Jokes
Jokes on Decipher Star Wars CCG cards sit in a card's title, lore or game text and have no effect on play. They include nods to the films' cast and crew, references to songs, films, books and advertising, puns, Decipher in-jokes, jokes about scenes in the films, deadpan lore, gags that the card itself acts out, and running gags repeated across several cards. Hidden pictures and icons are listed at Easter eggs, and titles that scramble real names at Anagrams.
Each joke shows the card, with its original Decipher face from the card lists on Decipher's own website, beside a picture of what it refers to, then explains the reference. Jokes are grouped by type and listed alphabetically within each type, and each one names the set its card comes from. Cards that share one joke are shown together in one block, and each running gag is one block that takes its cards one at a time.
Jokes by type
Pop-culture references
All My Urchins
Type: Pop-culture reference · Set: Cloud City · Text: "One little, two little, three little Bespinites."
All My Children was a long-running ABC soap opera.[1] The title swaps "Children" for "Urchins", meaning ragged street children. The lore follows the counting rhyme "One little, two little, three little Indians" with Bespinites. The rhyme goes back to Septimus Winner's 1868 song "Ten Little Injuns", whose cover shows the ten "Injuns" of the title dancing in a row and whose chorus begins "One little, two little, three little, four little, five little 'Injun' boys".[2][3]
Bespin Motors Void Spider THX 1138
Type: Pop-culture reference · Set: A New Hope · Text: Bespin Motors Void Spider THX 1138 (title)
THX 1138 (1971) is George Lucas's first major film, named after its hero's serial number. THX is also Lucas's sound company and theatre sound system, and Luke told the Imperial officer they were transferring Chewie from cellblock 1138.[4] The card gives the shuttle that number as part of its model name. Decipher's Art Show listed the title among its Easter eggs.[4]
Blow Parried
Type: Pop-culture reference · Set: Reflections III · Text: "Offense may win battles, but defense keeps you alive long enough to mount an offense."
The lore reworks the sports saying "offense sells tickets, defense wins championships", also quoted as "offense wins games, defense wins championships" and often credited to Alabama football coach Bear Bryant.[5] To parry is to block a blow, here in a lightsaber duel.
Boba Fett With Blaster Rifle
Type: Pop-culture reference · Set: Enhanced Premiere · Text: "Notorious bounty hunter. 'As you wish.'"
The lore is a double reference. In The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Darth Vader tells the bounty hunters "No disintegrations", and Boba Fett answers "As you wish."[6] The same words are the catchphrase of Westley in The Princess Bride, William Goldman's 1973 novel and the 1987 film, where the farm boy answers every order from Buttercup with "As you wish".[7][8]
Boelo
Type: Pop-culture reference · Set: Special Edition · Text: "Naroon Cuthus' predecessor as Jabba's right hand man. Sees what he wants to see. Hears what he wants to hear. Has a pet womp rat named Worra."
"Hears what he wants to hear" echoes Simon & Garfunkel's "The Boxer" (1968): "Still, a man hears what he wants to hear / And disregards the rest".[9] "Sees what he wants to see" is a common saying.
Brainiac
Type: Pop-culture reference · Set: A New Hope · Text: "BoShek nicknamed this male Siniteen 'Brainiac' due to his ability to calculate hyperspace coordinates in his head. 'He's the brains, sweetheart!'"
Brainiac is a DC Comics supervillain, first seen in Action Comics #242 (1958), an alien artificial intelligence; in 1983 he was given a robot body with a giant skull.[10] The Siniteen on the card has an oversized, exposed brain. The lore ends with Han's line about Luke in Star Wars, "He's the brains, sweetheart."[11] The game text does the calculating: the card's power is the square root of a formula that ends "+ π", with π printed to 27 decimal places, and its destiny number is π.
Captain Yutani
Type: Pop-culture reference · Set: Endor · Text: Name. Lore: "Scout and heavy weapons specialist. Carries custom repulsorlift compensators to allow fluid movement with light artillery weapons."
Yutani is a background Rebel officer at the briefing in Return of the Jedi; Decipher's Endor card gave him his name and lore.[12] Weyland-Yutani is the corporation in the Alien films.[13] Ron Cobb, who designed for Alien (1979), made up the name from "Weylan", one letter away from British Leyland, and "Yutani", the surname of a Japanese neighbor of his.[14] Cobb had earlier designed several of the creatures in the Mos Eisley cantina for Star Wars.[15] The lore fits the sequel Aliens (1986) as well: the Colonial Marines' heavy "smart guns" were machine guns mounted on a Steadicam, a camera support that keeps movement smooth,[16] much as Yutani's "repulsorlift compensators" allow "fluid movement" with his heavy weapons.
Cyborg Construct
Type: Pop-culture reference · Set: Cloud City · Text: "Advertised as, 'Artificial intelligence worth shaving your head for.'"
The lore is written as an advertising slogan for the implant. Lobot, who wears it around the back of his head, is bald, so the ad calls it "worth shaving your head for".
Dash
Type: Pop-culture reference · Set: Cloud City · Text: "See Luke run. Run Luke, run!"
Dick and Jane were simple American reading books for young children, known for lines like "See Spot run."[17] Page 8 of the reader Fun with Dick and Jane has both halves of the lore's pattern on one page: "Run, Dick." and "'See me run,' said Sally. 'See Spot run.'"[18] An earlier reader, More Dick and Jane Stories (1934), has "How Spot ran! Dick saw Spot run."[19]
P. D. Eastman's picture book Go, Dog. Go! (1961) is another possible model.[20] Its title has the same shape as the lore's second sentence: a verb, the one spoken to, then the verb again, "Go, Dog. Go!" beside "Run Luke, run!" Only the Dick and Jane readers also match the first sentence, "See Luke run.", so they are the closer match, but both readings are possible.
Don't Tread On Me
Type: Pop-culture reference · Set: Special Edition · Text: Don't Tread On Me (title). Lore: "Han did not take kindly to Jabba's posturing."
"Don't Tread on Me" is the motto of the Gadsden flag of 1775, written under a coiled rattlesnake.[21] The 1997 Special Edition of Star Wars put back a deleted scene in which Han meets Jabba in the Mos Eisley docking bay. Harrison Ford had walked through the place where the computer-made Jabba's tail would be, so Han was moved digitally to step on Jabba's tail, and Jabba squeals.[22] The card shows that scene, and its title is the snake's warning, from a Hutt whose tail has just been stepped on.
Eventually You'll Lose
Type: Pop-culture reference · Set: Tatooine · Text: "In the end, Watto finally came to understand the agony of defeat."
ABC's Wide World of Sports opened each show with "the thrill of victory ... and the agony of defeat".[23] In The Phantom Menace, Watto bets on the podrace and loses Anakin to Qui-Gon.[24] The lore borrows the show's phrase for his loss.
Frozen Dinner
Type: Pop-culture reference · Set: Hoth · Text: "They're Gr-r-reat!"
Tony the Tiger is the cartoon mascot of Kellogg's Frosted Flakes cereal, and his catchphrase is "They're gr-r-reat!"[25] A 1955 Kellogg's magazine ad has Tony tell Groucho Marx "You bet your life they're Gr-r-reat!"[26] The lore describes a frozen Rebel served as a meal, then ends with Tony's cry.
Furry Fury
Type: Pop-culture reference · Set: Hoth · Text: "Hoth hath no fury like a Wookiee scorned."
The saying "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" means no anger is fiercer than that of a woman rejected. It comes from William Congreve's 1697 play The Mourning Bride: "Nor Hell a fury like a woman scorn'd."[27][28] The lore swaps "Hell" for Hoth and the woman for a Wookiee, after Han's line "All right, don't lose your temper." The bullwhip on Han's hip is listed at Easter eggs.
High Anxiety
Type: Pop-culture reference · Set: Hoth · Text: High Anxiety (title)
High Anxiety is Mel Brooks's 1977 comedy, a parody of Alfred Hitchcock's films.[29] The card has the same title. Decipher's artists also hid Alfred Hitchcock references in card art: the lights on Retract The Bridge spell "VERTIGO", and Undercover has "Good Evening", the opening words of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (see Easter eggs).[30][31]
Hunchback
Type: Pop-culture reference · Set: A New Hope · Text: "What hump?"
In Mel Brooks's 1974 comedy Young Frankenstein, Frederick Frankenstein meets his new servant Igor, who walks with a large hump. Frederick offers, as a surgeon, to help with the hump, and Igor answers "What hump?"[32] The card's lore is Igor's answer, word for word.
Jabba's Influence
Type: Pop-culture reference · Set: Special Edition · Text: "Jabba makes offers one cannot refuse. Smugglers, thieves and competitors who do not acquiesce have been rumored to wake up with a bantha's head in their bed."
In The Godfather (1972), Vito Corleone, the Godfather of the title, played by Marlon Brando,[33] says "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse." The American Film Institute ranked it the second-greatest quotation in American film.[34] When the film producer Jack Woltz turns the Corleone family down, he wakes up with the severed head of his prized racehorse in his bed.[35] The lore uses both, with the head of a bantha in place of the horse.
Leia Of Alderaan
Type: Pop-culture reference · Set: Cloud City · Text: "The face that launched a thousand starships."
In Greek legend, Helen of Troy was so beautiful that a thousand Greek ships sailed to war to win her back from Troy.[27] Christopher Marlowe's play Doctor Faustus calls her "the face that launch'd a thousand ships".[36] The lore says the same of Leia, with starships.
Lift Tube Escape
Type: Pop-culture reference · Set: Cloud City · Text: "First floor: parasols and powdered blue milk. Second floor: bantha skin rugs, bog-wing drapes and juri juice tables. Third floor: a squadron of Imperial stormtroopers."
The lore is a department-store lift announcement, like the theme tune of the BBC sitcom Are You Being Served? (1972–1985), which is set in the Grace Brothers department store.[37] Over the ring of a cash register, a lift girl (the voice of Stephanie Gathercole) calls out each floor and what it sells:[38][39]
Ground floor: perfumery, stationery and leather goods, wigs and haberdashery, kitchenware and food. Going up! First floor: telephones, gents' ready-made suits, shirts, socks, ties, hats, underwear and shoes. Going up! Second floor: carpets, travel goods and bedding, material, soft furnishings, restaurant and teas. Going down!
Real department stores printed the same kind of floor-by-floor list. A 1907 "Store Directory" advertisement for Holden & Stone, a department store in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, begins "First floor, front: Umbrellas, Ladies' Neckwear, Leather Goods" and lists carpets, rugs and draperies further down.[40] The card's second floor has the same goods in Star Wars form: rugs for carpets, drapes for furnishings, and tables for the restaurant. Its third floor, which the song never reaches, holds the stormtroopers. The goods are:
- Parasols: sunshades, in place of the umbrella counter.
- Powdered blue milk: Blue Milk, the "nutrient-rich beverage common in moisture farm communities" of its card's lore, sold as a powder.
- Bantha skin rugs: rugs made from the hide of a Bantha, a pack animal "three meters tall".
- Bog-wing drapes: curtains named for the bog-wing, a winged predator of Dagobah's jungle.
- Juri juice tables: tables for Juri Juice, a drink "served in many cantinas and tapcafes".
- A squadron of Imperial stormtroopers: the Empire's Stormtroopers, waiting on the third floor.
Lost In Space
Type: Pop-culture reference · Set: Dagobah · Text: "Congratulations on purchasing the TIE/ln starfighter by Sienar. … it should provide you with years of worry-free subjugation."
Lost in Space (1965–1968) was a CBS television series about a family lost in space with their Robot.[41] The title fits a TIE fighter stranded in space. The lore is written as a cheerful product warranty, and "worry-free" was stock advertising copy: a 1959 Kelly-Springfield tire ad promised that "the greatest joy in driving is driving Worry-Free!"[42] The warranty ends by promising "years of worry-free subjugation": the product is a fighter, and what it gives its owner, the Empire, is the subjugation of others. A hidden picture of the Robot in the card's Effect symbol is listed at Easter eggs.
Lost Relay
Type: Pop-culture reference · Set: Dagobah · Text: "…forwarding orders to the squadron via subspace AE-35 Transceivers."
In 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), the ship's computer HAL 9000 reports that the AE-35 unit, which keeps the ship's antenna aimed at Earth, is about to fail.[43] That fault begins the film's breakdown of communications. The lore names the starfighters' comm relays "AE-35 Transceivers" on a card about lost communications.
Mobquet A-1 Deluxe Floater
Type: Pop-culture reference · Set: A New Hope · Text: "…Features include automated steering and fine Corellian leather."
"Corinthian leather" was an advertising term for the leather seats in Chrysler cars, first used in 1974. The actor Ricardo Montalbán spoke it in Chrysler's advertisements, and it is best remembered from the 1975 Chrysler Cordoba. The leather was made in Newark, New Jersey, not in Corinth.[44] The lore sells the landspeeder the same way, with one letter changed: Corellian, from the Star Wars planet Corellia, in place of Corinthian.
None Shall Pass
Type: Pop-culture reference · Set: Jabba's Palace · Text: None Shall Pass (title); "Jabba's Gamorrean guards keep a watchful eye for unwelcome guests."
In the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the Black Knight guards a bridge and tells King Arthur "None shall pass". He refuses to stand aside even after Arthur cuts off his arms, insisting "'Tis but a scratch".[45] The card gives the Black Knight's line to Jabba's Gamorrean guards, who in the lore watch the palace for unwelcome guests.
Quick Draw
Type: Pop-culture reference · Set: Dagobah · Text: "It's high noon on Dagobah, his droid's reined in and Luke's got a fistful of credits."
High Noon (1952) is a western that builds to a gunfight at noon, and A Fistful of Dollars (1964) is a western starring Clint Eastwood.[46][47] The lore borrows both titles for Luke on Dagobah. "His droid's reined in" plays on a cowboy reining in his horse: to rein in is to stop or slow a horse by pulling the reins.[48] Luke's droid is R2-D2, who rides in his X-wing during the attack on the Death Star and goes with him to Dagobah.[49] Read this way, R2-D2, who helps Luke handle his fighter in space, takes the place of the cowboy's horse. A "quick draw" is a fast pull of a gun from its holster.
R-3PO (Ar-Threepio)
Type: Pop-culture reference · Set: Hoth · Text: "Designed as a response to the threat of Imperial espionage droids. Joins a droid pool and uncovers spies. Has tattoo reading "Thank The Maker" on left posterior plating."
"Posterior" is a polite word for the backside, so the lore gives a prim protocol droid a tattoo on his bottom. Before the Hoth set came out in 1996, tattoos on the backside were already a running joke about the singer and actress Cher. In the 1989 music video for her song "If I Could Turn Back Time", she sings to a crowd of sailors on the battleship USS Missouri in a black one-piece over a fishnet body stocking that left most of her tattooed buttocks bare, and the outfit made the video controversial.[50][51] She kept showing the tattoo on stage: on her Love Hurts Tour, which played Wembley Arena in London on 6 and 7 May 1992, she performed in a backless costume over fishnet tights that left it in plain view.[52][53] In 1993 Cher made fun of her own image by re-recording her 1965 hit "I Got You Babe" with Beavis and Butt-Head, the two snickering teenage cartoon characters of MTV's Beavis and Butt-Head (first run 1993–1997), a series in which they mostly sit on a couch and mock music videos. The song was on the album The Beavis and Butt-Head Experience (November 1993), not in an episode of the show. In its video the pair choose their dream woman from a "MENU: CHICKS", and Butt-Head says "We need a chick that's got tattoos on her butt"; the woman they get is Cher.[54][55][56][57] The print ads for the single reused an old photograph of Cher from behind, with the tattoo on her backside redrawn as the faces of Beavis and Butt-Head.[55] Years later Cher joked that her tattoos carried words: "On one cheek it said, 'Hi sailor,' and on the other it said, 'New in town.'"[58]
The words on R-3PO's tattoo are C-3PO's own catchphrase: "Thank the maker! This oil bath is going to feel so good," he says in Star Wars (1977), the droid's way of saying "thank God".[11] The Premiere card Thank The Maker takes its title from the line, and its lore says "C-3PO used phrase upon getting a much-needed cleansing oil bath." R-3PO is a red droid built like Threepio, so he wears Threepio's words where a person might have a tattoo on the backside. Lower-back tattoos, later nicknamed "tramp stamps", were also becoming popular in the late 1990s.[59]
Rolling, Rolling, Rolling
Type: Pop-culture reference · Set: Theed Palace · Text: Rolling, Rolling, Rolling (title)
The theme song of the western series Rawhide (1959–1965), sung by Frankie Laine, opens "Rollin', rollin', rollin'".[60][61] The card's title repeats the word three times in the same way. Its lore is plain: destroyer droids "can roll up into a ball and move swiftly into a conflict."
Smoke Screen
Type: Pop-culture reference · Set: Cloud City · Text: "Warning: The Alderaanian Medical Association has determined that inhaling carbon-freezing smoke can be hazardous to your health."
The Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act of 1965 made cigarette packs sold in the United States carry the warning "Caution: Cigarette Smoking May Be Hazardous to Your Health." Packs carried it from January 1966.[62][63] The Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act, signed in 1970, replaced it with "Warning: The Surgeon General Has Determined That Cigarette Smoking Is Dangerous to Your Health." The Surgeon General is the top US health officer.[64]
The lore joins the two warnings, and the two pictures show one each:
- From the 1970 warning: the opening, "Warning: The Alderaanian Medical Association has determined that", follows "Warning: The Surgeon General Has Determined That". The pack pictured is a later one: it still names the Surgeon General, but in newer wording.
- From the 1966 warning: the ending, "can be hazardous to your health", follows "May Be Hazardous to Your Health" on the Winston pack, with "can" for "may".
The danger is carbon-freezing smoke, and the warning comes from an "Alderaanian Medical Association" in place of the Surgeon General.
Smuggler's Blues
Type: Pop-culture reference · Set: Dagobah · Text: "It's the lure of easy credits. It's got a very strong appeal. Perhaps you'd understand better wearing my flight suit. It's the ultimate special modification, it's the smuggler's blues."
"Smuggler's Blues" is a Glenn Frey song about the drug trade.[65] Its chorus begins "It's the lure of easy money, it's got a very strong appeal" and ends "it's the smuggler's blues".[66] The lore follows the song line by line, swapping money for credits and the singer's shoes for a flight suit.
Sudden Impact
Type: Pop-culture reference · Set: Dagobah · Text: "An asteroid looming in one's path can force a quick decision. One must choose, but choose wisely. This pilot chose poorly."
In Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), the last of the knights who swore to guard the Holy Grail keeps it in a hidden temple among many false cups, and warns those who reach it: "But choose wisely, for while the true Grail will bring you life, the false Grail will take it from you."[67] The villain Walter Donovan lets Elsa Schneider choose for him. She hands him a jewelled gold cup, he drinks from it, ages to a skeleton in seconds and crumbles to dust, and the knight says "He chose... poorly."[68][69] Indiana then picks a plain cup, "the cup of a carpenter", drinks, and the knight tells him "You have chosen... wisely."[68]
The card's lore uses the knight's words for a pilot who meets an asteroid: "An asteroid looming in one's path can force a quick decision. One must choose, but choose wisely. This pilot chose poorly." The picture shows how the pilot chose, an asteroid in a blinding white burst of impact. The game text turns the choice into a rule. Sudden Impact is deployed on an Effect or Utinni Effect, and during each of that card's owner's draw phases, if the Sudden Impact player occupies an asteroid sector, the owner "must choose" either to lose 1 Force or to cancel that Effect, so like the Grail seekers the opponent has to pick, and both choices cost something.
