{"id":91,"date":"2008-06-18T07:00:57","date_gmt":"2008-06-18T11:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onceuponageek.com\/2008\/06\/18\/b-wing-what-the-funk\/"},"modified":"2008-06-18T00:55:10","modified_gmt":"2008-06-18T04:55:10","slug":"b-wing-what-the-funk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/onceuponageek.com\/wordpress\/2008\/06\/18\/b-wing-what-the-funk\/","title":{"rendered":"B-Wing… What the funk?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The name “B-Wing” has always bothered me.\u00a0 I believe I can safely say that some of you are\u00a0thinking, “hell ya, that’s always bugged the crap out of me too!”\u00a0 While another percentage of you are thinking, “what the frig is a B-Wing, and why do I care?”<\/p>\n

The B-Wing<\/a> is a spaceship from the movie “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi” (don’t you dare refer to it as “Episode 6” around me).\u00a0 However, unlike all the other letter-named ships in the series (i.e. X-Wing, Y-Wing, and A-Wing), the ship design doesn’t resemble the letter of the alphabet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here are some images to demonstrate my point.\u00a0 First row (l-to-r): X-Wing and Y-Wing.\u00a0 Second row (l-to-r): A-Wing and B-Wing.<\/p>\n

\"X-Wing\"<\/a>\"Y-Wing\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A-Wing\"<\/a>\"B-Wing\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Clearly the B-Wing name doesn’t match its body design.\u00a0 It doesn’t look anything like a “B”!\u00a0 In fact, the B-Wing sure looks a lot like the lower case letter “t”.\u00a0 You’d think it would be called the “T-Wing”.\u00a0 I suspect someone at ILM had their radio up too loud listening to “Maneater” by Daryl Hall and John Oates.\u00a0 Because of the noise, they simply misheard “bee” in place of\u00a0“tee” and it stuck.\u00a0 Once Kenner started making the toys, they realized they couldn’t go back and change it to “T-Wing” (especially after the whole 4-LOM\/Zuckuss debacle<\/a> from “Empire Strikes Back”).<\/p>\n

Now before you go believing that crap about “B-Wing” being named for the Nebulon-B frigate, you gotta realize that’s a “expanded universe” retcon.\u00a0 So I don’t believe for\u00a0a second that was the plan back in 1983.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I blame Hall & Oates.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tell the world about ONCE UPON A GEEK:<\/h3>