Full title: “Star Wars: Droids. The adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO”
Here you will learn what isn’t written in official articles (and a short summary of what is written) about various slip-ups and unexpected turns, about little-known alien species, about the fate of some characters after the events of the animated series, about interesting details that you might not have noticed, and also about who has the funniest name in the Star Wars universe (that no one finds funny).
I had been planning to watch this animated series for a long time, and when I finally watched it, I didn’t regret. Also disclaimer: I know the Star Wars Universe mainly only from comics and games, I only watched first movie a long time ago, and of the animated series, only this one was my cup of tea.
You know that repetitive opening: someone escapes the planet with shady company and then they become a team? When I saw that in Rebels, I thought: “Are they really still doing that?”...and then I dropped it because of the annoying main character. In general, that opening has become so predictable that any deviation now looks brilliant. But here the plot does exactly the opposite: R2-D2 and C-3PO are dropped on a planet they would like to escape from after being on a ship with smugglers who were arrested. And this is the 80s cartoon!
For its time “Droids” is a very unique and progressive animated series. I love the idea of comic reliefs as main characters! Almost defenseless droids in such a dangerous world, but they cope well with any challenge and always find an excellent company that really loves and appreciates them (unlike those with whom they were in other works).
The first thing you might notice is that the opening theme has nothing to do with the reality of the show. It shows some kind of world of droids (not the one in the book “Droid World”), where the only living being is Boba Fett, and he is only included because he looks a bit like a droid. And these constantly appearing diagrams on outdated computers – there was no such thing! But if you rewatch the opening theme, remembering all the types of droids that will appear in the next story arcs, then all of them can be found there.
Yes, there are three story arcs, each with a new cast of characters, because the plot follows the droids who have to leave their new friends and masters from time to time. And yes, there is an opinion that these episodes are hard to watch. From my experience, I can say that although it is tough to follow everything the first time, you need to rewatch it to understand that the narrative of the episodes is actually brilliant.
Most of the planets shown in this animated series are desert planets. Natural for real space, but often confusing in the plot. In the first story arc, it seems that the action takes place on the same planet, but for some reason they always move across it through space. It turned out that these were actually 3 different planets.
So let me explain this confusing movement between those identical planets in the first story arc. Ingo is a planet with salt storms. The droids ended up there after smugglers incident, Thall and Jord run a workshop and train for racing there, and the rebel Kia arrived to destroy the base of the young gangster Tig Fromm, who is building the superweapon Trigon I there. After the base is destroyed, they all fly to a more populated planet – Annoo, where Kia's mother lives, and the Fromm gang's fortress is also located. There, Tig receives the missing parts, meets with his father Sise, and they fly back to Ingo, where Trigon I is. The main characters also sneak there unnoticed and fly away on Trigon I. After hiding Trigon I on Ingo, they are captured and taken back to Annoo, but after freeing the hostages and carrying out their cunning plan, they fly off to another similar planet, called Boonta... unless that's the name of the area or racing events? And finally, Thall and Jord are invited to work... somewhere else. In short, there is no clearer explanation here. In other story arcs, the planets are not so similar; some of them aren’t even deserts.
The animated series takes place before the classic trilogy, when the empire had just begun to take over the galaxy. This is also a cartoon from an era when they couldn’t even show anything resembling a real weapon. Therefore, throughout the story you can see a variety of objects that are used as weapons: barcode scanners, round magnets, CD cases, drumsticks, futuristic baseballs, garden lamps... and the thing like a traffic that changes size depending on who is holding it! Now imagine that all of it shoots lasers. Not a bad idea for kids to play with if they don't have toy guns.
C-3PO constantly complains about how fragile he is and how something might happen to his circuits or joints or whatever, but here everything he worries about really happens to him. Almost no episode goes by without some kind of malfunction. It seems that wasn’t a thing in the episodes “The White Witch”, “Race to the finish”, “New King”, “The Great Heep” and “Across the Roon Sea”. As for the rest... in the second episode “Escape into terror” his back breaks. In “Trigon Unleashed” – hands and a gyroscope. In “Lost Prince” – knee joint. In “Pirates of Tarnoonga” – both knees. In “Revenge of Kybo Ren” – the arm and the leg. In “Coby and the starhunters” – the neck. In “Tail of the Roon comets” – a complete shutdown. In “Roon Games” – the spinal axis. In episode “Frozen Citadel”, C-3PO is so used to it that he thinks his legs fell off or turned the wrong way when that actually were his master's legs.
However, what's most unexpected is that these incidents aren't just there to show that his fears aren’t farfetched... they're used to blatantly sexualize C-3PO. I know there was one moment in the Clone Wars animated series, and it's pretty typical for Cartoon Network’s Time Squad to joke about it. However, no one has ever gone as far as this animated series. At least everyone reacts to it completely innocently. Apart from the animators, I guess...
But R2-D2 breaks down especially dramatically so that C-3PO can make a tragedy out of it every time. In the first episode – he breaks from falling from the smugglers' ship onto a planet with salt storms. In episode 9, he is thrown back by a guard droid. And in the special "The Great Heep" – he pilots a spaceship that explodes upon collision... however, he managed to jump with a parachute, so everyone only thought that it was the end of him. And sometimes something gets inside him, which can lead to malfunction, but also leads to good consequences. Like the roonstone that they were looking for throughout the third story arc.
Surprisingly, almost everyone perceives R2-D2 as a human. It's one thing to treat him as a person, but another to apply things meant for humanoids to him. So R2-D2 often has such absurd scenes as when he’s wearing an apron where it’s useless, or he’s tied up even though he has no hands, while all his tools aren’t restrained in any way. Or he washes the floor with a bucket and mop, although there are much more convenient ways for him to do that. And in the episode “The pirates of Tarnoonga” he dresses up and hopes to pass for one of the pirates.
In “Trigon Unleashed”, we find out what R2-D2's favorite TV show is... it's R2-D2 in the Wild West! The absurdity is only added by the fact that although “Star Wars” can be called a space western, the story still takes place a long time ago in a far away galaxy, where no one knows the human history on Earth with their 20th century mass culture, so there could be no stereotypes about cowboys and indians.