Swing-And-A-Miss
Type: Pop-culture reference · Set: Cloud City · Text: •••Swing-And-A-Miss (title); "It's the bottom of the ninth level of Cloud City. Vader steps up to the platform. Here's the delivery. . . oooh, he took a big cut there! The Force sure wasn't with him on that one!"
The lore is written as a baseball radio call.[27] The "bottom of the ninth" is the last inning, a batter "steps up to the plate", the pitcher makes "the delivery", and a batter who "took a big cut" swung hard. Here Vader swings his lightsaber at Luke and misses. The three dots before the title finish the joke. A ••• card is restricted to three, and for an Interrupt that means a player may play at most three copies of it in a turn (Decipher Glossary). In baseball, a batter gets three strikes, and the third swing and a miss is a strikeout: three strikes and you're out.[70]
Visored Vision
Type: Pop-culture reference · Set: Dagobah · Text: "It's 15 parsecs to Kessel, we've replaced the negative power coupling, it's dark and we're wearing welding goggles. Hit it."
In The Blues Brothers (1980), Elwood says: "It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses." Jake answers "Hit it."[71][65][72] The lore copies the line with Kessel, the power coupling and welding goggles. Han and Chewbacca wear dark goggles in the image, and the "Blues Bros." copyright line is listed at Easter eggs.
Yoda's Gimer Stick
Type: Pop-culture reference · Set: Dagobah · Text: "Speak softly you may but a big stick you must carry, yes."
US President Theodore Roosevelt often quoted the saying "speak softly and carry a big stick": stay calm, but be ready to use force.[73] The lore puts the saying into Yoda's backwards word order, for Yoda's own walking stick.
Cast and crew nods
Dams Denna
Type: Cast and crew nod · Set: Theed Palace · Text: Lore: "Knowledgeable animal trainer and herd-master. Collector of Linn'con memorabilia."
Dan Madsen, president of the Official Star Wars Fan Club and publisher of Star Wars Insider, appears uncredited in The Phantom Menace as the kaadu handler who takes the reins of Jar Jar Binks's kaadu at the victory parade in Theed.[74] The card's title, Dams Denna, is an anagram of his name (see Anagrams), and its picture is Madsen in that scene.
The lore adds that Denna is a "collector of Linn'con memorabilia". Madsen collects Abraham Lincoln memorabilia: a 1999 profile of him in Westword says "today he collects Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain memorabilia."[75] Wookieepedia's article on Linn'con makes the same connection and cites that profile.[76] The name is a respelling of Lincoln rather than an anagram: Linn'con has one more n and one fewer l.
General McQuarrie
Type: Cast and crew nod · Set: Special Edition · Text: General McQuarrie (title)
The card is a nod to Ralph McQuarrie, the conceptual artist of the original Star Wars trilogy, and its picture is of McQuarrie.[77]
Lieutenant Sheckil
Type: Cast and crew nod · Set: Cloud City · Text: "Twin brother of a famous mercenary."
Jeremy Bulloch played the Imperial officer Sheckil in The Empire Strikes Back, and he also played the bounty hunter Boba Fett.[78] So the lore calls Sheckil the "twin brother of a famous mercenary": both were played by the same actor.[72] The title is also listed at Anagrams.
Lieutenant Watts
Type: Cast and crew nod · Set: Endor · Text: "Watts' gunnery skills produce devastating results."
Robert Watts was a co-producer of Return of the Jedi and appears in the film as an Imperial lieutenant.[79] Lucasfilm's obituary shows him at work on location in the California desert during the making of Return of the Jedi, in front of the set of Jabba's sail barge.[80] The card shares his name, and the lore's "produce devastating results" puns on his job. Major Marquand's game text pairs Marquand with Watts.
Major Bren Derlin
Type: Cast and crew nod · Set: Hoth · Text: "At the Mos Eisley Cantina, everyone knows his name."
John Ratzenberger played Bren Derlin in The Empire Strikes Back.[81][82] He later played Cliff Clavin, a mail carrier who drinks at the Boston bar in the sitcom Cheers.[83] The Cheers theme song is "Where Everybody Knows Your Name", about a bar where everybody knows your name.[84] The lore moves that bar to the Mos Eisley Cantina. Decipher's Art Show listed the line among its Easter eggs.[85]
Major Marquand
Type: Cast and crew nod · Set: Endor · Text: "Directed a counterattack against the Ewoks on Endor."
Richard Marquand directed Return of the Jedi and has a cameo in it as an AT-ST driver, "Maj. Marquand".[86][87] The lore says he "directed" a counterattack against the Ewoks, a pun on his job.
Sabe
Type: Cast and crew nod · Set: Coruscant · Text: "Female chosen as a handmaiden by Panaka due to her resemblance to Amidala."
Keira Knightley played Sabé in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999). She was cast because she looked very like Natalie Portman, who played Padmé Amidala, and Portman dubbed her lines.[88] The lore's "resemblance to Amidala" matches the casting, read as a nod to the two actresses.
Film in-jokes
3,720 To 1
Type: Film in-joke · Set: Dagobah · Text: "What are the odds of having a Corellian, a Wookiee and a protocol droid together with an Alderaanian princess who happens to be the daughter of the Dark Lord of the Sith?"
The title is the odds Threepio gives Han for getting through the asteroid field in The Empire Strikes Back, "approximately three thousand, seven hundred and twenty to one".[6] The lore asks for the odds of the Falcon's crew coming together at all.
Admiral Ozzel and Death Squadron Star Destroyer
Type: Film in-joke · Sets: Hoth, Special Edition · Text: Admiral Ozzel: "Leader of the Emperor's Death Squadron assigned to hunt down and crush the Rebellion. As clumsy as he is stupid. Has just failed Darth Vader for the next-to-last time." · Death Squadron Star Destroyer: "Vader's infamous Death Squadron, which blockaded the fleeing Rebels at the Battle of Hoth, boasts the finest captains of the Imperial fleet – and Ozzel."
In The Empire Strikes Back, Vader calls Admiral Ozzel "as clumsy as he is stupid", then chokes him with "You have failed me for the last time, Admiral."[6] The Admiral Ozzel card has him failing Vader "for the next-to-last time", and Death Squadron Star Destroyer praises "the finest captains of the Imperial fleet – and Ozzel". All the cards where Vader chokes or kills his own officers are together in the running gag Vader choking people.
Bothan Spy
Type: Film in-joke · Set: Special Edition · Text: "…Discovered the location of the second Death Star. Ambitious. Resourceful. Furry. Tend to die in large numbers."
In Return of the Jedi, Mon Mothma tells the Rebel briefing: "Many Bothans died to bring us this information."[89] The lore lists that line among the species' traits, after "Ambitious. Resourceful. Furry."
Bowcaster
Type: Film in-joke · Set: A New Hope · Text: Lore: "Hand-crafted weapon of choice among Wookiees. Fires explosive 'quarrels' (which look like blaster bolts). Requires great strength to use. Extra ammo carried on bandoleers." Game text: "Use X Force to deploy on any warrior where X = (7 - warrior's power). X must be at least 1. ..."
The bowcaster is Chewbacca's weapon in the films, a hand-made Wookiee gun shaped like a crossbow. A quarrel is the bolt that a crossbow shoots,[90] and StarWars.com describes the bowcaster as more powerful and accurate than a blaster, "firing a metal quarrel encased in plasma energy".[91] The card's designers had to explain why anyone would carry this bulky, hand-crafted weapon instead of an ordinary blaster, so the lore gives it explosive quarrels. On screen, though, its shots are glowing bolts like everyone else's blaster fire, and the lore owns up to the mismatch in brackets: the quarrels are "(which look like blaster bolts)". The explanation the card wants and the film's special effects do not quite line up.
The rest of the lore is written into the rules. "Requires great strength to use" becomes the deploy cost: the Force needed is 7 minus the power of the warrior carrying it, so the stronger the Wookiee, the cheaper the bowcaster.
Bravo Fighter
Type: Film in-joke · Set: Theed Palace · Text: "Flown by an unknown pilot who likes to spin a lot."
In The Phantom Menace, young Anakin Skywalker flies a Naboo starfighter, tells himself "Try spinning, that's a good trick", and destroys the Droid Control Ship.[24] The lore's "unknown pilot who likes to spin a lot" is Anakin. His pilot icon is listed at Easter eggs.
Cease Fire!
Type: Film in-joke · Set: Theed Palace · Text: Lore: "The amount of time it takes for a subcommand to transfer to an officer battle droid, and then to the rest of his regiment, is .396 of a second." Game text: "If a battle was just initiated, lose 2 Force to prevent all weapons from being fired for remainder of battle. ..."
In Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999), at the battle on the grass plains of Naboo, the battle droid commander OOM-9 has his tanks shell the Gungan army. When the shells fail to get through the Gungans' energy shield, he orders the tanks to cease fire.[92] As he waves the order, shells are still bursting on the shield, and a tank fires again a moment after he gives it.[93]
The lore explains those extra shots with a precise, straight-faced figure: an order takes ".396 of a second" to pass from the command to an officer battle droid and on to the rest of his regiment, so the droids keep firing for a moment after "Cease fire!". The game text is the order itself, working at once: lose 2 Force and no weapons may be fired for the rest of the battle.
Chewbacca
Type: Film in-joke · Set: A New Hope · Text: Lore: "Wookiee smuggler from Kashyyyk. Over 200 years old. Top-notch mechanic and pilot. Jabba has large bounty on this "walking carpet." Friends call him Chewie... or Fuzzball."
Both of the lore's nicknames for the Wookiee are insults from the films. "Walking carpet" is Princess Leia's: during her rescue from the Death Star in Star Wars (1977), annoyed that Chewbacca is in her way, she says "Will somebody get this big walking carpet out of my way?"[11] "Fuzzball" is Han Solo's: in The Empire Strikes Back (1980), when Chewbacca laughs at Han's bickering with Leia in the medical center of the Rebel base on Hoth, Han tells him "Laugh it up, fuzzball."[6]
The lore says "Friends call him Chewie...or Fuzzball", as if "Fuzzball" were a pet name his friends share. It is not: only one friend ever calls him that, Han, once, when Chewbacca is laughing at him. In the scripts of the original films the word appears only in that line.[6] "Chewie", by contrast, is what Han, Luke, Leia, Lando and Threepio all call him.
Chewbacca Of Kashyyyk and Always Thinking With Your Stomach
Type: Film in-joke · Set: Endor · Text: Chewbacca Of Kashyyyk: "Wookiee scout. Volunteered for Han's Endor strike team. Keeps his distance, but doesn't look like he's keeping his distance. Always thinks with his stomach." Always Thinking With Your Stomach (title)
Both lines on Chewbacca's card come from Han in Return of the Jedi: "Keep your distance though, Chewie, but don't look like you're trying to keep your distance", and, after Chewbacca pulls a dead animal off a stake and springs the Ewoks' net trap, "Always thinking with your stomach."[94] The second line is also the title of a Dark Side card, Always Thinking With Your Stomach, whose picture shows the Rebels caught in that net.
Credits Will Do Fine
Type: Film in-joke · Set: Coruscant · Text: Lore: "'No, they won't!'"
The card's lore flatly contradicts its title. In The Phantom Menace, Qui-Gon Jinn tries to buy a hyperdrive from the junk dealer Watto on Tatooine with 20,000 Republic dataries. Watto refuses: "Republic credits are no good out here." Qui-Gon raises his hand and, "using his mind power", says "Credits will do fine." This is a Jedi mind trick, which makes a weak-minded listener agree with whatever the Jedi says. It fails. Watto answers "No, they won't-a", and adds "I'm a Toydarian. Mind tricks don't-a work on me – only money."[95] The card takes Qui-Gon's line as its title and gives Watto's answer as its whole lore. Its game text works only at Watto's Junkyard.
Digs at Han, Lando and Threepio
Type: Film in-joke · Sets: Dagobah, Endor, Death Star II · Text: Corporal Beezer: "She gets nervous when General Solo tries to hotwire something." General Calrissian: "Leader. Gambler. Fair pilot. Lando was given the rank of general for 'a little maneuver' at the Battle of Taanab." Flash Of Insight: "Occasionally Han was capable of such feats, even without Threepio there to tell him these things."
Each lore teases a hero with a line from the films. In Return of the Jedi, Han tries to "hotwire" the door of the shield generator bunker on Endor, and Lando says he was made a general for "my little maneuver at the battle of Taanab", to which Han replies "I just said you were a fair pilot."[94]
Flash Of Insight digs at Threepio as well as Han. In The Empire Strikes Back, Threepio states the obvious, "Sir, it's quite possible this asteroid is not entirely stable", and Han snaps back: "Not entirely stable? I'm glad you're here to tell us these things. Chewie, take the professor in the back and plug him into the hyperdrive."[6] The card hands Han's sarcasm back to him: Han can sometimes work things out for himself, "even without Threepio there to tell him".
Digs at Jar Jar Binks
Type: Film in-joke · Set: Theed Palace · Text: Gimme A Lift!: "Jar Jar Binks's courage on the battlefield put quite a thorn in the Trade Federation's side. Many believed it wasn't actually courage." Big Boomers!: "Gungan weaponry can be quite sophisticated. Sometimes its users are not." General Jar Jar: "After uniting the Gungans and the Naboo, Boss Nass promoted Jar Jar Binks to General. He's still a bit clumsy."
Both lores praise the Gungans and then take it back, and the target is Jar Jar Binks's clumsiness. In The Phantom Menace, Jar Jar's "courage" in the battle on the grass plains of Naboo is mostly accident: he gets tangled in a cart of the Gungans' energy balls, and the balls spill out and roll into the battle droids, blowing them up.[24] The picture on Big Boomers! is that spilled cart, its blue balls rolling down the hill.
General Jar Jar makes the same dig with a promotion: Boss Nass makes Jar Jar a general for uniting the Gungans and the Naboo, and the lore adds, "He's still a bit clumsy."
Dr. Evazan & Ponda Baba
Type: Film in-joke · Set: Reflections II · Text: "…Gained the rights to Han Solo's old smuggling routes from Jabba the Hutt. They don't like you either…"
In the Mos Eisley cantina in Star Wars, Ponda Baba shoves Luke, and Dr. Evazan tells Luke: "He doesn't like you." Luke says "I'm sorry", and Evazan answers: "I don't like you either."[97] The lore ends with the same words, but says them to the player reading the card.
DS-61-4
Type: Film in-joke · Set: A New Hope · Text: "Imperial pilot nicknamed 'Dark Curse.' Survived assaults against several dissenter worlds including Ralltiir and Mon Calamari. Intends to retire after his next combat mission."
"Intends to retire after his next combat mission" sets up a stock twist in films and television, known as "retirony": the cop or soldier who is days from retirement, or flying one last mission, is the one who gets killed.[98] DS-61-4's game text puts him "On Black 4", the TIE fighter that hits Luke's X-wing in Star Wars and is then shot down by Wedge Antilles,[99] so his next combat mission is the Battle of Yavin, and he never retires. Real bomber crews in the Second World War were sent home after 25 missions, and the Memphis Belle crew was one of the first to make it.[100]
Klaatu, Barada, Nikto
Type: Film in-joke · Set: Jabba's Palace · Text: Klaatu, Barada and Nikto (titles); Klaatu: "Kadas'sa'Nikto. Barada's main assistant."
In the 1951 film The Day the Earth Stood Still, the alien Klaatu tells Helen Benson that if anything happens to him she must say the words "Klaatu barada nikto" to the robot Gort.[101] Lucasfilm used the three words for names in Return of the Jedi (1983): Klaatu and Barada are two of Jabba's men, and "Nikto" is the name of a species of Jabba's guards.[101] The three card titles Klaatu, Barada and Nikto spell out the phrase.
Mandalorian Mishap
Type: Film in-joke · Set: Jabba's Palace · Text: "Most space-faring adventurers meet their fate with a calm, quiet dignity."
In Return of the Jedi, the bounty hunter Boba Fett is swallowed by the Sarlacc during the fight at Jabba's sail barge.[102] The lore's "calm, quiet dignity" is the opposite of that clumsy end.
Moff Jerjerrod
Type: Film in-joke · Set: Death Star II · Text: "Leader. Found discussions with Vader to be particularly motivating. Does not want to find out if the Emperor is more forgiving than Vader."
In Return of the Jedi, Vader ends his visit to Jerjerrod with "The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am."[94] The lore calls the threat a "particularly motivating" discussion. All the cards where Vader chokes or kills his own officers are together in the running gag Vader choking people.
Podrace spectators
Type: Film in-joke · Set: Coruscant · Text: Jawa: "Every now and then, Jawas will pause in their scavenging duties to take in a Podrace. Many believe this is only because they want to be first to a crash scene." Tusken Raider: "Tusken Raiders are constantly taking bets to see who can hit the most Podracers on the Boonta Eve racetrack."
In The Phantom Menace, Tusken Raiders take shots at the podracers during the Boonta Eve race.[24] The Jawas, scavengers of wrecked machines, are said to watch only so they can reach the crashes first.
Princess Leia
Type: Film in-joke · Set: Cloud City · Text: Lore: "Prominent leader in the struggling Alliance. Former member of the Imperial Senate. Beginning to discover her true heritage. Likes scoundrels."
For most of The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Leia denies having any feelings for Han Solo. On Hoth, when Han claims she "expressed her true feelings" for him, she calls him a "stuck up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf-herder". Aboard the Millennium Falcon she will admit only that he is all right "when you aren't acting like a scoundrel"; Han answers "You like me because I'm a scoundrel. There aren't enough scoundrels in your life", and she insists "I happen to like nice men." Only when Han is about to be frozen in carbonite on Cloud City does she tell him "I love you!", and he replies "I know."[6]
Her Cloud City card simply states what she spends the film denying: she "Likes scoundrels." The lore even makes it plural, although there is only one scoundrel she likes. Han does offer her a second. When he decides to hide on Bespin with Lando Calrissian, he describes Lando as "a card player, gambler, scoundrel. You'd like him." Leia's only reply is "Thanks."[6]
Proton Torpedoes
Type: Film in-joke · Set: Theed Palace · Text: "Mainstay weapon of Naboo Defense Fighters. Anakin Skywalker used them to surprising effect, as soon as he found the trigger."
In The Phantom Menace, young Anakin, alone in a Naboo starfighter, presses the wrong buttons before he finds the one that fires, then destroys the droid control ship.[24]
R2-D2 (Artoo-Detoo)
Type: Film in-joke · Set: A New Hope · Text: Lore: "Feisty. Loyal. Heroic. Insecure. Rebel spy. Excels at trouble. Incorrigible counterpart of a mindless philosopher. Has picked up a slight flutter. A bit eccentric."
At the start of Star Wars (1977), as Imperial troops board Princess Leia's ship, R2-D2 beeps something at C-3PO, and Threepio snaps back: "Don't call me a mindless philosopher, you overweight glob of grease!"[11] The audience never hears what Artoo said, but Threepio's reply shows that Artoo had called him a "mindless philosopher". The card turns the insult around: Artoo is the "incorrigible counterpart" (the partner who cannot be reformed) "of a mindless philosopher", so the phrase now describes Threepio, the protocol droid who never stops talking.
