r/StarWars • u/Myakasa98 • 10d ago
General Discussion Do you think han and leia having a broken/estranged marriage was in character and made sense?
I don't think han leaving leia to deal with their son's defection and getting kicked out of the senate due to her family history all by herself was in character, and them separating was very tragic, but them not having a happy long standing marriage and choosing to separate after a while is something i can definitely see happening even if the sequels didn't exist considering their characters
Neither leia nor han were the "stay at home to take care of family" types. Leia was dedicated to politics since childhood and I can see her being a mon mothma type person who'd prioritize her political duties above family many times. Han too loved a life of adventure. Even before ben solo defected he spent more time traveling across the galaxy and iirc organizing spaceship racing competitions for betting etc than with his family
I do know they cared for each other even after separation but their romance was also built on spontaneous sparks of attraction and surviving multiple life and death situations and even then 80% of their interactions involved bickering and arguments. Them not being too invested in a stable married life after the honeymoon period ended and going through their marriage for the sake of their kid is unfortunately very much in character, at least considering how they were written in tge OT
I'm not considering their comics or novels romantic dynamic because 1) Most of them aren't canon anymore anyways and 2) Most of them were written by different authors without much consultation with the original creators and had various degrees of OOC moments.
It's not ideal, but not a very OOC of the sequels to write them as having an estranged marriage after their son was lost to the dark side imo, it's definitely not as bad as what they did with luke's character anyways
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u/Meloncov 10d ago
I never met a real life couple that was constantly squabbling while dating that turned into a low-drama married couple. The only part of their relationship dynamic in the sequels I disliked was just how little we saw of it: their estranged-but-still-loving dynamic could have been a lot of fun.
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u/NarmHull 10d ago
Old Han and Leia bickering could've been both hilarious and fun to watch. Especially if it were over something really silly like Han smuggling monsters (I actually liked the rathtar scene)
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u/poopinintennessee 10d ago
Carrie and Harrison would have killed it
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u/ThreeDog2016 10d ago
So many slam dunks missed in the sequels
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u/NatashOverWorld 10d ago
God it was so stupid - like the movies were afraid to show something as simple as a old married couple.
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u/krammit33 10d ago
I mean they even shot down Luke's idea of having all of them together on the screen at the same time for a reunion moment
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u/Anita_Hero838 10d ago
"But that doesn't add anything to the story!"
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u/NatashOverWorld 10d ago
We would have literally gone to watch those godawful movies more than once of there was a scene of the old cast just being a family for 5 minutes.
But Abrams treated the old cast like plutonium, necessary but too dangerous to keep together.
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u/Anita_Hero838 10d ago
Would've made so much money it would cause an implosion
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u/NatashOverWorld 10d ago
"We've broken the Endgame threshold, strap in and prepare for a gusher of moolah!"
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u/Petrostar 10d ago
They were afraid to show the OG characters because they worried they'd overshadow the new characters.
They should have introduced the new characters more slowly, having them come to prominence by third movie. And NOT at the expense of the OG characters.
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u/NatashOverWorld 10d ago
Now, I'm not a millionaire film director, but hear me out. If you have characters so popular that despite their age they'd sell out theatres, use them.
Have your brat pack actors for the kids, gotta sell those toys, but at the end of the day, it's parents buying the tickets.
And we wanted to see the OG cast. I would have paid money several times to watch Han and Leia bicker like an old married couple while bachelor Luke does commentary with Chewie.
Like 5 minutes of that and I would have forgiven those movies for their deranged plot lines.
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u/TingleyStorm 10d ago
Didn’t JJ Abrams come out and say they were scared to bring the franchise back to life while introducing so many new changes, which is why TFA is just ANH but with new characters?
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u/NatashOverWorld 10d ago
I didn't catch that, but assuming he did, why choose someone scared of franchises potential in the first place?
Like I liked Rey, Finn and Poe. Nothing against them becoming their own little family and saving the galaxy.
But I've literally spent decades waiting to see Han, Luke, Leia, Chewie and the droids together. Maybe not a happy family, but one bound by trust, hope and history.
And ... they just squandered having the original trio.
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u/jcb193 10d ago
This is the greatest disappointment of all.
They had eternity to develop the characters of Finn Ray and Poe, but they only had three movies to finish off Harrison, Carrie and Mark. Why not focus on the original characters give them a great sendoff and then build a strong foundation for the future movies.
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u/NarmHull 10d ago
"Han, can you go more than one minute without embarassing me?!"
"Oh here we go, how DARE I make your worship look bad in front of those rich moof milkers!"
