Han and Leia and ‘The Force Awakens’
The one thing that makes me only mostly love Episode VII…
MAJOR SPOILERS FOR STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS AHEAD!!!
I’ve seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens four times now, and I mostly love it. Not totally. Mostly. I’m on board with pretty much all the accolades fans seem to be throwing its way — there’s just one thing about it that kinda ruins an otherwise near-perfect return to form…
Going in to my first screening, there was the one thing I knew I did not want to see: my favorite fictional character and the pinnacle of onscreen heroism, Luke Skywalker, turning evil. If those rumors had proven true, you’d probably now view Darth Vader’s final moments in Revenge of the Sith as subtle after hearing my own melodramatic “NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”. It seems we’re good there, though. Crisis averted. (I remain cautiously optimistic he “vanished” for noble reasons, not out of cowardice).
But one other “pinnacle” didn’t fair quite as well, and it’s one I never even contemplated failing me — that of onscreen romance. Just as Luke’s story in the original trilogy informed young Chris that even a lowly farmboy can turn out to be the one who saves the galaxy, so too did Han and Leia’s courtship present the optimistic notion that anyone — even a smuggler and a princess — could live happily ever after. It’s a love story I’ve cherished for decades…to the point that my wife and I established iloveyouiknow.net as our wedding site and even placed cartoonish representations of Han and Leia atop our wedding cake. The completely reasonable assumption that the two left Endor together forever means a lot to me.
Except that — turns out — they didn’t.
Yes, I get that throwing their relationship into the sarlacc pit in reaction to Ben Solo’s betrayal is believable. But who really wanted to see that? I would very much have bought that such a tragedy would have made them closer, forging an even stronger bond as they united to convert their son back to the light.
Simply put: Seeing what’s become of Han and Leia’s relationship nullifies what I view as the greatest love story of all time and taints one of the most appealing aspects of the original trilogy. The rift between them adds nothing to the story being told in The Force Awakens. Breaking them up was a very un-Star Wars thing to do in a movie that pretty much nails everything else. And that somehow makes it sting even worse.
Related to this, I hate the fact that Leia wasn’t there when Han died, and that she’ll never even get to look at his face again, dead or alive. It might have actually redeemed the unnecessary breakup if the Leia of the original trilogy had shown up— the one who says “oh, then I’m coming with you!” and “general…I’m with you too.” One last noble adventure together where she could have seen Ben’s heinous act of patricide for herself. Instead, the only way we get any hint of Luke’s promised “soon you’ll have that power too” roots itself in her intense sadness several star systems away. Which, I’ll grant, was pretty powerful. It’s just not the way I wanted to see Leia using the Force after no onscreen presence for 32 years.
Even worse — I fully blame Leia for Han’s death, and that’s just not cool. She begged him to “bring our son home,” and that’s just plain out of character. A woman of her intellect and military experience must have known that an organized mission at a later date would have proven a much smarter approach. Han went out of his way to confront Ben for Leia…not because he thought it was a good idea.
To that end, I suppose we can take some solace in the fact that it’s clear Han and Leia did indeed still love each other…just with “it’s complicated” displayed on their Facebook profiles. But could we maybe have gotten one last “I love you/I know,” or at least a fun play on it, as Han departed? I’d have traded all the other fun callbacks in the film just for that.
All that said, I continue to grow fonder of The Force Awakens with each passing day — partly because I’m coming to accept the new status quo, but even more so because everyone else seems to love it so much. As someone who sees the prequels much like Luke sees Vader in Return of the Jedi (they’re flawed to most, but I see the good in them), I find the concept of everyone liking Star Wars again beyond refreshing. The unanswered questions fascinate me, too — especially “what’s the deal with Snoke?” (please-be-Plagueis, please-be-Plagueis, please-be-Plagueis…) and “what’s the deal with Rey?” (loving the “Obi-Wan’s granddaughter” theory)— and I find the new characters equally intriguing. I truly cannot wait for Episode VIII.
But the whole Han/Leia thing? I’ll never love it. I know.
