The purpose of this blog is to discuss the implementation of disability in the Star Wars series and phenomenon as a whole.
In Star Wars you can observe that the director has a fascination with dismemberment in the form of decapitation and the losing of limbs with Anakin and Luke Skywalker. Anakin loses his whole lower torso along with extremely severe burns and is forced to rely on his cybernetic suit when he becomes Darth Vader as well as a helmet that enables him to breathe. Later on in the series Luke finds out that Anakin or Darth Vader is his father and sets out to defeat him and save the galaxy. The first fight between them ends with Luke losing not only the duel, but his hand as well. Even with both of their shortcomings and disabilities, they both manage to adapt and are extremely strong in their own right and respected by all their peers and even their adversaries. Star Wars unlike shows like Glee does not really victimize people due to their disabilities or their frustrations with society or personal situations in their lives. Glee has one of the main characters in a wheelchair named Artie who is made fun of and discriminated against in one part of the show, and then his disability is over-glorified and flip flops in its perception throughout the show until it becomes a central theme of the show.A lot of shoes just shoe horn in a token character with a disability or shortcoming to say that they are aware of the issue or “support that community.” Even people with disabilities have noted that Hollywood does not do a good job of representing disability in its films and express their contempt. However in Star Wars, it does not try and be something that it is not, aside from Darth Vader having to adapt his fighting style and adjusting to his suit, disability is not a central plot point throughout Star Wars and is more of something that has become a meme with how common it is throughout the movies, similar to the “I have a bad feeling about this” troupe that is loved by fans. Star Wars does not have a character in a wheel chair, or one who suffers from a deathly disease, or cancer, but it does have characters that everyone can relate to whether or not they themselves have a disability or not. Disability should not be thrown in just to appeal to that demographic or try and make a movie or series more sensitive or emotional, it should be used if it fits into the story correctly and to show everyone that you might be different from everyone else, but that does not mean you are any less better than them. This is where the phenomenon of Star Wars did what most films still can not. Do you guys think that Star Wars needs to reflect the feelings and lives of people with disabilities or that it does a fine enough job as it is and should stay on its current course?
Be wary of pitying people that do not want nor need it ~Keishawn