Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi ends on a victorious moment for Luke Skywalker and the Rebel Alliance. The second Death Star has been destroyed, the Emperor is dead and, in his last moments, Darth Vader renounced the Dark Side. As Luke looks to the Force ghosts of Anakin, Obi-Wan and Yoda, the members of the Rebellion party it up with the Ewoks on the Forest Moon of Endor. Everyone is eating and drinking and having a grand old time, but it isn't clear what they are dining on.
Over on Reddit, user ShaneOfan has a theory about the celebration that has left us feeling very queasy. The user posed that the Ewoks and the Rebels are chowing down on the remains of Stormtroopers. At first, the idea can seem totally insane, but after a second glance, things start to add up.
Firstly, the Ewoks appear to be carnivores. When fans first meet them, the tiny creatures capture the heroes and are about to cook up Han Solo before C-3P0 stops them. This tells the audience that the Ewoks don't have a big supply of meat laying around. They couldn't wait to get Han on their plates, which strongly hints at the idea the creatures don't get to eat meat very often. With that in mind, it makes one wonder where the meat for the celebration came from. However, based on the number of Stormtrooper helmets laying around, and not a single body in sight, the answer seems pretty clear and pretty gross.
If that was the case, and the Ewoks cooked up the bodies of their enemies, the Rebels would have known what was going on. Sure, everyone would like to think that Leia, Han and Luke would be against cannibalism, but they're still present during the festivities. It seems impossible that the heroes wouldn't realize that the strips of beef were shooting blasters at them just a few hours ago, and the same goes for the other Rebels.
Moving away from the moral questions of the Rebels eating Stormtroopers, there are also some obvious health risks. Along with the increased risk of getting any number of diseases that come can come from cannibalism, it seems the Ewoks don't clean their kills before cooking them, which was the case with Han. To avoid these red flags, and keep the forces healthy, it's hard to not consider that the Rebels helped cook the Imperial forces.
Seeing as many regard the original Star Wars trilogy as inspirational, it's very unsettling to think about this idea. Fans have looked at these characters as heroes for decades, and to suddenly see them as man-eating monsters could really change some things. Obviously, the Imperials weren't regarded as good people, but if the Rebel Alliance is participating with cannibalism, their morals are clearly skewed as well. For all we know, it's this kind of moral ambiguity that could allow the rise of a new evil army, maybe one called the First Order. Cannibalism could really lead to a lot of bad things in a galaxy far, far away.