(yes this is about a fiction written on earth but it is an interesting topic nonetheless)
IIRC, back in Episode 1, Anakin is talking about doing pod races and he says something like “I’m the only human that can do it.”
C3PO also says he is for “human-cyborg” relations.
Here’s what I’m wondering. Is “human” an earth thing? Is it really possible that life might have evolved in the same way on other planets and they ended up human there as well?
Is there a school of thought from the Star Wars geeks out there?
The most numerous species in the galaxy far, far away is called “human”, and they are depicted, in the movies, by actors without extensive makeup or prosthetics. Maybe they’re somehow genetically linked to us, maybe they coincidentally managed to evolve to be just like us despite no actual relationship, maybe they evolved to superficially look just like us but have completely different innards, or maybe they’re actually nothing at all like us and the depiction of them as humans is just an artistic convention, like us hearing them speak in English even though they actually speak a completely different language called “Basic”.
Likewise, it is not known how they became the dominant species in that galaxy: One presumes that they evolved on one planet and then beat the other species to the punch in colonizing everywhere else. But it is clear that they are, in fact, the dominant species, and the Empire discriminates against all other sophonts. Surely you’ve noticed that the Rebels are quite diverse, but there are few or no nonhuman Imperials.
There is no consensus on this, and it has never actually been explained in any Star Wars media. There are some hints that Coruscant was the human “home world” from which they spread and diversified into the various planetary cultures and governments.
Its one of many flaws on the film. Anakin was a small boy during the race, who likely never traveled from where he lived. In his very young mind, he might think he’s the only human that can do it because he never saw another one in the race
Han Solo making it out of a moving asteroid field with while being fired upon by attacking ships a is a more impressive feat to me.
“Humans were an intelligent species that arguably[28] originated on Coruscant,[27] but could be found on many other planets across the galaxy”
"Like Duros, humans were one of the most successful colonial species, having migrated and adapted to dominate a variety of worlds. Their diverse cultures outside of Coruscant included Mandalorian, Naboo, Ming Po, Alderaanian, Corellian,[28] Pamarthen,[12] Chalactan,[3] and Chandrilan.[4]
Although humans tended to regard their great adaptiveness as a skill, aliens sometimes reproached them for spreading all across the galaxy, forcing themselves upon ecosystems they did not belong to. Burta, a Krish female, notably held that point of view, which she vehemently defended against Jyn Erso.[47]"
Not only that, but what about the opening crawl - “A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away.” So, this all takes place who knows how many years ago, is that ever mentioned in any medium? How many years?
You realize that the opening line is a variation on the classic “Long ago, in an faraway land”, indicating that what we’re about to hear is a myth or fairy tale, right?
Yes, I’m sure he realizes that IRL. But given the rabid amount of information created for Star Wars, and how so much of the world is fleshed out, it’s not an entirely unreasonable question to ask.
I’d always just assumed it was understood humans are extremely adaptive if not particularly good at any one thing, like a D&D character with all 14s. As such, they’ve done what humans do best: conquer, colonize, and interbreed as much as they can. So they’re just plain ubiquitous.
How many years? Depends on how far, far away their galaxy is from ours, and how long it took them to successfully colonize the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the The Milky Way Galaxy. My first guess would be: a lot.
As far as Anakin being sure he’s “the only human who can do it”, even at his age he has to have noticed humans may be adaptive but they have nothing approaching even average dexterity compared to a number of other races. At some point you have to realize even a drunk Dug can outmaneuver the most agile Human, and when you realize you can give even an extraordinarily gifted Dug a run for its money then you know you’re something special. Based on his conversation with Qui-Gon, he is already somewhat aware of his ability to take action just before something happens. And he knows that’s not normal, even among the pilots that go in & out of Mos Eisley.
Earth’s been in a few non-canon star wars stories, like Han Solo meeting Indiana Jones and apparently some weird(er) story making the humans of the galaxy far far away descendants of Earth spacemen falling into a hyperspace lane and winding up over there (I guess sort of like the main character in Farscape). Unlike most other races, humans in Star Wars are never given a single homeworld, they seem to be all over, from Corellia to Mandalore (tho the original mandalorians were supposedly non-human, much like the original sith race).
I always just assumed that no matter what species they were and whatever language they were speaking, we were hearing it translated into English, just like they did for, e.g., all the Germans in Valkyrie and other films set in foreign cultures.
IIRC, there was either a well-received fanfic or planned novel that explained how Earth-humans came to be in the Star Wars galaxy.
Essentially, humans on a generation/sleeper ship fleeing the THX-1138 dystopian Earth accidentally/unintentionally hit a worm hole and got displaced through time and space ala Farscape, as mentioned above.
Also, IIRC (it’s been some time), they initially colonized Corellia (I think one of the ship’s crew, perhaps the Captain, even, had the surname Corelli), then got conquered and enslaved for some few centuries or millennia by some alien race and lost all knowledge of who they were and where they originally came from.