Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site topaz.RUTGERS.EDU Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!columbia!topaz!crash!bnw From: bnw@crash.UUCP Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: Re: "cute" Ewoks Message-ID: <3158@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU> Date: Wed, 7-Aug-85 03:13:19 EDT Article-I.D.: topaz.3158 Posted: Wed Aug 7 03:13:19 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 10-Aug-85 20:48:11 EDT Sender: daemon@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 55 From:edison!dca@topaz.arpa (David C. Albrecht) writes: >Ewoks?, be serious. It is obvious to anyone with half a brain that >this was a stupid descent into cutesieism to get the christmas toy >market. They were big overbloated teddy bears that made cute >noises, walked funny and had adorable skittish mannerisms otherwise >skywalker an co. wouldn't have put up with them tying them up et al. Happily, I am told I am blessed with more than half-a-brain, so I can safely go ahead and disagree. I don't doubt that the aftermarket possibilities of the Ewoks had occurred to Lucas and company when they developed them for the film. But I do feel that Mr. ALbrecht has gone too far in condemning them as a reasonable concept. There has been much speculation about the ability of little Ewoks to produce the kind of attack depicted in the film. I would agree with those who suggest that this is a hunting society, so some of the item seen would have been built; another idea presented by someone here was that the Storm- troopers had been a problem for the Ewoks for some time, and the Ewoks had already been fighting back. Still, I think Ewoks, as presented would have a greater capability than they have been credited with. I think there has been an erroneous tendency to look at a little Ewok and dismiss any possibility of heavy work quickly. I submit, however, that four to six Ewoks could chop down a tree in an hour, and fifty Ewoks, using a primitive form of block and tackle, could raise the stripped log. Others could use ordinary levers to move logs into a pile restrained by a keystone-type lever. The Ewoks would seem to be early-to-middle Paleolithic. They have learned fire, sophisticated weapons-making, and have a tribal structure in what does not appear to be a nomadic society. Moreover, they have had some exposure to the modern technology of the Empire. None of the activity attributed to them would be beyond a humanoid culture at the same stage of development. It is anthrocentristic to deny small, furry people the same capabilities. The Ewoks are, in many ways, what Piper's Fuzzies would have become had a non-interference directive kept them uncontaminated by man. Two specifics: >. . .otherwise skywalker an co. wouldn't have put up with them tying them >up et al. This isn't realistic belief. If I'm busy shooting down Ewoks in front of me with my blaster while Ewoks to me left, right, and behind are filling me full of arrows and spears, I'm going to be as dead as any Ewoks I shoot. >Yes, I like fuzzies but only when treated as fuzzies not as a serious >character which is to give storm troopers any competition. This suggest a reference to Piper's Fuzzy novels. If Mr. Albrecht read them and got the idea that Fuzzies weren't serious characters or were capable of little beyond "yeeking" and "smokko", then he missed a very great deal. /Bruce N. Wheelock/ arpanet: crash!bnw@ucsd uucp: {ihnp4, cbosgd, sdcsvax, noscvax}!crash!bnw