Page 145 - Star Wars Insider (Special Edition 2020)

THE RANCOR’S DEATH NANTA’S DEATH

Okay, first of all, I love the way Return of the Jedi handled the rancor,

and its battle with Luke has always been one of my favorite scenes
from that movie (even in the old late-80s TV version where the
bluescreen is so terribly obvious that I had to look away). Besides
being excellently named, the rancor was originally conceived as

“a cross between a bear and potato.” How can you not love that? For years, the Ewok slain by AT-AT blaster fire on the forest moon
Also, the fact that [sound designer Ben Burtt] used a neighbor’s of Endor was referred to simply by the Tales from the Crypt-esque
dachshund dog for the noises that it makes is just awesome. But name “Corpsey,” primarily because... well, what else are you
to me, having said all of that, the greatest thing that the rancor did going to call a dead Ewok? Later, he was given a back-story

was die. After crushing a femur bone in its jaws in an attempt to and a special edition Toys ‘R’ Us action figure, along with Romba,
destroy Skywalker, this mighty beast finally dies under the crushing the Ewok who stayed behind with his fallen comrade. Again, it’s

weight of a falling portcullis... and we’re treated to a genuinely actually the mourning that makes this death memorable. The
heart-wrenching moment where its keeper, played by Paul Brooke, iconographic image of little Romba hunched over his friend, and

breaks down in sobs, which were provided by a music arranger the fact that Jedi takes a moment to acknowledge the finality of
named Ernie Fosselius, who also wrote and directed the legendary what’s happened makes this, in a weird way, one of the trilogy’s
parody Hardware Wars. Hey, at least it wasn’t the dachshund. most touching throwaway moments.

VADER’S DEATH

Depending on how much you examine it, the final moments of Anakin out of utter desperation, the moment never would have come out

Skywalker’s life may or may not serve as a kind of fathoms-deep if Vader hadn’t, at that exact second, been facing certain death.
echo of Obi-Wan Kenobi’s own death. Like Kenobi, Vader dies after When I think about it now, his demise bookends Obi-Wan’s death
achieving a greater good—throwing the Emperor down the Death so neatly that it makes me wish it had
Star’s reactor shaft, to save his son. And in dying, Vader reveals the been planned out that way from the

final underlying and transformative power that simply could not have beginning, although I’m pretty sure
emerged under any other circumstance. Just as Obi-Wan promised it wasn’t.
that being struck down would allow him to come back more powerful
than ever, Vader—in extremis—finally removes the horrific mask EXPANDED

that made him a dreadful vision of death and evil throughout the
Darth Maul: Lockdown is Interview by
trilogy, exposing his human face underneath. Paradoxically fragile,
available now! Mark Newbold
this newly revealed humanity, ultimately, is what redeems him in
UNIVERSE
our eyes, exposing that there is good left inside him after all. Born

INSIDER 145