The Empire was not long on Endor before it fell. The Ewoks
had never had much contact with the outside universe, and so never saw the
foreign plagues coming. Every cuddly creature that Luke, Leia and Han danced
with that night was dead within a week of the Death Star’s destruction – not
from combat, but from highly predatory diseases their immune systems had never
seen.
Overburdened by suddenly having to run an interstellar
government with numerous pockets of skepticism and resistance, Princess Leia
and her freedom fighters can hardly divert many resources to help the Ewoks.
Yet those who do venture to Endor bring still more suffering, swarming with
their own planetary diseases, or have come to Endor only to make a profit under
the auspices of the new “democracy.” When the Ewoks fight back against
mercenaries who abuse them, the local settlers are quick to label them savage.
They did defeat the Empire, after all.
This is what you guys wanted when you bitched about Return of the Jedi, right?