Tonight we join our two favorite droids as they leave Aleen and head home to the Republic. On the way their ship is hit by Separatists – specifically, General Grievous. As C3PO searches for an escape pod, R2D2 jumps into a fighter craft and C3PO follows. They fly into battle, their reactor is hit, and they crash land on a foreign planet. Our view of the planet is all flowers and tall weeds, much like when Dorothy first lands in technicolor Oz. We get our first view of the natives, and when they run up to the droids, they are tiny Lilliputians. The droids are electrocuted and tied down a la Gulliver’s Travels.
The Big Hay-Zu is the planet’s leader, and he frees the droids so that they’ll leave. C3PO is eager to go but knocks R2D2 into Hay-Zu, which squashes him. The small people happily chant, “He’s dead! He’s dead! The Big Hay-Zu is dead!” Now we’ve gone from Gulliver’s Travels back to The Wizard of Oz.
The little people ask C3PO to stay on as their leader, but he says they must choose from their own people. When 3 people are equally voted for, he says they now have a democracy. The hop into their ship and fly off.
Ship and droid power is running low, so they land on another planet, Balnab (similar to Brobdingnag, where Gulliver encounters giants). The droids are captured again and threatened by another leader. These inhabitants are bigger than normal, and their leader is a projection like the Wizard of Oz. R2D2 takes the role of Toto and reveals that different droids are using the hologram to control their “organics.” Artoo and C3PO leave this planet as the humanoid inhabitants attack the Wizard droids.
R2D2 and C3PO power down and are picked up by pirates. They are brought to an arena where droids are forced to fight each other to the death for entertainment. Grievous happens upon the ship and fires on them. The droids are picked up as pirates and will be melted down for Grievous’ War Machine. Just before they are incinerated, the Republic shows up to save the day. They are reunited with Commander Wolffe, who hasn’t seen them since they landed on Aleen.
I liked both literary references this week, though I found it a little odd that Hay-Zu sounds pretty similar to the Spanish pronunciation of “Jesus.” The allusions to Wizard of Oz were more heavy-handed than those to Gulliver’s Travels, which made them less enjoyable for me. While the droid adventures are a lighthearted distraction, I’m ready to get back into the drama of this story.
