# When you first saw ROTJ, did you assume the Ewoks ate the Storm Troopers they defeated?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-first-saw-rotj-did-you-assume-the-ewoks-ate-the-storm-troopers-they-defeated/848380
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [February 23, 2020, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-first-saw-rotj-did-you-assume-the-ewoks-ate-the-storm-troopers-they-defeated/848380 "2020-02-23T03:13:34Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2020, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-first-saw-rotj-did-you-assume-the-ewoks-ate-the-storm-troopers-they-defeated/848380/1 "2020-02-23T03:13:34Z")
If no, how many viewings did it take you to reach that conclusion?
If you deny that conclusion, what caused the injury to your brain and why are you not under a doctors care?
---
### Author:  [@Some\_Call\_Me.Tim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Some_Call_Me.Tim)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2020, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-first-saw-rotj-did-you-assume-the-ewoks-ate-the-storm-troopers-they-defeated/848380/2 "2020-02-23T03:17:42Z")
Well, after they one the battle, they were probably two tired four such things.
---
### Author:  [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2020, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-first-saw-rotj-did-you-assume-the-ewoks-ate-the-storm-troopers-they-defeated/848380/3 "2020-02-23T03:19:28Z")
It is so much fun reading the auto-corrects your software makes. ROFL! I think you mean that they cooked and ate the storm troopers? As opposed to my first interpretation, which was that they’d drawn and quartered them - twice.
And honestly, that never occurred to me. For some reason I had it in my head that the Ewoks were vegetarians. But then I was vegetarian at the time, so maybe I just assumed that all cute things were as well.
---
### Author:  [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2020, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-first-saw-rotj-did-you-assume-the-ewoks-ate-the-storm-troopers-they-defeated/848380/4 "2020-02-23T03:22:23Z")
actually I think that was a joke a couple of times while the rebels were tied up and 3PO was giving a speed run of the first 2 movies to the Ewoks …
---
### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2020, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-first-saw-rotj-did-you-assume-the-ewoks-ate-the-storm-troopers-they-defeated/848380/5 "2020-02-23T03:49:57Z")
[Moderating]
I’ve fixed the typo (voiceo?), so let’s just cut the jokes short right there.
[Not moderating]
And it never occurred to me before to wonder, but they do definitely have carnivore teeth.
---
### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2020, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-first-saw-rotj-did-you-assume-the-ewoks-ate-the-storm-troopers-they-defeated/848380/6 "2020-02-23T03:53:35Z")
They were going to cook & eat Luke, Han & Chewie before Luke broke the Prime Directive. They totally ate those stormtroopers, and to be honest, I never twigged to it until the meme started showing up last summer.
---
### Author:  [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2020, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-first-saw-rotj-did-you-assume-the-ewoks-ate-the-storm-troopers-they-defeated/848380/7 "2020-02-23T04:12:05Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#):
>
> They were going to cook & eat Luke, Han & Chewie before Luke broke the Prime Directive. They totally ate those stormtroopers, and to be honest, I never twigged to it until the meme started showing up last summer.
I am not aware of the meme. I had always kind of thought they must, given their clearly culinary intentions for Luke & Company, but I was specifically inspired tonight by the following YouTube video:
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-fSD7HIOQg)
---
### Author:  [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2020, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-first-saw-rotj-did-you-assume-the-ewoks-ate-the-storm-troopers-they-defeated/848380/8 "2020-02-23T04:20:41Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#):
>
> I am not aware of the meme. I had always kind of thought they must, given their clearly culinary intentions for Luke & Company, but I was specifically inspired tonight by the following YouTube video:
>
> [https://youtu.be/Q-fSD7HIOQg](https://youtu.be/Q-fSD7HIOQg)
Well, that clarifies things. Turn about is fair play, after all.
😃
---
### Author:  [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2020, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-first-saw-rotj-did-you-assume-the-ewoks-ate-the-storm-troopers-they-defeated/848380/9 "2020-02-23T04:27:14Z")
[Original analysis](https://www.cracked.com/article_21065_6-movie-scenes-with-horrifying-off-screen-consequences_p2.html) from, of course, _Cracked_ (entry #1, way down the page).
---
### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2020, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-first-saw-rotj-did-you-assume-the-ewoks-ate-the-storm-troopers-they-defeated/848380/10 "2020-02-23T05:22:38Z")
Stormtroopers are like lobsters; you can’t eat the shell but the insides are _delicious_.
---
### Author:  [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2020, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-first-saw-rotj-did-you-assume-the-ewoks-ate-the-storm-troopers-they-defeated/848380/11 "2020-02-23T05:47:35Z")
Ewoks are not any form of hominid, so why would it be an issue? It would not be like any kind of cannibalism, and while preserving all that meat might prove a bit of a challenge for their minimally technological society, some of the stormtroopers would have arrived pre-cooked.
