Stranglethorn crisis

In 3 ABY, Princess Kneesaa a Jari Kintaka started learning about the qualities of the three lessons, a moral code that every future leader of the tribe would need to master before assuming their role as ruler, during a daily lesson with her father, Chief Chirpa. Although Chirpa tried to explain how each lesson would prepare Kneesaa for the challenges ahead, the young Ewok was unable to fully understand the importance of the teaching. Chirpa left his daughter in Logray's hut to study several old manuscripts, believing that she simply needed more time.

However, Kneesaa immediately overheard her fellow Ewoks laughing and playing just outside the hut as she began to study. Distracted by the obvious fun the others were having, Kneesaa decided that her father would understand if she took a short break and joined her friends. Kneesaa accidentally knocked over a vial of plant growth formula as she hurried to leave the hut. The vial landed on a small stranglethorn plant that had been sitting by the windowsill, and its contents began to spill onto the plant.

When combined with the formula, the small carnivorous plant began to grow incredibly quickly, soon overwhelming Logray's entire hut. The young Ewoks continued to play outside the hut, oblivious to the impending danger that would soon engulf the entire village.

The stranglethorn vine continued to spread from its small pot, and eventually, one of its heads disrupted the Ewoks' play area. Kneesaa accidentally backed into the stranglethorn and was frightened by the enormous plant, but she was able to move out of the way quickly enough to avoid being eaten. The Ewoks cautiously observed the vine's movements but were unsure of what to do. Paploo, a warrior, attempted to grapple the vine on his own and managed to jump onto one of its heads. The massive plant, however, proved too powerful for the Ewok, and he was thrown away from the area.

The unsuccessful attack prompted the arrival of several additional plant heads, which began to pursue the Ewoks. Paploo barely managed to escape after one of the heads accidentally grabbed his drum instead of the Ewok himself. As the plant continued to grow, the Ewoks panicked and fled frantically from the ever-advancing stranglethorn. Kneesaa was able to reach her father and Shaman Logray to inform them of what had happened. Logray immediately understood what had occurred. He scolded the Ewok princess for her carelessness and came up with a plan to retrieve the antidote, which was made of Kete nectar, ganga root, and Trome sap, from his hut.

However, Kneesaa pointed out that the stranglethorn had begun to grow from Logray's hut, making it nearly impossible to obtain the antidote. At that moment, Wicket Wystri Warrick arrived to inform Chief Chirpa that the stranglethorn had blocked all village exits, preventing anyone from leaving. Logray deduced that the plant was attempting to take root in the forest floor, which would boost its growth and make it almost unstoppable.

Chief Chirpa, realizing the severity of the situation, ordered Wicket and Kneesaa to guard the supply lift, the only remaining exit from the village. Chirpa and Logray then departed to fight the vine and prevent it from reaching the ground below the village. The two young Ewoks remained where they had been instructed, but as soon as Chirpa and Logray were out of sight, a large stranglethorn head appeared at the supply lift. The vine managed to ensnare Kneesaa, but before it could devour the young Ewok, Wicket knocked her out of its grasp, causing both of them to fall onto the supply lift.

The stranglethorn lunged for the two Ewoks, but its jaws instead wrapped around the supply lift, causing it to plummet to the ground below. Wicket and Kneesaa avoided a gruesome death by jumping from the lift into a haystack, but because they had abandoned it, the plant easily seized control of the last exit. The plant had blocked off the last of the exits to the village by controlling the supply lift, cutting off all escape. Kneesaa, realizing that she was responsible for the village's predicament, decided that it was her responsibility to obtain the antidote's ingredients, and she and Wicket set out to find the necessary supplies.

The first ingredient needed for the antidote was Kete nectar, a sweet liquid that was obtained by the aggressive Ketes, a species of large insectoids. Wicket and Kneesaa eventually found a Kete hive, but the entrance was several meters up, and the hive's walls were too smooth to climb. Kneesaa, however, devised a plan after seeing a Kete walk up the hive's side using its sticky feet. The two Ewoks tied leaves around their feet, coating them with a sticky substance found around the hive, giving them the ability to climb straight up the hive's exterior.

The two Ewoks silently entered the Kete hive and watched as a line of Ketes slowly transported a batch of nectar pearls into a large storehouse inside. However, as the Ewoks attempted to sneak in after the Ketes, they were confronted by the Kete Queen, the largest Kete, who was displeased with their attempt to steal her nectar. The Ewoks fled from the Kete Queen and her warriors, eventually managing to escape the murderous insects. The Ewoks returned and entered the nectar pearl storehouse. Wicket, in his excitement to obtain a pearl, took one from the bottom of the pile, causing the entire mound to collapse.

As pearls streamed out of the storehouse, the Ketes finally discovered the trespassing Ewoks; however, the mass of pearls knocked the Ketes over, and the Ewoks rode on top of them to freedom. The Ewoks flew out the front door on top of the nectar pearls and landed in the sticky bog surrounding the Kete hive. The Kete Queen, seeing that the Ewoks were covered in a sticky goo, laughed at their predicament and allowed them to leave with a nectar pearl.

