When Din Djarin and Bo-Katan Kryze visit a planet on the Outer Rim they’ve never heard of; they’re greeted with former Imperial droids in the domed city and enjoy the fast trains the planet boasts. This is Plazir-15, an independent planet that doesn’t fall under the planets supervised by the New Republic, and thus the citizens are truly free. They have their own elections, royals who are genial, and repurposed droids who do everything for the people. At a glance, this planet seems almost perfect and probably the ideal place to reside, but it still has a few issues. Let’s explore why Plazir-15 is an almost idyllic world with lots of great things but still has some issues that need solving.
In a galaxy far, far away where war, conflict, and dirty politics are an ever-present presence, the sixth episode of this season of “The Mandalorian” takes us into the almost idyllic world of Plazir-15. Imagine a planet where the peacekeepers aren’t allowed to carry weapons because it might come off as threatening to the citizens of the planet, but that’s not all. Plazir-15, a planet on the Outer Rim, has lived through the toughest of times—the Imperial invasions as well as the Separatist rebellions—and came out on top. Wherever we see remnants of the Empire, there’s something sinister hiding under the refurbished setting, as Dr. Pershing found out in Episode 3. However, Plazir, which in itself is a play on the word pleasure, has achieved a situation where even the former Imperial officers have not only learned to forego their old ways but have also helped the planet become a successful habitation where peace is the only constant.
The Duchess of Plazir (Lizzo) fell in love with Captain Bombardier (Jack Black), a former facilities officer of her regime, and married him. Bombardier had returned to Plazir to finish his Amnesty program. The Duke and Duchess hosted elections in their land and were elected as the rightful rulers of the planet while still being part of the royal family. A planet where democracy exists and is free from the burdens of the New Republic does sound idyllic enough for the inhabitants to seek pleasure in recreational activities, as the episode showed. The royals hold grand feasts that are attended by multiple species, including Ithorians, Sullusts, and even the frog people, whose eggs Grogu especially loved.
Plazir is a world where droids are the working class, and they’ve been reassigned as service providers, be it serving food or collecting garbage. The organic inhabitants of the planet have dumped every task on the mechanical shoulders of the droids so that they can while away their time playing space polo and shopping. Of course, the droids are made to carry the shopping bags, as people have become too lazy to carry home what they’ve purchased. The whole prospect of making another species or race do the menial labor while the race that considers itself superior gets to enjoy the pleasures of life sounds exactly like the despotic monarchy that brought on the Haitian Revolution of the late 18th century. These droids don’t have much for themselves, as they’ve had their memories wiped clean and are made to obey orders to survive, and their only form of entertainment is drinking Nepenthe in droid bars.
This quickly turns what seemed like a utopian planet into yet another world where one race dominates the other, and equality is once again a theoretical concept. The droids will have to follow orders or be sent to the planet of Karthon, where they’ll be dismantled and shredded for parts, like in a droid chop shop. So, when some of the reprogrammed droids turn rogue and start disrupting the lives of the Plazir inhabitants, the ones that want to keep their heads down and serve quietly begin living in fear. In 2023, artists, writers, and several other professionals will be nervous that AI might overtake their fields and start creating content that makes human labor obsolete. Be it Chat GPT or Midjourney AI, it’s clear that AI has come far enough to duplicate human efforts in a fraction of the time and at almost no cost. Imagine now that this dilemma is being faced by machines that have accepted their fates as garbage collectors or drivers on the planet Plazir. When the rogue droids start wreaking havoc, and two Mandalorians show up at a droid bar, the bartender droid offers to help out of a sense of self-preservation.
The working class of Plazir is scared that they’ll be replaced with humans because of a few bad machines, and they realize there’s a lot more they can offer by staying alive. Of course, there’s a switch that can shut down the droids altogether, but that’ll actually collapse the society of Plazir because the inhabitants are too used to having their work done for them by machines, so having to carry one’s bags might make them have a nervous breakdown on the way back from a shopping mall. This is a reflection of how the super-rich on our own planet cannot survive without having their work done for them and would probably be at a loss if they had to do something menial like change a tire or replace a lightbulb—blue-collar jobs that are handed to the droids in Plazir.
Although the culprit behind the droids actions is apprehended and the rogue droids actions are put an end to, the situation for the droids as a whole doesn’t improve. The idyllic peace returns to Plazir, and the royals go back to playing space polo and holding feasts while the droids continue picking garbage from the streets. Even if there’s no open threat of war and people aren’t dying as collateral damage, it’s not ideal to consider it a utopia since each society has something flawed in it, and for the democratic planet of Plazir, the servile status of droids is what ills the planet, but droids have chosen to accept this fate and survive instead of going against the law and being dismantled.
