Why was the "Star Wars Holiday Special" a disaster? What possessed LucasFilm to
make an Ewok movie filled with death and murder? Keep watching to find out!
Blowing up the Death Star at the end of 1977's "A New Hope" wasn't just about
saving the galaxy, it was about our two main characters fulfilling their arcs.
Han Solo had spent his life living up to his last name.
He was in it for himself and had no interest in anybody who wasn't paying him,
but after meeting Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi and helping them reach the Rebel base,
he found he couldn't keep looking the other way. He returned at the perfect moment,
taking Darth Vader out of the fight and giving Skywalker the chance he needed to save the day.
Luke, meanwhile, had to learn to embrace the spiritual world of the Force and ease his ties
to the physical world he's known all his life, and once he did that, he was able to make the
impossible shot and destroy the Death Star. Han Solo's daring return showed that this scoundrel
could become a hero, and Luke proved that he had what it took to become a Jedi someday.
Released in 1978, "The Star Wars Holiday Special" was many fans' first chance to return to a galaxy
far, far away, and it was a doozy. A two-hour made-for-television variety special,
the "film" followed Chewbacca as he and Han Solo tried to make it home in time for Life Day.
Most of the special follows the various ways Chewbacca's furry family passes the
time waiting for Chewie's return, and most of its cameos from other "Star
Wars" characters come from the Wookie's wife, Malla, as she calls her husband's
friends and asks about his whereabouts. They all assure her that he's on his way there.
Unfortunately, the Empire is convinced of the very same thing
and hopes to use the holiday to capture Han and Chewbacca. Imperial Stormtroopers
search the Wookie's house and leave a soldier to wait for the rebels' arrival.
But with the help of a local trader sympathetic to the Rebel cause, they manage to kill the soldier.
With the Imperial soldiers out of the way, the Wookiee family takes crystal orbs that look sort
of like snow globes, lift them over their heads, and somehow use them to spiritually connect with
the main cast and many other Wookies. They stand around the "Tree of Life" in red robes
while Leia sings a strange, strange song. Then everybody leaves, and the special finally ends.
The 70s were weird, you guys.
"No matter how different we appear,
we're all the same in our struggle against the powers of evil and darkness."
What "A New Hope" built up, 1980's "The Empire Strikes Back" would seemingly change forever,
but the climactic battle on Bespin was less about the Empire and more about Luke finding his path.
While training with Yoda, Luke once again is urged to embrace
his growing connection to the Force and let go of his attachments. This time,
however, the attachments that Luke has to discard are his friends,
who have been captured by Imperials in Cloud City. Luke refuses to abandon them, but ultimately,
his decision nearly gets them all killed — which would also have doomed the entire galaxy.
Luke paid a heavy price for his decision. He discovered that Vader was his father,
lost his hand, his lightsaber, and even his best friend. He also placed all of
his friends in the very danger he had hoped to save them from.
By the time the credits roll, the heroes are on the run, and things look bleak indeed.
While "The Empire Strikes Back" may have been the Rebellion's darkest period,
1983's "Return of the Jedi" proved to be one of its brightest. After freeing Han Solo from Jabba
the Hutt, Luke Skywalker and the Rebel Alliance discover two things: Leia Organa is his sister,
and the Empire created a second Death Star above the forest moon of Endor.
Our heroes race to save the galaxy again, but there's just one problem:
"It's a trap!"
Yes, Emperor Palpatine set the whole thing up to both
destroy the rebellion and seduce Luke to the dark side all at once.
But he was wrong to believe that he could convince Luke Skywalker to join the dark side of the Force.
Instead, Luke — having learned his lesson at last — restrains his emotions, lets go of his anger,
and spares his father. This leads to Vader's redemption, the Emperor's death,
and — with a little help from some furry new friends — the salvation of the galaxy.
Never underestimate a Jedi… or an Ewok!
