Rian Johnson
Director: Rian Johnson
There is a place for cute in Star Wars. The galaxy is full of mean monsters, cold-hearted villains, and sleek spaceships. It is also full of woklings, baby Ewoks that cutely cower in their mothers’ arm when their God C-3PO gets angry. Its landscapes are dotted with affable Eopie and bulbous bottomed Shaak. Its cities burst with stray Loth-Cats and Tooka. Even the Death Star, the hub of evil and oppression in the galaxy, is crawling with squeaky lil’ mouse droids. In a galaxy this big, cute is going to have its day.
Enter the porgs.
The seabird residents of Ahch-To had already made their mark on the Star Wars saga long before The Last Jedi even hit movie theaters. Quick shots from behind-the-scenes footage took the fandom by storm. A trailer appearance took the hype to the next level. Chewbacca was flying the Millennium Falcon and his copilot appeared to be one of these birds. Another behind-the-scenes image showed Chewie with what looked like a porg feather stuck to his mouth, leading to a bevy of jokes and memes about Chewie eating one of these plump pieces of poultry. YouTuber Jeremy Jahns uttered the hashtag PorgNation and Entertainment Tonight’s online personality Ash Crossan made that hashtag her passion and the movement was here.
It could be easy to write them off. If you don’t like cuteness in your Star Wars, it’s completely understandable. Admission into #PorgNation is not mandatory to appreciate The Last Jedi or even Star Wars as a whole. Yet one moment, the complete and in-context porg roar on the Millennium Falcon, is much, much more than a blast of cuteness. It was a declaration of war.
If you’re going to defeat evil you need all hands on deck. And feathers, tails, and hooves. Every living creature has skin in the game. The porgs are no different. The Resistance was on its last legs when Rey and the Mighty Chewbacca arrived with the Millennium Falcon during the Battle of Crait. With a loud roar, the Wookiee Warrior announced his arrival and intentions to take out the First Order. He was not alone. The stowaway porg—sometimes referred to as Terbus, a name created by the father-sons podcast team at Tatooine Sons and jokingly approved by Rian Johnson as canon at a Q & A event—announced his arrival as well with a roar from the very depths of his porg soul. The battle against the First Order is not just about one side versus the other, it is about good standing against evil. Every living creature can get behind that. The Roar of the Porg was that call to action for everyone.
Look at it this way. Ol’ Ben Kenobi once told a young farm boy that the Force is an energy field that surrounds all living things. Adding, “it binds the galaxy together.” Yoda, while coaching that same farm boy, stated that life creates the Force and makes it grow. Yes, there is a lot to the nature of the cosmic and living Force, but when you focus on these two descriptions, it becomes clear that the Force isn’t just here for species in the galaxy that speak basic and wear cool outfits (though I’m all aboard for a cape-wearing Jedi porg). The Force is interested in ALL living things.
In The Last Jedi, those sly crystal fox-like Vulptices help the Resistance escape the dead-end cave on Crait and the Fathiers, those mighty beasts of burden enslaved on Canto Bight, take present and palpable joy in destroying the wretched city in which they are used as abused entertainment. The stowaway porg, proudly riding next to Chewbacca, even helps spot the Vulptices as they run out the back of the cave. This porg knows what is going on. He feels what is at stake. Oh, he doesn’t know the names Kylo Ren and General Hux, but he is very aware that his new nest-mate Chewie is roaring into a fight against something that will threaten all existence. His roar—wonderfully long and sustained in the movie as opposed to the clipped and repeated roar in the trailer—is a scream of solidarity.
Cute does have a place in Star Wars…and often that place is on the battlefield.
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How purpose and legacy found
a young rebel
Star Wars Rebels, Season 3, Episode 15,
“Trials of the Darksaber”
Writer: Dave Filoni
Director: Steward Lee
The hit animated show Star Wars Rebels grew up along with its core target audience. Airing on Disney XD from 2014 to 2018, the show was clearly for the children of earlier generations of fans and its early focus on young Ezra Bridger cemented that fact. Based on the early moments of the show, you would be hard pressed to believe that this series would eventually give us not only some of the best Star Wars moments but some of the deepest. Creator Dave Filoni, the cowboy hat-wearing legend among the fandom, clearly had a plan with Star Wars Rebels. As the characters began to grow up, bond with their fellow rebels, and get closer and closer to a full-on war against the Empire, the show matured as well. There were big themes and lessons and even bigger revelations. With each new bit of Star Wars lore, came a rich layer of character and story development.
Then the Darksaber arrived.
The Darksaber, a legendary lightsaber so black it’s more the absence of color than anything, carries an important place in the history of Star Wars…except we still don’t know much about it. Which only adds to its mystique. So, when it returned in Star Wars Rebels, a lot of focus, prestige and importance were paid to it. It was a Star Wars canon junkies’ dream. The great blade of Mandalore, featured as well in the beloved Clone Wars series, was back. However, who knew that behind that would be one of the Star Wars franchise’s best lessons of personal power and responsibility? Sabine Wren, the lost daughter of Mandalore, was about to get a powerful lesson in legacy and purpose. The character that had yet to be fully explored was about to go from the galaxy’s favorite spunky little sister to a layered, conflicted, and powerful leader. Sabine Wren was now wielding the Darksaber.
The specific moment that registers the deepest comes late in the episode “Trials of the Darksaber,” found in season three of the show, but there is certainly a lead up to it. At quick glance, the Darksaber is a “cool” Star Wars toy. A one-of-a-kind lightsaber to be exact. But we quickly learn from Kanan Jarrus and Fenn Rau that the weapon comes with the legacy of leadership. Like a Star Wars version of Excalibur, whoever wields that Darksaber will reunite powerful Mandalorian clans and create an army that could change the tide of the burgeoning Rebellion. Sabine is the one to do it. These are high stakes for sure. Except there is one problem: Sabine Wren doesn’t want the Darksaber.
There are several big lessons in this tale, and this is the first one. Sabine Wren has a higher calling and looks as though she is prepared to run away from it. After two and a half seasons with Sabine, we get the sense she’s done this before. A defector from the Imperial Academy, she also is estranged from her family, Clan Wren of House Vizsla—home to the creator of the Darksaber Tarre Vizsla. She did something wrong. That’s all we really knew at this point. So, it seems as though we have the timeless tale of someone not ready to accept their greater purpose and learning to no longer run away from it. Deep enough, but there is a lot more buried here.
Kanan Jarrus, the now blind former Jedi Padawan who has been training Ezra, takes it upon himself to train the non-Force-sensitive Sabine in the ways of the Darksaber. (The sequence also sheds some light on the nature of the Force and its connection between the lightsaber itself and its user. There is truly so much to love here!) She’s already a skilled fighter, but it’s not working. All of this is a challenge to Kanan, but the focus here is on Sabine Wren—as it should be. Sabine has lived a life with no one from her own family standing by her following the events of her past. Her independent nature, forever valuable and a key dynamic to the growing Rebellion, is also a shield to her deepest pain—a pain Hera Syndulla sees and identifies with. Sabine is racked with guilt,
