On Politics in the Star Wars Prequels
When the Star Wars prequels came out around the term of the millennium, they were criticized for being too political. I don’t think the issue was the politicization per say, but rather that the politicization was in conflict with the nature of the setting. At its core, Star Wars is basically a generic high fantasy setting in space. It is about space knights (or rather, space paladins) rescuing space princesses from the evil space emperor and his space evil knight (or rather, space anti-paladin). Arguably, the aesthetic of space chivalry is the core of the franchise, or if not a core, at least a core. Star Wars without the mix of magical medieval and soft science fiction is no longer Star Wars. The space-fantasy setting naturally creates a retro-monarchist political system. There can’t be space princesses without space monarchies, nor can there be a Jedi order without the concept of an autonomous quasi-religious order, akin to some sort of crusader order. This retro-mon...