The last two phrases of the lore are Threepio's own excuses for Artoo later in the film. When Artoo tells Luke that the recording of Leia is a private message for Obi-Wan Kenobi, Threepio apologises that "this little R2 unit has become a bit eccentric", and when Artoo then pretends there is no message at all, Threepio says "he appears to have picked up a slight flutter".[11]
R5-D4 (Arfive-Defour)
Type: Film in-joke · Set: A New Hope · Text: Lore: "Cheap astromech droid commonly referred to as 'Red.' Purposely blew his motivator to prevent splitting up R2-D2 and C-3PO on Tatooine. Poor navigator but skilled mechanic."
In Star Wars (1977), Owen Lars buys the red astromech from the Jawas together with C-3PO. As Luke leads them away, a plate pops off the droid's head and it sparks wildly, and Luke calls out: "This R2 unit has a bad motivator. Look!" Threepio then points out that R2-D2 "is in prime condition", and Owen takes R2-D2 instead.[11] The film plays it as a breakdown, and anyone watching would assume the cheap droid simply failed. The lore says the opposite: he blew his motivator on purpose, a noble sacrifice to keep R2-D2 and C-3PO together.
The last line of the lore adds a second irony. He is a "skilled mechanic", so blowing up his own motivator was no great sacrifice after all: he could fix himself later. His game text makes him a repairman too, since aboard a starship damaged by an ion cannon he "restores armor/maneuver and hyperspeed".
The card's numbers add one more irony. R5-D4's game text reads "While aboard any starship, adds 1 to power and maneuver." The R2-D2 (Artoo-Detoo) card from the same set, the droid he stepped aside for, reads "While aboard any starfighter, adds 2 to power, maneuver and hyperspeed (3 on Red 5)." The droid R5-D4 gave up his place for is worth twice as much in a starfighter, so on the cards the sacrifice was a good trade.
Red 6
Type: Film in-joke · Set: A New Hope · Text: Lore: "Jek Porkins' X-wing at Battle of Yavin. Instrumental in success of strafing attacks against Death Star. Skipped last inspection of computer and flight control systems." Game text: "May add 1 pilot. Opponent may add 2 to destiny drawn for I've Got A Problem Here when played against Red 6. Must have pilot aboard to use power, maneuver or hyperspeed."
In Star Wars, Porkins, flying as Red Six in the Death Star attack, reports trouble with his X-wing and is shot down.[105] Wookieepedia describes the cause: his fighter struck debris from a tower he and Biggs Darklighter had just destroyed, began to malfunction, and drifted over the Death Star's turbolasers, and Porkins ignored Biggs's warnings to pull out.[106] The lore ends by blaming a skipped inspection of the very systems that failed.
Red 6 pairs with the Dark Side Interrupt I've Got A Problem Here from Premiere, which shows Porkins in his cockpit and tells the same story: "Debris fragments damaged Jek Porkins' X-wing, causing a cascade of computer and flight control failures." The Interrupt targets a starfighter after a battle, and the starfighter is lost if a destiny draw is greater than its maneuver. Red 6's game text names that card and helps it along: the opponent may add 2 to the destiny when it is played against Red 6.
Red 6 also has no immunity to attrition. Of the three Red Squadron X-wings in the A New Hope set, Red 2 is immune to attrition < 3 if Wedge is piloting and Red 5 is immune to attrition < 4 if Luke is piloting, while Red 6 has no immunity whoever flies it. It is not the only unique Red X-wing without immunity: the Premiere cards Red 1 and Red 3 have none either.
Slight Weapons Malfunction
Type: Film in-joke · Set: Special Edition · Text: "Han was gifted in the art of understatement."
In Star Wars, Han, having just shot up the detention block, tells the officer on the intercom "had a slight weapons malfunction. But, uh, everything's perfectly all right now."[11]
Tauntaun
Type: Film in-joke · Set: Hoth · Text: "First native creatures found on Hoth. Roam the icy plains in herds. Ill-tempered and easily spooked. Smell bad on the outside. Trained as steeds for Rebel patrols."
In The Empire Strikes Back, Han Solo cuts open the dead tauntaun to keep Luke warm in the snow and says "I thought they smelled bad on the outside!"[6] The Hoth card I Thought They Smelled Bad On The Outside takes its title from the line. The Tauntaun card's own lore says plainly that the creatures "smell bad on the outside", repeating the first half of Han's joke as a fact about the species.
This Is Just Wrong and This Is Still Wrong
Type: Film in-joke · Sets: Hoth, Dagobah, Cloud City, Endor · Text: This Is Just Wrong: "'Why, I guess you don't know everything about women yet.'" · This Is Still Wrong: "Han: 2. Luke: 2. Chewie: 0." · This Is Absolutely Right: "'He's my brother.'"
In The Empire Strikes Back, in the medical center of the Rebel base on Hoth, Leia, to annoy Han, says "Why, I guess you don't know everything about women yet?" and kisses Luke on the lips, leaving "everyone in the room slightly dumbstruck".[6] This Is Just Wrong shows that kiss, and its lore is Leia's line. In Return of the Jedi, Luke tells Leia on Endor, "The Force is strong in my family. My father has it...I have it...and...my sister has it", and she answers "I know. Somehow...I've always known."[94] Leia is Luke's twin sister, so seen from the third film, kissing him is wrong. This Is Still Wrong shows a second kiss from the same film: on the Millennium Falcon after the escape from Cloud City, Luke rests on a cot and Leia "gently wipes his face", then "kisses him" before she leaves.[6] Its lore is a bare score, "Han: 2. Luke: 2. Chewie: 0.", which reads as a tally of who has kissed Leia, with her brother level with Han. Chewie's 0 recalls Leia's put-down on Hoth, "I'd just as soon kiss a Wookiee", and Han's reply, "I can arrange that."[6]
The Light Side answers with Han and Leia's own kisses. You Do Have Your Moments and This Is More Like It show Leia kissing Han on the Falcon, This Is Even Better shows their kiss before Han is frozen in carbonite, and This Is Absolutely Right shows them kissing on Endor, with Leia's line to Han in Return of the Jedi as its lore: "He's my brother."[94] The game text keeps score too: This Is More Like It cancels This Is Just Wrong, and This Is Even Better and This Is Absolutely Right cancel This Is Still Wrong.
Transmission Terminated
Type: Film in-joke · Set: Dagobah · Text: "…fifteen system errors: ten computer malfunctions, four power failures and one asteroid."
In The Empire Strikes Back, a Star Destroyer captain is speaking to Darth Vader by hologram when an asteroid smashes into his bridge and cuts him off.[107] The lore lists that crash, deadpan, as "one asteroid" among the communications errors, and the title names the cut-off message.
The lore also resembles "The Twelve Days of Christmas", first printed in the children's book Mirth Without Mischief (1780), which counts down to "a partridge in a pear tree".[108] Like the song, the lore counts down (ten, four, one) and ends on an odd last item, the asteroid.
Womp Rat
Type: Film in-joke · Set: Special Edition · Text: "Carnivorous rodents. Typically found in Beggar's Canyon. About the size of an average thermal exhaust port."
In Star Wars, General Dodonna says the Death Star's target "is only two meters wide. It's a small thermal exhaust port". Luke answers: "I used to bull's-eye womp rats in my T-sixteen back home. They're not much bigger than two meters."[110] Luke measures the exhaust port in womp rats. The lore turns it round and measures womp rats in exhaust ports. The card's game text also makes it lost if "bullseyed" by Luke's T-16 Skyhopper.
Wordplay
Armament Dismantled
Type: Wordplay · Set: Reflections III · Text: "Divide and conquer."
"Divide and conquer" is a saying about splitting up enemies. In The Phantom Menace, Obi-Wan cuts Darth Maul's double-bladed lightsaber in two, and then cuts Maul himself in half.[24]
Blasted Droid
Type: Wordplay · Set: Cloud City · Text: "'Oh my! Oh, uh, I'm, I'm terribly sorry. I. . . I didn't mean to intrude. No, no, no, please don't get up. No!'"
The lore is Threepio's line in The Empire Strikes Back as he walks into a room on Cloud City, just before "a laser bolt to Threepio's chest sends him flying in twenty directions".[6] "Blasted" means both shot and, as a mild curse, annoying, which suits Threepio.
Clash Of Sabers
Type: Wordplay · Set: Cloud City · Text: "Weoww-bzzzzt-bzt-bzzzzt-weoww-bzzzt-weoww-weow-bzt-bzt-bzt-weow-bzzzzzt!"
The whole lore is the sound of a lightsaber duel spelled out.
Cold Feet
Type: Wordplay · Set: Hoth · Text: "Wampas pack snow around the appendages of captured prey, making use of Hoth's cold environment to immobilize them."
To get cold feet is to lose your nerve. In The Empire Strikes Back, the wampa hangs Luke upside down in its cave with his "ankles frozen into icy stalactites", so his feet are cold in the literal sense.[6]
Crack Shot
Type: Wordplay · Set: Cloud City · Text: "Imperial recruits are repeatedly assured that small cracks between the plates of their armor pose little risk from blaster fire. Their first day of battle often tells a different story."
A crack shot is an expert marksman. Here the shot goes through the cracks in the armor.
Despair
Type: Wordplay · Set: Cloud City · Text: "The carbonite froze more than just Han's body."
The lore plays on "frozen". Han's body is frozen in carbonite, and the card's picture is Leia, frozen with despair as she watches. Moments earlier she had told him "I love you!", and he had answered "I know."[6] So the line can also be read as the carbonite freezing Leia's heart, and the love she had only just said aloud. The game text keeps the theme: it plays when a Rebel has just been captured or "frozen", and the Rebel it goes on may not add ability toward battle destiny.
Desperate Times
Type: Wordplay · Set: Reflections III · Text: "Han's best tactic when outnumbered? Shoot first and don't worry about asking questions later."
To "shoot first and ask questions later" is an American idiom for acting at once, without first finding out what is going on.[111] The lore takes it one step further: Han does not ask questions later either.
"Han shot first" is the slogan of fans who object to a change in the 1997 Special Edition of Star Wars. In the 1977 film, Han shoots the bounty hunter Greedo in the Mos Eisley cantina. In the Special Edition, Greedo shoots first and misses.[112] Reflections III came out in October 2001, four years after that change.
Disarming Creature
Type: Wordplay · Set: Hoth · Text: "Luke's defensive maneuver put him out of arm's way."
"Out of harm's way" means safe from danger. In The Empire Strikes Back, Luke escapes the wampa's cave by cutting off the creature's arm.[107] The lore's "out of arm's way" drops the h for the pun, and the title "disarming" means both charming and removing an arm.
Effective Repairs
Type: Wordplay · Set: Dagobah · Text: "When the nav computer maintenance program failed to auto-repair the hyperdrive, Han decided to take matters into his own hand."
To "take matters into your own hands" is "to deal with a problem yourself because the people who should have dealt with it have failed to do so".[113] The lore uses the idiom with "hand" in place of "hands". The ship's own repair program has failed, so Han does the job himself, and the card's picture shows him in the floor of the Millennium Falcon reaching up into the machinery with one hand.
EG-6 (Eegee-Six)
Type: Wordplay · Set: Premiere · Text: "Ambulatory power generator made by Veril Line Systems to support equipment and vehicles. Slow-witted. This EG unit is memory-wiped and doesn't know its name or serial number."
"Name, rank and serial number" are the details a captured soldier gives. This droid has been memory-wiped and does not even know those. The Premiere card C-3PO (See-Threepio) has a matching joke: "Has never been memory-wiped... as far as he knows." The qualifier gives the game away: if you had been memory-wiped, you would not remember it, so Threepio's word on the matter is worth very little.
Encampment
Type: Wordplay · Set: Dagobah · Text: "A surprise visitor made Luke an unhappy camper."
An "unhappy camper" is someone annoyed or let down. In The Empire Strikes Back, Luke makes camp on Dagobah and is pestered by a small stranger who turns out to be Yoda.[107] The lore says the surprise visitor made Luke "an unhappy camper", a pun on his campsite.
Epithets in Yoda's word order
Type: Wordplay · Sets: Premiere, Dagobah · Text: Son Of Skywalker: "Luke Skywalker. Son of Anakin. Seeker of Yoda. Levitator of rocks. Ignorer of advice. Incapable of impossible. Reckless is he." Owen Lars: "Guardian of Luke Skywalker. Husband of Beru Lars. Brother of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Farmer of moisture. Disapprover of Luke's desire to leave Tatooine."
Both lores are lists of grand titles in the form "X of Y", turned on ordinary things: "Levitator of rocks", "Farmer of moisture". Son Of Skywalker ends in Yoda's word order, "Reckless is he", like the Yoda card.
Evader
Type: Wordplay · Set: A New Hope · Text: Evader (title); "A panic move by Black 2 send Vader spinning wildly from the Death Star trench-ironically sparing his life."
The title is "Vader" with an E in front. In Star Wars (1977), the Millennium Falcon returns during the Death Star attack and knocks Vader's ship off course before he can shoot Luke.[105] The lore says Vader got away, and the title calls him the one who evades.
Ewok And Roll
Type: Wordplay · Set: Endor · Text: "Even an All Terrain Scout Transport cannot stand on all terrain."
"Ewok and Roll" plays on "rock and roll". AT-ST stands for All Terrain Scout Transport, and in Return of the Jedi Ewoks topple AT-STs with logs.[114] The lore notes that even an "All Terrain" walker cannot stand on all terrain.
Ewok Log Jam
Type: Wordplay · Set: Endor · Text: "Any problem can be solved by the proper application of the principles of mass and velocity."
A log jam is a pile-up of logs that blocks a river. In Return of the Jedi the Ewoks cut loose a pile of logs that tumble under a walker's feet until it topples over, and smash another walker's head between two swinging logs.[94] The lore explains the method as physics: "mass and velocity".
Fall Of The Empire
Type: Wordplay · Set: Cloud City · Text: "'Aaaaah!'"
"The fall of the Empire" sounds like the end of a whole Empire. The lore is one scream, as a single Imperial falls.
Fall Of The Legend
Type: Wordplay · Set: Cloud City · Text: "Luke had a falling out with his estranged father."
A "falling out" is a quarrel. In The Empire Strikes Back, Luke learns that Darth Vader is his father and lets himself fall from Cloud City rather than join him.[107] The lore calls that a falling out, and so turns it into a family quarrel. But Luke really does fall, and the fall would have been his death: far more serious than a family quarrel. The duel before it was a duel to the death in which Vader cut off Luke's hand, also much more than a mere quarrel. In the game, that lightsaber fight is an Epic Duel, the card the game uses for such duels: father and son have just fought an Epic Duel, not had a quarrel.
Friendly Fire and Unfriendly Fire
Type: Wordplay · Sets: Premiere, Jabba's Palace · Text: Friendly Fire: "Overcrowding in heavy fire zones increases chances of accidentally shooting one's own comrades. Stormtroopers never let accuracy get in the way of victory." Unfriendly Fire: "'Get the gun! Point it at the deck!'"
"Friendly fire" is the military term for being shot by your own side. The Premiere card makes a joke of the stormtroopers' bad aim, and Jabba's Palace answers it with Unfriendly Fire, the earlier card's name with "un-" added.
Frozen Assets
Type: Wordplay · Set: Cloud City · Text: Frozen Assets (title); "Molten carbonite is released into the chamber and then flash frozen, releasing a blast of air. The subject is instantly covered in the newly solidified material."
A frozen asset is, in finance, "an asset that cannot readily be turned into cash without heavy loss".[115] In The Empire Strikes Back, Han Solo is frozen in carbonite at Cloud City and given to Boba Fett, who means to collect the bounty on him from Jabba the Hutt.[116] The title uses the money term literally: Han is the asset, and he is frozen. The lore describes the freezing. Money has been frozen literally too: FBI agents found $90,000 in cash hidden in the home freezer of the United States Congressman William J. Jefferson.[117]
Garouf Lafoe
Type: Wordplay · Set: A New Hope · Text: "Free-trader who imports ice chunks from rings of Ohann and Adriana, outer planets in Tatoo system. Sales remain cold...due to steep Imperial taxes and bribes."
"Sales remain cold" means that business is slow, and the goods are ice.
Guri
Type: Wordplay · Set: Reflections II · Text: "Human-replica droid. Programmed to function as Xizor's personal bodyguard and assassin. Black Sun agent. Cost 9 million credits. Worth every decicred."
The lore ends on "worth every penny", the saying for money well spent, with "decicred", a small unit of galactic money, in place of the penny. Guri cost 9 million credits, and the lore says every last fraction of a credit was worth it.
Hero Of A Thousand Devices
Type: Wordplay · Set: Cloud City · Text: "Left to his own devices, Artoo used his spunk and creativity to save his companions' lives time and time again."
The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949) is Joseph Campbell's book on the shared pattern of hero myths.[118] The title swaps "Faces" for "Devices", for the gadget-filled R2-D2.
Hopping Mad
Type: Wordplay · Set: Cloud City · Text: "'I'm standing here in pieces and you're having delusions of grandeur!'"
To be hopping mad is to be very angry. In The Empire Strikes Back, Threepio, still in pieces and strapped to Chewbacca's back, shouts this at R2-D2; the script has him "on one leg, yelling".[6]
Hunting Party
Type: Wordplay · Set: Special Edition · Text: "Sometimes a missing person is found by the wrong search party."
A search party is meant to rescue a missing person; here the searchers are hunters.
Iasa, The Traitor Of Jawa Canyon
Type: Wordplay · Set: Special Edition · Text: "While on a trip, King Kalit entrusted his credits, sandcrawler and mate to his friend Iasa. When Kalit returned, one was spent, one was sold and the other was missing."
The lore has the shape of an old joke: three things are left with a friend, and the last line pairs them off, so that the mate is the one "missing", presumably with Iasa.
It's A Hit!
Type: Wordplay · Set: Official Tournament Sealed Deck · Text: "Red Leader fired the first shot in the Death Star trench, causing massive internal damage. The spectacular near-miss inspired Red Squadron to double their efforts."
The title says it's a hit, and it was: Red Leader's shot struck the Death Star and caused "massive internal damage". But it missed the target that mattered. In Star Wars the shot misses the exhaust port: "It didn't go in. It just impacted on the surface."[11] Missing there leaves the Death Star free to destroy the Rebel base, so a "spectacular near-miss" is spectacular only in how bad it is, and all it "inspired" was another run down the trench.
Jabba's accountants
Type: Wordplay · Sets: A New Hope, Jabba's Palace · Text: Loje Nella: "Accountant. Descended from a species of cliff boring worms. Reluctant assistant to Mosep." Mosep: "Jabba's Nimbanel accountant. ... He knows a mistake could make him the next write-off."
Loje Nella is an accountant who is descended from worms, and accountants keep the books, so he is a bookworm: a keen reader, named after the insects that eat their way through books.[119] The insect bookworms are larvae of beetles, moths and other insects that "bore or chew through books seeking food",[120] and Loje Nella's ancestors were boring worms too. His worms are also "cliff boring", which is the old joke about accountants. Mosep, the accountant Loje Nella assists, fears being "the next write-off": a write-off is a loss struck from the accounts, and Jabba's servants who make mistakes tend to be killed.
Jabba's Palace Sabacc
Type: Wordplay · Set: Jabba's Palace · Text: "Jabba could lick anyone at sabacc."
To "lick" someone is slang for beating them. Jabba the Hutt has a large tongue, so "Jabba could lick anyone at sabacc" also has a literal meaning.
Joh Yowza
Type: Wordplay · Set: Special Edition · Text: Lore: "Yuzzum musician and thief. Singer for The Max Rebo Band." Game text: "When opponent draws destiny, Joh may 'jam' (place that card face down under Joh). Holds one card at a time. If Joh leaves table, place card under Joh in opponent's Used Pile."