What I really like about this animated series is that there are no classic “damsels in distress”. The second story arc particularly poked fun at this trope. But in the other two there is simply no such thing that it’s always the girls who need to be saved, but they can't save anyone in return. Everyone gets in distress from time to time, including the main character Thall. When in the second episode he was gassed and enemy droids tried to kidnap him, Kia saves him. Afterwards, Thall doesn’t want to put up with his situation and wants to act, then Jord takes him on his shoulder and carries him away so that he can rest. Next time Thall will save them both. And then C-3PO and R2-D2 will save them all. It’s not like in other animated series, where the main male character always has to save everyone himself, and this is very annoying.
While Thall still gets the benefits of a main protagonist, he also becomes a prime target for villains. When something bad happens, Thall's favorite phrases are "I’m not hanging around to find out" and "Not if I can help it." As a result, he's the only one Tig wants to kill at the end of the story arc. At the same time, Kia doesn’t bother Tig at all, despite the fact that it was she who arrived with the mission to destroy his gang.
However, it was Jord who suffered the most. He simply can't exist in the plot without needing to be rescued all the time. In the first episode he is kidnapped from his workshop, in the second he is caught by the Fromm gang thugs in the spaceport, in the third episode he is held hostage, and in the fourth episode he injures his hand. It's like the creators are deliberately trying to remove him from the plot, and to hide it they keep adding that he is the best mechanic, he did all the work creating White Witch, and he was the one who should have raced, just since he can't, it’ll be Thall. Mean trick on the part of the authors, however, this manipulation is often used to justify why the heroine cannot be the center of attention, so at least they didn’t do that here. Kia could’ve had a bigger role, but her goal was different from the start, and she achieved it.
Also Kia knows how to be hard on heroes, just so they don't become cocky. In the second episode, when Thall and Jord and the droids are repairing her ship in space, she sighs that she probably shouldn’t have trusted her ship to “those two mechanical maniacs,” and when Thall and Jord come to the defense of R2-D2 and C-3PO, she says she didn't mean droids. Moreover, that time it was the droids that lost the engine.
In the first episode, Thall turns out to have a lightsaber, which he never uses again. Due to this, other viewers have theories that he received it from some dying Jedi, or found it on a battlefield where many Jedi died, or was a Jedi in hiding (which is unlikely). Whatever it was, everyone reacts to his lightsaber as just a thing that is cool to have, but Thall understands that he shouldn’t flashing it again. After all, it was the only lightsaber in the animated series.
At the end of the race, Thall and Jord are recruited by a bizarre alien in a flying saucer, Zebulon Dak. I know "Zebulon" is biblical, but it's a strangely common name for aliens. For exsample in “The Secret Show”, the Floaing Heads called themselves zebulonians.
It so happens that the Fromm gang are the most interesting villains of the animated series. If not in terms of plot, then in terms of how much I can tell about them.
Tig Fromm is presented as someone who loves technology and is against old world methods. His bodyguard Vlix is on Tig’s father’s side in everything, so in the first episode he tries to prove that technology is ineffective and droids can’t do “a man’s job.” Based on the first episode, where sentry droids and cruisers destroyed each other and the base, it seems that he’s right, but in the second episode there are thugs and they fail in the same way, and Vlix himself makes the critical mistake by letting C-3PO through to Trigon I. No one is going to punish him in that episode, and yet at the end of the third episode, Vlix will get in Sise’s bad books, along with Tig.
In “The White Witch” there is such a moment: Vlix pushes Jord onto the sofa, and he loses consciousness. Vlix mockingly declares, “Show me a droid that can do that.” Tig doesn't answer, although he could, because any droid can do that. Including C-3PO. Especially C-3PO, because not only did he knock one of his praised thugs to the floor, but he managed to knock down Vlix himself. I even made a funny video about it.
This video is some context to that card at the beginning: Tig points at C-3PO on the screen, Vlix turns away grumpily. Now you know why.
And why Tig likes droids is actually pretty obvious. Because the droids serve him first and foremost, not his father. Although Tig can also give orders to the thugs and Vlix, they will only obey as long as his interests don’t conflict with Sise’s interests. In “Escape into terror”, Sise recalls the incident when Tig’s droids handed him over to the authorities, which Tig justifies as a little malfunction. He has the tools to betray his father if he wanted to. No wonder no one but him likes droids.
What's strange is that Tig hardly interacts with droids, although it would be logical, given that the main characters of this animated series are droids. C-3PO in the second episode is afraid that Tig will recognize him, but he simply passes by, while being the only one who can tell that he isn’t one of his droids. Several more times C-3PO and R2-D2 are captured by Tig and he simply doesn’t single them out from the main group, unlike the villains of the third arc, who tried to exploit and reprogram them precisely because they’re droids. You could say that in this plot Tig was too busy trying to please his father, yet it's still really strange that the authors gave him such an interest and then didn't use it against (or in favor of) the main characters at all.
At first glance, you can’t tell that Vlix is into fashion, and it’s barely visible in the plot, however, everyone around him behaves as if it’s completely obvious. After all, everyone here has their own style, and Thall (some kind of punk or metalhead), and Jord (hipster punk), and Kia (lady explorer or military style), and Tig (retro-futuristic rider), so Vlix with his butler-like suit doesn’t stand out in any way. This came as news to me in the final episode of the first story arc “Race to the finish”, when Tig talked Vlix into participating in his plan by promising him a new wardrobe. However, after rewatching, I noticed tiny details that should have indicated his taste for fashion. Vlix constantly fiddles with his clothes, unbuttons and buttons his collar, can even accidentally tear off the frill, and also looks in the mirror, if there is one. During the interrogation, Jord teases him, "Nice suit," as if that was the first thing he noticed about him. When C-3PO pushes him away from the falling weight, Vlix says that it wasn't his life that was saved, but his suit. When he's about to ride the hover bike with Tig, he tells him, "Hang on, but don't wrinkle the suit." And after capturing everyone after the chase in the third episode, for some reason the fabric on his back came apart, although nothing happened during the chase that could’ve damaged him like that. When the racing speeder flew over him and during the chase, his suit was still fine. And in Plaza Joven’s novelization Vlix is called “the elegant android.” Speaking of which…
It's time for alien biology. Features of the Annoo-dat Blue species, which wasn’t called that in the animated series (as I understand, the name of the species was given at the stage of entering them into the character encyclopedia) and is represented exclusively by the Fromm gang. So, they have bluish-green skin, red eyes, no hair, pointy ears and clawed fingers. What everyone thinks are three nostrils is probably just spots, because in some shots, when they raise their heads, you can see that they have human nostrils. Their ears, lips and eyelids have the same shade of blue, but not everyone has them. Sise has no emphasized lips, the thug clones have nothing but ears and nostrils, the only woman shown and the gnome-jailer have only lips. Only Tig and Vlix have a full set of these marks. So this may not be a feature of the species, but of the culture, a kind of status makeup or tattoo.
