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“The Kroolok” from the Star Wars Life Day Treasury has similarities to “Those of which we do not speak” from M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village.
WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Star Wars Life Day Treasury: Holiday Stories from a Galaxy Far, Far Away by George Mann, Cavan Scott and Grant Griffin.
Throughout folklore, there are countless tales told in part to keep children from wandering off and to police their behavior, and the Star Wars galaxy also contains tales in this tradition. In the Star Wars Life Day Treasury: Holiday Stories from a Galaxy Far, Far Away by George Mann, Cavan Scott and Grant Griffin, the short story “The Kroolok” explains an Ewok legend of a troll-like monster. And while this tale seems lighthearted, the subtext behind the Kroolok has more horrific undertones that surprisingly parallel the big twist in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village.
The Ewoks have always been associated with horror subtext. The Ewok Adventure: Caravan of Courage and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor both incorporate fantasy elements that show that the cuddly creatures are filled with more horrors than the Imperial army. Because Ewoks have had to deal with so many other monsters, their cute appearance actually belies their ferocity in battle. They are also implied to feast upon the flesh of their foes, as seen in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi when they plan to eat Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Chewbacca after they capture them. So, while the Ewoks may be adorable, they are no strangers to horror.
At first, “The Kroolok” appears to be a lighthearted tale with stronger connections to the Ewoks animated series than more horror-themed stories. The main characters featured in the short story — Wicket, Princess Kneesaa, Teebo and Weechee — are all major characters in the cartoon, and the story focuses on Wicket’s desire to prove himself and knock his older brother Weechee’s ego down a peg. After Wicket is denied the chance to take place in a hunt, the village elder Logray tells the woklings the story of the Kroolok, a huge beast with giant horns and white fur who still is surprisingly stealthy. Logray claims that the beast hibernates during the summer and only attacks during the winter and emphasizes that young woklings are the creature’s favorite meal, in an effort to discourage Wicket and his friends from wandering off on their own.
Similarly, in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village, the elders of the eponymous village use tales of monsters, “those of which we do not speak,” to keep the children from venturing off and discovering the far more technologically advanced outside world. The elders engage in many tricks to keep the legend alive, even creating costumes to dress up as the monsters to provide more proof to the children that the monsters they fear are real. The folklore built around the monster ultimately is a means of control through fear, no matter how supposedly good and pure their intentions are.
And while there are dire consequences for the elders’ decision to isolate themselves in the woods, they believe that their goal to “preserve innocence” is worth the cost. First, the film begins with the funeral of a child who may have been saved by medicine found in the outside world. Later, when Ivy Walker ventures out of the woods to get medicine for her fiancé, Lucius Hunt, she traps what she believes is a monster in the woods. However, it actually is Noah Percy, another young villager who has merely found and worn the monster suit, not understanding the meaning of the costume. Noah dies when falling into the trap, making the elders’ deception lethal. Because Ivy is blind, she never realizes who she really killed with her trap, and she likely will continue the traditions believing in the monster long after the elders of the village die.
In “The Kroolok,” Wicket and his friends venture into the woods despite the warnings and capture what they believe is the Kroolok. Instead, they capture Weechee, who was trying to scare Wicket. Unlike Noah, Weechee is not harmed. At the end of the story, it is revealed to the audience that the Kroolok is merely a story used to scare woklings away from venturing off on their own, and Chief Chirpa and Logray disguised themselves as another Kroolok to scare Wicket and his friends back to the village. Chirpa and Logray seem to enjoy terrifying the children, but the death of Noah in The Village shows one way in which such deceptions can go tragically awry.
Thus, “The Kroolok” treats the trope of the scary monster used by adults to scare children in a lighthearted, holiday-themed manner, but there are strong horror undertones throughout the story. The end of “The Kroolok” suggests that Princess Kneesaa will continue the Kroolok tradition once she becomes the chief, like Ivy will continue the legends of “those of which we do not speak.” Unlike the children of The Village, Princess Kneesaa, Wicket and the other woklings will likely be told the truth about the Kroolok when they are older, similarly to how children eventually learn the truth about Santa Claus. The parallels between Chief Chirpa and Logray’s deception with the actions of the elders in The Village show that, while the story of the Kroolok might have been created to protect children, it still can be a cruel means of control that puts the young woklings in danger.
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