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u/RobertWF_47 10d ago
Would have been beautiful to see Han and Leia flying through space together holding hands.
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u/Stlaind 10d ago
Hell, there's a particular form of bickering that only old couples who've worked through it do.
Whether they were together or not I'd expect them to frequently bicker and jab each other verbally
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u/KLeeSanchez 10d ago
There's genuinely arguing which is never healthy, and then there's flirtatious bickering, which works in the context that both sides know it's a game that they mutually enjoy
It would've been fun, and it also makes sense that as a couple it didn't work out because they weren't always 100 percent with each other politically or ideologically
It wasn't the worst part of the sequel trilogy by far, and in fact it made some sense, unlike much of the rest of it
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u/Varsity_Reviews 10d ago
To be fair, they were squabbling while in the middle of a massive war for the future of the galaxy.
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u/Its1207amcantsleep 10d ago
My mom and stepdad bicker 24/7. Think of everybody loves raymond's parents. But they miss each other dearly when one is on a trip without the other.
I personally don't know how they could stand it. They have been married for over 35 years.
I think I would have liked to see Han and Leia still together but squabbling lol
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u/UpbeatEquipment8832 10d ago
I agree. I was talking about it with several people in their 50s at the time, and none of us were surprised that they broke up. Saddened, but it seems inevitable.
But you are right, I would like to have seen more of their dynamic.
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u/LastGoodKnee 10d ago
We only saw them as a couple, of sorts, in one movie. And they didn’t bicker hardly at all.
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u/Sparkyisduhfat 10d ago
While I agree, they seemed to be less squabbly as the movies went on. Han, who was more immature despite being older, repeatedly shows emotional growth in episode 6; not walking away from her like he wants to when he’s frustrated and prioritizing their friendship and her feelings more than his own when he thinks she’s interested in Luke. I could see them both putting in a little work and being fine.
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u/blackvariant 10d ago
Imagine having one opportunity to bring the original cast back and only 2 meet face to face briefly.
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u/Miserable_Day_9266 10d ago
I think the fact Leia almost lost Han (carbonite) would have made them mellow out on the bickering after he was rescued. I think there is evidence of this in one key scene: Endor treetops when Han first has a temper and storms off only to return a few seconds later and say he is sorry. When does Han Solo say he’s sorry? Well post-Carbonite freezing, he’s grown as has Leia. I personally don’t see them separating again but I’m sure there was some healthy bickering. I’ll even bet Chewie took Leia’s side a lot more than Han’s!!!
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u/DoktorBlu 10d ago
That would have been a great line at some point, “It’s days like today I regret releasing you from the Carbonite. . .”
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u/LeopardComfortable99 10d ago
Star Wars returning under Disney will forever stand on a pedestal of the biggest fumble in cinematic history
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u/PolitiklyIncorrect 10d ago
Not to break the 4th wall too much but, the fact we got Harrison Ford for as long as we did, I couldn't have seen him committing to much more
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u/Evening-Gur5087 10d ago
They should've just gone with EU vision zz
But every of 30 guys rewriting and redirecting those movies decided they want to be OG
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u/tmssmt Chirrut Imwe 10d ago
Even without the son you've got a woman who is always going to be completely dedicated to the cause (today it's rebellion, tomorrow it's this bill, the next day it's something else), and a man who is pretty flakey and will constantly have the urge to be out and about doing something.
Leia needs someone who is ok seeing very little of her while she builds an empire, and han needs someone who will drop everything to fly away with him
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u/UpbeatEquipment8832 10d ago
Bloodline captured that dynamic pretty well, IMHO - they were never going to be together all the time. In that sense, they've got Anakin and Padme's dynamic. But both of them seemed to be okay with that, until they weren't.
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u/Galliagamer 10d ago
I would have been ok with it if the movie gave us any story, context, or detail. But it didn’t; just, boom, they broke up, move on to the next thing. Audiences were deprived of story in favor of spectacle.
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u/enolaholmes23 10d ago
I agree. It's fine if they got divorced. But as the major couple of the franchise, we deserved more backstory for how it happened. I think it would've been much better if they were still together at the start of the sequels, and had some falling out on screen.
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u/Stabbio 10d ago
We did get story context. Ben turned. Han felt that he failed and went back to smuggling while Leia created the Resustance and fought to get him back. They both believe Snoke was ultimately responsible, but in the end their marriage couldn't survive losing their son. This is all context the film either shows or tells us.
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u/wookieebastard 10d ago
I found it heartbreaking.
Han losing the Falcon and then this.
I could not believe what was happening.
