Anakin, the Tusken Raiders, and justice

[extrapenguin]

I came across some complaints about a trend in fic tagged as Anakin/Consequences where Anakin gets punished for his misdeeds by all his friends kicking him to the curb in an OOC fashion and started thinking about fics where Anakin faced actual, constructive consequences that include some restitution to the Tuskens. There's a lot of fic where his Fall is averted by a time-traveling Obi-Wan determined to do right by him this time, or in general someone else saving him, with a few fics where he himself wises up and reforms himself (mandatory plug for In Fire here), but I don't think I've ever come across a fic involving restitution to the Tuskens in the wild. I mean, I wrote one (though the Tuskens themselves are more of a side note), and one of the commenters outright said Also you’re the first author I’ve seen actually take a stab at having Anakin offer reparations to the Tusken people and then spell out what those reparations were, so kudos to you I at least thought that was really well done so I assume it's not a case of me being in a fic bubble of my own making wrt filtering and all the people writing justice for the Tuskens fic being, idk, Anidala OTPers.

(FTR, the official novelization states Anakin went personally lightsabering all the warriors/adult men, then came out of his murder fugue to discover he'd created a Force sandstorm or something that killed the women and children as well.) (ETA: This was the junior novelization. I have been lied to.)

Then I started thinking about what restitution the Tuskens could possibly be offered. Sing Dead the Dark (linked above) had Anakin vaccinate the Tuskens' banthas against a settler-brought virus. Parts 2b and 3 of the series of my current WIP of doom, All That is Solid Melts into Air, will have him negotiate some sort of peace treaty/land usage settlement so as to break the cycle of Tuskens and settlers killing each other out of vengeance. What else could he offer? Help rebuilding for the survivors of the clan he massacred, even if all the adults were at best complicit in torturing his mother to death? He might also go OTT in his personal penance out of guilt and, idk, shroud Tatooine in a perpetual sandstorm to get the Hutts and the moisture farmers and the like to evacuate the planet and leave it just to the Tuskens.

But the Tuskens also seem to have a completely different moral code to the rest of the GFFA. What if Anakin turns up on Tatooine, ready to make what amends he can and atone for his crimes, only for the general Tusken opinion to be "Oh, they were torturing your mother to death? Massacring them was 100% the right thing to do, gj on succeeding with it! Honestly you're an inspiration." Like, what does he do then? How does one make amends if the people one needs to make amends to see your severe crime as no big deal? At what point does wanting to make restitution become more about one's own comfort than morality and justice?

Comments

[atamascolily]

ow does one make amends if the people one needs to make amends to see your severe crime as no big deal? At what point does wanting to make restitution become more about one's own comfort than morality and justice?

These are fascinating questions! I think that in some ways that would be so much harder for Anakin to take, in part because it means he has to question his own assumptions and seriously self-examine. I would love to see that explored in fic; it's not something I've ever come across in fanfic, either.

I've written two fics with Tusken characters, and one thing I've always tried to do is give them a radically different worldview than the mainstream GFFA, and dig into the heart of the conflicts that inevitable arise beyond an overly simplistic "our side is good and their side is bad" dichotomy. One reason I like the character of Sharad Hett and his son A'Sharad so much is that they have one foot in each world, and can thus narratively serve as a bridge between the two--I don't know if you have plans to use them in a fic, but either one might be interesting foil to Anakin if you did.

[annathecrow]

Sharad and A'Sharad Hett are really interesting characters to consider for this specific question. I admit I don't like the Tusken worldbuilding done in those stories (I'm allergic to what Bret Deveraux of ACOUP calls "the Femen mirage"), but especially A'Sharad would have been the perfect person to help negotiate any kind of reparation.

[atamascolily]

Yes, I agree, there is definitely a lot of poorly done and questionable, "what-were-they-thinking?" worldbuilding in canon re: the Tuskens, but I think these characters in particular are a good jumping off point for fanfic--I was excited to learn about their existence because it meant that I didn't have to invent an OC with a similar backstory myself for a fic I wanted to write!

[extrapenguin]

Oh, thank you for reminding me of ACOUP! I think I'm now headcanoning that the Tusken tribes work on the basis of asabiyah, as described by Ibn Khaldun (brought up in pt IIIb).

[extrapenguin]

I think that in some ways that would be so much harder for Anakin to take, in part because it means he has to question his own assumptions and seriously self-examine.
Yeah! There he is, having finally admitted externally that he did the wrong thing and needs to atone, and the people he needs to atone to are just shrugging it off. So he's left in this state of knowing he did wrong, wanting to make amends, and simultaneously not being able to. It'd definitely fuck him up.

I haven't read all the A'Sharad Hett canon, but in the Republic comics (Legends continuity, so Anakin was a padawan through most of the war), he does actually find out about the massacre through (IIRC) Anakin's leaking feelings in the Force ... and tells Anakin he won't tell the Council, but Anakin should. (He was also one of the characters most sympathetic about Anakin's grief for his mother.) There are a lot of plausible interpretations for his non-reaction, but at the moment, the one I'm leaning towards is that Anakin's crimes weren't crimes by Tusken standards, so Anakin did wrong as a Jedi (and thus this is a matter for the Jedi Council) but not against the Tuskens (so A'Sharad, as a Tusken, does not feel like he can or should judge Anakin). I do not currently have plans to use him for anything, but ... he would be a useful foil and mouthpiece for the Tusken view, I agree.

[atamascolily]

Oh, I forgot to mention the other canon Tusken character who might be relevant to your fic: KkH'Oar'Rrhr, the lone survivor of the massacred tribe. He'd certainly have opinions about Anakin's repentance!

[extrapenguin]

Oh, thank you! My current idea is basically just Anakin and A'Sharad talking in the Jedi Temple, but I'll stick KkH'Oar'Rrhr behind my ear for future reference.