Wicket and the Dandelion Warriors: An Ewok Adventure

Wicket and the Dandelion Warriors

Author: Larry Weinberg

Illustrator: Deborah Colvin Borgo

Medium: Picture book

Publication Date: November 1985

Timeline Placement: 1 ABY

 

We return to Endor to find all our Ewok friends now bearing the art style of their animated TV show. Which is a shame, because while those designs are fine, the unique charm of the old designs was a big part of what made those books so memorable. Oh well, RIP.

Wicket and Princess Kneesaa are out gathering blumfruit berries with Wicket's dad, Deej, when Wicket is almost eaten by ants, somehow. Deej pulls him to safely, but in the process he falls backward and cuts himself on the fungus of a Rokna tree. The illustration shows his blood dripping from the tree and everything, it's gnarly, man. Deej gets dementia and starts aging at a hyper-advanced rate. Logray, the Ewok medicine man, declares that there's only one hope for him: a potion brewed from the tail feather of a giant lantern bird, the egg of a frosch, and a star-shaped needle from a Dandelion Warrior.

Wicket's asshole older brother, Weechee, blames Wicket for their father's illness, so Wicket wants to go collect all the ingredients to redeem himself. Logray says that Deej's only hope is for his three sons to work together. Wicket will get the needle, Weechee will get the egg, and their overweight, dim-witted brother Willy will get the feather, which he accomplishes easily after accidentally drinking some of Logray's Fizzy Lifting Drink and floating up to the lantern bird nest.

On his quest, Wicket finds a Gupin who has been captured by the Dandelion Warriors, a race of fierce flower people who fire their quills at the two of them as Wicket frees his new friend. Fortunately, one of the quills that almost impales them has a star shape on it, so Wicket's part of the quest is already completed.

But when he gets back to the village, he discovers that he now has to go rescue his stupid brothers. Kneesaa and Teebo accompany him to find Willy, who got stuck up in the bird's nest when the lantern bird returned and sat on him. Teebo is able to speak the language of the beasts to convince it to move. Meanwhile, Weechee has gotten his egg but was chased by the frosches over a waterfall and is stuck on a tree branch. Wicket saves him but despairs because there's no way to get back to the village in time to save Deej. So the Gupin transforms into a giant bird and flies all the Ewoks home. Logray brews the potion and Deej is saved.

Logray tells Deej that he has three great sons, to which Weechee replies that that may be true, but Wicket is the real hero of the day. That's nice and all but this guy still deserves to get his ass kicked, Wicket shouldn't even have had to redeem himself since he didn't do anything wrong in the first place. Except almost getting eaten by ants.

 

Okay kids' book but I'd just watch the episode. Which isn't called "Wicket and the Dandelion Warriors," it's called "To Save Deej," which is an objectively worse title because no one knows who Deej is.