And all of the species have spots or scales on their cheeks, which, in theory, can change color due to strong emotions. All merchandise outside of the animated series depicts them as always being red, however in the animated series they only turn red when angry, and only on Sise. I had a theory that this was an evolutionary rudiment – an indicator of mood for those who don’t have developed facial expressions. But these reptiloids have human facial expressions, and they no longer need that trait, it simply remain, just like modern people have wisdom teeth. And given the species another feature – incredible longevity (or is 900 years on that planet not the same as on Earth?), it could well turn out that Sise belongs to the generation when that trait was present, while in the next generations it no longer works. But this excellent theory was ruined by the moment when Tig’s spots also turned red for a split second in the first episode, when Jord guessed about their plans. Although, oddly enough, this doesn't happen in a scene where it would be 100% appropriate – when Thall tells Tig that he will only tell his father about the whereabouts of Trigon I. In short, it’s either laziness or inattention of the animators. Perhaps Sise’s red spots were written into the script, but with everyone else they had to figure it out themselves.
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Also in the novelization, Annoo-dat Blue species is described as “androids half-human and half-reptiloid in appearance”. Androids in Star Wars are basically cyborgs, but it’s not clear what cyborg parts they have. The only one who probably has body modifications seems to be Tig. That thing on the head that looks like headphones, and which is drawn incorrectly everywhere except in the animated series, may well be an implant. He also has a metal neck, some depict this as a turtleneck collar, but in the animated series it is clearly visible that these are wires, they fit tightly to the back of his head and don’t have a border like a collar would. And, which no longer applies to the animated series, his action figure is depicted with two-toed feet, while the figures of Sise and Vlix are wearing ordinary human boots. Would they wear them if it wasn't anatomical for their species? So, in that version Tig could also have modified legs, but in the animated series he has normal ones. Sise usually gets around in a floating chair, which one would think is like a futuristic version of a wheelchair, but in his last appearance he gets up and decides to run away on foot, proving that he can walk, he just doesn't like it.
Speaking of that jailer from the third episode I mentioned earlier. He is radically different from the rest of his species, including the strange appearance of some kind of magical gnome or goblin. But he is also notable for the fact that he was the only one who most likely died during Trigon I’s clash with the Fromm gang’s fortress. When everyone evacuated, he got stuck in some kind of goop that R2-D2 poured over him. There was panic, naturally, no one thought to save him. Even if he had gotten out of the sticky goop, by that time there would’ve been no more ships left.
At the end of the episode “The Trigon unleashed”, when Trigon I blows up Sise Fromm's base, he calls Vlix and asks where Tig is. Upon learning that he is on Vlix’s ship, Sise says that it’s better for both of them to flee from his wrath. Then you can see that they have a well-equipped B-wing fighter (or something), which lacks only speed. However, at the beginning of the next episode, all three find themselves together on a ship that looks the same from the outside, but on the inside it’s dirty and falling apart, brown slime is crawling everywhere, like the one they ate earlier, and Sise and Tig directly call it a scrap metal. So the situation begs the question: what happened? Was this how Sise carried out his threat? Did he somehow instantly mess up the ship that picked him up? Or, rather, he flew after them in a wreck of the same type, successfully destroyed the good ship, and then took Tig and Vlix on the bad one? In any case he made it worse, first of all, for himself.
So, about Sise's threats. In the second episode, Tig is threatened especially seriously; at the beginning of the episode, Sise says: “One more slip-up, and Vlix knows what to do,” but at the end, when he is about to do something, Sise cancels that, saying that now Tig is “the least of their worries." So in the next episode it is clear that Tig no longer risks anything and can mock Vlix in his own way, and in the fourth episode they are already happily trying to take revenge on the main characters, contrary to the Sise’s plan.
But what did they really threaten Tig with in the second episode? In the same episode, when Tig talks about the tincy-wincy little components of Trigon I, Sise replies that Tig himself will be the tincy-wincy little components if something goes wrong. But it's more of a cruel joke, considering how he instantly changed his mind when things went wrong.
Yet the novelization tells the story of Tig's older brother as an example of Sise's pointless cruelty. His name was Sonko, and the book doesn’t mention that this is Tig’s brother, but the animated series authors seem to have confirmed this later. He was Sise's right-hand man and was involved in capturing ships with valuable cargo. Once, on one of these, he killed the entire crew, but the cameras noticed him, so he was arrested and put in prison. Sise pulled him out of that prison, only to put him in his own. And from then on, Sonko was never seen again. That is, it says that his screams can still be heard in the fortress, but this is probably figurative, like in the minds of those who heard it. If he was still there and he was better than Tig, what was the problem in bringing him back? Unless he died or escaped without leaving a trace. In any case, there Sise realized that he shouldn’t throw his sons away like that, he forgives Tig for much worse mistakes.
And if Tig had a brother, how could Sise resist comparing them? Of course, it is not clear how to compare: “Why can’t you be like him?” or “You don’t want to end up like him, right?” But such contradictions have never been an obstacle for abusive parents. No, it seems that he decided to hide the fact that Tig even had a brother, so that he wouldn’t have such a reason to turn against him. This could explain why Tig's brother was never mentioned in the animated series (other than the fact that he had not yet been created).
In the animated series, the fate of the Fromm gang after Boba Fett takes them to Jabba the Hutt is not clear. However, they still appear in comics and are mentioned in books, so it’s known that they were still able to pay off by agreeing to pay the interest. Apparently, their money wasn’t kept in the fortress, which was destroyed. And they haven’t lost their criminal business. After this, their fate is truly unknown. According to another figure card, they'll run into Chewbacca at some point. Some say that they became allies of the Empire and controlled crime in that sector of the galaxy, but I don't know if it's confirmed or not. What an unexpectedly good ending for the villains.
