In Star Wars: A New Hope, Chewbacca didn't receive full recognition at the awards ceremony (that looked like the Nuremberg Nazi rally in Triumph of the Will).

Why is that?  Lucas answered in 1977:

“Chewbacca wasn’t given a medal because medals don’t really mean much to Wookiees. They don’t really put too much credence in them. They have different kinds of ceremonies,” Lucas said. “The Wookiee Chewbacca was in fact given a great prize and honor during a ceremony with his own people. The whole contingent from the Rebel Alliance went to Chewbacca’s people and participated in a very large celebration. It was an honor for the entire Wookiee race.”

However, that is a bunch of bullshit--as expected from Lucas.

The book, “Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker,” which was released six months before the film, was written by a ghostwriter who took the story’s basics from Star Wars creator George Lucas’s own original drafts of the script. A 1974 script draft, using an older spelling for Chewbacca’s race, also explicitly says that “Han presents Chewbacca and a delegation of Wookees with a treaty, gifts, and a medal of honor.”

Back in 2015, Marvel Comics published a Chewbacca miniseries by writer Gerry Duggan and artist Phil Noto. Set shortly after the events of Star Wars: A New Hope, the story sees Chewbacca build a friendship with a young girl called Zarro. Zarro was able to understand Wookiee, which meant the two could interact directly. At the very end, Chewbacca and Zarro parted ways, and Chewbacca gave her a gift - his own Rebel Alliance medal. It proved that he'd received one at some point, suggesting there really was another medal ceremony involving Chewbacca.

So what the fuck?  Are the Rebels just as racist as the Empire?  Maybe even more racisi, since some stormtroopers seem to be comprised of many different ethnicities.

Peter Mayhew (the guy who played Chewbacca) believed there were much more practical reasons. "One, they didn’t have enough money to buy me a medal," he explained. "Or two, Carrie couldn’t reach my neck, and it was probably too expensive to build a little step so that I could step down or she could step up and give me the medal."

So, in the end, it looks like Lucas was just a cheap motherfucker that tried to excuse his way out of fucking up.

That's my conclusion.  Any Star Wars nerds have any better reason?

Never change GD.

Chewy was co-pilot and under a life-debt to Han. Chewy don't need no medal.

I figured it was just because they did not know where to pin it to.

That's because the space democrats (rebels) are actually racists and hate brown people.

I just think fisher couldn't reach over mayhew's head.  

Plus chewie already has that bandoleer, so it'd be too much flair.

I expect this from 4chan, not gd.

It's a movie.  It's not reality.   Maybe Chewbacca's medal wasn't ready for that day of filming.

Stormtroopers are clones.. they are all the same guy

I find myself oddly torn.....

racism?
specieism?
some other ism

I'm sure he's over it by now or whatever

Wookie Lives Matter!!!

Wouldn't Chewie have been on the gun when they shoot Vader?

FFS, really?

no pants, no award

No, clone troopers were clones. At some point after the Clone Wars, they turned to “recruits.” I think the 501st stayed clones.

At the end of the day, Chewy was an animal that really didn't warrant getting a "human" award. Notice that R2D2, also an integral part of the destruction of the Death Star, didn't get a medal. (He did get rebuilt though).

Excuses and backpedaling. No medal for the brown guy.

Lucas's whiteness sickitates me.

Always somebody getting skipped over for an ARCOM somewhere.  
Guess it was Chewy's turn.

They gave him a bag of beads backstage...

Nope. Conscripts are cheaper and more expendable.

Maybe because Princess Leia would’ve had Chewbacca’s junk right at the level of her face, when he would’ve turned to to be presented with a medal

Serious star wars question ....why are people obsessed with star wars?

The Rebels were the bad guys. Vader did nothing wrong.

Medal for what?  He wasn't the pilot.  He was the "CO" pilot.  Also he didn't tear anyone's arms off.

Probably not the first time.

Weird Wookie double tap.

Did they even accept Chewbacca into the Rebel Army, or was he used in a mercenary role and then shipped back to Kashyyyk?  

Maybe the Imperial force was more inclusive?

Millennium Falcon is a spaceship.

OP, reread what you wrote (or copy/pasted) and see if you notice the parts that completely negate your "questions"

Once you go Wookiee

  He will own your cookie?

Why would they give Han’s pet a medal?

Because of his screeching.

I had heard from two sources I know (special effects and creature design)  that their impression  that the movie was originally focused on the humans, with the robots and Chewie being seen as supporting characters. Accessories so to speak.  Think of a cowboy and his dog, horse, etc. Things were not filmed in sequence so a lot of the importance of the droids and Chewie more or less developed as editing and shooting progressed.  As things were fleshing out in editing, it became apparent that the non humans were actually just as important and maybe even more marketable in merchandising.

Simply put, the script did not call for anyone to get medals but Luke and Han.  Notice that non of the other surviving X and Y wing pilots or support people got medals.  It was the Luke and Han show.  It was simply an oversight because Chewie was not as important as Luke and Han.  My guess is Chewie is actually very important and that in the Star Wars universe Chewie guilt tripped Han into going back to save the day.

Chewbacca finally got his medal in Rise of Skywalker.

After Kamino wS defunded..yes.  

But were talking about A New Hope are we not ??

Chewy wasn't a main character so no one thought about it.  They gave him the medal he didn't get at the end of the last/latest movie.

Silly thing for fans to fret about anyway.  Pretty sure no one in 1977 thought Chewy would become as popular as he did.  Or that SW would still be around for that matter...

What is with them Sandpeople?  Particularly the stuff they wear on their head.  They seem to be nomadic, and maybe indigenous (I do not recall ever seeing them off Tatooine).

I would assume their head garb assists them in the dessert climate, but no one else wears goggles and such.  I would like more detail on what the head gear does.


Correction: Tuskin Raider is the preferred nomenclature

So moochelle?

Why even have him walk down the aisle with Han and Luke and go up in front of everybody if they weren't going to give him a medal?  Why not just have him stand there waiting like R2 and C3PO?  Talk about rubbing his nose in the fact that they weren't going to recognize him.

As far as him being too tall for Leia to put it over his head that's silly.  If they wanted give him a medal I'm sure he would have been able to bend over or kneel down so she could get it over his head.

Chewy was given the honor of commanding the presentation. He growled the command for the troops to turn and stuff.

Carrie pawned it for more coke money

Psh. Lets be honest, they basically just gave Han and Luke a unit challenge coin and Certificate of Achievement.

I bet the Yavin staff officers who sat in the TOC staring at their screens got a bronze star and an above-center-mass OER for their “leadership.”

Leia only got a promotion because she was a female LT with a pretty face and we KNOW she’s the S1 because she’s presenting the awards her shop probably lost three times before they got downgraded. Oh and I guarantee Luke still had to sign a statement of charges for the damage to his X-Wing.

Because he's a species of color. Obviously.

First Officers get no love...   lol

This. And anybody don't like it, Chewy's gonna pull their arms outta their sockets.

A New Hope summarized poorly:

A religious extremist radicalizes young man, who then blows up a government building.