Why the Ewoks beating the Empire isn't stupid

Why does everyone say this is stupid and unbelievable.

The same circumstances have happened in history.

What about the Zulus defeating the British Empire at Rourke's drift, due to their numbers and knowledge of the terrain.

What about the Viet Cong defeating the American Army in the Vietnam war.

Both conflicts had sides with superior discipline and technology, but the native 'inferior' side won.

So next time anyone says its stupid, just hand 'em a history book!

 

Honestly, I would hope that this would go without saying. But since so many people don't get ROTJ, you're probably right.

 

yeah but the ewoks had better numbers... and i just think that it is not right that they had all of these booby traps that would blow up a at-te... those logs are BS thats all i say

 

It's not the idea that's the problem with most people. It's the execution. They think they go down way too easy without much of a fight.

 

*hands Arch_Clone_Trooper a history book*

 

The Viet-Cong did not fight with spears ^.^

 

Vietnam Guns vs Guns.....

ROTJ SPEARS vs blasters......


way different..... just the set up and how easly the at-te's fall.... to logs.....

 

the ewoks outnumbered them!

 

Supposedly Elite level Stormtroopers with armor, and blasters have no business being beaten by a species that has short arms, short legs, pitiful strength, and poor agility (judging by the way they sort of waddle when they walk), epecially when they are armed with sticks and stones.

Not to mention that the Empire only had to defend the shield generators, not root out every last Ewok. If they just decided to dig in defensively, no amount terrain familiarity by the Ewoks would have brought down the shield generator in a timely fashion.

 

yeah the whole battle plan for the empire was terrible it was like u put my little brother in commande.... no strategy just kill........ defense means u stay at ur base and step up to defend not chase them down...

 

Once again, arrogance is the downfall of the dark side "Evacuate? In our moment of triumph? I think you overestimate their chances". The imperial troops believed they couldn't be beaten by these pathetic primitives and the pitiful band of rebels, so they decided to go all aggressive (par for the course for the empire) and try to root out those pesky natives once and for all. Therein lies their failure. Yes, if the imperials had simply wanted to defend the bunker then they would have succeded, but they didn't perceive those furry little tykes to be a danger at all. Palpatine ordered the Star Destroyers not to engage just so he could use the Deat Star to blow up the rebel ships (this of course also had to do with trying to turn Luke). Arrogance is the dark sides greatest failing.

 

The US never lost a major engagement in Vietnam. The Viet Cong fought with captured ARVN weapons and then later NVA reinforcements with professional military training. Heck, the Ia Drang Valley battle involved NVA regiments, not VC.

The Viet Cong was essentially WIPED OUT in their major invasion of cities in the Tet Offensive, leaving only the NVA to fight the US and its allies. The NVA could never break through American air power backing the allies until support was withdrawn.

The VC was a paramilitary/terrorist organization that relied on some support, some fear and external prop and equipment to survive.

They are nothing like Ewoks, but of course, this would be something that would require actual study of the subject. Something I don't think GL did too much of...

They WERE pretty inventive though, which I think was what he meant when he made the comparison.

 

As I like to tell people who go on the whole "ewokes beat the Galactic Empire" rant trip;

think of like this (this is me talking here), the Ewoks more of flung their little furry bodies at the blaster bolts of the Imperials to buy time for the Rebels to blow the sheild generator.

In the long run it has no impact on ones life anyway.

 

Your thinking is right in line with Lucas' own. While
I won't take the time to deconstruct it's flimsy
merits here, suffice it to say, Ewoks beating the
Empire is dumb under any circumstances and a big
fat steaming pile of poo poo cinematically.

 

As mentioned already, the technological differences in the Vietnam war were not like the one in the battle of Endor. Spears and stones and arrows vs lasers??? The gap is just too much. It would have been better if the Ewoks had, say, 20th century technology, or even gunpowder!

I still like ROTJ, but at the same time I have to agree with those who criticize the battle of Endor. It's ridiculous!

 

I loved the ewoks as a kid with the tree houses and all... but as an adult I cant deny it, the battle is a farse and distracts from the believability. As an adult have to accept that ROTJ, even more so after ROTS, is the most flawed of the six. For every great part there is an equally flawed part.

Lucas states in the ROTJ DVD, it was always supposed to be the wookies and I think it was a mistake to not use them. His reasoning being primetive vs technology but the gap is way off. The wookies would have been at much more believable level. Hell at least the Gungans in TMP have a reasonable amount of tech, and they still get crushed.

 

I see it like this. Try puting on a storm trooper outfit and run around in the woods. It would be very confortable or practicle when fighting a peoples that are use to that environment, no matter how small they are.

I have also worked in a saw mill for 7 years and i could tell you i have seen first hand what a log can do to machinery......and they would tear apart an AT ST, no problem.

Take some stones to the head that would kill you. I don't care if you have a helmet on.

 

At what point in ROTJ do people get the idea the Ewoks did anything but distract and seperate the Imperial forces?

I keep seeing all this talk about the Ewoks owning the Empires elite forces.

All they did was throw a few rocks, scream boogy boogy and run off into the woods.

There were a few traps set up for them but other than that the ewoks sole purpose was to divert the attention and squad from the shield generator.

Once chewie got an At St though it was pretty much the turning point.

 

Since this question has been sidebarring the "ANH=meh?" thread, I decided to chime in here and offer my opinion. The Ewoks do not in fact "defeat the Empire".

The 'Woks are clearly losing against the Imperial troops, and suffering casualties, until Chewbacca commandeers the AT-ST and suppresses the attacking Imperials. The Ewoks re-group and manage to spring the traps they've been hiding in the forest, which swings the tide for them for the moment. Their rocks and blunt-force weapons prove effective against lightweight 'trooper armor designed for blaster fire.

But still the battle is not won, and only Han's ingenuity -- and the usage of Chewie's AT-ST to effect a disguise -- wins the Rebels the bunker. We cannot discount, too, the contribution of the Rebel soldiers, whose on-screen presence is underplayed but who are there in the ground battle nonetheless.

Thus we see that the perception that the "Ewoks defeated the Emperor's best legion" is erroneous.

 

I love the Ewok that was smart enough to pick up a Stormtrooper blaster.

 

Hey, a good arrow through the neck would kill a stormtrooper. Plus some Ewoks had axes I think.

 

thanks Vort. I've become somewhat of a broken record with the "distraction" explanation in recent years whenever the "Ewoks beat the Empire" thing came up.

 

the credibility isn't helped by the way the movie establishes them as cloyingly cute and extremely irritating .

the battle has too many scenes where sticks overcome blasters somehow .

And finally - when Han tricks them into opening the backdoor a group of troopers come out and when faced by approx the same number of ewoks with sticks simply surrender !


a low moment , and another low moment for Han's character , one of several in ROJ.

 

The backstory to the Ewoks beating the Empire isn't exactly unbelievable. Stormtroopers stand out like a sore thumb in jungle terrain, and the Ewoks knew the land better.

But did they really have to be little cute cudly ewoks? Why couldn't wookies come in instead and pwn the Empire?

 

Supposedly designed for blaster fire, and yet stunningly ineffective against it.