evil intentions for the galaxy.

Star Wars: Death Troopers

The last time I did a book review was on my other blog. But I wanted to do a book review on Star Wars: Death Troopers as it looked very interesting. It's not the first time that Star Wars has mixed into the horror genre. One would have to go to the Galaxy of Fear series to see the first time. Those were probably the first and only horror novels I could actually handle as a younger kid while others read things such as Goosebumps. That, and the more comedic horror children's novel called Bunnicula about the vampire bunny-rabbit that sucks the juices of all the vegetables. But anyway, this particular book, Death Troopers, I remember coming across at a book store when I was in high school and expressing interest in it. But I don't think we were looking into getting Star Wars books on that run though and I didn't have the money at the time. A couple of weeks ago, when I was shopping, I saw it in the book section and decided to finally get a look at it.

The topic of the book dealing with a contagious virus spreading throughout the ship gave eerie reminders of the past couple years. As we all wore masks and got vaccinated to prevent ourselves from spreading a contagious disease. Yet the medical droid in the book who was the infectious disease expert gave the sentiment that such PPE was more than likely useless. Let's face it, COVID still spread despite our best efforts to stop it. And COVID, being a disease one could get multiple times, wasn't going to be put out of business by a vaccine. That said, I've probably disobeyed more COVID rules than others, as long as I could get away with it, and have never had COVID myself. I'm not saying the virus unleashed in the book is at all like COVID. Oh no. This virus literally turns the flesh of sentient lifeforms into zombies.

There's a ton of horror fiction about zombies and much of it typically devolves into the science fiction genre. I think this is because when it comes to zombies, there is manipulation of lifeforms. Much like when it comes to Frankenstein, we see the manipulation of life by Victor Frankenstein and how that manipulation of life ends up haunting him, demanding more, and rebelling against the creator. I think much of sci-fi horror is based on this idea of how manipulation of life ends up killing the creator who thought himself God, or at least destroying that creator's loved ones. Especially with Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. And perhaps Anthony Fauci would have done well to read Death Troopers before tampering with the corona virus.

Most of the book is dark and atmospheric when you are on the prison barge, though the mood seems to change along with the atmosphere as our characters escape to the Star Destroyer that they are boarding for spare parts. It's later revealed that nothing was wrong with the barge, but it was a tractor beam that had forced the barge on board. The characters soon discover the genetic manipulation of this viral substance that ended up leaking, though some of the Imperial officers believed that it was intentionally leaked onto the crew, and exposed the entire crew of the Star Destroyer. Eating alive the flesh of its victims and then taking over their carcasses, the Empire, we learn, was actually experimenting the potential use of such a virus in the lab.

This book, if not clear already, is written from the perspective of the Empire and the criminals that the Empire had caught. We aren't given much information on two of the main characters' father Von Longo other than he was apparently acknowledged as a good man by the Imperial officer who tortured him to death. The way the book humanizes all of the characters gives you much more sympathy for them. Jareth Sartoris, who killed Von Longo during interrogation proceedings, ends up developing as a character midway through the book. As the book peers into his character, you get to see much more of his character as a human being. Trig and Kale remain as kids throughout who are put through Hell. Trig, being the youngest, has to learn to toughen up the most. Zahara Cody is the Imperial doctor who ends up being one of the central heroes in the early ongoing of the disease's outbreak, developing the vaccine that saves Han Solo and Chewbacca who happen to be prisoners as well.

And yet, despite the fact that most of these people are working for the Empire, we see in the officers a sense of human duty. Both toward each other and toward their fellow sentients. Politics and past lives of crime are put aside. Han Solo is Han Solo. He doesn't trust the Empire or anyone working with the Empire, but he softens up in the situation. This character trait of Solo's is even present throughout the original trilogy of Star Wars too. He's just a smuggler who was paid out by Obi Wan Kenobi and then out of situational awareness, decided to come back and save the friends he had just met. Death Troopers is definitely a book not like any other Star Wars book. And I think that's a huge part of it. You see the Empire in a much different light. Not as a political villain, but as fellow humans performing human duty toward each other. And the epilogue of the book brings the circle of human duty toward each other to a full closure.