Speaking of Ewoks, in 1984 George Lucas experimented with television once more and
released a made-for-television movie called "Caravan of Courage:
An Ewok Adventure" on ABC. Starring the recognizable Ewoks of Endor,
the story follows the human Towani family after they crash-land on the
forest moon and attempt to survive. The parents end up kidnapped by the Gorax,
forcing their children — Cindel and Mace — to work together with Wicket and the Ewoks to rescue them.
After a long journey across deserts, acid pools, and giant mountains,
the children overcome their fear, reach the Gorax's fortress, fight giant spiders,
and — with the help of the fairy-like Wisties — free their parents. Ultimately, Gorax is defeated
in the ensuing battle by essentially tripping him into a giant chasm, and the victorious heroes
return to the Ewok village to celebrate their victory and mourn those they lost.
It seemed like a happy ending. But about that…
In 1985, fans got their third Star Wars film in just as many years when another
spin-off named "Ewoks: The Battle for Endor" aired on ABC. And it was strangely horrific.
In a twist beginning more suited to the "Alien" franchise than "Star Wars," before the Tawani
family can fix their ship and go home, space marauders led by a Nightsister of Dathomir kill
them all! Well, except Cindel, who manages to escape with Wicket and hide with an old hermit.
After the Nightsister kidnaps Cindel, the hermit, Noa, and Wicket manage to infiltrate the castle,
free the Ewoks, steal the parts, and use them to repair Noa's ships
and defeat the marauders with its defenses. With the Ewoks free and the threat finally over,
Cindel goes with Noa so that she can return to the galaxy at large, as Endor is not her true home.
So what does it all mean? Endor sucks, that's what!
When it finally hit theaters in 1999, "The Phantom Menace" was the first Star Wars film in over a
decade. Armed with state-of-the-art CGI that was simply impossible when he finished the last film,
George Lucas sought to finally finish his six-part saga by revealing the story of
Anakin Skywalker and the Clone Wars that he had teased all the way back in 1977.
The entire film boils down to Palpatine engineering an attack on his own planet of
Naboo so he can convince Naboo's ruler, Queen Amidala, to declare a vote of no
confidence in the Republic's current Supreme Chancellor, allowing Palpatine to replace him.
Everything else that happens in the movie is essentially a distraction that allows
him to succeed, even the impressive Duel of the Fates between Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and Darth Maul.
If Qui-Gon survived, his experience and outlook as both a Jedi and a teacher may have been enough
to keep Anakin from falling to the dark side later on. But because Maul struck him down before being
defeated himself, Obi-Wan is forced to train and, as we will see, ultimately fail the young boy.
2002's "Attack of the Clones" was the moment that many fans had been waiting for
since 1977, when the Clone Wars were first mentioned in "A New Hope."
Once again, the plot is about Palpatine manufacturing a crisis in order to gain power.
His Sith apprentice Count Dooku leads a war of secession from the
Republic — which allows Palpatine to create his own clone army in response,
as the Senate gives him ever more power to combat this supposed threat.
If that wasn't enough, Palpatine had also recognized the incredible power within
Anakin and begun grooming him to be his future apprentice and most powerful weapon. He became
the boy's friend in the decade between the two films and used that connection to subtly
encourage Skywalker to embrace the dark side and act on it as he does with the Tusken Raiders.
It's an incredible, sinister feat of political engineering that would prove very successful. And,
oh yeah, there was also a bunch of lightsaber fights, a secret marriage, the first battle of
some war, and the birth of a future bounty hunter named Boba Fett. Yoda apparently turned into CGI
and jumped around a lot, too. Those things were fine, but the politics are really where it’s at.
From the moment the prequel trilogy was originally announced, fans of the original
films knew how it had to end, of course: with the status quo we see at the start of "A New Hope."
And 2005's "Revenge of the Sith" is the tragic moment where it all comes together.
Having used the Clone Wars to slowly but surely grant him near-total control of the
entire Republic, Palpatine finally decides that he's ready to finish his master plan.
