Skeleton Crew and the Scouring of the Shire
Innocence, the Call of Adventure, and What to Do When You Get Home
What Up Tolkien Poppers,
As the end of January beckons us deeper into 2025, I have experienced some wins, consistency, and anxiety for what the year will or will not hold for me or the rest of us. Without invalidating the dread that many of us feel at this point of the year, I am going to divulge the wins and accomplishments I have already experienced so far. I have already completed two books and am in the middle of my next two (where are my ADHD readers at?), the gym has continued to be a habit for me in the New Year, I am going to present a paper at Holy Moot in March, organized by David Rowe, author of The Proverbs of Middle-earth, I’m already engaged in a really cool project (more details to come!), and got to watch all of Skeleton Crew, one of the best new installments of Star Wars stories in my opinion, which this post primarily engages with!
I hope that with all that’s going on in the world that you are able to find happiness with those you love and achieve what you are trying to achieve as we progress through 2025 and that Tolkien Pop! contributes to your wellbeing!
My book Tolkien and Pop Culture: Volume I is now available on Amazon! This book is a selection of my Substack posts from the past couple of years, cleaned up, and formatted for publication. For the first time, you can get all these essays in print or in your Kindle library. It’ll look great on your shelf and be available for your own Tolkien purposes! Use the QR code or the link to pre-order your copy: https://a.co/d/eBE7jiH
Star Wars has been going through a rocky renaissance for the past decade. With the release of The Force Awakens in 2015, audiences have been treated to more Star Wars content than ever before: movies, TV shows, video games, books, comics, and toys. While the history of pop culture can in some sense be demarcated by pre-Star Wars and post-Star Wars, we are truly in an age of torrential Star Wars and it doesn’t seem to be stopping any time soon.
Controversy has followed the rebirth of this sci-fi phenomena with petitions to scrap and refilm The Last Jedi, racist and sexist tirades from incels any time a character who is not a cis man or white is featured, and the harassment of actors from particular Star Wars stories that are chosen to be the subject of review-bombing and other forms of online vitriol (typically BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and women actors). Because of the high rate of this toxic activity, there seems to be a hesitancy among many fans to engage with much of the new Star Wars content beyond casual enjoyment. Either because certain fans believe Star Wars to be “going woke” or those who do not want to be victim to the rain of hatred aimed at them for publicly displaying their enjoyment of one of the many new Star Wars stories.
There are multiple articles that speculate why the recent Star Wars TV series Skeleton Crew did so poorly in its premier ratings. The organized online haters are roped into these speculations and I would consider them to be a significant contributing factor to the low viewership of Skeleton Crew. Coming in at a 20% lower number of minutes watched than The Acolyte1, the most recent Star Wars show on Disney Plus that became a beacon rallying the hate of far right crybaby content creators and their followers, it is not difficult to connect the two regarding reasons for the lack in viewership.
I point this out not to pile onto the ever growing cesspool of toxic fan activity, but to use it as a catalyst into a discussion on how this a priori cynical and dismissive response to new stories in pop culture denies viewers from engaging in meaningful dialogue with these stories. Whether it is new approaches to worlds like Star Wars, an artistic comment on events in the primary world, or how these new stories interact with other pieces of art. Skeleton Crew is a beautiful new story within the Star Wars universe. Upon watching the season finale, I immediately thought that it has much to say about growing up in a way that resonates with Tolkien’s own approach to the “ennoblement of the ignoble” hobbits in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (Letters, 165). Tolkien is a fantastic storyteller and the ignoring of Skeleton Crew based on the previous cultural buzz around The Acolyte is a disservice to what this show brings to the table.
Spoilers will be minimal in this post, but here is the alert in case you want to wait to watch the show before reading my Tolkienian take on it.
