The Mandalorian season 2 finale built on George Lucas' original plan for Star Wars by portraying members of the Rebel Alliance as terrorists. Comparisons between the Rebels and real-life terrorists is nothing new, and it’s something that fans have been debating for years. Star Wars originally started as a conflict between two factions, the Rebels and the Empire. In the first movie, the Rebels succeeded in eliminating the Empire’s greatest weapon, the Death Star, and the fight to end tyranny continued in two more films. By the end of Return of the Jedi, the Empire was defeated and the Rebels emerged victorious.
An exploration of the political side of Star Wars has brought up conversations about themes that George Lucas applied to the movies, and what real-life institutions may have inspired the events that took place in his world. One assessment that was often made about Lucas’ original trilogy is that it was the creator’s intention for the Rebels to be terrorists. This has been confirmed by Lucas himself.
Lucas has said in the past that the Vietnam War and the direction of the Nixon Administration, in terms of how it was supposedly moving away from democracy, was the primary influence. In one interview, Lucas claimed that the Rebels were based on the Viet Cong, a Vietnamese revolutionary group and an opponent of the United States during the war. Their actions during the conflict were called terrorism [via AMC]. Though the Rebels are portrayed as the good guys of the story in the Star Wars movies, it's not hard to see how this comparison can be made. The moral objectives of the Rebels aside, it is true that they carried out several attacks with thousands of casualties, with two of their most notable deeds being the destruction of the two Death Stars. Now, The Mandalorian is calling back to those old accusations.
In The Mandalorian season 2 finale’s opening scene, Mando (Pedro Pascal) and Cara Dune (Gina Carano) attack an enemy ship in an effort to capture Dr. Pershing (Omid Abtahi). During a face-off, an Empire pilot confronts Cara and talks about the millions of people who were killed by the Rebels’ attacks. He goes on to say that blowing up her planet was a “a small price to pay to rid the galaxy of terrorism.” The pilot’s words naturally infuriate Cara, but they go back to a key point that has been made before about the original movies.
The Rebels are the heroes of the Star Wars films, but in the eyes of the Empire, it makes sense why they’d be viewed as terrorists. An untold number of people died when the Death Stars exploded, and there’s a debate to be had concerning whether or not everyone on board deserved their fate. The idea that some of the casualties may have been innocents has a lot to do with the comparisons to terrorism. George Lucas’ movies setup this moral controversy in an interesting way with the direction the Rebels’ took in winning the Galactic Civil War. However, though the allusions to terrorism have been spoken about publicly, they weren't made altogether clear on the big screen. And now, The Mandalorian is bringing these issues to light by recognizing the Rebels as men and women who perpetrated large-scale acts of terror on the Empire.