LEGO Star Wars has been more than just a block set and a video game for some time now, but last year, with the release of the LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special, the combination has meant something different. There is scant little Star Wars media that takes place after The Rise of Skywalker, but now we have two LEGO specials that do just that. While these are clearly more humorous and aimed at a younger demographic than something like Star Wars: Visions, there’s a fair amount of story here, and some stuff that seems almost too ‘important’ for a special like this.
The framing device of the story is Poe Dameron and BB-8 crash landing on Mustafar, where a lesser Hutt is building a resort in Darth Vader’s castle. There, Poe encounters both Dean, a young mechanic, and Vaneé, a Sith apprentice voiced masterfully by Tony Hale. Both of these characters seem poised to do ‘more’ in Star Wars, even if that likely just means more LEGO specials. Both are significant, however, as they represent the forward momentum of the Force. Dean is a young, force-sensitive kid who will learn under the tutelage of Rey, and Vaneé is the first remnant of the Dark Side that we’ve seen since the destruction of Exegol.
While those characters, along with Poe and Graballa (the Hutt), feature in the actual plot, most of the running time is spent on three flashback stories that are all homages to classic horror/sci-fi tales. But more than that, the first two stories give some actual development/story beats to moments we’ve only presumed/heard of before now. Certainly, these versions of these stories are not canon, but I wonder if the overall shape of these stories is how they are recorded in the halls of Lucasfilm.
The first story, ‘The Lost Boy,’ is a story that tells the tale of how Ben Solo, standout student at Luke Skywalker’s Jedi Academy, turned into Kylo Ren. Now, we know that there is a key moment omitted here – Luke’s attempted slaying of Ben – but there’s some stuff here that fills in a lot of gaps. For instance, we’ve heard of the Knights of Ren, but here, we meet…well, Ren. Voiced by Christian Slater, Ren is a leader of these evil marauders, replete with mullet. This is a good time to mention that this is a retelling of the 80s horror classic The Lost Boys, including a reference to the infamous ‘sax guy.’ It’s amazing.
But this also gives the etymology of the name Kylo Ren. Kylo is an insult hurled at Ben by some of the other Knights, and he adopts it in a way to ‘take back’ the insult. Again, I don’t know if any of this will ever be referenced again, but it adds a lot of depth to the story of Ben Solo that, frankly, was missing. While you don’t need to go into ‘why does Jack have tattoos’ LOST territory, there hasn’t been a ton of time dedicated to Kylo Ren. And while mystery is a good thing in stories like this, once you know that Kylo is Ben Solo, there are certain things that make sense to find out. We know that Snoke ‘turned’ him, but things like the Knights of Ren have absolutely no on-screen meaning, despite showing up a few times. This short, though humorous and likely a throwaway, does more for the mythos surrounding Kylo Ren than any other bit of Star Wars media.
The second tale is called ‘Dueling Monstrosities,’ and is a Darth Maul vs General Grievous story. This story is the one that is most tied into the Mustafar story, as it involves both apprentices looking for a Sith lightsaber, the Saber of Scardont, which is discovered by Dean in the wraparound story. This is the silliest of the stories, but also shows the similarities between Maul and Grievous, and pits them against each other in a way that was only briefly seen in The Clone Wars. These characters have so much in common, both from a storyline perspective and also as brilliant designs used poorly by George Lucas in the prequels.
The final story is called ‘The Wookie’s Paw,’ and is both an over Twilight Zone homage and, clearly, a monkey’s paw story. This one sees Luke Skywalker get a Wookie’s paw from Watto, and make a series of wishes that leads to him being Darth Vader’s apprentice. This is the least creative and potentially impactful story of the batch, but is also full of fun little moments, like Leia and Obi-Wan in X-wings attacking the Death Star.
While these specials will never take the place of The Empire Strikes Back for me, they are a ton of fun for kids and adults alike, and are giving us more forward momentum than any other Star Wars media right now, in terms of continuing the stories we’ve seen in films. This isn’t a knock on Visions or the ‘High Republic’ era that is dominating the publishing line, but it is simply scratching a different itch. I hope we get a few of these a year, and I hope they continue to be as fun and enjoyable as the first two have been.
