Child Soldiers of Disney Imitate America’s Child Infantry in the Forever War

And no one has a problem with it.

SPOILERS FOR ALL STAR WARS MOVIES AND TELEVISION PROGRAMS AND A LITTLE BIT OF STAR TREK

Luke Skywalker came onto the scene in 1977. He was 19ish when the Empire destroyed his family moisture farm and killed his guardian aunt and uncle. We find out later, that the Empire had previously destroyed the dad and killed his mom, orphaning Luke and Leia, his twin sister. The twins were adopted and raised by people who loved them. They both separately and voluntarily joined this star war against the evil Empire that destroyed their parents and adoptive families when they were in their late teens. Writing teachers still refer to the original Star Wars: A New Hope as the perfect hero’s journey.

Years after the original trilogy that ended with Return of the Jedi in 1983, producers knew there was still money to be made by virtue of consistently profitable toy sales. So, they made the prequels, The Phantom Menace in 1999 and Attack of the Clones in 2002. We learn that the good guys — not the bad guys — were purchasing cloned soldiers taught from a young age and always destined to be nameless, faceless soldiers. The bad guys use droids.

For some perspective, at about the same time in Earth history, another space show, Star Trek, was deciding if an android named Data was a man, deserving of human rights.

Then came the Clone Wars animated series and somewhere in the middle of this Disney purchased Star Wars and things got really dark.

Clone Wars doubled down on the ideas of cloned soldiers and child soldiers, creating cute little Ahsoka “Snips” Tano, looking like a little Olympic gymnast when she fought along side her master and general in an arguable war of aggression to keep separatist worlds within a so-called Republic. There are more animated Star Wars series depicting very young children fighting, including a Lego series.

And let’s not forget everyone’s favorite villain, Darth (“Anni”) Vader. He was a small child when the Jedi pulled him away from his mom for boot camp. He was still a young padawan when he was promoted to the rank of General and was told not to love his mom or girlfriend, Padme a child queen of Naboo. Then, he gets Padme killed, kills a bunch of younglings at the Jedi Temple, and tries to kill Ahsoka. Yet, even the grown up Ahsoka isn’t pointing out the problem with child…