Geonosis looks like a hive planet. Consider the behavior of insects in a hive when thinking of Geonosis. The insectoid life forms that live here have been driven underground by solar radiation storms. The buildings on the planet look like termite mounds, and are made of mud and rock, so the planet appears to be uninhabited. This makes Geonosis a good place to hide, and an asset in war.

What Happens Here

The droid factory for the separatists is here, and Count Dooku captures Obi Wan Kenobi here. Anakin and Padme come from Tatooine to save him, and are forced to fight fierce creatures in an arena, while the Geonosians are entertained by it. The clone army comes and “saves” the Jedi from the droids, but this is an ironic twist, since the clone army will turn out to be the storm troopers the Empires uses to keep the galaxy under control.

What the Planet Could Symbolize

Geonosis, along with Kamino, symbolizes the conformity needed to form an Empire. When Padme falls onto the droid assembly line, she must run to avoid being “stamped” by the droid factory. This symbolizes the struggle of the individual in a society that would demand absolute conformity. Remember that Padme is a particularly independent woman: she voted against the clone army, fought the trade federation with no help from the Senate, and married Anakin in secret.

Life on the Planet

Kamino is a water-covered planet. This global ocean is churning and tumultuous all the time, and it’s nearly always storming. The Kaminoans adapted to survive on this stormy planet after a flood submerged all the land on the planet. The flying animals you see on the planet were taken from the planet Naboo and cloned.

What Happens Here

Obi Wan Kenobi comes to Kamino after Jango Fett shoots a saber dart at a bounty hunter that had attempted to kill Padme. The planet had been erased from the archives, and when Obi Wan Kenobi arrived he found that someone had ordered a clone army for the republic ten years ago. Remember that ten years prior to this was the date of Episode I, the same time that Palpatine became Supreme Chancellor.

What the Planet Could Symbolize

If water symbolizes life, Kamino represents life to a frightening, perverse degree. Yes, there are plenty of children born on Kamino, but they’re all clones of one man and bred to be docile. Even some of the wildlife on the planet is not indigenous, but brought here from Naboo and cloned. Compare the clones of Kamino with life on Naboo, remembering that Luke and Leia were most likely conceived on Naboo, and Padme wanted to have her child(ren) on Naboo.

Life on the Planet

Tatooine is dry and hot. It’s a desert planet, and the only legitimate living to be made here is through moisture farming. Slavery is legal, and the gangster Hutts run pretty much everything, including the monetary system. Republic credits (dollars) are no good out here. Tatooine was controlled by the Sith for thousands of years before the Hutts took over. Its remote location in the outer rim makes it a great place for “scum and villany” to hide. Sandstorms here are very dangerous.

What Happens Here

Anakin Skywalker was born into slavery on Tatooine. Obi Wan and Qui Gon Ginn discovered Anakin here when their ship was forced to land on the way to Coruscant after a dispute on Naboo with the Trade Federation. Anakin helps the stranded Jedi by racing in the Boonta Eve Classic in Mos Espa, a race sponsored by Jabba the Hutt. Later, Anakin found his mother had been kidnapped by Tuscan Raiders, and he killed the entire village. Luke was raised by Owen and Beru Lars on Tatooine so that Vader would not find him.

What the Planet Could Symbolize

If water represents life, Tatooine is completely parched. It’s not simply that people literally die on Tatooine, or that getting caught in a sand storm here can be deadly. All the activities on Tatooine are devoid of life, from slavery to gambling & gangsters. The few good people on Tatooine are struggling to survive.  Mos Eisley space port is a great example. Obi Wan calls it “a wretched hive of scum and villany.” Anakin also took his first major step toward the Dark Side on Tatooine, having left Naboo against orders from his Jedi master.

So, Tatooine embodies many forms of death in the story. When Anakin left Naboo, a planet full of life, to come to Tatooine, it marked the beginning of the death of the good in Anakin.

This is the first in a series of posts looking into the symbolism of the planets in the Star Wars universe. Students ask me why I want them to think this much about these symbols. It’s because part of the meaning of any story is contained in symbols like these. Some symbols are so common in literature as to be nearly universal. Water is often a symbol of life, and knowing that can help you interpret what you see. For the purposes of these posts, you must remember that water is life.

So, let’s look at Naboo.

Life on the Planet

Of the planets discussed here, Naboo looks the most like Earth. It has plenty of waterfalls, plains, and mountains, as well as two advanced civilizations. The Gallo Mountains divide the only continent on Naboo. North of the mountains live the Naboo, of which Padme is queen in Episode I: The Phantom Menace. South of the mountains are the swamps and underground caves that are home to the Gungan civilization. Nabooan government is democratic.

What Happens Here

The Trade Federation instituted a blockade of the planet in an attempt to force Queen Amidala to sign a treaty that would effectively give them control of the planet. They were working behind the scenes for Darth Sidious, Senator Palpatine of Naboo, who later became Supreme Chancellor of the Republic, then the Emperor. Young Anakin saved the day at the Battle of Naboo by taking out the droid control ship and gained the attention of the Jedi council. Padme and Anakin got married on Naboo.

What the Planet Could Symbolize

Naboo represents ideal civilization. The natural world is part of the landscape without causing undue hardship for the inhabitants. Democracy and peace flourish here. There is plenty of life-giving water. The Naboo have no army and no slaves. The Gungans live under water, showing how full of life Naboo is.

Although Naboo is ideal in many ways, the evil Emperor comes from Naboo. What might George Lucas be saying about the nature of man and society by having the Emperor arise from such a seemingly perfect place?

Dear Diary,

It seems the domestic overseers are plotting against me. Their plans somehow relate the anniversary of my escape from the womb. I’m still haunted by the memories of how I came to be incarcerated in that amniotic Attica.

