i don’t think a lot of people in fandom realize the clones were actually slaves, heck, i don’t even think the writers (at least i think) realized it…

grand-duc:

redrikki:

padawanlost:

I think it
depends on what you mean by fandom. The movies never made it overly explicit
(in-your-face slavery) so I think the “casual fans” ever gave it much thought. Figuring
the overall vibe of the fandom on this topic is hard because the fandom is so
fractured. I believe most fans who are interested in the EU know the clone army
is a slave army. The EU makes it pretty clear. The real problem is the people
who know but choose to ignore it or make excuses. I’ve seen fans argue that
real victims of the creation of the clone army were the Jedi. And they were not
talking about Order 66, they were arguing that the people who suffered the most
from the Kaminoans work were the Jedi. That the Jedi had no choice but to accept
a slave army and that’s makes them honorable victims. Those arguments offend me
far more than a fan who never realized they were a slave army because they
never looked into it.

Speaking of
offensive arguments, the writers absolutely realized the clones were slaves but
sucked at talking about it. It feels like they wanted to show they were slaves
at the same time they wanted to show the Jedi as benevolent and Anakin as
unreasonable. But the thing is, there’s no such a thing a good slave owner. The
same way there’s nothing unreasonable about wanting to abolish slavery.

By not
fully embracing the issue and exploring it in a satisfactory away they created
this gray area where slavery sort of happens and it’s kind of bad. An area where
everyone is somehow justified in not doing more. And when the writers don’t know
how to approach the subject, it’s not surprising the fandom doesn’t either. It’s
even less surprising that some take this slip-up as moral ambiguity and use it
against the slaves to make their heroes look better (and send rape threats to
the writers that do want to talk about it).

It’s interesting to me just how persistent the myth of the ‘good’ slave owner is, especially in the United States. I guess when a not insignificant portion of the viewer’s (and writer’s) ancestors owned people, the idea that it was possible to both be a person-owner and a good person has to exist so people can look back at their ancestors without being overwhelmed by the shame.

In a way though, #notallslaveowners is a lot like #notallmen. Even if they weren’t beating or starving their slaves, those owners were still a) exploiting the labor of enslaved people, b) using the implied threat of force to compel said labor. Enslaved people sure knew that they could be beaten, tortured, starved, separated from their loved ones at any time even if their ‘good’ master had never done so simply because that’s what slave owners do.

Basically, the Jedi do not deserve a cookie for treating the clones with some semblance of humanity. Yoda telling a clone that he sees him as a unique being whose life has value means exactly dick when he would throw literally anyone under the bus for the Greater Good with or without their consent. Shaak Ti speaking kindly to the clones means nothing when she also refers to them as Republic property and makes potentially fatal medical decisions for them without their consent. Basically, the Jedi don’t have to be Pong Krell to be bad. All they have to do is allow Pong Krell to stay in the field despite ridiculous casualties because, hey, at least he wins. And that’s not even going into the part where the clones all have mind control chips THAT THEY KNOW ABOUT and are cool with. 

And the Jedi are only “kind” to the Clones because Kamino already took care of ensuring their compliance. 

If their army hadn’t come to them already brainwashed from birth, if desertion was something that happened more than once in a blue moon, if it didn’t take DEAFON 7 for them to *think* about disobeying orders in the field – Hell, stakes don’t even need to be that high, if the Clones couldn’t be trusted to hold to military discipline all by their lonesome – would they be so kind?

If the choice was to be not so nice or loose their army, what would they pick?

As it is in The Clone Wars cartoon, they’re like the fun uncle who can swan in and be all chummy and permissive with the kids because the parents are the ones actually doing the job of teaching them the rules and enforcing them*.

*Only in this case, the parents are abusive slavers robbing them of their agency and personhood before they can develop it, so that they can conveniently be used as canon fodder by the fun uncle.