What's wrong with Ewoks?

Luke said it would be alright and told Han to LET the Ewoks take the weapons. Luke was trusting in the force, which was the correct move since it led them to Leia and new allies that knew the terrain better than the rebels. As far as Leia getting her dress... well she wasnt the first Humans that could be nice that Ewoks ran into. There are two movies that show that.

 

Well here's the thing, yes it would be out of character for our hero's to blow away the Teddy Bears. So you do raise a fair point. But there are SEVERAL ways around this conundrum:

1) A show of force might have scared them off. Shoot at the ground in front of them causing an explosion. Shoot a tree and blow it up. Or have Luke use his light sabre to cut all their little spears in half rendering the Ewoks impotent.

2) How about better writing? Why are we locked into having Ewoks, or if we have them, why are we locked into falling into their trap and letting them tie everyone up? It would have been far more effective for the story if the rebels had defended the Ewoks from some type of abuse at the hands of storm troopers. I mean after all, the Empire conducts it's business in the most brutal fashion possible, correct? And saving the lives of the Teddy Bears would have endeared our heros to them, giving them a more valid reason to join in the attack.

The entire Ewok episode is just plain bad. And it undermines what was otherwise an excellent film.

I do remember Luke telling Han to chillax. But that still doesn't justify the illogic of the situation. The urgency of their mission requires them to keep pressing toward their target. And Han is out of character at that point since he is very much a take-charge kind of person. Also, wasn't Han (General Solo) the highest ranking person in that situation? He wouldn't be taking illogical orders from Luke.

 

Luke has proven himself as Jedi and someone to trust. Luke had to tell Han it was alright twice. Han is trusting Luke's judgement. Also the rest of the Rebel personnel had moved on with the plan. Only Han, Chewie and Luke were away from the mission. The rest of the assault team was on mission. While missing Han Chewie and Luke isn't great it also isn't going to prevent the rest of the team from doing their duty including the Major that was with them. There was no lack of leadership or ability considering they were a strike team designed for the job.

 

Just think what would have happened if C-3PO was not with them. Bringing him along on the mission never made sense to me. They are all going to dress in camo gear and be very stealthy, but you bring along a loud mouth droid who is shiny gold and sticks out. It must have been Luke's decision to bring him along, having a feeling in the Force that C-3PO would be needed.

 

I suspect it was more they knew they might need R2 and they needed 3PO to talk to him.

 

First of all, my comments below are not directed towards anyone specific in this thread. My comments are my generalized opinion of what the OP has brought up for discussion.

I personally have no problems with the Ewoks. I don't love them, I don't hate them. They were what they were back in 1983 when I watched the movie for the first time.

I was 8 years old when Jedi came out. I saw it in the theaters. I saw the Ewoks, and I never thought twice about them. I was 8 years old, the thought that Ewoks (or teddy bears) somehow diminished the Empire never crossed my still developing 8 year old mind. I was still "innocent", and not jaded by the grown up world (yet). While I can't say I wanted to run out and buy everything Ewok related, I didn't hate them either. I had the Ewok action figures, and used them just as much as any other figure. They were part of Star Wars, and I loved (still love) Star Wars.

I have to think that most kids in that age range felt the same way as I did back then. They didn't care one way or the other about the Ewoks. While most of us at that age didn't grasp the concept of nature vs technology, we didn't care. I would bet most of us still thought it was cool to see the Battle of Endor play out as it did.

However, at some point many of us grew up and started becoming jaded by the adult world. Mix that with the need for kids as they get older (mostly boys) to reject their "kiddy" past, I think the Ewoks have been largely a victim of it being "cool" to reject them as a symbol that we grew up.

So now we are adults, the Ewoks have become the butt of many jokes. It has become "cool" to put them down. Adults that probably when they first saw the movie as a kid, never thought twice about the reality of whether teddy bears could take down the empire, are now proclaiming how horrible the concept was. Those same adults, as kids, probably were excited to see the Ewoks turn the tide of the Battle Of Endor. After all, the Ewoks blowing the battle horn is still a pretty cool thing to me as an almost 40 year old.

