Endor: Anatomy of a Tribal Insurgency

[Paradoxrifts]

Beautiful, Rob, beautiful. Anyone who still doubts the ability of the small and weak to fight back against the strong stupid should also read the classic Dragon magazine editorial, Tucker's Kobolds [http://www.tuckerskobolds.com/].

My expertise built up playing for many years in hopelessly disorganised and dysfunctional D&D groups has allowed me to fix this for you.

 

[woundwart]

Comparing the Ewoks to Viet Cong is nonsense. The ewoks had stick and stones the empire had modern weapons. The battle of Endor should have looked like The Battle of Rorke's Drift.

That comparison actually did come to mind, but not exactly in the way you've suggested. Rourke's Drift only happened because the Zulus massacred a much larger British force at the Battle of Isandlwana, where the numerically superior force of Zulus armed with spears and cowhide shields (and some old muskets and rifles they weren't trained to use) attacked and destroyed an entire British column.

Perhaps not surprisingly, British popular history is more interested in remembering the 150 soldiers that fought at Rourke's Drift and won, rather than the 1,300 who were wiped out the previous day.

But still, Lucas said they were VC so I went that direction.

I did notice the 1300 that were wiped out the day before by 12,000. I don't believe the Ewok's had that kind of numerical advantage over the legion of the Emperor's finest troops although I will concede I don't know that for a fact. I specifically brought up Rorke's Drift because the Empire should have dug in around their bunker and fought a defensive battle in which they would have slaughtered mountains of Ewoks.

 

[Izanagi009_v1legacy]

Comparing the Ewoks to Viet Cong is nonsense. The ewoks had stick and stones the empire had modern weapons. The battle of Endor should have looked like The Battle of Rorke's Drift.

That comparison actually did come to mind, but not exactly in the way you've suggested. Rourke's Drift only happened because the Zulus massacred a much larger British force at the Battle of Isandlwana, where the numerically superior force of Zulus armed with spears and cowhide shields (and some old muskets and rifles they weren't trained to use) attacked and destroyed an entire British column.

Perhaps not surprisingly, British popular history is more interested in remembering the 150 soldiers that fought at Rourke's Drift and won, rather than the 1,300 who were wiped out the previous day.

But still, Lucas said they were VC so I went that direction.

There was a documentary i remember watching that compared the American method of war to chess and the Vietcong to Go. The American method revolves around overwhelming power to destroy enemies over time while the Vietcong optimized their resources to surround and control the most area and influence.

Regardless, it proves that the traditional method of large scale strength and number is at a loss against more strategic and chaotic form of combat such as tribal and guerrilla combat

 

[survivor686]

The forest seems to be a deciding factor in the Ewok's victory. Given from other canon-sources, it would seem that whenever the Stormtroopers ventured into the forest it became a death trap.

Shouldn't the local Imperial commander napalmed the surrounding squared kilometres around the shield generator. It gives your defending forces clear lines of fire and sight and makes any attempts at infiltration exposed.

Or better yet, keep a few canisters of napalm on hand to deal with the locals (as monstrous as it sounds). As the author pointed out, the lack of any air-assets to support Imperial operations serves to have hampered them. If anything it seems that the Imperials had the wrong equipment for the wrong situation.

 

[Izanagi009_v1legacy]

The forest seems to be a deciding factor in the Ewok's victory. Given from other canon-sources, it would seem that whenever the Stormtroopers ventured into the forest it became a death trap.

Shouldn't the local Imperial commander napalmed the surrounding squared kilometres around the shield generator. It gives your defending forces clear lines of fire and sight and makes any attempts at infiltration exposed.

Or better yet, keep a few canisters of napalm on hand to deal with the locals (as monstrous as it sounds). As the author pointed out, the lack of any air-assets to support Imperial operations serves to have hampered them. If anything it seems that the Imperials had the wrong equipment for the wrong situation.

The Hoth article pretty much confirms it, The Empire was so obsessed with overwhelming force that they gave up a lot of technologies and tactics that would have assisted them in jungle combat; the lack of air supremacy in particular though if the vietcong metaphor was extended, the Ewokes may have had some method of hiding from fire bombings (this is just conjecture)

 

[misg]

Damn reading this Thread and it's timing... I just went and bought the whole collect of Star wars games on steam became they are on sale and it made me want to kill some Ewoks.

 

[Lonewolfm16]

In many ways the Endor fight reminds me of the Viking settling of North America. A deadly group of soldiers establishes a foothold but is attacked by natives wielding inferior weapons but in great numbers and are eventually driven off.

