Which was lamer: a second death star or the ewoks?
- Thread starter Captain Worf
- Start date
My loathing of the Ewoks dates back to seeing them as a kid, so I come by it honestly.
Me, too.
I didn't know about licensing or profits, I had many of the toys but never the Ewoks. I hated them then and still do now, they have no redeeming value.
When I played the Star Wars RPG I had a cloak of Ewok pelts for my character.
Definitely the ewoks. They literally were able to knock stormtroopers out with rocks. They must be might strong creatures to be able to knock stormtroopers out with rocks and sticks.
The stormtroopers really sucked in ROTJ.
True, but not any more than they normally suck for plot reasons. They can't aim most of the time and their armor doesn't seem to protect them from much, so they're kind of stuck.
^Well another group of successful gradutaes from the
Imperial Stormtroop Marksmarnship Academy
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy
Imperial Stormtroop Marksmarnship Academy
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy
I'm not sure what could have been a better climactic action plot than attacking a second Death Star, you could have had the Rebels attacking the Imperial capital but that would have probably been more difficult to depict in terms of effects and complexity.
The Ewoks are pretty bad, from them having no understandable dialogue and little personality, yet still somehow being annoying (mostly from the sense that we're supposed to like them), it's really hard to believe or care about them winning. I think the Gungans in TPM are much better and more interesting characters for being more varied.
The Ewoks are pretty bad, from them having no understandable dialogue and little personality, yet still somehow being annoying (mostly from the sense that we're supposed to like them), it's really hard to believe or care about them winning. I think the Gungans in TPM are much better and more interesting characters for being more varied.
The scary Imperial Stormtroopers of SW and ESB became "camp" jokes
in ROTJ, Lucas strikes again undermining his own creation. 
Oh heck no. As annoying as the Ewoks may be, the Gungans are about 1000 times worse in my book, with their ridiculous dialogue, cartoonish movements, and general CG-ness.
I might roll my eyes when the Ewoks show up in ROTJ, but they at least don't make me cringe inside like when the Gungans show up in TPM (or especially during that incredibly painful underwater city scene).
But best troops for what? Formation combat? Line actions? A lot of them did seem to not be killed by the stones the Ewoks were hitting them with, it would just knock them off their feet. The mass of axes would kill them though. Blunt force trauma and stone blades at the body glove would likely be enough to kill anyone in armor like that.
These were the troopers that could shoot straighter than most. They actually hit the heroes twice in this battle. R2 and Leia were both hit.
These were the troopers that could shoot straighter than most. They actually hit the heroes twice in this battle. R2 and Leia were both hit.
Good points. Above all else, the Ewoks was such an attempted cash-in on a cutesy factor Yoda (who was largely a somber figure in TESB) and Jawas (no personality) did not provide for the youngest among the fan base.
TESB's merchandising reflected the mood of the film, and that did not lend itself to "warm and cuddly" creatures running around. Kenner's TESB vehicles and play sets left no room for cutesy (ex. Wampa figure, AT-AT, Slave 1 with frozen Solo, Tauntaun with split open belly, etc.). Further, Lucas consciously altering his choice of creature to serve a cutesy gap is proven by the creation of the Ewoks; he's long said that they replaced Wookies, who--after Chewbacca--were technologically sophisticated, thus they could not be a "primitive" species anymore.
However, for a film (ROTJ) that introduced Lando's co-pilot, Ackbar's species, Bib Fortuna and a dozen additional creatures, Lucas had every opportunity to play out his "underestimated primitives take down the advanced Empire" plot--only with believable drama if the creatures on Endor looked like Bossk or Hammerhead. Add the SW-busting success of E.T. in '82, and there was no way Lucas would ever return to the toned down direction (concerning cutesy aliens) in any SW film to follow--all the way up to the shameful Jar-Jar.
ROTJ was all about Luke--he was compelling from start to finish, to the point where the Endor and space battles really meant little, although the horrible Ewoks almost damaged Luke's arc simply by existing.
That has never made any sense to me. Just because one population of a species is technologically sophisticated, you can't portray another population of the same species that's "primitive"? Humans are depicted that way all the time!
Agree, albeit it is extremely hard to think of any Stormtroopers being so inept and "campy".
Boba Fett's death
was so very senseless and a throw away scene. George Lucas really lost his way after Empire Strikes Back. Return of the Jedi should have been brilliant like SW and ESB. Boba Fett should just not have been in the first place.
Why is he even hanging around Jabba's now that he collected the bounty.
Just doesn't make sense.
Why is he even hanging around Jabba's now that he collected the bounty.
Just doesn't make sense.
I don't think it was necessary to have the opposing force be stone-age primitive to get across the Vietnam analogy anyway. The Viet Cong wasn't throwing rocks at our soldiers, or shooting down our fighters with slingshots. The Wookies would have been just fine.
That's true, but Lucas goes overboard with his real world parallels, as if audiences would not get a message that only had one, Saturday morning outcome: no Lucas film was going to end with Stormtroopers killing a forest full of midget bears.
At least Luke storming in and yanking Han out would have made sense, as opposed to whatever the hell the plan they executed was. And if it had been a brutal infiltration, with him not just temporarily choking but straight-up slicing and dicing thugs on his way, the Emperor's exhortations for him to embrace the Dark Side might have been even more tempting...
Again, though, the big thing is Jabba's main story role in the OT was giving Han a reason not to stick around with the Rebels, what with the bounty on his head and the hunters after him. Once he's killed, he has zero bearing on the actual galactic plot at hand.
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