This week’s episode of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew featured a reference to one of the most horrifying moments in the prequel trilogy. Seeing a lightsaber drawn against younglings at the Jedi temple was bad enough, but in Skeleton Crew, the children are the main characters and protagonists. Read on for more but fair warning: there are spoilers ahead!
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Skeleton Crew has put its four main characters in a lot of danger so far — sometimes fun and whimsical escapades, sometimes truly harrowing scenarios. Along the way, it has kept us guessing about the motives of their guide, Jod Na Nawood (Jude Law), but now his malice seems to be confirmed. The episode ended with Jod approaching the children and their parents, igniting his lightsaber in the process. It didn’t take long to fans to compare this to the moment when Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) ignited his lightsaber before a group of younglings in Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith.
This moment has become a meme among star wars fans in the last two decades. It comes shortly after Anakin pledges himself to Darth Sidious and the dark side. His turn towards evil happens pretty quickly, as the scene implies that he personally murders a room full of children without actually showing the violence. We don’t know any of these younglings, but the killings still feel hauntingly personal as one of the kids gets a line of dialogue. Assuming that Anakin will defend them from the invading clone troopers, he says: “Master Skywalker, there are too many of them! What are we doing to do?”
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Incidentally, this young Jedi initiate does have a canonical name — Sors Bandeam, an anagram of the name of the child actor who played him, Ross Bandeam. The character’s sparse backstory was first shared in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, and Bandeam himself later wrote about his experience in a Q&A session with fans on Reddit.
Still, the threat hits harder for characters we’ve followed closely like those in Skeleton Crew. We’ve been warned since Episode 3 that Jod was not a heroic figure, but it’s a new low to see him wield one of the most dangerous weapons in the galaxy against the kids he has been guiding and protecting. However, with one more episode to go, it’s easy to imagine that we’ll change our minds about Jod at least one more time by the end of the season.
Revenge of the Sith and Skeleton Crew are streaming now on Disney+. The season finale of Skeleton Crew premieres on Tuesday, January 14th.
