The Importance Of Individuality In Star Wars

One specific way to closely analyze individuality in the Star Wars films is by looking at the droids and clones. In the prequels, both the jedi and the separatists use their clone and droid armies, respectively, as completely expendable soldiers, making the large-scale battle scenes emotionless. Since both the good and evil sides in this war make their armies in a factory, and both sides use their factory-made soldiers as expendable beings, the good versus evil dichotomy gets blurred. As John C. McDowel states in his book Identity Politics in George Lucas’ Star Wars: “The clones are presented as not being fully human, a consequence of the deliberate constraining of their individuality in the cloning process. They become more like biologically material machines, constructed through an instrumentalizing of life that denies them their own potential for becoming free and equal subjects in their own right” (33). This lack of individuality in clones creates a disconnect between them and the jedi, because the jedi clearly see the clones as inferior beings. Within Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, probably hundreds of thousands of clones die, and there is never a scene where any jedi becomes upset by this, except for one important exception. In the opening scene of Revenge of the Sith, while Anakin and Obi-Wan race towards General Grievous’s ship, one clone fighter pilot gets in trouble. Panicked, the clone says, “they’re all over me,” into the group communication