The next item on the list after obtaining Kete nectar was ganga root, a vibrant tuber that firmly anchored the plant to the ground. After leaving the Kete hive, the two Ewoks were fortunate enough to come across a supply of ganga roots, but no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't remove even one root from the ground. The Ewoks, despairing that their quest might be over, saw a barber bird come to eat the ganga plants. The large bird poked its beak into the base of the ganga plant, piercing the root and forcing a large amount of air out of the inflated tuber, as the Ewoks observed. The bird was then able to easily remove the ganga root.

Kneesaa and Wicket, realizing what they needed to do, grabbed a sharp staff and stabbed it into a nearby ganga root. Kneesaa grabbed the deflated ganga root and placed it in her pack, ready to leave. Unfortunately, the barber bird had finished eating the remaining ganga roots in the area and, noticing that the two Ewoks were holding the last one, pursued them in an attempt to steal their prize. The Ewoks fled through the forest, eventually escaping the bird when it accidentally plunged its beak into a log while lunging for them.

The two Ewoks traveled to the Trome tree, a large tree that sat atop a high cliff, after escaping the barber bird. Kneesaa, seeing that the Trome tree had one last branch, climbed onto Wicket's shoulders to remove the branch and collect its sap. A large Trome, however, appeared just as Kneesaa was about to grab the branch. The giant Trome, claiming that the Ewoks were going to cut down the Trome tree, advanced on them, forcing them back against the cliff's edge. Wicket, however, decided to fight back and lunged at the Trome, pushing him backward and collapsing him to the ground in a heap.

The giant Trome had actually been three Tromes standing on top of each other. The Tromes briefly retreated from the Ewoks because their scare tactic had failed and because of their small size in comparison to them. The two Ewoks returned to removing the branch after the Tromes were no longer a threat, but they were once again stopped by the Tromes, who had returned to confront them once more. The three Tromes begged the Ewoks not to remove the last branch from their tree. The Tromes apparently lived in the tree, and if the last branch was removed, their plant would die, leaving them homeless. Kneesaa, faced with a moral dilemma, decided against removing the branch. The young Ewok Princess, however, requested that the Tromes return with them to their village to help save it, which they gladly accepted.

The stranglethorn had taken several woklings captive back at the village, including Nippet, Wiley, and Malani. The giant plant had placed the woklings on top of the highest tree, where there was no chance of escape. Paploo had once again attempted to fight the stranglethorn, but had failed once more, finding himself in the giant plant's grasp as well, with the stranglethorn mercilessly tickling his foot with its vine. Kneesaa, Wicket, and the Tromes entered the village and found Chirpa and Logray struggling to keep the stranglethorn from reaching the ground. Chirpa was overjoyed to see his daughter and inquired as to whether she had obtained the antidote's ingredients. Kneesaa sadly informed her father that she had failed to obtain all of the ingredients, but that she had devised a plan to obtain the antidote that was still trapped in Logray's hut.

Kneesaa hoped that the Ewoks would be able to sneak into the Shaman's hut and retrieve the antidote by using the Tromes as a distraction. Kneesaa also realized how much danger the tribe's woklings were in and decided that she would be the one to save them. Wicket, at the same time, decided to carry out Kneesaa's plan and led the Tromes to Logray's hut. Wicket secretly entered the hut and grabbed the antidote as the Tromes began to distract the plant heads by running around frantically. Kneesaa, meanwhile, used the sticky shoes she had worn to enter the Kete hive to scale the tree where the woklings had been trapped, rescuing them from the hungry stranglethorn. Kneesaa and the woklings equipped each of the woklings with a pair of sticky shoes and fled the large tree, reuniting with the rest of the tribe.

Wicket and the Tromes returned to Logray and Chirpa, who were fighting for their lives against the stranglethorn, with the antidote in hand. The plant had nearly reached the forest floor and was fighting desperately to get past the two Ewoks. Logray, struggling against a particularly vicious vine, instructed Wicket to place a drop of the antidote into each stranglethorn head's mouth. Wicket came up with a plan to feed the stranglethorn the antidote, gathered a bag of acorns, and coated them with it. Wicket and the Tromes began throwing the acorns into the mouths of each head, causing them to shrink immediately, now that the antidote was in projectile form.

As more and more vines shrank as a result of the acorns being distributed, the rest of the tribe began to work together to distribute the acorns to the remaining stranglethorn heads. The stranglethorn was eventually reduced to its original size, and the tribe cheered Wicket's quick thinking. As the Tromes and Ewoks celebrated together, Wicket held the defeated stranglethorn above his head.

Kneesaa went to Logray after the crisis was over to promise him that she would no longer skip her studies and that she would diligently learn the three lessons. Logray, however, revealed to Kneesaa that she had already learned all three lessons during her quest to retrieve the antidote's ingredients. Chirpa congratulated her daughter on her achievement and declared that she would one day make a great chieftess. The crisis also resulted in the discovery of the usefulness of sticky shoes, and even Logray, one of the tribe's oldest Ewoks, learned to use the leaf shoes to climb the village's trees.

The crisis was first depicted in "The Three Lessons," the eleventh episode of the animated television series Ewoks. Bob Carrau wrote the episode, which premiered on November 16, 1985.