(shit I'm late to the party again.)

But then, the weird speciesism that pervades the Star Wars movies, and really any alien-oriented scifi, is a big subject, not worth getting into here.

Also, Clerks

Blue-Collar Man: (paying for coffee) I'm alive because I knew there were risks involved taking on that particular client. My friend wasn't so lucky. (pauses to reflect) You know, any contractor willing to work on that Death Star knew the risks. If they were killed, it was their own fault. A roofer listens to this... (taps his heart) not his wallet.

Not everything has to be symbolic.

Star Wars is pulp sci-fi, and nothing more. And that's coming from someone who has a hand-built lightsabre.

"Ever had a caramel macchiado? It'll change your life."

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, yo.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2007/07/03/DDG6TQOR2I1.DTL&o=0

The Empire of the movie was about the superiority of the “human” over the technology present in the clones, droids, and non-human races; it was an Empire supposedly based upon putting humans at the top of the social structure and the automaton at the bottom. An empire which places itself into the “superior” empire class does not use its own “upper strata” (humans in this case) population to further the end-goal of making the world (galaxy) a better place to live for the rank-and-file (human, aka: Us Vs. Them) citizens… it requires an “inferior” work force, placed squarely at the bottom of the social order, to do the hard, sweaty, dangerous and repetitive labor.

In addition to the automaton’s social “place” being beneath the superior human class in the Star Wars Galactic Empire , the automaton requires minimal basic physical support. Unlike the humans, who require “the support” of everything Mudede listed, the automaton only needs a machine shop and a few replacement parts, perhaps a power charge-up from time to time.

The Clerks-esque academic argument over a civilian construction work force toiling on the space girders of the Death Star during the day, only to go home to a family life after the shift, ignores the social mechanism used by the empire to gain acceptance before, during and after the collapse of the Republic. It doesn’t fit. No empire can win over the rank-and-file populace through guns alone: bread in the tummy and a promise of a better way of life secures it to the widest possible support base. The promise of a better life of eas(ier) living, for those willing to accept imperial rule and to accept there assigned place in the “order of the universe”, would include not doing work the social structure has assigned to the subservient class. /geek

The empire was just too inefficient for it's own good.

We have no idea how the ships in Star Wars are powered*, so for all you know, they've developed an interia-less drive. Plus, we don't know anything about the physics of hyperspace.

Wow, I'm a dork.

*At least, not at the highest level of canonicity

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Do I win the geek contest?

Line 26 says "We have no idea how the ships (in Star Wars) are powered." Well "WE" do know how one was powered. The TIE Fighter used by the Empire is powered by a twin ion engine. Get it? Twin Ion Engine = Tie.

This coming from a schmuk who spent 8 hours in line for the opening of The Revenge of the Sith dressed as a Jedi.

I have now proved my dork-ness, back to my action figures.