Endor: 25 Years Later

As soon as you step foot on Endor you are reminded of the fierce, warrior like nature of its inhabitants, the Ewoks. If you make a sudden gesture as you step off your ship's landing ramp they poke you with a spear and growl in their guttural tongue. You are also, almost as quickly, reminded of their surprise victory over the Empire a mere twenty-five years ago, for the streets around the spaceport are now saturated with vendors selling Storm Trooper helmets and various bits of body armor as memorabilia, each hawked bit's authenticity hard to verify and truly quite doubtful. An Ewok teenager in a Chewbacca mask runs by, laughing.

After asking to visit the Endor Rebellion History Museum, this reporter was led by the hand down a wooded trail to an enormous metallic building the color of gold. Inside I found the shattered, charred remains of three land speeders, more Storm torched Trooper armor, and a life-seized wax replica of C3-PO, the Ewok's prissy, reluctant god. I am told various religious sects have emerged since C3-PO's departure, some which claim that he is the son of Thindar, the Ewok God, and some claiming that he is merely one in a stream of golden prophets destined to visit Endor in the future. I have been forewarned that to merely join in this theology debate is to invite discord, and possible stabbing, so I keep my mouth shut on the matter and allow my fuzzy, burbling guide to walk me out back to the museum's stunning gardens. We pass beneath enormous red trees, their trunks disappearing into the clouds above, and come upon a large, marble tombstone in the midst of so much green. This is the grave of Smeq, I am told, the only Ewok casualty in the surprise attack on the Empire's finest legion of stormtroopers. It stands as a reminder in the midst of all this stunning, cathedral-like natural beauty that freedom, no matter how well-deserved, is never free.

A school group of adorable Ewok children waddles by me, burbling to themselves and bobbing their furry heads as they are led to the museum's gift shop. Thus life in Endor, as it does on so many other planets, goes on.