Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Today we are looking at an extract from “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”. What makes this scene’s interpretation different is that the language interpreted is fictional; this leaves more to the imagination. In this case, we could think that Jabba is saying something as simple as “we will join”, which is a possibility. However, context hints differently. From the android’s position in the room, we can already assume a bias towards Jabba. In addition, Jabba laughs before answering the threat – which is not the usual emotional response to threats. He then goes on a relative tirade, hinting towards nuance or elaboration of his answer. The android finally uses the 3rd person to interpret what Jabba said. This is an implication of paraphrasing. This may be one of the times where interpretation calls for paraphrasing. The duty of objectivity from the droid being implicitly gone, he now acts as an agent for Jabba. What is most likely to have happened is that Jabba reluctantly agreed to their threat while either insulting or menacing the other party and his droid decided it was best to tell the other party what they wanted to hear, for peacekeeping and Jabba’s sake. In this case, the droid is most likely not a neutral interpreter but an agent for Jabba aiming to add diplomacy to his master’s speech.