Marketing Genius
[After you’ve read this, feel free to check out my followup post]
(Well well well — John Gruber linked to me(!) and he used the term “is compiling”, as in “is currently doing so.” I hate to disappoint, so I’ll be actively updating the below list as items occur to me.)
(Also: A few folks have observed that the IMDSB script for Return of the Jedi is the third draft, not the final. What we really need here are movie dialogue transcripts. I’ll tackle that one at some point. However, the exclusion of certain terms even in later drafts is still notable.)
(Aaaaaaaand many thanks to everyone who caught my oversights and/or suggested new items.)
A few minutes ago, I read this post by John Gruber about this article by Dan Vebber about how the word “Ewok” — a household term — is never actually spoken in Return of the Jedi.
At this point in time — thanks to books, toys, and licensing — everyone and every in the Star Wars universe has a name, species, or designation, but what other relatively well-known Star Wars terms were never actually used in the movies?
A cursory scan of the IMDSB scripts of the original Star Wars trilogy reveals the following by-no-means comprehensive list:
Terms used notably late in the trilogy
- “TIE Fighter”: not used until the end of Return of the Jedi
- “Tatooine”: not used until the end of The Empire Strikes Back
- “Star Destroyer”: not used until The Empire Strikes Back
- “Lightsaber”: Once in A New Hope, not again until Jedi
Terms only used once throughout the trilogy
- “Proton torpedoes”: Spoken once, in A New Hope
- “X-Wing”: Spoken once, in The Empire Strikes Back
- “Organa”: Once, in Return of the Jedi†
- “Boba Fett”: Once (well, technically twice in one line) in Return of the Jedi
Terms never spoken in dialogue, but used in script
- Y-Wing
- Snowspeeder
- Tusken Raider
- Tagge &
- Motti (the two guys arguing in the Death Star conference room)
- Wampa
- Cloud City††
- Sith (I know, right? Maybe my drafts are lying to me.)
Terms neither spoken in dialogue nor used in script
- Palpatine
- A-Wing
- B-Wing
- AT-AT
- AT-ST
- TIE Interceptor
- TIE Bomber
A note on “household” terms
A number of people have suggested other terms (“Mon Mothma” and “Coruscant”, for example) that I noticed but chose not to include, either because they’re not quite common enough (sorry, Mothma) or weren’t even in existence at the time (Coruscant).
I grew up with the Bantam Spectra expanded-universe books as well as the movies, so there are plenty of terms that by that era were commonplace to an avid Star Wars fan. The real fascination of this list, however, is how the original Star Wars generation (of which I am about a decade too young to claim membership) grew up with terms like “TIE Interceptor” on their tongue, despite having only been exposed to those terms in the original wave of Star Wars marketing collateral (essentially, toys).
† At least in the third draft. If anyone wants to check this one, be my guest, I’m not fast-forwarding through any of my multiple VHS copies to confirm :)
†† not technically “scripted”, but spoken by C3PO in his story to the Ewoks
