Many years ago in a galaxy far far away, fans were introduced to the sands of Tatooine where we saw a young Luke Skywalker get attacked by “The Sand People” in A New Hope. When we saw them, they immediately attacked Luke until an old Ben Kenobi saved him.
Ever since then we’ve seen the Tusken Raiders throughout a couple of movies and animated series where fans typically haven’t had the best experience with them. The Tusken Raiders have been made to be the “villains” over the course of many years.
That is until in the last couple of years when we’ve seen the reappearance of the Tusken Raiders in The Mandalorian as well as the more recent The Book of Boba Fett, where the Tusken Raiders have been an important part of the series as they “saved” Boba Fett just after he escaped the Sarlacc Pit.
Let’s start back in The Mandalorian. Back when we saw them in The Mandalorian, they did start of aggressive, however, with The Mandalorian’s respect and ability to speak somewhat in the same language as the Tusken Raiders, we learned that they truly are not bad at all, just misunderstood.
We got to see how Din reacted to them, in a respectful way where they helped Din out and more than one occasion. This was probably the first time in live-action where we saw the Tusken Raiders actually be useful in a situation, rather than just blasting at the first target they see.
Now let’s move on to The Book of Boba Fett and the Tusken Raider’s importance in this great series.
When we first see the Tusken Raiders in The Book of Boba Fett, they immediately knock out and take prisoner Boba, they leave him in thirst and don’t feed him. They always hit him and keep him tied up but as the flashbacks go on we get to see more of the Tusken Raiders and their history.
When Boba Fett saves the Tusken Raider kid, the leader of the tribe allows Boba to be freed and have a drink of water. They then teach him to fight with a weapon that the Tusken Raiders typically use. We skip forward to where Boba arrives back at the Tusken camp with speeders and a plan for them to get water as well as other supplies.
After the train heist, Boba tells the Pike Syndicate that when they bring a train through with supplies of spice, that they need to pay the Tusken Raiders a fee because they claim the land and it traces back to their ancestral planes. Which was a huge moment for the background on the Tusken Raiders.
Back at the Tusken, the tribe leader explains that there are many tribes of Tusken’s throughout Tatooine. Some are savage and survive by killing similar to the one who killed Anakin Skywalker’s mother, Schmi. While some are surviving at will by scavenging the land for supplies as well as water.
Not only that but the Tusken Tribe that is around Boba sends him out as part of a ritual in their tribe that tests the strength of will that allows them to bring back a sacred branch that can be transformed into a weapon with typical Tusken markings.
We also get to see a sacred dance that the Tusken Tribe does, while it was obviously part of Temuera Morrison’s culture, it was nice for them to add it as part of the Tusken Culture.
Both of these shows basically humanize the Tusken Raiders. It felt like the scenes the Tusken Raiders are in or have been in having redeemed them for what we have seen over the years. The writers, producers, and creators have given the Tusken Raiders their own culture which makes it very special.
While this is a huge step in terms of world-building for Star Wars, I hope we get to see this spread out to other cultures, creatures, species, and people throughout the universe of Star Wars.
The same can be said for the Gamorrean guards that have been in both series as well, they have been portrayed as great fighters, as seen in The Mandalorian and more recently the first episode of The Book of Boba Fett when they saved Boba Fett from a group of assassins.
Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, as well as the rest of the team behind the shows, deserve all the praise because of what they have done with these characters.
Photo: Tusken Raiders.