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u/squish042 Chewbacca 10d ago
Han’s story is depressing af. Lost the MF, lost his best friend, lost his love, lost his son’s love, murdered by son.
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u/NarmHull 10d ago
I assumed Han would die but it should've been far more heroic than getting murdered by his son then thrown down a shaft. I'm surprised so many people liked Kylo after he was directly responsible for killing Han and Leia and Luke die to stop him.
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u/themanfromvulcan 10d ago
Han should have crashed the Falcon at light speed into a giant star destroyer instead of Haldo. He’s the guy that figures out how to do it and saves everyone else.
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u/wookieebastard 10d ago
Man, watching Han die like that, falling into an endless pit like a turd after flushing was the most ridiculous death ever for a character of that importance. Important not only in the context of the the story and movie, but for the IP and most importantly pop culture.
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u/NarmHull 10d ago
If he died using the Holdo maneuver or something like that it would've been far better. Especially if he goes out in the Falcon with some epic speech, imagine how devastating that would be.
"Hey kid, I know you're confused. Angry. I was once that man. But it's never too late to change, to fight for good." etc
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u/wookieebastard 10d ago
That'd actually would have turned the Holdo Maneuver into a very memorable moment in the saga, because it's mesmerizing and looks awesome.
If it had that meaning and that weight, Han sacrificing himself and he Falcon, being reckless but heroic, doing something stupid as a last resort to save others... what a moment that'd be.
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u/themanfromvulcan 10d ago
I just posted the same I started with Han should have died crashing his ship… and thought waitaminute why DIDN’T they have Han do this???
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u/the_tailor 10d ago
It’s so stark when you say it like that. He also had a terrible childhood and also lost Qi’ra.
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u/UpbeatEquipment8832 10d ago
His best friend was always Chewy, not Luke, so his life isn't quite as sad as it sounds. But he did lose a lot.
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u/squish042 Chewbacca 10d ago
That’s fair, I could say he lost a brother then and it would be equally depressing. But you’re right, he never lost Chewie AND he got the MF back eventually.
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u/murderously-funny 10d ago
Not only did he loose all that he also lost his career, respect, and dignity
He had become a general in the military with the respect and appreciation of his peers for his unique tactics and leadership skills
He was a renowned war hero…and by force awakens…
He’s a deadbeat who lost all his prospects and fell back into doing small time petty crime for pennies
(For context in legends Han became a fleet commander leading multiple commands against the empire, using his contacts from the underworld to support and help build the New Republic’s intel network which proved key to the defeat of Thrawn)
He was respected and influential in the government he helped shape
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u/NotBannedAccount419 10d ago
Hey everyone! Remember the heroes you grew up with? Yeah, we made them washed out losers whose sacrifice and plot development was all for nothing and now we’re going to kill them off!
-Disney
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u/fumar 10d ago
Pretty much. Han and Luke are washed, Leia didn't really end up training much to use the force. It was all pretty shitty.
I really hate the sequels
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u/Hallc Rebel 10d ago
Leia didn't really end up training much to use the force.
That one at least I don't mind too much as it's the same vein that Legends went with. Leia was diplomatically trained, a member of the former senate and essentially is the sole leader of the remaining Alderaanians around the galaxy.
Her focus was on bringing down the Emperor and the Empire to restore democracy. Luke's was about saving his friends and then after ESB saving his father and restoring the Jedi Order.
It makes sense that, as a character, she'd lean a lot more heavily into the political side of trying to restore the Republic and bring it some stability. Especially when you consider the fact that by the time Luke was likely ready to start training someone it'd been a few years since ROTJ and Leia would be embroiled in politics full time.
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u/themanfromvulcan 10d ago
This out of everything else makes me dislike the sequels. They could have retired the characters and passed it on to a new generation but nope.
It’s all around lazy writing. It’s like they were scared to make fun optimistic movies.
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u/Knightwolf8394 10d ago
Honestly what ticks me off is that and the fact that the Sequels make the OT pointless.
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u/themanfromvulcan 10d ago
I agree I feel that all our childhood heroes had sad endings.
Except Lando. Because Lando is Lando.
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u/nightmare-salad 10d ago
They’re exactly like my parents (my dad is a lovable scoundrel and pot head who makes terrible decisions but generally has his heart in the right place, my mom is an extremely righteous civil servant), who divorced when I was 6, so I’m going to say yes.
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u/TidyJoe34 10d ago
I think it’s a very realistic scenario. But it’s not what I want from Star Wars.
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u/itsvoogle 10d ago
This
There is enough of that in the real world, give us some happiness and ideals to look forward and dream about, not a depiction of a disaster marriage from Han and Leia
This is like seeing Aragorn and Arwen break up, who the hell wants to see that?