With Anakin now on his side, he eliminates Count Dooku and defeats the separatist army,
then executes Order 66, forcing every clone to rebel against their Jedi generals and kill them.
Obi-Wan and Yoda are among the only survivors. Obi-Wan confronts Anakin and defeats him,
but this traumatic event simply finishes the transition of Anakin into Darth Vader.
Darkness falls across the galaxy, as it waits for the arrival of… a new hope.
The prequel trilogy would find its own spin-off film in the 2008 animated film, "Star Wars:
The Clone Wars." Set in-between "Attack of the Clones" and "Revenge of the Sith,"
this theatrically-released film was essentially the pilot project for
the television series and helped fill in the gaps between the two movies.
The plot involves Jabba's son being abducted in a ploy to keep him from allying with the
Republic against the Separatist army. In the end, this ploy fails. But the real meaning
behind the events of "The Clones Wars" was the introduction of Anakin's apprentice
Ahsoka Tano. Her arc, which would be explored in the "Clone War" series,
was a mirror of Anakin's own journey, allowing us to see through her eyes what may have happened
if he had chosen a different path — the path she herself ended up choosing.
That is merely hinted at in the film, of course, but the seeds are planted here.
A decade after the prequel trilogy concluded, Disney released "Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force
Awakens" in 2015 after purchasing the franchise from George Lucas for $4 billion dollars.
At the film's climax, the mysterious newcomer Rey gets captured by Kylo Ren — Leia and Han's
mostly evil son — and held on Starkiller Base, the newest iteration of the Death Star. Han,
Chewie, and Finn fly to the base and attempt to rescue her before General Leia Organa and
the Resistance can destroy the base with them still on it. After rescuing Rey, Han tries to
reach his son one last time, but, determined to follow the path of his grandfather, Darth Vader,
Kylo rejects his father's plea and murders him.
Kylo Ren's story is a mirror image of the arc of his mentor,
Luke Skywalker. When Luke had the chance to kill his father, Darth Vader,
he spared him rather than turn to the dark side. But Kylo Ren decided to kill his father and
embrace the dark side, setting up the central conflict at the heart of the new trilogy.
The ending of the 2016 "New Hope" prequel "Rogue One"
probably needs less explanation than any of the others, because the entire
movie was retrofitted to make sure it ended exactly where "A New Hope" begins.
Recall that in "A New Hope," Luke is able to destroy the Death Star because secret
schematics smuggled out by Rebellion spies showed a design flaw that made the Death Star vulnerable.
"Rogue One" was built to explain how such a glaring design flaw existed in the first place,
and how the Rebel spies got the information. It turns out that Death Star designer Galen Erso
intentionally built in the weak spot as part of his revenge against the Empire. And his daughter,
Jyn Erso, was the one who delivered it to the Rebellion at the cost of her own life.
"Your father would have been proud of you, Jyn."
The film ends with those plans being delivered to Princess Leia, whose ship is attacked by
Darth Vader — exactly as the opening sequence of "A New Hope" showed four decades earlier.
If J.J. Abrams' "The Force Awakens" was a reestablishing of what fans had always
remembered "Star Wars" to be, then Rian Johnson's 2017 sequel "The Last Jedi" was an examination of
the franchise that seemingly attempted to deconstruct its tropes and storytelling.
After Kylo Ren fails to turn Rey to the dark side, she flees to a nearby planet
where the last remnants of the Rebellion are being hunted down by the First Order.
It all seems doomed, until Luke Skywalker unexpectedly shows up.
After abandoning his Jedi ways following the loss of his student Kylo Ren to the dark side,
Luke has seen the error of his ways thanks to Rey's devotion to her friends.
It's no coincidence that the middle film of the new trilogy culminates in the same decision as the
middle film of the original trilogy. Just as in "Empire Strikes Back," the student — in this case
Rey — chooses to leave training to save her friends, against the direction of the Jedi master.
This time, it's Luke who pays the price rather than Han, but
once again, the surviving heroes escape on the Millennium Falcon to fight another day.
