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roane72:

soyeahso:

I need to talk about Han Solo.  Specifically Han Solo as a father. 

This is something that has bothered me since the first time I saw The Force Awakens, but it’s also something I’ve felt reluctant to talk about because we’re all in mourning for one of our childhood heroes.

But I do want to talk about it because it hits on a fairly personal issue for me and I suspect for a lot of people. 

When Han says that they did everything they could, that there was too much Vader in his son, this was a man rejecting responsibility for the role he may have played in how his child turned out. This was a man saying that that child had a fundamental flaw that had nothing to do with him.  

Think about who Darth Vader is to Han Solo.  He’s the man who had him frozen in carbonite.  He tortured Leia and had a direct hand in the destruction of her home.  He severed Luke’s hand.

He was responsible for the deaths of millions. I have a feeling that Han put about as much stock in the depth of Vader’s end of life redemption as Kylo Ren does.  

Does anyone think for one second that Ben Solo was not fully aware of what his father thought of him?  Children hear and understand so much more than we give them credit for. Even if young Ben never heard anyone refer to him this way, he is a powerful telepath (and possibly, despite how he tries to kill it, an empath like his mother.)

Headcanon time. My feeling is that Ben Solo was a sensitive, serious child, and that he and Han were never truly able to relate to each other. Ben may have acted out early on, whether because of Snoke’s influence or because of his own inner turmoil.  (Make no mistake, even if his home was loving there is no way it was stable. He was born at the end of a war, to a family in the vanguard, and wars never tie up neatly.)

So did his parents  make the same mistake so many others do when their children go astray? Instead of looking for a flaw in the child’s nurturing, looking at it as a flaw in the child’s nature?  We know from the novelization that Leia was aware of Snoke’s influence but didn’t tell Han. If Han had known, would he have looked at his son differently, or would it have made the situation seem even more hopeless?

I think the reason it struck me as hard as it did is because it only took one time for me to overhear my mother telling someone how much like my deadbeat, addict father I was, for it to have a huge effect on my sense of self and personal agency.   

But, hey, maybe Han didn’t think about his son this way at all when Ben was growing up. Maybe “there was too much Vader in him” is the thing he said to himself afterward, so he wouldn’t go crazy wondering what he could have done differently. 

All of this. For me, so much of the power in TFA comes from the depressing realization that my childhood heroes were, in the end, overwhelmingly human. When Kylo Ren tells Rey, “He only would have disappointed you,” that sounds so much like someone speaking from experience. 

I love Han Solo, I do, he’s one of my childhood heroes, like I said, but ultimately, I think as a human being, he was possibly the worst possible father a kid like Ben Solo could have had. Not out of lack of love or concern–it’s obvious that he loved his son–but just because of a lack of understanding. (I get that. I was an sensitive, shy kid and I grew up feeling like the cuckoo in the nest.) I’m sure Leia tried to help bridge the gap (of the original trio, she comes out the best, honestly), but I don’t think it was enough. 

We don’t know what Luke’s relationship was to Ben. It’s one of the things I am DYING to find out, what that dynamic was. Did he try to act as a surrogate father, and if so, did Ben resent him for it? And I want a damn good explanation for why he packed up and ran away from all of his responsibilities beyond some sort of half-assed spiritual quest, because I am VERY disappointed in him.

Ultimately, that’s another reason I want a redemption arc for Kylo Ren–not just for his own sake, but as a chance for the adults in his life to fix what they helped break, and for Han, Leia, and Luke to redeem themselves too.

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a list of things about the tfa novelizations that should probably be discussed asap

levynite:

bestmixtapeintherecorder:

aka if you haven’t read alan dean foster’s adaptation and before the awakening by greg rucka you’re Missing Out, My Friend:

