Nerd Rant

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.