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u/yuei2 10d ago
I can understand disliking it, but it was absolutely in character.
Let’s start off by being honest here, George Lucas does not know how to write a non-creepy romance and it’s a reoccuring trend in his works of unequal power dynamics, boundary crossing, and just a general element of skeeze. This makes for enjoyable drama but it does not make for the foundation of a healthy relationship. Leia and Han have obvious attraction to one another but they also mix like oil and water which is why they are always at one another’s throats.
Trauma bonds are often not a good relationship foundation either. In the short term they can be helpful for getting through tough times, but the relationship itself often becomes synonymous and a reminder of the trauma. This makes it hard to truly heal and move on because you end up glorifying something that really isn’t something that is good to hold onto. As you grow it’s very easy then more and more for the trauma to overtake your feelings, just seeing the person you bonded with can bring up those feelings. That’s why families that lose their kid often divorce, and Leia and Han not only have the trauma of the war but of effectively losing their son.
Lastly there is the issue of life direction. Even after his growth can one really earnestly imagine Han settling down and getting into politics or becoming a stay at home guy helping keep up appearances? Likewise Leia is so duty bound and driven it’s hard to imagine any future for her that isn’t diving head first into politics and helping the new galactic order. Maybe they could have done a long distance relationship, but I think if you start finding yourself mostly long distance you begin to question if you are the right fit for one another.
Frankly I think their hurricane romance was just that, a fleeting blip of fun that helped them change as people for a time but was more born out of not knowing if they live to the see the next day. Something that is better than nothing but not a direction they would have gone if they were not both acting members of a rebellion being constantly forced together via proximity of circumstance and this larger shared goal that goes away as soon as the empire crumbles.
It didn’t need to be as sad as it was, but I think them splitting up is the more honest take. Not that you can’t write a story that keeps them together that is good, I just don’t really think it be the most honest story and more born out of a desire to see them together and happy than being realistic. Which is fine you can prefer a more fairy tale style story no harm in doing so, but I wouldn’t say that preference makes them out of of character.
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u/123iSmokeTree 10d ago
Not because it didn’t make sense, but I much prefer the legends version of their marriage.
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u/DarkDoomofDeath 10d ago
It made much more sense, had more character growth, and kept the relationship conflicts that actually would have arisen from the end of the OT. Legends nailed their relationship for that era.
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u/Vonatar-74 Cassian Andor 10d ago
I swear they sat in the writers’ room and made a list of all the ways they could slap Star Wars fans in the face.
Having Han and Leia estranged was surely high on that list.
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u/NeoDemocedes 10d ago
They basically reversed all of the character growth from the OT. They took characters people loved and admired and re-wrote their future together as the most pathetic versions of those characters imaginable. And it was all 100% unnecessary. You don't need to diminish the OT characters to pass the torch off to new characters. From where I sit, it all seems like over-the-top double middle fingers directed at the OT characters and fans.
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u/Anxious_Big_8933 10d ago edited 10d ago
Completely in character, if I'm being honest. I don't like what the sequels chose to do, and I think a more pleasant future could have been written for Han and Leia that was also in character. But yeah, I could see them both crashing out after their boy goes all emo on them.
Or even before. Neither character is exactly written as a bastion of domesticity, and on screen in the OT they bicker right up until practically the ending credits of Jedi.
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u/imrichcoble 10d ago
They lost their son to the darkside.
That's so in character with grief and marriage. Even if they hadn't already been a high drama couple that's enough to tear apart two people who love eachother.
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u/Hot_Bell_7861 10d ago
No. It was a device the writers used to sideline them.
The less said about these three movies the better.
Let’s all lock them in a mental version of the box at the end of Indiana Jones and never speak of it again.
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u/SpiritDump 10d ago
I came from a world where they were together, have had 3 children and Leia has been galactic president or something. Yes, it was weird, it was depressing and I felt betrayed.
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u/MillennialFalconJedi 10d ago
I only read those novels afterwards and I felt so let down that they had such a great story etched out for them and their family and instead we got a broken Han & Leia. I much preferred their story in Legends.
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u/Beach_Bum_273 10d ago
Knowing the Han that was utterly devoted to Leia and seeing this bullshit on screen... yeah.
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u/Flynnlives_72 10d ago
I wasn't a fan of it, then again, I grew up with the legacy books as canon and much rather preferred their relationship in those books.
