phosphorescent-naidheachd:

OK, so let’s discuss this. Or rather, part of it.

(And OP, if you see this and want to talk, I’m completely up for it. I just made this a separate post because A. I didn’t want to start Discourse™ on what was clearly meant to be a fun post, and B. I genuinely don’t think you meant anything by what you said. BUT… I really couldn’t let this particular popular perception of the Tuskens/Sand People in the SW fandom go by without comment either.)

1. We learn very little about the Tuskens/Sand People in the films, and what little we do learn is from obviously negatively biased sources (i.e. settlers).
2. Almost all information we have about the Tusken people is from the EU and now considered Legends. So for the purposes of this post, we’re talking more about Legends canon than we are canon proper or the new canon EU materials.
3. Enjoy it though I do, the EU is inconstant and unwieldy. Only a few SW materials say that the Tuskens tortured settlers “just because they could” and because “they believed that all other sentient life was a blight on the planet”.
4. One thing that the EU does largely agree on, however, is that the Tuskens were on Tatooine long before any “civilized” settlers arrived from other planets.
5. Hmmm, what could this possibly remind you of?

The Tuskens are pretty clearly coded as “savage” indigenous people – they’re nomadic tribal warriors who live in tents, they have less technology than the settlers (ex: gaffi sticks rather than blasters), their stories are oral rather than written, they have a “mystical” bond with certain local animals, and so on. They’re “easily frightened” and fooled, but are also shown to possess a certain brand of cunning, and frequently commit acts of seemingly random violence against settlers. 

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