Ewoks are one of the biggest lightning rods for debate in Star Wars fandom. Do you love them? Do you hate them? Did George Lucas put them in Return of the Jedi to just sell toys, story be dammed? We could go on forever.
Now, a new wrinkle has been added to that debate thanks to Sunday’s episode of Star Wars Resistance – and it’s kind of mind-blowing.
In the episode, called “The High Tower”, Kaz is forced to hide in Torra’s room to get away from the First Order. Once in there, you see that Torra is a bit of a geek who has tons of cool little trinkets all over the place, almost all of which are Star Wars Easter eggs.
According to StarWars.com, there’s “a bantha doll, a tooka doll, a poster of Sabine Wren art, a Boonta Eve Podrace poster, stormtrooper and Boushh action figures, and a T-16 model” just to name a few. Those are some deep, and interesting, cuts.
But one item stands apart from the rest. It’s the one you can see in the image above: Torra has an Ewok doll.
In my mind, this raises so, so many questions about the Star Wars universe. First of all, who makes these Ewok dolls — family-made toys exist, of course; Rogue One’s Jyn Erso had a whole box of dolls made by her parents.
So is this Ewok official merchandise, or did Torra make it herself? If the former is the case, did whoever made it get the Ewoks’ permission? Do the Ewoks get a cut? Did the Ewoks become popular because of their role in the Battle of Endor, or were they popular before that just because they are cute? Are there famous Ewoks?
Also isn’t it a little weird to merchandise a species that offered its services to the New Republic as therapy beings for veteran soldiers? I mean, it’s a veritable Pandora’s box of Star Wars conundrums.
In all honesty, the Ewok doll was almost certainly placed in Torra’s room as a cute wink to fans and was probably likened to a kid owning a teddy bear. But there’s obviously a big difference: Bears are animals. They don’t create military strategy and team up with humans to fight the bad guys.
Ewoks are more than mere forest critters. They’re an intelligent species with a burgeoning society. And the fact we now know Ewok toys exist in the Star Wars canon puts a very unique and interesting spin on things.
I mean, if there are Ewok dolls, does it end there? Can kids buy lightsaber replicas, or Jedi Knight action figures? Does Darth Maul sell masks?
We demand to know more about Star Wars merchandising inside the Star Wars canon itself. After all, Star Wars wouldn’t exist without its merchandise, so it’s nice to know it’s also part of that galaxy far, far, away.