The game text puts "jam" in quotes, and the word fits Joh three ways, one for each part of his lore.
- Musician. Musicians "jam" when they improvise together, at a jam session.[121] Joh is the singer of the Max Rebo Band, so he jams when the opponent draws destiny.
- Stuck. A thing that "jams" becomes blocked or stuck fast, like a jammed gun or a printer jammed by paper.[121] A drawn destiny card normally goes on to the Used Pile. Joh's jam stops it on its way, and it stays stuck under him until he leaves the table. Only then is it placed in the opponent's Used Pile, where it was headed.
- Thief. The lore also calls him a thief, and the card he jams is the opponent's. He takes it and keeps it under himself, one card at a time.
Lando Calrissian and Vul Tazaene
Type: Wordplay · Sets: Cloud City, Jabba's Palace · Text: Lando Calrissian: "Had dealings with the Tonnika Sisters – twice."; Vul Tazaene: "In love with one of them, he's not sure which."
The lore of the Premiere card Tonnika Sisters begins "Twins." and names them Brea and Senni. Two later cards joke about the pair. Lando's "dealings with the Tonnika Sisters – twice" fits two sisters as well as two occasions, and Vul Tazaene, who is searching for the sisters, loves one of them but is "not sure which." Innocent Scoundrel adds that Han "regretted having introduced Lando to the Tonnika sisters."
Light Maneuvers
Type: Wordplay · Set: Dagobah · Text: "Rookie TIE pilots often fail to grasp the gravity of their situation…"
"The gravity of the situation" means how serious it is. The lore uses the phrase for rookie TIE pilots in space, where gravity is also a physical pull, and a pun.
Lightsaber Deficiency
Type: Wordplay · Set: Hoth · Text: "'Ah... Uh...'"
The title turns Lightsaber Proficiency, a Premiere card, into its opposite, and the first thing Lightsaber Deficiency's game text does is cancel it. Lightsaber Proficiency says "A Jedi learns not only to wield a lightsaber, but how to channel the Force"; Lightsaber Deficiency shows Han Solo, no Jedi, in the snow of Hoth holding Luke's lit lightsaber, and its whole lore is "Ah... Uh...", the sound of a man who doesn't know what to do with it. In The Empire Strikes Back, Han uses Luke's lightsaber to cut open the dead tauntaun and keep Luke warm inside it.[6] Luke is proficient with the weapon; Han has to work it out.
Location, Location, Location and Ability, Ability, Ability
Type: Wordplay · Sets: Dagobah, Cloud City · Text: Location, Location, Location (title); "Mudhole? Slimy? My home this is!" · Ability, Ability, Ability (title); "Ben. . . Ben, please! Ben. . . Leia! Hear me. Leia!"
"Location, location, location" is the estate agents' rule that the most important thing about a property is where it is.[122] The earliest known use is a 1926 property advertisement in the Chicago Tribune: "Attention salesmen, sales managers: location, location, location, close to Rogers Park."[123][124] Classified advertisements kept using it long before the card: "BUY THIS BEAUTIFUL HOUSE For 3 Reasons: Location, Location, Location" in the El Paso Herald-Post in 1939, and "THREE THINGS To Remember In Buying Real Estate: all three are Location-Location-Location" in the St. Petersburg Times in 1950.[124] By the 1980s it was a chapter title in guides to franchising (1986) and house buying (1987),[125][126] and in 1996, the year before the Dagobah set, it was the title of a book on choosing a site for a business.[127] The phrase is so familiar that since 2000 it has been the title of a Channel 4 programme in which property experts Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer find homes for buyers.[128] In The Empire Strikes Back, Luke calls Dagobah a "slimy mudhole" and Yoda answers "Mudhole? Slimy? My home this is."[6] That answer is the lore of Location, Location, Location, so the estate agents' slogan sits over Yoda standing up for his swamp.
Ability, Ability, Ability, from the later Cloud City set, repeats the three-word title with "ability", a number printed on the game's character cards. Its game text makes the opponent deploy "a card with ability" or lose Force, and its lore is Luke hanging under Cloud City calling to Ben, then to Leia.[6]
Main Course
Type: Wordplay · Set: Endor · Text: "Threepio always tried to be polite to Captain Solo and to keep him from getting hot under the collar."
To get "hot under the collar" means to get angry.[129] In Return of the Jedi, the Ewoks put Han Solo on a spit and fill the pit under him with firewood, and Threepio tells him "it appears you are to be the main course at a banquet in my honor."[94] The title comes from that line, which is the lore of I Have A Really Bad Feeling About This, and the card shows Han tied over the fire, so the idiom is also literal.
Mournful Roar
Type: Wordplay · Set: Hoth · Text: "With the thought of losing Han, Chewbacca let out an anguished, sorrowful, lamenting, mournful, angst-ridden, tormented, agonizing roar."
The lore puts seven words of almost the same meaning in a row before "roar", like a list of synonyms in a thesaurus. In Peter Mark Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases, entry 839, "Lamentation", lists "lament", "wail", "groan" and "moan", and its adjectives include "lamenting", "sorrowful" and "mournful".[130] The card's title takes one of the seven, "mournful". Wookiee Roar spells Chewbacca's roar out instead of describing it, in the running gag Alien speech and sounds.
Moving To Attack Position
Type: Wordplay · Set: Dagobah · Text: "Sometimes the best defense is an insane offense."
"The best defense is a good offense" is an old adage of war and games: attacking keeps the enemy too busy to attack you.[131] George Washington put it this way in 1799: "offensive operations, often times, is the surest, if not the only (in some cases) means of defence".[132] The lore swaps "good" for "insane". In The Empire Strikes Back, the Millennium Falcon turns and flies straight at the bridge of Captain Needa's Star Destroyer, and Needa shouts "They're moving to attack position! Shields up!"[6] The card's title is his line.
On The Payroll Of The Trade Federation
Type: Wordplay · Set: Coruscant · Text: "A political agenda is no use without supporters. And in the world of politics, left and right often meet in the middle."
Left and right are the opposing wings of politics. The lore says they "meet in the middle": on the same payroll. Real companies have backed both sides in just this way. In the 1996 United States elections most of the biggest donors, among them Philip Morris and AT&T, gave to both parties, "hedging their bets".[133] Archer Daniels Midland and its chief executive, Dwayne Andreas, were among the top ten donors to both the Republican and the Democratic party over the five years before 1996.[134] Cartoonists drew the idea long before: in "The Fat Boy in Politics", a 1907 cartoon in The Minneapolis Journal, a fat man in a top hat holds out a bowl of "$alt" to both the Democratic donkey and the Republican elephant, and "would ride either party or both into power if he succeeds in getting his halter on them".[135]
Path Of Least Resistance
Type: Wordplay · Set: Cloud City · Text: "Yoda didn't say anything bad about taking the 'quick and easy corridor.'"
In The Empire Strikes Back, Yoda tells Luke that the dark side is "Quicker, easier, more seductive", and warns him: "if you choose the quick and easy path, as Vader did, you will become an agent of evil."[6] The lore swaps Yoda's "quick and easy path" for a "quick and easy corridor", which Yoda never warned against, and the card's picture is a corridor in Cloud City. The title is the saying "the path of least resistance", the easiest way to go.
Princess Leia Organa
Type: Wordplay · Set: Jabba's Palace · Text: "Captured by Jabba. Princess Leia provided a distraction for his henchbeings. Waiting for the first chance to escape. Really made Jabba's tail wiggle."
"Made his tail wiggle" is said of a happy dog. Jabba has a real tail, and the line is a mild innuendo about Leia as his captive.
Rug Hug
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Type: Wordplay · Set: Hoth · Text: "Wookiees are known to be creatures of great emotion and are very protective of family and friends. Chewbacca has come to treat Luke as a member of his own family."
In Star Wars, Leia calls Chewbacca a "big walking carpet".[11] The title rhymes "rug" with "hug" for Chewbacca hugging Luke.
Silence Is Golden
Type: Wordplay · Set: Hoth · Text: Silence Is Golden (title); "Excuse me, sir, might I in--"
"Speech is silver, silence is golden" is a proverb praising the value of silence over speech. Its earliest known use in English is in Sartor Resartus (1833–34), a novel by the Scottish writer Thomas Carlyle.[136][137] In The Empire Strikes Back, C-3PO follows Han Solo through the hangar on Hoth saying "Excuse me, sir. Might I inqu...", and Han puts his hand over Threepio's mouth.[6] The lore cuts Threepio off in the middle of the word, and the card's picture shows the hand over the gold droid's mouth.
Slip Sliding Away
Type: Wordplay · Set: Cloud City · Text: "Luke got the shaft."
The title is Paul Simon's 1977 hit "Slip Slidin' Away".[138] In The Empire Strikes Back, Luke lets go and drops down Cloud City's central shaft after his duel with Vader. He "slides to the end of the slickly polished pipe", tumbles out under the city and grabs a weather vane, then "slips back down" as he tries to pull himself up.[6] The lore is a pun on two meanings of "shaft": a vertical passage, and "harsh or unfair treatment", as in "gave them the shaft".[139] Luke, who has just lost his hand, has got the shaft both ways. The card's game text can cancel Into The Ventilation Shaft, Lefty, the Light Side card for the same fall, and can make a character at Weather Vane lost.
Space Slug, This Is No Cave and Shot In The Dark
Type: Wordplay · Set: Dagobah · Text: Space Slug: "Gigantic silicon-based lifeform. Exists in the vacuum of space. Devours small vessels whole. Has difficulty keeping its modified light freighters down." This Is No Cave: "The largest space slug on record was 900 meters long. Han suspected he had discovered one that was somewhat larger." Shot In The Dark: "To test his theory that he was not in a cave, Han blasted the floor. He was right."
Three Dagobah cards joke about the giant space slug in The Empire Strikes Back. To keep something down is "to retain in the stomach without vomiting".[140] In The Empire Strikes Back, the Millennium Falcon hides in an asteroid cave that turns out to be the mouth of a giant space slug, and flies out between its teeth just before the jaws close.[6] On Space Slug, the Millennium Falcon card is a "Modified Light Freighter", so the lore describes the Falcon's escape as food the slug could not keep down.
In The Empire Strikes Back, the Millennium Falcon hides in what turns out to be the mouth of a giant space slug, and Han realises "This is no cave."[6] Han first fires his blaster into the ground outside the ship.[107] This Is No Cave uses understatement ("somewhat larger"), and Shot In The Dark takes the saying "a shot in the dark", a wild guess, literally, ending on a flat "He was right."
Stop Motion
Type: Wordplay · Set: Hoth · Text: "'Your tauntaun'll freeze before you reach the first marker.'"
Stop motion is the film technique of moving a model a little between frames. The tauntauns in The Empire Strikes Back were animated by Phil Tippett with go motion, a form of stop-motion animation.[141] Tippett animated small puppets of the tauntaun and its rider for the Hoth scenes.[142] The lore is the warning that Han's tauntaun will freeze, that is, stop moving.
Stun Blaster
Type: Wordplay · Set: Jabba's Palace Sealed Deck · Text: "High-tech Merr-Sonn police immobilizer. Magnetic pulse slows victim's voluntary brain signals. Creatures with thickly insulated cerebral cavities are not affected."
"Thickly insulated cerebral cavities" is a technical way of saying thick-headed. The game text names the creatures it means: the blaster may target a character or creature "except rancor or Sarlacc". So the lore calls the Rancor and the Sarlacc thick-headed: both are big, dim beasts, not very intelligent, and the pulse that slows a victim's brain cannot get through to theirs.
Tunnel Vision
Type: Wordplay · Set: Dagobah · Text: "Han could always see the light at the end of the tunnel."
"The light at the end of the tunnel" means a sign that a hard time is nearly over. The lore says Han "could always see" it. The title, "tunnel vision", means seeing only what is straight ahead.
Voyeur
Type: Wordplay · Set: Dagobah · Text: "As there are very few local authorities on Dagobah, peeping astromechs can get away with just about anything."
A voyeur is a "peeping Tom", a name taken from the legend of Lady Godiva, in which a man called Tom watched her ride naked through Coventry.[143] The card shows R2-D2 in the rain on Dagobah: in The Empire Strikes Back he rises on his toes to peek through the window of Yoda's house, where Luke is eating.[6] There is a second joke in "very few local authorities". Dagobah has no government and no population to speak of,[144] so its only local authority is Yoda, the great authority on the Force, and he is the one being spied on. The game text peeks too: the opponent must reveal their whole Used Pile.
Weather Vane
Type: Wordplay · Set: Cloud City · Text: "Not a good place to hang around."
In The Empire Strikes Back, Luke falls out of Cloud City and hangs from a weather vane under the city until the Millennium Falcon picks him up: "Luke hangs by one arm from the crossbar of the weather vane."[6] The lore uses "hang around", which means to stay somewhere, for a place where Luke literally hangs.
Decipher in-jokes
Out Of Somewhere
Type: Decipher in-joke · Set: Cloud City · Text: "When the ghost-like image of Obi-Wan failed to appear, another came out of the light to rescue Luke."
The title is a play on the earlier Premiere card Out Of Nowhere. That card's lore is about starships hidden from sensors so they can strike out of nowhere; here help comes "out of somewhere", and the lore names the place: "out of the light".
Rycar's Run
Type: Decipher in-joke · Set: Dagobah · Text: "The infamous smuggler Rycar Ryjerd does this all the time. He's an idiot."
The lore calls the smuggler Rycar Ryjerd an idiot, as a joke, for flying asteroid runs "all the time".
They'd Be Crazy To Follow Us
Type: Decipher in-joke · Set: Dagobah · Text: "Flying into an asteroid field is considered to be certain death except by Han Solo, Rycar Ryjerd and the terminally insane."
The lore jokes that only Han Solo, the smuggler Rycar Ryjerd and the "terminally insane" would fly into an asteroid field, as Han does in The Empire Strikes Back.[116]
It is also a joke about plot armor, the story's protection of its heroes. Han can pull off the asteroid run because he is the hero of the film, and the plot will not let him die. Anyone without that plot armor who tried it would be "terminally insane" in both senses: insane, and terminal, because they would be dead very quickly.
Design gags
Commander Desanne
Type: Design gag · Set: Cloud City · Text: Lore: "Officer from Kalist VI. Due to a political blunder, was stripped of most official duties. Relegated to shuttling dignitaries and high-ranking Imperials." Game text: "Adds 2 to power of any starship he pilots. Your shuttling, landing and taking off to or from same location is free. During your control phase, may search your Reserve Deck, take any one Lambda shuttle or Landing Craft into hand and reshuffle."
The lore describes a punishment: after a political blunder, Desanne lost most of his duties and was left flying shuttles for important passengers. The game text turns that demotion into his strength. "Shuttling" is also a game term for moving characters between a starship and a site, and with Desanne on the table your shuttling, landing and taking off are free. He can also fetch a Lambda shuttle or a Landing Craft from your deck every turn. The job he was demoted to is the job the card makes him best at.
E Chu Ta
Type: Design gag · Set: Cloud City · Text: Lore: "'How rude!'" Game text: "One of your protocol droids 'insults' one character present, canceling that character's game text for remainder of turn. OR During your battle phase, initiate a battle where both players have droids (but no presence or spies). Both sides add one battle destiny."
In The Empire Strikes Back, as the group walks through Cloud City, Threepio passes a silver protocol droid like himself and says "Nice to see a familiar face". The droid mumbles "E chu ta!", and Threepio answers "How rude!"[6] The card's title is the insult and its lore is Threepio's reply.
The joke goes deeper than the quote. A protocol droid is built for communication; Threepio says on Hoth, "I am fluent in six million forms of communication."[6] The card makes communication the protocol droid's weapon. One of your protocol droids "insults" a character, and the insult shuts that character up: its game text, everything it can say in the game, is canceled for the rest of the turn. The second option starts a battle that only droids can fight, with no presence on either side. Other cards that print alien speech with no translation are in the running gag Alien speech and sounds.
Han's Back, Luke's Back, Leia's Back and The Empire's Back
Type: Design gag · Set: Premiere · Text: Titles, with pictures of each character from behind. Lore: Han's Back: "'Didn't we just leave this party?'" Luke's Back: "'It looks like I'm going nowhere.'" Leia's Back: "'It's not over yet!'" The Empire's Back: "'No star system will dare oppose the Emperor now.'"
"Han's back" normally means Han has returned, and each card's game text does bring the character back, from the Lost Pile or the Reserve Deck. But each picture also shows the character from behind, so the cards literally show Han's, Luke's and Leia's backs, and Grand Moff Tarkin's for the Empire: The Empire's Back shows Tarkin from behind, and its lore is his line to Leia. The lores are lines from Star Wars; Han's "Didn't we just leave this party?" is said on coming back to the Death Star hangar they had escaped from.[11]
Lieutenant Venka
Type: Design gag · Set: Dagobah · Text: Lore: "Worked hard for a transfer to the Executor. One of the many noncommissioned personnel promoted to replace the vast number of officers lost during the Death Star disaster." Game text: "Power +2 when at an Executor site or same site as Tarkin or Chief Bast, or if the Death Star has been 'blown away.' ..."
At the end of Star Wars (1977) the Death Star is destroyed with nearly everyone aboard.[11] Venka's lore says he was one of the many noncommissioned crew promoted to fill the officers' places after that "Death Star disaster", so he owes his rank to it. His game text makes him power +2 once the Death Star has been "blown away", the game's term for a destroyed system: he is stronger after the disaster that got him his job. He is also power +2 beside Tarkin or Chief Bast, two of the officers lost with the Death Star.
Lobel
Type: Design gag · Set: Special Edition · Text: Lore: "Powerful magnetic fields in the Lobel physiology make the operation of nearby navigation devices impossible. Pilots claim these fields also produce headaches." Game text: "Subtracts 2 from forfeit of each opponent's pilot at same site. Prevents characters from moving to or from same or adjacent site using Elis Helrot or Nabrun Leids."
Lobel's game text does two unusual things. It stops characters moving to or from the same or an adjacent site with Elis Helrot or Nabrun Leids, two Interrupts named after pilots for hire that "transport" any of your characters at one site to any other site in a single move. It also makes each opposing pilot at the same site worth 2 less when forfeited.
The lore invents a piece of alien biology to justify both rules. Magnetic fields from the Lobel's body make nearby navigation devices useless, so the pilots of those quick transports cannot find their way in or out. The same fields give pilots headaches, which is why pilots near Lobel are weaker. The headache line reads like a throwaway at the end of the lore, but it is the reason for half the card.
NOOOOOOOOOOOO! and Hypo
Type: Design gag · Sets: A New Hope, Cloud City · Text: NOOOOOOOOOOOO! lore: "Sometimes, the truth isn't very pretty." Game text: "USED: If you just answered 'no' to a Hypo question, opponent loses 3 Force. LOST: Cancel Why Didn't You Tell Me? or I Am Your Father..." Hypo game text: "You may ask one yes-or-no question about the cards in opponent's hand. Opponent must tell the truth or refuse to answer by losing 1 Force."
In The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader tells Luke "No. I am your father." Luke answers "No. No. That's not true! That's impossible!" Vader says "Search your feelings. You know it to be true", and Luke screams "No! No! No!"[6] The Cloud City card's title is that scream, and its lore, "Sometimes, the truth isn't very pretty", is about the truth he cannot accept. Its Lost use cancels I Am Your Father, the line that made him scream. Hypo is the large hypodermic needle on the torture droid that Vader brings to Leia's cell in Star Wars to make her reveal the location of the Rebel base.[11] The card's lore says the needle holds truth drugs, and its game text forces the opponent to tell the truth to one yes-or-no question about their hand. NOOOOOOOOOOOO! connects the two: a player forced to tell the truth gets to answer the way Luke did, "no", and the question then costs the asker 3 Force.
