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A Star Wars horror story
Star Wars Battlefront II
Developers: EA DICE, Criterion Software,
& Motive Studios
Oh. You don’t like the Ewoks.
Got it.
Too cute? Too cuddly? A clear cash grab from George Lucas in 1983 as he intentionally targeted young Star Wars fans with Space Teddy Bears in the hopes that he’d squeeze an extra buck or two out of the toy sales?
Sure. I understand.
However, imagine this: You’re on the forest moon of Endor, having just lost the biggest battle of your life. The imposing wilderness grows darker around you. What’s left of your squad is out there, but you can’t quite see them. You have a blaster on which a spotlight sits. However, that only works for sixty seconds at a time. The light goes out and then you hear it. A wooden horn sounds off in the distance, a proclamation of a war not yet finished. There is a rustling. A rhythmic pounding of soft-padded feet. You brace yourself, but you know you can’t stop what’s coming. You’re a stormtrooper of the once mighty Empire—and you’re being hunted by vicious, human eating creatures. The Hunt of the Ewoks has begun. Sounds like pure horror, right? It is. It’s one of the most terrifying moments in Star Wars and it happens to be in a video game.
The Star Wars Battlefront games first arrived on the scene in 2004 and 2005. A third installment was allegedly on the way before being infamously derailed. The series returned in 2015 with its own sequel in 2017. Without a doubt, the games have been met with a little bit of resistance from more experienced and passionate gamers. I guess it just wouldn’t be Star Wars without a little bit of debate and hubbub circling around it. Yet what remains is a visually stunning game with some of the best looks at the locations of Star Wars, supplemented by some great, good ol’ fashioned Pew Pew action. And then they unleashed the Ewoks on us.
At some point in the weeks, months, and years after Return of the Jedi, it was decided by a certain sub-section of fans that you couldn’t like the Ewoks. Whether it was because of their aforementioned cuddly nature, their lack of blinking eyes, or maybe because that one Ewok says, “That guy’s wise” after hearing the Golden God C-3PO speak, the Ewoks were pushed to the back of the room and placed in the roped off section called “silly Star Wars.” This wasn’t 1977 anymore and clearly A New Hope was awash in the gritty realism of the post-Vietnam era. Now it was 1983 and the Ewoks were really just space Care Bears complete with their own TV movies and a Saturday morning cartoon. Granted it took some big leaps to overlook the Vietnam War commentary from Lucas and the in-story truth that these cuddly space bears were planning on slicing up Han Solo for dinner, but, yes, the Ewoks were silly.
Thankfully, over the years there has been an Ewok renaissance and not just from a new, young generation of fans. A large part of this Ewokaissance has been driven by the fans that loved the Ewoks yet felt they had to hide that love in the shadows of an Endor tree. No more! And the Ewok Hunt mode on Battlefront II, originally released in April 2018 as a temporary mode before becoming permanent later on, is the finest moment in the comeback of the Ewoks.
Honestly.
It also serves as a genre bend for Star Wars. Fans often wonder if there can ever be a Star Wars movie completely swimming in another genre. The easiest leap is a Western with Solo: A Star Wars Story having some elements of the genre throughout it. Realistically, though, it makes sense that Star Wars will always be…well…Star Wars first. Yet when you settle in to play Ewok Hunt for the first time, you realize quite plainly: The Ewoks are absolute monsters ripped straight out of a horror picture. This is a Star Wars horror story.
The sun can be out, and you can be playing the game among friends, but when your stormtrooper’s gun light goes out, you are suddenly lost in the dark forest. You hear those footsteps and, as mentioned, that horn starts to blow. You’ve heard this horn before, of course. Those cute lil’ Ewoks blew it moments before attacking the Empire and saving the Rebels in Return of the Jedi. Da-dada-daaaa! Yay! The silly Ewoks are here!
Except now you’re hearing it rain down on you from the shadows. Your light won’t reset, and you can’t find your squad mates. The horn blows again. And suddenly Da-dada-daaaa isn’t as cute and cuddly. It’s not silly. It’s a thesis statement—the Ewoks are angry, hyped, and, worse, hungry and they’re going to see you well before you see them. It’s frightening. And that’s before they actually leap out of the trees and start poking you with sticks and killing you—KILLING YOU—with wisties.
Silly, silly Ewoks.
Then you die, and the fun begins. You get to be an Ewok. It’s your turn to hunt. All your life as a Return of the Jedi fan has come to this moment. The game respawns you and you’re now a mighty Ewok warrior high atop the walkways of Bright Tree Village, ready to defend your land from unwanted interlopers. You’ve been overlooked and tossed aside by these “ackie ata” for too long. You smell them. You hear them. You see them. Now it’s your turn to play the Ewok battle horn and leap into the hunt. You’re an Ewok now, fierce and proud, and there is nothing silly about that.