Why is the word Sith never used in the Original Trilogy?

Did he make the name up as an afterthought?
Can anyone shed any light on this?

 

Its mentioned in the book of ANH, that Vader was a dark lord of the sith... but i dont know why it wasnt in the movie... probablky so Lucas didnt have to go by anything he;d already said.

 

Well Vader was called Dark Lord of the Sith in the script for ANH, and the word Sith was used in drafts of the script before the final version so it certainly wasn't an afterthought. Theres just no place it really needed to be said I guess, Lucas definatly didn't retrospectively decide Vader was a Sith, he may have done for Palpatine though...

 

It was in the novelisations, so he didn't make it up afterwards.

Can't think of a reason why it isn't mentioned, though.


(*considers redirecting this to "re:the sith"* )

 

Damnit Senny, I was thinking about doing the same thing.

The term "Sith" was used in one of the early drafts of ANH, but it just wasn't used for the films.

 

My 1977 original Blue Series Star Wars Trading Cards had a card with a front on picture of Vader and the caption: "Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith"-no explainating however. I remember my brother and I trying to figure out what a Lord of the Sith was.

 

was also on the ESB movie poster, if I'm not mistaken

 

I think the "Dark Side" was used in place of "Sith" in the OT, just so no dialogue was wasted on explaining what a Sith is. Then again, it was explained fairly quickly in TPM... So who knows. Maybe Lucas hadn't really decided what exactly a Sith was, aside from a Dark Side jerk, so he didn't want to delve into it.

 

good question, of course, the corallary is why didn't they tell Luke that the emperor was a Sith Master and Vader was only his apprentice?

 

Maybe they didn't need to. Everyone in the galaxy probably knows the Emperor is the head honcho of the Empire, and they also know that Vader is his right-hand man. One could assume that, since Vader isn't telling Palpatine what to do, Vader's not the one in charge. Luke also seemed to already know that Palpatine was a Sith when he got on the DSII, in the way he spoke to him.

 

It's just referred to as "The Dark Side" in the OT. The fact that they are Sith isn't as big a deal as in the PT, because the Jedi aren't around. I hate to use an obviously flawed religious metaphor, but it's kind of like calling the bad guys Satanists. If they are fighting Christian warriors, then the fact that they are Satanists means something. If all the Christians are dead, and not many people remember them, then the fact that they call themselves Satanists doesn't really have any significance; people will just call them evil. (puts on fireproof suit)

 

The name Palpatine is never said in the OT either, and what all that means is that terms like "Sith" and "Palpatine" really don't matter anymore. All that matters is that the Emperor is in control.

 

Always had the same question. They always referred themselves as users of the dark side of the force. I always had a problem with Obi Wan not reckongniing Threepio nor R2. Maybe it is my destiny not to ever know.

 

El Plot hole.

 

What is an El plot hole? Is this Tex-Mex? GL first used the term "Sith" in the first draft of ANH in 1973. As late as the 3rd draft (what we saw was filmed from the revised 4th draft), there are Sith in addition to Darth Vader. And, if you go to T'Bone's website, for outtakes for ANH, you will find one scene in which the Imperial officers on the Death Star talk behind Vader's back bc he is a Sith. In the novelization for ANH, the caption for his photo describes his being a "Dark Lord of the Sith." In the Annotated Screenplays, when discussing ROTJ, GL stated that Vader was not the only Sith. He does not mention that Palpatine was a Sith, only that there were other Sith.

Now, to answer your question, I don't know. Perhaps the deleted scene from ANH was deemed unimportant and thus we lost our chance to hear this word. In ROTS, with Palpatine and Luke in the finale GL ultimately showed that Vader, the greatest villain in film history, was not all-powerful. Thus, his original plan of having Palpatine force-choke Vader, of Moff Jerrod rivaling Vader for the Emperor's attention (like Prince Xizor later on), and of there being other Sith, were not necessary to reduce our awe of Vader as the #1 badass. So, maybe bc of rewrites for ROTJ, we do not hear the word "Sith" in the OT.

 

Wouldn't say it was a prop hole as GL mentioned it in books.
But there were lots of occasions when the word "Sith" could have been used. And it is one of the most importnat words in the PT.
Would have made sense in ROTJ if the emperor said it.
And The Emperor was known as Emperor Palpatine. I'm sure it said that on my figure box for him.

 

I've always known what a Sith was since I was a kid. Card of Vader calling him a dark lord of the sith(Evil guys using the dark side). As for Palpatine, his name was mentioned in the novel of the first movie. And since Vader had Palps was his master, it was kinda self explanatory to me that he was a sith also.

 

My earlier post was the production explanation. The in-story explanation is that the only ones who know that the Emperor and Vader are Sith are the Emperor and Vader, Yoda and Kenobi, and probably Bail and Luke. Bail was in the conference room on the Tantive IV when Kenobi discusses splitting up the twins to protect them from the Sith. Now, by the Sith he means Palpatine. Whether or not Bail ever learns that Vader is a Sith is an open question. And how much he tells Leia also is up for speculation.

I guess bc the Sith ruled the galaxy prior to this Republic, the Jedi in AOTC and ROTS did not want the public to know that the Sith were back and mad as hell. Then, after the purge, it was best for Bail to lay low in order to live to lead the Alliance. So, the word is not used too often by those know, while those who didn't, the masses of the GFFA, would not have much need to discuss the Sith.

Kenobi probably told Luke, as did Yoda, to bring up to speed as well as to train him as a Jedi.

 

Maybe the word it sort of insulting. Does Palps, Maul, Dooko, Vader ever say sith in the movie referring to themselves?

I know Dooko says "we will destroy the Sith, blah blah" but he wasn't saying he was a Sith I don't think in that scene.

 

Sidious says "and the Sith shall rule the galaxy once more, then we will have peace" or something along those lines
and "You will be a powerful Sith" to Anakin
and in the Opera scene and I think when he reveals himself to Anakin (ew ) he talks rather positively about the Sith

so, no, it's not insulting, they call themselves Sith

 

Obi-wan: "Vader was seduced by the dark lord of the sith"

Luke: "Ewww"

I think Lucas wanted to use it, but decided against it because he would have to go into the whole story of what the Sith are. Obi-wan could have summed it up easily in ANH, but alas.

 

ive been a star wars fan since i was 8 and i never realised that sith was not mentioned in anh.i can only guess that it was an oversight by gl,cos anyone who was caught up in the story the way iwas knew what a sith was about as soon as learning that chewbacca was a wookie

 

yeah, good point. they never said Chewbacca was a wookiee. not until Return of the Jedi. yet everyone knows he is one.

unless i'm wrong, they say the word once in Empire "I'd just as soon kiss a wookiee." and then finally Jabba calls Chewie one in Jedi.

and i'll tell you this much. not knowing chewbacca was called a wookiee didn't hurt the film for a lot of people.

but then if you watch the movies in order, i-iv, everything makes sense. you know by ANH what a Sith and a wookiee is. EASY.

 

- That's because droids don't pull people's arms out of their sockets when they lose. Wookiees are known to do that.

"Wookiee" was said in all the movies.

"Sith" is never used because it's not needed. In the PT, "Sith" is the name of the enemy of the Jedi, while in the OT, "Darth Vader" is the name of the enemy of Luke Skywalker. Luke doesn't need to know about "Sith", because his war against the dark side is on a personal level.



Darth Vader is the dark side
/LM

 

ah you're right. EXCEPT. uh... Han actually said MOOKIEE is known to do that. yeah. he called chewbacca Mookiee.

-Sanjiro
(grasping at straws)