Have you ever really thought much about Han Solo's rank in the rebellion?
(Random person) General Solo
What? General?!
REALLY?
The last time the Rebellion saw Han Solo before this, he was planning to BAIL on everyone.
I thought you had decided to stay.
Well the bounty hunter we ran into on Ord Mantell changed my mind.
Then he gets frozen in carbonite for a year, gets forgiven and immediately gets promoted to GENERAL?
WHAT? How does that even make any sort of sense?
No wonder the Rebellion ends up with such tactical genius as his Vice Admiral Holdo. I wonder how long SHE spent in carbonite
(ﾉﾟ0ﾟ)ﾉ~
*the best intro in existence* Λ＿Λ ( ˇωˇ)
Hello Internet,
Welcome to Film Theory!
Last chance to hop into an escape pod if you want to avoid spoilers for "Solo" and, well, the entire "Star Wars" franchise
Because not only are we heading straight into the asteroid field of movie plot points
But this theory might actually spoil Han Solo for you as a character across the Star Wars universe. But hey
You won't be alone. As a fellow Star Wars fan over here
I was as excited about Han Solo prequel as anyone and that was about like
"Meh." I'm kind of excited about this. But after watching it I was left with no choice
I had to come to terms with the only conclusion you can about han Solo, the handsome hunky space cowboy
we all once knew and had confusing feelings about is actually nothing, but an overhyped poser
That's right!
The quote-unquote "best pilot" in the galaxy is nothing but a
credit stealing Lackey whose success in the entire Star Wars franchise is a complete and total farce.
Han Solo is a lie, period.
End of story. He sucks and it's all thanks to what we see in the prequel
Aaaaare you still there?
Okay, great. For the 12 of you who didn't rage quit this video after me saying all of that: first off
I'm gonna prove that everything I just said is true
and secondly
I'm gonna make a believer out of you, too. On with the theory! Since apparently none of you went to see solo in theaters
I'll catch you up on this completely
predictable plot of this latest movie. Young Han Solo starts the movie by escaping his crappy home planet but OOPS!
He leaves his Khaleesi -- I mean girlfriend, Qi'ra,
Nope, not that one either. "Qi'ra" behind. After debating whether to abandon her for less time than it took me to say this sentence
He's like "peace, I'm out of here." Han first goes to the Imperial service. But as snooty highbrow thief he finds the work distasteful
So he runs away and becomes a smuggler. After completely ruining his smuggler mates' business prospects and killing off
and killing a couple dozen of them in the process, he wins the Millennium Falcon from Lando in a card game. Lando and his... highly progressive droid
L-337 go with Han on a mission to retrieve a MacGuffin
I mean a hyper evolved energy source, and in the process, they complete the legendary Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs!
(if you round down)
So this all sounds like yet another fun and wacky Star Wars adventure
So why am I going so hard on Han?
well
this movie is supposed to establish to us why Han has such an amazing reputation as a pilot and a smuggler by the time we
Reach the original Star Wars trilogy, but if you actually look at the movie
Then go back and even look at episodes 4 through 6 of the original trilogy
You can see that Han
Actually sucks at all those things roll the tape everything starts when you see him at the opening of solo
Where by the way, he's not a pilot yet and doesn't have experience flying anything
but some measly
hovercraft
They make that very clear in the opening moments and the early scenes of the movie show that he's not even good at handling those
not even good at handling those hovercraft
The only thing we know he does
Successfully is Hotwire a hover car which means that he's skilled enough to have watched about two YouTube videos on how to hotwire something
Yes those videos exist and no you shouldn't watch them for anything. But
educational purposes once we see him steal a vehicle he cruises away in a classic Star Wars style chase scene and this becomes the first
And this becomes the moment where we see his great piloting skills put to the test
he goes in for the classic thread the needle maneuver, he would later be known for and
Completely fails he biffs it. He crashes the ship is ruined
But okay, I hear you saying it already this movie is to show him growing
He can't start off being amazing at everything. The Karate Kid doesn't wax off perfectly his first time either and I hear you
I understand that I went into this movie expecting that but what if I told you that Han never
Learns to fly that this level of piloting ineptitudes where Han starts and where he stays for all the rest of his time
Alive don't believe let's keep going after we establish the humps exit flying at the beginning of the movie
We watch him continue to suck the next time he gets a chance behind the wheel or I guess cleans don't have wheels
So the next time he takes the stick
Doesn't sound right either you gotta really come up with some better piloting metaphors
Anyway, we see Han joined the imperial army expecting to learn to fly
But we then fast forward three years and he's a boots on the ground grunt. He's not a pilot
He was expelled from flight schools checked outside Academy
We never actually get a sense of how much training he receives
But based on what we see next it could have been much the next time we see Han fly is with his smuggler friend back
In I'm putting together a crew you ran which if you seen the movie
Can't really be called a success while trying to steal hyper fuel from a train
They're attacked by summer otters on flying motorcycles. Their getaway driver is shot and killed leaving Han in the pilot's seat
And what's our ace flyer to do he literally runs into the side of a mountain
With two or three motorcycle riders to his left
He doesn't think to
I don't know turn right and instead runs himself headlong into the mountain dropping the hyper fuel leaving the mission a complete disaster
With two people dead and literally nothing to show for it. Goodbye mission. Goodbye
Smuggler money and thanks a lot
Han Solo and just to reiterate we're 45 minutes into the movie at this point and there is still no learning curve on Hans
piloting abilities han hasn't learned anything about being a pilot or a
smuggler for that matter between the first scene and now in fact his
