Skip to main content

star wars - Who decided to burn the Jawas, and why?


In the first Star Wars (spoilers incoming), there is a scene where Luke, Ben, and the 'droids come across a bunch of dead Jawas. These were the same Jawas that had found and sold the 'droids, and they'd been killed by the same Stormtroopers who killed Luke's aunt and uncle. But before the main characters leave for Mos Eisley, they make sure to throw the bodies into a pile and light them on fire.


Now this, to me, seems like a potentially incredibly offensive thing to do. Funerary practices are really important to many cultures here on Earth, and I know there are some sects of Christianity that are wholly against cremation. Similarly, think of the Fremen from Dune, to whom cremation would be an unforgivable waste of water. Considering the Jawas are scavengers, I'd have assumed they'd want their bodies, or at least their personal belongings, to be put to good use rather than just burned.


Is there any explanation given for whose idea it was to burn these bodies, and why they thought that was the best thing to do? Is there any indication that Jawas prefer to be set on fire when they die? Is it possible the 'droids were just getting revenge on their former captors by denying them access to their afterlife?



Answer



"Who decided" - clearly, Obi-Wan Kenobi.


The only sentients involved in the scene were Luke - who went to the farm to find Owen and Beru's bodies and wasn't present when bonfire started, Obi-Wan, R2-D2 and C-3PO.


C-3PO and R2-D2 aren't likely to decide to burn the bodies, being droids owned by Luke, so it must have been Obi-Wan.



Film canon:



We don't know. Having said that, remember that




  • C-3PO is a protocol droid. While not specified in canon, it's entirely possible he was well aware of Jawa's burial customs as part of his protocol knowledge and thus suggested the idea to Obi-Wan.




  • Obi-Wan lived on Tattooine for many years and was familiar with both Jawa and Sand People. He could have known the rituals himself.




  • Another option is that Obi-Wan was simply following the Jedi burial customs. We see that both Qui-Gon Jin and Anakins Skywalker bodies are burned on a bonfire.





Novelization canon (which is C-canon by Lucas rules but full canon by Disney rules)


Obi-Wan wanted to prevent scavengers from getting to Jawas. Doesn't say so outright but clearly burying them wasn't a feasible option.



Working together, the two ’droids helped Kenobi throw the last of the bodies onto the blazing pyre, then stood back and watched the dead continue to burn. Not that the desert scavengers wouldn’t have been equally efficient in picking the burned-out sandcrawler clean of flesh, but Kenobi retained values most modern men would have deemed archaic. He would consign no one to the bone-gnawers and gravel-maggots, not even a filthy jawa.
("Star Wars IV: A New Hope" novelization by "George Lucas" - in reality, Alan Dean Foster)



Junior novelization doesn't go into any detail.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Was the "pure soul" of Harry's what had really hurt Voldemort?

In the Order of the Phoenix, Voldemort possesses Harry, and it hurts. Greatly. I think that Dumbledore explained that it was because Voldemort's rotten soul was incapable of assimilating Harry's pure soul, that Voldemort didn't understand the love and friendship etc that Harry has in his heart. But, I think it was a lie. Remember that in Deathly Hallows, while looking for information regarding Horcruxes, it is discovered that it is in fact possible to merge a soul fragment back, but that the process was extremely painful. Now then, if Voldemort tried to possess Harry, and Harry had a fragment of Voldemort's soul, I think that it could have been the true cause of Voldemort's pain: the fact of having his soul so close of another fragment. I think that Dumbledore knew that fact, but had to lie to Harry because it was inappropriate to let him know that he had one of Voldemort's soul fragments at the moment. Is that right? Or was it truly the pure soul of Harry's...
Post a Comment
Read more

languages - Do we ever see written English in the Star Wars films?

In Empire Strikes Back , we see a transcription of what R2's beeps and bloops mean, but it's not English (sorry for the low quality, it's from the 2004 DVDs): I'd assume it's what Basic looks like when written, but is there some point in the the Star Wars films we see written English instead? (This sort of spun off from a discussion in How do people understand astromech droids? .) Answer At one point there was English but it has been phased out in subsequent versions of the films. Chris Gould at DVD Active did a comparison of all versions of each of the Star Wars films, and in his comparison of Episode 4 , there are a couple of screenshots showing how the power gauge for the Death Star tractor beam was changed. I imagine there are probably more to be found in his other comparisons but I haven't got around to reading those yet.
Post a Comment
Read more

star wars - What "exactly" happens when someone turns to the Dark Side?

When I saw the original Star Wars saga as a kid, the concept of the Dark Side imprinted in me was quite simple. You did a bad thing, so you're a bad person so you go to the Dark Side and keep doing bad things. Now, obviously this doesn't hold true in reality. In my mind it is perfectly reasonable for Luke to kill the Emperor and Vader and then just flee the Death Star and rejoin the Alliance. After all they are at war, those are enemy officers that have captured him and are taunting him by threatening with death of all loved ones and the whole operation was intended to kill the Emperor anyway. The same would hold true for Anakin. He could have killed Mace Windu to save the Chancellor and Padme but that doesn't mean he's going to then go mad and kill all Jedis including children. It doesn't add up from a merely psychological point of view. He had a set of objectives and that made him want to keep the Chancellor alive (quite valid by the way, Mace Windu is quite clums...
Post a Comment
Read more

star trek - Warning regarding forward saucer section in Nemesis?

In Star Trek: Nemesis , just before the Enterprise rams into the Scimitar, Picard sends a text message from his captain's chair arm pad to Troi — who is manning the helm in lieu of the crewman who was just blown out through what was once the view screen — indicating that she should put full impulse on standby. (Literally, if you watch the scene closely, Troi's console prefaces the order with "TXT MSG" !) My question is: Did Picard also somehow warn crew members in the forward saucer section about what was about to happen? The ramming of the Scimitar was a heat of the moment decision. Considering that he also resorted to calling the auto-destruct sequence shortly after (which ended up being offline), he probably was of the mindset that any losses would be acceptable in order to hault Shinzon's march to Earth. Still, I'm curious. Answer The original script indicates that he called for the crew to " brace for impact ". Whether that call (or the comma...
Post a Comment
Read more