---
### Author:  [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2020, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-first-saw-rotj-did-you-assume-the-ewoks-ate-the-storm-troopers-they-defeated/848380/12 "2020-02-23T06:11:10Z")
> [@eschereal](#):
>
> Ewoks are not any form of hominid, so why would it be an issue? It would not be like any kind of cannibalism, and while preserving all that meat might prove a bit of a challenge for their minimally technological society, some of the stormtroopers would have arrived pre-cooked.
Who cares whether it was cannibalism? The storm troopers were human beings. I wouldn’t be comfortable sitting around while the Gorn ate Dax or Worf either.
Well, maybe Worf.
---
### Author:  [@blue\_infinity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blue_infinity)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2020, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-first-saw-rotj-did-you-assume-the-ewoks-ate-the-storm-troopers-they-defeated/848380/13 "2020-02-23T06:27:17Z")
They never had a chance to eat them. The Ewoks were all wiped out in the [Endor Holocaust](http://www.theforce.net/swtc/holocaust.HTML).
It’s probably for the best really. It’s safer to avoid GM foods if you can.
---
### Author:  [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2020, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-first-saw-rotj-did-you-assume-the-ewoks-ate-the-storm-troopers-they-defeated/848380/14 "2020-02-23T06:32:23Z")
It never occurred to me, honestly.
---
### Author:  [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2020, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-first-saw-rotj-did-you-assume-the-ewoks-ate-the-storm-troopers-they-defeated/848380/15 "2020-02-23T06:49:01Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#):
>
> Who cares whether it was cannibalism? The storm troopers were human beings. I wouldn’t be comfortable sitting around while the Gorn ate Dax or Worf either.
>
> Well, maybe Worf.
Human beings can also be vile creatures. If we speak of human beings that were trying to kill me (which Worf or a Dax would probably not be), as it were, I tend to be less sympathetic. And if they are already dead, I think I would be passionately indifferent.
---
### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2020, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-first-saw-rotj-did-you-assume-the-ewoks-ate-the-storm-troopers-they-defeated/848380/16 "2020-02-23T07:09:37Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#):
>
> They were going to cook & eat Luke, Han & Chewie before Luke broke the Prime Directive. They totally ate those stormtroopers, and to be honest, I never twigged to it until the meme started showing up last summer.
Even back in the day, I was baffled by the negative view of the Ewoks, with people claiming they were too cutesy and obviously written for the enjoyment of little kids. During the battle, the Ewoks have rigged up twenty-ton logs on ropes and swing them with enough force to crush an Imperial AT-ST like an egg - that requires serious (and rather malicious-minded) engineering skill. The Ewoks are clearly NOT fucking around, and it is unwise to underestimate them. They didn’t learn stuff like this from Han and Chewie - they obviously had megatraps like this rigged up well in advance, in anticipation of this battle or something like it. They’re just a shorter and furrier version of the Viet Cong.
---
### Author:  [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2020, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-first-saw-rotj-did-you-assume-the-ewoks-ate-the-storm-troopers-they-defeated/848380/17 "2020-02-23T07:28:48Z")
It never occurred to me until I saw this thread.
---
### Author:  [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2020, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-first-saw-rotj-did-you-assume-the-ewoks-ate-the-storm-troopers-they-defeated/848380/18 "2020-02-23T17:13:22Z")
No.
And if you believe the Ewoks weren’t designed to be toys, well, to quote the OP, “what caused the injury to your brain and why are you not under a doctors care?” 🙂
There’s no way those unsophisticated teddy bears could rig up traps like that. Even assuming there is a tree hard enough to even dent imperial armor, then tell me how did they get it rigged? And on such short notice? And then to get the walker to stop right where it needed to stop for maximum effect?
---
### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2020, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-first-saw-rotj-did-you-assume-the-ewoks-ate-the-storm-troopers-they-defeated/848380/19 "2020-02-23T17:17:01Z")
> [@blue\_infinity](#):
>
> They never had a chance to eat them. The Ewoks were all wiped out in the [Endor Holocaust](http://www.theforce.net/swtc/holocaust.HTML).
>
> It’s probably for the best really. It’s safer to avoid GM foods if you can.
This. It never bothered me because I know the little furballs died in radioactive terror.
---
### Author:  [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2020, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-first-saw-rotj-did-you-assume-the-ewoks-ate-the-storm-troopers-they-defeated/848380/20 "2020-02-23T17:21:22Z")
> [@outlierrn](#):
>
> It never occurred to me until I saw this thread.
I don’t hold myself responsible to ASK every possible question; but now that this one has been posed, I don’t have any problems with answering in the affirmative.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-first-saw-rotj-did-you-assume-the-ewoks-ate-the-storm-troopers-they-defeated/848380.md?page=2)