Rethinking the Ewoks

I have recently been re-evaluating the Ewoks.

For those of you who may not be familiar with the Star Wars movie Return of the Jedi, the Ewoks are the small bear-like creatures who assist the rebels in their fight against the Empire.  They have become objects of derision over the years.  But I don't know that I agree with that dismissal.

To begin with, I saw Return of the Jedi when it came out in theaters the first time and I had no issue with the Ewoks at all.  Some people did.  The teddy-bear picnic idea didn't sit well with everyone and many saw it as a silly gimmick putting a highly primitive culture up against the Empire.

George Lucas had said that originally the story was supposed to have Wookies in the story, but the Wookies (almost exclusively demonstrated by the character Chewbacca), while looking primitive, were pilots and skilled fighters - a premise that comes to the fore in Revenge of the Sith where the Wookies battle the droid army and demonstrate their prowess in battle.  Lucas didn't have the money or inclination to film the Wookee planet and have them fight, so he reduced their size and created the primitive race of Ewoks.  Lucas also said that the Ewoks represented something of an aboriginal element facing off against superior forces that should win.

Maybe so.

It is in that light that I recently re-watched the Ewok section of Return of the Jedi.  I began to think about their apparent prepared-ness for the battle.  The logs tied in trees used to smash in the sides of an AT-ST walker, the catapults, the bows and arrows, and even their use of speeder bikes (only as a distraction).  It seems that the Ewoks were ready to fight.  And if we stay only in the movie, there are few creatures on Endor for the Ewoks to fight.

Of course there were the two other Star Wars stories that made it to television that focused on the Ewoks: The Ewok Adventure (or the Caravan of Courage) and The Ewoks: The Battle for Endor.  There were also the Ewok cartoons that, like the movies, were all set before the events of Return of the Jedi in which we learn that there were indeed some creatures out there on Endor that the Ewoks might very well have to contend with.

But they weren't technologically advanced as Wookies would be.

Yet they were ready to go head to head with the Empire (there is the whole religious aspect of C-3PO being a deity for the Ewoks and conscripting them into the fight in a roundabout way).  And here is where I find myself re-thinking their contribution to the movie.

Sure, it would have been cool to see the Wookies go head to head with the Empire.  But that didn't happen (and it really didn't happen in Episode III either).  What we are left with is a battle for Endor fought with sticks and stones.

Now, I eventually got to the point where I did not like the Ewoks - especially after I heard that it was supposed to be Wookies.  But that was more bandwagon Ewok bashing.  Now I don't think it's such a bad thing.  Granted, the movie doesn't need for it to be Ewoks, but since it is, what do they do?

They fight as ferociously as they can.  They are willing to go head to head with a force unlike anything they have had to contend with before (watch the cartoons and you will see what I mean).  But they do not cower.  They are all in and they don't even know the full scope of the stakes involved in the skies above them.  Their primitive minds probably oohed and aahed at the destruction of the Death Star the way children would at fireworks.  But that's hardly the point.  The point is that they were the figurative David to the Goliath of the Empire.  It wasn't a fight they went looking for, but once it arrived, they were all in and, it seems, somewhat prepared.

And their preparation is what got my attention during the most recent watching of the movie.  Especially the two logs that destroy the AT-ST.  Unless they just happened to be building a bridge or some superstructure at that location, it seems that they had the destruction of an AT-ST sized vehicle in mind.  That shows that perhaps there was some forethought to the whole thing after all.  Maybe they did have some concept of having to go up against the Empire, or at least they understood that the mechanical monsters that were traipsing through their forest home were a potential threat.

As we see, it was a threat that the Empire overlooked much to their detriment.  And who knows.  After the story in the movie finished and the Rebellion cleared up the debris of the battle the Ewoks would have gathered around the fires and told the story of the battle of Endor (as opposed to the battle for Endor) as a great myth that would influence their culture and fill the heads of young Ewoks with dreams of metal giants and white armored monsters that ran among the trees.

So maybe we should appreciate the Ewoks for what they are and what they represent.  Courage, a valiant spirit, and a big heart for those that come in peace (especially with a golden droid).  They probably won't show up again, and they wouldn't need to unless a future movie returns to Endor.  Until then, let's give up the Ewok bashing and appreciate the aboriginal resistance to a power that would have just as easily destroyed Endor to cover their tracks once the Death Star was ready to fly about on its own.