Against a backdrop of stars, classic blue text provides a galactic prologue about pirates in the galaxy. After which the camera pans down to reveal a distant planet being obstructed by debris from some sort of Corellian ship (similar in look to the ship that Princess Leia is aboard in A New Hope), which is then pierced by multiple boarding tubes from another ship. The Corellian ship is then boarded by space pirates who infiltrate it in a similar way that the stormtroopers invade the Corellian Corvette in A New Hope. Eventually, a masked pirate captain breaks into a vault on the ship to find it empty in front of his crew. A mutiny takes place and the scene cuts to the title card and then to a futuristic suburban home on the planet of At Attin, where a human boy named Wim is playing with action figures in his bedroom. He is then called into the kitchen by his dad who begins to lecture him while he is in a rush to get to work. It is clear that even in the Star Wars universe, the spectral whip of productivity is at the backs of working adults. After his dad leaves, Wim then runs to the bus stop to make it to school where he encounters his friend Neel, who is a Myykian2 (an elephantine humanoid). They get on the bus to get to school and learn that their career assessment test is coming up. In their class (that is taught by a droid) they are visited by an Undersecretary to “The Supervisor,” who asks Wim what he wants to do for his career. He says that he wants to help keep people safe and is immediately shot down by the droid teacher who informs him that that is not a career and that that job is reserved for Safety Droids. The mundane boundaries of domesticity begin to look like a prison for Wim and the other children.
On their way out from school, Neel gives Wim a hard time for basically saying he “wants to be a Jedi.” Wim then poses a question to Neel: “Don’t you ever want to do anything exciting?” To which Neel responds, “Like what?” Already, the conflict between everyday life and Wim’s incessant call to adventure is bubbling to the surface. After Neel’s response to Wim, the screen cuts to a scene where a human girl named Fern is driving a hover bike on a restricted road with her cyborg friend KB back to their homes from school. Another kid with a knack for going outside the bounds of suburbia is presented to the audience. Both Wim and Fern are later shown at home being given yet another lecture by their parents, encouraging them to be the best citizens they can be. The next day, Wim wakes up late for the school bus and takes his hover bike to a “shortcut” through the woods near his neighborhood. He attempts to jump a gully and fails to make it. After he rises from his fall, Wim begins to yell for help and attempts to climb one of the steep sides of the gully, he falls again, this time pulling away at some grass and dirt to reveal part of a metal door. As he investigates further, a safety droid comes to retrieve him to take him back to school. Wim has missed the career assessment test.
Wim is then sent to the school office to await discipline alongside Fern. Wim’s dad comes to the school and chastises him for his actions. He tries to explain that he thinks he stumbled upon a hidden Jedi temple to which his dad immediately dismisses him. Fern overhears this, acknowledges it, and Wim tries to play it off like he never meant what he said. Later, Wim and Neel sneak out to find the alleged Jedi temple, where they are intercepted by Fern and KB. After some digging, they are able to open the port-shaped door and enter it. Inside they find all sorts of random tech, weapons, and skeletons. Eventually, KB discovers the power source for the tunnel and turns it on. The interior lights with an eruption of bleeping greens, reds, and yellows. Wim, ever curious, finds a big glowing green button. He informs the others on his walkie-talkie radio and is told not to touch it. However, Chekov’s button reigns and Wim pushes it, setting off an ignition sequence for what is actually a buried spaceship that carries the kids out of At Attin’s atmospheric barrier. Naturally, the school kids panic and attempt to return to their planet’s surface. They are stopped by the captivating beauty of the stars that they have never seen before–stars that begin stretching and launching the children into hyperspace. End of episode one.
