Byzantium's Shores: chronicling the misadventures of an overalls-clad hippie

Time for some Star Wars babbling. (As opposed to "Angry Star Wars ranting about evil whining fans")

The Nixon to my Eisenhower has some thoughts about Han Solo and his recent listing as one of the AFI's Top Heroes, at the expense of Luke Skywalker. He's got some interesting thoughts, and he's got me thinking now. (Damn him!) My thought is: We all know that Luke experiences a hero's journey. Does Han?

I say, yes, he does. In some ways, he even has a longer journey to make than Luke, considering where he starts.

When we first meet Han, he is a cynical space smuggler and pirate. He conducts himself with swagger, he shoots first and maybe asks questions later (but probably not), he generally acts before really thinking everything through, he showboats for the benefit of the ladies (well, lady, but you get the idea), et cetera. He is, as my VP notes, a "scoundrel". And even though he has, in his words, "flown from one end of this Galaxy to the other", his worldview is, if anything, even more limited than Luke's, because he only sees things in terms of their immediate importance to him. So the farmboy who's never left Tatooine has a wider, more inclusive worldview than does the space pirate who has "seen it all". This is the essential point to understanding Han Solo's heroic journey.

(This is also why George Lucas's decision to have Greedo shoot first is such a mistake: it undermines our understanding of where Han Solo is, as a character. Han's shooting of Greedo contrasts with Yoda's later admonition to Luke that a Jedi "only uses the Force for defense, never for attack".)

Han's actions in A New Hope are almost exclusively geared toward self-preservation, whether it's working to get the Falcon off the Death Star or whether it's taking a lucrative (he thinks) charter so as to earn enough money to pay off Jabba the Hutt. Even after their daring escape from the Empire's clutches, Han says to the Princess: "I'm not in this for your revolution, and I'm not in it for you, Princess. I expect to be well-paid. I'm in it for the money." This comes some time after Luke has taken his first baby-steps with using the Force, when Obi Wan says, "You've taken your first step into a larger world". For all his provincial farmboy naivete, Luke has already jumped past Han Solo.

This is the purpose that Han ultimately serves in the story: to provide contrast to Luke's heroic journey. (This is one reason why people who complain that there is no Han-analogue in the prequels are missing the point: they're misunderstanding why Han is in the story to begin with. A scoundrel/rogue in the prequels would stick out like a sore thumb in the story those films are telling.) Han is constantly one step behind Luke in terms of heroic development.

Toward the end of ANH, Han begins to show signs of doubt, but he still finds it hard to commit. (A man with commitment issues! Who'd have thunk it!) But in the end, commit he does: he turns around from his own self-interest, and instead comes back to help Luke at his most crucial moment. This is the moment where Han, too, takes his first step into that larger world (figuratively speaking; he's clearly not entering "the Force"). Note his words to Luke: "You're all clear, kid, so let's blow this thing and go home." (My emphasis.) He doesn't say, "Let's blow this thing and get back to the base". He says, "Go home". He's starting to identify with the cause, in some small measure.

Of course, it takes him a while. After ANH, he delays his payment of Jabba to help the Rebels, although he never actually joins them. But as The Empire Strikes Back opens, Han has had a scare -- a bounty hunter on Ord Mandell -- and decides it's time to get back to business. He makes no commitment to return to the Rebels once he pays Jabba; his manner conveys that he really thinks he's leaving these people for good, and getting back to what he had been doing before. Of course, he gets sidetracked again: concern for Leia keeps him from lifting off and flying away to his own tasks when the Empire arrives at Hoth, and then he gets her out of there on his ship. The film doesn't establish this, but through all the problems with the Falcon's hyperdrive and the asteroids and the space slug and the mynocks and the betrayal at Bespin, presumably Han's plan is to get Leia to the Rebel rendezvous and then go take care of Jabba. He never gets there, of course. But he's getting more involved, because he's in love with Leia. (I think this is pretty clear. If he wasn't, he wouldn't have gone back into the Rebel Command Center when the whole place is falling apart. He sure didn't go in there out of concern for General Riekann.)

So, it's on to Return of the Jedi, in which Han's heroic journey becomes complete. A lot of Star Wars fans don't like how Han is handled in that film, but I disagree, because this is where Han has been headed all along. Just a few years before, it would be unthinkable to him that a handful of people would risk their lives to wrest him from the clutches of Jabba the Hutt, and this shows Han that his previous life is over. Thus it passes that, once he's rescued and his eyesight returns, he doesn't just accompany the other heroes to the Rebels. He joins them, making himself part of the whole and explicitly admitting, for the first time in his life, that there is something in the Galaxy that's bigger than himself and his smuggling and debts to Hutt mobsters. Of course, Han can't totally suppress his former impulses, so he cracks wise and blunders a bit when trying to sneak up on some stormtroopers in the forest and whatnot. But he accepts a dangerous mission, sticks with it until the end, and in a touching scene gets mad at Leia and then immediately apologizes and takes her in his arms as she cries. Such behavior, such concern for others, was unthinkable to the Han Solo of ANH or the first part of TESB. (ROTJ probably overdoes the wisecracking-Han element at the expense of the more serious Han, but the serious stuff is there.)

I confess that I'm not sure why so many fans are down on Han in ROTJ. Maybe it seems a tad anticlimactic that Han basically takes three films to get to where Luke was at the end of one. I found his journey perfectly satisfying. Harrison Ford has said that he wanted Han to die in ROTJ, but I think that would have been a terrible decision, and I'm glad Lucas vetoed it. I don't have a problem with heroes dying heroic deaths (Fionavar Tapestry, eh, Michelle?), but Han…I don't think so. There was a heroic death, and it was a big one: Vader/Anakin. Anything else would have been overkill: the loss of such a beloved character as Han Solo would have detracted from the emotional focus on the conflict in Vader's soul, thus cheapening it. And quite frankly, I wouldn't have wanted to see Leia's sadness at losing the man she loves at the saga's end. (Lando dying, which I still believe is apocryphal, would have also struck me as a false note.)

Han Solo is ultimately a hero because he learns that sometimes "Us" is more important than "Me". His journey isn't the central one on the original trilogy, but it's a heroic journey nonetheless.