Trebla

Trebla was a male Jinda who lived among a group of his species on the Forest Moon of Endor years before 4 ABY. Their home was an agricultural settlement that fell in the domain of the Rock Wizard, a Force-sensitive being who protected the Jindas in exchange for food obtained from their farming. One day, Trebla and four other Jindas brought some pie to the Rock Wizard's fortress. After losing a tooth during his meal, their protector inferred from the pain that the Jindas had attempted to poison him, and Trebla and the others fled the fortress as the pie was thrown back at them. The Rock Wizard subsequently banished the Jindas from their home and cursed them: if they ever returned or remained in one place for too long, the Jindas would be attacked by large rocks. During a rainfall, Trebla and the others left their home on a caravan of awors—beasts they had formerly used to plow fields—and, suddenly nomadic, set themselves up as the Travelling Jindas. Trebla became a magician among entertainers who journeyed throughout Endor's forests and performed for audiences that they encountered, asking only for food and one night's lodging in return.

In the latter half of 3 ABY, the Travelling Jindas arrived at the Ewok settlement of Bright Tree Village. Trebla and some of his fellows dismounted from the caravan and watched as Bondo, their chief, convinced the leaders of the village to allow them to perform. The Jindas then set up a stage and put on a show; when Trebla's act came on, he waved his hands and made it appear as if his assistant—who actually wore a harness attached to ropes—levitated above the stage. The Ewok audience was captivated by his "powers." At the performance's end, the entire company returned to the stage as Bondo said goodnight. The Travelling Jindas slept in tents around the village that night and set off the next morning with a stowaway: the young Ewok Latara, who felt that her flute-playing abilities would be better suited to the Jindas' lifestyle.

That night, the group came across sleeping tree goats and set up another show. Bondo recruited Latara to be Trebla's assistant, and the two Jindas fit her with a harness before taking the stage. When Bondo introduced Trebla, he waved his hands to make the young Ewok "levitate," but a tree goat took a bite out of one of her ropes, forcing Latara to grab onto a nearby branch and lower herself back onto the stage. The lethargic audience failed to take notice of the entire performance, let alone the slip-up, and the dejected Jindas left the next morning without their hoped-for tips. Latara was kidnapped that day by two Duloks, but four of her Ewok friends caught up to the Jindas and convinced them to perform for the Dulok tribe that night in order to mount a rescue. They took their caravan to the Dulok Swamp, where the Dulok Queen Urgah eagerly consented to a performance.

When Trebla was brought on stage, Bondo called for an audience volunteer and immediately picked Latara, whom the Dulok King Gorneesh was forcing to babysit his three unruly children. Bondo distracted the gathered Duloks as Trebla fit Latara with a harness, the ropes to be pulled by her friends, who were positioned above the stage. Trebla's attempts at faux-telekinesis were thwarted by a knot in one of the ropes, and as Latara played her flute to stall for time, the other Ewoks worked to untie the problem snag. The rowdy crowd responded by throwing fruit, which prompted Trebla and Bondo to vacate the stage; the other Ewoks in turn crashed onto the stage and were forced to flee from Gorneesh's soldiers. The Jindas quickly packed up and left themselves. After making camp in a nearby clearing, they were joined by the five Ewoks, who had managed to escape from their pursuers. Having had a change of heart, Latara decided to return home with her friends.

Not long afterward, the Travelling Jindas made camp by a waterfall for some relaxation. On three consecutive days, Trebla reminded Bondo of the Rock Wizard's curse and suggested that they move on, but the comfortable chief repeatedly shrugged off his concerns. After his third snub, a frustrated Trebla wandered into the forest, where he spied several large floating rocks. He shouted to his comrades that the curse was upon them, and the Jindas quickly packed up and left. They shortly came upon a group of Skandits, and when they dismounted from the caravan to promote their show, Trebla and Bondo overheard a familiar flute melody. Latara and her friends were imprisoned by the Skandits in the trunk of a tree, and when Trebla and Bondo's attempts to communicate with the Ewoks were met with hostility by the Skandits, they walked away to plan both the show and a prison break.

During the evening's performance, two dancers approached the prison's two Skandit guards and incapacitated them by rubbing cloths in their faces. Trebla used the opportunity to release the Ewoks and provide them with a large stage costume as a disguise. He told them to make their way to waiting awors, but a side trip across the stage caused both the costume and the ruse to collapse. Ewoks and Jindas alike fled from the angry Skandits, and the awor caravan arrived at Bright Tree Village the next day. The Ewok Chief Chirpa thanked the Jindas for bringing Latara and her friends safely home, but the mirth and merriment were interrupted by large approaching rocks. The Jindas were given refuge in the treetop village, and as the floating rocks maintained a groundside vigil, Bondo told the Ewoks the tale of the Rock Wizard's curse. Logray, the village's shaman, invoked the power of the Light Spirit and called upon vines from the forest to wrap around the rocks and tie them in place. Trebla, Bondo, and several of the Ewoks then descended to the ground, but a celebration was forestalled by the appearance of a fissure in the forest floor, out of which rose the Rock Wizard.

Trebla and Bondo cowered on the ground, and when the Wizard demanded to know who had countered his magic, the two Jindas immediately pointed out Logray. The Rock Wizard was unswayed by the shaman's attempts at reasoning, and he used his magic to create more fissures in the ground, one of which sprouted a tall tree that crashed through and destroyed part of the Ewok village. His terror ceased only when he spotted his missing tooth, worn on a string around the neck of the Ewok Princess Kneesaa a Jari Kintaka. Kintaka had believed it to be a "lucky stone," but she returned it to the Wizard, who placed it in his mouth and immediately realized that it had been the true source of his pain. Trebla and Bondo stood up from their cowering as the Rock Wizard happily declared that the Jindas could return to their home, and the magician joined in a round of good-natured laughter.

As the Travelling Jindas' magician, Trebla dazzled audiences with his skills in "levitation," which were in fact parlor tricks achieved by the use of ropes and harnesses. He wore magician's garb from head to toe that included a purple hat and robes as well as blue gloves. Trebla sported the outfit at all times, even when the Jindas were not performing, and during the time that they worked as farmers. Only Trebla's black-pupiled eyes and long brown hair were visible to others.

The Rock Wizard's curse was a worry of Trebla's, and when his fellows chose to remain sedentary, indifference toward his lone voice of dissent caused him to frustratedly mutter to himself. He displayed no bravery when confronted with the curse, fleeing from attacking rocks, cowering in front of the Rock Wizard, and immediately fingering Logray as the person who had countered the Wizard's magic. However, Trebla helped Latara escape from both the Skandits and the Duloks. He took something of a shine to his temporary assistant, referring to her as the Jindas' favorite Ewok.

Trebla appears in "The Travelling Jindas" and "The Curse of the Jindas," two episodes of the Ewoks animated television series that first aired in October 1985. Both episodes were written by Bob Carrau and directed by Raymond Jafelice, and the former was released on DVD in 2004 as part of Tales from the Endor Woods, a compilation of four Ewoks episodes. The DVD subtitles reveal the correct spelling of the character's name. Although he does not have any lines in "The Travelling Jindas," Trebla was voiced by Alan Fawcett in The Curse of the Jindas, although uncredited. In both episodes, Trebla's appearance is disguised by his hat and robes, but this article assumes he is a Jinda due to his Jinda-like hair and numerous references to his troupe being composed of Jindas. Similarly, Trebla's sex is never explicitly revealed, but this article treats the character as a male due to the contrast between his masculine voice and the more feminine voices of several female Jindas.