Easter Eggs You May Have Missed From 'LEGO Star Wars: Terrifying Tales'
Ah, the month of October. You gotta love it. A spooky time of year. It was nice to start off this October with an early Halloween Special, LEGO Star Wars: Terrifying Tales over on Disney+. Taking inspiration from the Tales From Vader's Castle comic series, Terrifying Tales has a similar structure to the comic's story. The main plot features Poe Dameron and his trusty droid, BB-8, visiting Darth Vader's castle after a forced landing on Mustafar. There they encounter Vanee, Vader's servant, while exploring the depths of the sinister castle-turned-luxury resort. This is broken up with three dark side inspired tales from Vanee. Reminiscent of the Vader Castle comics.
LEGO Star Wars: Terrifying Tales, with it being a tongue-in-cheek LEGO Special, has plenty of references and Easter eggs to, not only Star Wars, but to the Horror genre itself. So let's return to Castle Vader and explore these references and Easter eggs... if you DARE!
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Star Wars Adventures: Tales From Vader's Castle
As I mentioned earlier LEGO Star Wars: Terrifying Tales takes it's inspiration from the Tales From Vader's Castle line of comics. Each issue would have a main plot while also including three dark side tales from Vanee. Urban legends and cautionary tales to frighten those who dare listen. Reminds me, personally, of a children's show from the 2000's called Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids, which also had a sinister old man telling similar cautionary stories.
The House on Haunted Hill
What's a spooky story without a spooky house? Yes, it's a trope but it's a classic, a haunted house, a haunted mansion, or a haunted castle. In this case, Vader's Castle. Right down to the classic lightening flash and sound effects. Here we have Mustafar, less of a dying planet now, as life is slowly returning to the scared lava world but still retains that hellish vibe, and overlooking this landscape, upon a hill is the Castle of Darth Vader. While not built upon ancient Indian burial grounds, it is over a Sith cave which was the site of a Sith Temple. Even though it's being transformed into a resort by Graballa the Hutt, the presence of evil still remains...
The Lost Ben
Vanee's first tale is a reference to the 1987 vampire flick The Lost Boys directed by Joel Schumacher. From the tales title card, partying into the night, the shirtless Bith Kloo horn player and the overall theme of the tale. Giving young Ben Solo a taste of a new life, that longing for something more, but getting a lot more than you wished for.
A Nightmare at Luke's Academy
After his first encounter with the Knights of Ren, Ben returns to his quarters to retire for the night, only to have a bad dream that is very reminiscent of the "bad dreams" seen in Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street. This time Ren, instead of Freddy, pushing through the ceiling above the bed. Like Kruger, Ren teases young Ben, turning his dream into a nightmare. One... Two... Ren is coming for you...Yep, they even threw in creepy children's sing-along. That is something straight out of Elm Street.
IT'S ALIVE, IT'S ALIVE!
Oh I know, how dare I refer to Maul and Grievous as monsters. Well, they both have committed some horrific acts and have returned to inflict more unspeakable things after being operated upon. Grievous with his surgeries, replacing more and more of himself with machine. Maul, through shear hatred, keeps himself alive after being cut-in-two and comes back to receive a monstrous new lower half.
Stormtrooper, Scout Trooper, Death Trooper, Skelo-Trooper
Early on in the special, Graballa tries to impress Poe with the Sith-themed resort by showing the Resistance hero the main lobby of the castle, which is lined up with different armors from the Imperial Army. With the last being a design by Graballa himself: The Skelo-Trooper, a very spooky looking "trooper". This design takes inspiration from the seasonal clone trooper armor skin from the Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures MMO. I'd also say, given it's skeleton/zombie-like appearance, the Skelo-Trooper could be a reference to Joe Schreiber's Star Wars: Death Troopers. Essentially zombies meets Star Wars aboard a Star Destroyer.
Submitted For Your Approval
Vanee begins to tell his third and final tale, beginning it with the quote: "submitted for your approval", a line used a few times by Ron Sterling on The Twilight Zone during the opening narration. While the line is known from the show, it was only used three times during the original series and can only be heard in the openings of: Cavender Is Coming, In Prise Of Pip and A Kind Of A Stopwatch. Vanee must be a hardcore fan.
Careful What You Wish For...
Vanee's third and final tale is entitled The Wookiee's Paw, a Star Wars take on the W.W. Jacob's short story, The Monkey's Paw. Most have heard of this tale, I'm guessing mostly from the Treehouse of Horror short from The Simpsons. These shorts also involve three tales inspired/referencing the horror genre. Whether it be a wookiee's paw or a monkey's paw, the same rules apply. You make a wish and the paw grants said wish, but each wish comes with a price for interfering with fate, in this case, good or evil. Luke's fate was to always destroy the Death Star.
Night of the Living Battle Droids
Well we sort of got zombies in this LEGO Star Wars special. More possessed than undead, since battle droids aren't alive. But it was a nice little nod to the zombie genre, showing hordes of battle droids rising, as if from the grave, to chase down our heroes. Very George A. Romero.
Here's A Shining Reference
With horror, you've got to be old enough to watch them, or young, dumb, and feeling brave, perhaps with a cushion to hide behind. A horror film's target audience is NOT children. Yet references to them always seem to make it to children's cartoons. Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is no exception. You have to have a reference to Jack Nicolson's "here's Johnny!" in a Halloween special. This time, instead of a caretaker who has went completely mad on a murderous rampage, it's a B-1 Battle Droid doing the axe-wielding. Hacking down the door, with Graballa doing his very best Shelley Duvall impression. Instead of "here's Johnny!" we get "here's B-14961138" A Easter egg within a reference there, with the number '1138' being a long running Easter egg in Star Wars, referencing George Lucas' first film: THX-1138. While the scene was amusing, The Simpsons did it better.
I do hope Lucasfilm continues these LEGO Star Wars specials. They're fun and entertaining. Make them a yearly thing. Not every series or show has to be 100% serious or canon. We'll just have to wait until next years special.
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Source: StarWars.com