The comics expand on their story a little more. For example, in the episode “Escape into terror”, C-3PO recognizes Tig, despite the fact that he didn’t see him in the first episode and wasn’t supposed to know what he looked like. Turns out it's because they've crossed paths before. Before the events of the animated series, Tig and Vlix were searching for a superweapon, and somewhere they forced a professor to install his new laser gun for them. C-3PO and R2-D2 then travel along with the professor's children, whom Tig and Vlix later used for blackmail. As a result, the dangerous malfunction of R2-D2 came in handy to stop them, and C-3PO disguised himself as a more intimidating droid. Again, it’s not obvious in that comic, but according to the establishing chronology article, Tig and Vlix then went to prison and after leaving there they hid from Sise for a long time until they stole the technology of Trigon I from the rebels. So hiding and waiting out someone's wrath is quite typical for them. In the animated series, Tig wants to take a vacation in some swamps, which “are almost habitable at this time of year”. And in another spanish comic after a failed attempt to steal a ship Vlix wants to be locked up for a long time, otherwise, as he puts it, "Tig’s gonna kill him."
But Vlix has no reason to be afraid of Tig. In the animated series, he mockingly calls him “Tiggy,” which Tig naturally doesn’t like. If you pay attention, in the animated series Vlix calls him that only when addressing him, and when mentioning him talking with enemies, he calls him “Mr. Fromm” in order to at least briefly make them think that he means Sise. In the comics, this pattern wasn’t continued, so there Vlix calls Tig as it is, and even “sir” or “boss”. The opposite case is that in the animated series no one calls Vlix “fatso,” but in the comics they do it all the time. And I don't think it's a case of Vlix being more threatening in the show, it's more that main characters there are just not fatphobic, considering the other fat characters weren't bullied for their weight in any of the story arcs either (even if they were most often villains...).
In the non-canonical spanish comics, many other characters from the animated series appear, unlike the official comic line based on the animated series, oddly enough. It shows a simplified alternative version of Trigon's destruction (unless it was built again, under dire circumstances), as well as several other plots where C-3PO and R2-D2 visit Thall, Jord and Kia, and find out that their problems with the Fromm gang are not over yet. But in those comics, problems are solved as easily as possible, because they are just two-page comics.
It seems, these comics were made somehow during the animated series release, and at that time only the first story arc was completed, because the characters from there correspond to the animated series, but the characters of the next two arcs are similar to some very early version, when the authors hadn’t yet decided, what will happen where, and who will look like what. Jann Tosh is red-haired, wearing a black and yellow suit, and is going to the planet Roon. And General Koong is a completely unrecognizable green orc alien.
In the early concept art or the animated series promo, you can find quite a few interesting details that have changed. First of all, what catches your eye is that everything is much more colorful and exotic. Kind of like the whimsical style of that cartoon part of the Christmas special. Thall and Kia's early designs can be seen here. And in that version it was assumed that Tig would be a woman. The character design is very different, but the similarities are still obvious. Apparently, in that version there would be no family, but she would be the leader of a ragtag gang of aliens, like those space pirates from the second story arc. C-3PO has a baby in his arms, which could be King Julpa or Princess Gerin, whom Thall, Kia and the droids were supposed to protect and bring to their home planet.
And with that, we move on to a story arc with different characters, also known as “The Pirates and the Prince.”
Aliens who don't speak the same language appear here, so C-3PO thinks his interpreter skills will finally come in handy, but the customers of the cafeteria where the droids get hired as waiters don't have much to say. Yorpo, the thug of local crime lord Kleb Zellok, speaks his own language, but understands intergalactic, so everyone treats him like someone who doesn't need to be understood at all, and only C-3PO really understands him.
When the droids are kicked out of the cafeteria, they decide to find a new master by selling themselves at auction. But why, if in the end they won’t even get the money? What about their win-win tactic of “stick to a passerby you like”? Considering that they ended up doing just that, they only added the hassle of first having Jann with nothing to pay, and then having to trade them for the miner droid his uncle sent to buy it. Jann here is really like a fairy tale hero, who spends their last money on saving animals, which then turn out to be magical. This is also what happens here, when the “android” he wanted to save from abuse turns out to be first a very helpful strongman, and then the missing prince from the planet Tammuz-an.
When the story of how Mon Julpa ended up there is revealed, the question arises: did Kleb Zellock know about it? The fact is that Julpa was sent to that planet, disguised as an android, not to protect him from his treacherous vizier, but on the contrary. It was Zatec-Cha who erased his memory and hid him where he shouldn’t have been found. However, the one who came to look for him still knew that he was on this planet. When Sollag shows the photo to Kleb Zellock, he answers very vaguely, but when he sees Jann leaving with that “android”, he immediately gives chase. Before the “android” was bought by his henchman Yorpo, it’s also not obvious whether he knows who it is or not, because on the one hand he very easily gives him up to Jann, and on the other hand, why else would he need it? To force to work in the Nergon-14 mine, despite the fact that “he’s just a useless android”? How did he even end up at the auction if he was an important prisoner that Kleb Zellock would want to bargain for? He probably knew that this was someone he needed to get rid of, but he didn't realize that he could get more than for a simple android.
One of my favorite types of animation bloopers is teleportation. As Jann and the droids escape from the cafeteria and are rescued by Jessica, Yorpo falls when knocked down by an angry customer. Jann and the droids run past, they were closer to the exit and no one ran ahead them. However, as soon as they run out of the dining room, Yorpo runs out towards them from the opposite side of the street. Yes, and accompanied by two of his droids. He couldn’t jump out the window because there were none. Teleported, no less.
Another case of teleportation occurs in the episode “The Trigon Unleashed” of the first story arc. When Tig is talking about the hostages, Vlix is standing next to him, but then Tig turns in the opposite direction, and Vlix is already there, watching an R2-D2 Western, lounging in his chair. How did he even manage? Also, in the first scene with Boba Fett, Tig suddenly teleports behind Vlix, although before that he stood at a considerable distance. And he actually could teleport in the first episode (the interrogation scene).
Mon Julpa, or Kez-Iban, as he was called in “The lost prince”, couldn’t speak until his memory returned, but he was very active and embodied the archetype of the noble savage. Even when his memory was restored with the help of the scepter, he actively participated in adventures until the end of the first episode, but as soon as he put on royal robes, he became rather helpless. If clothes really bother him that much, shouldn’t he have thought about how to make them more comfortable? But in fact, he simply changed the archetype to a good king who needs to be protected. And when he asked to continue calling him Kez-Iban in the first episode, no one would do it, so he distanced himself even more from who he was then.
