Spoilers Droids & Ewok Animated Series

[JD]

I started watching the old Droids animated series on Disney+ this morning, and it was actually better than I expected. It wasn't quite at the level of the CGI animated series, but it was still pretty good, and I look forward to watching more. I thought they did a pretty good job with R2 and 3PO, and the original characters were pretty likeable.
Once I'm done with Droids I was planning on checking out Ewoks.

 

[Reverend]

By an astonishing coincidence, I was watching the first arc the other day too, though mostly because I needed reference for a little blender project I've been fiddling around with . . .

(Yes, that's the Kenner R2 sat in there, sue me! )
In all seriousness I have a fair amount of affection for this show, especially from a design perspective. Way before the prequels, or 'The Mandalorian', this was our first real glimpse at the wider Star Wars galaxy, and to it's credit, it didn't all just look like Tatooine rehashed!

Weird thing is that while I am old enough to remember the Ewok cartoon (and live action movies!) being on TV, I don't remember seeing this show as a kid. The only reason I'm familiar with it is because back in the 90's when I was still a collector, I got my hands on a VHS copy of the 'White Witch' episodes, and the 'Great Heap' special. One of these days I'll get around to seeing the rest of it.

 

[Christopher]

I started watching the old Droids animated series on Disney+ this morning, and it was actually better than I expected.

Hunh. When I rewatched it, I found it worse than I expected. Pretty crude animation, terrible music, too much slapstick, mediocre plots that didn't feel very Star Warsy. Also a questionable understanding of just what the droids' specialties were, like, say, having Threepio do repair work while Artoo served drinks. (Though that's later in the series.) Though I guess it deserves some credit (by the standards of its day) for establishing that Lando wasn't the only black person in the galaxy.

It had some really weird bits, like in the first episode where the speeder repairman/racer guy whipped out a lightsaber that some random Jedi had left behind at his shop, used it to get through a door, and then never mentioned it again. Left me wondering if the old EU ever came up with a provenance for that saber or explained what happened to it afterward.

 

[JD]

Yeah, the saber thing was kind of random.

 

[Reverend]

One of the fun things about this show is that it basically still works in canon if you go on the assumption that it's all told from Threepio's perspective, and all these seemingly random adventures are actually missions "Fulcrum" is sending R2 on for Bail. Scouting rebel cells for recruitment, investigating Underworld and/or Imperial operations on frontier worlds, that kind of thing. Keeping Threepio clueless makes for an excellent cover story.

Yeah, the saber thing was kind of random.

Pretty sure that was just a "hey kids, it's still Star Wars, remember!" moment.

Doesn't really need much of an explanation IMO. Some Jedi survivor on the run came in to get their (probably stolen) speeder repaired, left the sabre with it because being caught with one of those things is instant death these days. Got killed, captured, or had to flee the planet before they were able to come back.

 

[publiusr]

By an astonishing coincidence,

Perfect project for Retroblasting!
I always missed the ‘Droids part somehow…work…scheduling…always something.

 

[JD]

One of the fun things about this show is that it basically still works in canon if you go on the assumption that it's all told from Threepio's perspective, and all these seemingly random adventures are actually missions "Fulcrum" is sending R2 on for Bail. Scouting rebel cells for recruitment, investigating Underworld and/or Imperial operations on frontier worlds, that kind of thing. Keeping Threepio clueless makes for an excellent cover story.

I like that idea.

Pretty sure that was just a "hey kids, it's still Star Wars, remember!" moment.

Doesn't really need much of an explanation IMO. Some Jedi survivor on the run came in to get their (probably stolen) speeder repaired, left the sabre with it because being caught with one of those things is instant death these days. Got killed, captured, or had to flee the planet before they were able to come back.

Yeah, that works. Have any of the Legends comics or books ever filled in the lightsaber's backstory? Or at least said who the original owner was?

 

[Christopher]

The idea that a Jedi would just leave their saber lying around is hard to reconcile with modern ideas about how intimately linked Jedi are with their weapons. A saber being abandoned suggests that something a lot more dire and tragic happened than the episode suggested. The way it was treated was tantamount to someone accidentally leaving their umbrella behind at the shop or something. Just one of many details about the show that seem weird in retrospect.

 

[Tuskin38]

There's been references to Droids in the new canon, but I'm honestly drawing a blank on what they are. I think a character was mentioned in a book.

