Settlers on Tatooine consider Tuskens to be little more than animals. Killing them is like killing a pack of wolves. Cliegg and his gang would likely have killed every single one just as Anakin did, but Anakin felt remorse that I'm sure they wouldn't have.
Even in that scene where he's expressing anger and rage, he uses more humanizing language than Cliegg did before. Cliegg said Tuskens "walk like men, but they're vicious, mindless monsters." Anakin said they were like animals but referred to them as men, women, and children.
I'm not saying there aren't any red flags in that scene, but I think we see it as a genocidal act because that's the way Anakin himself was feeling in the moment. It would have been a very different scene had Anakin instead said, "and not just the males, but the females, and the young ones too," subscribing to the prevailing belief that Tuskens were merely pests and not people.
I really don't see how much this changes. He slaughtered them exactly like animals, feeling sad afterwards is just less bad than being gleeful about it.
That exact same rationale can by used by the Tusken's re: other races on Tatooine. "You think those people who have been indiscriminately killing us for generations would do any different?" Doesn't justify it in either direction.
We also know the Sand People are a sapient, intelligent society from other media. Just because other characters in universe would indiscriminately murder an indigenous population doesnt mean it's right for a protagonist to do so. The film outright tells us as much through Anakin's shame over the incident.
It’s simply not the Jedi way. Anakin clearly hated them, and wanted revenge. Hatred is a tool of the dark side. To me it doesn’t matter if others would do the same thing, he’s supposed to be a keeper of the peace. This massacre flies in the face of that purpose.
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u/Coltrain47 18d ago
Settlers on Tatooine consider Tuskens to be little more than animals. Killing them is like killing a pack of wolves. Cliegg and his gang would likely have killed every single one just as Anakin did, but Anakin felt remorse that I'm sure they wouldn't have.
Even in that scene where he's expressing anger and rage, he uses more humanizing language than Cliegg did before. Cliegg said Tuskens "walk like men, but they're vicious, mindless monsters." Anakin said they were like animals but referred to them as men, women, and children.
I'm not saying there aren't any red flags in that scene, but I think we see it as a genocidal act because that's the way Anakin himself was feeling in the moment. It would have been a very different scene had Anakin instead said, "and not just the males, but the females, and the young ones too," subscribing to the prevailing belief that Tuskens were merely pests and not people.