Ortolan
Type: Design gag · Set: Jabba's Palace · Text: Lore: "Squat, floppy-eared food lovers. Ortolans come from the frigid planet Orto. Communicate above the auditory range of most species." Game text: "Power and forfeit +2 on Hoth or at Dining Room. ..."
The lore gives two facts about the species: Ortolans love food, and they come from a frigid planet. The game text makes them stronger in exactly the two places those facts point to: at Cloud City: Dining Room, the only Dining Room site in the game, and on Hoth, the ice planet.
Star Destroyer!
Type: Design gag · Set: Special Edition · Text: Lore: "Leia's perception increased as she became more attuned to the Force. She attained the uncanny ability to spot objects at long distances." Game text: "If opponent just deployed or moved a Star Destroyer, say 'Star Destroyer!' ..."
The game text makes the player call out "Star Destroyer!" as part of playing the card, a spoken line that is a rule. It is Leia's line in The Empire Strikes Back: as the Falcon flees Cloud City, she recognizes a new blip on the scanner and says "Star Destroyer."[6] The card's picture is that moment, with Leia pointing out of the cockpit, and the lore treats spotting it as an uncanny Force power.
Trooper Utris M'toc and Trooper Jerrol Blendin
Type: Design gag · Set: Cloud City · Text: Trooper Utris M'toc lore: "Imzig Cloud City trooper and Wing Guard leader. Attempts to protect Cloud City citizens from less reputable members of local constabulary. Never accepts a bribe." Trooper Jerrol Blendin lore: "Corrupt captain of the Cloud City Wing Guard... Easily bribed. Keeps the peace through intimidation." Blendin game text: "Opponent may use 2 Force to 'bribe' Blendin to not participate in a battle."
The Wing Guard is Cloud City's police force (its "constabulary"), and the Cloud City set gives it one honest officer on the Light Side and one crooked one on the Dark Side. Utris M'toc "never accepts a bribe" and protects citizens from the less reputable members of his own force. Blendin, the Wing Guard's corrupt captain, is "easily bribed", and his game text makes that a rule: the opponent can pay 2 Force, the bribe, and Blendin stays out of the battle. Utris's card has no such text.
Yoda
Type: Design gag · Set: Dagobah · Text: "Help you I can, yes. … Judge me by my size do you? Mm? And well you should not!" and "Deploy on Dagobah I must, but move elsewhere I may, yes. … To attrition, immune am I."
In The Empire Strikes Back, Yoda often puts the object or complement before the subject and verb: "Help you I can", "Judge me by my size, do you?"[6] This object–subject–verb order is the best-known trait of his speech.[145] The lore quotes his lines from the film. The game text, plain rules wording on other cards, is written in the same inverted order: "Deploy on Dagobah I must", "Where present am I, battles and attacks happen not unless present a Dark Side character of ability > 3 there is" and "To attrition, immune am I." The lore of Yoda's Gimer Stick uses the same order.
Deadpan lore
Artoo & Threepio
Type: Deadpan lore · Set: Reflections II · Text: Lore: "Threepio's extensive experience 'talking' to the Falcon's computer allowed him to pilot the freighter while on Coruscant. Artoo, an R-unit droid, provided moral support." Game text: "May pilot only Falcon. ..."
The lore gives the credit to the wrong droid. R2-D2 is an astromech, a repair droid built to work on and help fly starships, and in the films he is the one who gets the heroes out of trouble again and again, while C-3PO, a protocol droid made for etiquette and translation, mostly worries. Even Threepio's "talking" to the Millennium Falcon goes badly: in The Empire Strikes Back (1980) he whistles at its control panel, sighs "Oh, where is Artoo when I need him?", and reports that the ship "has the most peculiar dialect".[6] Yet the card says Threepio flew the Falcon and Artoo only "provided moral support".
What Artoo actually does in the films:
- The Death Star garbage masher (Star Wars, 1977). Artoo plugs into the battle station's computer and finds where Princess Leia is held. Later the walls of a garbage masher close in on Luke, Han, Leia and Chewbacca, and Luke shouts over his comlink: "Shut down all the garbage mashers on the detention level!" Threepio can only relay the order ("Shut them all down! Hurry!") and lament "Curse my metal body!" while Artoo does it and saves them.[11]
- Cloud City and the Falcon's hyperdrive (The Empire Strikes Back). Artoo opens the doors for the escape and "lays a cloud fog" to hide the group from the stormtroopers. He also learns from the city's central computer that the Empire has deactivated the Falcon's hyperdrive. Once aboard, Threepio, still in pieces, scolds him: "You don't know how to fix the hyperdrive. Chewbacca can do it. I'm standing here in pieces, and you're having delusions of grandeur!" Artoo fixes it, the ship jumps to lightspeed just ahead of Darth Vader's Star Destroyer, and Threepio can only say "Oh, you did it!"[6]
- The blockade of Naboo (The Phantom Menace, 1999). As Queen Amidala's ship runs the Trade Federation's blockade, Artoo goes out on the hull under fire and restores the power. "That little droid did it," says the pilot, and Captain Panaka tells the Queen that "without a doubt, it saved the ship, as well as our lives."[95]
In any real emergency it is Artoo, not Threepio, who solves the problem, so "moral support" is a large understatement. The card's picture shows the two droids together in the Falcon's cockpit.
At Last We Are Getting Results
Type: Deadpan lore · Set: Theed Palace · Text: "First sign that your blockade is going well: the Queen's on the comlink."
The lore reads like advice from a manual for invaders.
AT-AT Driver
Type: Deadpan lore · Set: Hoth · Text: Lore: "Piloting walkers high above the battlefield, AT-AT drivers are protected by 15 centimeters of reinforced armor. Accordingly, they are regarded with contempt by the infantry."
The lore states the infantry's resentment as a plain matter of cause and effect. The drivers sit high above the fighting behind 15 centimeters of armor, while the troopers on the ground have none, and "Accordingly" the troopers despise them. The safest job in the battle earns the scorn of everyone else in it, and the card reports this as calmly as it reports the thickness of the armor.
Battle Droid Officer
Type: Deadpan lore · Set: Theed Palace · Text: "Leader. Officer battle droids contain programming that permits them to adapt to unusual situations. Known to malfunction from time to time."
The lore praises the officer droids' clever programming and then adds, flatly, that they break down now and then.
Boba Fett's Blaster Rifle
Type: Deadpan lore · Set: Cloud City · Text: "Sawed off BlasTech EE-3 blaster rifle. Although its barrel is a few centimeters under the legal limit, no one has lived to file an official complaint."
In the United States, shotguns with barrels shorter than 18 inches, often made by sawing the barrel off, have been restricted since 1934.[146] The lore gives Boba Fett's "sawed off" rifle the same kind of legal limit, then ends with the deadpan point that nobody it was used on has lived to complain.
Caller
Type: Deadpan lore · Set: Premiere · Text: "…Used throughout the galaxy. Also called 'owners.'" (Dark Side) · "…Used by many species. Also called “restraining bolt activators.”" (Light Side)
A caller is the hand-held remote for a droid's restraining bolt: the droid has to obey whoever holds it. The Light Side card gives its other name as the plain, technical "restraining bolt activators". The Dark Side card says callers are "also called 'owners'", naming the device after the person holding it: on the Dark Side, holding the remote is what makes you the droid's owner. Its game text fits that reading, letting an Imperial or a Jawa steal a droid that is under a Restraining Bolt, and its picture is a hooded Jawa with a caller. In Star Wars the Jawas sell R2-D2 and C-3PO to the Lars family, and the film keeps asking who owns R2: Luke thinks he "might have been stolen", Uncle Owen says "It belongs to us now", Threepio tells R2 "Master Luke here is your rightful owner", and Ben says he doesn't "remember ever owning a droid".[11]
The name was not made up for the card. West End Games' Cracken's Rebel Field Guide (1991), a sourcebook for Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, already lists the device as a "Restraining Bolt & Owner", and Wookieepedia records "owner" as one of the caller's names from that book.[147][148] The Dark Side lore repeats that name; the joke is what it says about whoever is holding the caller.
Captain Tarpals
Type: Deadpan lore · Set: Theed Palace · Text: "Gungan leader of the forces that patrol and protect the city of Otoh Gunga. Consistantly placed in the top ten of the Big Nasty Free-For-All." (spelling as printed)
The lore ends by ranking the Gungan captain like a sportsman, "in the top ten" of a contest called the "Big Nasty Free-For-All", which sounds like a brawl.
Concussion Grenade and Bossk's Mortar Gun
Type: Deadpan lore · Sets: Hoth, Dagobah · Text: Concussion Grenade: "Mier-Lan V-59 grenade. Blows stuff up." · Bossk's Mortar Gun: "Relby-v10 micro grenade launcher. Modified version of the limited range CSPL 'Caspel' Projectile Launcher. Blows lots of stuff up."
Both lores open with a weapon's model name and technical detail, then sum the weapon up in three plain words. The Hoth grenade "Blows stuff up." Bossk's bigger launcher, from Dagobah, "Blows lots of stuff up."
Dianoga
Type: Deadpan lore · Set: A New Hope · Text: Lore: "'Garbage squid' from Vodran's jungles. Changes color to match last meal. When unfed, turns transparent. Eats almost anything. Flexible eyestalk. 7 tentacles. Up to 6 meters long." Game text: "Ferocity = (power/ferocity of last character or creature eaten) + destiny. ..."
The dianoga is the creature in the Death Star's garbage masher in Star Wars that wraps a tentacle around Luke's throat and drags him under.[11] The lore reads like a field guide, and slips in that it "changes color to match last meal" and "when unfed, turns transparent", so you could tell what it last ate by looking at it. The game text keeps the same record: its ferocity is the power or ferocity of the last character or creature it ate, plus destiny.
Dodge
Type: Deadpan lore · Set: Cloud City · Text: "Normally, parents try to prevent their children from falling down the stairs."
In the duel on Cloud City in The Empire Strikes Back, Vader knocks Luke off balance and Luke "rolls down the stairs to the circular carbon-freezing platform".[6] Vader is Luke's father, so the lore treats it as bad parenting.
Dune Sea Sabacc
Type: Deadpan lore · Set: Jabba's Palace · Text: Light Side: "R'kik D'nec remains undefeated in this version of sabacc. Or at least there are no witnesses to the contrary." Dark Side: "Popular among Tatooine's native population. Apart from the Jawas, no one else seems to understand the rules."
The Light Side lore hints that R'kik D'nec's opponents do not survive to say otherwise. The Dark Side lore says no one understands the rules, which can also be read as a dig at the card's own long game text.
Egregious Pilot Error
Type: Deadpan lore · Set: Dagobah · Text: "Details of the notorious 'Incident at Anoat' are required reading at the Imperial Academy of Raithal, where the pilots' names are posthumously displayed."
The pilots of the "Incident at Anoat" are remembered as a lesson in what not to do, and "posthumously" tells the reader they did not survive it.
Feltipern Trevagg's Stun Rifle
Type: Deadpan lore · Set: Special Edition · Text: "Assault rifle modified by Feltipern. Used by the Gotal bounty hunter before he became a tax collector. Occasionally brought along to 'ease' Feltipern's collection duties."
The Premiere card Feltipern Trevagg calls him a "Corrupt tax collector" and a bounty hunter. His old bounty-hunting rifle now comes along on tax rounds, and the quotation marks around "ease" say what it is really for: people pay their taxes faster when the collector is carrying an assault rifle.
Gamorrean Guard and Thok & Thug
Type: Deadpan lore · Sets: Jabba's Palace, Reflections III · Text: Gamorrean Guard: "Big. Strong. Dumb." · Thok & Thug: "Jabba the Hutt knew that having a big, strong, dumb guard was good, but having lots of them is better."
The whole lore of Gamorrean Guard is three one-word sentences. Gamorreans guard Jabba's palace in Return of the Jedi. The lore echoes a line from the M*A*S*H episode "Check-Up" (season 3, episode 7, first aired on CBS on 22 October 1974), in which Hawkeye tells Trapper: "You big, strong, dumb, silent types can't handle the tension."[149][150]
Thok & Thug, from Reflections III (2001), puts the same three words into one phrase, "a big, strong, dumb guard", on a card with two Gamorrean guards.
Holoprojector
Type: Deadpan lore · Set: Jabba's Palace · Text: "Sometimes used by princesses to send distress calls to old Jedi Knights, but not often."
In Star Wars (1977), R2-D2 carries a hologram of Princess Leia, who pleads "Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope."[11] The lore lists the most famous use of an astromech's holoprojector as a rare extra, "but not often." The Premiere card Help Me Obi-Wan Kenobi shows the hologram.
Human Shield
Type: Deadpan lore · Set: Cloud City · Text: "A shining example of Imperial honor and bravery."
Hiding behind another person is the opposite of honor and bravery, so the lore is sarcasm.
I Don't Need Their Scum, Either
Type: Deadpan lore · Set: Cloud City · Text: "Of all the scum and villainy Lando had dealt with (pirates, smugglers, con-artists, thieves, swindlers, politicians and Imperial lackeys), he hated bounty hunters the most."
"Politicians" is slipped into the list of scum. The title answers Admiral Piett's "Bounty hunters. We don't need that scum." in The Empire Strikes Back.[6]
Interrogation Array
Type: Deadpan lore · Set: Cloud City · Text: "Torture rack so visually frightening it sometimes yields the desired results without even being switched on."
The joke is that the machine works without being used: one look at it and prisoners spill everything. Real courts relied on the same thing. In early modern Europe, a prisoner could be taken into the torture chamber and shown the instruments, a step called territio realis, in the hope that fear alone would bring a confession before any torture began.[151] Galileo was questioned by the Inquisition in 1633 under the threat of torture, and recanted.[152]
Jodo Kast
Type: Deadpan lore · Set: Enhanced Jabba's Palace · Text: "Bounty hunter and scout. Perfectionist. Equipped with Mandalorian armor and a jet pack. He doesn't mind being mistaken for Boba Fett. Occasionally works for Black Sun."
In Star Wars stories of the 1990s, Jodo Kast wears Mandalorian armor like Boba Fett's and uses Fett's name and look to win work.[153]
Kithaba
Type: Deadpan lore · Set: Jabba's Palace · Text: "Famous Klatooinian assassin. After disposing of a few more prisoners, plans to quit the killing business and become a full-time musician. Rises to the challenges he faces."
An assassin's career plan, told as calmly as a job change.
Leia, Rebel Princess
Type: Deadpan lore · Set: Reflections III · Text: "After attracting Luke's attention and then Han's attention, Leia should not have been surprised when she got more attention than desired from Jabba."
The lore counts Leia's admirers in film order, Luke and then Han, and adds Jabba as the third. In Return of the Jedi, Jabba catches Leia after she frees Han from carbonite and keeps her chained beside his throne.[94] The lore calls that "more attention than desired", and says she "should not have been surprised".
Lists of what went wrong
Type: Deadpan lore · Set: Cloud City · Text: This Is Even Better: "It took escape from Hoth, asteroids, slugs, capture, refreshments with Vader, torture, and the inevitable carbon-freezing to get Leia to reveal her true feelings for Han." Weapon Levitation: "Vader confiscated Han's blaster, his ship, his Wookiee, his girl and his only hope of escape."
Both lores sum up The Empire Strikes Back as a list, like Haven. "Refreshments with Vader" is Lando's invitation on Cloud City, "Will you join me for a little refreshment?", which leads into the dining room where Darth Vader is waiting; there Han's blaster "zips into Vader's hand", the moment Weapon Levitation is named for.[6] Its lore then lists everything Han loses, from his blaster to "his girl".
Lord Vader
Type: Deadpan lore · Set: Death Star II · Text: "Forgiving administrator of Imperial policy."
In The Empire Strikes Back, Vader tells Admiral Ozzel "You have failed me for the last time" as he chokes him, and answers Captain Needa's apology with "Apology accepted, Captain Needa" as Needa chokes to death.[6] The lore calls him "forgiving" with a straight face. Other cards play on the same word: Apology Accepted says "Needa discovered that Vader was only slightly more forgiving than the Emperor", and Moff Jerjerrod, from the same set as Lord Vader, "Does not want to find out if the Emperor is more forgiving than Vader." See also Admiral Ozzel. All the cards where Vader chokes or kills his own officers are together in the running gag Vader choking people.
Nien Nunb
Type: Deadpan lore · Set: Death Star II · Text: "Brilliant navigator. Former SoroSuub employee. Turned to pirating when that corporation backed the Empire. Tall for a Sullustan."
After a serious biography, the lore ends on a backhanded compliment: "Tall for a Sullustan."
One-line put-downs
Type: Deadpan lore · Sets: A New Hope, Cloud City, Jabba's Palace, Special Edition, Theed Palace · Text: Lieutenant Cecius: "Hasn't had a date in years." Uutkik: "Het Nkik's ugliest cousin." Danz Borin: "To his companions' delight, he's nearly as good as he boasts." Chevin: "Wear clothing only because others do." Weequay Hunter: "Tusken Raiders tend not to appreciate this." SSA-306: "His shift can only be ended by a blaster shot."
Each lore reads like an ordinary character sketch and then ends on a dry one-line dig. Lieutenant Cecius's service record ends on his love life. Uutkik is a hooded Jawa, so his face is never seen, yet he is called the ugliest of Het Nkik's cousins. Danz Borin's boasting is only "nearly" true. The Weequay hunters capture banthas, the animals Tusken Raiders ride, to sacrifice them, and the battle droid SSA-306 can only go off duty by being shot.
Prepare The Chamber
Type: Deadpan lore · Set: Cloud City · Text: "Coolant emitted by the TCF32 Carbonite Encasement Apparatus is rumored to have a mildly euphoric effect on Ugnaughts. Individuals on TCF32 duty are regarded with envy."
The carbon-freezing chamber that freezes Han is described as a coveted posting: its coolant is rumored to make Ugnaughts mildly euphoric, so the workers on duty there are envied. The title matches the stage direction for the scene in the script of The Empire Strikes Back: "Six Ugnaughts frantically prepare the chamber for use."[6]
Sacrifice
Type: Deadpan lore · Set: Special Edition · Text: "Jabba's minions could be expected to be sacrificed to save the Hutt, to destroy one of the Hutt's enemies or to provide the Hutt and his minions with a good laugh."
The list of reasons for dying for Jabba ends with entertainment.
Senate Hovercam
Type: Deadpan lore · Set: Theed Palace · Text: Senate Hovercam: "Senate hovercams report back to Chancellor Valorum at the conclusion of a Senate session. Mysteriously, the droid monitoring Amidala in the Senate never reported back." Senate Hovercam (Dark): "Used to monitor and record events inside the Galactic Senate. By law, hovercams are required to be present in every Senate session, a law Senator Palpatine opposed."
In The Phantom Menace, Senator Palpatine persuades Queen Amidala to call for a vote of no confidence in Chancellor Valorum, and Palpatine is then nominated to replace him.[24] The Light card calls it a mystery that the hovercam watching Amidala never reported back to Valorum. The Dark card adds that Palpatine opposed the law requiring the cameras. Neither card names a culprit, but read together they point to Palpatine.
Shut Him Up Or Shut Him Down
Type: Deadpan lore · Set: Dagobah · Text: "Some droids are disliked due to their annoying personality. Several highly publicized berserk assassin droid incidents haven't helped their public image."