Throughout the series, the kids from At Attin encounter pirates, are joined by a force user named Jod Na Nawood, and hold a back-and-forth relationship with a droid that has a stereotypical pirate accent called SM-33. They learn of treasure, travel across the galaxy for clues, run from and fight both pirates and New Republic fighters, and negotiate their relationship to adventure from their past experience in a suburban life. Eventually, they work with Jod to return to At Attin, which they learn is a famous planet in pirate legend. Each child goes through their own arch as they wrestle with confidence, insecurity, and who they are and want to be with the newfound knowledge that journeys bring to those who traverse them. Fern, who is calculated and at the ready to take charge of most situations, inserts herself into the role of Captain of the ship they found, which is called the Onyx Cinder. In the episode “Can’t Say I Remember No At Attin, the crew is split up by groups of mercenaries on a planet they originally think is At Attin. Towards the end of the episode, Fern is found by herself crying by Wim, who asks her what they should do next. She replies, “I don’t know. I have no idea what I’m doing. You [Wim] should’ve been captain…I just led us all into a battle and almost got us all killed.” Wim encourages her that she’s amazing and that she will figure “it” out. Frustrated and unsure of herself, she dismisses Wim saying, “I’m not a droid. I don’t just do whatever I’m told.” As she walks away, she comes to a realization and solves a puzzle to properly request the coordinates to At Attin through SM-33’s memory by making a very formulaic request to override anything the droid might be withholding in secret. Although they are unable to retrieve the coordinates immediately from SM-33 due to an algorithmic assault, the crew now knows they have the capability to return to their homes.
Each kid from the “skeleton crew” goes through their own moments of doubt, trial, and triumph. Their unexpected adventure and internal conflicts remind me heavily of Bilbo and the friction between his Baggins and Took sides. Tolkien informs the reader of Bilbo’s unsought after journey and personal transformation: “This is a story about how a Baggins had an adventure, and found himself saying and doing things altogether unexpected” (Hobbit, 16). Of course, this comes to fruition with the sudden turning up of Gandalf at Bilbo's front door and asking him to come on an adventure with him. Even as Bilbo attempts to avoid this call to adventure, he is bombarded by Dwarves and Gandalf’s incessant boundary-crossing. But thank goodness for Gandalf’s nosiness and unwillingness to take a “no thank you” or a “good morning,” for we would be without a wonderful tale if not for the Grey Pilgrim. There is no “wading” in the water for Bilbo, as he is thrown headfirst into adventure at every part of The Hobbit: he is called on to burgle the three trolls with zero experience, he is separated by the Dwarves in Goblin Town only to trick Gollum in a game of riddles that leads to his escape of the Misty Mountains, is forced to save the Dwarves from giant spiders and an Elvish prison, faces Smaug, and acts as an ambassador between the kingdoms of Dwarves, Elves, and Men. What begins as a domestic and well-to-do hobbit, ends as a seasoned adventurer who changes the course of the history of Middle-earth in the Third Age.
While there are plenty of episodes of Bilbo being tossed “Out of the Frying Pan [and] into the Fire,” Bilbo does not perfectly succeed in all his new endeavors. In fact, he quite imperfectly accomplishes his tasks, leading to negative personal choices, e.g., taking the Arkenstone for his own. Luckily–if luck you call it–these imperfect actions set the scenes for many wonderful events to occur and, even if not all were cheerful events, outcomes that lead to the future defeat of enemies and healing of Middle-earth.
Throughout the story, Bilbo’s thoughts and actions are either attributed to his Tookish side or his Baggins side. Readers are given phrases such as: “something Tookish woke up inside him” and “the Baggins part regretted what he did…” and “the Took side had won.” Bilbo’s Baggins side is the part of him that enjoys homely comforts such as smoking from a tobacco pipe, afternoon tea, and sitting by the fire while studying maps. This is the Bilbo that many keep to the front and center of their brain in imagining his character. However, his Took side is the side that hungers for adventure. It is rumored that a Took even married a fairy, i.e., an Elf. It is the Tookish side of him that inspires him to run to the Green Dragon to meet the Dwarves to officially join them on their adventure. An interplay between Bilbo’s Baggins and Took dances on as he marches along the road to the Lonely Mountain, but these sides, rather than being an ontological dichotomy, are actually reconciled as Bilbo deals with his insecurities, confronts danger, and attempts to embody virtue.
