this is stuff you like and Han and Leia were together and happy for a while
after the end of Return of the Jedi and that's important to me. They had a kid
and he had great force potential and they were worried about him and they
sent him away to be trained by Luke and he fell to the dark side because of
Snoke and probably some other stuff and after that happened han and Leia went
their separate ways their grief over Ben killed their
relationship and a bunch of other things besides "this is the Millennium Falcon? You're
Han Solo?" "I used to be." at the beginning of The Force Awakens Han has given up
and it's painful. he's chasing something money? thrills? danger? but whatever it is
it's not really working Maz tells him that he needs to go home
and that he needs to stop running which of course raises the question did he
leave did Leia kick him out how did that go down? we don't find out in the
movie but we do see the result: that he has given up on who he used to be. the
pain of losing his son to the dark side has made him regress to who he was a
long time ago in a galaxy far far away in fact both of our pair have reverted
to type like right the way back to a new hope type Leia is in charge of the new
thing that the rebellion became because it turns out you just can't keep the
bad guys down and Han is smuggling poorly as it turns out "used to have a
bigger crew" seriously Chewbacca? only reason this eejit is still alive. but
thanks to Rey and Finn and bb-8 and the needs of the galaxy we get Han and Leia
back together again as much as it hurts. and Han who always
tries to understand says "every time you look at me you're reminded of him" but
he's misunderstood no? Leia doesn't want to forget her son or her partner or her
brother she wants them back she wants her family back
almost all of the Organa Solo Skywalker tragedy in the force awakens rests on
Ben and for good character driven reason. Luke and Han and Leia were pretty broken
people before, they had their damage and their wounds and their tragedies, but
this is different. this is their child. if anything could turn Luke Skywalker into
the sad hermit we see at the end of the force awakens and the beginning of the
last Jedi it's the feeling that he let down his
sister and his friend and his nephew to say nothing of the young Jedi that Ben
subsequently killed. and this is what we have to overcome to save the galaxy
again yes the first order but also Kylo Ren. and in the end it's not the effort
to blow up Starkiller base that gets Han killed it's that burning need to do what
Leia asks of him to do the right thing for his son. Ben kills Han and Leia feels
it in the Force and the Resistance save the day but Han is still gone and Ben is
still Kylo. for now at least. And I didn't enjoy that moment but I
understood why they made it that way and I felt it was an emotionally resonant
conclusion to the movie. The reason it's made that way of course is to signal to
the audience that things are not good that the galaxy far far away is a dark
place right now that tyranny is something that is a constant threat and
that even your heroes with the best of intentions can fail to keep it at bay. a
lot can happen in 30 years and that includes a period of relative peace
before the same old thing comes back around in a new outfit promising the
universe and delivering the Death Star mark 3: now it's the size of a planet. "so
it's big" Han doesn't want to die but he knows the risk going in. he does it for
Ben's sake. he does it for Leia's sake. he does it because it's the right thing to
do. I said before that Han Solo reverts to type when Ben turns to the dark side
Han reverts to the smuggler type the gambler the swindler he runs from Leia
and Luke who are, to be fair, running in their own ways - but he comes home in
the end. he comes back to his best self the self that saves farm boys from TIE
fighters the self that rescues princesses the self that does the right
thing regardless of the personal cost. Han loves Ben and Leia in the end more
than he loves his own life and Han and Leia's isn't a happy ending per se but
even though it got really dreadful I'm ok
with it because they still got to be happy for a while anyway. Do I love that
Han and Leia broke up? no but I understand why and boy does it ever resonate
emotionally. so if the force awakens retroactively ruined the original
trilogy for you then fair enough but it didn't ruin Han and Leia's
relationship for me because there was happiness in the middle and because
there was hope at the end. Thanks for watching.