The title is Han's order to Leia about Threepio in The Empire Strikes Back: "Shut him up or shut him down!"[6] The lore talks about killer droids in the language of public relations, as if a few "incidents" had hurt sales.
Slayn & Korpil Facilities
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Type: Deadpan lore · Set: Special Edition · Text: "Based in the Roche Asteroid Field. Worked with Admiral Ackbar to develop the B-wing fighter. Verpine owned, and that means quality."
"…owned, and that means quality" has the ring of an advertising slogan, as if the B-wing's makers were selling cars. Real advertising used the same form. "The Old Spice Sea Shanty", the Old Spice jingle written in 1953, has the line "'Old Spice means quality,' said the Captain to the Bosun".[154][155] A 1952 newspaper advertisement for Alligator coats, placed by The Man's Shop of Salem, Oregon, says "It's Alligator, of course, and that means quality."[156] Later ads used it as well. A 1976 Buick ad says "Regal is a Buick. And that means quality."[157] A 1987 Trane ad for its XL 1200 air conditioner ends "And, most important, it's made by Trane. And that means quality."[158]
SSA-1015
Type: Deadpan lore · Set: Theed Palace · Text: "Security battle droid whose programming assured him a Jedi could be subdued. Supposed to be designated SSA-101, but a mistake in production pushed him back to 1015."
The droid's long number is explained as a factory slip: he should have been SSA-101, and a stray digit "pushed him back" to 1015, as if a bigger serial number were a demotion. The first sentence has its own joke: his programming "assured him" a Jedi could be subdued.
Thrown Back
Type: Deadpan lore · Set: Coruscant · Text: "Being sent to dispose of two Jedi is the battle droid equivalent of a really bad day at the office."
Being sent against two Jedi means being cut apart or hurled aside, yet the lore files it as "a really bad day at the office": stressful and annoying, but not life-threatening. In The Phantom Menace the battle droids sent against Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi are destroyed in numbers.[24]
Weapon Of A Fallen Mentor
Type: Deadpan lore · Set: Reflections III · Text: Lore: "Darth Maul's complacency in what seemed like imminent victory over the Padawan was his downfall. That, and the lightsaber of Obi-Wan's fallen teacher." Game text: "If your non-[Permanent Weapon] lightsaber was just lost (or stolen) from a site, deploy on your character of ability > 4 at same site. Relocate that lightsaber to this character, who may use that lightsaber, and it may not be stolen. ..."
In The Phantom Menace, Darth Maul knocks Obi-Wan Kenobi's lightsaber down a shaft and moves in for the kill; Obi-Wan leaps up, calls his dead master Qui-Gon Jinn's lightsaber to his hand and cuts Maul down.[24] The lore gives Maul's complacency as the reason he lost, and only then adds, as an afterthought, the thing that actually killed him: "That, and the lightsaber of Obi-Wan's fallen teacher." The game text replays the scene: when your lightsaber is lost, another of your characters at the same site takes it up and fights with it.
YT-1300 Transport
Type: Deadpan lore · Set: Endor · Text: "Reliable and durable. Widely used freighter made by Corellian Engineering Corporation. Sales have dramatically increased in proportion to the fame of Han Solo's ship."
The Millennium Falcon is a YT-1300. The lore treats its fame as good for sales of the model, much as a famous film car sells real ones.
Running gags
Figrin D'an's band
Type: Running gag · Sets: Premiere, A New Hope, Special Edition
The Bith band in the Mos Eisley cantina shares two jokes across its cards: Figrin D'an has won most of his own musicians' instruments from them at cards, and he is a better musician and a better gambler than everyone around him, his older brother included. Tedn Dahai, the band's Fanfar player, is in Union jokes.
Figrin D'an (Premiere): "A male Bith. Musician who leads the Mos Eisley Cantina band, Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes. Expert gambler and card shark." The bandleader is also a card shark, and his game text makes a "wager" every turn.
Ickabel G'ont (A New Hope): "His favorite cantina song is 'Tears of Aquanna' (mainly because it features him on Fanfar)." Ickabel's favourite song is the one with his own solo.
Tech Mo'r (A New Hope): "Male Bith musician. Plays Ommni Box in Figrin D'an's band. Lost ownership of instrument to Figrin while gambling." He still plays the ommni box, but it now belongs to his bandleader.
Lirin Car'n (A New Hope): "Only musician, besides Doikk, who has not lost ownership of his instrument to Figrin." So the rest of the band, all but Doikk Na'ts and Lirin, have lost theirs.
Barquin D'an (Special Edition): "Bith musician and gambler. Estranged older brother of Figrin D'an. Plays kloo horn, but not as well as his brother. Briefly jammed with Max Rebo's band." The gag runs in the family: Barquin is a musician and a gambler too, but the lesser one. His "wager" game text has both players draw two destiny, where Figrin draws three against the opponent's two. "Jammed" is musicians' slang for playing together informally, here with Max Rebo's band.
Food and being fat
Type: Running gag · Sets: Premiere, A New Hope, Hoth, Dagobah, Cloud City, Jabba's Palace
Several cards joke about food and about being fat: a dining room that lets in the heavy pilot cheaply and doubles the food, a band leader who signs his life away for meals, a droid who gets spat out because he tastes bad, and the same droid called "overweight". Other food jokes have blocks of their own: Frozen Dinner, Main Course and Chewbacca Of Kashyyyk and Always Thinking With Your Stomach. Ortolan, whose lore calls the species "Squat, floppy-eared food lovers", is under Ortolan in Design gags.
Cloud City: Dining Room (Cloud City, Dark Side card), Light Side game text: "If you control, Blue Milk, Beru Stew and Yoda Stew are doubled. Jek is deploy -2 here." Jek Porkins (Premiere, Light Side card), lore: "Piloted Red 6 at Battle of Yavin. Specializes in strafing runs. Served in Tierfon Yellow Aces squadron at Tierfon Rebel Outpost. Free trader from Bestine system."
Jek Porkins, Red Six in Star Wars (1977), was played by William Hootkins, who remembered reading the part: "I thought because I'm a heavy guy, what's this word Porkins? I saw all the amazing creature effects they were doing and I thought wait a minute, if they are giving me a name like Porkins, is somebody going to come over and stick ears and a snout on my face?"[159] Porkins, as in pork, as in pig: the name is a joke about the heavy pilot's size. Porkins is shot down at the Battle of Yavin (see Red 6) and never goes near Cloud City, yet the Dining Room names him. The one character the Light Side text lets into the dining room for 2 less is "Jek", the fat pilot, and the same line doubles the three food cards Blue Milk, Beru Stew and Yoda Stew, so he arrives cheaply to a table with double helpings.
- Blue Milk (A New Hope): "Nutrient-rich beverage common in moisture farm communities. Rumored to have medicinal qualities. Popular in cantinas among those who can't hold their juri juice."
- Beru Stew (Premiere): "Moisture farmers grow enough food to sustain Tatooine's population. Beru Lars has devised many dishes using herbs and roots naturally found in Tatooine's desert."
- Yoda Stew (Dagobah): "'For the Jedi it is time to eat as well.'" In The Empire Strikes Back, Yoda, whom Luke has not yet recognised, says it as he serves Luke a meal in his hut, then adds "Eat, eat. Hot. Good food, hm?"[6]
Max Rebo (Jabba's Palace), lore: "Ortolan musician and gambler. Head of The Max Rebo Band. Signed a lifetime contract to Jabba in exchange for unlimited food." Game text: "Power +2 on Hoth. ..." Max Rebo is an Ortolan, and the Ortolan card calls the species "Squat, floppy-eared food lovers" from "the frigid planet Orto". Max lives up to both halves: he signs himself to Jabba for life, and the price is food. Like the plain Ortolan card, he is also stronger on Hoth, the ice planet.
WHAAAAAAAAAOOOOW! (Dagobah), lore: "'You're lucky you don't taste very good.'" Game text: "If one of your characters was just defeated by a Dragonsnake, Rancor, Sarlacc, Dianoga or Wampa, instead of being 'eaten' that character is 'hurled' (relocated) to an adjacent site, if possible." In The Empire Strikes Back, Artoo falls into the Dagobah swamp, a bog beast pulls him under the water and then spits him out onto the moss, and Luke tells him "You're lucky you don't taste very good."[6] The card's picture shows Artoo in mid-air. The game text does the same for any of your characters: a creature that would eat one spits it out instead, to the next site.
Oh, Switch Off (Hoth), lore: "Mindless philosophy for an overweight glob of grease." At the start of Star Wars, Artoo beeps at Threepio, and Threepio answers "Don't call me a mindless philosopher, you overweight glob of grease!"[11] On Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back, when Artoo whistles a protest at him, Threepio says "Oh, switch off."[6] The Hoth card takes its title from the second line and its lore from the first, so the lore ends on the fat joke: the short, round astromech is the "overweight glob of grease". R2-D2 (Artoo-Detoo) uses the other half of the same insult.
Hard-to-read cards
Type: Running gag · Sets: Dagobah, Cloud City
Three cards are printed so that they are hard to read, two of them upside down and one in mirror image, and each lore explains why. Cards whose lore cannot be read because it is in an alien language are in Alien speech and sounds.
Polarized Negative Power Coupling (Dagobah): "Replacement often requires an inverted engineer." The picture shows the engineer, Chewbacca, upside down. Turn the card over and he is the right way up.
Through The Force Things You Will See (Dagobah): "One training exercise for a Jedi's apprentice is to invert one's view to see things from a different perspective." The title, lore and game text are printed upside down, and the picture shows Luke upside down. Turned over, the card reads normally and Luke stands upright: a "different perspective".
Hindsight (Cloud City): "'I'm backwards! You fleabitten furball... only an overgrown mophead like you would be stupid enough—'" The whole card, title and picture included, is printed in mirror image. In The Empire Strikes Back Chewbacca puts Threepio's head on backwards, and Threepio cries "I'm backwards, you stupid furball".[6] The title is taken literally too: Threepio's sight is behind him.
I have a bad feeling about this
Type: Running gag · Sets: Premiere, A New Hope, Dagobah, Jabba's Palace, Endor
In each film of the original trilogy a hero says "I have a bad feeling about this", and the cards keep adding versions of the line, set after set: "got a", "very", "really", "Artoo," and Yoda's "Bad Feeling Have I".
I've Got A Bad Feeling About This (Premiere): "Han's smuggling adventures in Corporate Sector and Hutt Space put him in many tight scrapes. He's about to be in another." Han's line in the Death Star's trash compactor ("I've got a very bad feeling about this" in the script).[11]
I Have A Very Bad Feeling About This (A New Hope): "'Look at him, he's heading for that small moon.' Luke became apprehensive when Obi-Wan informed him, 'That's no moon. It's a space station.'" Luke's line as the Millennium Falcon is pulled toward the Death Star, one word stronger than the Premiere title.[11]
Ng'ok (A New Hope): "Dejarik hologram of a Ng'ok war beast. Foul temper gives rise to bad feelings." The Dark Side's version in the same set: a hologame monster that gives rise to "bad feelings", with the same game text, word for word, as I Have A Very Bad Feeling About This.
I Have A Bad Feeling About This (Dagobah): "'This ground sure feels strange. Doesn't feel like rock. I don't know...'" Leia's line inside the space slug in The Empire Strikes Back; the lore is what she says just before it.[6]
Bad Feeling Have I (Dagobah): "'Ready are you? What know you of ready?'" The title says it in Yoda's word order (see Yoda), and the lore is Yoda's line to Luke.[6] Its game text ends the gag for the opponent: "opponent may not play any cards with the words 'bad feeling' in the title."
Artoo, I Have A Bad Feeling About This (Jabba's Palace): "'He says our instructions are to give it only to Jabba himself. I'm terrible sorry. I'm afraid he's ever so stubborn about these sort of things.'" Threepio's line as Bib Fortuna leads the droids into Jabba's palace in Return of the Jedi.[94]
I Have A Really Bad Feeling About This (Endor): "'I'm rather embarrassed, General Solo, but it appears you are to be the main course at a banquet in my honor.'" Han's line in the Ewok village, where he is tied up to be cooked; the lore is Threepio's explanation (see also Main Course).[94]
It Could Be Worse and It's Worse
Type: Running gag · Set: Premiere · Text: It Could Be Worse lore: "After escaping Detention Block AA-23. Rebels found themselves in the trash compactor. Leia pointed out, 'It could be worse.' It soon was." It's Worse game text: "If It Could Be Worse was just played, it is canceled..."
In Star Wars, Luke, Han, Leia and Chewbacca escape the Death Star's detention block by jumping into a garbage chute and land in a trash compactor. Leia says "It could be worse...", a horrible moan comes up from the murky water, and Han answers "It's worse." Seconds later a creature drags Luke under.[11] The two Premiere cards play the exchange out. The Light Side card ends its lore on a flat punchline, "It soon was." The Dark Side card takes Han's answer as its title, and its game text cancels It Could Be Worse, so in the game, too, Leia's hopeful line is answered by Han's. Its lore picks up where the scene goes next: "Things went from bad to worse when Luke was attacked by a dianoga".
Luke's lost hand
Type: Running gag · Set: Cloud City
In The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader cuts off Luke's right hand in their duel on Cloud City.[116] Seven Cloud City cards joke about it.
Desperate Reach (Cloud City): "If only someone had given Luke a hand." To "give someone a hand" means to help them; here it is also literal.
Bionic Hand (Cloud City): "They had the technology. They could make it better, stronger, faster." The Alliance gives him one, in the words of The Six Million Dollar Man, a 1970s TV series about astronaut Steve Austin, rebuilt with bionic limbs after a crash, whose opening says "We have the technology… Better . . . stronger . . . faster."[160] The "$6,000,000" etched on the hand is listed at Easter eggs.
Captive Pursuit (Cloud City): "Han could have used a hand. Fortunately, Luke still had one to give." The same idiom, with one hand left.
Haven (Cloud City): "After pursuit, asteroids, a slug, Jedi training, capture, torture, escape, a duel, losing Han and losing a hand, Luke and Leia finally made it to the Alliance's rendezvous point." A list of the film's ordeals that ends with two almost identical phrases: "losing Han and losing a hand".
Into The Ventilation Shaft, Lefty (Cloud City): "'Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa . . .'" The title has the shape of the Premiere card Into The Garbage Chute, Flyboy, Leia's order to Han in Star Wars. After losing his right hand, Luke drops down Cloud City's central air shaft; "Lefty" is a nickname for a left-handed person, and the lore is his scream as he falls.
It's A Trap! (Cloud City): "Luke's decision to ignore Leia's warning about the trap cost him an arm and a. . . well, just a hand actually." Something that "costs an arm and a leg" is very expensive; the lore starts the phrase and corrects itself.
Mostly Armless (Cloud City): "One lesson learned in Jedi training is that when you have been injured, don't panic." Mostly Harmless is a novel in Douglas Adams's comic Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series,[161] whose Guide has "Don't Panic" printed on its cover.[162] The title swaps "Harmless" for "Armless", and the lore ends with "don't panic".
Plotting to kill Jabba
Type: Running gag · Set: Jabba's Palace
Seven members of Jabba's court in Jabba's Palace have lore that ends the same way: "Plotting to kill Jabba." Two more cards finish the story.
- Bane Malar: "Mysterious bounty hunter of an unknown species. Rumored to be somewhat telepathic. Infrequent member of Jabba's court. Plotting to kill Jabba."
- Bib Fortuna: "Twi'lek leader and majordomo of Jabba's palace. Succeeded Jabba's last majordomo, Naroon Cuthus. Plotting to kill Jabba."
- Garon Nas Tal: "Saurin combat expert. Hired by Jabba to train his Gamorrean guards. Regrets taking the job. Dislikes Jabba and his henchbeings. Plotting to kill Jabba."
- J'Quille: "Whiphid spy in league with Lady Valarian. Yearns for battle. Enjoys hearing the screams of his victims. Plotting to kill Jabba."
- Ree-Yees: "Gran convicted of murder. Exiled from his homeworld. Smuggler and bounty hunter. Slowly going insane. Fond of making things explode. Plotting to kill Jabba."
- Tessek: "Quarien accountant. Embezzling from Jabba. Leader. Escaped Mon Calamari after its subjugation by the Empire. Plotting to kill Jabba and free the Hutt's captives."
- Velken Tezeri: "Assigned by Jabba to work with Hermi Odle. Former technician for the Empire. Developed a method to remotely control seekers. Plotting to kill Jabba."
Both sides of the court are at it, Light and Dark, and so is Jabba's own majordomo.
Bubo (Jabba's Palace): "Watchbeast. Unwittingly foiled Ree Yees' plot to kill Jabba with a thermal detonator when it ate a crucial component." One plot fails by accident: Jabba's pet eats part of Ree-Yees's bomb.
Ephant Mon (Jabba's Palace): "Chevin smuggler. One of Jabba's few truly loyal associates. Keeps Jabba informed as to the various plots against his life." The punchline: the one loyal friend, whose job is keeping track of all the others.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Type: Running gag · Set: Special Edition
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is Sergio Leone's 1966 western, and its title names its three gunmen: Blondie (Clint Eastwood), the Good; Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef), the Bad; and Tuco (Eli Wallach), the Ugly.[163] In the film Blondie and Tuco run a bounty scam: Blondie hands Tuco over for the reward, then shoots through the noose as Tuco is about to be hanged, and the two split the money. When Blondie tires of him, he keeps the money and leaves Tuco in the desert; later the two have to work together to find buried Confederate gold, which Angel Eyes, a mercenary, is hunting too.[164] Three Special Edition characters play the trio. Debnoli is an anagram of Blondie and Gela Yeens of Angel Eyes, while Bron Burs is an anagram of the Decipher artist Rob Burns.[165] The fan list "Anagramed Decipherians" names the film beside all three cards and tags Gela Yeens BAD and Bron Burs UGLY.[166] The three anagrams are also rows of the Anagrams table. The cards are shown in the order of the title: the Good, the Bad, then the Ugly. The Virtual reprints Debnoli (V), Gela Yeens (V) and Bron Burs (V) keep the same lore. Two other cards nod to Clint Eastwood's westerns: Quick Draw ("a fistful of credits") and Rolling, Rolling, Rolling (the Rawhide theme).
The giveaway is the first word of each card's lore, which is that card's part of the film's title, in the same order: Debnoli opens "Good-natured",[167] Gela Yeens opens "Bad-tempered"[168] and Bron Burs opens "Ugly scars".[169] The names are anagrams, but the lore says which third of the title each card plays.[163]
Debnoli (Special Edition): "Good-natured patron of Mos Eisley cantina, until the Empire impounded his starship. Expert marksman. Seeking revenge on the Empire." Debnoli uses exactly the letters of Blondie, the Good,[166] and the lore opens with "Good-natured". Blondie's part of the bounty scam is a marksman's trick, a rifle shot through the noose,[164] and Debnoli is an "Expert marksman" whose game text adds 1 to his total weapon destiny when he fires a character weapon and sets the forfeit of anyone he hits to 0.
Gela Yeens (Special Edition): "Bad-tempered smuggler. Makes a few credits more helping Jabba collect debts. Highly regarded for his uncanny anticipation in battle. Searching for Debnoli." Gela Yeens uses exactly the letters of Angel Eyes, the Bad,[166] and the lore opens with "Bad-tempered". "Makes a few credits more" turns the title of For a Few Dollars More (1965), the Leone western before The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, in which Lee Van Cleef and Clint Eastwood play two bounty hunters,[170] into credits, as Quick Draw turns A Fistful of Dollars into "a fistful of credits". In The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Angel Eyes is a mercenary who always finishes a job he is paid for, "usually tracking and assassination",[171] and Gela Yeens, the card that is Angel Eyes, ends his lore "Searching for Debnoli", the card that is Blondie.