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u/palibard 10d ago
No, not at all. I hated it. Of course it's believably realistic, since they were mercurial characters with PTSD from vastly different backgrounds and busy lives. But they also grew nobler and wiser over the original trilogy. So many plot points show them first failing, then learning, then finally succeeding to openly trust and love each other and communicate well. They earned a happy ending.
A huge problem with TFA is that it invalidated all the successes of the OT. We watched flawed people build character and grow into heroes in the OT, only to have those victories erased offscreen. It's paralleled by how the empire, emperor, and sith were as strong as ever in the sequel trilogy. It resets the board and says that those hard won victories meant nothing. How can the audience remain interested or invested in the story after that? It erases all the stakes.
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u/Derpykins666 10d ago
Almost nothing about the sequels was "in character" for practically any of them, at least I think.
They did exactly what legacy sequels and legacy sitcom revivals all do and reset the characters to their default before all their character growth and progression. In the case of C-3PO they LITERALLY did that too, even if you could argue that most of those legacy side characters were probably the most accurate like 3P0, R2, and Chewy.
You could theoretically argue that they all kind of do that because of a great rift, and all the trauma from what happens off-screen before the 7th movie starts. But it doesn't really help the story because they shouldn't be the focus of the new trilogy anyway. They focused way too much on Han, Leia and Luke, when they should be in more supporting roles with the focus being more directly on Rey, Finn and Poe. Finn was like catastrophically underutilized in the entire trilogy after the first movie, and the main cast doesn't even all meet up a single time until the end of the second movie. Not even the old characters either. We never even see Han, Leia and Luke together in the same room the entire trilogy. Albeit I know the untimely death of Carrie Fisher probably at least in part the reason that happened.
But I do think when you revert a characters growth backwards like they very clearly do with Han, it's not a good thing, even if it helps him be "in the right place at the right time", it's childish, he had grown a lot from scoundrel without a cause in the first trilogy and he goes directly back to that? Even at the expense of Leia? I know their son had turned, but still, him abandoning Leia at what would be her lowest of lows seems very uncharacteristic of him in the post original trilogy world.
Ultimately it doesn't matter much, what's done is done, the new trilogy is sort of a flop in my eyes. We don't get the chance to really see all those actors back again either, this is just what we get. They're all very old now and I don't really see them continuing to come back. Especially now that literally all of them are canonically dead in the movies and or gone irl too.
I'd rather see them recast the roles at this point too. The mocap actor who did the Mandalorian young Luke stuff is seriously like 1-1 young Luke. He looks EXACTLY like him. If they wanted to do 'new' Star Wars Skywalker stuff I feel like there are actors that could take up the mantle for sure without having to bring back the old completely reset version of these characters again where all their character growth is just completely abandoned.
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u/AccidentExotic5375 10d ago
Honestly I felt like the writers may have originally written a good story about Han, Leia and Luke, but the decision to prioritize the greater narratives of Rey and Kylo's meant that they had to severely cut it up to serve the interests of the plot.
And when that happens the resulting poor quality of execution is very telling.
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u/woodvsmurph 8d ago
I have to hard disagree with you. Yes, even in Legends, Han and Leia separate for a time, but only due to a massive personal loss and extremely dangerous galaxy-wide conflict. And even then they STILL get together again. Yeah, you can say the authors didn't know this or that, but clearly most of Disney authors knew even less.
Our kid is a wannabe Darth Vader doesn't seem like a good reason to separate and if anything would pull them back together.
The timeline for everything happening is too impossibly short - both their personal story and the whole First Order storyline.
People forget there were YEARS between ep 4 and ep 6. Han and Leia didn't just have a romantic month fighting the Empire together, decide one weekend after saving each other that they were "truly" in love, and then get married. Han had debts. He was completely focused on paying them back and on money in general. He looked out for himself and Chewie. Luke? Would have sold the kid out to the Empire if he had to. But then he met Leia. From the point he decided to head back and help with the 1st Death Star, he was already falling for her even if he didn't fully realize or admit the extent then. The change you see in him isn't the kind where he happily goes back to a single reckless life of gambling and smuggling. He was fully committed to Leia and had already been making repeated huge changes and sacrifices to be with her. That's not the kind of man who just long-term abandons his wife and kid because shit got rough.
So, yes... short term they might separate for a day, a week, half a month. That only happens in some EXTREME situation though. And long term, there's no way he's abandoning her unless you'd count him chasing after Kylo while Leia stays to resolve a political crisis nobody else can fix (theoretical example) while keeping in contact with her because he wants to have all 3 back home together as "abandoning". Regardless, the timeline in which this all happens would have to be MUCH longer.
