Spoilers Star Wars: Solo - Grading and Discussion Thread

[DigificWriter]

While I don’t agree that I’m unaware of the respective framing of both movies the plot device attempts to run his character ascent in the same manner and to do that a reset of sorts is necessary. It illustrates that any change is not persistent and therefore devalues the character shift. The aspects you raise are trivial and don’t debase core elements of character, in my view anyway.

There is not a digression of his character in play in either of the situations being discussed, so nothing is "devalued".

He lets cynicism guide his life because the woman he loved and the man he'd seen as a father figure turned on him, and later goes back to trying to be the "carefree scoundrel" after his son fell to the Dark Side, but neither of those things change who he is on a fundamental level.

 

[Ocanain]

There is not a digression of his character in play in either of the situations being discussed, so nothing is "devalued".

He lets cynicism guide his life because the woman he loved and the man he'd seen as a father figure turned on him, and later goes back to trying to be the "carefree scoundrel" after his son fell to the Dark Side, but neither of those things change who he is on a fundamental level.

You say nothing is being devalued yet refer to his reversion. In every movie he is in he starts as a cynic and concludes as hopeful therefore there is no reason for him to revert as the fundamental change is that his hopefulness is rewarded. To simply ignore this and attribute it to the current narrative is short sighted to say the least.

 

[DigificWriter]

Even after Qira, Beckett, and his own son betray him, Han fundamentally remains the "good guy" Qira describes him as in SOLO. He's not "reverting" when he gets reminded of this fact by Chewie offscreen in ANH and meets Rey in TFA because the person he became after the events of SOLO and the person he tried to pretend to be after Ben's fall are not who he actually is.

He's not digressing so much as going through "phases" in his life where he either forgot who he really was or tried to drown his pain by going back to a way of life that was "familiar".

 

[Ocanain]

Even after Qira, Beckett, and his own son betray him, Han fundamentally remains the "good guy" Qira describes him as in SOLO. He's not "reverting" when he gets reminded of this fact by Chewie offscreen in ANH and meets Rey in TFA because the person he became after the events of SOLO and the person he tried to pretend to be after Ben's fall are not who he actually is.

He's not digressing so much as going through "phases" in his life where he either forgot who he really was or tried to drown his pain by going back to a way of life that was "familiar".

The phase you reference is on an endless and superfluous loop. I’m personally not gullible enough to believe that trivial resets change the basis of his character that maintains through every movie. Unless he has amnesia, it’s entirely unbelievable but your free to your own view of course.

 

[HugeLobes]

The only issue I had was an underlying continuity one, being that Han kind of addressed that he was simply some nihilistic self serving individual in this movie so that kind of puts him in an endless loop. He finds his social compassion here and loses it for episode 4. Then he finds it again and loses it for episode 7.

I think the main issue was that Solo felt intended as the first movie in its own mini-franchise. I actually didn't find Han self-serving enough. They seemed to pay lip service to the idea of Han being this morally grey character, but then also didn't seem comfortable having that sort of person leading the story. He was actually pretty virtuous throughout. The impression I got was that his character progression depended on sequel movies, which was a real mistake in retrospect.

 

[Ithekro]

Han Solo was being human and you aren't believing it? People fall to cynicism quite easily when they have to got from job to job trying to make ends meet.

It can't be easy to work odd jobs for the Hutts and other criminal operations just to keep your livelihood (starship) functional.

 

[Tosk]

I see Han as a cynical but fundamentally good person who is trying his damnedest to be a hard, self-serving a-hole. He struggles to maintain his chosen personality type, but his true nature often wins out. I don't see much in any of the movies that counters that.

 

[fireproof78]

I see Han as a cynical but fundamentally good person who is trying his damnedest to be a hard, self-serving a-hole. He struggles to maintain his chosen personality type, but his true nature often wins out. I don't see much in any of the movies that counters that.

Indeed. His reaction in ANH would make sense after his experiences in both Solo and adventures post film. His primary coping mechanism when dealing with stressors is to run, and then he returns to do the right thing. Pretty much the only time he doesn't do this in ROTJ.

 

[HugeLobes]

His primary coping mechanism when dealing with stressors is to run, and then he returns to do the right thing. Pretty much the only time he doesn't do this in ROTJ.

I wish we'd seen him not returning to do the right thing. I couldn't believe it when he just straight up gave that fuel away at the end. Again, I think this is down to them expecting more movies. I got the impression he was supposed to be pretty virtuous in this first one and then become increasingy jaded and selfish over a Han Solo trilogy or something.

 

[JD]

A "Make Solo 2 Happen" fan campaign has started gaining momentum. This is the one fan campaign like this I can really get behind, the lack of follow up on the end of Solo has been a big disappointment for me. I'd even be fine with just a book or comic, since even with this campaign, there's probably still almost no chance of a Solo 2 movie.

 

[fireproof78]

I wish we'd seen him not returning to do the right thing. I couldn't believe it when he just straight up gave that fuel away at the end. Again, I think this is down to them expecting more movies. I got the impression he was supposed to be pretty virtuous in this first one and then become increasingy jaded and selfish over a Han Solo trilogy or something.

I genuinely think the thing that made him jaded was his losing Qira, which I agree needed a further film to flesh out. But, one aspect of Solo we saw in both films is that he has people in his life who serve as the conscience, like Chewie. I think that his experiences with Jabba brought out that more jaded and cynical side because he expected to make it big, only to discover, like with Beckett, these people "are not your friends." And, I think that Han, like many of us, had to learn that lesson the hard way, again and again.

 

[CorporalClegg]

I'd much rather have a Qi'ra-centric film than a second Solo.