I Like Your Egg, or, You Know Too Much About Star Wars

By Olivia

—Warning: the following contains mild plot spoilers for Poe Dameron #1-5—

Too much in Star Wars is explained.

There, I’ve said it. My dark and dirty Star Wars secret, the thing that keeps me up at night when I consider my place on the Pods team. The crack in my being that proves I am not a True Star Wars Fan.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I am (mostly) in favor of the explanations that we do have. For example, I like what’s revealed about the New Republic political system in Bloodline. Ezra’s discovery of Malachor on Star Wars Rebels was also fantastic; a rich and deep way of reintroducing EU elements to the new canon. Still, Star Wars is set in a ‘galaxy far, far away’ – somewhere distant, and huge, and mysterious. Personally, that means that there should be frequent moments where things just happen and I have to assume that, somewhere, to some denizen of the universe what happened did just make sense. It’s an an echo of the feeling that I got at six or seven, watching the original trilogy for the first time and seeing all the aliens in Jabba’s palace. They were diverse and weird and unexplained – part of a galaxy that’s huge enough to contain a little mystery.

Enter the egg cult in Poe Dameron #1. For those of you who haven’t read the Poe Dameron comic currently in publication (Why on earth haven’t you?) the egg cult is introduced in the first issue of the series. They are a group of beings living on an asteroid who worship a giant blue egg that call themselves ‘the Crèche’ and, as a symbol of their devotion, paint big blue egg shapes on their faces. They definitely don’t have time for any of the shenanigans Poe Dameron or the First Order perform around said egg. Most importantly, at at the end of the arc, their egg hatches and the Crèche  fly away on the back of the monster that comes out of it.

Just before the cult flies away, Poe asks them “All this time, all those generations down here – did you guys have any idea what was in that egg?”

“No,” the leader of the Crèche replies, smiling. “But that was never the point.”

Suffice it to say, I love the egg cult. They have nothing to do with the Force (as I initially assumed), their egg is not some kind of already-existing monster or a Celestial of any kind. The Crèche believe the egg is their saviour in a galaxy that is full of social and political upheaval. Believing this, they tended it for generations, through the fall of the Republic, the rise of the Empire, and the success of the Rebellion. They just want to do their eggy thing in peace. In doing so, they make the Star Wars universe that much bigger. They have a belief system completely outside of the Force, and a hope for salvation that has nothing to do with the Skywalkers or the story we see in the movies.

The only thing comparable to it that we’ve seen is, perhaps, the Ewoks in return of the Jedi: a society that has formed a belief system without any kind of input from the larger meta-narrative of the Force that’s so important in the rest of the story. The Ewoks seem to have some kind of myth that centers on a god that’s a lot like C-3PO, which you’d have to stretch quite far to relate to the Force. However, while the Ewoks’ beliefs are exploited so that Luke and company can get out of being eaten, the Crèche, while silly, aren’t mocked for their beliefs or exploited through them. In the end, the monster that comes out of the egg actually helps Poe by causing enough chaos for Black Squadron to defeat the First Order. The odd religion of the Crèche is treated as valid, and they have a part to play in the story.

It makes perfect sense, really. Not everyone who lives in the Star Wars universe knows or even cares about the Force or it’s users. They’re just living their lives, and coping the best way that they can. Sometimes, that involves drawing a big blue egg on your face and living on an asteroid.

The Crèche interpret their world in a way that we, the viewers, who have all the facts, never could. It doesn’t matter that they’re probably wrong. They make the Star Wars universe bigger, and weirder, and more mysterious just by existing. And really, our own galaxy is itself big, and weird, and mysterious. Should we expect one far, far away to be any less?

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Olivia holds many opinions about Star Wars, a good deal of them contradictory. She loves Kylo Ren far, far too much. You can find her tweeting @liviwatka and rating various Sith Lords after minimal research at www.facebook.com/nevertellmethepods