This morning, @ 5 am, on my
way to work, I realized that many people are on about Luke Skywalker's
involvement in the upcoming film.
I don’t
care.
Luke
is a sham hero.
He
enters the film as a whining teen who is lazy and unambitious. He doesn’t want
to do his chores, and seems bored and unenthusiastic even when buying new
droids, clearly a rare event in his slow, farm boy life. He’s so weak willed
that C3PO talks him into which robot to buy with virtually no effort.
Then he sees a hot chick,
and hares off into the uber dangerous desert to meet with a known weirdo. He
gets back home, cries his eyes out, and wanders off with Ben Kenobi in shock,
with promises of glory and power in his mind, but he can't even handle a bar
fight.
Still fixated on Leia's
image he rescues her, with a LOT of help, but is more comfortable with the
idea of her than the reality. He is generally a dick to her until he gets back on
his space warrior fantasy kick and barely cares that her HOME PLANET was blown
to hell.
Luke
was born with power, and even his first lightsaber was literally handed to him.
Han Solo on the other hand,
is a self-made man, earning his living out on the fringe, dealing first hand
with a greedy and deeply corrupt government, and the gangsters who rule the
spaces in between.
He
takes risks, sure. At any time, he could lose his ship, which is both his
home and livelihood. He negotiates with a Jedi and gets a good deal, if said Jedi
was not lying like dogs, which of course he was. ‘Cause Jedi lie.
Still, Han makes lemons out
of lemonade and goes in to rescue Leia. Sure, she’s a stuck up brat, and below
the age of consent, but she’s got money. So if he can live through being caught
with a pack of know fugitives, who are also, according to the Empire, religious
extremists and terrorists, he may at least get a pay day.
In the end, he even comes
back to help, because he knows that it’s a just fight (despite Luke’s flaws)
and uses his Civilian Freighter to fire off a few shots to buy Luke some time.
Luke owns nothing, so his
risk is less meaningful.
He
runs forward spurred by the invincibility of youth and fervor for a religion he
does not understand. Han chose to return to the fight against all sense, again,
because he knows it's right.
Sure,
he's a rogue and scoundrel. His world sucks. He was faced with the choice of
being a peasant or an outsider; he chose freedom over the leash.
Did
Han shoot first? Of course he did. Faced with death, I would too. So SHOULD
you. Violence begins with intent, not action.
So,
who cares about a whiny nerf herder? I want Han back.