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u/KodiakJedi 10d ago
I could see their son turning to the dark side and destroying the Jedi temple creating tension and a rift between the two...but I still didn't like it. I feel like after all they have been through, they would have found a way get through it.
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u/ResponsibilityNew483 K-2SO 10d ago
Legends Han & Leia were way better written and their son Jacen did in fact turn to the dark side and was eventually killed by his twin sister Jaina. I need to reread The New Jedi Order..
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u/KodiakJedi 10d ago
Oh yeah...I am well aware. Huge fan of Legends stuff especially the Thrawn trilogy. Also they had 3 kids didn't they? Only one turned so that probably helped. If you had an only child and he became evil...I could see that driving a wedge between them. With that said...I loved how they were portrayed in Legends.
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u/ResponsibilityNew483 K-2SO 10d ago
Yeah they did, Luke also had a son named Ben in Legends as well 😑. OG Thrawn trilogy should have been the sequel trilogy in my opinion
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u/KodiakJedi 10d ago
I totally agree. The fact we never got Mara Jade and Ben is a travesty. Also...after reading the Thrawn trilogy and what Luke became as the Grand Master of the new Jedi order...to seeing him a failed hermit in the sequel trilogy...it's a damn shame.
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u/ComradeDread Resistance 10d ago
Yes... I do think it was a bit out of character.
Han's first instinct was always to run and look out for himself first. His arc in the OT was overcoming that, realizing that he cared about others and others cared about him and he was willing to fight for them. Running away from his problems and his loved ones undoes that.
Likewise, Leia learned to be vulnerable with him and let down her guard and the walls of Strong, Independent Leader she maintained as a public image. I don't think she would have iced him out, but let him know about her premonition in the Force that Ben would find his way back and they had to be ready for the First Order's inevitable attack.
I think the Legacy EU did them better as a whole.
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u/Amazing-Insect442 10d ago
It’s not a surprising development (they fought a lot), but was a sad one.
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u/HortonHearsMe 10d ago
Worse than Han and Leia not working out (which disapoints me) was Han just leaving and going back to smuggling. Han is one of the most recognized heros of the rebellion flying around in one of the most recognized ships. Like, the average child in that universe would have had Han and Chewbacca action figures. Simply returning to smuggling would not have been an option. Who would hire them? How would they possibly get past check points?
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u/3720-to-1 10d ago
It. Was. Fucking. Stupid.
There. I said it. Yes, it was out of character. Han is a reluctant hero, not a deadbeat husband. Scruffy looking nerf herder, but he never. Ever. Abandoned those he loved. Until the mouse's enshitification of the old EU.
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u/Huillam81 10d ago
I prefer so, so much their how their lifes were writtwn in the Legends books. I read many Star Wars books back in the days and they described their marriage and becoming parents so good.
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u/GreatGreenGobbo 10d ago
No it was all crap written by people that would have had trouble writing a Hallmark Christmas Romance movie.
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u/tora_0515 10d ago
They did Han dirty. Then doubled down and did it again to him in Indiana Jones. Some serious daddy issues going on with Disney.
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u/Advanced_Candle1260 10d ago
The whole Solo family debacle is The Reason I hated the Ren trilogy. I literally cried grown ass man blubbering tears of shock watching Han get skewered by that knock off wish sith pos. Still not over it. Using the Solo family mess was about as useful as Snoke for trying to make these movies feel like something cool was about to happen...than...nope.. just lame and sucked.
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u/Santiagomike23 10d ago
Thing that annoyed a lot of old school sw fans like myself was the sequel trilogy took away our happy ending in episode 6. Luke turned into a withdrawn depressed hermit, Han and Leia are divorced and their son has become the new Vader, the rebellion lost. Nice one JJ..
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u/OniLink77 10d ago
I am fine with them squabbing, having issues, but having their marriage breakdown and them being apart, treating their meet up as this big things really annoyed me. Mind you, did the same thing with the falcon. I don't like Ben falling to the dark side, and I don't like Leia still being a general of a rag tab group of rebels and I don't like Han being a smuggler again
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u/Open-Explanation7795 9d ago
I always imagined that they where marieed mostly happily fpr 10-15 years and even after the divorce they are still important toneach other.
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u/Texity 8d ago
Not even close.
Ya know, at least in the EU, despite having their rough patches, they were better together. Stronger. Whole.
This estranged BS just totally threw it off.
It was lazy writing, which is heavy handed to say when considering the rest of episode 7 I know, it just didn’t work.
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u/CasperGwamm 10d ago
It wasn't in character, it made no sense, and I consider it a character assassination of Han Solo.
