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For this answer, Where did the Millennium Falcon learn to communicate?, I remembered a bit of extra dialogue that was not in The Empire Strikes Back but was added for the radio play.

This just reminded me of another line, which I'm sure appeared in some adaptation of Return of the Jedi, even though it isn't in the movie. In this scene (which is essentially unchanged between all versions of the film), Jabba the Hutt mocks Luke, saying: "Your mind powers will not work on me boy." However, I remember a version of the story having a follow-up line that went something like: "I was killing your kind back when being a Jedi meant something." But what adaptation was this?

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That's the James Kahn novelization. Your quote is pretty much verbatim.

Jabba smiled grimly. "Your mind powers won't work on me. I am not affected by your human thought patterns". Then, as an afterthought: " I was killing your kind when being a Jedi meant something."

(This is from the Kindle edition btw., in case someone wants to compare with the printed version).

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In addition to the novelization, the line, or a similar one, also appears in the draft script:

LUKE I must be allowed to speak, now.

BIB He must be allowed to speak now.

He returns and whispers this to Jabba, who becomes furious and clobbers Bib, sending him crashing to the floor.

JABBA (in Huttese) You weak-minded alien fool! He’s using an old Jedi mind trick.

LUKE (in Huttese) You will bring Capt. Solo to me.

JABBA (in Huttese) Young Jedi, I am not affected by Human thought. I’m afraid your mind powers will not work with me, boy. I have killed many Jedi Knights in my time….

Source

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    The script actually says "clobber"? That's awesome.
    – John Doe
    Commented Jul 10, 2018 at 17:30
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    The line makes it sound like Jabba was himself doing the killing. I wonder if and how Jabba's character design changed between this draft and the filming of the movie.
    – zero
    Commented Jul 10, 2018 at 18:09
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    @zero - he probably killed them and ate them. Would explain a lot...
    – Jules
    Commented Jul 10, 2018 at 18:49
  • I think the questioner might be conflating this draft script and the Kahn novel. This is a better answer to the question as titled, but the question body points more strongly to the novel. My first interpretation of "your kind" in the Kahn quote is as "human" not as "Jedi".
    – Tim Sparkles
    Commented Jul 12, 2018 at 1:05
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It looks like the ultimate source for the quote is the novelization of the movie. However, I am not sure whether I read the novelization. (We had the novelizations of at least one of the original trilogy, but I can no longer remember which.) I also found another source with the same quote, which I know I read many times, and thus is more likely to be where I remember Jabba's taunt from.

It appears in the Marvel comic book adaptation of the Return of the Jedi, which I owned.

Luke and Jabba

Jedi mind tricks will not work on me boy. I am not affected by your human thought pattern. I was killing your kind when being a Jedi meant something!

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    Note that both the comic adaptation and the novelization would have been written based off the script, and not the final movie, due to the lead times needing for printing. This probably explains why all those sources have the line, but the movie itself does not.
    – RDFozz
    Commented Jul 11, 2018 at 17:15
  • @RDFozz Yes, of course. After the first answers were posted, I searched online for drafts of the script, and I could not find one with the particular (and rather evocative) wording that I remembered.
    – Buzz
    Commented Jul 11, 2018 at 17:58
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    @Buzz - There were several drafts that don't appear to be available online anywhere. The one I linked to was quite early - the revised rough draft. A draft that claims to be the "second draft" and should be the next one after this is here, but I'm pretty sure the label "second draft" here is wrong: this summary of all the known scripts leads me to believe it's actually an early version of the shooting script. It certainly isn't the actual second draft...
    – Jules
    Commented Jul 11, 2018 at 21:20
  • ...as it's way too similar to the final film for that. So there are at least 3 versions of the script that we can't account for and which could have contained the line as you remembered it.
    – Jules
    Commented Jul 11, 2018 at 21:27

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