The planet where Julpa was to become king is in every way a typical middle-east country. From architecture to pottery. Only Julpa's royal clothing is more in the Star Wars style 16th century european clothing. But all the other residents are completely based on middle-eastern culture stereotypes.
Zatec-Cha, the evil vizier who tried to seize power, is especially notable because he looks like Jafar from Disney's Aladdin, even though he came before him. The association with exotic magic is also one of the stereotypes about middle-eastern culture, despite their scientific progress in ancient times. In Star Wars, the Force usually takes the place of magic, what was presented as magic in this story arc can very well be some special form of the Force surrounded by ritual, according to cultural traditions.
The idea that all non-european cultures here are attributed to aliens is controversial. The Fromm gang, for example, embodies stereotypes about Japan that include homogeneity, technology, robots, fashion, honoring elders, and the yakuza. Gaff, the insect-like alien from the third story arc, has features stereotypical of depictions of ancient china warrior. The planet Roon may be an allegorical representation of 19th century India, as is the planet Biitu, which was drained in the special "The Great Heep". In general, all this could be seen, on the one hand, as diversity and abstraction from real history, and on the other, as alienation (pun intended).
And again the features of an alien species, this time Tammuz-an, named after the planet. To me they look like intelligent monkey people, and Zatec-Cha's assistant looks like a donkey. Within the species there are two races: one with lilac skin, the other with light blue skin. Although, it’s possible that skin tone can change from one to another, as happened to Coby between the episodes "Revenge of Kybo Ren" and "Coby and the Starhunters" (but most likely this is an animation error).
They have no hair on their heads, not counting sideburns that females also have. However, their hair is obviously prized, because Julpa was given a luxurious mane for his royal look, which he didn’t have naturally. Perhaps this is something reserved only for the king, otherwise wigs would’ve been more common. Hair color can be any natural shade, from blond and red to black and white or greenish-brown. Males of this species can also have a thin mustache or goatee.
Zatec-Cha is also distinguished by his makeup or tattoos above his eyes and on his cheeks, probably signifying his magical powers. When he hid his face in his first appearance in front of IG-88, these marks were just visible, so their mere presence may be more important than the identity of the person wearing them.
Among the physical characteristics, the entire race is distinguished by the taller stature compared to humans and other humanoids, as well as the enormous physical strength, which in the gentle Tammuz-an princess can be compared only with the strongest among humans.
Well, in the second story arc, the authors somehow went overboard with the “damsels in distress”, but at the same time they set an example for everyone on how to do it without being annoying. Jessica, for some reason, turns out to be very attractive to all main villains here, so first Zatec-Cha forces her to watch his coronation, then Kybo Ren wants her to join his pirate crew. Notice that none of them mention that they would like to marry her or make her a concubine. However, this is implied, otherwise why would they single her out. Zatec-Cha are a different species altogether, but humans in Star Wars are known to be the most attractive race even to non-humanoids. Their strange obsession in this particular story arc is in some way shows the villains of other story arcs in a better light, who didn't even think about something like that at all. This is especially true for Tig, given that Kia Moll's last name literally means "gangster's girlfriend."
So, Jessica doesn't need a hero to save her; every time this happens, she saves herself. Only once did she need R2-D2's help, and that was when she and Jann and the droids were rescuing Princess Gerin. Who was also not helpless (and, by the way, was of interest to the villains solely for the ransom). Gerin broke the door of her cell and fought off the alien dogs with a piece of water pipe, so that when Jann and C-3PO came to save her, she was already halfway to them and just couldn’t drive away the large pack. Once C-3PO distracted the dogs, she expressed her desire to go rescue him. And this is how “damsels in distress” should be written if you really can’t do without this trope. Another trope that I don't like is that every woman here is someone's love interest. But that's another story.
Just like Kia in her first appearance is compared to Rey purely because of her clothes, Kybo Ren is mostly known for being compared to Kylo Ren by everyone even if the only thing they have in common is a name. I guess someone thought that this name would sound more attractive with an "l", like Kyle or Milo. Everyone who knows about the existence of Kybo accuses the authors of lack of imagination, which is understandable. In this animated series, the originality of names is excellent, some even toy collectors can't pronounce. Although, at the same time, the name Jessica Meade is somehow too earthly, and they didn’t even try to give it an original spelling.
Kybo Ren's full name is Gir Kaibo Ren-Cha, which again was only added in the encyclopedia, but in the animated series he was called only Kybo Ren-Cha. So I'm wondering how his name is related to the name Zatec-Cha. They were not allies, and they certainly cannot be relatives. Perhaps the "-Cha" is something like british titles "sir" and "dame" or japanese honorifics.
At the end of the episode "The New King", Zatec-Cha says that he has spies everywhere, which could mean that he will cause more problems for Julpa. However, nothing happens, so they are either still waiting, or Zatec-Cha overestimated his supporters, and they all ended up siding with Julpa.
The ending to this story arc is quite unexpected because Jann's entering the academy came out of nowhere. I checked, he had never mentioned before that he wanted to get an education, but could not afford it while working with his uncle. However, Jann brings up everything in hindsight.
In the first episode of the arc, Jann is invited to Tammuz-an, but he refuses because “his place is there, helping his uncle.” In the next episode, he ends up flying to Tammuz-an and only then receives his uncle’s hologram message, where he says that he wants to let him go. Initially, Jann didn’t want to become Julpa's advisor, but he initiated him anyway, and Jann willingly accepted this position. And then he abandoned it again in favor of that out of the blue academy. Moreover, this academy is first mentioned when Jessica tries to console Jann after the news that she is returning to her transport career.
After the academy, Jann also didn’t return to King Julpa, since it’s known that after his uncle died, and he inherited his now thriving mining business, which, it turns out, was on more than one planet. You can’t get this from the animated series, but according to Jann’s backstory, they didn’t just live poorly near a mine on the same planet, they constantly moved from planet to planet. What comes to mind is the waste of resources. At least with Tammuz-an's support, Jann will be able to afford enough mining droids for all those mines, and will streamline production.