That's why I have to chuckle a little when I see someone proclaim that even as a kid they rejected the concept of teddy bears beating the Empire. While I am sure there are some that even at such a young age did reject it, overall I have to think most people are just plain out lying. Just as I think most are lying when I see someone proclaim that when they were 10 years old, they thought Jar Jar was horrible. Again, I am sure that there are those that are telling the truth, however, I have to imagine most are lying in order to fit in with the "coolness" of bashing Jar Jar.

Just to drive home the point, I took my family to the Star Wars Identities exhibit two summers ago. In this exhibit you get to choose a Star Wars character you like the most. 2 of my 3 girls picked Ewoks, and the third picked a Wookie.

My conclusion, as kids we loved the Ewoks, or at the very least, didn't care either way. As adults we have become jaded, forgot that the movies were for kids, and not jaded adults. Mix that with the fact that Ewoks have become cool to hate and you have a lot of people that just can't admit that they at the very least didn't mind Ewoks at one point in time...

Just my opinion...

 

For the record, when the OT movies came out I was 10, 13, and 16 years old. I'm pretty sure I would not have liked the Ewoks at age 10. It's possible I would not have cared. But for sure by age 16, pandering to small children was a turn off for me.

 

This is it precisely. And this is why I never buy any of the arguments that are commonly floated in support of openly childish elements in Star Wars movies and TV programs. Because Star Wars was never originally intended to be just for children. It was originally intended to appeal to all ages, and it wasn't until ROTJ that Lucas began specifically targeting small children.

And the thing is, children don't require ambulatory stuffed animals and stories about other kids in order to dig something like Star Wars. That's just an erroneous assumption that adults often make. The first two OT movies had little to nothing that was specifically childish. The mouse robot on the Death Star was about as close as they got to that, and it lasted all of about ten seconds. And kids LOVED those movies when they came out. So did adults.

The more childish elements that Lucas added to subsequent SW movies, the more divided the fan base seemed to become over them. And to me, it never made any sense for Lucas to have done that, since kids already loved Star Wars without the addition of openly childish elements.

 

There's nothing wrong with the Ewoks...

...that a blast from a fully operational Death Star couldn't fix!

 

This is absolutely 100% correct!

I've made this exact point is discussions with friends of mine. E4 and E5 didn't have overtly childish elements and we all LOVED those films as children.

The only things that kids need to enjoy a SW movie are:

a) easily identifiable bad guys to hate
b) easily identifiable good guys to cheer for and emulate
c) good, exciting action
d) cool ships and gadgets

It really is that simple.

 

They don't bother me for the most part. I was 7 when ROTJ came out. I had this lunchbox...

 

My favourite ewok scene...

 

I personally have no problem with the Ewoks.

 

I don't have too much of a problem with the ewoks in theory....I just hated that somehow they had all this wood ready to go on a full scale battle out of nowhere...I mean really how did they have two trees ready to smash walkers? Really?

I heard Lucas was using the idea of the Ewoks to debunk human creation of religion...that they represented humanity in its primal nature....that they like we are not to be underestimated.

 

I have no problem with the Ewoks. I may be biased though.
As far as the pre-prepared traps a few have mentioned, the Ewoks always have multiple traps set up in the forest. They live in a dangerous place with big creatures that want to eat them, they also had to deal with Morag and her kind. You can see this in the Ewoks movies and cartoon.
Some of their traps were set up for hunting, like the one Chewy tripped and some were set up for defense.

 

I felt that the Ewoks were an attempt by George Lucas to boost his own morale and lighten his mood. He was very stressed at the time and eager to complete the trilogy to be able to concentrate fully on other projects including Skywalker Ranch.

At the very outset of the Ewok design (before they were even called Ewoks), they were an entity more alien in appearance and culture, so maybe as production overall on Revenge of the Jedi progressed, George thought 'what the heck' and injected some cutesy into the very sombre end half of the movie. It was misguided I think because it was too great a contrast in tone to the space battle and Dark Side duel, and only salvaged by the gravitas-retaining presence of Han and Leia; removed from such a juxtaposition, as we saw in their two spinoff films, the Ewoks were and are good fun.

Even If I were granted the magical power to change past events, I'd never want to change the fact of their being in RotJ because they're an indelible part of it, and movie history.