When Bilbo comes back to The Shire and his home at Bag End after his adventures, he is shocked to discover that he has been pronounced dead and that his belongings are being auctioned off. His newfound courage and confidence has equipped him to face this mundane obstacle. He acquires most of his stuff and is able to enjoy peace in his home as a hobbit who now joyously spends his free time in the company of wizards rather than naively going about his days with no anticipation for the unexpected.
The transformation of hobbits is taken to a further degree in The Return of the King chapter “The Scouring of the Shire.” Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin all return to The Shire after their perilous quest to ensure that the One Ring was destroyed. While the experiences of the hobbits in the Fellowship in The Lord of the Rings might have been of a more epic and darker nature than Bilbo in the The Hobbit, there are many similarities to what they meet when they return home. For one, they learn from a Hob Hayward that the four hobbits have been pronounced dead just like Bilbo at the end of his journey. However, unlike Bilbo’s return, rather than just Bag End being turned out, the four hobbits return to a Shire in desolation and being enacted by a Sackville-Baggins while being run by a mysterious “Sharkey,” who turns out to be Saruman.
Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin have experienced war and are dressed like soldiers upon their return. The Shire hobbits who have fallen in line with the orders from the “Chief” aka Lotho Sackville-Baggins recognize the transformation of their fellow hobbits and hesitantly join them in taking back The Shire. There are battles between hobbits and Sharkey’s hired henchmen, the releasing of prisoners, and the capturing of Saruman. Our hobbits are quite different from the pudgy partying little people they were in Book I of The Lord of the Rings. Each hobbit overcame their own challenges and gained the spoils of their triumphs to then put what they have learned into action for the betterment of their community for the wider lands of the Free Peoples of Middle-earth.
A heroic journey like this is one that frames many stories, myths, and legends throughout history. The hobbits of note in the Third Age as well as the kids from Skeleton Crew are caught up in this pull towards heroic transformation. During the season finale of Skeleton Crew (spoiler alert here), the kids are kidnapped by pirates and forced to be tools of deception, so that the pirates may take over the planet and its reserve of Old Republic credits with little to no resistance. The pirates’ plan is thwarted by the kids of the crew and their parents, who begin to fight for their children when the societal systems fail to do so after their disappearance. What started as a collection of suburban kids and parents turns into a group of empowered heroes who realize that they are the few with experience and power to stand up for themselves and call on others to resist the oppressive forces of the algorithmically determined existence by droids or forced on them by pirate invaders. In the end, the efforts of the kids of the Skeleton Crew and their parents lead to the defeat of the pirates and the reevaluation of their society without the direction of droids.
Like Bilbo’s divided self that comes back together, so the divided selves of the people of At Attin, bifurcated by the surrender to technological determinism and something akin to the Protestant work ethic, are restored. They recognize they can and are able to act on behalf of themselves and others. To be a whole person is to not divide the individual into many parts, but to embrace all sides of the human experience: peaceful times with our families and friends, the call to adventure, acceptance to fail and grow, and to fight for the right to foster a world (or galaxy) that is better for all who inhabit it. And it is, in part, why stories like these should continue to be created and circulated for the reenchantment and reconnection we experience from them without the pollution of manufactured fear, domination, or hyper-individualization. Whether we are faced with dragons, pirates, power-hungry despots, or even ourselves, tales like Skeleton Crew, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings give us examples of how we may be whole again.
Peris, Sebastian. “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew Ratings Set New Franchise Low.” Game Rant, 14 Jan. 2025. https://gamerant.com/star-wars-skeleton-crew-episodes-ratings-low-record/#:~:text=What%20are%20Star%20Wars:%20Skeleton,than%20382%20million%20minutes%20watched.
“Myykian.” Wookieepedia. https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Myykian.
I loved Skeleton Crew and it left me wanting more.