But why C-3PO and R2-D2 didn’t stay at the court of King Julpa is another plot hole. Of course, they needed to move on, but there was no clear reason for it. I thought maybe the Great Heep would kidnap them at the end of the second story arc, but in that case, Jann and Jessica or Julpa and Gerin would come to the rescue. They should have thought that everything was fine with droids and not looked for them, so they said goodbye safely. Not to say that the droids decided to find a new job out of boredom, thinking that they had nothing to do there, due to the still possible return of Zatec-Cha. But perhaps it turned out like in one comic book, where some other ruler appointed C-3PO as an adviser, but he ran away, leaving a note that “he is not comfortable giving orders.”
The way they escaped at the end of the first story arc presented questionable moral. They ran away so Thall and Jord wouldn't give up their job for them, but what about Kia? She didn't intend to work there. Many people believe that trusted friends are more important than career ambitions, and this problem could be solved differently. But not all decisions are made carefully, and there was certain logic in that ending. Unlike the ending of the second story arc, where there wasn’t even such an explanation.
So, we move on to the third and final story arc of the animated series, the main character of which is named Mungo Baobab. Yes exactly! I can't imagine how they even came up with it. He's not even some comical jungle savage with an offensive stereotype as a name but still at least somewhat appropriate. He's probably the most serious main character, but with such a silly name, it's hard to take him seriously when C-3PO calls him "Master Mungo" or Gaff says "Baobab has been destroyed." And when Great Heep laughed at C-3PO saying his master was Mungo Baobab, I expected him to mention a funny name, but nothing like that. I don't understand why no one thinks this is funny. Even you might be confused right now, why is this so funny to me? You know what a mango is, right? Yes, one letter is different, but it still sounds similar. Do you know what baobab is? It so happens that where I live, even children know that it is a thick african tree with soft wood (also known as monkey-bread tree). Then I thought that maybe in english these plants are called differently, but no! That's what they're called! But no one can pronounce “Baobab”, neither toy collectors nor Governor Koong in one episode.
I found some information about how the authors came up with some of the names from the first story arc. Kia Moll's last name was meant to reflect her dangerous lifestyle. Sise is pronounced "size", and hints at his frame or ego. And Vlix’s last name, Oncard, is “on card,” if I understand correctly, after the fact that his figure was announced along with the second series of toys, including characters from the second and third story arcs, but was never released. However, it was later released unofficially in Brazil, making the Vlix figure incredibly rare and expensive for collectors. However, I didn’t find anything about why Mungo Baobab was called that, though that's what I wanted to know most of all. And just in case, it’s better not to mention the name of his home planet at all.
When Mungo Baobab first appeared in the episode "The Great Heep" I thought maybe he was called that by the people of the planet Biitu, whom he helped then. They have an agrarian society and they don’t understand his language well, so they could call him whatever is more convenient for them. Moreover, when that boy Fidge meets him, he hands him a fruit that looks like a mango.
He arrives at the settlement on a horse-dinosaur hybrid whose forelimbs are long enough to walk on four legs, making it appear as if the rider is holding him up on his hind legs. And it’s really uncomfortable to look at. When Mungo Baobab later gets to the planet Roon, the exact same mounts appear there. But Roon was presented as an extremely inaccessible planet that could only be found by following a comet. On Earth in Australia, due to its isolation, a completely unique fauna developed, but here on another planet there was the same species, without any adaptations, and it doesn’t surprise anyone. I mean, there are humans there too. Including people who are aware of the latest events in the Galaxy. Obviously this is a mistake due to the fact that “The Great Heep” was made after the other episodes, but I watched everything in in-world chronological order and saw these animals for the first time there.
The Great Heep is supposed to look scary, but I find him ridiculous. He is, you can say, too cumbersome to exist. And when he’s shown in full height, and especially from above, he looks like a giant toaster with hands of a toy robot. How did this clumsy, barely moving big-head with a fishing rod on his forehead enslave everyone? And he even recharges very inefficiently. If he needs to completely deprive R2-units of their energy so often, he won’t live long, even if he collects them from all over the galaxy. He needed to accumulate energy with their help, somehow, so that they could still produce new energy, even within their harem. But the story is about the dangers of consumerism, so it would be appropriate to show that he died precisely because of his dependence on disposable use.
Some say that the theme song is not suitable for the animated series because Star Wars is associated with classical music. Well, some of the authors took this too literally. So notice that in the scene where C-3PO is about to be sawed up, "Swan lake" plays in the background!
R2-R2 has always been a bit too powerful, but in this series he went even further and began to break the laws of physics. In the scene where the droids escape from the melting furnace, R2-R2 easily and very slowly rolls the pipe along a vertical wall, then along the ceiling, so slowly, that there could be no inertia or centrifugal force there.
At the beginning of the special that those little wasp-like droids, when they kidnapped C-3PO and R2-R2, blew holes in the spaceship. One might think that this would mean depressurization and death of the crew. However, the happy ending wouldn't be complete without it being revealed that they all survived and didn't even lose the ship. We don't see them, but at the end, a captain with the same name as at the beginning sends Mungo Baobab a message that they are coming for him.
With what exactly Mungo Baobab deserved the Emperor’s attention was never revealed in the animated series. As well as why at first they were ready to transport him in hibernation, and then decided to simply destroy him. It appears that Admiral Screed wanted revenge for forcing him to work on restoring the planet Biitu, but there may have been another reason.
Stormtroopers appear in the third story arc and, who would have thought, hit the target! Mainly because they shoot droids and inanimate objects, so it's not lethal. However, there were some epic fails – they shot at boxes with Nergon-14, which blew up the entire space station.
But when someone misses the mark here, the main characters find it suspicious. In the first story arc, they realized that they were being channeled into a trap; however, they still could not avoid it. And in the Christmas special they realized that Chewbacca doesn’t hit them on purpose because he’s such a sharp shooter.
In “Tails of the Roon Comets”, Mungo Baobab and the lighthouse keeper are kept in strangely penetrable force fields. It’s like you can’t get out of it, but you can stick your arms out without any problems. To put someone there, you don’t need to turn off anything; you just need to throw them right through the field.
It’s not yet clear why they turned C-3PO back on if they were going to reprogram him right away. Does it have to happen while he's conscious? And why is he asked to choose a new name? Can a droid have a human name? Because C-3PO says he likes the name Anthony. His actor's name is a great fourth wall breaking, but still strange in context.