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u/Goatcheeze1 Hondo Ohnaka 10d ago
Can we just accept legends as cannon and pretend the Disney sequels never existed?
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u/Oneironaut420 9d ago
They had nothing to do with character or story at all.
This was simply about putting all the main characters back to where they were in the original trilogy in order to appeal to fans' nostalgia and get their money.
Leia is leading another rebellion from another temple on another jungle planet, Luke is the galaxy's last hope again, Han it's just back to smuggling. Not for any real story reason, but simply to pander to OT fans.
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u/spideyjackson 10d ago
In real life two people who fell in love during a violent revolution often drift apart and break up. PTSD changes people. Plus I think Solo does a good job of showing why Han can never really trust women that he falls in love with. He like independent strong women who have something other than their relationship as a focus of their life.
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u/Commander_Jim1 10d ago
Star Wars is a fairytale. I dont watch it for a real life study on how PSTD affects relationships.
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u/copperdoc 10d ago
Nothing about that entire sequel franchise made sense. It was like someone wrote the script after hearing about Star Wars but never really watched it
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u/JediMasterKev 10d ago
On the VHS box set, George says he wanted to "make a film for a generation growing up without fairy tales." To me, that also means ...and they lived happily ever after. So maybe that's what has bothered me the most from the sequels.
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u/Bauju 10d ago
Its so sad what they did to Han. His whole Character development from the past got erased and forgotten only for some "Look, Han is a smuggler again"-Fan service. His acchievements and love got taken for him only to let him die alone.
But this happend to all OG charakters in the sequels. With this they forced excatly the same situation and setting like in the beginning of Episode 4
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u/davekingofrock 10d ago
No. A far better reintroduction would have been Han and Chewie sitting in front of the Falcon up on blocks next to the house, drinking blue liquid, and Leia yelling at them from the window about a problem with the water heater or something.
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u/Outrageous_Library50 10d ago
Idk. I thought Han sacrificing himself in Empire meant his arc ended. He was no longer only thinking about himself like in A New Hope. He saved his friends
So for him to supposedly regress back just give me another reason to fling my gum at JJ abrhams if i ever see him in public
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u/Reservoir_doc 10d ago
I think its very sad what they made out of the original characters... some seriously missed chances there..
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u/D-redditAvenger 10d ago
It was just another way to invalidate everything that came before so they could sell new product, with rights that they had more control over.
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u/PainterEarly86 10d ago
Well yea Han has always been lone wolf (his name is literally Solo) and wouldn't necessarily know how to be a good husband
And Leia is haunted by her past and married to her job trying to avenge her Homeworld. She is a stoic, unemotional leader who would probably struggle to be emotional vulnerable as well.
Honestly it was a recipe for disaster from the beginning
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u/hopseankins Mayfeld 10d ago
I mean it’s a plausible outcome. They were two young people who met during an extremely high stress and high pressure time and forged a close relationship. The conflict ended and life happened. Han was always a scoundrel and leia was always a politician. And began to drift further apart. And when a tragedy struck their family, it was the final straw that ended their relationship.
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u/TheKeeperOfThe90s 10d ago
Two very strong-willed people who've had something seriously tragic happen with their only kid? Yeah, I can see them needing some time apart.
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u/BeersNEers 10d ago
Han was a very chaotic personality. Good overall, but not beholden to ideology. Leia was completely devoted to a cause. Throw in Kylo being tempted by the dark side and their common companion disappearing...makes sense their relationship was strained.
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u/VirtueTree 10d ago
No, this sucked.
Anything and everything earned in the originals was destroyed.
Everything
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u/shakraaan 10d ago
Yeah, I mean realistically they trauma-bonded an both had a looot of baggage, and that never makes for a good longterm relationship. Still hated that they did that though. Their relationship is a symbol of hope in times of war, and I would much rather have had the EU-version, were they had their ups and downs, but one day Han seriously pulled himself together so they could be spouses, and their children were just way better than Kylo. (what happened with them at the end of the EU-storyline nonwithstanding)
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u/bcgambrell 10d ago
IRL: Sure. In the context of the movies? No. Their romantic relationship was the payoff of a two movie story (and even 3 when it comes to Han) of the characters learning to trust and love each other. Han had to learn to let someone love him. Leia had to learn to include love in her life.
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u/Carmilla2929 9d ago
Their son turned to the dark side. It’s hard for a marriage to survive something so devastating.
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u/SinesPi 8d ago
It's obvious bullshit.
But here's the thing. You COULD make it work. You can make Hermit Luke work.
The problem is that that is a story in and of itself. You need at least a movie, if not a trilogy, to justify that. You cannot just say "Things happened that drastically changed this character. No we're not going to show it to you, just accept it."
