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I've long had the impression that the entire population of Tatooine is pretty small. Given the lack of water, it probably can't support a large population. Not even sure what most people do on that planet - there's what, moisture farming, smuggling, scrapping, gambling, vehicle servicing and... what?

So... small population, few settlements, and controlling the place would be small-scale conflicts compared to some of what the Galaxy Far Far Away has seen.

And prior to TbOBF I'd have agreed. But Mos Espa appears to be a pretty sizeable city. Of course, maybe 90%+ of the planetary population live there?

If Mos Espa is the main spaceport, and therefore the centre of interplanetary commerce, that could explain its influence.

Tattooine, on the galactic scale, is basically the backwater town that got settled for [reasons], went broke, and ended up being a convenient location for criminals to do business out of. That's how I read it anyway.

In that context, it absolutely has a tiny population. Mos Espa was where they went in TPM, Mos Eisley obviously being 'the bad part of town' (which in a metaphor for a run down criminal infested town-planet... means it's *really* bad). Between the desert and the Tuskens, there's not much reason to explore the desert outside needing acreage for moisture farming.

Jabba appearing at the Boonta Eve pod race in TPM could suggest that perhaps his palace was local to Mos Espa as well, Fett being able to get there and back quickly with the rancor reinforcing that.

I don't really see there being a Book of Boba Fett pt. 2, unless it involves the Tuskens somehow (reconcilation between the city/town people and the sandpeople?). Between Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, and Mando s3, there's plenty enough going on.

Broomstick wrote: ↑2022-02-10 10:44am I've long had the impression that the entire population of Tatooine is pretty small. Given the lack of water, it probably can't support a large population. Not even sure what most people do on that planet - there's what, moisture farming, smuggling, scrapping, gambling, vehicle servicing and... what?

So... small population, few settlements, and controlling the place would be small-scale conflicts compared to some of what the Galaxy Far Far Away has seen.

I've always seen it like the desert nations on the Arabian Sea, which have far more population than most realize.
Like Arabian desert nations, most of Tatooine's population are in the cities, which would be at the biggest aquifers. The Tuskens are like the Bedouin, semi-nomadic going from oasis to oasis with their herds, living off the land. Moisture-farmers are more Wild West single farm-steaders than the small communities that survive along wadis, but either way they're growing food using trickles of water, living in buildings protected from the heat by being underground or large geological rock structures.
Also, like Tatooine, many Arabian nations were once powerful trade hubs -- the Spice Roads that criss-crossed the Sahara, wrapping around the Mediterranean to the ports of Egypt, Carthage, the Levant. Think also of Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan, as well as the other nations of the Silk Road that ran from Cathay to Byzantium.

"If there's a bright spark in the universe, this is the part furthest from" - Luke.

It was always supposed to be a backwater nowhere, they even lampshaded that when they went back in RotJ with the exchange between Luke and Han "You're gonna die here, you know. Convenient."

And yet most of Star Wars seems to happen on this sandy, coarse and irritating planet.