Why Did George Cool the Romance?
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| Title: | Why Did George Cool the Romance? |
| Creator: | Nora P. |
| Date(s): | early 1984 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Star Wars |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Why Did George Cool the Romance? is a 1984 essay by Nora P.
It was printed in Scoundrel #3.
The topic is Star Wars.
Some Topics Discussed
- Han and Leia should totally be together
Excerpts
"When 1,600 UCLA students participated in a recent survey and named the 'Six Greatest Screen Kisses of All Time', two of them (count 'em, two!) were from genre movies: Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder in Superman II and Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher in The Empire Strikes Back" (Starlog, August, 1982).
Can 1,600 people be wrong? A most emphatic NO! With TESB, Han and Leia went on to join that select company of immortal lovers in literature and cinema. For the many non-fans of the Saga, the mundane public, this was so. Whoever was responsible (Lucas, Kasdan—most probably Kershner—with the help of Ford and Fisher) knew what he/they were doing when love blossomed in Empire. Lucas must have had his reasons when he chose Han as the romantic interest of the Saga and not Luke. Leia was never attracted to Luke in the same way she was attracted to Han. As others have said before, Luke is too much like Leia, a mirror of her idealism and revolutionary fire. She showed him affection and trust, but not the love of a woman for a man. Han Solo intrigued her because he was different from the men she usually met—because she could not bend him to her will, because he was not an easy man to understand. There was powerful chemistry between them from the start. Just watch how differently Leia looks at Han and at Luke in SW:ANH. Leia doesn't argue with Luke and, as Lucas has said in Skywalking, page 210, "Nothing is more boring than two people acting lovey-dovey all the time. There is no conflict".
Remember the witty repartee between Han and Leia in the first two films? It was a contest of wills and wits, where Han tossed back everything Leia threw at him. "Would it help if I got out and pushed?" "It might!" Leia felt Han was a worthy match for herself. What started as a strong physical attraction, slowly developed into something more. For Han Solo never was a "cocky jackass", a man without feelings and conscience as some fans still consider him. If Solo were all those things, he would never have become involved with the Rebels, saved Luke's life twice, protected his Princess, gained her love, had Chewie as a faithful companion all these years and, finally, in Jedi, become a full, high-ranking member of the Rebel Alliance. Leia knew there was "...something more to him than money".
After Empire was released, some fans still persisted in saying that Leia would have to choose Luke in Jedi—she had to, because Luke was the central hero—Han and Leia were too different—Han was just "opening" the Princess' heart so that she could fall in love with Luke. But all these were just rationalizations. Leia (and Lucas) had made her choice and Han was the one she loved. Let's examine the situation in the early part of Empire. Why was Han so anxious for Leia to admit that she wanted him to stay, "...because of the way you feel about me"? Just to open her heart so that Luke would reap the reward? I don't think Luke would have thanked him for that "service". He would have preferred to do it himself (remember the Courtship of Miles Standish?). Was Han courting the Princess to add one more conquest to his list? To make Leia love him and then abandon her would have been totally cruel and heartless and where has Han behaved like that in any the films? The only reason Han stuck around and put up with Leia's not too amiable treatment of him was because he loved her and wanted her to love him.
What about the Princess? Could she have denied her professed love for him and callously abandoned him for Luke? Her confession was heartfelt, proclaimed at the very moment her lover was torn from her to go to a possible death. The Princess is a woman who certainly knows her mind; when she decides something it's final. It would also have been cruel of her to say to Solo, "So sorry, Han, but it's Luke I love". Lovers in fairy tales don't betray their one and only loves, but find eternal happiness after many trials and sufferings.
Then why did Lucas take the 'romance' out of the love story of Han and Leia? In Rolling Stone, June, 1981, Lucas said "I never wanted to be like Disney, and I don't want to let myself get painted into a corner". So it couldn't be that Lucas felt that there was anything immoral or indecent in the kisses Han and Leia shared in Empire. Kids nowadays are exposed to much more than kisses by watching television. And, he certainly had no qualms about raising the issue of incest. Remember Leia kissing Luke in the medcenter in Empire? Lucas also permitted that Hugh Hefner of a Jabba the Hutt to ogle both Leia and Oola, the dancing girl, but why did he think it is wrong to show the adult love between a man and a woman, as he did in Empire? It couldn't be a sense of modesty that made Lucas curtail the love story. The answer must be somewhere else.
Larry Kasdan may have given us the clue in a Today Show interview shortly before Jedi came out. "It's a tribute to Harrison and Carrie that their characters have held up very strongly throughout and, in some ways, their presence may have been stronger in Empire, but what needed to be resolved in Jedi was Luke's story". So, that's it! The Han and Leia romance gave a new dimension to the Saga and deepened their characterizations. These lovers were so vividly portrayed that audiences everywhere recognized them as such, identified with them and made them their own. Cutting the romance cut the heart out of the Saga. Luke belongs in an ensemble; he functions best interacting with Han, Leia, Chewie and Vader. If Lucas had not meant for the romance to blossom, why did he bring it up in the first place? It leaves a void in the Saga and is a crushing dramatic mistake.