Bron Burs (Special Edition): "Ugly scars cover this former commando from southern Nentan. Likes to be on his own. Crack shot. Off and on partner of Debnoli. Relies on intuition to survive." The title scrambles the name of Rob Burns, one of Decipher's studio artists,[165] but the lore casts him as Tuco, the Ugly. It opens with "Ugly scars", and it makes him the "off and on partner" of Debnoli, the card that is Blondie, just as Tuco is Blondie's partner off and on in the film: sold for the bounty and cut down from the rope, then left in the desert, then taken back as a partner to find the gold.[164] The fan list tags the card UGLY.[166]
Union jokes
Type: Running gag · Sets: Jabba's Palace, Coruscant, Jedi Pack
Three cards, from three different sets, describe galactic characters in the language of trade unions.
Tedn Dahai (Jedi Pack): "Member in good standing of the Intergalactic Federation of Musicians." "Member in good standing" is the union phrase for a paid-up member, and the Intergalactic Federation of Musicians echoes the American Federation of Musicians, the musicians' union of the United States and Canada.[172]
Ardon 'Vapor' Crell (Jabba's Palace): "Representative from the Moisture Farmers of Tatooine (local 253)." American union branches are numbered "locals": the American Federation of Musicians has 162 of them, and New York's is Local 802.[172] The moisture farmers of Tatooine have one too, local 253.
Televan Koreyy (Coruscant): "Leader of Tatooine's Street Performers And Panhandlers' Guild." Real street performers and beggars have organized too: Boston's street musicians formed a Street Performers Guild in 1978,[173] and in 1907 American newspapers reported "A Union of Beggars", a trade union of beggars founded in Marseille.[174]
Alien speech and sounds
Type: Running gag · Sets: Premiere, A New Hope, Dagobah, Cloud City, Jabba's Palace, Special Edition, Tatooine, Reflections III
In the films, aliens speak their own languages, and the audience understands them only when someone translates. In Return of the Jedi (1983) Jabba the Hutt speaks only Huttese, which the film subtitles. When Luke arrives at Jabba's palace and tells Jabba's majordomo, Bib Fortuna, "I must be allowed to speak", Bib turns to Jabba and repeats it in Huttese, and the subtitle reads "He must be allowed to speak."[94] Decipher's cards print alien speech and alien noises in their lore with no subtitles at all, so a reader who knows no Huttese can pick out only the names. Sixteen cards are shown one at a time in release order, and alphabetically within each set; MSE-6 'Mouse' Droid, from Premiere, is shown beside Wookiee Roar, the card that scares it off. Cards printed upside down or backwards are in Hard-to-read cards. Chewbacca's roar, described in seven words, is Mournful Roar, and Threepio's "How rude!" in answer to an untranslated insult is E Chu Ta.
Myo (Premiere): "A regenerating, primitive, violent, desert dwelling, fearless, mercenary-loving, Lirin Car'n-befriending, cyclopian Abyssin from Byss. Calling him 'monoc' will start a fight." The card never says what "monoc" means, only that the word is enough to start a fight with the one-eyed Abyssin. Wookieepedia defines it as an insult for one-eyed species and lists this card as its first source.[175] Before the warning, nine descriptions pile up ahead of his name, the last ones oddly specific ("Lirin Car'n-befriending"), the same gag as the run of adjectives on Mournful Roar. The later errata text has "mercenary-joining"; the original card says "mercenary-loving".
Jawa Blaster (A New Hope): "An etching on this stock warns 'datinni greb zroom.'" A warning no reader can understand, on a gun whose game text says it can explode and be lost with the character firing it.
Oo-ta Goo-ta, Solo? (A New Hope): "Greedo cheskopokuta klees ruya Solo. Hoko yanee boopa gush Cantina. Cheeco wa Solo's anye nyuma Greedo vakee. Jabba kul steeka et en anpaw." The title is Greedo's question to Han in Star Wars, which the film subtitles "Going somewhere, Solo?".[11] The lore gets no subtitles: only "Greedo", "Solo", "Cantina" and "Jabba" can be read.
Wookiee Roar (A New Hope) and MSE-6 'Mouse' Droid (Premiere): Wookiee Roar's whole lore is the roar itself, spelled out: "'GHRRRRAARRRRHG!'" There is nothing to translate, and the card's picture is Chewbacca with his mouth wide open. One of its three game text options is "Scare off (lose) one 'mouse' droid on table", and the mouse droid's own lore ends "Easily frightened." Together the two cards play out a moment in Star Wars (1977). Luke and Han, disguised as stormtroopers, are marching Chewbacca through the Death Star as their "prisoner" when a mouse droid rolls up to them; Chewbacca roars at it, and it squeals and races away.[176] StarWars.com says mouse droids are given to "exploding into panicked squeals when confused or frightened".[177] On the table, one roar is enough to make the droid lost.
Res Luk Ra'auf (Dagobah): "Rek guza kias n'ek kriesuk zief. Rek res fesruk T'doshok kulesuk luk g'razzurg koref selukra fes k'nel. Kren'ef, T'doshok res luk rek grien forek res fel luraken." The title is Bossk's line in The Empire Strikes Back,[178] where he is one of the bounty hunters on Vader's bridge and Admiral Piett says "Bounty hunters. We don't need that scum."[6] The whole lore is in the bounty hunter's own language, with no translation (see also I Don't Need Their Scum, Either).
We'll Find Han (Cloud City): "'I promise.' 'Auuuuuug!'" The card's picture is Lando Calrissian and Chewbacca in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon at the end of The Empire Strikes Back. Han has been frozen in carbonite and flown off by the bounty hunter Boba Fett, and the two are setting off to find him. Lando tells Leia over the comlink, "Princess, we'll find Han. I promise." Luke adds, "Chewie, I'll be waiting for your signal", and the script's only answer is "Chewie's wail comes over the comlink."[6] The title and the first half of the lore are Lando's promise; the second half is Chewbacca's reply, spelled out as "Auuuuuug!" with no translation, so the reader understands as much of it as Luke does. The game text keeps the promise: it can deploy Han to the same site as Chewie or your Lando.
Bantha Fodder (Jabba's Palace): "Uu a'kingsa riika pagh bagla bis kachata weenow con bantha poodoo." Only the last two words can be made out, and the title translates them: "bantha poodoo" is Huttese for "bantha fodder", food for banthas, said of a person who is worth nothing more.[179] Banthas are the elephant-sized, horned beasts the Sand People ride in Star Wars.[11] In Return of the Jedi Jabba says it to Han Solo, just freed from the carbonite, and the film subtitles it "It's too late for that, Solo. You may have been a good smuggler, but now you're Bantha fodder."[94] The card's picture is Han in Jabba's palace. The rest of the lore gets no subtitle. One of the card's game text options searches your Reserve Deck for a bantha.
Hutt Bounty (Jabba's Palace): "Chissaa, picha gawanki Chewbacca. Yupon cogorato kama walpa kyess kashung kawa Wookiee." The only words a reader can pick out are "Chewbacca" and "Wookiee". The card's picture is Chewbacca with the bounty hunter Boushh, who is Princess Leia in disguise. In Return of the Jedi Boushh leads Chewbacca into Jabba's palace and says, in Ubese, which the film subtitles, "I have come for the bounty on this Wookiee." Jabba answers in Huttese, subtitled "At last we have the mighty Chewbacca", and Threepio translates his offer of twenty-five thousand.[94] The card's lore is all Huttese and gets neither subtitles nor Threepio. Its game text pays out when a bounty hunter brings a captured smuggler, gambler or thief to Jabba's dungeon.
I Must Be Allowed To Speak (Jabba's Palace): "Jedi mod spienko eek." The title is Luke's line to Bib Fortuna in Return of the Jedi, which Bib repeats to Jabba in Huttese, subtitled "He must be allowed to speak."[94] The lore is a line in an alien language in which only "Jedi" can be read, with no subtitle, so the card about being allowed to speak speaks in words the reader cannot follow. The card's picture is Luke, hooded, in Jabba's palace.
Information Exchange (Jabba's Palace): "Chisa nyooda ishaley. Kun Jabba neguda len malta." "Ikkit ui! Yobbit, yobbit. Nelan tui ke bada." The lore is two quoted lines, as if from the two aliens talking in the card's picture, a Rodian and a Jawa, and only "Jabba" can be read. The title promises an exchange of information; the reader gets none of it. The game text is about information brokers, and lets you look at the top four cards of your opponent's Reserve Deck.
Ke Chu Ke Kukuta? (Jabba's Palace): "Balka. Hachu ma blinki?" Here even the title is alien. The card's picture is the eye of the gatekeeper droid at the door of Jabba's palace.[180] In Return of the Jedi, when Threepio knocks, the eye pops out on its arm and says something no one translates, which the script spells "Tee chuta hhat yudd!" Threepio answers "Artoo Detoowha bo Seethreepiowha ey toota odd mischka Jabba du Hutt", and the eye laughs and goes back in.[94] Neither the film nor the card says what the gatekeeper asks. The game text does the gatekeeper's job: an Imperial who has just deployed to a Jabba's Palace site is sent back to its owner's hand and may not be deployed again that turn.
Bossk In Hound's Tooth (Special Edition): "Bossk once said of his ship, 'Greeezeg uut nikek!'" The lore quotes what Bossk said about the Hound's Tooth, but not what it means.
Jabba's Through With You (Special Edition): "'Klees ka tlanko ya oska.'" The title is a line from the Mos Eisley cantina in Star Wars. Greedo, a bounty hunter working for Jabba the Hutt, holds Han at gunpoint and tells him, in his own language with English subtitles, "Jabba's through with you. He has no time for smugglers who drop their shipments at the first sign of an Imperial cruiser."[11] The lore is a different line. When Greedo says Jabba may only take Han's ship, Han answers "Over my dead body", and Greedo's last words are subtitled "That's the idea. I've been looking forward to this for a long time."[181] The short story "A Hunter's Fate: Greedo's Tale", in the book Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina (1995), writes that reply out in Greedo's language as "Ukle nyuma cheskopokuta klees ka tlanko ya oska", and the card's lore is its last five words.[182] So the card is titled with one of Greedo's lines, in English, and quotes another without its subtitle. The picture is Han and Greedo across the cantina table, and the game text rewards a bounty hunter who has just fired a character weapon. Greedo's opening question to Han is Oo-ta Goo-ta, Solo?, above.
Losing Track (Tatooine): "'Wha-? Chuba da noya!'" The card is about the podrace across the Tatooine desert in The Phantom Menace (1999), and its picture is podracers streaking over the sand. Only "Wha-?" is English, the sound of someone who has lost track of what is going on. "Chuba" is Huttese, and Wookieepedia gives "Chuba!" as "Hey you!";[183] the rest gets no translation, and the card does not say who is speaking. The race in the film is hosted by Jabba the Hutt, who has no interest in the sport, falls asleep during it, and has to be woken by Bib Fortuna when it is over.[184] The game text is about the race, not the speaker: it can put a card from the opponent's Lost Pile back on their Reserve Deck, "repair" your Podracer, or "damage" another.
Ewok Celebration (Reflections III): "'Na na, beecha na noooooooooooooooowa.'" The card's picture is the party in the Ewok village at the end of Return of the Jedi, after the Empire is beaten on Endor,[94] with Ewoks beating on captured stormtrooper helmets like drums. In the 1983 film the Ewoks sing "Ewok Celebration", better known as "Yub Nub". Its Ewokese words were written by the film's sound designer, Ben Burtt, and it has published English words too ("Freedom, we got freedom").[185] The card's line is not in those lyrics, and the reader gets no English for it, only a "no" held for sixteen o's. In the 1997 Special Edition of the film the song was replaced by a new piece, "Victory Celebration".[185] The game text makes Ewoks better in battle at Endor sites.
Vader choking people
Type: Running gag · Sets: Premiere, Premiere Two-Player Introductory Game, Jedi Pack, Hoth, Dagobah, Death Star II
In the films, Darth Vader punishes his own officers by strangling them with the Force, from across the room and without touching them. In Star Wars (1977) he chokes Admiral Motti, who has mocked the Force, until Grand Moff Tarkin orders "Vader, release him!"[11] In The Empire Strikes Back (1980) he kills two officers this way: Admiral Ozzel, over a video link, with "You have failed me for the last time, Admiral", and Captain Needa, who has come to apologise for losing the Millennium Falcon, with "Apology accepted, Captain Needa."[6] In Return of the Jedi (1983) he warns Jerjerrod, the commander of the second Death Star, that "The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am."[94] Fourteen Decipher cards, from Premiere to Death Star II, joke about it or turn it into game text. They are shown one at a time in release order, and alphabetically within each set.
Alter (Premiere): "A user of the Force can subjugate the will of others or alter the environment at a distance, as when Vader 'disciplines' those whose lack of faith disturbs him." The quotation marks around "disciplines" do the same work as the ones around "alternative" on Demotion, the next card: the word stands for the choke. "Those whose lack of faith disturbs him" are officers like Motti, and the card's picture is Vader with his gloved hand raised.
Demotion (Premiere): "Repercussions for failure are severe in the Imperial military. Many officers prefer demotion to 'alternative' punishment from Darth Vader." The lore never says what the "'alternative' punishment" is; the quotation marks leave it to the reader. Anyone who has seen the films knows it: the choke, which Motti survives only because Tarkin stops it, and which kills Ozzel and Needa. Compared with that, a demotion is the lucky outcome. The game text, "Use 2 Force to deploy on any Imperial, except Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine or Stormtrooper. That Imperial is power -2 and cannot use its 'game text.'", only costs the officer 2 power and his game text.
I Find Your Lack Of Faith Disturbing (Premiere): "Darth Vader ruthlessly used the Force to strike down enemies and soldiers who displeased him. He could choke victims from afar without touching them." The title is what Vader says to Motti as he chokes him (the first film still with Demotion, above),[11] and the card's picture is Motti with his hand at his throat. The lore counts "soldiers who displeased him" among Vader's victims, next to his enemies.
Vader (Premiere Two-Player Introductory Game): this Vader chokes his own side when things go badly. His game text: "If in a losing battle, draw destiny. If destiny > 4, 'choke' (lose) one Imperial present (your choice)." When he loses a battle, the Dark Side player may have to give up one of their own Imperials at that battle, as the officer Vader takes it out on.
Motti (Jedi Pack): "Considered an overrated leader by many subordinates. Has a disturbing lack of faith. Became a member of the Death Star's command triumvirate despite his failings." "A disturbing lack of faith" is Vader's line to Motti just before he chokes him; the lore files it as a character trait.
Admiral Ozzel (Hoth): "Leader of the Emperor's Death Squadron assigned to hunt down and crush the Rebellion. As clumsy as he is stupid. Has just failed Darth Vader for the next-to-last time." "As clumsy as he is stupid" is what Vader says about Ozzel just before he kills him[6]; the last time is the next card. Full entry: Admiral Ozzel and Death Squadron Star Destroyer.
You Have Failed Me For The Last Time (Hoth): "'Lord Vader, the fleet has moved out of lightspeed and we're preparing to aah . . . ukh . . . uh . . . uuuuukkk!'" The title is Vader's line to Ozzel, and the lore is Ozzel's report, cut off as the choke takes hold; in the script he gets as far as "we're preparing to... Aaagh!"[6] The card's picture is Ozzel on the viewscreen, the scene in the second still with Demotion above. Its game text makes the target "immediately lost (placed out of play if Ozzel)": Ozzel does not come back.
Apology Accepted (Dagobah): "'I shall assume full responsibility for losing them and apologize to Lord Vader.' Needa discovered that Vader was only slightly more forgiving than the Emperor." The first sentence is Captain Needa's line after the Millennium Falcon escapes him; the title is Vader's answer as he chokes him.[6] The card's picture is Needa choking. The game text makes the Dark Side player lose one of their own Imperials who survived a battle they lost.
Captain Needa (Dagobah): "Able leader and captain of the Avenger. Was given his command by Admiral Ozzel. Treated with suspicion by Darth Vader and the Emperor, who distrust Ozzel's close advisors." Needa owes his ship to Ozzel, and Vader chokes them both in the same film, Ozzel first. The lore calls it suspicion.
Field Promotion (Dagobah): "Imperial officers are fiercely competitive, especially on the Executor. Lord Vader's flagship is a place where devious political calculation prospers. The naive are doomed to failure." A field promotion is one made on the spot, like Captain Piett's on Vader's bridge: as Ozzel chokes, Vader tells Piett "You are in command now, Admiral Piett."[6] The card protects against the other cards in this gag: the Imperial it is on is "immune to Demotion, Report To Lord Vader and What Is Thy Bidding, My Master?".
Report To Lord Vader (Dagobah): "An evil Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader used fear as a powerful motivational factor. The Emperor demanded results. Vader settled for no less." After the Light Side wins a battle, an Imperial who took part has to report to Vader, and the game text says what happens when he gets there: "When target reaches Vader, lose Utinni Effect and draw destiny. If destiny > 2, target lost."
Imperial Command (Death Star II): "The Emperor's high command is subjected to close scrutiny by the Imperial bureaucracy. Despite this apparent lack of trust, many turn out to be fine commanders." The Empire runs on distrust. Its officers scheme against one another, and one of its own security services, the Imperial Security Bureau, was charged with protecting it against threats from within the Empire and ensuring the loyalty of its subjects, not only with hunting Rebels.[186] Its commanders also have Vader to answer to, and he kills the ones who fail him, like Ozzel and Needa.[6] Against that background the lore notes, in a calm, official tone, that the high command is "subjected to close scrutiny" and that "many turn out to be fine commanders". Many, not all. The card's picture is Vader with a line of Imperial officers; the card that pictures one of them being choked is Apology Accepted, shown beside it.
Lord Vader (Death Star II): "Forgiving administrator of Imperial policy. Emperor Palpatine's most trusted leader. Believes converting Skywalker is key to the Alliance's downfall." The lore calls the man who kills Ozzel and Needa "forgiving", with a straight face. Full entry: Lord Vader.
Moff Jerjerrod (Death Star II): "Leader. Found discussions with Vader to be particularly motivating. Does not want to find out if the Emperor is more forgiving than Vader." Vader ends his visit to Jerjerrod in Return of the Jedi with "The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am."[94] Wookieepedia lists photographs of Vader choking Jerjerrod among the deleted scenes from the film.[187] In that scene, as Wookieepedia tells it, Jerjerrod bars Vader's way to the Emperor's throne room, and Vader lets him go when he gasps out that it is the Emperor's command.[188] Full entry: Moff Jerjerrod.
See also
References
- ↑ All My Children, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 6 October 2026.
- ↑ Ten Little Injuns. Comic Song and Chorus. (Philadelphia: Lee & Walker, 1868), Lester S. Levy Sheet Music Collection, Johns Hopkins University. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 25 February 2024.
- ↑ Ten Little Indians, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 10 September 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Bespin Motors Void Spider THX 1138, Art Show: Easter Eggs, Decipher.com. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 5 November 1999.
- ↑ Defense wins championships, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 11 February 2026.
