There have been a lot of debates over the last centuries if Han Solo should have died in ROTJ. I always thought it would have been a very bad decision to kill him off in ROTJ, because it could have overshadowed Darth Vader's death for some audiences, although Vader's death was much more important for the story. However, if they had him killed in TESB instead of carbonized I think it could have been really good. It would have been a really dark ending to TESB and led to a extremely desperate situation. The heroes would have felt loss. And it could have provided "food" for a more active Leia in ROTJ and given her motivation to confront Vader at Luke's side. The way it is now, I just think Han gets useless by the time of TESB and doesn't really serve any purpose except that he's the one who keeps Leia on Endor basically, which is not a good thing imo. And his death would solve one of my main problems with ROTJ: the (much too long) rescue of Han Solo. So what do you think? (btw Are threads of that kind allowed?
Han's scenes in the ROTJ were some of my favorites, there's no question as to weather or not he should survive....
Han is probably my favorite OT character (maybe tied with Leia) so naturally I am glad he wasn't killed off. I think his character was well served in ROTJ as both a Rebel leader of a different sort (not a politician or a Jedi) and as Leia's love interest. Had he not survived ESB, we also would not have seen him restoring his friendship with Lando, and that would have been a shame. I don't see the point of killing him off personally, other than to add an ROTS-level tragedy to the ending of ESB, which for me would have been bad.
There was thought of killing off Han, to "raise the stakes." There's some merit in the idea, but then in space fantasy/opera the heroes usually all survive. _| for Obi-Wan)
I wouldn't have killed Han in either ESB or ROTJ, he's one of my favorite OT characters along with Leia!
Han had his chance to die memorably in ESB. But in ROTJ, his death would have been overshadowed by Anakin's death.
I heard that Lucas considered knocking off the Falcon in the battle of Endor. I would have accepted this over Han.
What utter crap --- don't mix words do you? anyway, nah Han Solo dying would have left the series unnecessarly dark and melancholy.
Outside of ANH, Han Solo did not have much to do. He had already completed his character arc from rogue to hero in Episode IV, and was pretty much a static character in Empire. However, there was no reason to kill him besides 'raising the stakes', something Lucas could do (and did do) better without needless death. Now, if Han remained a rogue through ROTJ, and died a hero's death to complete his character arc, I'd support this death.
I don't think he should've died in either ESB or ROTJ; it would've taken away from Luke and Anakin's story. It's bad enough some nobody who barely says or does anything is more memorable than Luke's training in ESB, I think a primary character who does something major will completely eclipse the end of Luke's and Anakin's journey.
This assumes that Luke's/Anakin's journey remains the focus of the OT after the ST comes out. Star Wars could end up the tale of R2-D2 and C-3PO
Although we saw Han as a scoundrel, he was more of a leader within the Rebellion than most think. If you read the Solo trilogy, you will find that indeed he was a part of the rebellion until the money took him the Hutt's side More over, he helped create three of the most force using children other than Ben Skywalker.
How so? Han starts ANH as a smuggler, and ends as a hero of the Rebellion. How does ESB expand on this, besides telling his romance with Leia?
He really didn't do much that I found particularly impressive . . . character wise in ROTJ. The latter movie seemed more like Luke and Vader's story, with Han and Leia serving as background characters.
Oh, all right. Putting aside both the rude, direct approach & the snotty one, I still think that there's a tendency for modern fans to perceive killing characters off or making events more violent as somehow necessarily making narratives better. The suggestion put forward by the OP just seems to be a direct reflection of that, not a legitimate way of improving the story. 1. I fail to see how ESB needed to be any darker or more intense than it already was; 2. The ending of ESB wasn't already an extremely desperate situation? 3. You don't think they already felt 'loss', with the brutal defeat of the Rebels on Hoth, the capture of their friend, the loss of Luke's hand & the complete collapse of everything Luke believed about his life? 4. Leia was plenty active in ROTJ as it was - she put her own life in danger to save the man she loved, she was involved in the Alliance's decisive battle with the Empire - and that's just nonsense about confronting Vader with Luke. Luke wouldn't have let her, for a start, plus, she wasn't meant to be his sister when ESB was made.
Empire Strikes Back was a cliffhanger to begin with. If I recall correctly, there was the honest possibilty that Han wouldn't come back. It's better to keep the audience guessing than to give them a flatout "he's dead." There's those who say that Han stayed alive in ROTJ just to sell action figures, but I think there's many people who would disagree with that. He had an important role to fill, and going out like a punk wouldn't be very flattering to his character.
I'm pretty sure he was literally frozen at the end of ESB because Ford wasn't under contract for a third movie and they kept the character in stasis. Lando is wearing Han's clothes and flying his ship with Han's copilot at the end of the movie so it's like, "Hey, peeps! Don't worry! New Han!" They got him back for ROTJ so it wasn't a permanent death, only slightly dead and then got better. I can see Ford's logic in the character had nowhere to go so kill him off but I think a happy ending for him is the better choice, otherwise the flick would have ended on a downer. But I think if they want Han Solo in the ST, they may give him the death scene Ford's been asking for since a few decades back. See if you kill him off at the end, downer. Start or Middle of the movie (or even at the end of episode 7) = potential for other characters to rise up and take charge. That's where raising the stakes by Killing Han can pay off. Do it at the end of ROTJ it's just "Yay, we won. But Han's dead. Sad. Movie over." In some alternate reality where Ford didn't sign on for the third movie, they probably just never found him frozen in carbonite and it would have been dealt with in a bit of throwaway dialogue. Also we'd have New Han (aka Lando) to take his place.