What else droids can do here that they probably shouldn’t be able to do is impossible to list. So, here are the most remarkable cases. First, C-3PO winks in the scene where he is carrying a stack of suitcases to Coby and R2-D2 hands him a fallen suitcase. He also winks at Mungo Baobab after successful bargaining with a potential roonstone buyer. True, his winks are so fleeting that if you don’t pause, you might not even notice. But the most unexpected thing was the scene where C-3PO and R2-D2 are making faces. Yes, they could have attracted the attention of that dinosaur in any other way, but they chose what was most inaccessible to their static faces. R2-D2 doesn't have a face at all, but he spreads his head panels in such a way that it resembles a wide grin. And C-3PO somehow strangely curved his mouth slit into a triangle.
Admiral Screed reluctantly goes to the Roon games, believing that it’s not important, despite the fact that in those games the fate of the last settlement not conquered by Governor Koong is bloodlessly decided. However, before that, he also appeared at the races in the first story arc. But there was actually nothing important for the Empire at those races. Who cares who will work for Zebulon Dak's corporation if that's the main prize? And what kind of job does Admiral Screed have – to attend competitions that he doesn't like? Or does the Emperor like them, but can’t attend them himself? In a conversation with Koong, Screed mentions that “the Emperor would enjoy these games, provided that he always won”. Perhaps there was also a representative of the Empire in Boonta races, whom Admiral Screed came to watch and was disappointed.
Not only did “Droids” avoid the standard smuggler opening, but it also subverted some of the classic jokes. In fact, simply by not getting them to the punchline. For example, there is this comedic trick: someone has binoculars hanging around their neck, the other one takes it to look through and accidentally strangles the first one. That happens a lot in cartoons, so I thought it would happen here too, when at the games Governor Koong grabs Admiral Screed's binoculars in a similar way. However, Screed simply leans over him, and the joke was in Koong’s impudence itself. After that, Screed doesn't even scold Koong.
Another common comedic trick with the belt being removed and the pants falling down could have been in the second story arc when Jessica escaped from Kybo Ren. However, he was so fat that his pants didn’t fall off. I don’t know if it was intended that way, or if there just wasn’t enough screen time to end joke, but the unexpected outcome makes the situation comical in its own way.
When the Gaff’s droid takes the can with mud creature, R2-D2 taps him with what appears to be a microphone and... tries to talk?! It sounds like a very mechanical “go away, go away.” Or is it just random mechanical noise? I don't think it was the same droid speaking because before and after he speaks much more clearly. And mud creatures are probably non-speaking at all.
Gaff is the last interesting alien in this animated series. His species is called Kobok, which in this animated series is represented by only Gaff, but also appears in the book "Rebel Force: Firefight", where it is revealed that they are a warlike race, which typically work as mercenaries and assassins. Their most unexpected feature is the third eye on the back of their head, which is not obvious in Gaff, but apparently it is the thing that he has closer to the top of his head. Only his third eye doesn't work well, as Gaff didn't notice R2-D2 sneaking up on him from behind with a can of mud creature. The eyes themselves are red and faceted, like those of insects.
When I first saw Gaff in the concept art, I thought his mouth was positioned lower, between the mandibles. However, in the animated series they gave him an almost human mouth, which makes him look funny, and his mandible appears to be on his chin in the form of a kind of goatee. It reminded me of Mantenna from the “Masters of the universe” and the old “She-Ra” cartoon, where he originally had a mouth like an insect or deep sea creature, making him the creepiest monster of the Evil Horde. But for the animated series, human lips were added to him, which made him rather ridiculous and comical. Gaff also looks like a Horde monster in that 80s villain swimsuit of his. What adds a little more absurdity is that it is covered with hair, and in my opinion, hairy spiders are less scary than smooth ones. This makes them closer to animals. However, it’s known that this race also has an exoskeleton. Judging by the legs, they are finger-walking species, and the feet also have either suction cups or jumping foot structure.
Lastly, they have venomous spikes on their arms that can knock out a humanoid for hours. By the way, it seems that in this animated series it was forbidden to show not only weapons, but also the moment when Gaff stings someone. It looks like he swings and the next moment the victim falls, although not even a second has passed before Gaff has time to attack at least off-screen. I don’t know what the problem is, given that they couldn’t draw it in a naturalistic way anyway, and it’s unlikely that the problem is the association with injections, since they were able to show a syringe when they wanted to send Mungo Baobab into hibernation. After all, it might actually have been implied that it happened off-screen, instead of making it seem like everyone was passing out by just sensing Gaff's spikes before he even touched them.
I always look at the background characters, because among them you can often find those who have already appeared somewhere, or just some weirdos. The most remarkable one here seemed to even want to be noticed. A man in opaque glasses, a white and blue cap and robe is unexpectedly ever-present. He first appears at the Boonta races in the first story arc, later he also appears on the planet where Mungo Baobab was buying a map of the Roon system, and then is present at the Roon games, and possibly elsewhere. Is this some kind of spy following the main characters everywhere? Or is it not the same person, and they are all members of a secret order that I don't know about? It feels like there had to be some kind of reference here, but who it is was never revealed, and I don’t even know how to describe him in order to do research.
In most cases, there’s no one to look for in the crowd here except him, but one time I was lucky. Among the prisoners in Governor Koong's galley are the one who sold C-3PO and R2-R2 at the auction (or the one who sold Coby the faulty spaceship), the angry cafeteria customer from that same planet, and some of Kybo Ren’s crew, including the one C-3PO mistook for Jessica from behind.
When Mungo Baobab encounters a hermit on a wrecked ship who turns out to be his long-lost great-uncle, he recognizes him because he “wears the colors of the Baobab merchant fleet.” But what are these colors? Mango Baobab wears white, blue, red and yellow. The old man is dressed in red, green and brown. They don't have a single color in common! And also, why does their symbol depict twin comets that lead to the planet Roon, if no one except the two of them has ever been to this planet?
Throughout most of the episode "Across the Roon sea", Mango Baobab acts childish. C-3PO noticed that he had changed when he met Auren Yomm, but was it for the better? At first he is offended that she doesn’t care that he flies away, although she showed in the previous episode that she does. Then she finally came to say goodbye to him, and he continued to be offended and not listen to her. If it is presented that he should’ve become less mercantile, then, in my opinion, he became as mercantile as possible in this episode. Only at the very end did he remember what his great-uncle told him, and what Auren had been trying to remind him of throughout the series, so he threw away the roonstones.
