The Ewok Hacker

May 4, 2018 at 6:14 am | Posted in Ewok Corner, Opinion, Regular Feature, Star Wars | 1 Comment

With each new Star Wars story, be it a film, comic or novel, there’s always something for fans to debate about. In Del Rey’s latest Star Wars novel, Last Shot, there’s a very interesting character that joins Han and Lando on their adventure to hunt down a mysterious Pa’un gangster. That character is an Ewok.

Now right there, you run into your first division with Star Wars fandom – those who like Ewoks and those who don’t. Some see them as cuddly little teddy bears that are too cute for Star Wars, and some see them as ferocious little warriors who have no problem with eating their enemies. But the inclusion of an Ewok in Last Shot isn’t the big discussion point. The point of interest is that this Ewok is a slicer, which is the Star Wars term for a hacker.

How can an Ewok be a hacker? Well, how can Chewbacca fly and repair the Millennium Falcon? To be fair, you can’t judge an alien species with how they look. Creatures covered in fur can be just as smart and tech savvy as any human. But the Ewoks depicted in Return of the Jedi were a tribal species. They live in tree houses made of wood. They used sticks and stones as weapons. How could this species make the leap to being computer experts?

Well there’s two things to consider here. First off, Ewoks showed an amazing aptitude for manipulating technology in Return of the Jedi. Paploo was able to take off on a speeder bike and navigate through the forest without crashing into a tree. We also see two Ewoks operating an AT-ST walker later on with Chewbacca. With just the crude materials available to them, they were able to engineer catapults and hang gliders. Thus there is ample evidence that Ewoks are intelligent and quick learners.

The second factor is much closer to home. In the real world, children are becoming more and more adept with computers, technology and computer applications. In many cases, children know more about computers than their parents. Thus, if we look at the Ewoks being exposed to advanced technology at the Battle of Endor, it’s not too hard to accept that a few years down the road, there could be Ewoks proficient with more advanced technology.

Unfortunately we don’t have a lot to go with as far as the timeline goes. We know Last Shot takes place sometime after the Battle of Jakku, which in turn took place one year after Return of the Jedi. And we know Last Shot takes place before Bloodline, which is set 34 years after Return of the Jedi. That’s a big gap to play in, and it’s safe to say that Last Shot is closer to ROTJ than The Force Awakens. So if we assume there’s at least a two to three year gap between ROTJ and Last Shot, that means Peekpa could’ve had the equivalent of three years of college education in the Star Wars universe. When we see her in Last Shot, she’s working for the New Republic government, so she’s certainly out of school, thus the timing seems right.

For a youth, a member of a fast learning, intelligent species, and in a galaxy where everyone seems to know how to pilot a starship, is it so far of a stretch to accept that Ewoks could become hackers? It’s not like all Ewoks are suddenly computer geniuses. So far, it’s just one. While looks can be deceiving, sometimes we have to remember that the galaxy far, far away is not the same as our own. It’s a place where there are sounds in space, people can survive in vacuum, and some people can move things with magic. Star Wars is a space fantasy, and having little teddy bears that can hack computers isn’t really that far fetched.

Posted By: Skuldren for Roqoo Depot. Embrace your inner teddy bear.