- ↑ 6.00 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 6.08 6.09 6.10 6.11 6.12 6.13 6.14 6.15 6.16 6.17 6.18 6.19 6.20 6.21 6.22 6.23 6.24 6.25 6.26 6.27 6.28 6.29 6.30 6.31 6.32 6.33 6.34 6.35 6.36 6.37 6.38 6.39 6.40 6.41 6.42 6.43 6.44 6.45 6.46 6.47 6.48 6.49 6.50 6.51 6.52 6.53 Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back script, IMSDb. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 19 July 2026.
- ↑ The Princess Bride (novel), Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 7 October 2026.
- ↑ The Princess Bride (film), Wikiquote. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 5 July 2026.
- ↑ The Boxer (lyrics), The Paul Simon Official Site. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 20 January 2026.
- ↑ Brainiac, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 10 October 2026.
- ↑ 11.00 11.01 11.02 11.03 11.04 11.05 11.06 11.07 11.08 11.09 11.10 11.11 11.12 11.13 11.14 11.15 11.16 11.17 11.18 11.19 11.20 11.21 11.22 11.23 11.24 Star Wars: A New Hope script, IMSDb. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 20 July 2026.
- ↑ Yutani, Wookieepedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 2 December 2025.
- ↑ Weyland-Yutani (redirects to Alien (franchise)), Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 11 October 2026.
- ↑ Crew Logs: Ron Cobb, Strange Shapes (31 January 2016), quoting Cobb in John Mollo and Ron Cobb's Authorized Portfolio of Crew Insignias from the United States Commercial Spaceship Nostromo. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 19 February 2026.
- ↑ Ron Cobb, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 24 September 2026.
- ↑ Aliens (film), Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 13 October 2026.
- ↑ Dick and Jane, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 28 September 2026.
- ↑ William S. Gray and May Hill Arbuthnot, Fun with Dick and Jane (Toronto: W. J. Gage, undated), p. 8. Preserved copy: Internet Archive (item funwithdickjane0000gray).
- ↑ William H. Elson and William S. Gray, More Dick and Jane Stories (Chicago: Scott, Foresman, 1934), p. 12. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 26 April 2025.
- ↑ Go, Dog. Go!, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 26 October 2026.
- ↑ Gadsden flag, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 23 October 2026.
- ↑ Changes in Star Wars re-releases, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 7 October 2026.
- ↑ Wide World of Sports (American TV program), Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 7 October 2026.
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 24.3 24.4 24.5 24.6 24.7 24.8 Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (film), directed by George Lucas, 20th Century Fox, 1999.
- ↑ Tony the Tiger, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 26 October 2026.
- ↑ Vintage 1950s breakfast cereals, Click Americana. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 21 May 2026.
- ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 SWCCG Collecting Encyclopedia 3.2, p. 198. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 8 October 2026.
- ↑ William Congreve, The Mourning Bride (London: Jacob Tonson, 1697), end of Act III. Transcription: Wikisource. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 8 March 2012.
- ↑ High Anxiety, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 11 October 2026.
- ↑ Retract The Bridge, Art Show: Easter Eggs, Decipher.com. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 5 November 1999.
- ↑ Undercover, Art Show: Easter Eggs, Decipher.com. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 8 November 1999.
- ↑ Young Frankenstein, Wikiquote. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 26 October 2026.
- ↑ Vito Corleone, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 14 September 2026.
- ↑ AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 11 October 2026.
- ↑ The Godfather, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 22 October 2026.
- ↑ Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus (A-text, 1604), scene 13: "Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships?"
- ↑ Are You Being Served?, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 20 September 2025.
- ↑ "Are You Being Served?": The Theme Song, Emily's AYBS pages. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 8 October 2024.
- ↑ Dear Sexy Knickers: A love letter to Are You Being Served?, British Comedy Guide. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 6 December 2024.
- ↑ Holden & Stone advertisement, "Store Directory", Pittsfield Directory (1907), p. 555. Pittsfield + Berkshire County MA Directory Collection, Internet Archive, file Pittsfield_MA_Directory_1907. Preserved copy: Internet Archive (item pittsfield-ma-directory-collection).
- ↑ Lost in Space, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 12 October 2026.
- ↑ 1959 Kelly Tires Vintage Ad "Worry-Free", Vintage Adventures. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 26 August 2025.
- ↑ 2001: A Space Odyssey (film), directed by Stanley Kubrick, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1968. HAL 9000: "I've just picked up a fault in the AE-35 unit."
- ↑ Corinthian leather, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 13 October 2026.
- ↑ Black Knight (Monty Python), Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 8 October 2026.
- ↑ High Noon (film), directed by Fred Zinnemann, United Artists, 1952.
- ↑ A Fistful of Dollars, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 12 October 2026.
- ↑ rein in, Wiktionary. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 22 December 2025.
- ↑ R2-D2, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 15 October 2026.
- ↑ If I Could Turn Back Time, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 12 October 2026.
- ↑ Cher - If I Could Turn Back Time (Official Video), Cher, YouTube. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 15 October 2026.
- ↑ Love Hurts Tour, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 6 January 2026.
- ↑ Photograph by Brian Rasic, "Cher Performing at the Wembley Arena, London, Britain - 1992", REX Features (Shutterstock), editorial reference 199891B.
- ↑ Cher, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 17 October 2026.
- ↑ 55.0 55.1 Cher Gets Cheeky With Beavis and Butt-head, Los Angeles Times (14 November 1993). Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 24 April 2026.
- ↑ I Got You Babe, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 27 October 2026.
- ↑ Cher, Beavis And Butt-Head - I Got You Babe, CherVEVO, YouTube. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 2 February 2026.
- ↑ Cher's first tattoo was on her butt, News24 (26 September 2013). Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 17 September 2023.
- ↑ Lower-back tattoo, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 15 September 2026.
- ↑ Theme (From "Rawhide"), Silva Screen Music, lyrics. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 26 October 2026.
- ↑ Rawhide (song), Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 14 September 2026.
- ↑ Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act (Pub. L. 89-92, 79 Stat. 282, 1965), section 4, package warning: "Caution: Cigarette Smoking May Be Hazardous to Your Health." See also Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 17 September 2026.
- ↑ Warning label on pack of Winston cigarettes, East Carolina University Digital Collections, Daily Reflector Negative Collection, 1–3 January 1966. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 11 August 2024.
- ↑ Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act of 1969 (Pub. L. 91-222), package warning: "Warning: The Surgeon General Has Determined That Cigarette Smoking Is Dangerous to Your Health." See also Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 11 September 2026.
- ↑ 65.0 65.1 SWCCG Collecting Encyclopedia 3.2, p. 196. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 8 October 2026.
- ↑ Glenn Frey, "Smuggler's Blues", The Allnighter, MCA Records, 1984.
- ↑ Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (film), directed by Steven Spielberg, Paramount Pictures, 1989.
- ↑ 68.0 68.1 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Wikiquote. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 26 October 2026.
- ↑ Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (10/10) Movie CLIP - He Chose Poorly (1989) HD, Movieclips, YouTube (1 June 2016), 0:00–2:23. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 25 September 2026.
- ↑ Strikeout, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 25 September 2026.
- ↑ The Blues Brothers (film), directed by John Landis, Universal Pictures, 1980.
- ↑ 72.0 72.1 Easter Eggs, Star Wars CCG Players Committee Forums (27 December 2005). Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 10 December 2022.
- ↑ Big stick ideology, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 5 October 2026.
- ↑ Dams Denna, Wookieepedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 9 December 2025.
- ↑ Chris LaMorte, "Star Hustlers", Westword (4 March 1999). Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 11 August 2020.
- ↑ Linn'con, Wookieepedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 5 March 2026.
- ↑ "Hoth Freezes Over: Who's Who in Echo Base", Star Wars Insider #74 (2004), p. 51. Preserved copy: Internet Archive.
- ↑ Sheckil, Wookieepedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive
- ↑ Robert Watts, Wookieepedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 13 January 2026.
- ↑ Remembering Robert Watts, 1938-2024, Lucasfilm. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 16 April 2026.
- ↑ "Hoth Freezes Over: Who's Who in Echo Base", Star Wars Insider #74 (2004), p. 52. Preserved copy: Internet Archive.
- ↑ SWCCG Collecting Encyclopedia 3.2, p. 194. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 8 October 2026.
- ↑ Cliff Clavin, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 17 July 2026.
- ↑ Where Everybody Knows Your Name, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 3 March 2026.
- ↑ Major Bren Derlin, Art Show: Easter Eggs, Decipher.com. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 5 May 2000.
- ↑ SWCCG Collecting Encyclopedia 3.2, p. 199. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 8 October 2026.
- ↑ Richard Marquand, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 26 October 2026.
- ↑ Keira Knightley, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 15 October 2026.
- ↑ Star Wars: Return of the Jedi script, IMSDb. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 2 August 2026.
- ↑ quarrel, Wiktionary. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 31 August 2026.
- ↑ Bowcaster, StarWars.com Databank. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 14 October 2026.
- ↑ Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace, Wookieepedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 15 October 2026.
- ↑ Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999) - "Activate the Droids" scene [1080p], Screen Themes, YouTube (31 January 2022), 0:00–0:08. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 27 October 2026.
- ↑ 94.00 94.01 94.02 94.03 94.04 94.05 94.06 94.07 94.08 94.09 94.10 94.11 94.12 94.13 94.14 94.15 94.16 94.17 Star Wars: Return of the Jedi script, IMSDb. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 2 August 2026.
- ↑ 95.0 95.1 Star Wars: The Phantom Menace script, IMSDb. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 16 February 2026.
- ↑ Star Wars: A New Hope - Luke Skywalker Enters the Cantina [CLIP] | TNT, TNT, YouTube (3 November 2020), 1:44–1:52. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 27 October 2026.
- ↑ Star Wars: A New Hope script, IMSDb. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 20 July 2026.
- ↑ Retirony, TV Tropes. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 14 October 2026.
- ↑ Black 4, Wookieepedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 12 April 2026.
- ↑ Memphis Belle (aircraft), Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 3 July 2026.
- ↑ 101.0 101.1 Klaatu barada nikto, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 9 October 2026.
- ↑ Return of the Jedi, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 13 October 2026.
- ↑ Carbon-Freeze, StarWars.com, 0:36. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 8 October 2026.
- ↑ Bad Motivator, StarWars.com, 0:42. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 7 October 2026.
- ↑ 105.0 105.1 Star Wars (film), Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 23 October 2026.
- ↑ Jek Tono Porkins, Wookieepedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 28 August 2026.
- ↑ 107.0 107.1 107.2 107.3 107.4 The Empire Strikes Back (film), directed by Irvin Kershner, 20th Century Fox, 1980.
- ↑ The Twelve Days of Christmas (song), Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 1 October 2026.
- ↑ Luke Destroys the Deathstar, Rich Cathers, YouTube (17 March 2022), 0:29–0:32. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 27 October 2026.
- ↑ Star Wars: A New Hope script, IMSDb. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 20 July 2026.
- ↑ shoot first and ask questions later, Wiktionary. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 19 November 2025.
- ↑ Han shot first, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 24 September 2026.
- ↑ take matters into your own hands, Cambridge Dictionary. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 1 November 2020.
- ↑ Return of the Jedi (film), directed by Richard Marquand, 20th Century Fox, 1983.
- ↑ Frozen asset, Merriam-Webster. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 29 April 2026.
- ↑ 116.0 116.1 116.2 The Empire Strikes Back, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 23 October 2026.
- ↑ William J. Jefferson, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 28 September 2026.
- ↑ The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 14 October 2026.
- ↑ bookworm, Wiktionary. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 21 January 2026.
- ↑ Bookworm (insect), Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 29 September 2026.
- ↑ 121.0 121.1 jam, Merriam-Webster. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 17 September 2026.
- ↑ location, location, location, Wiktionary. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 26 October 2026.
- ↑ William Safire, "On Language: Location, Location, Location", The New York Times Magazine (26 June 2009). Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 10 October 2025.
- ↑ 124.0 124.1 Barry Popik, "Location! Location! Location!" (real estate adage), The Big Apple. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 7 February 2026.
- ↑ Bryce Webster, The Insider's Guide to Franchising (New York: AMACOM, 1986), chapter 4, "Location, Location, Location". Preserved copy: Internet Archive (item insidersguidetof0000webs).
- ↑ Phyllis C. Kaufman and Arnold Corrigan, Understanding Buying and Selling a House (Stamford, Connecticut: Longmeadow Press, 1987), chapter 7, "Location, Location, Location". Preserved copy: Internet Archive (item understandingbuy00kauf).
- ↑ Luigi Salvaneschi, Location, Location, Location: How to Select the Best Site for Your Business (Grants Pass, Oregon: Oasis Press/PSI Research, 1996). Preserved copy: Internet Archive (item locationlocation00salv).
- ↑ Location, Location, Location, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 20 September 2026.
- ↑ hot under the collar, Wiktionary. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 8 December 2025.
- ↑ Peter Mark Roget, Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1879), pages 350–351, entry 839. Scan: Wikimedia Commons. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 26 October 2026.
- ↑ The best defense is a good offense, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 26 October 2026.
- ↑ From George Washington to John Trumbull, 25 June 1799, Founders Online, National Archives. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 5 September 2025.
- ↑ In Political Money Game, the Year of Big Loopholes, David E. Rosenbaum, The New York Times (26 December 1996). Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 25 June 2026.
- ↑ ADM and Its Executives Have Been Generous to Both Parties and Dole, The Washington Post (15 October 1996). Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 28 August 2017.
- ↑ The Fat Boy In Politics, Wikimedia Commons, from Hennepin County Library (cartoon by Charles Lewis Bartholomew, The Minneapolis Journal, 5 April 1907). Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 27 October 2026.
- ↑ Sartor Resartus, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 23 September 2026.
- ↑ Speech is silver, silence is golden, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 22 September 2026.
- ↑ Slip Slidin' Away, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 8 October 2026.
- ↑ shaft, Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 29 December 2025.
- ↑ keep down, Wiktionary. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 16 June 2026.
- ↑ Phil Tippett, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 5 October 2026.
- ↑ Creating a Winter Wonderland on Hoth, StarWars.com. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 16 September 2026.
- ↑ Lady Godiva, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 4 October 2026.
- ↑ Dagobah (Legends), Wookieepedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 13 April 2026.
- ↑ Object–subject–verb word order, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 17 October 2026.
- ↑ Short-barreled shotgun, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 8 September 2026.
- ↑ Owner Equipment, Sparks, transcribing Cracken's Rebel Field Guide (West End Games, 1991), p. 16. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 13 May 2026.
- ↑ Droid caller (Legends), Wookieepedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 21 July 2026.
- ↑ Check-Up (TV series episode), M*A*S*H Wiki. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 20 July 2025.
- ↑ M*A*S*H s03e07 episode script, Springfield! Springfield!. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 16 October 2025.
- ↑ Torture chamber, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 1 October 2026.
- ↑ Galileo affair, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 15 October 2026.
- ↑ Jodo Kast, Wookieepedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 2 March 2026.
- ↑ Jingle Fever: The Stories Behind 5 Ad Jingles, Neatorama (20 February 2015). Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 27 October 2026.
- ↑ 21st-Century Advertising Slogans, American Dialect Society mailing list (ADS-L), 9 August 2018 (recalls the Old Spice jingle). Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 27 October 2026.
- ↑ The Oregon Statesman (Salem), 10 October 1952, page 4, Historic Oregon Newspapers. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 27 October 2026.
- ↑ Call and Post (Columbus, Ohio), 17 April 1976, page 14A (Buick Regal advertisement, "You've earned it."), Internet Archive.
- ↑ Air Conditioning, Heating & Refrigeration News, 6 April 1987 (Trane XL 1200 advertisement), Internet Archive.
- ↑ Jenna Busch, "Playing A Pilot In The First Star Wars Was A Sweaty, Explosive Job", SlashFilm (4 December 2023). Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 8 February 2026.
- ↑ The Six Million Dollar Man, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 26 October 2026.
- ↑ Mostly Harmless, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 8 October 2026.
- ↑ The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 15 October 2026.
- ↑ 163.0 163.1 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Wikipedia (Cast: "Clint Eastwood as 'Blondie' (the Man with No Name): The Good"; "Lee Van Cleef as 'Angel Eyes': The Bad"; "Eli Wallach as Tuco Benedicto Pacífico Juan María Ramírez (known as 'The Rat' according to Blondie): The Ugly"). Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 27 October 2026.
- ↑ 164.0 164.1 164.2 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Wikipedia (Plot: "Blondie severs the noose with a rifle bullet and the two escape to split the bounty"; "Blondie grows weary of Tuco's complaints, keeps the money, and strands Tuco in the desert"; "The two reluctantly agree to work together"). Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 27 October 2026.
- ↑ 165.0 165.1 Jedi Knights: Artists, decipher.com (2000), "Decipher's studio artists". Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 7 December 2000.
- ↑ 166.0 166.1 166.2 166.3 Anagramed Decipherians at oocities.org (GeoCities mirror): "Bron Burs (UGLY)", "Artist--Good, The Bad & The Ugly"; "Debnoli", "Blondie", "Good, The Bad & Ugly"; "Gela Yeens (BAD)", "Angel Eyes", "Good, The Bad & Ugly". Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 8 October 2026.
- ↑ Debnoli card image, decipher.com, Special Edition Light Side card list (lore: "Good-natured patron of Mos Eisley cantina"). Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 5 January 2003.
- ↑ Gela Yeens card image, decipher.com, Special Edition Dark Side card list (lore: "Bad-tempered smuggler"). Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 15 August 2001.
- ↑ Bron Burs card image, decipher.com, Special Edition Light Side card list (lore: "Ugly scars cover this former commando"). Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 17 August 2001.
- ↑ For a Few Dollars More, Wikipedia ("a 1965 spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone. It stars Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef as bounty hunters"). Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 15 October 2026.
- ↑ The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Wikipedia (Cast: "Lee Van Cleef as 'Angel Eyes': The Bad, a ruthless, confident, sadistic mercenary who takes pleasure in killing and always finishes a job for which he is paid, usually tracking and assassination"). Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 27 October 2026.
- ↑ 172.0 172.1 American Federation of Musicians, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 4 September 2026.
- ↑ Street Arts and Buskers Advocates, Community Arts Advocates. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 19 May 2026.
- ↑ "A Union of Beggars", The Loup City Northwestern (Loup City, Nebraska), 4 July 1907, page 4, Nebraska Newspapers. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 27 October 2026.
- ↑ Monoc, Wookieepedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 10 December 2019.
- ↑ MSE-6-G735Y, Wookieepedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 24 January 2026.
- ↑ Mouse Droid, StarWars.com Databank. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 5 October 2026.
- ↑ Bossk, StarWars.com Databank. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 8 October 2026.
- ↑ Bantha fodder, Wookieepedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 18 October 2025.
- ↑ TT-8L gatekeeper droid, Wookieepedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 21 May 2026.
- ↑ Greedo, Wookieepedia (Legends). Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 26 May 2026.
- ↑ Huttese Transcript, The Complete Wermo's Guide to Huttese & Other Star Wars Languages (section on Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina). Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 5 July 2026.
- ↑ Huttese, Wookieepedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 19 July 2026.
- ↑ Jabba Desilijic Tiure, Wookieepedia (Legends). Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 31 July 2026.
- ↑ 185.0 185.1 Ewok Celebration, Wookieepedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 6 March 2026.
- ↑ Imperial Security Bureau, Wookieepedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 26 June 2026.
- ↑ File:Vaderchoke.jpg, Wookieepedia: "Darth Vader Force chokes Moff Tiaan Jerjerrod", from Return of the Jedi (deleted scene). Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 25 March 2019.
- ↑ Tiaan Jerjerrod, Wookieepedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive, 18 July 2026.
