Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for Star Wars #67
The Star Wars universe is filled with heroes and colorful supporting characters, and one of the most confusing has finally been confirmed in canon. At long last, fans of Rogue One and Solo can set aside their confusion, as the mystery of Benthic Two-Tubes and his place in the larger saga has been explained.
No other character so cleanly embodies the passionate Star Wars fandom, and its shift to the new Disney films than Benthic Two-Tubes–well technically, Benthic and his “eggmate” Edrio. Identical to the naked eye, the pair of freedom fighters made their debut in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, unforgettable thanks to their black eyes and tubed breathing masks (for which they’re named). As fighters operating under Saw Gerrera and his rebel Partisans, their skills and extreme ideologies were obvious. But when one of the Two-Tubes showed up in Solo: A Star Wars Story, a case of mistaken identity led to confusion, speculation, disagreement, and eventually a lack of any sense of the filmmakers’ intended connection or meaning.
Sure, the mystery of the Two-Tubes’ role in the Star Wars saga may not be as compelling a mystery as, say, whether or not Han Solo is Rey’s biological father. But for fans of the entire Star Wars mythology and its new canon, it’s just as significant. Which is why the Star Wars comics have arrived to help settle this debate, while forging a new storyline between Rogue One and Solo.
EDRIO & BENTHIC TWO-TUBES
For anyone who may not have been following the many twists and turns of the Family Two-Tubes, or assumed (like most viewers) that they were only ever seeing ONE character, the duo made their first appearance as lieutenants of Saw Gerrera. First sent to capture Bodhi Rook, then later Jyn Erso and her team, they returned both groups to Saw Gerrera. As part of his Partisan militia, they didn’t need to actually speak to be downright chilling. And while Edrio Two-Tubes was the first Partisan to be detailed ahead of Rogue One‘s release, it was his eggmate Benthic who soon stole the spotlight. The confusion and mix-ups began soon after, when Solo: A Star Wars Story turned the clock back more than a decade before the destruction of the Death Star, and revealed its own Two-Tubed Tognath.
Well, “revealed” may be too strong a word, since the filmmakers seemed to be playing coy to begin with. At first, the soldier wearing a large, chrome-faced helmet as a member of Enfys Nest’s Cloud-Riders was referred to only as “Tubes.” Still, it didn’t take long for fans to latch onto that similar nickname and notice that–helmet aside–the Cloud-Rider’s wardrobe was a perfect match for the Two-Tubes more than a decade later. He’s not alone either, since the Cloud-Rider Weazel appeared in The Phantom Menace, portrayed by Warwick Davis.
The only real difference is that in the case of Two-Tubes, the options are doubled: was it Benthic, or Edrio ambushing Han Solo with Enfys Nest? Solo writer Jon Kasdan confirmed the cameo as Edrio Two-Tubes once fans noticed it… before being proven wrong soon after.
STAR WARS COMICS MAKE THE LINK
While it’s usually the fans who are in the wrong when telling a movie’s writer about their own lore, this was the exception. Despite Kasdan’s clarification, the costume beneath the aforementioned helmet was noted to be an exact match to Benthic Two-Tubes, and not Edrio (who is fitted with a large, distinct, Vader-esque chestpiece). When the details were pointed out, Kasdan took to Twitterto clarify his own confusion: “I REQUESTED Edrio but MAY have actually gotten Benthic. You never can tell with those Tognath eggmates.” That’s about as explicit as the identity of the Cloud-Rider Two-Tubes ever got, but thankfully the freedom fighter’s continued story in Marvel’s Star Wars #67 confirms the truth, once and for all.
The issue concludes the story titled “The Scourging of Sho-Torun,” the final arc of writer Kieron Gillen’s run on the series, which pulls the Partisan survivors of Jedha back into the fray. Not just surviving the first demonstration of the Death Star’s power, but getting a chance to avenge their dead comrades with even more devastation. The story features Benthic Two-Tubes prominently as the leader of the Partisans, having served as the second-in-command to Saw Gerrera up until his death. After plotting a planetary genocide of his own as revenge for Jedha–which he was eventually talked down from by Leia–the original trilogy heroes deem it best to let the Partisans go their own way.
Before they do, Han Solo has some parting words with the Tognath freedom fighter. As if fully aware of the controversy surrounding the Two-Tubes, the Cloud-Riders, and their conflicting histories, Han sets the record straight.
This latest Star Wars comic arc, set after the first Star Wars but before Empire Strikes Back, took clever steps in linking this adult Han Solo to the younger version presented in his origin movie–even including a subtle defense of Soloactor Alden Ehrenreich. But the most surprising addition to the Star Warsuniverse comes when Han explicitly remembers that Benthic Two-Tubes once fought with Enfys Nest, a hero of the earliest days of rebellion against the Empire. The intervening decade saw the two switch moral stances–Han shifting from an outlaw to a rebel hero, Benthic from a rebel to a terrorist–but Han knows no path is set. Observing Leia, the former smuggler tells Benthic that it’s never too late to change, especially if he has a good reason to do it.
There’s no way of knowing exactly what comes next for Benthic, since those stories have yet to be written. But now that this identity crisis has been set into stone for good, the larger question is what Edrio Two-Tubes was doing all those years. But that is a story for another day…
Star Wars #67 will be available at your local comic book shop on June 19th, or direct from Marvel Comics.
Source: Star Wars Finally Explains THAT Rogue One/Han Solo Cameo