That ending is almost the same as the ending of “The Lost Prince”, where valuables were also thrown away to reduce the weight lifted by the transport. Only there it was Kleb Zellock’s money, and it was not a pity to throw it away, unlike the roonstones. Mungo Baobab essentially undid his great-uncle's life's work. And what did they achieve? They freed the prisoners on the galley, whom they would never see again. All Mungo had to do was listen to Auren and hide the roonstones in her village, instead of rushing to sell everything at once.
There was also a blooper (when catching mounts) that Mungo Baobab somersaults backwards and rolls forward. Perfectly reflects his development here.
When roonstones are discovered in the walls of a volcano, everyone is suddenly aware that these stones have an unnatural freezing ability. This feature hadn’t been mentioned anywhere before, they only said that these were the most expensive jewels in the Galaxy, which didn’t cool those bags in which they were just in the previous episode, didn’t freeze the sea where they fell in the same episode – and then suddenly everyone knows that are they capable of freezing a volcano as if it goes without saying? Then the question is, if they knew that roonstones emit coldness, why didn’t it occur to anyone to look for them where it’s cold? That is, on that very volcano – in the only place on the planet that is covered with snow?
This is what it means to come up with something at the last moment. And it was so easy to imagine that no one had ever had roonstones in such amounts, and individually their cold was quite insignificant, so everyone had just learned about that feature.
In the episode "Tails of the Roon comets", it turns out that Mungo Baobab has such a good spaceship that Admiral Screed chooses to steal it instead of flying away in his own Imperial one. But just earlier Screed hadn’t approved of Governor Koong’s space piracy.
Mungo Baobab and the droids get Kung's ship. On it, Mungo Baobab was planning to return home at the beginning of the episode “Across the Roon Sea” and even almost flew away, but in the episode “Frozen Citadel” that ship turns out to be of little use even for traveling around the planet.
What happened to Auren saying that after winning the games he could afford any ship? Or at least fixing Koong’s ship that they had to fix themselves anyway? It’s very convenient that they found Mungo’s fast ship at the end of the episode.
What happened after the events of the animated series? Mungo Baobab returned home with the only roonestone that he could study more closely (an ancient poem was written on it!), but this didn’t improve the fortune of his family. Later, he returned to Roon and continued to search for the source of roon stones, eventually finding them in another system, and on Roon he opened a lab to study them, also a hotel and even a casino. And the Yomm family became a powerful rebel force and joined the alliance to restore the republic.
Governor Koong dies from his own biological weapon, which he saw no problem in using, and his death is both creepy and incredibly stupid. He disappears into thin air after spending the last few minutes making threats, instead of immediately taking the medicine and then thinking about revenge.
But, if you think about it, if he had time to take the medicine, it wouldn’t have saved him. The volcano became covered in ice so quickly, so that Governor Koong would’ve frozen to death along with Gaff, who had passed out from his own venom, and his found hope of survival would have been snatched away instantly.
The death of Governor Koong is the only human death in the animated series that was shown on screen. But not the only death of intelligent beings, since this also happened with Boba Fett’s BL-17 and that Gaff’s droid, they both could probably still be repaired, but no one bothered.
You might think that Admiral Screed escaped and wasn’t punished in the end, but in fact, karma will catch up with him later. Much later. After the events of the animated series, he will continue to look for allies for the Empire and do much more, even outlive the Emperor, but after that he will try to unite the remnants of the Empire and enter into an alliance with some warlord. And he will turn out to be paranoid, and will suspect Screed of betrayal due to the fact that he communicated with his old friend the captain, and will kill him without clarifying anything. Later, the same captain, who became an admiral, will ask about Screed, and then they will tell him that story. Admiral Screed has appeared in many places outside of the animated series, so I can’t cover his entire story. It was enough for me to know how it all ended for him.
So, who was the favorite master of the droids in this animated series? They actually discuss this in the novelization. According to it, C-3PO's was Jann Tosh, while R2-R2's was Mango Baobab. As they explain there, they had many dangerous adventures with Mango Baobab, but with Jann it was calmer, although, remembering the plot, one can argue. The third story arc is darker and more serious, but it also had more sweet and touching moments.
Moreover, Mungo Baobab, unlike Jann and Thall, needed C-3PO more than R2-R2, it was C-3PO who he hired to trade with aliens. It's clear from the animated series that their relationship was better, and when they say goodbye, C-3PO admits that they had “a very special affection for him”, only saying to Jann and Thall that "it was an honor and a privilege to serve them." Well, he did hug Jann as he said goodbye. Although Jann still treated C-3PO noticeably more carefully than Thall, the reason why C-3PO liked him, which is given in the book, was the time they spent in the mine with his uncle, which I don't remember C-3PO liking that much.
But when Mingo Baobab left them to restore the village of Amboo, it was probably more pleasant there, only that remained behind the scenes. R2-R2 should have liked Thall better since he raced with him and everything. But the novelization was structured in such a way that, in order to cover the plots of all three story arcs, the order was changed, so it turned out that at that time they had not yet met Thall and Jord.
And finally, there’s something like a pilot for this series that had the misfortune of being part of a terrible Star Wars Christmas special. In fact, the episode itself is very good, with an interesting mystery plot, where a lot of unclear details at the beginning are gradually clarified. The Rebels are looking for a talisman that makes them invisible, because the Empire is looking for it too. Suddenly, Chewbacca is rushing straight towards the Rebel space base, with tied up Han Solo hanging upside down behind him. Luke and the droids fly after them, and then Boba Fett begins to help them, and he calls everyone “friend.” Then they find the talisman, but something happens to Luke. And finally, the droids reveal the secret.
It's definitely worth watching to appreciate all the details, how they look the first time and how they reveal themselves once you know what's coming. There's also a really fantastical (and kind of delicious-looking) planet, as if to compensate for all the boring desert planets from the cartoon series. And I also like the alien inscriptions instead of titles, especially the fact that “the end” in their language is written very similar to the russian “ГДЕ” (WHERE)... as if someone forgot to put “the end” there, and the editor is trying to draw attention to this (as was the joke in Goes Wrong Show).