  • rey built her speeder all by herself. she also built a computer. completely from scratch out of salvaged tech from fighter plane wreckages, used data chips to build herself a flight simulator program so she’d have something to do to alleviate her constant boredom, and then taught herself to be an amazing pilot out of sheer stubborn determination to not let her own invention outsmart her.
  • finn is inexplicably TERRIFIED THE WORLD WILL EAT HIM at various points after he crashes on jakku like… he’s climbing out of the TIE fighter wreckage and panicking and looks up at the sky and sees some birds and thinks DOESN’T LOOK LIKE THE BIRDS ARE GOING TO EAT ME… YET. he sees niima traders and thinks MAYBE THEY CARVE UP YOUR ORGANS TO SELL ON THE BLACK MARKET! he walks into maz’s and has this observation that escalates real fast that it’s a “perpetual round of eating, drinking, gambling, scheming, negotiating, arguing… and OCCASIONALLY ATTEMPTING TO SPLIT ONE ANOTHER’S LIVERS OR SOME EQUIVALENT ORGAN.” (which, on the one hand, precious sweet cinnamon roll, and on the other… what the hell kind of propaganda are stormtroopers shown about the non-First-Order world????)
  • the jacket scene is extended from the film. it includes an exchange of an echoed flirty “tell you all about it sometime” re: what poe/finn missed in each other’s lives in the interim. DISCUSS
  • in general everything is fleshed out in a lovely way that takes stock and slows down and breathes into the spaces the movie can’t? so many scenes have ten dialogue lines where the movie has one. the rey/bb-8 trading at niima scene in particular – movie rey is WIDE EYES ABOUT SIXTY PORTIONS (/bb-8 wibbles) WIDE EYES BECAUSE DAMN IT DON’T GET ATTACHED TO THE DROID, but book rey spends several pages reading unkar’s motives for wanting bb-8 and calculating what advantages keeping the droid could have for her and i think i like that version better honestly
  • if you ever thought han solo was a posturing dashing space rogue and not an empathetic goober who’s constantly thinking about other people’s feelings underneath his cellophane bravado, this novel would like to have a chat with you tbh
  • there’s a lot of interesting stuff happening re: jakku culture and its social environment?? rey muses at length in the prequel about teedos and their culture and how they think all sandstorms are the same continually-appearing one sent as a sign of disapproval by their god. there’s a lot about how violence is very present on jakku, but also very code-of-honor: do your thing and people will generally stay out of your way, but mess with someone else’s shit, well. there’s also an interesting juxtaposition of rey musing that age/gender aren’t factors giving anyone any special treatment in the life-and-death cycle of their environment, but also implications that unkar plutt and his henchmen ogle her, not in a way that indicates they’d act on it but still in an icky power assertion one. (i don’t get the sense otherwise that gender is much of a factor on jakku, though, and certainly not in the way that much of a rape culture exists among the scavengers, so do unkar&co just do this to everyone or??)
  • for anyone on the rey femslash/”rey has probably just never ~seen a girl” train: rey/devi. please cry with me about it. rey (briefly) has a close female peer and friend on jakku in the prequel and uh, IT’S A THING
  • rey and poe’s meetcute at the end though like. no “thank you for all you did for finn your bravery means so much to me!” no “bb-8 has told me so much about you i feel like i know you so it’s good to put a face to the name!” uh. i quote: “she nodded slowly, searching his face and finding that she liked it.” listen rey i know we’re all in the same boat here about oscar isaac but have some goddamn chill, i didn’t realize I LIKE YOUR FACE was an expression on jakku but here we are friends
  • the tfa novelization in general is some damn elevated prose (i was expecting blatant money grub with daisy ridley’s face slapped on the cover and i got SAT words in every sentence), but poe’s section in the prequel is equally as elevated tbh?? all these gorgeous metaphors and observations and such. at one point leia happens to all of sit and glance while in his presence and he’s all YOUR SADNESS IS DESCENDING ON YOUR SHOULDERS LIKE A BLANKET MADE OF MEMORY AND WARMTH AND LONGING AND LOSS. please envision with me a world containing a poe dameron who says to your face all casually and amicably “hey buddy /arm punch” while apparently looking at the mere way you slouch and drawing elaborate metaphors in his head about your life and experiences and that one time in the third grade you were sad.
  • on that note: i am now more convinced than ever that instead of it only being a meta wink-and-nod, the fucker absolutely knew what he was saying when he said “as long as there’s light we’ve still got a chance.” he probably patted himself on the back mentally for a split second like “that was a good one, buddy, clever double meaning there, you did good.” jessika pava probably groaned internally like “g o d dameron dial back the corny factor why don’t you” and gave him a hard time about it after they got back to d’qar. i don’t know about you friends but i feel like this is the poe dameron we all deserve, t b q h

I LIKE YOUR FACE