 

[themilo504]

Even then it?s still idiotic but for different reasons, it makes the empire seems like complete idiots who can?t even run a mc donald let alone most of the known galaxy.

Also the ewoks are basically mary sues unlike say the Aztecs there completely unafraid of technology despite the fact they should all run away in terror when they see a at-st and they can pull off guerrilla tactics that no simple hunter-gatherer society could possibly pull off.

 

[Big_Boss_Mantis]

The forest seems to be a deciding factor in the Ewok's victory. Given from other canon-sources, it would seem that whenever the Stormtroopers ventured into the forest it became a death trap.

Shouldn't the local Imperial commander napalmed the surrounding squared kilometres around the shield generator. It gives your defending forces clear lines of fire and sight and makes any attempts at infiltration exposed.

Or better yet, keep a few canisters of napalm on hand to deal with the locals (as monstrous as it sounds). As the author pointed out, the lack of any air-assets to support Imperial operations serves to have hampered them. If anything it seems that the Imperials had the wrong equipment for the wrong situation.

The Hoth article pretty much confirms it, The Empire was so obsessed with overwhelming force that they gave up a lot of technologies and tactics that would have assisted them in jungle combat; the lack of air supremacy in particular though if the vietcong metaphor was extended, the Ewokes may have had some method of hiding from fire bombings (this is just conjecture)

That is the point. Luke said it himself to the Emperor, in the throne room: "Your overconfidence is your weakness".

All the stupid mistakes the Empire commits along all the three films are caused by overconfidence.

"Look, there is a hole in the Death Star!" "So what? Make it two, or three. Let?s blow up some planets and scare the galaxy into submission."

"The rebels are escaping Hoth!" "Nah, nevermind. Let`s blow the shield generator and see some fireworks!"

And that applies to the whole fiasco at the forest moon of Endor.

I am not defending Star Wars irrestrictly. Of course, the plot is full of holes and could have been much better written. Most victories by the Rebels were ridiculous twists, lazily invented so that the "good guys always wins".

But, at least it is thematically consistent! With all the might the empire was, once supreme executive power is controlled by a despotic leader, he is invariably corrupted by it, despite his former strategic genius. And his overconfidentially fueled stupidity leaves cracks, that will always be exploited by the good will of ragtag freedom fighters!
Isn?t it beautiful? Imagine how much better it could have been with someone who was a great writer (instead of a remarkable marketer).

 

[gyrobot_v1legacy]

I still say Lucas should have gone with his original idea of using Kashyyyk and Wookies.

Sure, they couldn't have gone with the 'sticks versus guns' routine but we could have gotten scenes of gore and mayhem as Wookie guerillas ripped the arms off stormtroopers and beat them to death with the soggy ends, tore helmeted heads off, used stolen weapons, tore off someone's leg and used it to knock several stormtroopers off something really high... I mean, the capacity for carnage would have been massively entertaining. Who wouldn't want to see a Wookie strangle a scouttrooper to death with their own entrails? Who wouldn't want to see a speederbike thrown at the viewport of an AT-ST and stove it in? What sort of person doesn't want to see a wookie covered in scorched marks from blaster fire, oozing blood, beat a stormtrooper to death barehanded, each blow cracking and crushing armour?

Yeah, what I'm saying is if there's ever a 'gritty reboot' of the original trilogy, you know who to call.

Well, the Wookiee front would have been classic karmic retribution.

 

[veloper]

Gritty Ewoks in crazy power armor and wielding big rifles, all supplied by the rebels ofcourse, might have saved ROTJ as well as this clumsy comparison to Vietnam.
As many posters have mentioned previously: AKMs vs M16s.

 

[Snowblindblitz]

Is it bad that I now want a re-re-re-re-release of the original trilogy with actual military tactics in place and being used by the empire? I mean, the movies would end differently, and probably not get past the second movie. But still, hey! That's what the originals are for.

And the ewoks? Dead.

 

[gyrobot_v1legacy]

Is it bad that I now want a re-re-re-re-release of the original trilogy with actual military tactics in place and being used by the empire? I mean, the movies would end differently, and probably not get past the second movie. But still, hey! That's what the originals are for.

And the ewoks? Dead.

And what is not to say the Ewoks adapt? Suddenly Luke and his friends are doing their best to train their friends with blasters and an act of Chewie reveals a box of blasters and thermal detonators they had stolen a while or even brought along.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

This kind of thing is why I absolutely adore the internet.

Excellent points. I'll be parroting parts of this in the future, I'm sure of it.

Also that last line was seriously fucking terrifying.