This article contains spoiler for the latest episode of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.
Star Wars is full of wonderfully alien settings. Whether it’s the desolate desert of Tatooine, the vast forests of the moon of Endor, or the vast metropolis of Coruscant (a planet that’s also a massive city), “Star Wars” can take us to new, inhabited worlds and expand the galaxy wide , far away feel fleshed out and expansive.
While the Disney era of Star Wars stories has overused Tatooine to the point of absurdity, they have also introduced some fascinating new planets. The most important of these are the salt flats of Crait, the lush beach planet Scarif, the opulent casinos of Canto Bight, the luxurious beach resorts of Niamos – and now, in the latest episode of “Skeleton Crew,” titled “You Have a Lot to Learn About Pirates,” the relaxing snowy resort of Lanupa.
Now let’s be clear: Star Wars has always been political. Since the very first film about a rebellion waging guerrilla war against an evil empire, the franchise has never shied away from incorporating sociopolitical commentary into an entertaining space adventure for audiences of all ages.
Actually “Skeleton Crew”. in terms of the tone of the shows, the exact opposite of “Andor”.nevertheless offers some commentary with interesting implications for the politics of his universe. From further focusing on the New Republic’s failure to properly restore order after the fall of the Empire to the discovery that the At Attin treasure is an Old Republic mint that is most likely part of a massive money laundering scheme involving the banking clan, The show deals heavily with questions about the politics of Star Wars.
In “You Have a Lot to Learn About Pirates,” the titular crew arrives at what they thought was the dangerous lair of a bloodthirsty, legendary pirate, but instead it’s a grandiose Snow Mountain vacation planet called Lanupa that prides itself on its spectacular… Spas are mud baths. And most importantly, it houses plenty of nasty “Indiana Jones”-style booby traps beneath the surface of its fantastical spa, making it another addition to a current “Star Wars” trend that seems intent on captivating audiences to convince you that a vacation is just a very bad idea.
Vacations are bad news in Star Wars
Vacation planets have a very bad reputation in Star Wars. When we first see the planet Canto Bight in The Last Jedi, it is, of course, an elegant casino, but also home to blatant labor abuses, with child laborers forced to look after the stables. When Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) tried to take a little getaway to Niamos – a place better known as “Space Miami” – in the first season of “Andor,” he ended up dead too being sent to a horrible and sadistic prison.
Even though it was technically the children themselves who were responsible for their misfortune on Lanupa (when they started causing trouble trying to find the secret entrance to a pirate hideout after Jude Law’s Jod had already been exposed), is this new episode of Skeleton Crew also seems to argue that vacation planets are bad news. Unlike Niamos, which seemed like a pretty pleasant place aside from the Empire’s oppression, everything in Lanupa feels extremely poor. It may be a neutral place, but it’s still unsavory – a place that continually reassures its new guests that it’s a “neutral” zone, even if they’re shady members of the banking clan The Hutt Cartel can be seen taking mud baths together. As Star Wars has taught us time and time again, you should always be wary of money-hungry companies that claim to be “neutral.”
New episodes of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew arrive Tuesdays at 6:00 p.m. PST on Disney+.
