We’ve been really excited about the arrival of the Disney animated digital series, Star Wars: Forces of Destiny, in which we’ll delve deeper into the stories of the women of the Star Wars universe. The series launched today, and begins with Rey, BB-8…and a Nightwatcher worm. Check it out above!
Titled “Sands of Jakku,” the mini-story features Daisy Ridley voicing both Rey and BB-8. It takes place in the time between Rey meeting BB-8 and getting him back to where she lives. As they cross the desert on Jakku, they encounter a Nightwatcher worm—a creature we glimpsed briefly in The Force Awakens, but never saw its entire form until now. As we learned in the 2015 the companion novel Star Wars: Rey’s Survival Guide, Nightwatcher worms adapted in the aftermath of the Battle of Jakku to eat junk, since their digestive tract is full of acid that can melt anything.
And somehow, this worm looks at BB-8 and sees junk! Harumph!
What’s cool about this story, in addition to getting to see a Nightwatcher worm, is that we get to see Rey’s Force-sensitivity in action long before she encounters Kylo Ren. Far from being “luck” (or as Rey’s less charitable critics suggest, making her a Mary Sue), Rey’s abilities have always made themselves apparent spontaneously over time in a way that she didn’t really understand, but could nonetheless use without really thinking about it too hard. It makes sense that a girl growing up orphaned in a harsh desert environment would need a little something extra to survive, as we see in this episode.
And lastly, this episode emphasizes the thing I loved most about Rey when I saw The Force Awakens: her kindness. Yes, she’s handy with a staff, is an awesome pilot, is Force-sensitive and all that, but she’s also someone who will help a stranger because she can. She’ll reach a hand out to help a strange stormtrooper. She’ll forgo extra rations if it means not selling her new droid friend. And now, we see that she’ll defend that droid friend with everything she has, while also having compassion for a hungry creature in the desert.
Have I mentioned yet today how much I love Rey? Because I love Rey.
Disney will have new episodes of Forces of Destiny premiering every day on Disney’s YouTube channel this week before launching on the broadcast Disney Channel on June 9th, and we still have stories from the lives of Ahsoka Tano, Jyn Erso, Sabine Wren, Princess Leia, Padmè Amidala, and more to look forward to!
What do you think of “Sands of Jakku?”
(via Uproxx, image: screencap/Disney)
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