Wait..What?

Now, as many of you know, I pride myself on being a Star Wars Geek.  I have watched the Original Trilogy hundreds of times (the original VHS, THX remastered, DVD version, Blu-Ray and not to mention the theater releases).  I have seen the Prequels dozens of times (everyone agrees that they are not as good as the Original Trilogy).  I tend to think I am very knowledgeable about Star Wars, even the expanded universe (which is a totally different item) and I like to consider my Star Wars expertise well versed.

There are things that are quoted wrong but have become common place, things like "Luke, I am your father."...nope, Darth Vader never says that, he simply says, "No, I am your father." or "May the Force be with you", most people think Obi-Wan coined that phrase when in fact this quote is wrongly attributed to Obi Wan Kenobi who actually said: “The Force will be with you…always”, and “Remember, the Force will be with you…always”. Han Solo, on the other hand, did say this at one point in the film.

But!  There was something I learned just today when I read an article at lunch time.   The word Ewok was never once mentioned in Return of the Jedi.

You need to realize that there is a vast expanded Star Wars universe where people are constantly creating new Star Wars creatures (with the approval of Lucas of course).  The expanded universe technically started with the comic books in 1978, but never really made a huge presence until AFTER RotJ (Return of the Jedi, keep up with the acronyms) with novels, cartoons, etc.  A New Hope gave us Jawas and Sand People (or Tusken Raiders), Empire Strikes Back gave us Tauntauns and Ugnaughts and you would have thought that the mini-Wookies from the moon of Endor were at least mentioned as Ewoks....nope!

The fact the not one character ever utters the word Ewok never once occurred to me until I read this article today.  I didn't believe it at first, C-3PO must have said it during his interpreting the ancient language, Leia must have called Wicket (another thing that was never said in the movie) an Ewok, even Han must have said that the Ewoks served the Rebellion cause well.  Nope.

There is a simple answer to this though, toys.  Yes, toys.  The merchandise every boy had and the merchandise ONLY Lucas had the rights too (which is how he made most of his money).  If there weren't any Star Wars toys back then no one would have known who Wicket, Chief Chirpa or Logray were, let alone that there were called Ewoks.  Even the bald guy from Cloud City, with the metal horseshoe on the back of his head, his name is Lobot.  Hell, Boba Fett wasn't named in ESB, his name was first mentioned in RotJ, "Boba Fett?  Boba Fett where?"

I know there were guides and such back in the 1980s that name the characters, but it blew my mind about the Ewoks.  Who woulda thought?

By the way, save your money....