[inside a sperm cell] As I recall, it was every potential man for himself. I alone had reached the target objective, thanks to the peerless intrepidity I developed at testicular boot camp. But it was a trap! I was imprisoned in that uterine gulag for nine grueling months.

[in flashback] Day 171: I’ve sprouted an odd finger, counting the one from yesterday, I’m up to 11.

As the months of solitude passed, I began to go insane. It seemed my prison cell was getting smaller and smaller. I was quite sure that soon I would be dead. But then, a miracle! There was a light at the end of the tunnel. I rushed to freedom, but suddenly I was ambushed by a mysterious man in white.

The man in white! Of course! He must be the hired professional of whom they spoke. He failed to thwart my escape into the outside world and now, one year hence, he’s returning to rectify his mistake and put me back in the womb.

Domestic means related to the home. The word is useful for referring to the bad-old-days, women were expected to stay home all the time and clean the house, change diapers, and cook. As in, “Women should tend faithfully to their domestic duties.” You’ll also hear the word domestic when you’re watching the news. So when Mr. Borger at CNN says Obama is staking his presidency on his domestic policy, he means Obama is concentrating on problems here at home in America.

Overseer simply means manager or supervisor. His choice of the word overseer here, rather than, say caretaker, is part of the irony of Stewie’s personality. It implies distance between Stewie and Lois, and suggests that he’s oppressed by her. This is, of course, one of the recurring themes of the show.

Amniotic Attica is priceless. In English teacher terms, it’s an alliterative allusion. Alliteration is when you repeat the same consonnant sound at the beginning of several words for poetic effect. ~eminem is pretty good at this~ An allusion is a reference to something –say, a book, a place, a movie, an historical event– you already know about so you can connect meanings together in your head. Family Guy is loaded with allusions, but if you don’t know what is being alluded to, then you have nothing to connect with.

Amniotic fluid is the fluid inside a woman’s womb when she’s pregnant. It nourishes and protects the baby, but Stewie connects it with Attica, which is an infamous prison in a town by the same name in New York. But this isn’t just any prison. Attica is known mainly for the riot that took place there in 1971, in which prisoners demanded better living conditions from their overseers. You can watch an interesting documentary about the Attica prison riot here, here, and here. Incarcerated, of course, means imprisoned.

Your peers are those in the same standing as you, so when Stewie refers to his peerless intrepidity, he’s saying nobody can match his intrepidity. But what is intrepidity? Intrepid means bold, fearless. ~i guess that’s why they named those cars intrepid. they hoped you’d be fooled into thinking a car could make you fearless.~

Gulag is yet another reference to prisons. Gulags were forced labor prisons in the former USSR. Grueling means trying or taxing to the point of exhaustion. ~did you notice the near alliteration there?~

Solitude refers to the state of being alone. Poor Stewie. If you’ve ever played Halo, you should know that ambushed means attacked from a place of hiding. One year hence is simply an archaic way of saying, one year later, or one year from that time. ~using archaic words here and there can make you sound educated~

Rectify means to make right. Notice how rectify, rectory, rectangle, and rectum all have the same root? They are all derived from the Latin rectus, which means straight. So the doctor has come to set straight his mistake. The rectory is where the priest lives, the guy who walks the straight and narrow path. A rectangle is made up of four straight lines. And your rectum is also known as your straight intestine. These are the things you learn from reading the dictionary.

Now that you’ve learned some new words from Stewie, you can go back to your regularly scheduled loafing.

Well, today in this class, we’re going to watch TV. Not a video of some teacher giving a lecture, but actual fun TV.  Did you ever notice how excellent Stewie’s vocabulary is on Family Guy? If your vocabulary were as rich as his, your writing would improve. You’d be a better reader. You’d rock your SAT’s. And you’d be really impressive at parties.

Today’s words come from Season One, Episode Three: Chitty Chitty Death Bang, and if you want to watch  the whole thing, you can do that here: Chitty Chitty Death Bang. But you’ve probably already seen it. It’s the one where Peter is supposed to plan Stewie’s first birthday party at Cheesie Charlie’s, but ends up acting a fool and losing the reservation so he has to trick a circus parade into coming to their house. Oh, and Meg, desperate for friends after she doesn’t make the cheer leading squad, gets involved with a cult.

But Stewie is our focus here. Stewie stomps into the living room to demand a diaper change, and learns of his birthday party:

Stewie:  I say, am I to spend the entire day wallowing around in my own feces? [claps hands] A little service here!

Peter:  Hey, Stinky. Have we got some big plans for you.

Stewie:  Plans? What the devil are you talking about?

Chris:  It’s your birthday, dude.

Lois:  Saturday’s gonna be real special, honey. I’ve hired a professional to make sure everything goes just right.

Stewie:  A professional? There’s treachery afoot!

Just to start things off right, we’re talking about feces. Feces is poop. Feces comes from the Latin word for dregs, which is another good word to know. Dregs is the sediment at the bottom of a bottle of wine. This sediment happens when the wine is unfiltered and the wine is allowed to age for a long time. It may sound gross, but only the good wines have it.  ~not so with feces. everybody poops~ The word dregs is also figuratively used to refer to the worst and lowest part of something, hence the term “dregs of society” to refer to lowlifes, miscreants, and criminals.

So, yeah. It’s actually possible to write a whole paragraph about poop without being depraved about it. You can read more than you ever cared to know about feces here.  Treachery means treason, or a betrayal of trust. It’s related to the word trick. Afoot is an medieval-sounding way of saying underway.

So there’s beginnings of our vocabulary list: feces, dregs, treachery, and afoot. Your assignment is to use as many of them as you can in the comments below:

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