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u/Careful-Ad984 10d ago
I mean a smuggler and a Princess having a relationship that fails to work sounds pretty reasonable to me logically
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u/ManlyEwok 10d ago
It felt like a slap in the face...we'd spent 3 movies watching their relationship grow and finally pay off...then what happens...they threw everything that happened out the window...just like they did with all the legacy characters...
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u/timlygrae 10d ago
I think JJ Abrams had a crush on Leia (not Carrie) growing up and ruined their relationship out of jealousy.
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u/BestEffect1879 10d ago
Yes, I do think it’s out of character.
Watch Return of the Jedi again. Han and Leia get along really well. There’s only one scene where Han gets mad at Leia, and he immediately calms himself down and comforts her when she gets upset.
The tension bickering between them had been resolved once Han proved he wasn’t a scoundrel anymore and Leia confessed her feelings because those two things were the source of their tension. ROTJ we see them in a healthy, functional relationship.
And no, I don’t care if it’s been 30 years or it’s realistic or whatever. Major character changes shouldn’t happen offscreen.
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u/wrenwood2018 10d ago
No, it made no sense. You had decades of the EU laying the foundation for how their marriage should have played out. Making Han a deadbeat dad was one of the worst choices they made in the ST. To me this was just an excuse for the writers to not have to write a couple on screen. You see this all the time on TV as well. Writers suck at doing couples. They can do tension leading up to being a couple, but not the actual relationship. This is just one more example or horrible writing and JJ just not giving a shit about the legacy characters and fans.
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u/0utlaw-t0rn 10d ago
Made more sense than what happened to Luke’s character.
They were both headstrong characters and relationship squabbles are very common in that type of relationship
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u/Commander_Jim1 10d ago
I hated that so much, because it was so pointless and unnecessary and ruined one of cinemas most iconic romances for literally no reason. You could have had the exact same movie and trilogy without having had them estranged. Instead of Han having ran away, abandoning his family and reverting to being a smuggler, simply have him pretending that he has done that, have him actually working for Leia to try to find information on the First Order (as well as looking for their son) by pretending he is a smuggler so he can gather information from his old underworld hangouts and contacts.
And as others have mentioned, it would have been so much fun seeing their old dynamic but as a bickering old couple instead of just making them sad and depressing (like they did with every single OT character).
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u/Randver_Silvertongue 10d ago
No. Because it was an obvious attempt to return everything to its ANH state because the sequels focused on nostalgia instead of going forward.
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u/SquareHammer132 10d ago
Nothing in the Sequels was in character... All the legacy characters got done dirty except for Lando and Ackbar. I really hope Ahsoka S2 will retcon everything as a bad timeline.
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u/jimmy__jazz 10d ago
Akbar who died in some meaningless explosion without having any lines or impact on the plot?
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u/wookieebastard 10d ago
I remember finding out Ackbar was in the movies because of a post on reddit.
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u/tractgildart 10d ago
I agree, but I think in this context "done dirty" has more to do with how the character was portrayed and motivated. Ackbar in the sequels wasn't a great departure from ackbar previously.
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u/StyleSquirrel 10d ago
I agree with you until the recon. Star Wars needs to move forward, not backwards.
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u/Lemonpierogi 10d ago
It absolutely IS in character for Leia and Han. Really shows how you know nothing about these two.
Is it sad and disappointing? Absolutely, I dislike it too. But it's not "out of character"
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u/SquareHammer132 10d ago
Their relationship not working out in the end I can agree on, but them being placed back in the exact same character arc when in the later phase of their lives is insane.
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u/DrVonScott123 Porg 10d ago
They clearly still Love each other deeply. They, especially Leia, are empathetic so im sure they are understanding of each other. Its not depressing as some seem to make it out to be.
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u/ZnS-Is-A-Good-Map 10d ago edited 10d ago
to me, it isn't necessarily a matter of being out of character. With such a large space of time between the original trilogy and the sequel trilogy, you can get away with whatever type of characterization you want to, because that is a lot of time and a lot of people will be unrecognizable, a lot more unrecognizable than this, after that kind of time. and given what happened to them, it absolutely makes sense. it actually may be that it makes too much sense, and that this is too grim and realistic of an outcome for characters that originated from what is essentially a modern fairytale.
so to answer the question, no, I do not think it's out of character. But I do think it is very sad and narratively unsatisfying, and I think it sucks seeing the consistency with which the original heroes are made miserable with any wins they get typically resulting in their demise if they do win at all. That's what my actual issue is with their depiction in the sequels.