There are also a couple references to the show in the Prequels
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Wars:_Droids:_The_Adventures_of_R2-D2_and_C-3PO#Continuity

 

[Mr. Adventure]

It's not the greatest show (Droids, never watched Ewoks) but that loose Nelvana style makes me nostalgic especially with that theme song. I always wondered what their aborted take on Doctor Who might have been like.

 

[Kor]

It's a fun show to put on in the background while doing housework or something.

Kor

 

[Christopher]

It's a fun show to put on in the background while doing housework or something.

I tended to do the dishes while I watched.

 

[Reverend]

Yeah, that works. Have any of the Legends comics or books ever filled in the lightsaber's backstory? Or at least said who the original owner was?

That one specifically? I don't think so. So far as I'm aware, nothing else in the EU really touched on anything from Droids, storywise, just a few sideways references in reference books, that kind of thing.
Not that this is unusual, the EU wasn't as interconnected as some seem to make out. Typically different projects only made bare minimum reference to others (see the narrative whiplash that was The Heir, Dark Empire and Academy trilogies taking place back-to-back, or the narrative & aesthetic disconnect between TotJ & KoTOR). And that's if they even did so at all; just as often they'd flat-out contradict them (I think there's like 5 versions of the "that bounty hunter on Ord Mantell" incident!)

There's been references to Droids in the new canon, but I'm honestly drawing a blank on what they are. I think a character was mentioned in a book.

There are also a couple references to the show in the Prequels
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Wars:_Droids:_The_Adventures_of_R2-D2_and_C-3PO#Continuity

The only one that comes to mind is a line in one of the reference books indicating the model of speeder bike used by both Ahsoka & Kanan at various times being designed by Thall Joben and the Zebulon Dak Speeder Corporation.
Of course that would mean the events of that arc (if they happened) would have to have occurred prior to the Clone Wars, which rather prelude's Artoo & Threepio's involvement, to say nothing of Boba Fett and the Empire.

And yeah, the Boonta Eve Podrace does seem to be a deliberate reference to the Boonta Speeder Race, though it seems a little odd considering 'Boonta' was a planet in the show, and 'Boonta Eve' seems to indicate it's a holiday. Not that it can't be both of course.

I guess that the show was also the first time a two-seater A-Wing showed up counts for something too?

 

[Kor]

I believe one visual reference/homage in modern SW is Mando's forked rifle, which resembles Boba Fett's similar weapon that he used in "Droids." Unless that type of gun actually appeared earlier than "Droids" in the Marvel comics or something. I don't recall seeing that design in the Original Trilogy, in any case.

Kor

 

[Ithekro]

I think that weapon also appeared in the short cartoon with Fett in the Holiday Special.

 

[Noname Given]

Once I'm done with Droids I was planning on checking out Ewoks.

You don't...you really don't...

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[Christopher]

I believe one visual reference/homage in modern SW is Mando's forked rifle, which resembles Boba Fett's similar weapon that he used in "Droids." Unless that type of gun actually appeared earlier than "Droids" in the Marvel comics or something. I don't recall seeing that design in the Original Trilogy, in any case.

Boba's appearance in Droids (as well as C-3PO's and R2-D2's) used the same character model that had previously appeared in the animated short in The Star Wars Holiday Special. Not only is Din Djarin's rifle an homage to that design, but so was the color scheme of his armor in the first episode of the series.

 

[Reverend]

I believe one visual reference/homage in modern SW is Mando's forked rifle, which resembles Boba Fett's similar weapon that he used in "Droids." Unless that type of gun actually appeared earlier than "Droids" in the Marvel comics or something. I don't recall seeing that design in the Original Trilogy, in any case.

Kor

I think that weapon also appeared in the short cartoon with Fett in the Holiday Special.

Slight correction: Yes he showed up in animated form for both of these shows, though the forked rifle thing was only in the Holiday Special's short, not 'Droids'. In the latter he didn't even carry a blaster (though the design did include a pistol holster), indeed the entire show as I recall was rather devoid of anything explicitly gun shaped, likely due to it being a saturday morning cartoon. What "blasters" that did show up were typically designed to look more like cleaning appliances than actual weapons.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

^ I was just kind of perusing through a couple of episodes and they had some stormtroopers armed with some sort of scepters.

 

[dupersuper]

terrible music

C'mon: that theme song rocked!

The idea that a Jedi would just leave their saber lying around is hard to reconcile with modern ideas about how intimately linked Jedi are with their weapons.

I mean, Luke tossed his in the ocean...