Keep in mind, Han was promoted for the mission on Endor, so he wasn’t a general during ESB. The rebellion kind of promoted people as needed (or just straight up willy-nilly, see Lando being given a rank of general or whatever.)
Also, like in rebels, they promoted a teenager to “lieutenant”…. Because he was a half-trained Jedi… (yeah that went well,)
Further, after Hoth Luke was off at dagoba doing Jedi training; and while not shown, there was probably some time there.
Also, banging one of the main leaders gets you faster promotions than being the sister of said leader.
Yeah but all the deep lore was written after the movies, so it can’t really be used to explain the movies. The lore is crafted to fit these exact kind of holes.
Han Solo’s pants have a stripe on them in the movie and suddenly some novel spins it up into a whole thing - every family on his homeworld has a unique stripe, or some shit, and his exact one means such-and-such about him…
No, the costume designer put a stripe on his pants.
It did. The Disney continuity does have him as an Imperial veteran, but an enlisted footsoldier lower ranked than Stormtroopers. He also deserted on what was probably his first deployment.
Combat ability does not equal command ability. Point Luke at someone and he'll ruin their whole year, but he's not good at leading people into combat or organizing groups of soldiers.
Luke may have fired the shot that took out the death star, but don't forget it was Han's support that allowed him to survive that long. Seconds before, Han took out Vader's escorts, also knocking Vader out of the way.
"General" might sound like an inappropriate rank if you compare rebel ranks to modern organization ranks. But remember rebels die a lot. Maybe they needed to promote someone.
And of Han and Luke, which one do you think negotiated harder for a position of importance? Luke loves the idea of being a soldier under other leaders. Han can’t be bothered to take orders from anyone so if he’s going to be involved at all he needs to be ranked.
Han was already a Captain of a ship and crew, capable of that kind of complex 'Generalling' as demonstrated by supporting Luke's run on the trench.
Luke was a flyboy kid off the farm, albeit a savant.
Edit. And further into the lore, the rebels would have needed people capable of leading other large groups of people to success. So they would tack on promotions or immediate ranks to retain that talent, but at levels they could use and trust.
Promoting a savant to General and giving him whatever groups of troops to achieve goals, ia much riskier than promoting the already somewhat proven Captain.
Luke was lined up for General in the short term anyways, iirc. At least in the EU canon.
I assumed it was just because he’s smart and thinks well on his feet. Most rebels are probably angry and dumb teenagers and early 20s. And he owns a ship and already has helped rescue the princess. He’s basically already a war hero.
Yeah i think this was penned in one of the very first EU novels. Mid to late 90s. Might even be part of the original Thrawn trilogy, as I have Yaspin in my brain attached to the memory. Might also be a KJA novel. Darksaber trilogy maybe?
Edit - suffice to say, if memory serves, Han sees it for what it is, and stays for princess reasons.
top 50 comments