There are plenty of weird aliens roaming around the “Star Wars” universe, but one of the earliest ones the property introduced was the Tusken Raiders. Described with contempt by Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) as “Sand People” in “Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope,” these particular Tusken Raiders attack Luke and nearly steal his car (well, landspeeder) before old Ben/Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness) swoops in to scare them away. He then tells Luke they need to leave the scene soon, explaining, “The Sand People are easily startled but they will soon be back, and in greater numbers.”

We don’t see a whole lot of the Tusken Raiders after this in the original trilogy, but they do make a major return in the prequels, most notably when Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) murders a whole bunch of them — men, women, and children alike. It’s a dark moment for the character, but given that Anakin’s still got a whole movie to go before his Darth Vader heel turn after that, it’s not meant to be too dark. Indeed, although Anakin killing the Raiders is meant to show how troubled he is and how he has potential for causing great harm, it’s not framed as an unforgivable action; Anakin’s wife-to-be Padme (Natalie Portman) doesn’t seem to hold it against him, perhaps because she too doesn’t consider the Tusken Raiders to be individuals whose lives hold value.

Much like the stormtroopers prior to the sequel trilogy, the Tusken Raiders were meant to be seen as a faceless group of disposable bad guys in the earlier eras of the “Star Wars” franchise. But whereas “Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens” famously chooses to humanize the stormtroopers by having Finn (John Boyega) take off his helmet and reveal his face, the property’s movies have yet to give the Raiders the same such treatment. If you want to know what they look like, you’ll have to search beyond the films.

The first time the Tusken Raiders’ faces were shown was in the 1997 video game “Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II.” The game featured the Grave Tuskens, which were apparently a related group to the Tusken Raiders, and they were revealed to have cat-like faces.

It’s worth noting, however, that “Dark Forces II” is no longer considered canon in the post-Disney “Star Wars” continuity. As such, some fans believe that the Raiders’ actual appearance is closer to what Anakin sees in the 2004 comic “Star Wars: Republic #62.” There, Anakin has a nightmare involving a half-masked Tusken Raider, whose face (seen above) is certainly not human. His eyes look oddly robotic, yet his skin looks like the scarred side of Harvey Dent’s face in the final act of “The Dark Knight.”

Of course, this may not be an accurate reflection of what Raiders look like either. Even setting the matter of canon aside, this specific Raider was a vision Anakin had, so their face could’ve just been his imagination. Making things more complicated is that Anakin does see a Raider unmask themself in an earlier issue in the same comic series (“Republic #59”), but that Tusken Raider was revealed to be Jedi Master A’Sharad Hett. Anakin sees his human face and concludes that he’s not a Tusken Raider, which implies that Raiders aren’t human; nevertheless, Hett explains himself by saying, “In my skin, I am not [a Tusken Raider]. In my heart, I am.”

This implies that while Raiders are not human, humans can assimilate into their culture if they wish. Something similar would happen in the 2021 spinoff series “The Book of Boba Fett,” in which Fett slowly gains the trust and respect of a group of Raiders and is accepted as one of their own. Fett is not a member of their species, sure, but he arguably becomes a Raider himself.

As for exactly what sort of species the rest of the Raiders are? “The Book of Boba Fett” provides some hints, and these ones are considered canon: the Raiders trace their lineage back to when Tatooine had large oceans. If their faces are ever revealed, their designs might turn out to be more inspired by water-based creatures than desert ones.

The meta reason for the Raiders wearing masks seems obvious: they help the aliens to serve as faceless bad guys for the heroes to mow down. The other reason is that the masks are simply scary and unfamiliar, which made them a perfect vehicle for “A New Hope” to introduce viewers into this wild galaxy where strange beings like them are around every corner.

But what’s the literal reason they wear masks? It seems to be straightforward case of them wanting to protect their face from the harsh desert elements. Tatooine is a terrible planet to live on, with its zero bodies of water leaving its desert terrain wildly fluctuating between extremely hot and extremely cold. The desert wind is also constantly blowing sand into people’s eyes, nostrils, and throat, so the masks protest the Raiders from that too.

Facelessness is also a two-sided coin; sure, it dehumanizes them to their attackers, but it also makes it nearly impossible for enemies to target any individual Raider. If a Raider commits a crime, outsiders will have a tough time singling out the one that did it.

Maybe most important to know, however, is the way the masks developed from something to keep them safe from the climate to a social norm that led to a new social taboo. By the time we first meet the Raiders in “A New Hope,” it’s long been considered deeply shameful for them to take off their mask except for a few very specific, special circumstances, like during childbirth or during a couple’s wedding night. That’s how Boba manages to spend several episodes hanging out with the Raiders without ever seeing any of their faces.

If the depiction of the Tusken Raiders throughout the “Star Wars” movies sounds familiar to you, that’s because they were (like a lot of “Star Wars” elements) at least partially inspired by Frank Herbert’s “Dune” novels. The Raiders, with their unique masks and their clothing designed to protect them from their harsh desert homes, seem awfully similar to the Fremen, the indigenous people of Arrakis who are talked about with so much fear and derision in the first half of “Dune.”

The difference is that while the Raiders continue to be one-dimensional bad guys throughout the main “Star Wars” films, “Dune” quickly gets to work fleshing the Fremen out, explaining exactly why they’re so standoffish and showing that there are plenty of positive aspects to their seemingly peculiar culture. The Fremen are a subversion of a lot of tropes about “uncivilized” individuals, whereas the Raiders are those tropes played straight. Characters in “Dune” are punished for underestimating the Fremen, whereas the main characters of “A New Hope” get away with it just fine.

Although “The Book of Boba Fett” was not well received among general audiences, it does deserve at least a little bit of praise for the way it finally humanized the Tusken Raiders. It may have taken a full 44 years after the first “Star Wars” film released to the world, but those mysterious Tusken Raiders have finally gotten their due.