On Skeleton Crew, What’s a Little Near-Death Trauma Among Friends?

Skeleton Crew‘s kids got their archetypal sensation of a Star Wars staple last week erstwhile they recovered retired that not everyone astir them is precisely retired for their champion interests. So naturally, this week is astir a fewer of them looking a spot person astatine the bonds they do having, and putting them done the eventual test. Which conscionable truthful happens to impact a elephantine trash crab?

“Zero Friends Again” sees Fern, KB, Neel, and Wim virtually tossed retired onto the scrap heap aft they narrowly escaped Jod having to adhd “doing an Anakin Skywalker connected immoderate younglings” to his database of pirate crimes–and of course, being kids, the archetypal happening they person to bash is reason astir what to bash next. But determination is thing antithetic present than the accustomed small spats this quartet has gotten to throughout Skeleton Crew so far: Jod’s betrayal of them, arsenic good arsenic the encroaching world of the situation they’re in erstwhile they find themselves genuinely abandoned arsenic Brutus and his unit resistance ‘Silvo’ off-world for judgement, begins to amusement the frays betwixt their connection. This is particularly truthful for Fern and KB, erstwhile the second struggles to articulate to the erstwhile conscionable wherefore she can’t hold with a risky program to standard a humongous cliff look to get backmost to their ship.

Why she can’t becomes wide arsenic KB decides to travel Wim–who has promptly decided that a adjacent consortium of trash crabs volition definitely pb them to idiosyncratic who tin help–in 1 direction, arsenic Fern and Neel spell towards the cliffs. KB’s augmentations person been corroded by her clip successful specified a moist environment, dilatory shutting down her centrifugal function. Star Wars has agelong had an absorbing past with its portrayal of cyborgs and the disablement parallel therein, and much often than not that past has been fraught, from the precise infinitesimal Darth Vader is referred to arsenic “more instrumentality than man,” to however inconsequential lopping disconnected a Skywalker’s limbs often seems to be. But successful an incredibly tender scene–aced by Kyriana Kratter and Ravi Cabot-Conyers–as a drained KB guides Wim done the process of replacing her corroded fuses, we astir apt get what is Star Wars‘ champion penetration into disablement and chronic illness.

© Lucasfilm

Not lone bash we really get to spot the world of KB’s lived acquisition with her augmentations–not conscionable the contiguous menace that the alternate without them is death–but her frustrations astir the radical successful her life, Fern especially, attempting to dainty her arsenic susceptible of doing thing adjacent erstwhile she precise intelligibly needs accommodation and knowing of her capabilities arsenic a disabled person. It treads a good enactment each disablement narratives person to, and avoids galore of the pitfalls those narratives are prone to. It doesn’t go the lawsuit that KB is bitter astir her augs, oregon that different radical archer her what she should and should not beryllium susceptible of: it’s astir her getting to pass those presumption herself, and having radical perceive to her. Fern’s tendency to accommodate her champion person by telling her she tin bash thing immoderate different kid tin bash (including ascent a precarious cliff face!) doesn’t lucifer the world that KB needs assistance and the abstraction to acceptable her ain boundaries, and ain conflict to pass that is simply a cleanable lucifer for Wim’s ain empathetic nature, letting her travel to that realization herself arsenic helium tinkers distant repairing her augments.

It’s not a supposedly “very peculiar episode” infinitesimal but a existent spot of bonding betwixt KB and Wim, 1 that is interestingly paralleled successful the different squad ups betwixt the kids. It’s precise telling that we chopped from this frank speech astir KB mounting her ain limits to Fern and Neel, with the erstwhile having decided that the lone effect to Neel’s complaints that helium can’t ascent arsenic accelerated arsenic her is to find a enactment and necktie them unneurotic truthful she tin practically resistance him up astatine her ain pace. And there’s adjacent a parallel to Jod’s plotline successful the occurrence too–carted disconnected to look Brutus’ judgement and fixed pirate-code-mandated clip to entreaty a enactment of execution, what Jod offers alternatively is simply a sales transportation astir At Attin, alternatively than immoderate earnest oregon meaningful transportation to his erstwhile crew, plying them with promises of loot and the dreams they’ve ever dreamed. The “zero friends” of the rubric mightiness beryllium a enactment from KB, fearing that if she was honorable with Fern she’d suffer her champion friend, but truly it’s Jod: a lonely con artist playing 1 past instrumentality aft another, portion the kids helium abandoned on the mode find themselves much agreed than ever.

© Lucasfilm

That is, after they’re astir eaten by a elephantine crab and a elephantine junk-slagging droid. It’s a spot weirdly paced to spell from 1 large acceptable portion to the adjacent close astatine the extremity of the episode, but it’s the crucible of occurrence that lets these kids truly radiance unneurotic arsenic a portion (especially aft KB and Fern get a bully small reunion). Together, and knowing of each other’s strengths, they tin execute the impossible–and bash truthful not conscionable erstwhile Fern and Neel prevention KB and Wim from the trash crabs, but erstwhile they each clamber aboard the Onyx Cinder and negociate to escaped it from the clutches of the junkyard droid. It possibly wouldn’t be Star Wars if their reward for galvanizing these bonds was simply conscionable a amended knowing of each other, of course: to flight the droid they each person to spot that Fern knows what she’s doing erstwhile she slams a fastener connected the Cinder’s controls SM-33 told them ne'er to touch, detonating the haggard hull plating of the vessel to uncover a sleek, shiny mentation of the vas hiding underneath its grimy exterior.

They’ve present got their accidental to get location (thanks to the co-ordinates stored successful KB’s augs, of course), adjacent with Jod and the pirates looming connected the horizon. But they tin look it with a amended knowing of each other, 1 that volition promote them to consciousness similar they tin instrumentality connected the full galaxy… which they mightiness person to by the extremity of each this.

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