piloting is just more deadly and more costly than it ever has been but I know you Star Wars fans are really
persistent and you're still making arguments here that none of these early scenes matter because by the end of the movie han is an
Amazing pilot. He's your man crush Monday, and there's nothing I can say to change your mind
well Let's just look at that supposedly amazing Kessel run from the end of the movie. And in the meantime
Prepare for your man crush to be totally crushed man. Let's look at how the Kessel run goes down in typical Han style
He promises that he can retrieve raw completely unstable hyper fuel from Kessel
Which is a planet that just so happens to be a hop skip and a jump through a maelstrom that's unnavigable for most pilots
But not for all ha or should I say not for Lando and l3 37 and here's where Hans
piloting really starts to unravel
Let's talk about l3
37 the robo justice warrior whose name alone is just
Pure cringe since it's a bunch of movie execs trying to be cool by naming their robot and leet-speak
according to Lando one of the reasons l3 is so advanced and
eccentric is the fact that she hasn't had her memory wiped in years the advantage to this gives her is that now she has a
Vast navigational record that serves as the most detailed and nuanced map in the galaxy such incredible records
Not only allow l3 to travel efficiently
But also let her to make maneuvers through dangerous poorly charted areas
Like asteroid fields or in the case of our Kessel run the Maelstrom
She's in charge of overseeing the navigation of the Millennium Falcon safely through the Maelstrom on the way to Kessel
Which she does without even flexing but then on Kessel something unexpected happen namely everyone on board becomes a social justice
Warrior - well on Kessel l3 37 tries to free her fellow robots from an eternity of servitude
But gets shot the process just when she's about to go offline permanently
Lando uploads her data into the Millennium Falcon to save her AI and bolster the ship's navigational abilities in the process linking her
Consciousness with the ship forever and this this is the linchpin in exposing Han Solo's lies
We now have a droids consciousness linked with the Millennium Falcon
Specifically a piloting droid with what's established as the most robust navigational knowledge in the galaxy
It's only after this point that we see han Solo actually perform
Impressive piloting maneuvers and you'll notice it's only ever in the Millennium Falcon
Don't believe me. Look at this at the end of solo
we see Han finally pull off his signature thread the needle maneuver will Ken's his failure with the move earlier on in the movie with
The hover cars and is meant to show the growth of his skills rights
he then goes on to do it twice more throughout the series first and the Empire Strikes Back while he navigates the asteroid and then
Again, even more famously to escape the cave
But here's the thing. It's not him pulling off those maneuvers its l3
We know this not because we see him being a terrible pilot later
but because we see plenty of other characters who are definitely not pilots suddenly becoming
Amazing at flying as soon as you put him at the helm of the Millennium Falcon in Return of the Jedi
Filming witch-hunt never pilots the Falcon on-screen Lando gets a hold of the Falcon and pulls off multiple close maneuvers
including the same
Thread the needle move getting through the core of the second Death Star and in case you think that Lando might have perfected the move
In the time that he owned the ship. How about someone who has never flown before?
Period when Rey flies the Falcon for the first time in her life she manages to pull off the same
Exact move and then again a few weeks later on crate
She does it one more time for good measure and we know it can't be Ray's parents passing on good piloting skills since you know
Filthy junk traitors
That's one that's gonna come back and bite him a couple times with my theories of anything to say about it
Long story short the common thread through all of this. It's not the pilot skills eats the ship the ship with L
337 the most advanced piloting droid in the galaxy built into its system
Ray may not realize how much the Falcon is actually helping her out, but Han certainly knows. Have you ever stopped to notice?
How Han is rarely the person flying when the ship is under attack in Episode four? He actively gives up piloting to Chewie
So he could have more fun. I mean be more helpful by hopping into one of the turret
In Episode five. Neither hot nor Chewie are in the cockpit with the Falcon is actively under Imperial fire
But the shift somehow manages to come out unscathed and how about all those times that Han talks about his evasive maneuvers
I know a few maneuvers
Yeah, flying in a straight line
real evasive there Han you'll notice that he does this while the navigational system ie
L3 is busy charting a hyperspace routes safe enough to make the jump to hyperspace. Let's face it
His name should be Han didn't do it solo
Honestly considering the origin of his name aim Solo wouldn't be much dumber ladies and gentlemen of the internet
I'm sorry to dash your dreams of hunky Han the great star pilot
But hey, if you have your heart set on becoming a great pilot like Han Solo when you grow up now
You know that even without stepping foot in a cockpit, you've probably already hit benchmarks since let's face it
The bar is pretty darn low
the only
question this theory leaves me with is what I'm gonna leave you with now - did the film makers know I mean
I hate to say it
but this theory is backed up with a lot of evidence across the movies so much so that I would actually
Speculate that the makers of solo may have known what they were doing here
I mean think about it the whole movie plays up this idea that l3 is a liberated droid and she's a cocky pilot
She's too good for Lando's advances and she takes it upon herself to liberate all droids in the Star Wars universe
And that jams up literally buried in the wiring of the Millennium Falcon in the mean time
Han Solo a human who never accomplishes anything without her help gets all of the credit for her work spending the next three
Movies bragging about all his amazing flying abilities did Lucas and Disney intend to show how incredibly unfair the situation is?
I don't know, but if so, man,
That makes me like this movie a whole lot more and with how much I really didn't like the movie - that helps a lot.
But hey, that's just a theory... a Film Theory!
Aaaaaand...
Cut.