Had an «Oh, shit» moment this morning. Shouldn’t everybody native to Tattoine (probably spelled that wrong) be dark skinned? It’s a desert planet with two suns, so naturally humans would develope protection, right? Tl;Dr Anikin should have been black or middle Eastern.

redrikki:

@thewillowbends replied saying:

redrikki:

Erm, no. Actually, let me put it a different way, the only peoples actually native to Tatooine are Jawas and Tuskins. Everyone else (including the humans) are relatively recent transplants to the planet. Anakin was (probably) born there, but his mother was a slave born on a different world and transported there against her will. The Lars family were settlers from off world who had only been living there a few generations. There is no reason for them to be dark skinned. That said, there’s no reason for them to NOT be dark skinned beyond the fact the director wanted to hire white people.

Also, people on earth have dark skin as a sort of UV protection because the sun is a deadly laser, but a thicker atmosphere with higher levels of ozone in the upper atmosphere would block much of the sun’s radiation. Tatooine has enough surface-level oxygen for humans to breath, but we have no idea what the composition of the upper atmosphere is or how that would effect solar radiation. Also, most of the settlements on Tatooine are in the extreme northern hemisphere. On earth, the extreme northern hemisphere receives less direct solar radiation (hence why Europeans are pale) because of the earth’s tilt relative to the sun, but who knows how it works on Tatooine with the two suns and unknown tilt.

Basically, there is no reason for Anakin, or any of the human settlers on Tatooine, to have ANY particular skin color except that George Lucas wanted to hire white people.

For people to live there period, one of the suns must be substantially
weaker and there must be intense ozone protection.  Otherwise, they must
be lathering on some super galactic sunscreen every day or they
wouldn’t survive past their teens without skin cancer.

Good point. Interesting how the native Jawas and Tuskins all wear concealing garments, presumably for protection from the sun. Also, every one of the human characters looks significantly aged due to solar radiation. Obi-Wan was in his 50s, but after living in the desert for 20 years looked like a 63-year-old Alec Guinness. Owen and Beru (characters who were in their 40s), were also played by people in their sixties. Even 19-year-old Luke looked more like a 26-year-old than his twin sister.

Clearly, there was a strong enough ozone layer to keep them all from dying of skin cancer at a young age, but they all really should have been slathering on that sunscreen and wearing hats.