2018's "Solo: A Star Wars Story" was, in a way, the first "Star Wars" origin story. It showed
fans how Han got his last name, escaped his home planet of Corellia, trained as a Stormtrooper,
met Chewbacca for the first time, and won the Millennium Falcon from
Lando Calrissian in a game of Sabacc by keeping the man from cheating.
The story is self-contained and clever,
but it introduced a lot of plot threads that still haven't been picked up on to this day,
most notably the big screen return of Darth Maul to the land of the living as a crime lord.
The ending was designed to set up more sequels — or prequels, depending on how you look at it — but
because of poor box office returns, none of those plot threads have yet been picked up since.
Just as the original trilogy was fundamentally about Luke Skywalker's journey, the new trilogy
was about Kylo Ren's battle against his own dark nature, so it's fitting that the climax
of 2019's "Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker" concluded with the end of his story.
More conflicted than ever about his dark side decisions after sensing his mother's death,
being healed by Rey, and imagining a conversation with his father,
Han Solo, Kylo Ren finally gives in to the light side of the Force and becomes Ben Solo once again.
This is echoed by Rey's discovery that she is a descendant of the evil Emperor Palpatine.
But rather than continue the age-old battle between their two families,
Kylo Ren chooses to sacrifice his life to help Rey defeat the reborn Palpatine.
The threat ended, Rey returned to Tatooine and buried Luke and Leia's lightsabers before
officially taking on their name to honor them. In many ways, "Star Wars: Episode IX:
The Rise of Skywalker" ended in the same place that "Return of the Jedi" left its heroes:
with the Emperor's death reigniting hope for a new democratic government
and a reborn Jedi Order led by a powerful hero with her own original lightsaber.
Like the original trilogy had the "Ewok Adventures" and the prequels had "The
Clone Wars," the sequel trilogy has received its own official,
specially made spin-offs in the form of 2020's "The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special."
The feature focuses on Rey Skywalker's attempt to train Finn in the ways of the Jedi, though
both are struggling with the prospect. In an attempt to gain guidance, she travels to a temple
on Kordoku to observe a special Life Day ritual that ultimately allows her to travel throughout
time and meet "Star Wars" characters from multiple different eras, including Luke, Yoda,
Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Darth Vader, who once again turns to the light at the end.
"Hey, what's with the sweaterAAAAA!"
After nearly breaking time by giving Vader and Kylo Ren access to the green crystal that she
was using to traverse the time stream, Rey sets everything right with the help of several versions
of Luke Skywalker and learns her lesson — Life Day is about spending time with friends and family.
The second of Lego's made for Disney+ original specials, 2021's "LEGO Star Wars:
Terrifying Tales" follows Poe Dameron as he crash lands at Vader's castle,
which has been turned into the "first all-inclusive, Sith-inspired, luxury resort."
It's run by Graballa the Hutt, whose creepy caretaker, Vaneé, begins telling Poe stories
in an effort to trick him and a young boy named Dean into retrieving one of Vader's holocrons.
As they go, Dean and Poe bond over their shared rough childhoods, but Vaneé retrieves
the holocron and uses it to form and power a massive exoskeleton. Dean uses Poe's X-Wing to
get it back, but Vaneé captures Poe and holds him over a cliff in order to deliver his ultimatum:
hand over the artifact or watch Poe die. Though the boy is almost overcome by fear,
Dean finds his courage and throws the holocron over Vaneé's head and into the lava below.
Vaneé catches the device but falls to his death in the fire below,
while BB-8 successfully catches Poe and saves him from the same fate. Afterward,
Poe forces the Hutt to close his hotel, putting Dean out of a job so that Poe
can take him to Rey to train in the ways of the Force. However, as they all leave,
a mysterious hand and a laugh reach out from the lava, showing that Vaneé has survived.
To be continued? Who knows what the next "Star Wars" movie will bring us.
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus,
even more Looper videos about your favorite films are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.