Thread by @thaoworra

Debating if I should go into a conversation on how important the Book of Boba Fett and the Mandalorian are through the lens of Lao and Southeast Asians in diaspora, especially re: The restoration of the Jedi, Mandalore, and even the Tatooine Underworld.

Spoiler alert: There's a reason why, for a long time SEAsian governments weren't that enthused about a story of farm boys, smugglers, and ex-royalty going into the jungle and blowing up a major infrastructure project with the indigenous population forming a secret proxy army.

The US instinct is to see themselves as protagonists, but it's very difficult to credibly visualize US troops in SEAsia as fighting Vietnamese forces as if armed with the equivalent of AT-ATs, Tie Fighters, and Death Stars. Which feels more likely:

20th century US rejected any idea that a small, scrappy band of under-armed fighters could resist a technologically, economically "superior" force despite 13 colonies in the 1770s saying otherwise, as did the French eviction after Dien Bien Phu, 1954 🙄

For my wargame colleagues, a reminder to revisit the 1960s Sigma War games that constantly predicted SEAsian victories until parameters were redefined by the US that were patently absurd to claim a roadmap to easy triumph in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigma_war…

"The Empire improves every system it touches. Judge by any metric. Safety, prosperity, trade, opportunity, peace. Compare Imperial rule to what is happening now. Look outside. Is the world more peaceful since the revolution? I see nothing but death and chaos," says the Client

For most US audiences, I get it. That's an abstract question to you. But to SEAsians on both sides of the conflict? It should absolutely stab in the heart as we rebuild with so many of us scattered across the globe/galaxy, often in small cohorts/enclaves

How should it read to refugees in remote frontiers as a client sets in motion a plan to most likely come back into power with his associates, thinking they can just buy anything they wish, no questions asked. But you NEED the work. You need to eat & a chance to get "Beskar"?

What could possibly go through the Mandalorian's head working with the people who directly destroyed his people's planet? But a chance to get something precious to your culture back to your people where it belongs? Yes. That's always tantalizing.

Looking at photos from the war and even today in SEAsia, spoiler alert: Rebuilding is NOT an instantaneous process. And what does it mean for our communities when scattered across US, Europe, etc? Where do we take our lives? That's a q in both Book of Boba Fett & The Mandalorian

To most US audiences, you cheer the Mandalorian rescued by the cavalry.

For Refugees, how can it not look like: Our traditions, our beliefs just got weaponized against us, saving a "Jedi" whose people HATED Mandalorians? But this is the Way. At what cost, revealing themselves

BoBF & Mandalorian are getting it right depicting refugees struggling like this. NO ONE has a rightful claim to "restore" Mandalore, which is "gone". Not ex-nobles, clones/gangsters, foundlings, religious fanatics who survived ONLY because they were Off-World.

But where to now?

If the Jedi code as Buddhists who embrace "non-attachment" yet participate in galactic affairs, SEA refugees also continue to explore what it means to re-establish Buddhist temples in US even as monks protested against US & SEAsian govt. during war for their violence & corruption

Formally speaking, Luke & Ahsoka are powerful in the Force, but they're not technically Jedi Knights, essentially idealizing an institution that tried to get Luke to commit patricide, while Mandalorians are also caught in a tough decision about preservation of tradition, culture

Refugees are often forced to throw their gangs & underworld figures under the bus & disavow them lest the US use it as an excuse for anti-Asian violence & policy. BoBF is exploring something our communities can't really talk about openly yet even after 50 years.

There's more to all of this, obvs. But TLDR, if you have refugee roots and you're not watching the Mandalorian and Book of Boba Fett, you're missing out on several compelling conversations.

Tangent but technically still on message:

And lest some suggest I'm pulling the SEA War connection out of my ass, allow me to retort: amc.com/blogs/george-l…

I run into some who are put off by the way Boba, Din, and others don't seem to take time to process grief & trauma or talk it over with others. I'd counter that among many SEA refugees it DOES track, not having much time to process loss or discuss it with indifferent strangers.

In recent years we've seen an expansion of programs finally trying to help elders, adults and youth recover & get closure, and not pass trauma on to future generations but many don't even realize their responses are atypical next to non-traumatized households.

Djarin saw his family & neighbors wiped out by a droid army & it took time for him to accept help from droids like IG-11. This & the seeming randomness of his remote village being attacked to help a bigger war they had no clear stake in will feel familiar to many SEA refugees.

In refugee communities, abstracting our experience through shows like BoBF and the Mandalorian are important for us to start conversations on difficult eras & social questions elders might not be ready to discuss directly. They allow us easier ways to ask "What if?" "What next?"

Some gripe Mandalorian is exploring same turf as Lone Wolf & Cub but given the ultimate end of THAT series, if it applied the same level of social critique to post-American War SEAsia & US would be AMAZING. We should be so lucky. I hope it can go beyond even that.

Boba's official past is heavily in flux, but I'll say: Sorry, he's NOT Star Wars Punisher, but who he & Jango said they were. In reforming & now self-defining his own post-Hutt/Vader path to redemption & place in society? For SEAsian refugees it ought to be a FASCINATING question

For most US viewers, Bo-Katan digging at Fett, dismissing him as just another of 1000s of nameless, faceless clones who used to live & die for people like her is just a fun joke

I'll leave it you to figure out why a post-monarchy SEAsian refugee can watch this VERY differently

I can see how a viewer gets confused if one assumes Luke -IS- a Jedi Knight because there was no one else trying to be one & his time w. Ben, Yoda & holocrons is "good enough" despite being too old, but strong to begin the training at one point

gizmodo.com/luke-skywalker…

"Wars do not make one great." It's unlikely to ever be perfect, but there's a thread within Star Wars stories that is going beyond Techno-Orientalism towards a maturing conversation on traumatized children caught in vast conflicts to consolidate power